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IBM PS/1 model 2132

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 8:56 am
by Trinitronfan
A little while ago I asked someone in a recycling centre to look out for vintage computers for me, yesterday he managed to find two IBM PS/1 machines, one works perfectly well and the other showed nothing on the display but I found a old Paradise ISA graphics card and it worked perfectly for a few hours of use and then decided to freeze, I restarted the machine and there was no display, I have tried removing all other peripherals such as floppy drive, hard drives etc... and still nothing, I get 3 flashes on the keyboard when first powered on but that is it. I'm not exactly a expert but could it be a bad capacitor causing it to not boot?

Re: IBM PS/1 model 2132

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 12:06 pm
by 3pcedev
I would say it has bad RAM - do you have any you can swap over into it?

Re: IBM PS/1 model 2132

PostPosted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 7:07 am
by Trinitronfan
Yes I've tried swapping out the RAM, still doesn't boot, I'll replace all the capacitors on the board and see if it springs back into life, unless someone else has any suggestions.

Re: IBM PS/1 model 2132

PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 9:12 am
by 3pcedev
You might already know this but the PS/1's can be really picky about the type of RAM used. Have the SIMMS you installed been confirmed to work in a PS/1?

I would say capacitors are not that likely in an older machine. Old motherboards don't have a lot of electroyltics on them like modern ones (although my PS/1 knowledge is limited). They do however have a lot of tantalum capacitors which either smoke up or short out. If they smoke the machine keeps working, if they short the power supply usually cuts out.

I would check all the PSU voltages first and then move onto something like the capacitors.

Re: IBM PS/1 model 2132

PostPosted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 2:55 pm
by Trinitronfan
I've tried the SIMMS from the second PS/1 I have still nothing, those capacitors are electrolytic caps, it is a model 2132, power supply works perfectly well in the second machine too, which leads me to believe that a IC has failed or capacitors, I suppose I will leave it for now and try to find a solution in the future while I work on other things!

IBM PS/1 model 2132

PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 9:39 am
by kolsto
I hope youll be able to post a few photos of the machine some time, in particular a full type sample would be interesting to look at. I have a Model C, and possibly a service manual for a few IBM models, but all that stuff is in storage and I wont be accessing it for around a month. If you havent figured it out by then Ill be sure to look for it for you.