New England WTB Upgraded BIOS chip for IBM 5170

[Blastoid]

Hi-
I'm looking for an upgraded BIOS chip for my stock 5170. I have not touched a 286 since the mid 90s am a bit rusty to say the least. The IBM BIOS has been a challenge to get some things done, so I figured this was the path of least resistance.

It's a Type 3 board with a stock BIOS, I think I'd want either an AMI or Phoenix but am open to suggestions.

Couple of things to note-

1. There is an add-on board with more RAM, I want to make sure that's seen (I'd assume it would be)
2. I'd like to get a XT-IDE or similar card so I'd want to that to be supported.

Thanks for reading and have a good day!

 

[modem7]

I'm looking for an upgraded BIOS chip for my stock 5170. I have not touched a 286 since the mid 90s am a bit rusty to say the least.

In case you are unaware, there is a lot of IBM 5170 information at minuszerodegrees.net

There is an add-on board with more RAM, I want to make sure that's seen (I'd assume it would be)

I cannot see why there would be a need to move to a non-IBM motherboard BIOS in order for the subject RAM to be usable.
If you want to clarify what RAM that is (type, where it appears, etc.), then I suggest that you create a thread in the PC area, providing board details (e.g. photo).

I'd like to get a XT-IDE or similar card so I'd want to that to be supported.

Years ago, I saw issues with XT-IDE cards fitted to type 3 motherboards, and at that time, a fix was to move to a non-IBM motherboard BIOS. Later, I discovered that at least some of the issues that I experienced were because, during testing, I sometimes used a particular XT-class power supply to power the motherboards. Relatively recent testing of mine (see note 1 at the bottom of [here]) suggests that there should not be problem with XT-IDE/XT-CF cards on type 3 motherboards that have their stock IBM BIOS fitted.

But it won't hurt to have non-IBM BIOS' ready to use.

 

[Blastoid]

Thanks for the reply. I have checked out minuszerodegrees.net (which is a ton of great info) but hit a few road blocks getting the IBM BIOS reconfigured (it shows 640k but the add on board has around 2mb). Long story short I did not have a way to write to a 5.25" drive to use the IBM disk, that was just solved with a 486 I grabbed that has both floppy drives.
I'm going to give it a go again this weekend and see where I land. Will create a technical help post when/if I hit a wall.

Otherwise thank you for the info and I agree, having a non-IBM BIOS around would be nice so I will keep this wanted post open for now.

 

[Blastoid]

Found someone selling a set of Quadtel programmed chips on eBay and it worked out quite well! $27 shipped and I now have a menu based bios on my 5170. Closing this out.