Finally....the IBM PS/2 Model 95

Denniske, the bezel and rails arrived today. Unfortunately the rails are indeed just rail adapters and the bezel does not fit however it fits on my 55SLC so it's not a total loss if I want to add a drive to that.
I think at this point here it would be handy to know someone with spare time and a 3D printer. You can reference off the blanking plates and work from that. All you're really doing is just cutting a rectangular hole.
In other news, a year of unemployment and school has finally drained my savings down to Essential Purchases Only so the Interposer and ram are both on hold until further notice. In the meantime I had the idea that we can install a second 0663 drive and multiboot between DOS/Windows and Warp 3. That way should the IrisVision drivers eventually surface It's not going to be a hassle to setup OS/2 and start testing.

NeXT said:

Denniske, the bezel and rails arrived today. Unfortunately the rails are indeed just rail adapters and the bezel does not fit however it fits on my 55SLC so it's not a total loss if I want to add a drive to that.

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Ahhhh, that's too bad... there goes my Karma :-( But nonetheless a very interesting read... this will end up all good, I'm sure of it! I'll be checking this thread for sure ;-)

I recycled enough cans that I was able to purchase an interposer off a fellow in Latvia. While it is in the mail I also uncovered another hidden stash of CPU's I had forgotten in another box. One of them was a Gainbery 133mhz upgrade which unfortunately didn't work either but then I hit upon an AMD 5x86 155ADW which is the infamous ADZ CPU but with a lower temperature tolerance (no biggie, this machine has a proper cooling fan). It and and the interposer should work with the Type 3 and mcamafia's Blackbird machine is proof.

As for ram I still can't source cheap sticks. $25 for one 16mb stick is not my kind of rodeo so I'll sweeten it for whoever is reading by offering to trade my 64mb 72 pin EDO sticks for an equal amount of this ECC crap.

The Interposer arrived and I promptly got to work. I had to remove pin D4 on the interposer because the Type 3 complex socket does not have a hole for this key pin. I also had to trim the leads on the jumpers and regulator as well as place a piece of tape on the SLT chip so nothing shorted out. It came with a tiny little heatsink which normally I don't recommend you run an overclocked 5x86 with however this machine has a blower fan dedicated for the CPU complex so we have more than enough ventilation.




It's a bit of a kludge to make fit but now that I'm seeing a memory error the machine is now happily running at 150mhz with a 5x86. Now we have to deal with that total lack of ram.

NeXT said:

...Now we have to deal with that total lack of ram.

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Which RAM does a 95 need? I had a 95, and may have some SIMMs from it here somewhere.

In the 95 I had, there was a non-IBM 32-bit MCA memory card made by Cumulus; a CuRAM 605 is the model, and here are a few pics:



Would this card be of any help?

Nah, this is a limitation brought on by the type 3 complex. The type 1 and 2 use more conventional parity ram which I have a bunch of but starting with the type 3 they added the ECC requirement. You can find people selling the ram on ebay but I'm not paying $50 for one 16mb stick, especially when they need to be installed in pairs. I can't use an MCA memory addon because all my slots are filled and it wouldn't work regardless until there's some ram installed on the planar.

I guess I am lucky my 95 came with 160MB of RAM or something like that.

NeXT said:

Nah, this is a limitation brought on by the type 3 complex. The type 1 and 2 use more conventional parity ram which I have a bunch of but starting with the type 3 they added the ECC requirement.....

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Which processor complex was used for the 486DX50 (not DX2-50; DX 50)? That's the one I had, and if I had some IBM FRU's I would be more likely to find them in my set of RAM boxes (heh, I'll take a walk down memory lane so to speak). I've looked at the http://ohlandl.ipv7.net/FAQ/FAQ_55a.html FAQ, and it appears that in theory it could have been Type 1 but probably was Type 3. At least according to the FAQ the planar should be able to take parity RAM of the right speed, but again it's been a really long time since I had the 95 in hand. I did successfully add RAM to it back in the day, and I seem to recall that the only precautions I took was making sure it was parity RAM of the right speed, matched pairs, and had gold plated contacts.

If you have links to the sources I can look at them, but it's been so long since the 95 I had was operational or even in one piece that I've long since lost or misplaced the docs or the knowledge I had. For what it's worth, I built some of the early PostgreSQL 6.5 series RPMs on that model 95, running Red Hat Linux 6. I don't remember why I finally parted it out; I vaguely recall it had something to do with the hard drive flaking out, but it could have had more to do with it being just too slow for what I needed to do at the time. It was replaced by a dual PPro 200 system.

On a further note, there is a guy selling a beefy (and I mean beefy) 95 on eBay right now for $999. He lists the RAM part numbers for 32MB sticks as being Kingston KTM-9595. Would you believe that Sears of all places lists this part, at $53 each? see: http://www.sears.com/kingston-technology-ktm9595-32mb-module-for-ibm-ps-2/p-SPM6323783408

[Edit] If I can find the ones I pulled from my 95, I'll probably let them go for less than that. That reference is more as just that, a reference. And after looking at the various pics I'm positive now that mine had a Type 3 complex.

If you want, go for it. I don't really need a million megs of ram. 64mb is more than anyone would ever need.


...gee, that sounds familiar....

NeXT said:

...gee, that sounds familiar....

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Indeed! Glad I didn't have any coffee in my mouth....

Anyway, I've found a few resources you may find useful. Here's a SIMM reference for the various 95's system boards: http://ohlandl.ipv7.net/config/MemoryReference.htm

I found a static bag in one of my boxes labelled 'Model 95 SIMMs' (imagine that). They are all FRU 92F0105, parity and not ECC. Some model 95 system boards are supposed to work with these; and I have the DX50 chip from the Type 3 complex so I know it was a type 3 in that system. And to the best of my recollection I only had one model 95 (but I reserve the right to be wrong). Of course, the bag could have SIMMs from a different 95 that was given to me by someone else; it's just been too long ago to remember for sure.

[Edit]

According to the IBM PS/2 Hardware Maintenance Manual, page 128 (see a copy at http://ibm-pc.org/manuals/ibm/ps2/ps2-hmm.pdf PDF page 142 corresponds to manual page 128 ) parity SIMM's should be supported in the 8595 with a type 3 processor complex, as long as they are installed in pairs in the correct sockets. And page 406 of that manual (page 420 in the PDF is page 406 of the manual) shows the SIMM pairs (and you probably already know this, but for the archive sake....). And this info contradicts a bit of the info I link to above; if you've tested parity SIMMs in the interleaved socket positions and they don't work, well, empirical evidence trumps the docs, always.

That's what I have at present, but if I turn up any FRU 92F0097 or 92F0098 I'll let you know.

I dug through my stash of IBM ram and my model 56 and 70 and came up with two pairs of 92F0103 ram. Your memory reference states that my 8595 OHF will support it however your AlterVista link has broken so I have no reference for how the memory is installed.

Edited: Oh, well the numbering scheme is silkscreened right on the board. A1/B1, A2/B2 etc.
So stuffing in my two pairs gets me to POST and I can deal with that for now while I set the machine up but I'll still need more ram in the future. Now that I know we CAN use non-ECC stuff I'd be happy with 8mb 64F3606 and 64F3607 SIMMs. Eight of those puppies would more than satisfy me.

Right, so I've run into a hardware issue. I have all the ADF files for my cards with the exception of one. The Ziatech ZT/2.



MCAmafia does not appear to have an ADF for it (or at least it's not in the regular place). Looking back through usenet finds several people asked but only one person responded by emailing them the file. We never heard from them again.



My ID tool knows more of its existance than my sound card so SOMEBODY has it but I'm not aware of any alternate repositories of ADF's. Any ideas or pointers?

Looks like I'm also going to be unable to even kludge the Ultimedia sound card to work. The IrisVision takes up DMA 3 and you can't change that. The best I can do is free up DMA 1 but that's not enough to please the kludgy ADF which only lets you select form DMA 1 or 3. If I want sound I'll be forced to invest in a more expensive MCA sound card.

NeXT said:

I dug through my stash of IBM ram and my model 56 and 70 and came up with two pairs of 92F0103 ram. Your memory reference states that my 8595 OHF will support it however your AlterVista link has broken so I have no reference for how the memory is installed.

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I've updated the link; hopefully it will stay around.

Edited: Oh, well the numbering scheme is silkscreened right on the board. A1/B1, A2/B2 etc.
So stuffing in my two pairs gets me to POST and I can deal with that for now while I set the machine up but I'll still need more ram in the future. Now that I know we CAN use non-ECC stuff I'd be happy with 8mb 64F3606 and 64F3607 SIMMs. Eight of those puppies would more than satisfy me.

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I have a pair of Kingston KTM0130; those are 8MB each and equivalent to the 64F3606. Also see http://ps-2.kev009.com/pcpartnerinfo/ctstips/5d92.htm .

Glad you were able to get it to POST! That's progress.

PM me and we can talk more about that ram.

Meanwhile I've discovered two things about the CD drive. First off it required a recap because otherwise it couldn't read discs. Second, I've discovered we don't need a bezel to install it. It fits almost perfectly in the half height slot. A single piece of card paper and it looks visually good.





I might look into this again tomorrow and see if I can cram in a magneto optical drive.

Well, after all that, I found out that yes I had pieces from two 8595's; one was a Type 1. One was a type 3. I know this because I found two 40-bit ECC SIMMs, along with another IBM-tagged 486 processor, but not a DX50 (which is in a different block of foam).

These are the 8M, FRU 92F0098. They are strange looking beasts, with nine chips on one side, oriented vertically like a typical SIMM, and then eleven chips on the back, oriented horizontally. That's 20 chips. I'll post pics tomorrow.

I would have PM'ed that bit of info, but it may have a wider interest since you know you can use parity SIMMs and they're a bit easier to come by. But there may be a 95 enthusiast out there with 40 bit ECC RAM who wants a couple more sticks. I can actually test these in my 7546 (a rack mounted 9577), but it would be a downgrade from 32MB to 16MB.

I'm actually not sure we could even mix ECC and non-ECC ram in this machine. I'm almost positive that's not a supported combination.

Well that's all for now folks. This just went from a priority job to the backburner in a split second.
I was up all night to get ready for work tonight and had the system up the whole time. About twenty minutes ago there was a peculiar "tink" from the machine and it dropped dead. Having troubleshooted on the spot, either something on the planar randomly shorted itself out or something critical has failed in the PSU but not given off any smoke, burning smell oe blowing the main fuse. If you press the power button now there's a very faint click but otherwise no life. PSU jobs are absolutely not my thing. I already have several other machines with PSU problems. This is totally not what I wanted to end my weekend on.

NeXT said:

Well that's all for now folks. This just went from a priority job to the backburner in a split second.
I was up all night to get ready for work tonight and had the system up the whole time. About twenty minutes ago there was a peculiar "tink" from the machine.... This is totally not what I wanted to end my weekend on.

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Now that's a bummer.

I'll go ahead and post the pics, since I've taken them, and if anyone wants to use them as a reference for what the ECC RAM looks like, feel free to do so. And, you are correct that mixing ECC and Parity types in the same system is not supported.

In the pics below, there are three modules: to the left is the IBM 4M Parity module; in the middle, the 8M ECC module (40 bit); on the right the Kingston 8M parity module. This way if you're at a hamfest or similar and see those IBM SIMMs you'll know them by sight.

NeXT said:

Well that's all for now folks. This just went from a priority job to the backburner in a split second.
I was up all night to get ready for work tonight and had the system up the whole time. About twenty minutes ago there was a peculiar "tink" from the machine and it dropped dead. Having troubleshooted on the spot, either something on the planar randomly shorted itself out or something critical has failed in the PSU but not given off any smoke, burning smell oe blowing the main fuse. If you press the power button now there's a very faint click but otherwise no life. PSU jobs are absolutely not my thing. I already have several other machines with PSU problems. This is totally not what I wanted to end my weekend on.

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Yep-- when I said the 9595 PSUs with the TAICONS are a problem with messy voltage output, I wasn't kidding. You CANNOT run power supplies with low quality electrolytics! Vintage TAICONS are even worse than the ones today as there's no such thing as a healthy vintage electrolytic.

Since your system is a 8595 with a lower watt PSU, you'll probably need to buy the 400 watt FRU which are reportedly more reliable... but I bet they'll still has TAICONS screaming to be replaced. I'll probably end up buying the 400 watt FRU and recapping it (security torx required). It could no doubt use a new fan too. Recapping is essential for old tech.

Don't worry, I bet the planar is most likely fine.