| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PS/2 Model N33 SX
Type 8533 (PS/2 Note)
8533r12m.exe N33SX 12MHz Reference Disk v1.00 (no ext. video) (zipped image)
ZG91-0257 IBM PS/2 Model N33SX
German N33SX Wiki Page (Source of pilfered pictures of LED Board and rear of unit)
N33 16MHz Planar, Top Most stuff claiming personal experience with the N33 is from Peter Wendt. N33 16MHz Planar, Top
N33 16MHz Planar, Bottom
SW1 Identity OMRON B3F-3100 flat type, side-operated, 6x6 mm, 3.15mm tall (or similar) Stanislav Vobr (edited): TB1 Header Probulating Stanislav Vobr was troubleshooting his N33SX 16MHz. The TB1 header is a three pin header on the underside of the planar. The header was unpopulated, and there is less distance between header pins. (Note: CN1 is the SIMM socket.) The important thing is shorting Pin 1 and Pin 2 together erases the password. After shunting Pins 1-2, remove the jumper or shunt. Internal Planar Connectors CN2 / CN3 connect the backplate to the planar. The backplate holds:
These functions are on the Status Bar (LCD Board):
CN14 (located over the memory connector towards the board edge) + CN15 are the IDE HD connectors for a strange split cable. Your CN14, seems to be CN13 in fact and is the standby backup battery connector (used during battery changes) 8533 Status Bar (LED Board)
Volume 8533 Back Plate Here we can see the real Power Switch, Display port [HDD15], Keyboard/Mouse port, Printer [DB25], Serial [DB9], and expansion connector 3541 Communications Cartridge. Note: My hunch is the N33SX and L40SX might have used different cables from the expansion port to the Communications Cartridge. But I can only find the L40SX announcement. The 8533 gets no love. 8533 Communications Cartridge My SWAG this is a 3541-001 ? No idea what the cable that connects it to the 8533 looks like. N33 Origins (from Peter, edited) The 8533 N33 was originally a machine developed by IBM Japan for domestic markets. After the arch-rival Compaq brought the E-Lite 386 laptop series IBM was forced to bring out a counter-product. IBM Japan at that time had about a dozen different laptops and notebooks out. The N23 didn't make it to here, the N51 (8551) has been adopted as well as the CL57SX Color Laptop (8554 - hence CL54 in Japan)... The CL57 identifies itself as PS/55 in the BIOS - PS/55 machines *are* domestic Japanese machines intended for local markets. The L40SX (8543) was a Japanese/US co-product, where the technology came from Japan - and the design, marketing and supervision was located in Boca Raton. That was unnecessarily complicated and lead to a near 1-year-delay of the project L40. The N33-X13 was a "quick shot" derived from the N23 - they changed the keyboard to US/Euro style (along with the planar by what reason) and they cut down the 386SX to 12MHz for a low-entry model, which never really took off. The better -X15 version introduced a little later had 16MHz SX and external video port. The N45SL (2614) -by the way- is a Zenith OEM based on ISA/AT technology, which IBM bought to extend the line of machines. The PS/note 182 (2141) was also an OEM machine from Japan as far as I know. Has been taken to introduce a laptop in the PS/1 family. G13 unit it has no external video port and 386SX-12, a -G15 has external video port and 386SX-16. Max. memory 6MB, B/W LCD 10.4", 640 x 480 / 16 shades of gray. HD either 40 or 80MB. I have a -G15. They have some "classical defects": either don't work at all, or work only on battery or AC power but not on both. Batteries die very soon, short runtime on batteries anyway. HD can be replaced against standard 2.5" Laptop IDE drive of either size up to 8GB - given you have a good disk-manager software. (Mine has an 850MB currently installed). N33 Memory In brief, if you modify a 4MB / 80ns or 70ns 36-bit Parity module you need to remove the coding "bridges" for the pins 67 and 68 and solder the bridges for pins 69 and 70... that's all. On Martins machine I used a spare 4MB / 80ns Parity which has bridges for all four pins 67 - 70 and removed the two for 67 and 68. Works fine - the N33 requires only 80ns memory, but the 70ns modules are often easier to get. 387SX Hack? Err ... very theoretically yes. How are your skills in SMD soldering ? The 387 sits very close to the 386SX and
you only need to "pull wires" to an empty spot on the
sysboard. Obviously they designed the system *with* the
387 - but that thing was darned expensive back in '92 or
so - so they left it away. You won't run AutoCAD
on a 386SX-class notebook anyway. The PLCC socket has the same pinout. So
you could use a socket and a PLCC chip too. But *that*
may fail due to the lack of room to the modem port. But
what - cut that crap away. No one uses the proprietary
2.400 baud modem in a N33. BTW: The N33 case has *lots* of room
otherwise. Seems as if it was planned to either put a
much bigger HD in that case *or* (more likely) have the
FDD internally. The one internal framepart has holes
that perfectly match the FDD used in the TP700/720/
PS2e. By what reason they decided to buffer the FDD
signals on a separate board and attach it externally via
a strange Mini-Centronics 30-pin (I think, must count).
N33 Hard Drive Problem is to find an appropriate Disk
Manager - most newer versions are
"manufacturer-dependent" and you cannot install a
Toshiba with a WD or Maxtor version. I really love my N33. I use it as
intelligent terminal (for routers, switches Drive Manager for >512MB Peterwendt wrote: http://www.ontrack.com/diskmanager/[...] Replace Fuse(s) (go to 8533 Power for description) Peter says: I replaced the blown fuse, replaced the tiny 80MB HD with -currently- a 340MB type I had around (it *did* run with a 1.2GB as well - but I needed that drive for a different project) and I crapped out one of the dead batteries and replaced the cells. They are "3/4" types and all six cells cost about 30 Euro. Now the machine nicely runs for about an hour on battery. PS2.EXE Set Feature program. PS2.EXE can be used as a menu driven program or a line command. You can even invoke this function from a batch file. This selection copies the following sample batch programs and a utility program which can be used in your operating environments (DOS, OS/2, or DOS OS/2 DUAL).
N33 FDD Innards (from Peter) Drive plug - 34-pin Berg
+-+ +----_-----------+ +-------------_--+ 33 | o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o | 1 34 | o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o | 2 +-----------------------------------+ (View from the front) System plug - 26-pin Mini Centronics
+-----------------------------+ / \ 25 \ # # # # # # # # # # # # # / 1 26 \ # # # # # # # # # # # # # / 2 \ / +-------------------------+ (View from the front) System to FD Pinout
FDD is a Panasonic JU-237 A03W (P/N 72X6074), +5V only 0.8A. However I'd tested the N33 with 2 different +5V-only drives: Both worked with R/W/ format 1.44MB media. Hope this helps a bit. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Content created and/or collected by: Ardent Tool of Capitalism - MAD Edition! is maintained by Tomáš Slavotínek. |