9556/57
/rf955657.exe   9556-9557 refdisk v1.10 - supports SLC3
rd955657.exe   9556-9557 diags disk v1.10 - supports SLC3
Family 9556  486SLC2 and 486SLC3
Family 9557  486SLC2 Systems
Family 9557  486SLC3 and Multimedia Systems

Parallel Port Trivia (DMA Arbitration)



486SLC2 Planar 39G6410
J1 Mouse
J2 KB
J3 Parallel
J4,5 DB9 Serial ports 
J6 HDD15 Video
J7 C60 SCSI
J9,11,12 72 pin SIMMs
J13 Bus Riser
J16 50 pin SCSI
J18 Power-supply connector P1
J19 Control-panel connector
J20 Power-supply connector P2
J21 44 Pin floppy header
J22 Unpopulated. Leads to 8032B
JMP1 Override-jumper connector
JMP2 Privileged-access password
JMP3 LogicLock header
L11 Toroid for video?
OS1 40.0000 MHz osc MCA Bus
OS2 22.1184 MHz osc
OS3 14.3181 MHz osc
OS4 50.0000 MHz osc CPU clk
OS5 24.0000 MHz osc FDC clk
R14 KB/Mouse PTC Fuse
R60 SCSI PTC Fuse
R224,228 PTCs for what???
ST1,2 Termpacks for SCSI
U13 Dallas DS1285Q
U16 Sony CXK58257AM-10L
U21 33G0329
U22 39G6419
U24 10G4672
U28 91F9906
U33 02G1397
U34 Dallas DS1210S
U35 121 pin 387 socket
U36 50G6950 486SLC2
U37-44 TC524256BZ-10
U52 Sony CXK58257AM-10L
U59 Siemens 8032B-20-N
U64 39G2151
U71 96F7690
U72 82077AA
Y1 32.768 KHz xtal
Y2 4.0 MHz xtal
1

-xBx SLC2
-xEx SLC3



50/25-MHz 486SLC2, 16KB L1, three SIMM sockets 70ns parity checked 2, 4 and 8MB SIMMs supported.

How should I fill the memory? One 8 and two 4MB or 2 8MB SIMMs?
8MB, so you can use interleaved memory access. Use MEM1 and MEM2
  (Ed. Aron Eisenpress reported this really applies to the 8556/57 models, he tried the 9556/57, and saw no improvement. )

Bordshtles whines:
>does anyone know of a card to increase the memory on a 9556, I know its a 386 based machine with a 486 upgrade, Will the 386 memory boards (from kingston or ibm) work in these machines

Peter snarls back:
Yes. Highly recommended is the Kingston KTM-609 II - since it supports XMS memory - what the IBM 1-2 and the 0-8 XMA don't.



Integrated 32-bit XGA-2
1024x768, 256 colours, 75Hz NI
800x600, 65,536 colours
640x480, 65,536 colours


SCSI drive limits: Max size for boot drive is 3.94GB.

NEC CDR-222 and IBM model 9556
Andrew Acton wrote:
   Installing CD-ROM Drive Support under DOS running on a PS/2
MicroChannel Machine with NEC SCSI CD-ROM Drives.

I recently installed CD-ROM support with the following configuration:
Machine : IBM PS/2 Model 9556 (MicroChannel/SCSI)
CD-ROM  : NEC MultiSpin 6X (External Drive)
O/S     : IBM PC-DOS 7.0

1) Obtain a copy of the following file from NEC tech support.  I obtained the following file from my local NEC BBS service in Sydney Australia:
   PS2.ZIP   101,052   22/09/93 | DOS Drivers for PS/2 SCSI machines

2) Unzip the file, run the install program (creates a directory on the dos boot drive called scsi), reboot and you now have CD-ROM access!

3) The installation program updates (in my case):
  CONFIG.SYS    -> Device=c:\scsi\neccdr.sys /d:NECCD  -> Lastdrive=E
  AUTOEXEC.BAT  -> C:\scsi\mscdex /d:NECCD /m:10

The PS2.ZIP package is great because it supplies the the device
driver (neccdr.sys), the Microsoft CD rom extensions (mscdex) and
installs the lot without and problems.



Supports 2.88MB floppy.


Parallel Port DMA Arbitration Trivia
Peter said:
   The PS/2 machines use a slightly different implementation of the parallel port that is neither ECP nor EPP but "Arbitrated DMA". This is a (antique) method to boost up parallel data-throughput up to 1MB/s - with the disadvantage of an incontigous data-stream (Ed. the IEEE 1284 standard is only 1.2MB/s!). The data is always transported with DMA transfers. Therefore many EPP / ECP port drivers cannot handle that and choke - the IOMEGA is one of these, most parallel-port CD-drives as well and some HP bidirectional printer drivers cannot handle this too.

Workaround: enter machines configuration and set the Parallel port DMA to
"Disabled". This causes the parallel port to work in "compatible bidirectional" mode - and the ZIP works fine. A little slower maybe, but works. I run a ZIP on all of my PS/2 with the PP-DMA disabled.

Ian Brown chimes in with:
   Good tip that one Peter. It is also relevant to Ditto drives, certain versions of Lap Link, and just about anything that is connected to the parallel port for bi-directional data transfer.

George Jefferson
   Funny thing, i use a parallel zip on my ps2 77 with no problem at all. Matter of fact it is far and away faster than any other machine, including ones that clam to be EPP.

Peter cuts in with:
   Depends on. IBM changed the specification a little -or the BIOS-support on that respectively- on the 95xx-machines as it seems. The 9556 / 9557 still suffer some problems with the DMA enabled, the later 9576 / 9577 (all planars) seem to be a lot better. The *85*90 / 95 are known for having problems with various parallel devices (even printers) when leaving the PP-DMA enabled. My 8595-AKD refuses to handle the Iomega ZIP-drive properly until I switched the parallel port DMA to "disabled".
   Basically it is a good idea to disable the DMA if one might experience problems with parallel CD-drives or scanners on all PS/2 (which use DMA printer port) to test whether the device is working at all or if there is a cabling problem at all. 

CHRISTIAN A. ROBERTS
  *SHRUG* My Iomega Ditto2Gb didn't get along with my 9556 slc3-75's parallel port, so I found a Boca Research MCA Parallel adapter...it worked for awhile, then went belly-up, too.

Peter finishes up with:
Point a) try the Ditto directly on the parallel-port with the DMA disabled
Point b) there is a lot trouble reported with BOCA cards (Hi Allen !) 
which I can sort only under "strange incidents". I had some Boca cards 
installed in various servers and *none* of them caused any trouble - unlike to similar AMS-cards, which scrambled the arrangement of LPT-ports (LPT1 becomes 2, LPT3 becomes 1 and LPT2 becomes inactive ... or such). This "sudden death" of Boca PP-cards is more than myterious. I probably could understand if that happened on very fast PS/2 (like "Lacuna"-77i, Server 95A, 8595 with Type 3 DX-50 or all Type 4 platforms) ... but not with a Mod. 80 or a 9556 ... !



Power Trivia
Dave Johnson observed:
  I noticed that a 9556 with its' case removed, plugged in, power switch off (no fan or drives whirring),  felt very warm to touch on top of the power supply.

Peter has a flashback and sez:
   You had just experienced the "standby power warming effect" :-)
The power supplies on various PS/2 (33, 35/40, all 56/57, all 76/77, 85, all 90/95) do not really "switch off" - a part of the PSU is always active and the frontside power button in fact switches only a "sense voltage" from the standby part of the PSU against GND ... which starts up the main power supply.

   Especially the PS/2 Mod. 9556 PSUs are known for a high failure rate. Once having opened the PSU you will find parts of the printboard having gotten dark-brown from the heat emmitted by components. Particularly know for "sudden death by aging" are the Italian Magnetek PSUs for the 56. They cannot be repaired ! I have tried that various times. They use a sort of "hybrid circuit" for the PSU-internal failure detection, which seemed to be fried after some components died by thermal overstress. I have replaced various diodes, resistors and the main switching hi-voltage VMOS transistor (all were defective) - and the PSU did not work but fried some larger resistor I'd replaced some minutes before.
   Recommendation: try to get some spare PSUs. The IBM models 35, 56 and 76 small desktops use the same PSU (and Mod. 40, 57 and 77 large desktops use the same larger PSU as well) And: use a common line breaker to fully separate the machine from the AC-power when not in use for a longer period of time.
   The machine itself is a nice little thing with reasonable performance. The case might be a little tight and does not offer much room for expansions, but you could replace the harddisk against a more modern and much faster 2.16GB DCAS-32160 from IBM (or anything up to 3.94GB), install a CD-ROM drive and expand the memory up to 16MB ... XGA-2 video comes standard and gives acceptable results even with Win95.

BTW: the machine might not run with the cover removed. There's a little blue security switch at the frontside, which shuts down the PSU when released (= when the cover is removed). You need to push the security switch inside/up to start the machine with the cover removed. Just for completeness.



Background speaker noise
pat2327@my-deja.com
>My Model 57 ps/2 SLC3 75mz emits a loud groan when I shut it down!  It never use to do this.  Is an impending power supply failure?

Peter has another flashback:
  It is no PSU failure. It is simply a serial failure that occured during the
assembly of the speaker/frontpanel cable. The "cold" speaker wire is tied to
+5V (of the HD-LED AFAIK) instead of being tied to GND. There was (once) an "adapter cable kit" available that was plugged between the board and the cable plug and fixes this misbehaviour. There was an ECA on IBM about that .. must have it somewhere ... Ah ... here it is:

Symptom:
   Some 8556/57 and 9556/57 systems may exhibit low volume background speaker noise that alters during screen refresh or mouse movement.

Problem Isolation Aids:
   Problem is specific to 85xx and 95xx 56/57 models. Symptoms will probably be most noticable when switching from one application session to another.

Fix:
Two cable jumpers have been released to modify the speaker cable wiring. The jumper should be plugged between the speaker cable socket on the planar and the speaker cable connector. 

Details are as follows:
FRU P/N 8130978 (8 pin jumper for i386 8556/8557 systems)
FRU P/N 8130979 (12 pin jumper for i486 9556/9557 systems)

  To fix it by yourself: You could unsolder the speaker wires and measure the voltages on the wires against GND (power supply case) with the machine running. Use the one which has *not* +5V for the speaker and another wire directly attached to GND.
  I fixed my 9556 with that trick. If I find the time I try checking out the
wiring on my machine and make a diagram of the proper wiring then ... but that will take time.



SurePath - 486SLC3 System
This product also features IBM SurePath* BIOS that serves as the interface and ensures compatibility between hardware and the operating system and applications. (Ed. Is this another IBM goof?)

56 Model Summary Matrix
Model CPU   Memory   Disk  Floppy  Software
 DBA  SLC2  8-16MB   208   2.88MB  OS/2 or  DOS/Win
 DB6  SLC2  8-16MB   104   2.88MB  OS/2 or  DOS/Win
 DE9  SLC3  8-16MB   170   2.88MB  Choice
 DEB  SLC3  8-16MB   245   2.88MB  Choice
 DED  SLC3  8-16MB   340   2.88MB  Choice
 KBA  SLC2  8-16MB   208   2.88MB  OS/2 2.1
 KB6  SLC2  8-16MB   104   2.88MB  OS/2 2.1
 QBA  SLC2  8-16MB   208   2.88MB  DOS/Windows
 QB6  SLC2  8-16MB   104   2.88MB  DOS/Windows
 0BA  SLC2  8-16MB   208   2.88MB  OS/2 2.0
 0B6  SLC2  8-16MB   104   2.88MB  OS/2 2.0
 1EX  SLC3  4-16MB   None    None  N/A(Ethernet)
 2EX  SLC3  4-16MB   None    None  N/A(TokenRng)

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