VOGONS


First post, by computerguy08

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I've recently got this 286 board from the flea market, yet another one of those Suntac 286 boards, of which Predator99 has one in this thread: Suntac 80286 Mainboards

1.png

http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/show/955

As usual, it came packed with a Varta killer, which ate away some of the traces near the keyboard controller. After some careful soldering, I patched the broken traces in that area and replaced the corroded parts with new ones.

2.jpg

Unfortunately, the board does not show any signs of life, no beeps, no POST codes. Sometimes, the IRDY led lights up on the POST card , sometimes not.

3.jpg

On the scope, I can see some activity on the CPU address lines, but not on the data lines (I see activity there when the IRDY led is on).

Other things I tried so far:
- Landmark Supersoft: no beep codes
- other BIOS images: again, no beeps
- reflowed and cleaned the CPU socket

Right now, I'm stuck in the diagnostic process, not sure what should I try next to make it show any sign of life.
Is there a clock signal generated in the RTC area (where the battery leaked) which is required for the CPU to run code from the ROM or something ?
If anyone has experience with these Suntac boards (or other early 286 boards), some advice would be appreciated.

P.S: if anyone is interested, I dumped the BIOS images and uploaded them in the UH19 page of this board (link above).

Reply 1 of 6, by evasive

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I see some legs on the logic chips with holes where solder should be. Did you reflow the legs of the logic chips near the affected area?

Reply 2 of 6, by chregu

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

You might want to check clocks and reset signals.

Reply 3 of 6, by computerguy08

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

The reset signal seems to be fine, the led on the post card lights up for a second then turns off when board gets power.
As for the clocks, I'm not sure what to measure exactly. I tried measuring CLK on the CPU socket, but I only got a steady 5V (i get the same result on a working 286 board).

Reply 4 of 6, by chregu

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Are you sure? I don't think that the CPU will do anything without a clock signal. Have you measured the clock with a scope?

Reply 5 of 6, by majestyk

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

And better check traces like this very carefully:

corrosion_cc.JPG

This is near the real time clock!
Even little spots can mean there are interruptions.
Same goes for the little copper tubes leading to the backside and layers inbetween.

Reply 6 of 6, by pentiumspeed

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

"little tubes" is called vias.

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.