LGR - Restoring a 1987 IBM PS/2 Model 30

Cleaning, restoring, and enjoying this classic Personal System/2 desktop computer from the '80s! Sure, it was the lowest-end model of its line when it launched, but that's exactly why I wanna dive into it.

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● Music used in order of appearance:
All Is Good Again 2, Relaxation Station,

[LGR]

To everyone sending me links to hard disk cables they think will work on this machine:
as mentioned near the end of the video, there is _only one_ cable that works with this configuration on this particular variant of the Model 30. That would be IBM PN:61X8903. Even then I still don't have the correct hard drive for this machine so I wouldn't be able to use the thing anyway, so I'm temporarily just using an XT-CF-Lite card instead.
Also, yes I am aware that blowing air into a fan can cause problems. TOO BAD, HAD FUN, _NO REGRETS_ :P

[spiderjerusalem]

I don't even own any old computer stuff but it's just relaxing and interesting hearing you talk about this kind of thing.

[aMondia]

The power button was most likely disabled on purpose, because this machine was never supposed to be turned off.

[DopeEd]

Your passion for forgotten obsolete technology is so refreshing in the current throwaway culture we live in.

[ChadBoughton]

I hate when I get computer restoration blue balls. I feel your pain.

[MidnightThunderYT]

'That was used so that IBM can annoy me 30 years later.'

That is pure gold.

[philscomputerlab]

What a beauty! We had these, or maybe a 35, at our school :D Great memories of learning Logo and other stuff, and of course at the end of the lesson the teacher would let us play games! Zany Golf anyone? Great video!

[spugintrntl]

You should write a big book about all things old IBM PC and call it "Fifty Shades Of Beige".

[Eleison]

Amazing! I was the proud owner, upon graduating High School in 1989, of an IBM PS/2 Model 30/286. It had a 20MB HDD and a few K of memory. I was later to upgrade it with a Plus Hardcard XL 100MB, and 2x 512k SIMMs for 1MB RAM - WOW!

The Hardcard was the sweetest peripheral I ever purchased. 10 years later it was still operating just fine, having been transplanted to my 386 and then to my VLB 486 and never giving me errors or crashes. That Hardcard cost my Dad $500 at Egghead Software when it was new, and I had to do a good deal of convincing him that it was a good investment.

I also installed a 2400 baud MNP5 modem for my first online experience. My parents didn't like BBSes - thought they'd run up our long distance bill - but they were OK when I connected to the college's Annex box for Internet access.

Eventually I installed Minix on this PS/2. That was the end of playing DOS games and pretty much anything else useful... but, MINIX!!!

[emilyemily]

"I don't know what this thing went through, but I found it sad" Judging by the scraped off serial number, the permanent marker, and the masking tape label, probably public school

[markl]

Wow, did you bring back some memories! About six months of my first year of full-time employment was spent on a 1987 IBM PS/2 Model 30 very much like this one, writing software and providing tech support for my company's software package! I didn't know much about hardware in those days - I was primarily a programmer - but I do remember that my PS/2 Model 30 had the optional "whopping-big" 30MB ESDI hard drive and 640kB RAM. The computer came from one of my employer's business partners, who was an IBM dealer, so it also came with a matching PS/2 VGA monitor, a 14" IBM 8512, I think. If I remember correctly, it had a 10MHz 80286 processor (but did not have the math coprocessor), which made it the fastest Intel-based PC I had ever used up to that point. It couldn't keep up with my boss's Compaq DeskPro 386/16, of course, but it was more than enough for the kind of work we were doing at the time. We didn't have 3270 emulator network cards at that company (although in 1988, I got a new job in a bank's IT department, and at that bank we did use 3270 emulation, first mostly with IRMA coax cards similar to the one you found in this computer, and later via software emulation that worked with our IBM Token-Ring network hardware. (Also at that second job, I had an IBM PS/2 Model 50 for awhile, which had a slightly faster '286 processor and Micro Channel Architecture.)

[rabbitbvt]

I know nothing about computers, but watching these videos is so satisfying and fun to me

[winstonchaychel]

I feel its pain, it's as old as I am LMAO. Floppy, grimey, oily, we'll all be in that state some time 😂

[crissidoll]

I can't wait for you to hit 1M, man. You deserve it so much. Been here since <100k. I was looking around for Sims reviews couple years back and stumbled onto the gold mine that is LGR. Truly an unique and entertaining channel.

[celebratelife]

That power switch it ridiculous! I bet you couldn't believe what you were looking at when you opened it. I love your writing, and encourage you to keep going! More vintage machine restorations! PLEASE!

[rukasuara]

this was my first computer. I'm still using its keyboard as of today. Thank you for this

[stonetheforbidden]

I came to possess this exact model PC recently, and it's in impeccable shape. All the original screws and hardware, including the hard drive and floppy drive, mouse and keyboard. The only issue is that the floppy drive won't read discs correctly, so installing anything onto it is currently impossible until I either repair the floppy drive, or replace it. However, like you stated, the FD has that weird connector that isn't at all common, and those drives are expensive!

[MattExzy]

"I don't know if it's actually helping, but it makes me feel better..." Ahh. Story of my life :D

[icwiz]

when i heard you say ESDI...it brought back memories of when i was looking into my PC's specs as a kid. I had totally forgotten that term.

[diffengine]

"some of my Packard Bells" is not a phrase I expected to hear in the Year of Our Lord 2018