VOGONS


First post, by kanecvr

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Hi guys. By an amazing turn of events I've been able to re-purchase my sister's first computer - an old IBM PS/2 ValuePoint machine. It's in nearly the exact same condition we left it in! First off, I'll explain what I need help with, then I'll tell you the machine's story.

The IBM PS/VP 6382 can only see HDD's up to 500MB, and this machine has a 320MB drive installed, witch is not enough for what my sister wants to install on it. When she was using the machine, it had a 500MB Quantum fireball drive + another 640MB drive witch the PC detected as 500-something MB, so 1GB of storage. That was in 2002, and she was new to PCs so she didn't need much else. Now she wants me to copy over 2GB of games and stuff on it.

I know there's a BIOS update for the 433DX 6381 witch enables detection of drives larger then 500MB (up to 8GB if I remember correcty) but I can't find one for her 466DX2 type 6382... can any of you help? IBM's old FTP site is down, and I've only been able to locate a bios for the 6381 witch will not work with this machine.... Does anyone know where I could find this update?

Now, the story:

I got the IBM from my dad's workplace. Several old 486 and pentium 1 class machines were being thrown away, so I got all of them. Broke about half - stupid shit like putting the CPU in the wrong way in 486 machines, and so on. Out of all of them, I pulled this PS/VP, put two HDD's in ti (one 520 and one 640) - both detected as 520mb - added a sound blaster 16, a new LG CD-ROM drive witch I slaved to the SB16, upgraded the ram to 32MB (it came wih 8MB) since that's all the IBM compatible ram I could find and replaced the DX2 with a DX4 witch was detected as "486" and ran at 2x50MHz.

My sister used to play old dos games on it like warcraft, supaplex, and some newer games like Jazz 2, Starcraft and Heroes 3 (the latter ran pretty poorly but it ran). MP3's also played on it OK.

We found the machine again today, 15 years later, at a sale of old IT equipment held by a company witch collects and sells this stuff. My sister recognized the omega logo she drew on the front and the "EVA" markings on the back (we used to play a lot of C&C and Red Alert, and she named the PC "E.V.A."). It did not run - bad PSU capacitors - but it was easy to fix. Also, the L2 cache module is missing... as well as the two HDDs - the machine came with a 320MB Conner drive witch runs great, but I'd like to save for a 286 or 386. The LG CD-ROM, ram, SB16 and CPU are still in it tough, and apart from the PSU witch I managed to fix, everything else is in good condition.

Reply 1 of 1, by chinny22

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Pics! Pics! That's such a cool story, especially how you knew it was yours by the markings!
Having the same model is one thing but the EXACT same PC!!!!

I'm not sure about the BIOS update, If you can find at least the file name and goggle that.
Another option is get CF card or SD card to IDE converter and have that as the 2nd HDD. you can then have multiple 500MB cards and swap them cartridge style depending on what you want to play.