IBM PS/2 Model 80 (8580-071) restoration

[Grant Taylor]

Hi,

I acquired an IBM PS/2 Model 80 (8580-071) today and am looking for
advice on what I should do to check it out before, during, and after
applying power for the first time.

I'll try to get some pictures if anyone is interested.

The label near the power switch says that it's an 8580-071. I have no
idea how that compares to the hardware that's in it.

There are two full size (5¼) hard drives, the controller card. I don't
know what type of drives they are yet, they look to be MFM / RLL like in
that they have the common cable and a per drive cable.

There is a video card that has a daughter-card in the same slot like a
thick sandwich.

There is another card that I don't recognize. The card doesn't have any
external connectors and it looks like it takes multiple (approximately
4"x4") daughter-cards. I am wondering if this is a memory expansion of
some sort.

There are two of what I believe are the memory boards between the back
hard drive and the power supply.

The battery is still in the system, but I didn't see any corrosion and
it's away from the motherboard.

There is also the degrading black foam used for air ducting. Blech.

Q: What things should I do as part of checking out this system. I'd
like to eventually power it up and see what is on the drives (if they
will spin).

I need to physically clean it with a damp rag and get some pictures of
the system.

Please share any pro-tips / gotchas / etc. that you think I could
benefit from knowing.

Thank you and have a good day.



--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

[Bob Eager]

On Wed, 08 Mar 2023 21:18:10 -0700, Grant Taylor wrote:

> I acquired an IBM PS/2 Model 80 (8580-071) today and am looking for
> advice on what I should do to check it out before, during, and after
> applying power for the first time.
>
> I'll try to get some pictures if anyone is interested.
>
> The label near the power switch says that it's an 8580-071. I have no
> idea how that compares to the hardware that's in it.

It's one of the ESDI disk based machines, originally shipped with a 70MB
hard drive.

> There are two full size (5¼) hard drives, the controller card. I don't
> know what type of drives they are yet, they look to be MFM / RLL like in
> that they have the common cable and a per drive cable.

ESDI, as above.

> There is a video card that has a daughter-card in the same slot like a
> thick sandwich.

Probably an 8514 adaptor, or an Image Adaptor/A.

> There is another card that I don't recognize. The card doesn't have any
> external connectors and it looks like it takes multiple (approximately
> 4"x4") daughter-cards. I am wondering if this is a memory expansion of
> some sort.

Yes, it will be. 70ns SIMMs, max 2MB I think. But generic ones have to be
'coded' with a blob of solder.

> There are two of what I believe are the memory boards between the back
> hard drive and the power supply.

They are faster memory. 2MB each in that model, I think. I don't think 4MB
ones worked in the early 8580s.

> The battery is still in the system, but I didn't see any corrosion and
> it's away from the motherboard.

Easy to get; go to a camera shop.

http://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/battery.html#72X8498

> Please share any pro-tips / gotchas / etc. that you think I could
> benefit from knowing.

That's probably all I know!

[Grant Taylor]

On 3/9/23 2:05 AM, Bob Eager wrote:
> It's one of the ESDI disk based machines, originally shipped with a
> 70MB hard drive.

It sounds like the 2nd hard drive was added after the fact, or it was a
special order from IBM. Though I'd have thought that the "071" would be
different if it came from IBM with a different fit out.

> ESDI, as above.

:-)

> Probably an 8514 adaptor, or an Image Adaptor/A.

ACK

> Yes, it will be. 70ns SIMMs, max 2MB I think. But generic ones have
> to be 'coded' with a blob of solder.

Eh ... I'm fairly certain that they were not what I think of as 72-pin
SIMMs. Similarly they weren't 30-pin SIMMs either.

Perhaps it's a special formfactor with 70 ns memory on it.

> They are faster memory. 2MB each in that model, I think. I don't
> think 4MB ones worked in the early 8580s.
>

> Easy to get; go to a camera shop.

ACK

I remember seeing these batteries around.

> That's probably all I know!

Thank you for the information.

Someone on cctalk suggested that I power the system up, which surprised me.

I naively assume that I need to worry about bad capacitors and the likes.

I'm also concerned about sticktion on the hard drives.

It's my assumption that this system has not been powered on in quite a
while.