Tandy 2500 SX/25: Intro, Video Memory Upgrade, and Multimedia Experience

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Your Tandy 2500 SX/25 is in such nice shape! Great job on the video too. Looks like you are stepping up your game on editing, especially how you flipped through your Twitter feed showing the various pictures. 🙂

[@TJBChris]

Thanks for the compliments! The 2500 SX/25 is a great machine. As to editing, I finally graduated to Adobe Premier last year and got a Digital Juice license for stock music/animation/etc. Now that I’m getting comfortable with Premiere, I’ve been able to pay more attention to detail.

[@starbuck1776]

Same model of computer I brought with me to college in 1993. Mine had 2 megs of RAM and a 105 MB hard drive. By the time I retired it in 1995 for a self build Pentium 100 machine I had added a 4x CD ROM and a LogiTech sound man 16 sound card, and a external 14.4k modem. Wish I still had it....

[@TJBChris]

I’m the early-mid 90s, I had this machine’s cousin, the 2500 RSX. Other than having 9 MB of RAM, mine sounds like it ended up configured a lot like yours: 4X CD-ROM, Stereo FX-CD sound card, and a 14.4 modem. These machines sometimes show up on eBay for a halfway-decent price, though lately that seems to happen less and less. Still, I hope you manage to find one again. Thanks for watching!

[@BollingHolt]

Sweet system! I've got to get a Tandy PC to add to my collection...

[@TJBChris]

I highly recommend the Tandy PC systems. Especially the 1000 or 2500 series, since they have some form of the Tandy DAC for audio (though the 2500 systems and 1000 RSX have relocated their address, so older software which supports the DAC may not see it). Be careful though...like all Tandy computers, it's easier to get out of control and find yourself with more computers than you've got space for. :)

[@BollingHolt]

@@TJBChris Indeed. I'm already at the point where I have to get a small climate controlled storage unit LOL.

[@andystandys]

I didn't realize the SX/25 had a completely different motherboard than the SX/33, which I own. Unfortunately the 33 can only be upgraded to 10 megs of RAM. (Two slots, instead of the 4 your have.) Damn it, Tandy! I can at least do the video RAM upgrade, which I haven't done yet...

[@TJBChris]

It’s funny, because the 2500 SX/25 is also different from the similarly-spec’d 2500 RSX (different video chip and 9 MB max RAM). That amazed me since the machines existed around the same time. And the 2500 RSX and 1000 RSX are basically the same machine with different cases, power supplies, and slightly different ports populated on the main boards. I recommend the video upgrade…hopefully yours doesn’t take these ZIP chips like the 2500 SX/25 does. The video memory upgrades for these can be tricky to find, depending on the model.

[@andystandys]

@@TJBChris My SX/33 takes more standard DIP style memory for that video upgrade. I’ll have to figure out what I need.

[@BlackDragon-xn2ww]

I noted the motherboard is a different size then the SX/33 which runs over under the card slots on mine ram is only two not four my volume knob is worn-out if jiggle it do get sound need to fix that everything else works my needs the video ram upgrade but it is sockets am able to run 256 color onboard cirrus logic but at a lower rez think that due to memory

[@TJBChris]

It’s funny in a way…pretty much all of the 2500-series 386 systems have different designs. I guess that just adds to the fun! Enjoy the 2500 SX/33, it’s a great system. Thanks for watching!

[@Lee_Adamson_OCF]

Cool. I used to have some kind of Tandy 486, but I think it was a DX. Wish I still had it, although the keyboard was kind of trashy. :O

[@TJBChris]

The Tandy Enhanced keyboards were always a bit off, but they always were part of the experience. The Honeywell-made keyboards they switched to a year or so before they left the computer business were pretty horrid.

[@danielktdoranie]

I LOVE that you didn’t play games. Thank you. So over done.

[@TJBChris]

Applications and oddball software definitely need more love.

[@MrEd-qg8td]

to get to 16MB memory did you just install 4 4MB SIMMS?

[@TJBChris]

That’s correct, this system can take 4 MB SIMMs. They’re 30-pin. For specifics, you can search Goggle for a book called “Tandy Notes and Jumpers”. It calls out the specifics for this and pretty much every other Tandy computer, and will have the speed and other info. One important note: not all 2500-series systems can take 16 MB…for example the 2500 RSX can only take 8 MB worth if SIMMs, which then combine with 1 MB on-board to give a total of 9 MB. Thanks for watching!

[@danielktdoranie]

Sir! I was disappointed your math coprocessor chip socket is empty. Please rectify this immediately 😂

[@TJBChris]

I’ll get right on that! 😁

[@danielktdoranie]

@@TJBChris seriously, awesome content sir

[@TJBChris]

@@danielktdoranie Thank you! I appreciate it.

[@jacobew2000]

I have a tandy 2500 sx/20, but can not get the video to work on newer monitors. I know that that is an issue with the monitors not able to see the lower resolutions, but after buying a Kanexpro vgarlhd converter, I still get nothing. I finally got it to come up on a 19" VGA CRT monitor, but it only shows gibberish. Any ideas on converters?

[@TJBChris]

Unfortunately, I'm not sure off-hand. I haven't used these systems with a monitor newer than about 2004 (a Dell LCD). That said, the only thing I can think to check is the jumper or switch to enable the on-board VGA. Most Tandy systems of this era let you enable or disable on-board video, so if it was disabled, you might get your issue. Beyond that, if there's expansion video RAM, it might be worth making sure it's socketed correctly. Tandy Notes and Jumpers will have some detail that might help. Thanks for watching! github.com/pski/model2archive/blob/master/Hardware/Notes%20and%20Jumpers/Notes_and_Jumpers_Sep_1993_Text.pdf

[@jacobew2000]

@@TJBChris I had installed the 256kb video ram, and that appears to had crashed the built in video card. After removing them back to stock, it works. But seems that my four 1mb ram sticks do not work. Not sure if I have to do a setup utility, but I doubt that is the problem. My other problem is finding a 3 1/2 drive that has S0 settings to replace the Tandy floppy drive. Those are notoriously unavailable. I had to modify the tandy Floppy cable by cutting various grounds in the cable (found the modifications online), but a stock 3.5 drive wont work in S1 defaults. So I am waiting for a new drive I bought on Ebay. Other than that, it seems to work... but no way of getting stuff on the two hard drives in the system. It has a 120mb and a 80?mb. It also had a rare Tandy CDR-1000 drive, in good working order. That CD Rom drive cost about $500 alone if you can find one. Thanks.

[@TJBChris]

@@jacobew2000 Nice, progress is always good. To get into setup, try hitting F2 while it’s counting up the memory during POST. If not, and it boots, tvdog’s Tandy 1000 archive has setup programs for these systems. So you should be able to access it from DOS. With the CD drive, you’re on your way to a great early MMPC system for sure! Good luck!