Taffer
Experienced Member
I had an interesting pickup this weekend (Two 5150 PCs, Two complete 5161 Expansion units, 5151 monitor, 5154 monitor, and an early sound card called the IBM music feature card).
The previous owner was an IBM employee for 25years, retiring at the end of that stint in 1991. (Note: I've modified some small details to help protect privacy)
He was a systems and customer program engineer at IBM. 13 years into his tenure at IBM, the PC was released on 1981. As an employee, he had ready access to the 5150, and upgraded with the best-of-the-best as things were released.
Larry (not real name) passed away in 2015 at 67yrs old in a nursing home. His kids hired a local worker to do a house cleanout and throw away any remaining worthless accumulated junk, included the IBM stuff. The worker was told by a friend that the computers might have some value, so instead he brought them back to his barn in Pennsylvania where they languished for 9 years.
In April 2024, the worker was cleaning his own barn with the help of one of his Amish neighbors. The neighbor asked him if they should throw the IBM hardware away; instead he posted it for sale on Facebook.
I drove 4hrs round trip and paid a rather princely sum to acquire them all. As an enthusiast with dozens of computers and a very soft spot for IBM stuff (a PC/XT was my first computer as a kid), I was very happy to have them. After a couple tantalum replacements, both 5150s are booting, and the hard drives are both full of interesting programs and documents. Some repairs need to be done on the 5154, as the magic smoke escaped after working for 15 minutes. The sound card is neat and works; I didn't know this existed.
One of the 5161 expansion units was clearly used just as a fixed disk upgrade for one of the 5150s. The ~130W and 63W power supplies were swapped, and the xebec controller/ST412 were in the 5150 while a floppy drive was sitting disconnected in the 5161. Thankfully, both extender/receiver cards were in that 5161 which looks like it was never really used. I wonder if many of these were used just for a fixed disk swap. The other 5161 was dusty from a lot of use.
What will happen to these computers and expansion units when my time comes?
The previous owner was an IBM employee for 25years, retiring at the end of that stint in 1991. (Note: I've modified some small details to help protect privacy)
He was a systems and customer program engineer at IBM. 13 years into his tenure at IBM, the PC was released on 1981. As an employee, he had ready access to the 5150, and upgraded with the best-of-the-best as things were released.
- He added the 5161 Expansion Unit when that became available for the fixed disk upgrade.
- He added an IBM EGA card and IBM 5154 EGA monitor
- He added an IBM Music Feature card, likely for his son who was finishing high school in 1989 and was a musician.
- His son's folders on the hard drive have Compose for music creation, kings quest, space quest, high school papers, resumes, and some journaling where he wonders how he and his friend will like being roomates in college
Larry (not real name) passed away in 2015 at 67yrs old in a nursing home. His kids hired a local worker to do a house cleanout and throw away any remaining worthless accumulated junk, included the IBM stuff. The worker was told by a friend that the computers might have some value, so instead he brought them back to his barn in Pennsylvania where they languished for 9 years.
In April 2024, the worker was cleaning his own barn with the help of one of his Amish neighbors. The neighbor asked him if they should throw the IBM hardware away; instead he posted it for sale on Facebook.
I drove 4hrs round trip and paid a rather princely sum to acquire them all. As an enthusiast with dozens of computers and a very soft spot for IBM stuff (a PC/XT was my first computer as a kid), I was very happy to have them. After a couple tantalum replacements, both 5150s are booting, and the hard drives are both full of interesting programs and documents. Some repairs need to be done on the 5154, as the magic smoke escaped after working for 15 minutes. The sound card is neat and works; I didn't know this existed.
One of the 5161 expansion units was clearly used just as a fixed disk upgrade for one of the 5150s. The ~130W and 63W power supplies were swapped, and the xebec controller/ST412 were in the 5150 while a floppy drive was sitting disconnected in the 5161. Thankfully, both extender/receiver cards were in that 5161 which looks like it was never really used. I wonder if many of these were used just for a fixed disk swap. The other 5161 was dusty from a lot of use.
What will happen to these computers and expansion units when my time comes?
