That model shares the base chassis with the IBM PC-330 100DX4 I had. Looking at the center of the front inside of the lower chassis, I can see where the PC-330 power button and power/HDD LED lights would have gone, and where the 1.44M Floppy would have mounted under the CD-ROM.

Ah very nice. I'm currently typing on my custom Unicomp 101-key, can't get enough of buckling springs 😀

got the very same machine here
do you have any drivers for it? especially CL-GD5430 for win3.x?

edit: nvm found them.

Hi!

can I ask you how do you reassemble the keyboard? 😀
I have one just like that that I cleaned a few months ago but I can't get it back together, I can't find a way to get the springs to stay in place 😊

marquisor wrote:

got the very same machine here
do you have any drivers for it? especially CL-GD5430 for win3.x?

edit: nvm found them.

Just saw your message. That's good, the drivers I have are already within the O/S I think. I've still got the original image. Did a factory restore and all is there with it's aptiva suite and everything. Could yours be the same?

b_rros wrote:

Hi!

can I ask you how do you reassemble the keyboard? 😀
I have one just like that that I cleaned a few months ago but I can't get it back together, I can't find a way to get the springs to stay in place 😊

Hi there!

To get the springs back in place, all keys must be removed from the keyboard first. Once all the keys are out you can just drop the springs in. Just keep holding the tray (surface of keyboard facing down) when you drop the springs in place. Gravity will keep them there. Ensure your springs are in the right places for your US or UK/EU keyboard layout. Then carefully sandwitch everything together. Took me a few attempts as the spring can fall out of their resting groves quite easily. It is fiddly but it is easily possible I have done a few before. Good luck! 😀

Hi,

I'm new on this forum but very interested by this post because I've the exact same machine 😉
I want to add 128K of cache but I'm quite confused when I have to choose the right chips. Can you help me and give me :
- the chips you used ?
- a picture of those chips ?

ty 😀

I have always liked the look of the IBM Aptiva. Nice to see more of these being preserved.

3 SIMM slots - interesting!

I was surprised to see it using a standard UMC UM8498F chipset. I don't know much about IBM Aptivas, but I figured that IBM would have used their own chipset for 486 builds. I bet if you found the spec sheet on this chipset, it may accept more than 128 KB.

You might try an Intel DX4-100 overdrive (5V) in the Aptiva.

mael_b, from the photos, I think he is using W24257AK chips. Look for W24257AK-15, AS7C256-15PC, UM61256FK-15, IS61C256AH-15, Em51M256A-15P, etc. These all are 32Kbitx8. Not sure if the TAG is also 32kx8 or 8kx8.

It seems that the TAG module is 8Kbx8 : http://ps-2.kev009.com/pcpartnerinfo/ctstips/45aa.htm
Don't know if 32Kbx8 works...

I'm not sure either. I have seen cases whereby using a larger TAG works, and cases whereby it did not. You can look for 8kx8 TAG chips, e.g. CY7C185-15.

mael_b wrote:

Hi, […]
Show full quote

Hi,

I'm new on this forum but very interested by this post because I've the exact same machine 😉
I want to add 128K of cache but I'm quite confused when I have to choose the right chips. Can you help me and give me :
- the chips you used ?
- a picture of those chips ?

ty 😀

Here you go hope this helps.

Great restoration work! I had to bump this oldish thread because it's just great to see this machine -- my first computer was identical to this except it came with a DX4/100 Overdrive chip in it. I remember it actually had the DX2-66 sticker and then a DX4-100 sticker on top of that, so it was "factory upgraded". Mine had 8 Mb RAM stock. It came with cute little 4W speakers, too.

Bought it in December 1995, used it 'til 1998. If I recall correctly, it came with PC DOS 7.0 and Windows 3.1 pre-loaded, as well as OS/2 Warp 3.0. On first boot you would select the OS you wanted, and it wiped the other one from the disk. Also there was a free Windows 95 upgrade offer, but that took a few months to arrive (this was around the time when Microsoft was doing that shady business with supplying Win95 later to IBM than to all other manufacturers as "punishment" for OS/2 Warp). Windows 95 went pretty well on it, as I recall, as soon as I upgraded it to 16 MB.

Loved this machine. Really loud keyboard.

Sorry for bumping this old thread but I have never figured out how to be able to turn the system off properly.
When Windows 95 was installed all was well. The system powers down automatically just like the more modern ATX PC's.
Now I have reverted the system back to it's original IBM Aptiva image running PC-DOS and Windows 3.1 I am unable to power down the system properly. Pressing and also holding down the the power button only puts the system into a standby state. Pressing the button again resumes the system from where it left off. Also when I plugged the system in again today it launched a funky "Rapid Resume" on the BIOS splash screen which I thought was rather interesting. Does anyone know of a command line that launches power off state. Any help would be appreciated!

Usually the behaviour of the power button can be set in the computer's BIOS (probably under the power management options). Did you have a look at that?

I got one of those dirt cheap for my sister in 2000 - it was her fist PC. It came with a DX4-100 and 32MB of ram. I remember winamp ran fine on it, and she played Jazz 2 and Heroes 3 on the thing.

yawetaG wrote:

Usually the behaviour of the power button can be set in the computer's BIOS (probably under the power management options). Did you have a look at that?

No not originally. Yes you're right there are many power features with the BIOS setup utility. Thank you for your help! Also what "TELVM" correctly mentioned last year that it has a fast hibernation called Rapid Resume, I failed to take notice of that comment originally. This was enabled and had the software installed. It works wonders in windows you can hibernate the system which saves it's state onto the hard drive straight away and you can store the machine away and it will remember everything in windows from where it left off.

My problem was when it was sat in DOS it just standby's after pressing the power button. Booting into safe mode in DOS you can turn of instantly regardless of RAPID resume being enabled or not. So many different options.
All makes perfect sense now. So ahead of it's time with this old 486 system. 😀

kanecvr wrote:

I got one of those dirt cheap for my sister in 2000 - it was her fist PC. It came with a DX4-100 and 32MB of ram. I remember winamp ran fine on it, and she played Jazz 2 and Heroes 3 on the thing.

Goodness I reckon the audio settings must of been near their lowest to run Winamp on a DX4 machine! I remember I struggled on my DX2 80MHz machine I had. I managed 22050Hz 8 bit mono to play MP3 music 😀

brad1982_5 wrote:

yawetaG wrote:

Usually the behaviour of the power button can be set in the computer's BIOS (probably under the power management options). Did you have a look at that?

No not originally. Yes you're right there are many power features with the BIOS setup utility. Thank you for your help! Also what "TELVM" correctly mentioned last year that it has a fast hibernation called Rapid Resume, I failed to take notice of that comment originally. This was enabled and had the software installed. It works wonders in windows you can hibernate the system which saves it's state onto the hard drive straight away and you can store the machine away and it will remember everything in windows from where it left off.

So there are vintage systems running Windows 95 that can do that properly. Most that I've seen would either hang while going into hibernation or not wake up well. 🤣 Cool.

Have you tried to put a DX4 on it ?
I have the 2144-914 and I try to upgrade to an AMD DX4 100MHz and I have issue...

mael_b wrote on 2022-03-13, 11:14:

Have you tried to put a DX4 on it ?
I have the 2144-914 and I try to upgrade to an AMD DX4 100MHz and I have issue...

I have a 2144-911 and Amd 486 DX4- 100SV8B works fine with DX2 or DX4 settings and JP10 jumper open.
(BIOS version B02UK0S date 09/27/95)