Computer Hunting Ep7: Big Blue Relic - Obsolete Geek

In this episode, Rob pursues an IBM 5150 PC at an estate sale!
Facebook! / theobsoletegeek

[@LGR]

Wow, a hundred bucks?? Holy crap! Amazing score, dude.

[@everennui1]

TOG, LGR and 8-Bit Guy for president!

[@gamesessions]

Looks like you might have to add estate sales to your thrifting adventures Clint :)

[@Apeman_king_of_apes]

LGR watches the obsolete geek?

[@xtalplanet]

LGR !

[@Monosekist]

Says the man who found an IBM XT at Goodwill.

[@obsoletegeek]

Piece of history. This thing is so clean. Already added a Sound Blaster CT1350B ISA sound card for FM tunes!

[@Mike.Garcia]

loving the refresh rate! lol

[@ionceateapinecone]

what an amazing grab!

[@sleveee]

if you still have the hard card the heads on them get stuck , i know it sounds terrible but if you smack it edge on with the palm of your hand it will sometimes unstick them. failing that you can open them up and unstick them.

[@User2718218]

In 30 years you can bring it to the Computer Antiques Roadshow!

[@SRCVintageElectronics]

The new B drive was installed 30 years and 2 days ago

[@FinalBaton]

These computer hunting vids are great, keep them coming! I love that it was still in use today, that's awesome! And you're lucky to have all the boxes and documentation for it, let alone the *EGA monitor* for it I agree that it makes a kickass decoration

[@wattage]

Great find! Glad that it's going from one meticulous owner to another. It's in good hands! Enjoy. When you finish going through all the software, manuals, can you do a follow-up? I'd like to see all the manuals, guides, etc. that came with it originally.

[@Designandrew]

what an amazing price! And its so white and clean! Amazing find. Nice work.

[@BuckeyeStormsProductions]

I watch your channel to reminisce about simpler times of computing, and I still have a Commodore 64 packed away, but I don't go hunting old computers. That said, had I come across a deal like this, I would have been all over it! Amazing find for a great price.

[@ChairmanMeow1]

$100 is a good price for it. Looks incredibly clean, and even comes with the original box and manuals. The plastic isn't even yellowed! Good find.

[@drdrsh]

That BASF disk pack at @5:49 sent me back 25 years in an instant!

[@CGQuarterly]

That was an amazing score! Call me "Smuckers", 'cause I'm jelly!

[@abramhansen]

one of my favorite series on KZbin!

[@SuperMoleRetro]

Nice find. I lucked into an iBM PC 5150 as well a few years ago. Craigslist find. PC, Monitor and keyboard all boxed from an original IBM employee purchase. Mine was modified with a HD though.

[@mjsimons9757]

A 5150? Nice. The IBM PC was the first PC I owned. I purchased it used in the mid/ late 80's. Immediately started to upgrade memory, hard drive and sound card. Prior to the 5150 I had a Radio Shack Color computer so the PC was like a rocket compared to CoCo. Can you image, it had a 25 meg hard drive. Geeze. Thanx for the look back . I love your videos.

[@buffet_time]

Great video and awesome looking machine!

[@GadgetUK164]

An amazing pickup! Looks like new and boxed with history etc, awesome!

[@shawnrodgers2180]

Awsome find on the IBM. You lucked out finding one in mint condition with everything with it

[@Sandra1Rowan]

Wow its so clean and no yellowing

[@Sonicstillpoint83]

You're awesome! That was such a cool video and I love seeing people appreciate those old machines and how reliable they were in comparison.

[@alex76gr]

Fantastic piece of hardware and excellent addition to your collection. Have fun with it!

[@antredemobydinou]

Great video as always :) These computers brings back so many memories and the history behind this specific computer must be great.

[@BollingHolt]

Cool! Another great find! I've got an XT my aunt bought brand new back in the day. Unfortunately, during a move, the keyboard went missing! :( Ha. I just noticed it's exactly four years to the day this video was released.

[@mr.nobody6829]

It doesn't even turn yellow, all original...Really nice pickup.

[@GerardKean]

When you showed the paperwork including the b drive replacement it made me think of antiques roadshow

[@marcusdamberger]

Wow, I lived in Roswell, NM during the mid 2000's and never knew or heard about a Computerland store ever existing. (I'm sure it was long since shuttered by the time I got there) I'm quite surprised it supported one, since all there was when I lived in Roswell were Mom and Pop computer stores, with hit and miss service. Heck, if you look at the labor charged $50/hr, I'm amazed for 1986! I can't think of a store that was charging that much in Roswell that worked on your computer in the mid 2000's. Even today that seems like way decent hourly rate. Shows you how much a commodity peoples knowledge of computers has come to be. That $50/hr rate in 1986 today would be about $110/hr.

[@TerryMcKean]

Cool!...excellent score... I had one years ago with that hardcard.. I remember it always needed the boot disk to load a driver which activated the hard card as a storage device only ... the oldest 5150 PC's did not have BIOS programming to access hard drives of any kind at boot-up. later ones did, then, the XT came out with it's 10 megabyte hard drive.

[@notionSunday]

100 bucks for all that....great find & great video.

[@Daniel28021991]

Wow awesome found!!!

[@TheRetroMacNerd]

Great find!

[@niko1u426]

A friend of mine bought an old dos pc from a man in our village who still used it to this day

[@KaroKoenich]

It would be interesting (and probably sad) to browse those floppy disks. Maybe you have the whole life of someone stored on them.

[@kamiboy]

I do have a box fetish, and nothing quite gets me going as when I manage to find that special vintage something, something complete mint in box.

[@dkehrerproductions]

Awesome score

[@Time4Technology]

Great deal and great video! Make sure to keep it away from sunlight in this bedroom!

[@EastAngliaUK]

nice to see its all white and not turn yellow like other ones.

[@LuizSiqueira]

Dude, this is just "amazing", for sure it's a time capsule. Wish I find one of those in this condition. Congratulations.

[@TheButtercool]

4:53 “summer in Texas” I feel you

[@jannevaatainen]

The keyboard itself is worth 100$. Everything looks like new to me, wow!

[@Muzer0]

That thing is beautiful.

[@PistonAvatarGuy]

My grandfather built one of these for me in the mid '90s when I was about 10, it was my first computer. At first it had a monochrome display (green phosphor), but it was later upgraded to color (CGA. I think), and it had some kind of sound card in it (probably a Sound Blaster) before I sold it. I really miss the sound of that big, clunky HDD. I still regret selling it.

[@QuaaludeCharlie]

You got a Deal Man , Congrats . Liked and Shared :) QC

[@ilcool90]

Not yellowed at all. Looks great

[@104d_3rr0r_vince]

Nice find mate!

[@cybermunk13]

One heck of a find, not bad. Fun that it was setup in "work". Old video but I LOVE IT

[@ninjamaster3453]

it belongs in a museum

[@ArcadeDude44]

Wow, congrats! I would've caved & paid the $200, I would love to add a 5150 to my collection, some day!:)

[@LaC64]

Picking one of these up next week. No idea if it works yet, but can't beat it for $20.

[@dominikschutz6300]

Wonder what the next obsolete geek in 30 years reports...Probably: "It's 60 years old ans still set up." XD

[@VSigma725]

I got a PC XT 286 today (missing hard disk) and a Model M keyboard for just under 100, which was a pretty damned cool find! Unfortunately the XT doesn't currently work, I'll have to sort that out and then I can do fun things like add VGA!

[@BollingHolt]

It just dawned on me you're wearing UA gear. I'm from Montgomery, AL. All I hear around here is "Roll Tide!" and "War Eagle!" LOL

[@orrinus]

Wow! Nice get!

[@Pikaroth]

Love these videos!

[@TimoBirnschein]

This was actually my first computer when I was a young kid. I didn't have a second floppy drive though, I had the 10MB (!!!) double five and a quarter inch HDD which was built like a tank (and sounded like one, too)...

[@umageddon]

Lucky kid... I only got second hand crap years after it was outdated

[@TimoBirnschein]

Haha, same here. When I got that computer, my father got it used and outdated from his company IT department. The monitor was slightly damaged as well so that I had to synch the vertical synchronization manually while that thing heated up... :)

[@cdamm1963]

incredible. great video as always!

[@arthurvanparijs6121]

awesome video man!!

[@theactualnic]

Watch the road!! Your videos are way to valuable to have their producer hospitalized in a fiery vehicular accident.

[@helthuismartin]

Its the original IBM computer from the Roswell UFO spaceship.

[@SOF006]

Amazing!

[@samsulummasamsulumma6898]

You may have already found out by now, but you need a certain bios chip revision to boot off hard disks on a 5150.

[@RedFalcon696]

Very nice find, you definitely got your money's worth on all of those extras as well! Could you tell if the video buffer (GPU) was CGA or EGA? That was definitely a higher end monitor, not the original 5151 green phosphorous monochrome monitor and composite output. You really got a highly upgraded 5150 there, hang on to that bad boy!

[@TechMojos]

Very cool. The plastic doesn't seem to have any yellowing either.

[@ninjamaster3453]

yellowing is a UV thing I think. so it would have had to be away from sunlight all these years

[@CommodoreFan64]

yeah looks like it was in the corner of a dark laundry room with no windows. So a very very lucky find. The keyboard alone is worth $100 at least.

[@vwestlife]

IBM's plastic doesn't yellow, since it's painted. If you ever seen an old IBM that looks yellowed, that's just because it's dirty.

[@ninjamaster3453]

vwestlife seriously? I never knew that. Just assumed it was typical computer tan

[@VeeLanger]

good looking piece! I dunno about decoration though haha

[@TheGeekPub]

Love this!!!

[@VAX1970]

Low level format the Hard Drive: Type Debug then G=C800:5 it will access the low level format routine, then high level format it.

[@VSigma725]

I almost bought a XT 286 from a so-called surplus store stacked to the gills with old computers, but the high price and presence of missing parts killed the deal. A shame, because the XT 286 is one of my favorite IBMs, along with the PS/2 stuff! But I wasn't paying $100 for a XT 286 with no cables and with neither a second floppy drive nor a hard drive.

[@dave4shmups]

Congratulations! $100.00 is a steal for all of that!

[@RedTroPc]

Thats so sick!

[@luketindale5747]

you should do a ti-99 vintage computer review, it could play Atari 8 bit games and was the first 16 bit home computer.

[@BertGrink]

What a great bargain! congrats, dude :D

[@trr94001]

Those old Hardcards tend to seize up.

[@BandanazX]

Roswell, New Mexico? Ayy LMAO!

[@user-marco-S]

Some years ago, i did get a working 5160 in my hands. Unfortunately, it does not work any more.

[@WilliamDye-willdye]

Now I wish I'd kept mine.

[@kokeshkokesh]

Dude! I would play Alley Cat on it day and night!

[@MrJackSeverity]

Great vid mate. good score :)

[@MaximNightFury]

Congrats on the great grab! I cannot find a cheaper price than 200 dollars fur a 5150 on Ebay

[@orionfl79]

If I remember the Hardcard had a special driver that needed to be run on bootup. Hopefully the disk and manuals were included with your lot. :)

[@obsoletegeek]

Actually they were! I attempted to perform the install as instructed in the manual, however, nothing seems to recognize the hard disk. The hardcard driver and fdisk both say there is no fixed disk present.

[@joshkendrick3768]

can you hear it spinning?

[@crustycorollas]

wow! you have some fantastic luck lol best i have found is an old 486 computer

[@SuperMoleRetro]

I've got a boxed 5150 with it's monitor, but mine is no longer stock. The original owner removed one drive and put in a hard drive. KInda wish mine was still stock and may look for an original drive at some point. Have you looked into putting a CF drive storage solution on it?

[@bigloudnoise]

That HardCard has likely failed, unfortunately. That particular brand/model of "controller and drive in one" is notorious for having the firmware somehow erase itself over time. This happened with the 40MB HardCard I had in my AT&T 6300. It may be possible to replace the ROM chips with newly-flashed ones, but I do not have the tools to attempt this myself, nor do I even know where to find clean ROM dumps of the HardCard firmware...if they even exist, that is.

[@SRCVintageElectronics]

I saw an Apple ii at an estate sale for $600. It had the original box and lots of stuff, the monitor wasn't original and I don't have $600 to spend

[@truemorpheus]

In Europe you can pay more than 350$ just for a 5150 computer without monitor and keyboard.

[@JorgeDo]

Congratulations for the finding! I'm curious about the BOOGERS!.BAS file in the directory listing... What is it?

[@obsoletegeek]

It's a terrible game. It's a maze game similar to "Radar Rat Race" but the controls are AWFUL. Instead of using the arrow keys, you have to use some crazy combo like H=up, Z=down, page up=left, etc.

[@BertGrink]

Hey if it's written in BASIC it shouldn't be too big a problem to change the controls to whatever you like

[@MetalTiger88]

pretty cool computer, looks ljust ike the computers in alien isolation :D

[@smittenthekitteninmittens2679]

i love that game...i am currently playing through it at the moment for the first time...it is miles better than colonial marines ..that game is just BROKEN!!

[@landspide]

Just that keyboard is worth more than 100 :)

[@hugocortes01]

Wow, its not even "yellowed" yet

[@alexisroy5667]

Last Month i got a very huge lot of commodore stuff (mostly c64, but also Amiga) for 60$ can. I got boxes and boxes of 5.25 and 3.25 floppy disk (764 disks to be exact), 2x c64 (one boxed), one Amiga 500 ( not working), 3x 5.25 disks drives and one for 3.25 disks. I can say that i got lucky :)

[@Shards-of-Narsil]

Nice.

[@spudwish]

So what was the story behind the computer you bought, didn't you ask the owner why they'd kept using it all these years instead of getting a new one?

[@U014B]

How'd the owner manage to put Jetset Radio on it?

[@Neflyte49]

Please love it like the original owner

[@endrightwinglunacy]

I hope it blows up, you cheap ass! j/k....amazing deal, well done :)

[@danielson9579]

I can't find many IBM PCs anywhere nevermind a 5150 😒

[@timfountain98]

Well I wish to get one , well one day, though I am getting a 386 pc for trade for a pocket basic computer

[@dhpbear2]

What do you use to mount the camera in your car?

[@3lectr1c]

How do you find these deals?!?!

[@soumikchakraborty5799]

hey dude do you have a blog or a site or something like that??

[@superaidenproductions1870]

I got my eMac the same way!!!!

[@chongtincellphone]

$100, that would be what I offer as well.

[@pelgervampireduck]

wow, such a beautiful computer, why would anybody sell it?. and it's not just a collector's item to store it or display it, it's a PC so it's a working computer, it can do things, you can play on it, print stuff, do spreadsheets, copy floppy disks... upgrade to a newer DOS version, at least 3.3, get xtree gold, get wordperfect or wordstar, and you'll have a working machine.

[@mattmmxxiii]

What sites do you recommend for estate sales that have pictures?