IBM PS/1 Model 2133 - Teardown and Demonstration

In this video we will take a look at the IBM PS/1 Model 2133. We will first of all take it apart to see how it is built, then we will turn it on and take a look at the original OS install.
Specs:
IBM PS/1 Model 2133
Intel 486SX @ 25MHz
4mb RAM
170mb HDD
1.44mb 3.5" Floppy
Tseng Labs ET4000AX Graphics
www.camerongra...
/ camerongray1515

[@erana19]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Been waiting years to see what the OS looked like out-of-the-box again. My 2133 was a 486SX-25 from the same year and looked much the same externally, but had a surface mounted CPU (with a nearby LIF socket for DX2-50 OverDrive), 72-pin SIMMs, and a Cirrus Logic GD5424 on board. There's a PDF available online of the 'Hardware Maintenance Service for PS/1 Computer Machine Types 2133, 2155, and 2168' that shows the different board layouts.

[@bigpete951]

Awesome! I got the exact same model back in late 1993/early 1994! Upgraded it by adding the newly released Soundblaster 16 and a 2X CD-ROM from Philips. A year later I bought an upgrade kit and doubled the RAM and replaced the CPU with a DX2 66MHz. Aaaah, the gold old days :)

[@Chevroletcelebrity]

I hope you weren't using this sound card for fun or games. IBMs are serious machines for business use not for fun and games. 🤨

[@JamesBos]

your videos are getting better and better mate! keep it up!

[@KS0JD]

As I was recycling some of my computer junk yard I forgot how to remove the case on this old 386 IBM PC. As always youtube is your friend. This video was help and a blast from the past while pulling the hard drive from my old 386. Thanks for this.

[@redavatar]

I just managed to repair my own IBM 2133 using a second non-working machine I bought from Italy - it was my very first PC so I really wanted to fix it even though it's pretty crap spec-wise. 386SX 25Mhz, tiny 85MB HDD, no sound card, no CD drive, no VESA. I still love it though - there's something about these old PCs.

[@lupine25]

Wow... blast from the past! Yeah when I was a kid, this was the first "real" computer that I called my own. Was our family's machine and then I sort of inherited it when we bought a newer Pentium. Used that machine until about 2000, so yes while everyone else was crusin around on Win 98, I was still on 3.1! Haha! Good times.... I think mine was 50 Mhz though, but I'm not 100% on that.

[@linacarrillo459]

33Mhz

[@linacarrillo459]

I tried to get a dx2 overdrive for it to get it up to 66Mhz but it did no work.

[@limp6986]

I had the 486sx 25Mhz. It was a great machine. Later installed a sound card and a CD-ROM.

[@PearComputingDevices]

These older IBM computers were very well made. I've owned both the PS/1 and PS/2 and Aptivas. The PS/1 had some advantages verses the PS/2 especially now days with finding options, hard drives. Very nice!

[@maskddingo1779]

This was my first IBM computer. I still have it along with the original monitor. Mine came with a 486sx at 33mhz, 4mb of ram, a 2400 baud modem, a 120mb harddrive and dual 5.25/3.5 inch half-height disk drive installed in the full width bay.

[@Jerkwad152]

I grabbed one of these back in the early 90's with a very similar case, except that it had both a 5 1/4" floppy and a Creative cd-rom drive. It had a 200-something MB hard drive, Windows 3.1, 8MB RAM and a 33MHz 486DX. At some point I bumped it up to 24MB, Windows 95 and a 66MHz DX/2. I built a Cyrix 6x86 system, and the PS/1 sat in the garage for about fifteen years until I messed with it again. Unfortunately, it grew legs and walked away while I was moving. EDIT: It was a Model 2155 Consultant Edition.

[@vrekman256]

I had the same but in 386 @ 25MHz variant with 2MB ram and 85MB HDD. It was my first computer. It is practically the same, down to the sounds, the small strange square on boot screen, the tutorials.... brings back memories (model was 2133-711 or 2133-13, thanks wikipedia!! )

[@TheThorns]

1st family computer right there. The lack of co-processor really held me back as a kid. Also, we never hooked this one up to the phone line. Games we used to play on it: Wolfenstein 3D, doom, Mortal Kombat, street fighter 2, Simpsons arcade, Castlevania, Got it upgraded with a sound card and CD-rom drive in 94 and then was able to play alone in the dark, Mad Dog McCree,

[@fulkthered]

It's good that they used real keys for the tutorial.I could never find the "any" key back in the day.

[@alexkindl861]

Best friend had one of these back in the day, the sound of that keyboard sent paroxyms of wolf3d and doom up the spine. Master of orion, too. Also, Master of Orion 2.

[@dmac7128]

I had one of those. It was a 486SX at 25 Mhz with 2 Mb of RAM and an 80 Mb IDE hard drive. RAM on my machine was in the DIMM form factor as opposed to SIMMs as shown in the video. SIMMs had to be installed in pairs while any number of DIMMs up to 2 could be installed on my machine. Plus the graphics chip on my system was a cirrus logic chip with 256 Kb of video RAM. The pre-installed CPU was surface mounted. The empty socket on the right was advertised as a socket that accepted an Intel Overdrive CPU (either a 486 DX2 50 or 486 DX2 66 depending on the pre-installed CPU bus frequency. If you used a "487 math coprocessor", it essentially was a full featured CPU that replaces the pre-installed CPU running at the same clock speed. (a 486 DX CPU, the "DX" chips have an integrated floating point unit). It was a very sturdy machine and quite reliable. Plus IBM offered free tech support online up to a year after purchase.

[@madmax2069]

I think the reason why those screws have a hex head on them is they can be also used as a bolt to tightened and loosened by using a socket, or one of those screw drivers with changeable bits (should be a direct fit).

[@alecjahn]

I was on a fun trip a few years ago (documented on my channel if anyone is interested) on my return to my childhood computer, this one basically. I love it, even the oddities. I upgraded to 16mb RAM and a 487OD and a slew of other things through that journey. Lots of playing by feel and learning more about the era and board. My father bought it at a garage sale back in the mid-late 90s.

[@buttguy]

wow, didn't expect to see this model come up randomly in my subscription feed! I have this same PC, although mine is marketed as the "Consultant" and came with a 5.25" drive as well. Found it on the curb with the original monitor and printer. Works perfectly still and has the original PS/1 installation of Windows 3.1. Very cool to see another!

[@buttguy]

i guess its not totally the same. Under the front housing there is a second bay behind a knock-out for an additional half-height drive.

[@simonj48]

24:51 - "It's not got anything installed so it's a bit limited..." It actually has Microsoft Works there in the PS/1 Software group that you didn't touchup on. That's like Microsoft office and didn't come as standard with Windows 3.x it was a cut down version of office that allowed you to do basic work processing, spreadsheets etc and was actually a really nice addition for someone buying their first machine for home/office use, certainly for those trying to migrate from DOS or coming from a type writer. Having basic luxury things such as a spell check or being able to do basic accounting was pretty nice bonus included on the PC.

[@alleni2476]

Dad had this computer in the family room. Used it to play Doom (without real sound), surf the web for the first time via AOL, and I also used it to do what one could strain to call my first crack at graphic design by making banners for holidays and birthdays. Loved using Windows 3.1, too. I lost the keyboard, which I am trying to find again, but I still have the original mouse. I still can't believe I tossed the computer itself into a recycling center the last time I moved.

[@AntonyTCurtis]

You didn't show the thing which made it very different from other computers: BASIC and BASICA ... which is the original version of Microsoft BASIC which was licensed to IBM from the original IBM PC.

[@mattafaak]

I had this exact model as a kid, except with a smaller 129 MB hard drive. Thanks for the memories.

[@mattafaak]

It was my first computer, and a Gravis game card was my first upgrade.

[@mattafaak]

Strangely enough, despite the similarities, I just noticed that your machine has a socketed CPU. Mine was surface mount and had no heatsink. But it did have the same 487 SX socket.

[@coobird]

Wow, as you said in the beginning, that chassis is just like the early Aptiva desktop model -- the flip-open front panel, the position of the floppy drive and optical drive, along with how that cover slides forward after pressing on the tab, how the chassis components come apart... (Except, IIRC the hard drive bay was a little different, and could accommodate two drives.) The major difference in the physical appearance is that the Aptiva has more curved edges. ;)

[@maskddingo1779]

Yeah! IBM had some really nice designs with an eye on ease of service. The tab to remove the whole cover is probably my favorite part of this computer.

[@StevenSmyth]

9:34 You're right, the I486SX was a low cost alternative to the DX and you could've put a DX in there if you wanted to. A floating point processor was only seen as necessary for math intensive applications and compiling programs. It offers a barely negligible speed bump for everything else. Also correct, the I487SX had the FPU and the chip has an extra pin to tell the system to disable the 486. Also, there is no way to use the 487 independently from the 486, as the extra pin also looks for the presence of the 486. Since the 486SX was limited to 33 MHz, if you wanted a real speed increase, you'd have to upgrade to a DX 50.

[@IanC14]

Isn't the 487 pretty much a 486dx?

[@maskddingo1779]

Fun fact: The 486SX is actually a complete 486DX die, just with a non-working (disabled) FPU. They used it as a way to sell chips that would have been rejected due to errors in the FPU. There is a pentium overdrive processor that can be used in this computer that gives you a pentium (not MMX) running internally at 133 mhz. I was able to play mp3s on it with that setup. The SX is soldered to the board, so the overdrive goes in an expansion socket that disables the onboard processor as you described.

[@maskddingo1779]

@@IanC14 that is my understanding... been a while since I looked it it though

[@Darkleaf-Music]

"Very-much insertion force" LMAO! Pretty scary that those chips could even be plugged in backwards. Between that and the "VIF" socket there, I wonder how many 486 CPUs were destroyed.

[@hi-friaudioman]

Make sure to backup those diskettes! Old software is becoming rarer and rarer. Granted there are forums for it and various sites dedicated to restoring and cataloging old and vintage hardware/software. It's always nice to see a backup in the wild. :-)

[@PCUSER486]

Simplicity at it's finest....

[@VAX1970]

@7:28 170 gig? Hmmmm. 170Mb?

[@tellyjoossens4186]

That quickshot ISA game port card is a 3rd party card which you could buy in generic computer stores if you wanted to play games with 1 or 2 joysticks. Quickshot once was THE brand for joysticks.

[@monomonster]

I had one of those. Good computer. Got a lot of years of use from it.

[@stephenappiah4616]

Do you have those recovery disks imaged? Could you please image and upload them to archive.org or somewhere? I need them for my PS/1 2155-593. Cheers!

[@TheYuppiejr]

Great graphics chipset for DOS gaming on board (Tseng ET4000) and it looks like there are 4 open sockets to expand the on-board VRAM to 1 meg? Throw in an inexpensive ESS Audiodrive 1868 or 1869 ISA sound card, preferably with the wavetable header (for a Dreamblaster S2 or X2 General MIDI daughtercard), and that would make a mean retro gaming setup.

[@ragalthor]

This is the very one model I had back in the day. I was just a kid.

[@adhodgson1]

This is a good video. I love seeing the factory installed state of these types of machine, very rare. Did you get the machine with the recovery stuff still there and use that to do a clean install?

[@camerongray1515]

Andrew Hodgson The machine had a bunch of stuff on it when I got it. However, it was the original install which included a utility to make recovery floppies so I did that then used them to restore the machine.

[@adhodgson1]

Thanks, are you keeping this in your collection or looking to sell it?

[@redavatar]

Sadly, I deleted the recovery folder on mine (very similar model but 386SX with just a 80MB HD) to save up space. Thanks to you, I now know how it looked when I first used it all the way back in 1993, though.

[@VSigma725]

I didn't know the 486SX in these was socketed! That's neat, you could easily replace it with a 486DX2-50 for a sizable performance boost.

[@RuruFIN]

I woudn't be sure, I tried a 486SX2-66 with no success on a similar PS/1. Maybe even the same model, can't remember anymore. There's also some Finnish in the back, "Laite on liitettävä suojakosketinpistorasiaan", which means that it must be connected to a grounded wall socket.

[@m9078jk3]

There was a BIOS chip on the motherboard which had to be replaced so you could use DX versions of the 486 CPU. However I've seen that the overdrive CPU's do work apparently for a significant upgrade in performance.

[@ZeeZeeBun]

Holy crap, this is the computer my family had when I was little.. My first PC... I think we had a slightly different version than this one, but it was definitely a 2133.

[@geogeo7337]

sublime!!!

[@kbhasi]

17:08 From what I've seen somewhere else on YT, the PS/Note does the same thing. 18:14 I can't remember exactly what I was going to type here, but I have seen that some people actually have PC recovery images for "abandonware" Windows versions, and more people are offering them in the WinWorld forums "offers and requests" section. (In my opinion, I think that site needs to have a "PC Factory Images" section in their "Library")

[@VSigma725]

I agree completely, hacking OEMInfo is kinda annoying, especially on machines without USB ports, so being able to install a Packard Bell/Compaq/Gateway 2000/etc OEM version of Windows would certainly be appreciated.

[@bearthechair2789]

I have one of these with a CD drive in the front. Unfortunately my grandpa isn't here to tell me how the hell he hooked it up, but the floppy drives are bad too so I'll have to inspect it when I take them out

[@BenHelweg]

Your videos are great, and very detailed.

[@PalBatey]

My first PC...it was a 25mhz which I upgraded to a whopping 800mb HHD and added a math co-processor and CD-ROM.

[@seemoremacstuff]

Ok, so I found one of these guys recently for 5 bucks at a swapmeet. It fires up after i pulled a pin 9 out of a 15 pin VGA adapter since mine has a 14 pin VGA. All I need now is a PS/2 keyboard.

[@jameslewis2635]

Upgrade the CPU to a DX2/66, add a sound card and a Voodoo GPU it should become a pretty good MS-DOS/early Windows gaming machine. I think there was a lot of critisizm of the PS/1 but I think that case design is pretty neat for the era. The game port cards were a thing up to the Pentium era. They were not that common because sound cards usually had game ports attached and it made more sense for most people to buy a sound card than the game port cards. There were some people who bought them to allow them to keep multiple gaming devices plugged in rather than swapping them but that was not very common.

[@LifeIsTooShortForQRP]

It looks like four additional video RAMs can be plugged into the board. The manual does not specify what RAMs are needed for that. Do you happen to know what RAMs need to be plugged in there? Cheers.

[@RangerAvL]

This was my first PC for my BBS around 1992 maybe 91 I ran a wildcat BBS with dos and desqview and qemm 4 lines 56k towards the end of dial up.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

MCA (Memory Channel Architecture) is what it used they also used RIMMs that had to be used in pairs and the blanking plugs had to be left in if you don't add extra memory. Sound can be produced by an MSDOS addin which gives sound using PWM.

[@JarrodCoombes]

Huh? MCA = Micro Channel Architecture (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Channel_architecture). It was IBM's competitor to PCI. And RIMM RAM was an Intel thing that came out with the Pentium 4 processors, and if there was an IBM machine that used these it would have been an Aptiva.

[@cjmillsnun]

MCA was NOT a competitor to PCI. PCI didn't exist when MCA came out. Indeed, PCI was its intended successor. The competitors for MCA were ISA, EISA and VESA Local Bus.

[@nilswegner2881]

DAVID GREGORY KERR have you even watched the video?

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

@@nilswegner2881 Was detailed in a magazine called Personal Computer World, I actually had the loan of one which had CADKEY 386 but needed the dongle to actually run CADKEY 386 but my friend kept the dongle but he since returned it to the owners of the machine which has since been replaced by a Silicon Graphics International Personal Iris workstation.

[@windowsfan95]

This IBM was probably sold in Scandinavia, because on the infosticker on the back, the info is written in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Danish.

[@slaeshjag]

Nah, it's pretty common to just plaster it everywhere to cover your bases. From a manual entierly in japanese: i.rdw.se/apparaten_skall_anslutas_till_jordat_uttag.png

[@stevew5751]

The ps/1 we had came with 2mb ram and a 40mb hard drive.

[@luisluiscunha]

Thanks for the work and the video. 👍

[@Lachlant1984]

I'm a little surprised that it has 2 9 pin serial ports and not one 9 pin serial port and one 25 pin serial port. Have you thought of putting a sound card into that computer?

[@runforit420]

I am very shocked that OS/2 wasn't factory installed.

[@cjmillsnun]

This PC was aimed at the home user, so they stuck with PC-DOS and Windows 3.1

[@danaralston6688]

Memories - first IBM-compatible PC way back when. (Well, I'd hope so, considering it was a real deal IBM! :P ) Had the 486 33MHz version, later added the DX4 OverDrive taking it to 100MHz. For its day, it was a pretty decent machine after dropping in graphics and sound cards. The LPX form factor wasn't bad, but it never caught on because of poor standardization across the industry.

[@Law2120]

Great video. I bought an IBM PS/1 imagination system from a guy for 40 bucks. It had no HDD, but had the original monitor with it as well. I only started to restore it recently. I managed to get an IBM mouse that this computer came with , and a year appropriate mechanical IBM keyboard though not the same one this PC came with. I also managed to get a 129 meg HDD which this originally came with. I was going to install windows 3.1 but i see that you have a windows version designed for this computer. Where can i get that version?

[@Jonen560ti]

2:30 huh, There's norwegian text on that sticker. it reads "Use grounded outlet when device is connected to a telephone or computer-network" although the norwegian word for device is misspelled as "appartet"(should be "apparatet")

[@ducky-1944]

quickshot made joysticks and game controllers and cards to go with them.. and were sold all over the place.. (u.k)

[@TheMoonSeesMe]

I upgraded mine from a 25Mhz to a Pentium Overdrive 83MHz. It really flew after it was upgraded and survived all the way to Windows NT 4 (albeit a bit slow)

[@ChadBoughton]

I have one of these, but unfortunately it shows random characters all over the screen when I turn it on. It may be vram, but it think it's soldered on. Thanks for your video though, it's great.

[@Lachlant1984]

I understand that some early PS/1 computers came bundled with Silpheed on them, did this computer come with that game already on it?

[@Lachlant1984]

Do you still have this PC? If you do, have you considered adding a sound card to it?

[@marianofpv]

Initially I thought this video was in 1.5x speed.

[@alexandermirdzveli3200]

That makes 1.5x of us!

[@ms-ex8em]

hello does lander on the acorn have sound???? thanks how do i obtain sound on lander? thanks

[@xXFlameHaze92Xx]

12:07 thats for a SMD 4086sx

[@ducky-1944]

The second mouse tutorial reminds me of the one that came with os/2 v2

[@StevenCusic]

i really need a backup copy of that hdd lol

[@ComandanteJ]

Hey man. I just rescued my old 2133 from certain death. Big problem, tough, the original monitor is toasted. Like literally, it sat in a metal warehause for years and the plastic itself has warped. Anyway, i hooked up a CRT monitor from the late 90's and it works perfectly, but when trying to hook up a newer LCD screen, the VGA port on the computer has a blocked hole (the hole for pin number 9, just checked a diagram). Does anybody know if i can cut that pin in my cable to make it work? And will it still be usable in modern machines (it's a second screen in my day to day rig)?.

[@NiklasRichardson]

Great video! So, I'm assuming you could just pull out the SX chip and replace it with a DX2/66 chip and the motherboard would just recognise the new chip no problems? Any ideas whether you'd need a fan on a DX2/66 chip or the standard heatsink is enough?

[@maskddingo1779]

Not sure if this is the same as the one I owned, but the 486SX on mine is soldered right to the board. There is a cpu expansion slot that when used, disables the on-board processor. The 486SX in mine doesn't even have a heat sink. I think a DX2 could work with just a heat sink. I have a pentium overdrive 133 in my system and it definitely came with a fan... so probably not a bad idea for higher speed 486's

[@NiklasRichardson]

@@maskddingo1779 I think mine didn't support it after some further research. I've just got an overdrive so might give it a go. Thanks for replying to my 4, year old comment!! 😁😂

[@maskddingo1779]

@@NiklasRichardson Oh yeah. I had an issue when I first went looking for an overdrive and got the wrong chip. The cpu expansion socket on the board needs a certain footprint that isn't the same overdrive chip as when you replace an actual 486DX from a socket. I think the socket is for a 487 (which is just a 486DX that takes over for the embeded processer when installed). They did make overdrive chips for it though. I will have to review my research to be sure. It's been a hot minute since I did the upgrade.

[@TorfinnKTofte-qf5di]

When i boot her up, the display has no signal

[@lordmmx1303]

what a beast. try calmira II on that Windows 3.11. it will look awesome

[@pentiummmx2294]

the PS/1 used ISA instead of the proprietary MCA that PS/2s used.

[@RavageReeves]

seems MCA are more valuable/collectable. but ISA better for gaming

[@pixelatednate4864]

HOLY CHRIST! Why does it seem that every time I comment for help the thing begins to work?

[@RetroReviewYT]

Wish I had a 486…

[@MrDarchangelomni]

@10:27 they were cheaper, especially if you bought non intel, like cyrix or weitek copros

[@ДенисБарковский-и8я]

It has official Russian version. Even Russian manual books...

[@williefleete]

I think I used to have an M2 keyboard, the controller board died and when I took it apart all the springs fell out

[@pentiummmx2294]

those model m2 keyboards are notorious for failing, the capacitors in those things are very prone to failure. recap that thing, if you find all the springs.

[@williefleete]

@@pentiummmx2294 unfortunately I tossed it but I think the IC died anyway

[@boilerhousegarage]

170GB HDD in 1993! :-p

[@mathiasnilsson7996]

hi, you dont want sell a copy of your recovery disc _)

[@PicaDelphon]

youcould also upgrade the video ram in the empty (4) DIP sockets..

[@alexkindl861]

That was VRAM for the Tseng? I remember the expansion cards had available slots for ram, but somehow I still thought "expandable cache!!!"

[@PicaDelphon]

Yup..cache Was Right next to the 486 & 368 CPU

[@Kardor]

Can you put a CD-ROM in it?

[@RWL2012]

yes. use Google next time!

[@AshtonCoolman]

Packard Bells were internally very similar to this. I'm sure they copied the layout.

[@sarreqteryx]

🤨 a PS/1 with a 486 in 1993? what was this built for? I have to assume this was a cheapish specialty machine for businesses needing legacy support.

[@moth.monster]

Can't even run crash bandicoot on it, darn

[@poehavshie3204]

at my work were such model made in Russia Zelenograd

[@Chevroletcelebrity]

you talk funny like one of those cartoon characters 🤭

[@subg9165]

Typo in desc:468

[@camerongray1515]

D'OH - Well spotted! Fixed it!

[@REALSlutHunter]

whats this crap ? I got the 2133 in 1992 and mine got 3 Vesa Local Slots (and yes a fast VLB Cirrus Logic Onboard Grafics no shitty ass slow ISA Bus !), 2 MB of EDO Ram (with Parity Check) and not those crapy slow simm modules where 1MB per Module is the maximum. And you talk shit when you say that stuff like a onboard Tseng ET4000 was standard ! Most people that i know with a 386 or 486 got no Vesa Local Bus, no EDO Ram, no Onboard Cache, or PS2 Mouse & Keyboard Connectors, those were things that where introduced in standards PC's 1-3 years later ! This thing was ahead from standard pc's of the time, my neighboor got a standard 486 DX40 with a fucking slow ISA BUS Graphics, my IBM PS1 was way faster under dos & windows, and even in games.

[@elgeneralxx]

did you poop your pants