First post, by Jed118
- Rank
- Oldbie
Hello all,
I have been reunited with my 386 finally, and thought it was time for an upgrade: I bought a 386/486 motherboard (EXP4349 by DataExpert - VERY intricate BIOS) but for the life of me it would not take a 386 - I put in an old 486 SX25 I had lying around and it POSTed, but really slowly. No amount of jumper settings allowed the Am386DX40, Intel DX25, or the 486DLC to POST. So I tried another motherboard, (OPTI495SLC) configured it, but then noticed that there was heavy corrosion around the battery area - This board did not POST at all, not even a keyboard light or a beep - Garbage.
Both had VESA which is what I wanted in my 386, seeing how I have a Mach32 VLB card sitting around, as well as an VLB multi/IO
So, the original board went back in (an M321) but I put in the 486DLC chip and its co-processor. Works a little faster, but my configuration is a little wonky (my autoexec and config.sys are overrun with things - need to be trimmed) but most applications work.
The configuration is like this:
-Cx486DLC and FasMath co-processor @ 40 MHz
-32 Mb 70ns SIMM memory
-Quantum 540 Mb Hdd
-Seagate 1 Gb SCSI hard disk (mostly filled with games)
-Adaptec AHA 2940 SCSI controller
-1.44 and 1.2 Mb FDD
-3COM etherlink III LAN card
-Reveal sound card (I've got an SB16 somewhere too...)
-Ati MACH32 2Mb ISA video board (with NVRAM)
-2X Reveal CDROM (Panasonic)
-350Mb Colorado Tape backup (wonky - SW crashes Windows)
-100 Mb ZIP drive (worked at one point, something about the drivers failed now)
-Multi IO card
It runs Windows 3.11 with Calmira XP skin (to which I forgot the password...) and DR-DOS 7. TONS of games on this rig, which is why I built it over 15 years ago.
Here are the pictures: (Sorry it appears I have a dirty lens!)
Now, I have some questions for you guys - This motherboard has 128k Cache, with slots to add more, but the "jumpers" are permanently soldered - Nothing I can't handle, but I know NOTHING about cache chips, where to buy them, what to buy, something about a tag chip... How can I get 256K on there?
Another question - The EXP4349 has a wicked BIOS - can I swap out the BIOS chips just like that, or will that send current into places it shouldn't, damaging something?
How can I connect this beast to the internet through Windows 3.11 (purely for shits and giggles) -I have never done this, my first internet computer had Windows 95 on it.
Does anyone want the OPTI495SLC to rebuild? I don't want to throw it out, so if someone can use it somehow, PM me.
EDIT: I suspect there may be a virus on the computer - I inherited a box FULL of diskettes, and I used some of them already. While I am not keen on scanning 300+ diskettes, how can I scan my computer for viruses?
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