oh boy, are you in for a treat. IBM is a wonderful platform, but it is not for the uninitiated.

#1 - Here is the massive list of IBM PS/2 error codes: http://ps-2.kev009.com/pcpartnerinfo/ctstips/49fe.htm
#2 - The floppy drives used to be relatively stable and worked good. However in recent years they have really fallen off because of bad caps. If I made a pie chart of IBM floppy drive failures, 5% of failures would be dirt/grime, 90% for caps, and last 5% would just be other dead chips.
#3 - yes, you likely only have 1mb of ram onboard. You will need to use the reference disk to setup the add-on board.

There are 20 things to go wrong here, but the most notable ones are...

1. Clean the drive first. It can just be old-sticky grease. This is a universal issue with all drives.
2. it is VERY easy to write a reference disk and windows will do it wrong. There is a flag that gets written to the boot sector of the floppy that tells the system it is a reference disk. Windows likes to "correct" this "error" if you aren't careful. I personally use win-image, and I will eject the disk as soon as possible after writing it. If Windows so much as looks at it,
3. IBM floppy disks are NOT directly compatible with the standard 3.5" drives - adapters exist and are cheap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkvL_H_hVKc&p … HBzLzIgZmxvcHB5
4. the caps are likely hoop-a-jooped.

You will need a 2nd floppy with the correct ADF file for each add-on card. These can be standard format floppy disks. you can just copy the ADF files to the floppy. You can put as many ADF files as you want on this 2nd disk. https://www.ardent-tool.com/adapters/ADF.html That said, it looks like you have the IBM memory expansion with 2MB ram. The ADF should be on the base model 60 floppy so, you shouldnt need a 2nd floppy. https://www.ardent-tool.com/memory/IBM_Expansion.html

You should just bookmark www.ardent-tool.com 99% of all PS/2 info is there.

OH! Be careful with the "foam" inside the case. It is made of the same stuff as this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHIgSNw4V0U

Welcome to the world of PS/2 microcomputing.
There is also a newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware, as well as a facebook group.
Some more info like lots of adf files can be found at
www.mcamafia.de

Feel free to contact me via PM, I own a PS/2 model 60 myself and many other IBM PS/2.

What a awesome feedback.

Thank you for sharing all the information!

It’s a Beauty.
I would Start with cleaning the case and internal components.
Look for broken or loose components.
Definitely clean the heads on the floppy drive with some Isopropyl alcohol.
Write down the bios version
Clean and reseat all the cable connections and cards.
Dust brush, Vacuum, and Isopropyl Alcohol is your friend.

It seems I made a mistake and bought the wrong battery on Amazon.

The battery taken is the one in the photo and does have a reference 2CR17335SE-V

Im trying to find a compatible battery in size and voltage.

Do you know if this model is compatible:
Panasonic Photo Lithium Battery CRP2 (Nickel-Oxyhydroxide (NiOx), 6 V, 1400 mAh, 34 mm, 17 mm, 45 mm)?

https://www.ardent-tool.com/misc/batteries.html

according to the gospel, yes.

i personally have the 223 cells on hand

Today finally I took some time to clean most of the dust with air gun.

Also took off the Mitsubishi floppy drive to inspect and clean the heads with alcool, but still no luck.

The drive does spin, the light comes on, but cannot boot from the floppy disk.

Should I try to replace those 5 caps?

Finally some progress... Replacing the caps fixed the floppy drive. I'm so happy to see the blue screen of the reference disk.

After setup the system time, i'm now only having an error 164. At post only gets 2MB memory.

Im trying to configure the HD which I believe to be a Seagate 44Mb with part number 6373507, but I have no idea which values to submit.

I do see a Slot 8 with 3 parameters to be defined. Is that the right place? Not sure which values to submit.

well, it looks like you have 1mb of ram on the motherboard, and an additional 2mb on the card, that seems right.

if you run auto config, do you have any options?

As for the slot-8 thing. The point of the IBM "bios" is to auto-magic the assignment of memory locations, IRQ, DMA, ETC. You should leave most if not all settings on default. that said, I like to disable serial and parallel ports unless you plan to use them. This give the bios more resources to work with when you add things like scsi, sound, network, etc

The auto-config should read the hard drive and configure itself. if its not doing that, the drive may be cactus, and that would 100% cause an error like 164.

luckybob wrote on 2024-10-25, 19:12:

well, it looks like you have 1mb of ram on the motherboard, and an additional 2mb on the card, that seems right. […]
Show full quote

well, it looks like you have 1mb of ram on the motherboard, and an additional 2mb on the card, that seems right.

if you run auto config, do you have any options?

As for the slot-8 thing. The point of the IBM "bios" is to auto-magic the assignment of memory locations, IRQ, DMA, ETC. You should leave most if not all settings on default. that said, I like to disable serial and parallel ports unless you plan to use them. This give the bios more resources to work with when you add things like scsi, sound, network, etc

The auto-config should read the hard drive and configure itself. if its not doing that, the drive may be cactus, and that would 100% cause an error like 164.

The auto config always fails to detect the HD, so I believe it might be dead.

it might also need a recap like the floppy drive. also double check all the cables and what not. I'm going to assume that this is the only ESDI drive you have?

MY way to replace the ESDI hard drive is to get a MCA scsi card and a SCSI hard drive.

There also exists a new MCA card that allows for CF cards. I dont personally own one, but thats probably the best option for someone who doesnt have a huge stockpile of IBM hardware.

luckybob wrote on 2024-10-25, 19:51:

it might also need a recap like the floppy drive. also double check all the cables and what not. I'm going to assume that this is the only ESDI drive you have?

MY way to replace the ESDI hard drive is to get a MCA scsi card and a SCSI hard drive.

There also exists a new MCA card that allows for CF cards. I dont personally own one, but thats probably the best option for someone who doesnt have a huge stockpile of IBM hardware.

I will try to check this massive block of HD and see if I can find some caps to be replaced.

I saw the MCA CF adapter, but is very expensive with shipping and import tax from US to Portugal, problably close to 150 usd.

I think my best option is try to find a used MCASCSI card...

soupapes wrote on 2024-10-25, 19:58:

I saw the MCA CF adapter, but is very expensive with shipping and import tax from US to Portugal, problably close to 150 usd.

I think my best option is try to find a used MCASCSI card...

If you think that's expensive, have a look at the prices of original sound cards. the last one I saw was several years ago and it went for like $1500 US. EVERYTHING with IBM and PS/2 is going to cost extra. Thankfully the 'new' SoundBlaster clones have really enabled these machines to be viable gaming setups.

https://virtuallyfun.com/2023/09/17/installin … ainful-lessons/

You are going to want to AVOID non-IBM scsi cards, at least as boot devices. They are perfectly fine for additional external devices like CD drives. If you do decide to risk it, stick with the Adaptec 1640 MCA card. I have used that one personally and I can attest it works fine in 90% of cases. the Scsi cable is a bit hard to find, but its literally just an 50-pin edge connector. with some patience you can find them still around. Without the benefit of a cache of hardware, I'm going to reiterate the CF MCA card is likely going to give you the best experience here, unless you get lucky on auction sites.

IBM can get into some really strange corners when it comes to non-ibm parts in their machines. its usually fine, but the edge cases will drive you up the wall.

luckybob wrote on 2024-10-25, 20:15:

If you think that's expensive, have a look at the prices of original sound cards. the last one I saw was several years ago and […]
Show full quote

soupapes wrote on 2024-10-25, 19:58:

I saw the MCA CF adapter, but is very expensive with shipping and import tax from US to Portugal, problably close to 150 usd.

I think my best option is try to find a used MCASCSI card...

If you think that's expensive, have a look at the prices of original sound cards. the last one I saw was several years ago and it went for like $1500 US. EVERYTHING with IBM and PS/2 is going to cost extra. Thankfully the 'new' SoundBlaster clones have really enabled these machines to be viable gaming setups.

https://virtuallyfun.com/2023/09/17/installin … ainful-lessons/

You are going to want to AVOID non-IBM scsi cards, at least as boot devices. They are perfectly fine for additional external devices like CD drives. If you do decide to risk it, stick with the Adaptec 1640 MCA card. I have used that one personally and I can attest it works fine in 90% of cases. the Scsi cable is a bit hard to find, but its literally just an 50-pin edge connector. with some patience you can find them still around. Without the benefit of a cache of hardware, I'm going to reiterate the CF MCA card is likely going to give you the best experience here, unless you get lucky on auction sites.

IBM can get into some really strange corners when it comes to non-ibm parts in their machines. its usually fine, but the edge cases will drive you up the wall.

The floppy drive started randomly failing, so I end up buying the CF MCA card and the floppy adapter from ZZXIO. Great products.

I got a 256mb CF card and installed MS DOS 5.02

The next issue I have is a POST 164 error which seems to be related with the expansion memory card or the ram sticks, bue in the BIOS detects a total of 3mb (1+2).

I was able to fix the post 164 memory error.

The memory card came with 8 sticks with mixed brands:
-4 sticks 'OKI MSC2304-15YS9A'
- 4 sticks 'Mitsubishi MH25609BJ-12'

By removing the 4 Mitsubishi sticks the error was gone and I get a total of 2mb (1mb from board and 1mb from memory card).

In a google search it seems both brands have similar specs but the OKI are faster with 150 ns, while the Mitsubishi are 120 ns.

It seems having mixed brands does not work or maybe the Mitsubishi are not compatible with the memory card.

soupapes wrote on 2024-12-15, 09:10:

In a google search it seems both brands have similar specs but the OKI are faster with 150 ns, while the Mitsubishi are 120 ns.

FYI, 150ns is slower, 120ns is faster.

weedeewee wrote on 2024-12-15, 10:58:

soupapes wrote on 2024-12-15, 09:10:

In a google search it seems both brands have similar specs but the OKI are faster with 150 ns, while the Mitsubishi are 120 ns.

FYI, 150ns is slower, 120ns is faster.

Good to know, thank you for clarifying that.

3d printed a front plate for the floppy drive.