I exchanged the original ega/cga graphics from the XT-Slot with an 16bit ISA Trident TVGA 9000a - but it took some time to notice that the "bios autodetect" jumper has to be set as DISABLED otherwhise you might keep stuck on a bootloop 😉
Here a video
https://youtu.be/klV2OidLHVY

After that I realized that the floppy drive was faulty but I got lucky to find a package of three drives very soon for a small amount of money.

The original Floppycable has only edge connectors so i hooked another one with additional 34pin connectors to the original 50pin connector

Yes the newer cable allows me to use the 5.25 and the 3.5 inch floppy drives ! 😀

Then i found this interesting XMS card with 3mb witch seemed to be built for a Siemens Nixdorf and after configuring it i got 4MB of ram on the counter when turning the PC on 😉

Co0l. Well done. The more 286 goodness in vogons the better ...😉

When /if the mfm hdd dies on you I recommend getting a XT-IDE card for use with more modern hdds, CF/SD cards. I have one in my XT-Turbo system with a 2gig spinning rust drive. Oh I see have one according to your signature.

It may even run GeoWorks Ensemble 1.x ok. Gem should be ok as well. Forget any windows version prior to v3.

The next turn was that i thought "why do i have to keep stuck with only 40MB and the Bios only supports up to 170mb"?
The solution: an XTIDE-CF card +4 Gigabyte CompactFlash released by Sergej malinov and completed by @matze79 inserted in the 8bit Slot of the previously used graphics cga/ega card

He also pre-installed MS-DOS 5.0 for me so i could start immediately 😀

The first few weeks i used a CT1600 SBpro2 to have Sound on the Tandon for the first time after more than 30 years!
Later i exchanged the SBPro2 with an SB16 CT2940 with integrated IDE-INTERFACE and managed to get it running thanks to Unisound programmed by @Jazefox ✌

On the front of the 5,25 adpter for the 3,5 Floppy i had some space for hooking up an external LED for the HDD activity of the CF card.
Since I swapped the RLL HDD out there was then space on the bottom for the 4xspeed CD Drive witch I connected to the IDE-INTERFACE from the SB16.

The last upgrade until now is the ISA network Card with RJ45 connected to my daily pc so I could use mTCP and Filezilla to copy some files very easily and faster than a connection via Nullmodem on RS232 👍

Looks like you have certainly done your home work.

I've just altered my sig....😉

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-07, 18:15:

Co0l. Well done. The more 286 goodness in vogons the better ...😉

When /if the mfm hdd dies on you I recommend getting a XT-IDE card for use with more modern hdds, CF/SD cards. I have one in my XT-Turbo system with a 2gig spinning rust drive. Oh I see have one according to your signature.

It may even run GeoWorks Ensemble 1.x ok. Gem should be ok as well. Forget any windows version prior to v3.

Yes I replaced the hdd already with the xtide-CF4 card just in case of....and because I wanted much more space AND a silent 286 😅
There were so many things I changed and it doesn't fit in only one post 🤣🤣
......And it's still not finished😏

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-07, 18:48:

Looks like you have certainly done your home work.

I've just altered my sig....😉

Thanks 😊

The reason why the CD Drive was not attached is because the drivers for CD load on config.sys before unisound is loaded witch activates also the IDE-INTERFACE from the Soundblaster.
Shown here

With Devload.com copied on your bootup-drive you can load CD drivesrs after unisound is loaded and so your IDE interface.
Here is how it looks like now

Here on the photo of config.sys I forgot to delete the line with the VIDE-CDD because now it's loaded by Devload in Autoexec.bat ☝😉

Just love 80286 systems! ❤️
This one seems to be in a fine condition, too!

If the system is up and running, please consider installing 2MB, at least.
Or 4MB, if possible. This makes GUIs running much smoother. 😀

Edit: Never mind, just noticed that's already the case.
Maybe adding an UMB or EMS card could be useful then.
But that's optional, of course.

Jo22 wrote on 2021-07-07, 20:14:

Just love 80286 systems! ❤️ This one seems to be in a fine condition, too! […]
Show full quote

Just love 80286 systems! ❤️
This one seems to be in a fine condition, too!

If the system is up and running, please consider installing 2MB, at least.
Or 4MB, if possible. This makes GUIs running much smoother. 😀

Edit: Never mind, just noticed that's already the case.
Maybe adding an UMB or EMS card could be useful then.
But that's optional, of course.

I'm glad you like it. 😊

XMS seems to be used more often than EMS.
In addition, I don't have enough slots left otherwise it would be perfect😉

I have a proprietary slot for a 4mb extended memory module here (total 5mb ram without the XMS card), but I haven't been able to find it yet ... so if someone knows something 😁🙏
Here is the still empty place looking like a wider ide connector 🙂

Here's a pic of my Zenith 286LP Plus(286/12) with 8megs of ram. Runs Dos, MS Windows 31, nic packet drivr, winpkt, and a few straight Dos applications Like you I'm using new technollogy to enhance it. It has an external Backpack CD reader, external LS120 drive daisy chained to the Backpack, nic as well as a nice white beige Packard Bell FT700 LCD Monitor. I pinched the Windows for Workgroup 3.11 FPT and TELNET clients and their help files. When Windows loads it starts the Trumpet Winsock for TCIP. Once in Windows I fire up the IRC client PIRCH to access my favourate IRC channels....😉

Jo22 wrote on 2021-07-07, 20:14:

Just love 80286 systems! ❤️ This one seems to be in a fine condition, too! […]
Show full quote

Just love 80286 systems! ❤️
This one seems to be in a fine condition, too!

If the system is up and running, please consider installing 2MB, at least.
Or 4MB, if possible. This makes GUIs running much smoother. 😀

Edit: Never mind, just noticed that's already the case.
Maybe adding an UMB or EMS card could be useful then.
But that's optional, of course.

GeoWorks 1.x works just fine on my XT-Turbo with 640k. I'ts real mode application.

I use it on my original 286/16 with DRDos 6.0 for at least a year in the early '90s when I was just learning about x86s and computers in general. It has more functionality out of the compared to MS Windows 3.x....😉

Which exactly why I purchased it over MS Windows 3.x. You see being new to the pc game I did my research rather than taking notice of all the advertising garbage at the time.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-07, 20:34:

Here's a pic of my Zenith 286LP Plus(286/12) with 8megs of ram. Runs Dos, MS Windows 31, nic packet drivr, winpkt, and a few straight Dos applications Like you I'm using new technollogy to enhance it. It has an external Backpack CD reader, external LS120 drive daisy chained to the Backpack, nic as well as a nice white beige Packard Bell FT700 LCD Monitor. I pinched the Windows for Workgroup 3.11 FPT and TELNET clients and their help files. When Windows loads it starts the Trumpet Winsock for TCIP. Once in Windows I fire up the IRC client PIRCH to access my favourate IRC channels....😉

Wow this is pretty cool🙂👍
Would DR-Dos be able to use the 3mb xms so in total programs could use it as conventional memory?
Even with the card Dos tells me having less than 1mb of conventional memory

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-07, 18:15:

Co0l. Well done. The more 286 goodness in vogons the better ...😉

When /if the mfm hdd dies on you I recommend getting a XT-IDE card for use with more modern hdds, CF/SD cards. I have one in my XT-Turbo system with a 2gig spinning rust drive. Oh I see have one according to your signature.

It may even run GeoWorks Ensemble 1.x ok. Gem should be ok as well. Forget any windows version prior to v3.

Witch GeoWorks Edition should i test/use?
Currently I am working with Volcov Commander (NC clone)

GeoWorks 1.x will run fine on MS Dos 5.0. Look in your Dos directory there should be a file called emm286.exe. Load that file in you 286 config.sys file on start up ansee if the sysrem sees the extra ram. I run MS Dos 5 of my 286 as well and put a copy of it's config.sys. Just use Dos edit command to add the entry. Just remove the rem entry on mine.and start it with Device= etc

GuillermoXT wrote on 2021-07-07, 21:58:

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-07, 18:15:

Co0l. Well done. The more 286 goodness in vogons the better ...😉

When /if the mfm hdd dies on you I recommend getting a XT-IDE card for use with more modern hdds, CF/SD cards. I have one in my XT-Turbo system with a 2gig spinning rust drive. Oh I see have one according to your signature.

It may even run GeoWorks Ensemble 1.x ok. Gem should be ok as well. Forget any windows version prior to v3.

Witch GeoWorks Edition should i test/use?
Currently I am working with Volcov Commander (NC clone)

GeoWorks Essemble 1.2 They redid the code in version two and that is a bit slower.

Here's my 286s' autoexec.bat file...😉

I would recommend using the latest version that runs on a 286.
Or a PC/GEOS with 2.x API level, at least.
From what I heard, the application support for version 1.x was very medicore.

For the later versions, however, there are quite some useful programs.
Astronomy programs, Web Browsers, IRC clients, E-Mail clients, FLI/FLV players, BASIC Compilers etc.

Animation Player for PC/GEOS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0_Ziif3DEQ

Anyway, Caluser2000 surely knows more about PC/GEOS, so have a look at his advices.
- I was more of a GEM and Win2.x/3.x user, hah. 😅

Lovely system!

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-07, 22:01:

GeoWorks 1.x will run fine on MS Dos 5.0. Look in your Dos directory there should be a file called emm286.exe. Load that file in you 286 config.sys file on start up ansee if the sysrem sees the extra ram. I run MS Dos 5 of my 286 as well and put a copy of it's config.sys. Just use Dos edit command to add the entry. Just remove the rem entry on mine.and start it with Device= etc

I remember not having emm286 but 386 wich is meant to work on 386 and up.
Your startup files look very different from mine.
I've heard that emm286 is a special mod from the 386 edition and it could slow down my system or am I wrong? 🤔🙂