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IBM PS/2 Model 30/286. |
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This really old computer has been in my collection for quite some time, Recently I decided to test it to see if it was still working. This was my first ever PC, My first PC Programs were written using GWBasic, which was the best programming language available to me at the time. After a while I started using QBASIC. Here is a picture of the system still in use several years ago:
The system had not been used in years, after I had upgraded to a 486, I stopped using this system. When I first got this system, it had IBM-DOS 4.0 installed, I upgraded this to MS-DOS 6.22, and the system was just able to run Windows 3.1, though very slowly.
Unfortunately the front power switch had become damaged, therefore switching the system unit on to test it would be a problem, so I had to open the system case to see if I could find a way to switch it on.
After I opened the system case, I noticed that the system uses a lot of non-standard connectors and components, therefore it would be very difficult to repair the system if any of the components had to be replaced.
The power switch was actually attached to the power supply, and was connected to the switch on the front by a metal rod. Switching the machine on would be easy, all I had to do was use this switch. Before I switched the system on, I decided to investigate some of the components of the system.
This is the motherboard from the system, you can see some of the non-standard connectors; the blue connector at the bottom of the picture looks just like an IDE connector, but it is actually the floppy connector! The hard drive connector is at the top left of the picture, the connector is much wider than a standard IDE connector. The VGA connector connects using a cable to a standard VGA connector at the back of the system unit.
This is the CPU, it is much smaller than the CPUs of all the other computers in my collection, and it does not even have a cooling fan! The CPU socket is completely different to the Zero Insertion Force sockets that newer computers use.
Here is the hard drive, the connector in the hard drive is completely different to the IDE connectors on all the other hard drives in my collection; the connector looks similar to the connectors on 5.25" Floppy drives, known as "Shugart" connectors, only slightly larger. Unfortunately this meant that I could only use this hard drive in this system, I could not transfer it to another system for testing purposes.
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