First post, by probnot
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Taking a break from the 286, I picked a couple of AT towers for $10 each (one 386, one 486). I decided to spend some time with the 486.
Bought these (retro) hardware today
- Unknown VLB Socket 3 motherboard
- 486DX2-66MHz CPU
- No RAM
- 3.5" Floppy drive
- Trident TGUI9440A VLB Graphics (1MB)
- VLB I/O Controller (with 2 IDE channels)
- ESS AudioDrive sound card
- Mustek GI1904A Handscanner Interface Card (a hint to what this machine used to do?)
- Old Modem (meh)
The inside looked ok, except for the CPU/heatsink/fan was just floating around the case, with some bent pins.
The board is awesome. I think this is going to be my main 486 if all goes well. CR2032 battery holder, VLB. The only thing missing is a VRM, but that's ok, I didn't plan to go up to a DX4 anyway.
It was also missing the RAM, so I had to go into my stash to see if I had some...turns out 80% of my stash is EDO...
Power supply was disgusting, so that got a good cleaning with compressed air (as did everything else).
One interesting thing about the CPU fan. When I pulled it off to clean it, I noticed it has two labels. It's either a 1W Topower brand, or a 0.9W WLS brand...
Finally after trying another PSU, another CPU, and another video card, I realized that it's very picky with RAM. Out of all my sticks, it likes 4 of them (and 2 of them MUST be paired together). Oh well, one of the sticks it likes it 32MB!
At this point, since the board was out I figured I would upgrade the cache (since I'm settling on 32MB RAM). It came with 128KB, and I got some extra chips included when I bought some RAM recently. So, 256KB it is!
I really like this case. Unlike some of the similar cases I've seen, the motherboard tray is removable, not just riveted in place. I also had to add some (actually 4) missing plastic standoffs. The way this board was mounted, an entire corner could short to the case if you weren't careful
At this point I started having a lot of post problems. It would seem to go dead if I left it sitting for a while. Removing the RAM or video card and booting it would cause a beep code. Then re-installing the RAM or video card, it would boot fine. This would work great until I left it sitting for a few minutes again. I tried replacing the CR2032 (even though the old one metered ok), tried another PSU again, tried the other sticks of memory and finally settled on replacing the video card after it booted once with signal to the monitor, but just a black screen.
This seems to have solved the problem (hopefully). It's running with a Triden 8900D ISA card (1MB) with no issues. I have a VLB Mach64 I'd like to try in this, so it's not the end of the world.
Any recommendations for this? I've never used an ESS card before, they any good? or should I throw in an SB16 or AWE64? For HDD I plan to use a CF-IDE adapter (I only have a 512MB card for now, need to source a larger one...these things are hard to find nowadays). I do plan on adding a CD-ROM, but it won't be period correct (I prefer functionality in that regard)
