IBM Hard Drives

[Ibmwin05]

I'm Trying to fix up an older IBM, it was manufactured in 1991, and i found a 2 gig. hard drive that seems to hook up right, but when i turn it on, it has an error message saying it cant find the drive i put in. The hard drive was manufactured in 1997. im kind of new to building computers, and i'm stuck. thanks.

 

[micker377]

On some of the older systems and drives, "auto-detect" doesn't work. You will have to set the hard drive parameters manually in BIOS. The hard drive settings are printed on the top of the drive.

 

[tf1]

A 1991 PC is likely to have come with a 120MB HDD - possibly even smaller. A 2GB HDD in a PC wasn't even dreamed about in 1991. For that sort of capacity you need a Winchester drive that would be about the size of today's washing machines!


Regards: tf1

 

[Ibmwin05]

Alright, well heres another senario i need help with, this computer Wont let me setup in BIOS, I don't know if it's just the keyboard is bad or what. It tells me to press Ctrl Alt Esc to enter the setup, but everytime i press it, it always prompts for me to press the sequence again. It maybe just the keyboard, but i dont have another to test it with.

 

[EmbraceIT]

Death to old computers. Spare no parts. Break them all.

 

[dIXIb]

nice one EmbraceIT, but there is a chance and i would be interested in the challange.

micker377 and tf1 are right. the computer does not support 2gb , that is for sure. you have to configure it manually for a size around 127mb because the format that supports 2.1gb was invented around 1998 or so.

In your second case, it sounds like the cmos may be damaged (esp. if its that old). can you reset cmos somehow? If not, then probably the only way is to replace the cmos chip onboard the mobo, if you can find a computer of a similar model.

But a 91 computer? wow. its a wonder it works at all! good luck.

 

[mainegeek]

Ibmwin05,
You need to press all three at the same time. Some of the
older systems will go to the cmos setup automatically if you force an error. Try pulling out a few memory simms to force a change.

 

[ziptop]

I too am quite fond of repairing very old equipment. However the lack or easily available spares does make it pretty tricky. Most of the time these things have been sitting in damp cellars or worse for years also, its a surprise when ANY of the components work. I have a few old bits and pieces lying around though, if you can find out what CPU/motherboard you are playing with I'll have a look about and see if I have a match.