IBM PS/VP rebuild and upgrade. Doubling the FPS!

Рет қаралды 10,449

4 ай бұрын

IBM PS/ValuePoint 433DXS with an interesting Intel Overdrive socket and a VLB slot
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Tools I regularly use
DeoxIT D5 Contact Cleaner
Hanstar 861DW Rework Station
Pro'sKit SS-331 Desoldering Station
UNI-T UT61E Auto Ranging Multimeter
UNI-T UT890D Manual Ranging Multimeter
MESR-100 mk2 ESR meeter
PINECIL Soldering Iron
PinePowerPSU
TS-100 Soldering Iron
AMTECH NC-559-ASM Flux
Kester 951 Flux pen
MaAnt Grinding Pen
Multicore 60/40. 0.38mm and 0.5mm solder
TL866 II Plus Programmer
RIGOL DHO800 70MHz four-channel digital scope
Tektronix 2246A 100 MHz four-channel analog scope
InfiRay P2 Pro Thermal Camera
PCBs from PCBWay.com :)
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Пікірлер: 87

@ultrametric9317 4 ай бұрын

The PS/Valuepoints were definitely creamy white - it hasn't yellowed. They are good computers!

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Great. You just saved it from cream peroxide :) Thanks!

@mibnsharpals 4 ай бұрын

confirmed, have had one at that time. Not white

@FrustratedApe 4 ай бұрын

Yup your correct!

@ultrametric9317 4 ай бұрын

@@Epictronics1BTW the power buttons were in fact white-white - like snow.

@YoureUsingWordsIncorrectly 4 ай бұрын

Haunts me still that I'd binned a PS1 monitor 25 years ago

@davidp4456 4 ай бұрын

1:22 “The usual disclaimers apply” Ha ha.. they certainly do. Don’t mess with that shit unless you know what you are doing.

@BigBadBench 4 ай бұрын

IBM always had solid, yet professional design aesthetic. Value Point fits in there nicely.

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Yeah, unlike some of my clones, pretty much all IBM desktops look great!

@Stoney3K 4 ай бұрын

IMO the PS/1 is the cleanest of the three in this case style because of the rectangular flap covering the drives, but that's just a matter of taste.

@anthonyblacker8471 4 ай бұрын

Such wonderful memories. Best PC channel on KZfaq!!

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Thank you :)

@DavidSaulesco 2 ай бұрын

Oh, that IBM Aptiva was my family’s first computer from OnOff in a suburb outside Stockholm. I tried convincing my parents to get one with a 486 DX2-66, but they picked the cheapest model with a measly DX-50. I think we at some point upgraded it to 20 MB RAM (it came with four). The included 240 MB HDD was almost entirely full right from the start with Win3.1, DOS 6.22 and lots of bundled software, mostly kids’ stuff, but I remember loving it still. Took my first baby steps composing music on that machine. So much nostalgia!

@Epictronics1 2 ай бұрын

Sounds like fun memories :) The DX-50 wasn't too bad. I think it only scored a few points less than the DX2-66 because of the higher FSB

@teekay_1 4 ай бұрын

I was surprised you replaced the rivets with more rivets. I would've been tempted to use stainless steel self-tapping screws because at some point those caps will have to be replaced.

@jozsefizsak 4 ай бұрын

While I appreciate your ability to restore the old CRT monitors, I like to use LCD for the old machines because of space limitations, not needing to focus them and the stability of the image is just so much less fatiguing to use. That last characteristic of LCD really sold me when I could finally afford one.

@ShrineOfLife 4 ай бұрын

wow i really enjoy your insight and aproach of the things you do, thats awesome. I love retro hardware but you really take it a step further than I ever did. glad I can find and watch people like you, I really want to tell you how much i appriciate your afford! very friendly greetings from bavaria in southern germany

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Thank you :) I have actually visited Bavaria, but I only had time to see the Neuschwanstein Castle. You live in a beautiful region.

@g4z-kb7ct 4 ай бұрын

It's a bit tricky but if that clock pin on the custom chip isn't used anywhere else you could lift up that pin to disconnect it and inject your own higher clock into the CPU. Or a lot easier, remove the 47 ohm resistor and inject the higher clock onto the CPU side of the pads where the resistor previously was.

@dawnmitchell8213 4 ай бұрын

Geeze, I had about a dozen of those IBM L2 cache modules kicking around for years but threw them out 4 or 5 years ago. Unfortunately I’ve thrown out tons of old IBM PC’s over the years not knowing they would actually become collectible some day.

@AlejandroRodolfoMendez 4 ай бұрын

Man I was thinking about restoring my value point, I have a 320vt. Sadly I don't have the keyboard or the monitor, a professor gave me it cause he recover it from thrash. Thanks for the video.

@Choralone422 4 ай бұрын

It would be awesome if you could find a L2 cache module for that machine or if someone could create a recreation of it. L2 becomes more important for 486 machines at 66MHz and above. I always thought it was a real shame that so many OEM machines that were not marketed & priced specifically for business use lacked L2 cache in the 486 days.

@clavius5734 4 ай бұрын

I have one of these modules and unfortunately it comes with some sort of controller on it, not just RAM chips.

@ukmk3supra 4 ай бұрын

@@clavius5734 Still possible to reverse engineer - even if you can get just a pinout.

@tony359 4 ай бұрын

IBM has always something special, hasn't it? :)

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Being at the forefront;) They were always special :)

@briankleinschmidt3664 4 ай бұрын

IBM built the best computers. I bought a PS/2, but I haven't seen any like it. It had a small footprint. I couldn't have afforded it, except it was already almost obsolete. I can't remember what happened to it. Ain't that something?

@nasko8605 4 ай бұрын

Whooow :) This is my second PC in life !! :) Mine was with 486/sx cpu and 2mb of ram..... after months of searching i found 8 more megabytes.... and chaged the hdd to famous 400 mb .... so i can run Win 95 :D No sound card , but big memories..... :D

@Stoney3K 4 ай бұрын

I'm pretty sure that the same casing was re-used for the first series of P1 Aptivas. I remember owning one of those which was definitely an aptiva but with this same chassis.

@RetroPC-vy3kt 4 ай бұрын

The final shot with all three stacked units and the monitor was so good, thanks for the video.

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Thanks!

@horuscurcino 4 ай бұрын

You would try to solder a trimpot instead of the resistor, set it arround the 47ohm and change the values with the benchmark running

@eDoc2020 4 ай бұрын

That's a series resistor to improve the signal transmission characteristics. It's not part of clock generation.

@communalnoodle1356 4 ай бұрын

Re using the LCD with it, thanks for your sacrifice!

@davidp4456 4 ай бұрын

Thank you, this is a nice video. I have two of these . My original aim was to fix my mothers Ambra Sprints 386, but because of proprietary parts this has been very difficult, I bought a broken IBM 486Dx with no case from Morocco and realised I could not adapt it for the Ambra. Then I found a Value point with a broken board, so now I have new project to fix an IBM value point with what I have bought This doesn’t help with my original project, but I should have a Value Point to enjoy when I fix one up from the available spare parts I have bought.❤

@paulwalker427 4 ай бұрын

excellent video

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Thank you :)

@RudysRetroIntel 4 ай бұрын

Excellent video and work as always! Thanks for sharing

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Thanks Rudy :)

@HathorAB 4 ай бұрын

Pardon my comment...but listening to you makes me wanna ask you to Say," What this computer needs...is more Cowbell"😂...bet I'm not the first to mention it..

@86smoke 4 ай бұрын

PS/VP always disables CPU cache after removing CMOS battery (at least it is how it works with my 325T). Cache is being enabled after reboot with new settings set. I think the case did not yellow, it was painted that colour from the beginning.

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Ok, thanks

@IOSam 4 ай бұрын

I have an identical machine, and I love this thing! Although I upgraded the living daylight out of mine: replaced the original CPU for a 486DX2 and added more RAM (16MB). Also added a SB16, a Voyetra V-22M MPU board, a Diamond Speedstar VLB graphics card, a CompactFlash adapter, and a CD-ROM. It is my early 90's DOS games machine (mostly LucasArts and Sierra stuff). Mine came with the cache-on-a-stick module, but unfortunately it died not too long ago (BIOS keeps complaining about it on boot and is no longer detected by CacheCHK) and it seems to be impossible to find a replacement for it these days. If you know anyone willing to design a new replacement COASt module for these machines, I'd be happy to donate my dead module to such a project, so it can be copied.

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Yeah, this machine should be perfect for 90's LucasArts and Sierra :) I'll see if I can find someone who can help us make a clone. Thanks!

@50shadesofbeige88 4 ай бұрын

Keep up the good work!

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Thanks!

@madmanfrommars 4 ай бұрын

I have the almost identical machine, a 433DX/D, which seems to be slightly different form factor, two 5.25" drives etc. Haven't gotten around to upgrading it much but definitely on the todo list, especially with that overdrive socket. Same problems as you with how picky the ram is, only have 16mb but seems like in theory will take up to 64mb. Can't wait to see what else you do with it.

@AlejandroRodolfoMendez 4 ай бұрын

There are a project to make the cache for this one, I think was lgr who mentioned it. Also in some cases some keyboards couldn't keep up if there was a cache module in.

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

That's great, thanks. But Unfortunately, I can't find any info about the project

@AlejandroRodolfoMendez 4 ай бұрын

@@Epictronics1 let me check and I'll share it

@AlejandroRodolfoMendez 4 ай бұрын

@@Epictronics1 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o8CehpCozbzZdH0.htmlsi=EpEv_XbMWB2gk0JY I think is this one in the lgr blerb channel but also is from a video in the main channel

@Nukle0n 4 ай бұрын

Also I don't think it was ever PS/VP, always PS/ValuePoint, but maybe that's a youtube SEO thing? :P

@yatapaws 4 ай бұрын

i love my ps/valuepoint 433dx/si!! i got it for around $30 probably 7 years ago!!

@tonybardalen 4 ай бұрын

I love these videos so much ❤ Started my career thanks to an IBM machine! And love the ending music track. What’s the name of the song?

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Thanks. That is Karl Kasey's Miami sky. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Music, and other places

@tonybardalen 4 ай бұрын

@@Epictronics1 thanks a bunch :) love that tune! It's always a happy ending, no matter what!

@tigheklory 4 ай бұрын

When I worked at Radio Shack we sold Aptivas for a short period of time. Back then Doom ran great one it. I didn't do any benchmarks them, maybe they were higher spec versions?

@marksmith9566 4 ай бұрын

Rather have any PS-2!

@doodles113 4 ай бұрын

All PS and Value Point only accept-70ns parity memory....and there is some kind of bug while using the cache module, even IBM recommended not using it...

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

That's too bad, It would have been nice with some cache on this board. This boar actually ran with 80ns but the performance dropped by 2fps :(

@IOSam 4 ай бұрын

@@Epictronics1 I believe there is a double keystroke bug with the COASt module installed, but it depends on which version of a chip that comes in the motherboard. If it comes with a Texas Instrument 52G7803, it has the bug. But later versions (such as my machine) had this chip replaced by a newer one, so the bug is no longer present. @RetroSpector78 explained this in his first video about the PS/Valuepoint (IBM ValuePoint 6384 466DX2/D : Part 1 at 15 minutes and 30 seconds)

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

@@IOSam Thanks. I'll rewatch his video

@SidneyCritic 4 ай бұрын

@@IOSam Is the better chip a straight soldered-in swap - lol -.

@clavius5734 4 ай бұрын

I have a very similar valuepoint 425, but that one has a socketed oscillator. It currently runs a 5x86 at 120Mhz (3x40). I tried the 4x multiplier of course, but it crashes at 160Mhz. Could just be bad luck on the processor. I have one of the L2 modules (128k), but it’s a bit sketchy. It works under dos but messes up windows 95. I replaced the ram chips on it but no improvement unfortunately.

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

That's very handy. Maybe, you have the type 2 board?

@clavius5734 4 ай бұрын

@@Epictronics1 Yes, I think that is the case. I hope you can figure out the OKI chip!

@christopherthompson5509 4 ай бұрын

I have new old stock, IBM but the hard drive didn't Work and I can't get hard to detect. So I have all the books and disks. If u need copys

@Nukle0n 4 ай бұрын

That front panel is cheap as hell. Self tapping screws into plastic instead of using threaded brass inserts

@joetheman74 4 ай бұрын

I posted a comment on this video yesterday about finding a possibly compatible cache module available for the valuepoint. In the comment I mentioned what website listed the compatible modules for this machine and what website had it for sale. Did you delete it or did youtube take it down?

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Unfortunately, YT seems to delete comments with links. Could you name the website instead so I can google it? Thanks

@WobinuFilms 3 ай бұрын

Good video, but there's just one thing - it pains me horribly how that PSU's chassis is rived together, it's a strange and horribly inconvenient design choice, I'd have tried threading the holes and used screws instead of riviting it again.

@Epictronics1 3 ай бұрын

Thanks!

@awilliams1701 4 ай бұрын

that looks more like mayonnaise than mustard. lol

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Now you made me hungry! Mustard mayo😋

@awilliams1701 4 ай бұрын

@@Epictronics1 I hate mayo. ewwwwww LMAO

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

@@awilliams1701 No way!😲😅

@Miasmark 4 ай бұрын

without the L2 Cache the performance seems to be stuck low even with a vlb card. disappointing.

@xargon1234 4 ай бұрын

i actually have a later model valuepoint and have those same video ram upgrade slots i have like 9 of those modules if you're interested i could send you 2 to upgrade to 2mb

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

I did some reading. Apparently, 2MB of VRAM only gives access to a few interlaced modes. But thanks anyway! I appreciate the generous offer :)

@xargon1234 4 ай бұрын

@@Epictronics1ok on mine i get a couple higher resolutions non interlaced. my case is a bit taller and has room for a second 5.25 drive in there, it was used in indiana university in the engineering and tech department still has the barcode stickers lol

@grumpy-man 4 ай бұрын

Christopher Walken repairs old PCs and posts it on KZfaq?

@Epictronics1 4 ай бұрын

Yepp. Next week I'm gonna pull a golden watch out of my a...

@Okurka. 4 ай бұрын

VESA Local Bus bus.

@bikkiikun 4 ай бұрын

If I had to make a more or less uneducated guess, then I'd say your bottleneck is most likely the (lack of) L2 cache. Of course, additional VRAM might also make a difference.