Overclocking and restoring IBM AT 5170 Type 3

[@thedungeondelver]

You know, I love your channel, Adrian Black's, This Does Not Compute, and so many other vintage PC channels. Back in the day when these were new I was a dedicated Amiga user, and PCs seemed so clunky and "commodified", I could never imagine anyone having any sense of affectionate nostalgia for them - and yet, here we are!

[@nickwallette6201]

Yeah. I had an elective in high school where we could go to a trade school for half the day. I picked the computer class, of course. This was during Windows 95's reign. There were boxes of old cards that I'm sure were like CGA and EGA cards, floppy and hard disk controllers, RAM expansions, etc. I wasn't even able to identify many of them, due to different connectors than the VGA and IDE that I knew. It was all just "worthless old junk" that we were given permission to look at, handle, dismantle if we wanted to... They had no value to anyone, and were destined for the landfill anyway. Now, I feel like I was using gold bars as a clumsy makeshift hammer. If I had known how sought-after they would be later on, I would've kept a whole box full of stuff.

[@Frank-Thoresen]

I remember when I got my first Amiga A500 in 1989. It had 1 MB memory expansion. I couldn't afford a second floppy drive but it was such a great computer. I still have it (removed the battery for storage). Was able to buy a second Amiga A500 with a Comandore screen and external floppy drive. Planning to make both of them working again asap as I have been living abroad for years. I really miss working on vintage computers.

[@vhfgamer]

You DEFINITELY should get a 3d printer. I know it might seem like it wouldn't get used often, but you'll VERY QUICKLY discover that common household issues can be solved with a printer. Your brain will readjust and suddenly you see the world with 3d printed solutions. It's saved me an insane amount of money over the years. Here's a list of a few things I've printed. A guitar mount to mount a stratocaster to a wall Several pill organizers for my mother and I, for supplements Caddies to convert loose 2.5" sata drives into portable drives A 45rpm adapter for a turn table New hinges for a turn table A guitar pedal board with legs Lamp shades for emergency lighting A nintendo switch case Knitting needle holder for my mother A yarn bowl for my mother Multiple toys and figurines for little ones in my family A housing for a geiger counter Non magnetic screwdrivers for adjusting potentiometers A mount to hold a go pro clone A mount to hold a phone as a camera over my workbench Multiple measuring cups A replacement battery door for a TV remote A custom cooling fan for a commodore 64 breadbin A full chess set Drone parts A box to hold a TS100 soldering iron Replacement arm rests for my vintage Plymouth An adapter to hold a lipo battery for a vintage full size VHS camcorder A stash tube to hold the registration and insurance on a motorcycle A knob for a gas cap on a vintage Dodge A push to talk button for a vintage Drake ham radio transmitter A morse code keyer A replacement tool tray for an Elna Supermatic Sewing Machine A replacement drive wheel for the Elna Supermatic ... I could go on, but I think you get the idea. And considering an Ender 3 v3 costs only 169 bucks on the Creality web store, there hasn't ever been a better time to pick up a machine.

[@Epictronics1]

Wow, you sure got your money's worth! Yeah, I will get a printer for sure. However, I'm not gonna rush it since good quality parts are available for cheap through PCBWay.

[@djpirtu2]

I like how you overclock everything, I'm doing the same thing. Every retro-PC I get here goes through some overclocking because it's just exciting and fun. Our first PC in late eighties was exact same looking 286/8 with MDA, it was a clone with XT-style keyboard. Only HD floppy drive and no hard drive. Later we got Hercules graphics and 40Mb HDD. Damn I played Street Rod, Stunts, Prince of Persia a lot.

[@KaldekBoch]

My first PC was a 286-12mhz. A clone of some kind with the NEAT chipset. I think the CPU was even on a daughterboard. I wish i had managed to keep it, but i was poor and had no storage space for many years. All i have from my younger years is my Amiga 500, because a friend had it for a long time and returned it to me at a time when I had space and time.

[@BigBadBench]

Nice machine! I’m glad the pinout worked for your PLCC socket. Things weren’t so easy for the 68882 😂

[@Epictronics1]

It always surprises me when hacks just work lol

[@GigAHerZ64]

17:21 - it's not off by 1.25MHz. If you read what's on the screen, it says "performs like a ...". It is a comparative value to compare against standard AT machine. (all the memory wait states and other such things included) On the top left, you see the measured speed of the CPU: 10.022MHz. I would say it's pretty precise.

[@Epictronics1]

Yes, but this is the standard AT. This machine is what it compares with. It should be exactly the same.

[@subg9165]

@@Epictronics1 does it go through bios routines for any of its timing? the replaced bios might do some things a little quicker

[@djdoo]

Isn't it really nice for a change when you plug an old computer and all of its included parts work as they intended to? You are really lucky with that cement brick of HDD that worked straight away, you didn't even give it a spank! Very nice machine looking forward for the next video for that or any other you post... Cheers from Greece, Keep Up!

[@Epictronics1]

Extremely lucky with this one :) Thanks!

[@0326Hambone]

My families' old IBM 5170 type 1 has the same HDD, and 20+ years after the last time it was powered on, it still spun up and worked fine! Some of my older sister's old school work was stored on it! I should note the PC was stored in a barn for 15 or so years. It was a total restoration PC. I will say, in cold temps, the HDD takes a bit of "Convincing" to read, usually an hour or so of idling is enough to warm things up for proper use.

[@jasmijndekkers]

Hi Epictronics, Nice job you did with this 5170. Steven is ready with his 5160 for a customer. Now looking forward for another IBM. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands

[@Epictronics1]

Thanks!

[@vmisev]

Thanks for the video; great restoration! 👍 1:55 This looks like "IBM Enhanced 5250 Display Station Emulation Adapter" - it would be great if you could one day get small AS/400 like 150 and use 5170 as 5250 term. I'm fascinated with OS/400, but they are very rare and there is not much of YT on them - this channel will be great place for showing AS/400 workings and 5250 data streams 😁

[@Epictronics1]

Thanks. Not sure we'll get there, but I am keeping an eye out for an AS/400

[@MichaelAStanhope]

AT was a great machine. Mine had a 44mb HDD in it, and I added another half height drive in the bottom bay and also had dual HD floppies, 5.25 on top, 3.5 in the middle. Great machine, got me through to 1995. I wish I still had it, mine had the special case that let you put it vertically on the floor.

[@Epictronics1]

Sweet. I've heard about those tower cases. I wish I could find one.

[@collectingretrotech]

Always fun watching your videos, just printed x6 of those rails from the same 3D project for my clone AT and they fit right. It’s so nice that we can now 3d print parts for our old computers

[@Epictronics1]

Who would have thought back in the day, when these machines were new that we would print custom parts for them!

[@Brfff]

I love what you do with these original IBMs

[@DimasFajar-ns4vb]

peace be upon you sir

[@marksmith9566]

We had an expansion case that plugged in 8 bit slot. We got 4 cd-roms [all different brands] running simultaneously!

[@Takeshi.Nakagawa]

Great choice for bios, used also for my Tatung 286 as I wasn’t able to get a copy of the setup floppies. Gsetup wasn’t able to manipulate the original bios data from Tatung properly. Kept the original bios chips, will upload them for the public as soon as I can read the content. I am very positive about the Amibios for such machines, my Octek fox II 286 got it as well. Can’t complain!

[@Epictronics1]

It's a great bios for sure. Very convenient compared to the original!

[@stephenscibbe1116]

back-in-the-day I installed extra HD to same model IBM, could not find a pair of drive rail inserts, so made a set out of 1/8th thick masonite - worked like a charm!

[@vhfgamer]

LGR made his out of a sheet of plastic. Back when he did his IBM AT unboxing series.

[@whochecksthis]

Yay! I can finally upgrade my ibm!

[@SockyNoob]

5:27 lmfao, nice roast of the 8 Bit Guy.

[@SockyNoob]

9:36 wtf is that date lol. 11:36 holy hell that hard drive noise sounds amazing.

[@Epictronics1]

Fantastic noise :)

[@bobweiram6321]

Adrian just released a video where he's restoring several Apple //cs with Amber Alps. You should do a "Hey buddy! Got some //cs for me?"

[@humidbeing]

Be aware that crystals are not universally interchangeable. Crystals come in all different ESR and load capacitance. Some are parallel resonant, some are series resonant. Mixing and matching random crystals is not guaranteed to work. To rule out crystal-related causes you should find the spec of the original crystal and order matching ones of different speeds from Mouser.

[@Epictronics1]

Thanks. I'll see what I can find

[@cybercapri]

I started working on PCs in 1986 and that's always been an issue with every PC back then, the color almost never matched...

[@Epictronics1]

I find it kinda charming on my clones. None of the colors matches :)

[@cybercapri]

@@Epictronics1 I get that, I'm just saying I used these PCs way back when and no matter how hard one tried, color matching just wasn't possible. In later years some started to match but case makers and device vendors just would not get on the same page. It's great you restore this stuff, it's like a walk down memory lane... Back in the day I was one of the few that was able to get CD Rom's working on 386 and 486 base PCs and I'm here to say it was not easy; not like it is today. MFM and RLL were nightmares to say the least. When they worked, it worked great. One of my first games was Starflight. The made a second, Starflight II that I found later, like 2015 I think when I bought the game again. It had a star map with over 250 visitable stars with any number of planets surrounding the star and it was a great game, even way back when. But without the Star Map the game is just not the same as it was. I want to think I have it packed away in storage but it's probably long lost now... Starflight is from the late 80 maybe early 90, but a newer game stole the name so it's not easy to find... I can't tell you how many hours I played that game and barely scratched the surface, it's a massive universe and well rounded game. You had to build your own crew and upgrade your ship and it had everything plausible. The time it would take to travel was damn near real time, not like todays games blink 3 times and your there. They also had hidden worm holes too that you find by accident that cut your travel time down drastically.

[@cybercapri]

@@Epictronics1 I'd love to see you get Starflight going on one of your older machines... it can work on newer PCs via an emulator and It's part of my Steam or Gog Library...

[@fra4455]

Great video

[@Epictronics1]

Thanks

[@tigheklory]

I loved this video!!! You could put any AT motherboard in this case, like a nice socket 7...

[@Epictronics1]

Thanks! Yeah, but how about we make the original board fast instead :D

[@rallyscoot]

You miss that black plastic grommet that keeps the psu device cables outside. Maybe possible to snatch one from a baby AT psu..

[@Epictronics1]

I'll see if I can find one on ebay

[@mibnsharpals]

The landmark test (almost) always showed a value that was too high. Many sellers took advantage of this and stated the landmark value and not the original.

[@douro20]

A System/36 would probably be more appropriate than an AS/400. They made two compact versions of the System/36, the 5362 which is a floor-standing machine and the more common of the two, and the 5364 which is a desktop system which needs a 5150 or 5160 to manage it.

[@Epictronics1]

I'll see if I can find one and make a video :)

[@Jerkwad152]

Awesome 👍

[@Epictronics1]

Thanks!

[@douro20]

What is the hard disk? An ST-4038? I have a later revision ST-4096 in my 5150.

[@Epictronics1]

This IBM has an ST-4026

[@Nukle0n]

Maybe that date you found in the case is just for the case and they for some reason didn't use it until later with the new board and 8mhz chip. And yes IBM was always y2k compliant, it was all the clones that decided to save a bit in the RTC circuit.

[@nickwallette6201]

Oof -- speaking of dream machine 5170s, I had a dream about using a 5170 last night. The floppy drive failed and over-currented and melted everything in its proximity. I was quite glad to wake up from that, knowing that I didn't have to source a bunch of replacement parts. haha.. I might need to get off KZbin for a while.. maybe go for a walk. LOL

[@Epictronics1]

😅😅😅

[@soberjedi42]

I'm guessing the reason the AT board has issues going faster than 10 ish MHz is that you have one crystal for the CPU and the ISA bus. Wondering if the parts you've got coming is some sort of CPU interposer that allows using a different crystal for the CPU than the motherboard so the ISA bus can run at the rated 8 MHz with the CPU as fast as it can go. Not sure if that's possible, but would be cool if it is.

[@Epictronics1]

Unfortunately, I'm not aware of such an interposer for the AT. However, It should be doable! Let's hope someone figures it out

[@chriswareham]

I don't think the 5170 was a big seller here in the UK, as I saw loads of Compaq AT clones but not a single IBM during the early days of my programming career. A shame, as aesthetically it's a great bit of industrial design and I'd love to own one.

[@Epictronics1]

I agree, it doesn't get much better if you're into vintage industrial IBM design.

[@g4z-kb7ct]

I am also waiting for some stuff to arrive and it's taking forever so I think it's coming via camel lol

[@Epictronics1]

lol

[@madigorfkgoogle9349]

damn you, I was watching till the end just to see what is that special/secret card... and you didnt show it.

[@Epictronics1]

I did at : kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHTQeXSkbKiEqpIsi=M_S37qEiVVUqgO-p&t=107

[@madigorfkgoogle9349]

@@Epictronics1 damn, how could I have missed that... age?

[@cromulence]

Haha IBM goes brrrrrrrr

[@Frank-Thoresen]

I really recommend you to buy a good 3D printer as you can make plastic parts for your restoration projects.

[@awilliams1701]

lol I was just about to suggest 3d printed rails.

[@Epictronics1]

That's a pretty good suggestion! ;)

[@awilliams1701]

"these don't look printed" oh yes they do, but it's very high quality. My prusa mk4 could definitely compare with that. But it is definitely better. I'm sure PCBWay has a high end industrial printer.

[@awilliams1701]

If I was going to do it, I'd look into printing it with PCCF. Some of my printer was made with it. It's very high strength. Very durable.

[@Epictronics1]

@@awilliams1701 I'll try it if it's available through PCBWay. Does it have the same finish?

[@awilliams1701]

@@Epictronics1 PCCF from what I've seen is only black, but it's pretty smooth. I wish it was purple. My printer (which has a lot of printed purple parts) is getting upgraded to the mk4s. A lot more parts are supplied as PCCF, but they arent' "essential" so I'll probably stick to purple. The extruder uses PCCF because I have a color changer and they found that the printer wasn't surviving large amounts of color changes. So the most important part is MJF (super expensive HP printer that uses nylon "sand" and melts it with a laser). And the other parts are PCCF. They are still important, but don't get nearly the amount of wear the main plate gets. Even with MJF the main plate is considered consumable. I've probably hit at least 30k color changes and it is still going strong.

[@awilliams1701]

I don't get the MFM appeal. Most of them don't even work. Back in the day I remember on the C64 we had carts and disks. The carts were dead silent. The disks were loud. I'm like.......some day we'll have cartridges that work like disks. And sure enough we do. I love my SSDs. lol

[@Epictronics1]

But they make amazing vintage sounds! I used a cassette deck in the early days. they were pretty silent too :)

[@awilliams1701]

@@Epictronics1 lol I've never used a tape drive. The linear nature of them sounds like I would go insane.

[@nickwallette6201]

@@Epictronics1 Yeah, nothing quite sounds like a stepper motor hard disk.

[@SockyNoob]

The sounds are the appeal

[@awilliams1701]

@@SockyNoob why? It's not a game making sounds. It's just data access. I preferred C64 cartridges because it was silent. And I always believed that it would be silent across the board since I was a kid and now it is.