VOGONS


First post, by Jed118

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So I've always wanted to build a 286, and lately I was really reminiscing about the time I built a good friend a 286 with spare parts I had in grade 8. From what I recall, his was probably a 12 MHz, 3Mb RAM and a basic era correct hard disk - It had one thing that I really would like to find - EGA.

I've been amassing parts in Poland through their version of eBay and I got (for about $90) all the parts I needed to build a 286. Interestingly, the case I picked up had a "dead" 386 DX-40 which restored itself to working order after I took the RAM out and took a white eraser to the contacts - Score, that'll be another build for another thread.

Onto the 286 itself - I've got a flip top style case, 1.2 and 1.44 Mb floppies, a Headland generic 286/16 MHz board, 512K VGA video, ISA controller, and a 43Mb IDE Seagate disk. Like my 386SX system, this one accepts DRAM and SIPP, but the configuration I've chosen does absolutely not work together 😵 So, it will stay as 1 Mb for now. I used era correct parts as much as I could. In the future, I will try to get an AdLib or an 8 bit soundblaster for it.

First, the case:

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A bit beat up and definitely yellowed.

This is the motherboard - I've removed the offending cell and replaced it. I did my best to clean as much as I could, but some minor corrosion exists in the expansion slots (Yes, I took the BIOS chips out and cleaned underneath them)

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Sub components:

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The hard disk: It came out of my 386SX which got an upgrade to an 85 Mb Conner drive (no bad sectors!)

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I haven't seen these standoffs in over 20 years:

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I had to take out the power supply to get it connected to the motherboard:

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Performance! It increased after I tweaked the BIOS

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Yellowness

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Shit, no room to eat breakfast

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Never mind, found a spot:

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More yellowness:

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Now, to remove the yellowness. Disassemble the yellow components:

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Apply the hydrogen peroxide gel

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Wrap it in saran and let it sit for a few hours, rotating as necessary:

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Rinsed parts:

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It ate my ESCOM sticker, but I have a good one to replace it with once I find it. Also, the computer came with a warranty booklet underneath, all in German.

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This is a happy little computer now:

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This is the best I could do with ABS glue -

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Looks like I'll be retrobrighting the monitor next!

Youtube channel- The Kombinator
What's for sale? my eBay!

Reply 1 of 6, by Jo22

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Congrats on a job well done! 😁 It's really cool to see someone puts his/her heart into restoring 16-Bit machines! 😎

Jed118 wrote:

Like my 386SX system, this one accepts DRAM and SIPP, but the configuration I've chosen does absolutely not work together 😵 So, it will stay as 1 Mb for now. I used era correct parts as much as I could.

Normally, 286 chipsets can handle 4MiB without a hassle. You can make your own SIPPs, by using four SIM modules with one MiB each.
I tried this myself and it worked every time sofar. Initally, I used resistor "legs", but also pin strips later on.
With 4MiB of RAM, you're nolonger limited to Win 3.0 also. In fact, Windows 3.1 (or 3.0 MME) will fly like a bird with a jetpack. 😉

If that's to much work, you could also order an EMS card kit from Lo-Tech. I just tried an AST Rampage 286, btw - it can do both XMS/EMS, I believe.
In theory, EMS can also be used by Windows 3.0 in Real-Mode. So you can enable wall papers and run larger Windows programs.
I don't know if the whole thing works with Lo-Tech cards, though. 😕 Perhaps that feature requires EMS with a page frame larger than 64KiB..

Sorry, can't confirm. I tried that (Win3.0+EMS) once with EMM386/MemMaker on a 386 and it worked fine there.
It also worked with Windows 2.03. But that version can only pass available EMS to EMS-aware programs (DOS/Win),
but cannot provide extra memory to normal Windows programme.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 2 of 6, by Jed118

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Thanks! That's what I think I will do... I just wanted to use up those damn SIPP chips but noooooo they won't work together at all.

Next time I see some cheap 1Mb SIMMS, I'll grab them and convert them to SIPP. Or, if I can find SIMM slots, I'll go the route someone suggested in my 386SX thread and plop those into the SIPP slots and then just use SIMM RAM that way.

Now I have to read up on EMS/XMS memory and optimize this baby, maybe play some Prince of Persia tonight on it. Maybe benchmark it with something concrete too.

Interestingly, this thing is over a year *newer* than my SX - And my SX board is larger and with more discrete things on it. This must have been one of the last boards of the 286 variety.

Oh how I wish I could have EGA... 😁

Youtube channel- The Kombinator
What's for sale? my eBay!

Reply 4 of 6, by Jed118

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I'm gonna try to spray it on next time using a nozzle off a liquid weed spreader and a 12v washer pump motor to ensure even coverage, and not wrap it.

But yeah, no streak marks.

Youtube channel- The Kombinator
What's for sale? my eBay!

Reply 6 of 6, by Jed118

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It was a 1968 35mm - I found it at where I work, as they were clearing out the labs to modernize them. I sold it on eBay and let's say it funded a whole bunch of upgrades on my project car (tires, spacers, brake pads, monotube shocks for the rear and some Compact Flash card goodness for my 386/486 systems) 😁

Youtube channel- The Kombinator
What's for sale? my eBay!