Help with old as dirt computer

I've gotten my hands on an extremely old and bulky computer. It's at least 15 years old and doesn't have any USB or PS/2 ports for a keyboard and mouse. It has serial ports, VGA, a couple audio jacks and some big black port that looks like S-Video and PS/2, but it's too big for both of them. Where can I find something that will work with this? I obviously need at least a keyboard because it will not boot up without one.

Specific info on the ports: One serial port has COM 1 written below it. It is male with 4 pins on the bottom and 5 on the top. Beside it is a much wider female port that says LPT 1, with 12 holes on the bottom and 13 on the top. Above that is the same thing, except it says COM 4 and is male.

 

I won't be using any kind of software on it, I just want it to be able to boot. And it won't without a keyboard. :\

 

That big black round port you see is the keyboard port.

 

But what is it? What is that kind of port called?

 

It's been so long that I've forgotten what the old keyboard ports were called. Sorry.

 

Take a look at this thread and the link in post #2.

Count the number of holes in the large round connector on your board to see if it may be the keyboard connector.

That cable in the link is for connecting a keyboard with the large connector on its cord to a ps/2 port on a motherboard. So it is not exactly what you want. You would want something to connect a ps/2 to the larger connector on the motherboard (if they make such a thing)

 

Can you at least tell what brand and model it is?

 

I'd call it an AT keyboard, you can still buy them but it's usually cheaper to pick up an adapter to use a PS/2 keyboard on it, if you already own one.

 

The keyboard is probably a 5 pin din connector. Good luck finding one of those.

http://www.antonline.com/p_E03601D1-NX_262372.htm?sID=NX

 

Yeah, old AT style keyboards.

 

Thanks to everyone. I've found a PS/2 to DIN adapter that looks like it'll fit that plug.

 

Just thinking you should be able to start the POST process without a keyboard and get at least the keyboard error on screen if you wanted to see if it POSTS at all.

 

It does POST and show a keyboard error, but won't continue after that.

 

Good!

I hope the adapter lets you get things going.

I have an old PC in the basement from that era. I can check out ports or whatever if you need help from there. It is probably in pretty bad shape as the basement was damp for several years but the peripheral devices are still there.

 

I like those clicky AT keyboards

 

You can buy the "clacky" keyboards, similar to the model-m in USB/ps2

 

But non of them would give this legendary sound :-D

 

Argh. Got the PS2 to DIN adapter and turned it on. It still won't continue to boot after it finishes checking memory.

I looked into the BIOS a little bit and it has something that will detect hard drives and their settings. It cannot see the hard drive. I can also hear the drive making a faint sound like "tick...whurrrrrr.." over and over. My guess is that it's just dead? :\

 

yeab hard drive is dead
and lets see that old computer good luck finding a harddrive bellow 2 gigibyte

 

I presume this old PC has a floppy drive. So get yourself a bootable floppy and see if it boots to that.

 

Might be a problem if it is a 5 1/4 inch floppy.

 

It has both a 3 1/2" and 5 1/4" floppy drive.

Coincidentally, the 5 1/4" drive kept making this awful sound when I turned it on. I opened it up and found a 3 1/2" Windows 95 boot disk expertly jammed deep in there.

Still can't get it to boot though.