Oh boy, where do I begin? For me, I begin my rant of hard to find parts with anything made by IBM, including but not limited to the following:

Hercules Graphics Card/Plus/In Color (not IBM but nothing else is so close)
Monochrome Display and Printer Adapter
Color Graphics Adapter
Enhanced Graphics Adapter (especially fully upgraded w/256KB)
PS/2 Display Adapter (IBM's 8-bit ISA VGA card, no one's ever seen it.)

IBM PC 5150 (16-64KB board)
IBM PC/XT 5160 (esp. last BIOS w/640KB)
IBM PC/XT Model 286 5162
IBM PC AT 5170 (esp. w/Enhanced 101 Keyboard w/AT interface)
IBM PC Convertible 5140 (w/supertwist or backlit LCD)

IBM 5161 Expansion Chassis (w/extention and receive cards + cable)

Asychronous Communications Adapter (serial card)
Printer Adapter (parallel card)
Game Control Adapter (gameport card)

160/180KB Full Height Floppy (used in first PCs)
Half-Height 360KB/720KB/1.2MB/1.44MB Drives
External 360KB/720KB Drives (from IBM)

5144 Convertible Monochrome Display
5145 Convertible Color Display
5151 Monochrome Display
5153 Color Display
5154 Enhanced Display

NEC V-20 (8088 upgrade)
8087 Math Coprocessor
80287 Math Coprocessor

Convertible 256KB Memory Upgrade (IBM brand hard to come by)
2MB Expanded Memory Adapter
512KB-6MB Memory Expansion (for AT or XT/286)

Technical Reference Manuals (esp. covering later models of PC, XT, AT or Options and Adapters.)

But let us continue to Sound Cards and Devices, try finding some of these:

IBM Music Feature Adapter + Midi Breakout Box (can use two)

Roland CM-32L, CM-64 or CM-500
Roland LAPC-I
Roland SCC-1A/B (more sounds than older SCC-1)
Roland SCD-15 (MPU-401/AT + SCB-55 on one, SCC-2 in essence)
Roland MIF-IPC (first MPU interface with breakout box, only works in PCs and XTs.)
Roland MPU-IPC/MPU-IPC-T/MPU-IMC (with breakout boxes)

Creative Music System/Game Blaster
Creative Sound Blaster 1.0-2.01 (w/CMS chips, try finding a 2.0 with them!)
Creative Sound Blaster Pro/Pro 2
Creative Sound Blaster 16 (w/ASP/CSP chip)
Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold (w/Upgrade Modules)

Gravis Ultrasound /MAX/ACE/Extreme/PnP

Covox Sppech Thing
Covox Sound Master

Innovation SSI-2001 (debatable whether it even exists)

Adlib Gold 1000/2000

Yamaha SW60XG (DB-50XG on ISA board)

QBiN wrote:

Finding a Cyrix Fasmath 387 MathCo @ 40MHz.
These are apparently harder to find than the Ark of the Covenant.

You're right... Does it specifically have to be a Cyrix Fasmath? Because other i387 clones capable of running 40MHz seem to be easier to find (at least in Europe).

Great Hierophant wrote:

IBM 5161 Expansion Chassis (w/extention and receive cards + cable)

Saw one on ebay for $200 when I read your "Perfect PC" thread (actually I was just googling to find out what it was 🤣), but it seems to have been sold already.

Great Hierophant wrote:

Roland SCC-1A/B (more sounds than older SCC-1)

Do you have info about how to find out the version? I might have one of these...

I'm after an 8-bit, Media Vision Pro Audiospectrum or Pro Audiospectrum Plus. If anyone has one, or knows where one may be found, please let me know.

Saw one on ebay for $200 when I read your "Perfect PC" thread (actually I was just googling to find out what it was Laughing Out Loud), but it seems to have been sold already.

The problem isn't the case, power supply, hard drive, drive controller, (which all come from an IBM PC XT) but the items unique to the Expansion Chassis, the extension/receiver cards, the cable and the ISA board. I am not sure whether the Extender and Receiver Cards are identical or not.

Do you have info about how to find out the version? I might have one of these...

I believe that the card should be silkscreened "SCC-1A" if you had the revised card as I have seen a photo of it which is different from the other photos of the card, which show "SCC-1".

5u3 wrote:

You're right... Does it specifically have to be a Cyrix Fasmath? Because other i387 clones capable of running 40MHz seem to be easier to find (at least in Europe).

Not really, but I can't find an ULSI or equivalent 40MHz MathCo, either. Oh well. ONe will turn up eventually.

They aren't nearly as hard to find as half of GH's wish list. 😜

Great Hierophant wrote:

I believe that the card should be silkscreened "SCC-1A" if you had the revised card as I have seen a photo of it which is different from the other photos of the card, which show "SCC-1".

You're gonna make me go look at mine, aren't you now?

QBiN wrote:

Great Hierophant wrote:

I believe that the card should be silkscreened "SCC-1A" if you had the revised card as I have seen a photo of it which is different from the other photos of the card, which show "SCC-1".

You're gonna make me go look at mine, aren't you now?

🤣
Just examined mine more closely, it only says "SCC-1", so it's the old version.

My little wishlist:
- That elusive little RAM-upgrade for the AWE64 series (I guess nobody wanted to pay though their nose for standard RAM with a proprietary connector)
- If anyone knows an optical wheelmouse that does not play dead when connected to an Aten CS-114 KVM switch, please (with sugar on top) let me know! I know these exist, but all the new models won't work 🙁.

Great Hierophant wrote:

I believe that the card should be silkscreened "SCC-1A" if you had the revised card as I have seen a photo of it which is different from the other photos of the card, which show "SCC-1".

QBiN wrote:

You're gonna make me go look at mine, aren't you now?

Nope... Plain old SCC-1. Not that I've ever noticed the difference. Then again, I'm a gamer, not a musican.

GH, thought about asking the chaps over at Quest Studios?

GH, thought about asking the chaps over at Quest Studios?

http://www.queststudios.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1738

Not much help there. I guess I am right until someone proves me wrong.

Great Hierophant wrote:

GH, thought about asking the chaps over at Quest Studios?

http://www.queststudios.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1738

Not much help there. I guess I am right until someone proves me wrong.

No, you're correct. The later, SC-55mkII-based versions are labeled SCC-1a. Furthermore, the SCC-1b isn't an actual card, but refers to the SCC-1a package.

I believe that on the SCC-1A, they only replaced the ROMs, not the DAC or the chip that increased the voices. As the actual ROM size did not increase (I assume they found more room for the extra 37 patches in the 3MB on board), all they need to do is simply solder on the new ROMs in the assembly line. However, using an 18-bit DAC in the place of a 16-bit DAC would likely require routing changes and a (minor) redesign of the board. The same probably would go for the updated chip that allows 28 voices instead of 24. I have heard rumors that some later models of modules based on the SC-55 may have the 354 patches of the SC-55mkII available.

I'm glad I'm not the only crazy person who still likes to soop up old PCs. Let me start with my rant. This weekend I decided to unbox my old XT clone and get it going again. I ran into 2 major headaches. first, I have a Acculogic RAMpAT!-Plus. I decided to try to get it running in my XT for the first time. Turns out the 5.25 floppy for it has gone bad and I don't have the 3.5 😵 . This silly card can only be configured by booting on this disc and entering the settings via software. ACK! I can't find a copy of the disc anywhere on the net. Second, I have a QuadRAM Quad386XT. How cool would it have been to upgrade my XT to a 386!? Alas, I put the thing in and everything turned bad. The video glitches, booting fails with the network card installed, it intermittatntly won't boot in any case, and the sound blaster plays audio at a very slooooooooowowwwwwww speed. If anyone has ideas why I'm all ears.

Is this the IBM 2MB card?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem … AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

I have a 386 boxed up in the garage 😢 . It was an AMD 386DX40. I took out the CPU and put in an Intel 386DX33. It runs @40Mhz and is stable. In fact, the Intel scrored better @40Mhz than the AMD did in an old benchmark and was noticably faster playing doom. Since that was successfull I stuck in an Intel 387-33 and never looked back. Any idea whos 387 is fastest clock for clock?

Speaking of my 386, I was looking for cache chips to go from 128 to 256. I never could find them. I also happend upon a 386 board with VLB and EISA. That board never worked with my 387. Nor could I find a manual or the config util for the EISA bus.

Anyhow, this forum is reawakening my love of old PCs and abandonware. 😅

Well Old PC's are find, just don't talk about abandonware here. 😀

I have 3 questions:

jake_friz wrote:

I also happend upon a 386 board with VLB and EISA.

Great Hierophant wrote:

A VLB slot, only seen in 486 motherboards because it was an extension of the 486’s processor bus

1. So can you explain whether a 386 motherboard can have a VLB slots or not?

2. Also my 486 can use one 72pin SIMM, but Pentium has to use at least two 72pin SIMMs. Both processors are 32bit and 72pin SIMM is 32bit too. So why Pentium needs two SIMMs?

By the way I have a ASUS PVI-486SP3 486 motherboard with 3xISA, 1xVLB, 3xPCI, integrated controllers: fdd, primary and secondary hdd, 2xcom, 1xlpt, ps/2 mouse 😀

3. I have a 286 motherboard with strange SIMM sockets for 30pin simms with soldered needles to each pin. I wonder whether i can solder needles to a normal 30pin SIMM and use it in this motherboard.

2. Pentium has a 64bit data bus, 486 only 32bit

3. Those are called SIPP. You can try to plug a SIMM socket into the motherboard and clip the memory in there.

Well, I have a perfect condition Soundblaster AWE64 Gold card with 16MB memory expansion (very rare) for a total memory of 20MB. If anybody interested, reply to this or PM me with an offer. If reasonable, I'll part with it.

Included:
- AWE64 Gold card
- 16MB expansion card
- Original manuals
- Original Install disk, drivers and SF libraries
- Additional SoundFont libraries bundle disk
- SPDIF digital audio output external port

Everything as originally came from factory, except no box.

Cheers!

Just an addendum, the memory expansion is 12MB, not 16MB. So the total SoundFont memory is 16MB (12+4 onboard).

My quest for the holy graal is the piece of software. Very hard to find now.
I'm looking for a Microid Research Bios for my ASUS P55T2P4 rev3.10 (winbond multi io).
I'm already have 3.41 version and still loking for latest possible - v3.46 with important bugfixes.

Looking for VGA BIOS for Hercules Dynamite 128/Video Tseng Labs ET6000, 4.0MB MDRAM, PCI, on VOGONS Vintage Driver Library only drivers, no BIOS 🙁 can someone help with a reference?