I just want to say thank you very much for this. I am terribly grateful.

Registered on behalf of basically my whole family just to say thank you for this.

Our PCS-44/C (SX-25), Microtower Case died around 1996 because of a broken HDD (Quantum ELS 170 AT I think, was always pressed for space), we bought it used in 1992-1993 and didn't get the original Olivetti setup disk.

Dug it out of the attic this Christmas, and other than missing HDD and a crack on one of the outside plastic trim tabs, it's in very good condition.
We cleaned it up, soldered in a modern CMOS battery-holder, and booted it without anything other than Speaker & Riser card, the whole family watched it come to life!

However, Italian is not our strong suit.
We've been trying to fire it up on a CF adapter, using 512MB cards, we boot the Olivetti setup (which we mirrored off of the Image file you provided) and basically google-translate our way around, we've set the HDD settings for "High capacity" and then the BIOS is installed when we exit the setup?

We're unable to figure out what is what for the HDD parameters, Cilinders means Cylinders, but even with google-translate we can't figure out any of the other stuff.
One of the CF cards only allows formatting and no DOS install, the other lets us format AND install DOS, but won't boot from DOS.

Did you have to use a network ISA card to get CF working on your 44/C?

Edit: I followed another trick here and inserted MS-Dos 6.2 disk, then typed "fdisk /mbr" and hit enter (even though we already made sure it was MBR) presto, that's all it needed.
No Network card needed to run CF on the 44/C, pretty dang cool!
We've now installed Mouse & Sound Blaster drivers, as well as Windows 3.1.

For any future reference: We also tried the English PCS-46/C setup/userdisk, and it worked!

I have a PCS-42/P (with dead CMOS battery of course) and tried both the Italian and English setup/userdisks on that, but no dice unfortunately, will try searching the forums/google more throughout than I have up until now.
But thank you so much for this ppsh, you saved our digital childhood!

Thank you so much!!!
I just acquired a working Olivetti Familia 2 PCS, with 486sx 25mhz cpu,with microtower case, so I assume it's the PCS 44/c system.

I will try to boot with this diskette and see what can I do.
Thanks a lot for sharing it.

Hey guys, I need help.

I just acquired this nice desktop computer and I cannot make it boot cause I don't have a proper keyboard.

Who can help me about that? I put an image of the keyboard connector, it's not a PS/2 unfortunately, someone knows about that connector?

I cannot find something on internet, and I am lot frustrated; It's a shame to not use a functional desktop computer only for a keyboard connector;

What the hell had Olivetti in mind that time to not put a simple ps/2 connector for the keyboard as they did for a mouse???

Please someone can help me? I'm stuck on that connector, I cannot use that nice old Olivetti!

biessea wrote on 2023-04-28, 07:47:

Please someone can help me? I'm stuck on that connector, I cannot use that nice old Olivetti!

I have had a look at my PCS-44C and I have a plain PS/2 connector. It may be worth starting a new thread and also showing exactly what computer you have. I'm so sorry, I just can't help you right now.

coherentbaboon wrote on 2023-04-28, 08:05:

biessea wrote on 2023-04-28, 07:47:

Please someone can help me? I'm stuck on that connector, I cannot use that nice old Olivetti!

I have had a look at my PCS-44C and I have a plain PS/2 connector. It may be worth starting a new thread and also showing exactly what computer you have. I'm so sorry, I just can't help you right now.

I saw on Internet that there are other Olivetti Familia 2 PCS with two ps/2 connector, one for the mouse and the other for the keyboard.

I don't know why mine one has that stupid proprietary connector.
So you think it worth to open a new thread yes?

ppsh41 wrote on 2020-05-01, 09:15:

Someone asked me for the setup disk (aka user disk) to configure the Olivetti PCS-44/C. I put it here for the benefit of those w […]
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Someone asked me for the setup disk (aka user disk) to configure the Olivetti PCS-44/C. I put it here for the benefit of those who need it, along with an extract from the service manual.

One disc is specific for the M4-40, PCS-44/C and Familia 2 models and is in Italian, and that's what I used.
The second disk is specific to the PCS-46/C and is in English, I put it here for comparison.
It may be that both disks are fine, since the PCS-4xC / M4-xx are very similar, if not the same.

The setup software is originally contained in a hidden partition called "system region", and can be invoked at boot with a combination of keys (alt-u, alt-ctrl-u, I don't remember exactly). The user disk allows the configuration of the machine and also to re-create the system region partition if you change the HD. The HDs compatible with these machines are few (read the service manual). Anyway, I have successfully used an old version of MaxBlast to run a 512 MB compact flash.

Below is my motherboard, assy: BA2033, type: T.1

olivetti_BA2033.JPG

Hi all,

after restored that system thanks to Michael that helps me, I have found a trouble about video compart.

Seems the bios that Olivetti used for the video Cirrus Logic part was "custom" and the Cirrus Logic drivers doesn't properly work.

Using the CLutil - Clmode utility, when I go to video modes I see that last lines are garbage, and Michael told me that probably Olivetti used that custom bios. I have to find the video driver for that System so, someone could know where they are located?

I put a photo of what the CLutil say to me: