gerard1@garfield.UUCP (09/26/86)
HELP !!!!!
A friend of mine has recently aquired a vintage IBM PC (circa. 1981)
that was one of the last of the PC1 based systems.( i.e. 16k-64k memory on the
motherboard ... 4 x 9 x 4116's ) At the time of purchase the machine came with
512k of memory,64k of 4116's on the mother of a board and the remainder on plug
in cards. Figuring he has the basis of a good home machine for text processing
e-mail etc., last week he went and bought a PLUS DEV. Hardcard 20.(nice move!)
LO and BEHOLD when installed in machine no go..........
The most obvious reason for the machine to freeze would be the old
version of BIOS that is is in the machine. I suggested that he look into
getting this upgraded to a newer version that supports a hard disk. SO, he did
just that and the system still locks up. Has anyone seen this problem and
know of a fix ? Is the problem based on the PC1 motherboard ?
Another point of interest is, can the PC1 motherboard be modified
to use 4164 mem. chips? Is this a relatively simple/complex task ?
Any information/experiences on either of these queries would
be greatly appreciated .
THANX in advance
Gerard Hynes
.......the least we can do is wave to each other.
John Minton
mjb224@uiucuxf.CSO.UIUC.EDU (09/28/86)
My experience with the Plus Hardcard has been that I must have PC-DOS 3.1 to run. I am unfamiliar with the technical aspects of vintage pcs so I cannot say that the DOS fix will take care of the problem. If you do get it running though, they are very nice devices.
forbus@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu (09/29/86)
I've just had a PLUS 20MB hardcard installed in my COMPAQ PLUS, and I'm still running Dos 2.11 with no problems. So the previous posting is in error, you do NOT need Dos 3.XX. It seems a priori likely that Dos 1.XX wouldn't work, though. The Hardcard really is terrific (after several weeks of use). The menu software they give you with it is junk, but there are useful programs for producing clicks or a small "+" to indicate when the disk is on (it's internal, so otherwise, how can you tell?). Seems fast enough, too.
berger@clio.Uiuc.ARPA (09/30/86)
You can get a BIOS ROM upgrade from an IBM dealer for about $ 40 if you have the old style PC-1. That will allow you to use the hard disk.
brown@nicmad.UUCP (10/08/86)
In article <10800030@uiucdcsp> forbus@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > >I've just had a PLUS 20MB hardcard installed in my COMPAQ PLUS, and I'm >still running Dos 2.11 with no problems. So the previous posting is in >error, you do NOT need Dos 3.XX. It seems a priori likely that Dos 1.XX >wouldn't work, though. You are correct, you can work with DOS 2.11, but DOS 3.xx will give you 2k cluster sizes instead of 8k cluster sizes. That is a real nice savings of space. BTW, if you formated with DOS 2.11, you will need to redo everything with DOS 3.xx to get 2k clusters. -- ihnp4------\ harvard-\ \ Mr. Video seismo!uwvax!nicmad!brown topaz-/ / decvax------/