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IBM 5170  -  GSETUP


IMPORTANT:   The following assumes that your IBM 5170's motherboard is fitted with IBM 5170 BIOS ROM's, i.e. not swapped out for non-IBM ones.
If non-IBM BIOS ROM's are fitted, the following may not work (it depends on the particular BIOS).


Motherboard BIOS configuration of the 5170 is referred to by IBM as SETUP.  Some people refer to it as CMOS SETUP.
IBM's way of performing SETUP, is to use boot the 5170 from the 'Diagnostics for the IBM Personal Computer AT' floppy.

The use of the third-party DOS program GSETUP.EXE is an alternative.

If you decide to use GSETUP.EXE, then note the following known problems/issues:

Problems/Issues

1. GSETUP.EXE does not perform SETUP for all AT-class computers/BIOS'.
It is designed for the IBM BIOS supplied in the IBM 5162, the IBM 5170, and non-IBM BIOS' that store their SETUP information in exactly the same way.
A non-IBM BIOS may store its SETUP information differently - see note 1 below.
If your non-IBM BIOS has a way of performing SETUP, use that.
   
2. A design flaw in GSETUP is that it expects the existing expansion memory setting in the CMOS/RTC chip to be 0 or a multiple of 128 KB (which is the norm).
If, for whatever reason, the existing expansion memory is not 0 or a multiple of 128 KB, then you will probably discover that you cannot set the expansion memory setting to the figure that you need it to be.
If you are in that situation, you need to clear the CMOS/RTC chip by performing the procedure here, and then rerun GSETUP.
   
3. The first BIOS revision (01/10/84) in the IBM 5170 does not support 720K drives/diskettes, but with that BIOS fitted in your 5170, GSETUP incorrectly allows you to set the floppy drive type to 720K.
That is a design flaw in GSETUP.
Note that taking advantage of the flaw will not magically provide 720K support in the BIOS.
   
4. The first BIOS revision (01/10/84) and the second BIOS revision (06/10/85) in the IBM 5170 do not support 1.44M drives/diskettes, but with either of those BIOS' fitted in your 5170, GSETUP incorrectly allows you to set the floppy drive type to 1.44M.
That is a design flaw in GSETUP.
Note that taking advantage of the flaw will not magically provide 1.44M support in the BIOS.




Note 1 Example:

The Bugs Bunny motherboard has turbo/non-turbo functionality, and the motherboard's BIOS supports that.
The SETUP (BIOS configuration) information stored includes a byte that informs the Bugs Bunny motherboard's power-on self test (POST) as to whether to start up the motherboard in turbo mode or non-turbo mode.
GSETUP has no knowledge of the turbo/non-turbo byte used by the Bugs Bunny motherboard.
You may think, "Well, I am not fussed as to whether my Bugs Bunny motherboard starts in turbo mode or non-turbo mode."
You run GSETUP.  In it, you see no option for turbo/non-turbo, but that does not concern you.  You make the changes you want to, then exit GSETUP, saving the SETUP (BIOS configuration) information.
When the Bugs Bunny motherboard restarts, you see the error message of 'CMOS checksum error.