IBM PC XT (5160) Resurrection!

[@SenileOtaku]

"...it's not hoarding, it's preparedness..." Words to live by.

[@williamjoshualucas6503]

I came down just to comment on this. Man, this should be your merch slogan.

[@masterkitty]

A 90 minute MikeTech video? Perfect way to spend the evening.

[@user-dq8fz1dh4h]

Came for the muscles, stayed for the tech 😁

[@charlesdorval394]

As my old boss used to say, "There's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix" :P

[@abelouellette8051]

There's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix, that work

[@rogerrowsell5926]

Remember the first time I opened a XT clone, my wife bought, (new used one year). Came with monochrome display, two floppy drives, keyboard, dot matrix printer, all the software and paperwork. New $3k, have receipts. Distress sale $1,500. She used it for WORDSTAR etc..

[@vwestlife]

Thanks for showing us your Six Pak on video. :) And the exact same "tantrum" capacitor blew on my CGA card.

[@miketech1024]

Figured I might as well since people keep asking. 😂 Yup, the C8 cap failure is common enough to have a page on minuszerodegrees.net Seems it just filters power to the header for a light pen, so completely unnecessary (unless using a light pen).

[@LabCat]

Get you someone who looks at you the way Mike looks at vintage computers

[@Shakads]

Without the dismantling part hopefully 😅

[@hohnex]

Mike knows exactly how to attract us in the thumbnails...

[@star_man]

...and at 0:58 😛

[@1993MAZDAMIATA]

Outta pocket 😂

[@Drago1995]

ain't gonna lie on that 😚

[@1993MAZDAMIATA]

@@Drago1995 He is married

[@Drago1995]

@@1993MAZDAMIATA i know he is

[@cjsebes]

Just to date myself, I used that same machine in high school for my freshman keyboarding class. Dual floppies. No hard drive. And the warm glow from the monitor.

[@nuherbleath461]

Would love to see a board level repair on a hard drive, no one really goes that far when fixing one.

[@nyccollin]

The board is fine 99% of the time. Usually the mechanics.

[@boowh1]

Thank goodness for modern pc's.

[@keithbrown7685]

I'm inclined to agree. For all their ho-hum ness, they're ready for work when you are. Those old beasts, otoh, you want them to be up and running and doing something useful, you'll spend money, blood, sweat and tears to get them going. And maybe not even then. It takes a certain kind of person with a certain level of passion and persistence to bring these old behemoths back from the dead.

[@faeterov..]

I love how excited you seem to be by finding old hardware related to your childhood. I'm so happy for you, i would be the same if I found the computers from my days.

[@maxtornogood]

You weren't wrong about this being a feature length film & it was totally worth it!

[@KevinSills]

Man, what a great e-waste haul, makes me want to get into the computer business; but, only to do retro builds.

[@CGW11]

Great troubleshooting, with unexpected assembly programming! During the first low level formatting, the system reported 2 diskette drives, when only one floppy disk drive was connected.

[@keithbrown7685]

Mike, your granular knowledge of this pc's innards, is just awe inspiring. I would have given up, very early in the fixit process. Oh man. You are the GOAT of geeks. Nobody else gets down and dirty like this. Nobody else sticks with it until the comp is running and usable for real! HUGE RESPECT, dude!

[@reecepeart]

The beard, the biceps. Oh yes and the vintage PCs are pretty amazing too 🙌🏻

[@jonathanellis6097]

This generation of PC was before my time, but there is still something satisfying about these kind of videos.

[@eugeniuszgorka8599]

You did a gigantic job, I struggled with this work together with you. It was worth it, the effect is there. Greetings from Poland ! Zrobiłeś gigantyczną pracę , razem z tobą się męczyłem przy tej robocie . Opłacało się , efekt jest . Pozdrawiam z Polski !

[@westtell4]

I love the older IBM stuff mostly because i missed most of it

[@the_samsung_simp]

more e-waist videos I'm ready

[@simonlathwell]

My first experience with computers was the IBM 5160 back in 1988 when I was 11. My maths teacher got me to copy a disk onto multiple disks using the copy disk command in PC-DOS to copy from the A drive to the B drive. I don't think it had hard drive as it had two 5.25" floppy drives. By 1991 I was really confident using computers running Windows 3.0, and was the start of my early hacking days by hacking into other students accounts and messing up there work by altering or deleting documents. I only done that because I suffered really badly with being bullied at school and was the only way I could get revenge without being noticed. Thank you for the good memories in restoring it, and I'll soon re-forget the bad memories again.

[@o0Donuts0o]

Revenge is so sweet especially when deserved.

[@keithbrown7685]

the vengeful nerd..... silent but deadly. : )

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

36:10 for the Super Glue related problem, try to use some glass fiber cloth and epoxy resin. Becomes really strong really quick and is almost indestructible ^^

[@SockyNoob]

A hour and a half of Miketech? Holy shit, hell yes! And on one of the all-time classic PCs.

[@paulwarner5395]

Thanx for the trip down memory lane. I remember working on these back in the late 1980s. Your a more patient man that I working on this

[@terryhayward7905]

Now I remember why I hate tantalum caps . You have more patience than I have these days, but I remember doing all this way back in the 1980s.

[@dezhocob]

Wow! Over an hour long video! I was engrossed the whole time! Thank you for saving that system. I am not sure if I would have had the patience or knowledge to have done it! I love those old systems and cards that are just covered with chips, something about it looks so interesting to me! Cheers!

[@mauricen4676]

This was my first pc in the early 90s, only difference was that I had an MDA card. It was already obsolete by then but it was mine. I have no idea where it went after I got my dad's old 486, kinda sad. Thanks for the trip down nostalgia lane.

[@joeconti2396]

This MikeTech video turned into an Adrian's Digital Basement video!

[@wolfblaide]

This was my first PC also! It looks so familiar... that huge floppy and HDD look... it's wonderful to see.

[@sjgrall]

Looking great, sir!

[@spaceman7915]

Excellent effort reviving this dinosaur Mike 😃

[@dazl7954]

a 90 min vid, just great, cold drink, nibbles, and some good video watching. keep it up Mike :)

[@blackheart58]

Omg! I know you are beyond excited to find this system. I remember this from your childhood days. This really takes me back. I always loved watching you work on computers. The 486 you built when you were 8 was fantastic. Your excitement working on this system is fantastic. My chest puffs up with pride for your skills!! This is why I love watching your videos!!! So glad you found this system!

[@formatter]

This video contains almost everything one can encounter when dealing with old PCs. Even a little smoke show. Awesome!

[@zorandamljanovic6171]

You must be the most patient man in the world 😊

[@SweetBearCub]

I remember that ST-225, I had one in my old DTK 286, though it was a 40 MB sub-model. Good times!

[@jblyon2]

I had one of these machines for years. 640KB & CGA w/original monitor. It was so clean inside you'd think it was barely ever used. The hard drive, which I do not believe was original, was a half height 32MB Seagate. It did not spin up, but everything else on the system worked. After years of 'I'll get to it someday' I sold it to a local collector who was going to restore it. I hope it's been given the care it deserves.

[@westtell4]

Your videos are the best part of my week/month..

[@Kaynos]

What an adventure was it to watch this video !

[@RenanSpolon]

Computer technology in its early days was hell, the modernization of the font is really cool. 👑

[@rallyscoot]

XTs arent that hard to setup.

[@keithbrown7685]

@@rallyscoot Ok my friend. I challenge you to set one up right now. Chances are, it will win by staying dead, and you will lose. You will lose your hair (or whatever may be left), you will lose your sanity. You will lose your family, because you got so into it, you forgot you had a wife and kids. You will lose your friends for same. You will have to go on meds (or change them). You may have to spend some time in the psychiatric wing of your local hospital, because your ocd turned you into a borderline psychopath. You may incur a heart attack or stroke because you got so apoplectic with rage and swearing, internal gaskets were blown. I'd say, skip all of that. Leave all this granular resurrection to MikeTech. He's probably one of the very few who could survive it- and succeed. : )

[@pinhellifelipe]

Mike, I greatly admire your enthusiasm. I'm inspired by your knowledge and passion for vintage PCs. And of course, those well-sculpted biceps are quite impressive. Such a cute fella!

[@SidneyCritic]

Regarding the PS, I would usually print a 3D adaptor, ie, a spider frame with both bolt patterns, so that it's a direct bolt-in of new to old.

[@themoonupstairs]

I also had one of these during my early childhood. I fondly remember finding it in the attic during a move in probably '94 and booting her back up for some fun. My dad and I had started putting systems together around then, and we were both in shock how 'slow' it was, and even before win95 it seemed archaic to my 11 year old self. I was too young at the time my dad got it to realize how important it was, but I do remember using it with him in the late 80s. There's gotta be some polaroids somewhere... You really bring me back though, thanks Mike!

[@KomradeMikhail]

As a kid we had an XT clone with dual floppy drives, because it had a Hard Card slotted internally... This still makes similar sense today if you slot in any sort of XT-IDE-CF Card solution.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

I'm curious if the faceplate from the non working drive fits onto the ST-225? Also I would use Speedstor to low level that non working drive. It might work better than the ROM utility since it will do a proper verify pass.

[@miketech1024]

Looks like the faceplate won’t bolt up directly, but swear I’ve seen something similar done. It was a very long time ago though, probably mis-remembering. I’ll give the Speedstor LL format a try. Really want to see this drive work. They are quite expensive these days.

[@gabcedo]

I love this videos, especially PCs from the 2000s, and of course, it's also nice to see Mike's arms 😂😂

[@nobbybrown8056]

I'm as sure as I can be the 5150 was my first pc, when I knew nothing about pc's and the only thing I ever did on it was some sort or word documents, as training for my workplace. Now I build, diagnose and repair pc's. Those 30 years have flown by.

[@keithbrown7685]

Sorry for the long scree. It hit me hard, a few months ago. It was March 21, 1994 when I got my very own computer. It was a piece of outdated s**t, but my point is those 30 years!! When you think about what's happened, what's changed, and you realize that most of it happened while you weren't really looking. And now you're kind of agape with the time gone by. And for computers, that time represented eons. I could write a book or a chronology of what happened with me, what I witnessed, with comps, with the net, things that seemed here to stay, and then went **ts up. I was trying to get a friend to take me out to dinner on March 21, because I wanted to celebrate, to sortof salute that time. I mean, 30 years all fell on me at once, after they were all gone. : )

[@MieleTouchtronic]

Holy Biceps! 💪 👀

[@maxtornogood]

You can tell he keeps in shape! 💪

[@slammy102]

Carrying XTs around will do that

[@theslicefactor4590]

His shoulderblades will cut you.

[@01302]

I wish he'd do a workout video one time,I want to hear his routine!

[@windowsuser321]

@@01302 It's probably just lifting computers lol

[@douro20]

I sold my ST-225 with the controller on which it was formatted. I still have my ST-125 but I may sell it as well. I have an ST-4096 in my 5150 currently. Dynamic configuration is one of the nicest features on WDXT controllers as it allows drives to be used which would otherwise not be supported. It stores the drive configuration onto the first cylinder of the drive during low-level formatting.

[@danhg3885]

Nice job Mike. Your patience and persistence is inspiring.

[@ABRetroCollections]

That's why I keep an FK-2001 in my collection. It's switchable between XT and AT modes.

[@angryshoebox]

Back in 1982 my dad bought an IBM Model 5150 PC and amber monitor. Quite an amazing machine in its day. Having a hard drive was a BIG deal back then. Dual floppy drives were the next best thing. Single floppy systems were a pain, unless you didn't mind floppy-swapping (Please insert the disk "Mac OS 6.0.2", Please insert the disk "Ready Set Go 1.0", Please insert the disk "Bob's Files",etc., etc., etc. LOL).

[@paula1493]

Another Masterpiece by Mr. Mike!!!!!! If I could join at a higher level I would.

[@Paul-xs7ks]

Inspiring piece of work. My first PC was an IBM clone with twin 360k floppies, we didn't see any need for a HDD since we had FDDs.🤣🤣 I recently found a similar machine in a scrap metal bin. It is a clone but otherwise the same. I was so happy to find that. Intact and good condition but not working. I am in the process of buying parts for it's restoration. My motherboard is nonresponsive but I haven't used an oscilloscope to trouble shoot, that comes next. I have purchased an EGA to VGA electronic adapter since I don't have an EGA monitor. Haven't tried it yet though. Thanks for the video, really well done.

[@ntc3631]

Absolutely beautiful! And the computer looks awesome too

[@cullmaster7361]

Great vid Mike 👍🏻 Remember these from my old College days. Luckily had 20MB HDD.

[@stephenhornickiii]

There's nothing more permanent than a temporary solution that works.

[@wettuga2762]

That dessoldering alloy is pure magic! What is the brand and model you use? It's probably not available in Europe, but I'll check the descriptions used by webpages and try to find similar brands.

[@marktubeie07]

OK Mike, i'm triggered big time also. 4 of these machines were purchased at my work back in the day at the start of 'computerization' of our office. Ah, those were the days so much fun !!

[@bouncypear_net]

I can't believe you hand started that hard drive! I guess that's how you know it's old.

[@keithbrown7685]

The only thing missing was a crankshaft, crank included. : )

[@florianstadler5566]

Allthough I started my computer life with an Amstrad CPC 6128 my first PC system has been a 80286 Desktop and after that a 80386 tower. I loved those bulky PCs and still remember their weight. Thanks for this video 😊

[@roveradventures]

Always enjoy these videos. As someone with a few older pcs, socket 7, slot 1, socket 5. Its a great learning experience and helps me get a little closer to figuring out what mines doing!

[@charonunderground8596]

I just watched to the end and I am impressed by your patience, great knowledge and passion. Greetings from Poland and I look forward to more videos.

[@BigNiqEnergy]

this was an amazing rehab I love the section with the o-scope

[@JimLeonard]

Warms my heart that you have reverence for the 5150/5160. Keep up the good work.

[@cyningstan]

Nice to see the XT eventually became a happy computer by the end of the video. I was hoping you'd get to work on something like this - this is more or less the exact system I develop games for!

[@rmcdudmk212]

Going old school with that XT machine. Great reasteration. 👍

[@retroboby007]

Indeed the fiirst pc remains special in ones heart. My first pc was an Apricot Computer 386 SX 16 mhz, with 1 mb ram and 40 mb hdd. I remember having so much fun playing dos games on it. Man, you are soo lucky to play at 6 years old with such an iconic pc. Good video, Mike!

[@Constantin314]

wow Mike, can't wait to see all the videos with the new systems! so awesome! great long video, love it! that red toggle switch should've been in the front, it's so cool, that red color. imagine a modern case with this switch and based on this old design

[@swahkennison7116]

That tag on the speaker is from Escorts Kubota Florida Division which is a company based mainly in India with some divisions around the world and they manufacture agricultural machinery, construction machinery, material handling, and railway equipment. So that looks like a company machine used by them might have been for POS or Accounting purposes.

[@johnny14794]

Fantastic video and restoration! Made my day and brought me so many memories. Thanks for sharing! Stay safe and God Bless.

[@jbman2025]

Wow that brings back a ton of memories, I had the same as my first PC when I was 5. Mine had a custom clam shell case that I haven't seen since.

[@sonicunleashedfan124]

Maybe instead of a second hard drive, you could put in a half height 5.25” floppy drive. Would be useful to have not only a hard drive but two floppy disks, which was probably a luxury a handful of XT owners had. RIP ST-412, it probably served somebody well

[@saturn5tony]

Just awesome, well done repairing this beauty! 😊

[@panopolis8051]

The bane of a permanent fix is a good enough temporary fix. May your "temporary" fix last forever!

[@Aiyoros]

Awesome video man! Nice to see some restoration

[@simisteve1425]

My God….the memories

[@keithbrown7685]

not to mention the memory banks

[@TomStorey96]

L4 on those floppy drives is a common failure point. It blew on mine as well. It is part of a power supply filter circuit, but you can probably get away with installing a jumper wire in its place. I seem to recall that after fixing L4 a tantalum capacitor next to it also failed, so I'd replace that at the same time.

[@AJComputerServicesUK]

Hi Mike, Another Good Video Sir, After going through some rediscovered Vintage Hardware, I noticed at: 20:58 the little 8-Bit Card above the larger Card, I’ve got 2 of those plus I found 2 x MFM Drives, 2 x 5 & a quarter inch Floppy Drives along with Disks, Also Motherboard’s, 286, 386 & 486 etc and all sorts of different ISA Cards & a few PCI, I’d left it all in my Brothers Loft in the late 90’s & forgot all about it, I will be uploading a Video to my Channel at some point soon hopefully! 🙂🇬🇧

[@keithbrown7685]

I will be watching.

[@spg3331]

man what a journey! awesome video as always!

[@tndabone]

Floppy only Xts were common, Hard drives were a luxury. 1983 pricing was $2633 for a dual floppy, and $4995 for a single floppy with a 10meg HD.

[@markcumbriauk]

Great Diagnostics on such an old pc.

[@rallyscoot]

What i can tell about tantals caps.. Even they dont blow the first time and your system board has ran over some couple of hours. It still can blow after the next time when you power it up again. As pre-caution, now i replace the whole line near the AT power connector, to be sure they wont even blow on a later date. I had the same with a DTK clone XT board. Knowing it had a -12v short to ground.. When i replaced that capacitor. and thought it would be running fine.. Next day after a second power up (board did ran fine the day before) BANG and a fire... - 5 volt line capacitor went out.. Luckily i could after some hurry after the bang, clean the board up and replacing the mess. I looked which brand the capacitor was, and replaced them all because i couldnt trust one of them of that brand.

[@thanhmcgriff3387]

Ineffable restore video!!! Mine was an Atari 800XL I learned BASIC on.

[@paulstubbs7678]

Your doing better than me, I have a 5150 motherboard and CGA graphics card, but no case etc.

[@keithbrown7685]

Ever thought of donating it somewhere? Or even selling the stuff. I hear that parts like that fetch a pretty penny these days.

[@ShrineOfLife]

mezmerizing, outstanding work! thank you a lot for this video, I learned a lot - I got such a case kinda AT style (with normales 5,25 drive bays), with the large power switch, was a 286 computer once, but now its an 166 mmx multi os time machine! I love it! thank you again!

[@alexinnewwest1860]

Great video and cool machine. I remember navigating through a machine very similar to this as a kid as well. Oh and maybe more Van opening scenes to :-)

[@John-uc6gb]

Really good video. Reminded me when I was fixing my 2 Atari drives, and fixing my 1998 Aptiva floppy. Thank you

[@rallyscoot]

Good TIP for MFM / old scsi / RLL drives. Never directly connect them to a controller. Best to do is connect them to a PSU connector only.. And let them run for some time. See if the motor start spinning and doesnt make strange noises. If the bearing is stuck, probably due old grease that hardened.(sometimes bearing could also be worn, then drive isnt worth saving, or you have the ability to replace the bearing without damaging the drive). I mostly put the drive on the back and let it run for some time to free it up. If the motor wont start.. Dont let the drive attached to the current..(power it OFF) Otherwise something can gets very hot and burning out the motor or the complete drive. I would just open the lit. But let on stay on the drive (dont remove completely( Lift it about 1cm (dont know it in Inch). Dont touch the platter on top or buttom, only little bit the side.. And see if you can get the spindle get loose. Re-tightned the lit.. And see if power get the drive spinning again. Let it spin for a while so the drive also turning free. If you know for sure the drive runs fine, then you can connect / attach it to a controller en see if you can get the drive working. IF you open up the whole lit, always you a can of airsol, and blow out all dust bunnys.. So the platter is SUPER CLEAN. Before attach the lit again.. Hold it above the drive (very low) keep blowing out the dust, and that attach the lit back again. If you did it good, the drive should still work.

[@pierreinthavong181]

Awesome video, Mike! 😁

[@leeksoup3199]

really enjoyed this one

[@AnthonyRBlacker]

Mike next time you have to use superglue on something, add some baking soda powder to the glue right after you apply it to the plastic you're trying to glue together. It will almost immediately dry the glue and make it WAY stronger than original. Chemistry. Yay.

[@fhwolthuis]

Super job! Really enjoyable video 💪🏼

[@CDiepenbroek]

Loving the longer video, thanks!

[@Raul_Gajadhar]

Best video ever. Well done, tedious work, but well ✔️ done.

[@marksmith9566]

You could add a half height floppy for the blank hole!

[@Veik_Reikis]

28:54 Famous last words. 49:02 As someone who works in the medical field, this line had me laughing. Very true.

[@Rivenworld]

Superglue mixed with baking soda sets like concrete, just a tip going forward.

[@6LordMortus9]

I remember the XT with the green Hercules monitor... my mom would type faster than it could process. (10 MB, oh yes, the vast amount of space we had available)

[@keithbrown7685]

Yeah but you also had 640k ram, right? I mean, the sky's the limit with specs like that. : )