IBM XT 5160: What to do with it?

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I have an IBM XT 5160 that's been mine for many years. PC Tools tells me that the BIOS is dated 1/10/86, and that it's running DOS 3.30.

The monitor is not an IBM, but some obscure make that's amber monochrome. There's also no keyboard (I've been using a junk AT keyboard for testing purposes).

The box seems to work just fine, except that the floppy drive may be defective. It gives me "General Failure Reading Drive A:" no matter what I do or what diskette I try.

So what do I do with this thing? I'll never use it again and it's just taking up space. I checked out eBay, but it looks complicated listing stuff there. There are two on eBay right now listed for $350 and $500, so mine would seem maybe too valuable to just throw away.
 
Is there a computer museum near you that you could donate it to? I had one of those that I eventually threw away. I did keep a few cards and some of the manuals, though.

robert
 
I had am IBM pcjr with 128kbyte of ram dual floppy and 10MB hdd.
was a bummer because fully populated it held 512kbyte ram and all the good dos games required 600kbyte~~
as a plus the monitor could double as a tv for channels 2-13 and had buttons for color, amber, and green.
 
If you have place to store it, I'd hold on to it. It's a pretty cool piece of history that can only go up in value!
 
I had 3 PCjr's back in the day. One for general use and the other 2 for my 3 sons'. I upgraded the memory sidecar to 512k, giving me 640k total. I used to do this for others. I still have a bunch of chips left from that era. Somewhere I still have an IBM portable computer. Basically and PCxt in a foldup case. I should dig it out. Probably still works.
 
If you think you can ebay it for 100$+ shipping that's an idea.

Link to my first computer.. it was upgraded
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PCjr

My second computer was an IBM 386sx20
it had 2MB of ram a 42MB hdd and a 1.44 floppy.
2400baud modem.(about 245bytes a second)
paid around 240$ for a 4MB ram upgrade.

the 386sx was the neutered 386 16bit with no math coprocessor
(386dx was 32bit).

Computers have come quite a ways. I remember I would always try to figure out approximately how much faster my new computer was vs the first couple.

It would be about 10000's of times faster now I believe.
 
Tegger,

Those PC keyboards were high quality. I may still have a keyboard and I'm almost sure I have a 5 1/4" floppy drive. If you want, I'll look and see what I have.
 
it may be a good candidate for gold reclamation. Early computers had a lot of gold in them! Gettin it out is the tough part there info on youtube.

My guess the floppys have demagnetized try formatting one. Format a:
 
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Originally Posted By: Tegger
So what do I do with this thing?

Since you don't seem to be a collector, the easy answer is to advertise it on vintage-computer.com with pick-up only.
 
Craigslist or Kijiji. Maybe a local computer nut nearby. Just because someone lists a computer for price it doesn't mean it actually sells.

Personally I would not pay a penny for this old hardware.....
 
Planter ? Fishtank ? Case for a Rasberry Pi, Arduino or current PC ?

My Dad has an attic full of these. The keyboard is the best part.
 
Originally Posted By: Tegger
I have an IBM XT 5160 that's been mine for many years. PC Tools tells me that the BIOS is dated 1/10/86, and that it's running DOS 3.30.

The monitor is not an IBM, but some obscure make that's amber monochrome. There's also no keyboard (I've been using a junk AT keyboard for testing purposes).

The box seems to work just fine, except that the floppy drive may be defective. It gives me "General Failure Reading Drive A:" no matter what I do or what diskette I try.

So what do I do with this thing? I'll never use it again and it's just taking up space. I checked out eBay, but it looks complicated listing stuff there. There are two on eBay right now listed for $350 and $500, so mine would seem maybe too valuable to just throw away.


No hard drive? eh.... I do have a 8 bit ISA working CGI card if you need it!! [censored] hard to find, even harder a working monitor!!

I have a working 5170, have not started it in YEARS... got two 10mb hard drives, printer/joystick/VGA/Serial and 5.25 floppy drive. Came with this double pcb memory board, plugs into the 8-bit ISA slot. That PC card is a beast.

Got it bagged in storage, if you do store it, bag it good. If a mouse gets in there, its' pee is corrosive and will destroy your PCB!!!

THE KEYBOARD IS THE BEST PART!! A good used "clicky" IBM keyboard goes for $35 and up!!!
 
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Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
I have a working 5170, have not started it in YEARS... Got it bagged in storage, if you do store it, bag it good.
You might want to check it in case it's gone rusty. Also, the HD heads might have become stuck to the platters. Clean, original ATs are becoming quite collectable.
 
Originally Posted By: madRiver
Craigslist or Kijiji. Maybe a local computer nut nearby. Just because someone lists a computer for price it doesn't mean it actually sells.

Personally I would not pay a penny for this old hardware.....



Wallapop or Letgo..

Seems too valuable for target practice.
 
Originally Posted By: robertcope
Is there a computer museum near you that you could donate it to?

That is a really good suggestion. I had not thought of that.

And there actually is a museum sorta-close to me: York University. York is a communist cesspool these days, but that's mostly for the "soft sciences"; I'm guessing their computer department is probably better. I just sent them an email.
 
Originally Posted By: Oldmoparguy1
Tegger,

Those PC keyboards were high quality. I may still have a keyboard and I'm almost sure I have a 5 1/4" floppy drive. If you want, I'll look and see what I have.

Thanks very much for the offer, but I think I'd rather just let it go. See my other post.

We're trying to de-clutter the house, and lots of stuff needs to go. 21-years in one place tends to result in lots of junk piling up, and this is one small part of our assault on that clutter. I had quite forgot that I even had that old XT.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
If you have place to store it, I'd hold on to it. It's a pretty cool piece of history that can only go up in value!

I considered that. I especially liked the "history" part of the machine. But we need to empty the house a bit, as I said in my previous post. And, unfortunately, this is one item that has to go. I've contacted a local computer museum to see what they say.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
If you think you can ebay it for 100$+ shipping that's an idea.

I considered that, too. But time is scarce for me. I do not wish to spend possibly hours and days distracted from what I get paid a salary for in order to try and make $100 selling an old computer.

Originally Posted By: Rand
My second computer was an IBM 386sx20
it had 2MB of ram a 42MB hdd and a 1.44 floppy.
2400baud modem.(about 245bytes a second)
paid around 240$ for a 4MB ram upgrade.

I once had a 386 as well. It was a Zenith 386DX-16 desktop with two RLL hard drives: One was about 20MB and the other was about 40MB. That thing made so much heat that it would warm an entire room all by itself in the dead of winter. I had the floor heat-register closed all winter long in the computer room because of that. This was a backplane design, with everything -- including the processor -- on an expansion board.
vdpiyt.jpg

Originally Posted By: Rand
Computers have come quite a ways. I remember I would always try to figure out approximately how much faster my new computer was vs the first couple.

It would be about 10000's of times faster now I believe.

Millions, maybe...
 
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