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486DX2/66

PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 8:09 pm
by acsi
Well at least I think it was (will double check tomorrow).

Anyway while emptying a branch I found a few goodies, two Casio Boxing Calculators (one small and one large and working :D ), A boxed Merlin with instructions (working :wink: ) and an old PC box which looks like its been sitting in a puddle of water for a few years.

But on inspection the motherboard looks fine with no battery leakage.
Inside is an old IDE CD drive, HD (unknown size), a 16bit ISA VGA card, 16bit ISA Multi I/O with IDE and floppy, 16bit ISA ethernet card and another card I will have o confirm.

There is also what looks to be an old dongle attached to the printer port. From memory it has DKB12 printed on it.

Anyway after I raided the IDE cable out of it (needed for my Amiga) I am left with a machine which may well blow up if turned on but was wondering if someone wants the boards? (Can freight if required)

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 10:24 pm
by Gibsaw
Has the motherboard got "The Green Shit"™ on it?

I may be interested if it's not moisture damaged.

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 10:41 pm
by acsi
Not that I've seen from the top. Ill try and have a better look tomorrow and possibly remove it. Photos would also be helpful of course.

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 8:25 pm
by acsi
Photos as promised.

Also only the 3 ISA cards and the dongle has DK12 on it.

Motherboard looks to be OK.

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Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 9:53 pm
by Gibsaw
Yeah, that looks salvageable. Sending PM.

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 7:42 am
by SpidersWeb
If for some reason that falls through I'll put my hand up as well.
I've got a nice case with LCD readout, but it's 486DX-40 board ended up needing to go in to my network server (which was a 386DX-40 but it died off).

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 9:26 am
by Gibsaw
I was going to snatch this, but if you want it, you can have it. I'm snowed under at the moment and you guys are both in WGN and It'll save acsi packaging it up and shipping it to Auckland. :D

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 10:04 am
by Gibsaw
SpidersWeb wrote:If for some reason that falls through I'll put my hand up as well.
I've got a nice case with LCD readout, but it's 486DX-40 board ended up needing to go in to my network server (which was a 386DX-40 but it died off).


Ok... now you've piqued my interest... a 386DX40 network server? What do you mean? I understand this in a historical sense, but 386's have dropped off the linux radar, and they're usually problematic with disk size limits. (504MB of network storage isn't really useful in a modern sense. :) )

How were you using it? A router? using SCSI drives? Disk overlays? Running Netware perhaps?

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 10:30 am
by SpidersWeb
Awesome, thanks!

Gibsaw wrote:
SpidersWeb wrote:If for some reason that falls through I'll put my hand up as well.
I've got a nice case with LCD readout, but it's 486DX-40 board ended up needing to go in to my network server (which was a 386DX-40 but it died off).


Ok... now you've piqued my interest... a 386DX40 network server? What do you mean? I understand this in a historical sense, but 386's have dropped off the linux radar, and they're usually problematic with disk size limits. (504MB of network storage isn't really useful in a modern sense. :) )

How were you using it? A router? using SCSI drives? Disk overlays? Running Netware perhaps?


hehe, well before and after the motherboard swap it is:

Fujitsu 2.1Gb IDE HDD with drive overlay (although the new motherboard supports LBA and I wasn't going to reinstall)
MS DOS 6.22
8MB RAM
NWlite Server and Client (with XMS cache) -> 802.3 raw ethernet over 10Base2 (XT's can connect and still have 580KB free RAM)
MS Workgroup Add on for DOS -> 802.2 TCP/IP + NetBEUI (Windows 3.11 to Windows 7 machines)
HP Deskjet Pro (1989) printer shared. Iomega ZIP100 shared. Two network systems share the same hard drive partitions.

It's only for old software, backups etc though. For my real server, that's a rather boring Pentium 4 running Debian with a pair of 3TB drives :(

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 11:07 am
by Gibsaw
Ok... In this case, I could use a hand. I have a 386DX40 with a BIOS limitation and I'm looking to use an 8GB drive in it. What Drive overlay are you using?

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 11:54 am
by SpidersWeb
Gibsaw wrote:Ok... In this case, I could use a hand. I have a 386DX40 with a BIOS limitation and I'm looking to use an 8GB drive in it. What Drive overlay are you using?

The one from the hard drive manufacturer.

In my case Fujitsu's, which is just "OnTrack Disk Manager" rebranded. Seagate and I think Quantum had them too. The only downside is they can only be read in a PC that has booted the DDO (it usually gives you a "press any key to boot from floppy" or similar message if you were wondering). When I've got the time, my preference is usually the AT version of the XTIDE ROM stuck in the BootROM socket of a network card. Gives your PC lovely features like LBA, Auto Detect etc Clym5's using it to boot his T3200SX off a 4Gb CF card.

The DDO's can be found online, but if you'd rather go with another option let me know - I've got spare EPROM's and sub-540MB HDD's I can send up.

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 12:15 pm
by Gibsaw
That's excellent.. I did search to see if someone had started a project like that, but somehow I must have missed XTIDE. There was a series of BIOS patching cards released but they seem to be like hens teeth now, and the recommendation now seems to be "get a new PCI IDE card"... mm.

Thanks for the offer. I've got some ISA network cards floating around I could put an EPROM in, theoretically. Do you have one burned already? (I lack an EPROM writer... or any experience with them :) )

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 12:30 pm
by SpidersWeb
I have a pile of fresh EPROM chips, a writer, and a PC setup to write them - but I have to check my UV eraser as it wasn't playing nice last time I used it.
If the eraser plays nicely or I find a blank chip, it should only take me 5 minutes to get sorted.

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 9:13 pm
by SpidersWeb
Sent Gibsaw some EPROM.
Got machine off acsi (thanks heaps!)

I was expecting potentially a dead PSU and/or dead hard drive, but instead the only real fault was the CD-ROM wouldn't eject - so I've fixed that, now just need to get it inside it's new case :)

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Oh and the CMOS battery - need to wire up a new one - but it was actually a runner :)

486DX266 - Conner 210MB - 16MB - 1993 AMI BIOS with GUI (first time I've seen that on a 486) - Windows 95 - Six Speed Mitsumi IDE CD-ROM.
Will be getting a new case, VLBus graphics, SB16, and a DOS/Win311 reinstall, and possibly VLBus EIDE.

Re: 486DX2/66

PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 9:22 pm
by acsi
Great news. Makes me glad I didn't go on first instinct and not bother opening the case :)