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Help with PC-DOS/Windows 2.0 on IBM Personal System/2

ManofmilkManofmilk
edited March 2017 in Software
Hi,

I have got my hands on an 'IBM Personal System/2 Model 30", specifically a model 8530-021. The hardware appears to be functioning OK but I'm struggling to boot into an OS.

If I just power up the machine it appears to attempt to boot from the HDD but then stops with "Bad or missing command interpreter". I have the original IBM 'starter' floppy which will boot into a basic diagnostic console (and lets me setup the keyboard and display). Running the diagnostic fails (after a bunch of successful tests) with:
1700
Error System Unit 1701

But I don't have a reference manual to see what this refers to.

Mainly I have been trying to boot an OS (PC-DOS or Windows 2.0 are supported) from the floppy drive, I've downloaded the .img files from here and written them to 720KB floppies using a physical XP machine I have with 'DiskWrite' but the IBM machine does not see them as bootable devices, either just ignoring them or displaying the 'insert disk, press F1 image".

Ideally I'd like to boot from a floppy and see if there is any data written to the 20mb hdd...!

Any assistance with getting me up and running would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Jim

Comments

  • thinkpadmanthinkpadman
    "Bad or missing command interpreter" - signifies that it cannot find COMMAND.COM when booting up after POST.

    The error code relates to an issue with the HDD, so I'd be led to believe the HDD has gone bad and needs replacement.

    Save this PDF for future reference. It's the hardware maintenance manual covering your model and other PS/2 systems:
    http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/books/ps2-hmm.pdf

    This PDF mentioned the possibilities in this order, with 1 being most likely:

    In the order of possibilities it's:
    1) HDD
    2) Cable
    3) Hard Disk Adapter
    4) System Board
    5) Power Supply

    The PS/2 error codes are also documented here:
    http://www.mcamafia.de/mcapage0/ps2error.htm

    Are you also using true 720 KB floppies, or placed tape to cover the hole on the 1.44 MB floppies? You booted OK from the starter disk so it appears to rule out that there's anything wrong with the floppy drive. Using your XP machine, use the FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9 command to force the disks to be formatted as 720 KB proper if using high density disks and taping the hole.
  • ManofmilkManofmilk
    Thanks, I got a little further (not surprisingly most of the floppies are also bad so I think that is why I was struggling). I managed to write a PC-DOS 3 .img to floppy and booted the IBM machine from that, the HDD was accessible as C:\ and it showed me a directory structure on there but the couple of files I looked at appeared to be garbage so I guess some corruption has occurred at some point.
    I shall attempt to determine what version of PC-DOS (and Windows) was previously installed on it and see if I can repair/re-install what is currently there.

    I'm also attempting to format/write the floppies using a USB floppy drive attached to a VM running on my main PC (so I don't have to keep another physical system sitting around just to format/write these images) but that's a whole other set of problems...
  • ManofmilkManofmilk
    They are genuine 720KB floppies that came with it!

    I have got a little slicker now - create a Server 2000 virtual machine running as a VM on my main PC, that's is old enough to speak to 720KB floppies natively but new enough to work with my USB floppy drive - means I can cut out the middle man XP desktop I was using.

    Thanks for the .pdf, may well come in handy but so far fingers crossed it is just some local corruption.
  • buriccoburicco
    I knew someone who had a Model 30 (might have been a 30/286, I don't know), with PC DOS 4.01.

    I've seen a lot of PS/2s with 3.3 though. YMMV.

    PC DOS 3.3 command.com is 25307 bytes dated March 17, 1987
    PC DOS 4.01 command.com is 37637 bytes dated June 17, 1988

    If you can get something reasonable out of the \ directory, that may tell you what you need to know.
  • ibmpc5150ibmpc5150
    If you still can't solve the problem on H/W (HDD or Floppy), I recommend to ask it on Hardware Forum.

    I think both HDD and FDD seem to have troubled.
    But if FDD on PS/2 is ok, check the FDD on Windows PC.
    I don't know you use Kryoflux or SCP.

    PC-DOS 3.20 or 3.30 + Windows 2.03 has no problem to install PS/2 Model 25 (8086) or Model 30 (8086).
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