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5170 is almost working.

DOS lives on!!

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Joined
Mar 14, 2011
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2,303
Location
East Tennessee
The first pallet of computer stuff is unloaded at E-Waste from a moving truck, and to my suprise, there's a box labeled "AT" on it. So I wondered, "Could there really be a 5170 in there?" I pulled the box off the pallet (And of course it was at the bottom) and opened it. Sure enough, there was a AT in that box. Man was I excited to finally get one.
Once I got home, I hooked it up, hoped for the best, and flipped the switch. Nothing appears on the screen. My first thoughts went to the memory chips; one of them's gotta be shot. And after help on the forums, two piggybacked chips were bad in Bank 1. The video card was also bad. I replaced that one with a VGA adapter. A week later, the two new memory chips came in. After those changes, the 5170 works and boots to DOS. (Soon to be DOS plus Windows 1.0.)
Yesterday I tried tofigure out why it was only detecting 256KB and not the full 512KB that was installed. Turns out, the setting in the BIOS needs to be set for 512KB.
And then to my disappointment, I found that the existing AST SixPak Plus isn't compatable with the AT, so I'll have to invest in a 16-bit expansion card. I've already been offered a 16-bit card. Updates to come, and hopefuly this thing will work great.
 
There's at least one good vintage computer that shows up at E-Waste. Last year it was my Dell System 310. This year I scored big with the AT.
 
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