I have a model 30 too. The greatest advantage for me is that it is one of the few XT class computers that use ‘modern’ connectors for keyboard, mouse and display. I use a KVM switch to share PS/2 keyboard and mouse and LCD display with my 486 and Pentium III machines.

I use an XT-IDE Compact Flash adapter. Cheapest is to buy a kit and assemble it yourself. I built a kit from Sergey Malinov. You need to flash its BIOS yourself, but that is easy. You don’t need special equipment for that. Just insert the card in your computer and run an app from your floppy drive.

I don’t know if all ISA VGA cards work in an 8 bit XT bus. But some do work. The same for ISA sound cards.

You should definitely try out the onboard MCGA as well. Some games take great advantage of its 256 color mode.

As for the "special" SIMMs needed for Model 30/286, it's relatively simple to mod regular SIMMs to work in PS/2 machine.
Trident ISA cards usually work in 8bit machines (I use one of them in Commodore XT) - there are usually jumpers that can configure the card for 8bit support: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?264 … y-ISA-VGA-cards
I have succesfully used regular ISA IDE controller in Model 30/286 - you just need another ISA card with ROM socket for the XT-IDE BIOS. I have used an old NE2000 card for that purpose, which also gives me a network connection if needed.
I do also have Model 30/8086, unfortunately the BIOS on the machine is broken. If you're willing to dump and send me BIOS from your machine, I can do some experiments with my machine and see if there's any cheaper way to add a mass storage.

Eendje wrote:

I have a model 30 too. The greatest advantage for me is that it is one of the few XT class computers that use ‘modern’ connector […]
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I have a model 30 too. The greatest advantage for me is that it is one of the few XT class computers that use ‘modern’ connectors for keyboard, mouse and display. I use a KVM switch to share PS/2 keyboard and mouse and LCD display with my 486 and Pentium III machines.

I use an XT-IDE Compact Flash adapter. Cheapest is to buy a kit and assemble it yourself. I built a kit from Sergey Malinov. You need to flash its BIOS yourself, but that is easy. You don’t need special equipment for that. Just insert the card in your computer and run an app from your floppy drive.

I don’t know if all ISA VGA cards work in an 8 bit XT bus. But some do work. The same for ISA sound cards.

You should definitely try out the onboard MCGA as well. Some games take great advantage of its 256 color mode.

there is a kit sold at $30 on ebay, you need to build and flash yourself. im thinking on buying it.
what about games, really old DOS games like tetris, blockout, paratrooper, those don´t suffer from higher Mhz speed? because i played those with 4mhz or 5mhz

Kubik wrote:

As for the "special" SIMMs needed for Model 30/286, it's relatively simple to mod regular SIMMs to work in PS/2 machine. Trident […]
Show full quote

As for the "special" SIMMs needed for Model 30/286, it's relatively simple to mod regular SIMMs to work in PS/2 machine.
Trident ISA cards usually work in 8bit machines (I use one of them in Commodore XT) - there are usually jumpers that can configure the card for 8bit support: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?264 … y-ISA-VGA-cards
I have succesfully used regular ISA IDE controller in Model 30/286 - you just need another ISA card with ROM socket for the XT-IDE BIOS. I have used an old NE2000 card for that purpose, which also gives me a network connection if needed.
I do also have Model 30/8086, unfortunately the BIOS on the machine is broken. If you're willing to dump and send me BIOS from your machine, I can do some experiments with my machine and see if there's any cheaper way to add a mass storage.

do you know where is that tutorial to modify a normal simm memory to make it PS/2 compatible?

i can dump if there is a DOS command to make a backup, no hardware bios. i dont know id the floppy is working since i didnt try it yet and i dont know if its a 720k floppy or 1,44mb floppy drive

Here's one of the older pages about that...
https://web.archive.org/web/20040409100909/ht … e0/memory01.htm

For anything newer having a disagreement with Google's artificial stupidity at the moment, it's insisting I want to know how to modify a mini SIM to a micro SIM, not anything to do with SIMMs....grrrrr.

The simms for model 30's work in 3 things.

Model 30
model 25
MCA scsi cache cards (spock)

for additional reference http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/misc/ps2cache/

I've used the second link (http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/misc/ps2cache/) and it was rather painless, it took me just a few hours to mod four SIMMs. If you're nearby (Germany/Europe), I can send you some modified 1MB ones.
I'll send you a tool to dump BIOS later, I don't have it at hand.
The floppy will most likely be 720kB.

Kubik wrote:

I've used the second link (http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/misc/ps2cache/) and it was rather painless, it took me just a few hours to mod four SIMMs. If you're nearby (Germany/Europe), I can send you some modified 1MB ones.
I'll send you a tool to dump BIOS later, I don't have it at hand.
The floppy will most likely be 720kB.

im far far away. The thing is that the mod is for simms with 9 chips, and i searched here and most of those simms are 3 chip, or 8 chip.
and the 3 chip the website says it won´t work with ibm 8086 🙁

regarding the floppy do you know if i can take a 1,44flopy and format it as 720k ? will it read?

I cannot verify that, but I assume it should take HD floppy and format it to 720kB. Or, you can format the floppy on a regular machine, but then don't forget to cover the hole (upper left corner) to mark it as DD floppy, and use proper command line parameter.
Also, some newer USB floppy drives don't support DD floppies any longer, so you'd better use real floppy drive 😀
Anyway... if I'll be able to make my Model 30 work, I can test my modded SIMMs and send some to you if you will be willing to cover the shipping cost. Anyway, I take it as you have 512kB in your system and with modded 1MB SIMMs, you will only get 640kB, so no big deal. You can consider getting one of those SRAM card instead, that could give you 640kB of base memory and some more in UMB, or even the variant that provides EMS: https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/product-category/retro-ibm-pc/

hell, I might be in the market for for a bunch of those modded simms. I have one of these bad boys to fill: http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/5162/cards/51 … _cards.htm#emea

BLockOUT wrote:

regarding the floppy do you know if i can take a 1,44flopy and format it as 720k ? will it read?

I believe it can read in a low density drive, but a low density drive still can't write to a 1.44 formatted to 720, it doesn't have strong enough coils in the head to flip the magnetic domains reliably.

then no problem, ill fill the hole and format a 1.44 disc on another pc, format it as 720k, copy your bios read program to the floppy.
and shoot it on the 8086

send me the files and i will do it over the weekend.

i still have not tested the floppy drive, i dont know if it will work or not for reading.

I did order a kit from EBAY a XTIDE kit that comes disassembled and costs like 30 dollars with all the component needed. but that could take like a month to arribe. with that i will be able to use any IDE HDD, and forget about the floppy because i can put the drive on another pc and fill it with whatever i want.

regards

While waiting for the XT-IDE, you should also purchase the IDE-CF adapter from your favourite Chinese seller. It's easier to pull the CF card and shove it into a USB reader than messing with HDD.
This one should plug directly into the XT-IDE.
I hope you've ordered the XT-IDE with power connector, don't forget that PS/2 Model 30 has no HDD/floppy power connectors!

Kubik wrote:

While waiting for the XT-IDE, you should also purchase the IDE-CF adapter from your favourite Chinese seller. It's easier to pull the CF card and shove it into a USB reader than messing with HDD.
This one should plug directly into the XT-IDE.
I hope you've ordered the XT-IDE with power connector, don't forget that PS/2 Model 30 has no HDD/floppy power connectors!

i got one of those adapters ! i use it with a 256mb CF on another old pc 486 that i have. 😊

I have a Model 30 286 and it is ok. Floppy drive works but I had to recap the HD that came with it for it to work. At least you can use an ISA sound card in that model.

Unknown_K wrote:

I have a Model 30 286 and it is ok. Floppy drive works but I had to recap the HD that came with it for it to work. At least you can use an ISA sound card in that model.

is there an isa16bit soundcard that works on the 8bit slot?
i have never seen an isa 8bit soundcard in my city

Kubik wrote:

I've used the second link (http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/misc/ps2cache/) and it was rather painless, it took me just a few hours to mod four SIMMs. If you're nearby (Germany/Europe), I can send you some modified 1MB ones.
I'll send you a tool to dump BIOS later, I don't have it at hand.
The floppy will most likely be 720kB.

hey german friend is your file..i hope it helps
http://www50.zippyshare.com/v/R9gCffoJ/file.html

my 8086 is kind of broken, very very unstable
i recapped the original drive, and one of he caps was so bad that broke the traces on the pcb.

Perhaps you can help me and guide me if you have the same drive.

- the yellow line i know it goes from broken trace to first chip leg
-the red line i know it connects the component with the broken trace.
- the pink line I AM NOT SURE if it connects the component with the broken trace, can you check?
- the light blue line i know it connects the broken trace with that pcb area

the rom appears good i can even see the error codes when i open it with text pad.

BLockOUT wrote:

Unknown_K wrote:

I have a Model 30 286 and it is ok. Floppy drive works but I had to recap the HD that came with it for it to work. At least you can use an ISA sound card in that model.

is there an isa16bit soundcard that works on the 8bit slot?
i have never seen an isa 8bit soundcard in my city

I have some 8 bit soundblasters but they are rare. Some 16 bit cards work in an 8 bit slot minus the CDROM ports working I think.

BLockOUT wrote:

is there an isa16bit soundcard that works on the 8bit slot?
i have never seen an isa 8bit soundcard in my city

I've seen some "16bit" that had the 16bit ISA extension cut shorter, thus missing the upper half of the data bus - or they don't have pads for those signals at all. Those are basically 8bit sound cards and I'd expect them to work in 8bit slot. From my recent purchases, this could be a good candidate:
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/NmMAAOSwETJaBtJ2/s-l1600.jpg

I also recall one friend of mine telling me that he runs a number of 16bit cards in 8bit slots and they just work (IDE/network/VGA), so I'd say just try what you have and you'll see.
http://oldcomp.cz/download/file.php?id=3448&mode=view