Strangely enough the system has no DVD-ROM installed, just a very beat up CD-ROM. According to those specs it should have had a 2x DVD-ROM (no wonder it did not survive). If it's an MPEG2 decoder card, then excellent. I will drop in a beige DVD-ROM into this.

Just checked online, it is probably one of the many Dell OEM Cinemaster C MPEG2 decoder card variants.

Just bought a Creative GF2 Ti. Now I can finally complete the box I kept from my P3 period 😀 This one took me some time to find.

Another lot today...received many nice items in the last weeks, have to take a decision what to keep and what to sell soon, taking up to much place 😐

386 Mainboard, manufacturer Intel 1987

386 Goldstar

EMS card fully populated: 2M-EMS GA-229. Hope will get it running this time or find some documentation/drivers...

80386 "Contaq" Chipset - never heard of it

Very corroded 286 Board...think its G2 chipset. Will be a challenge to restore...

486 VLB with Cyrix 486DX2-66

286 Board with onboard EGA...think its from a Laptop and rather useless...

appiah4 wrote:

I managed to crack my new Dimension XPS open thanks to ouevre (never thought it would be so hard to open a PC case) and it turne […]
Show full quote

I managed to crack my new Dimension XPS open thanks to ouevre (never thought it would be so hard to open a PC case) and it turned oıt to be more interesting than I thought.

2F6B5F09-58A3-4BD8-B6F7-D305D97F396C.jpeg

It is a PII 333 unsurprisingly, with 3 sticks of 64MB RAM. It came with an 8.4GB IBM HDD and 48x ASUS CDROM which is almost certainly a replacement.

The graphics card turned out to be a Riva 128 not a Permedia 2 so it is better for gaming. However I dont know if it is an original configuration card or a later upgrade.

The sound card is a Turtle Beach Montego (Aureal Vortex 1) and the ethernet card is a 3Com with ParallellTasking II chipset

The mystery card turned out to be a daughtercard not for the Turtle Beach but for the Riva 128.Itt is connected by a feature connector to the VGA and an audio cable to the audio card. The only other connector is what seems to be a composite in or out at the back.. What could this be? A TV Out daughterboard? An Mpeg card?

Most likely an MPEG card. The Riva 128 is probably original.

Predator99 wrote:

80386 "Contaq" Chipset - never heard of it

It's actually an early 486 board, and it takes weitek 4167 math-co.

http://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/I-L/30744.htm

Predator99 wrote:

80386 "Contaq" Chipset - never heard of it

DSC_7028.JPG

I've been after a BIOS image for a board with that chipset for ages. If you feel like dumping it I would be extremely grateful. 😀

xjas wrote:

Predator99 wrote:

80386 "Contaq" Chipset - never heard of it

DSC_7028.JPG

I've been after a BIOS image for a board with that chipset for ages. If you feel like dumping it I would be extremely grateful. 😀

I had a 386 board with the exact same chipset: contaq 82c591, contaq 82c592, and sis 85c206. I had trouble using it with 486DLC. Too bad I sold it after I got a 386 board that takes 486DLC. I reckon the 486DX BIOS would have cured my ex-386 board.

^^ mine is a hybrid 3/486 board, with jumpers for either chip. Which is why I want to get it working. 😀 Came with a 386DX/40 installed, which looks OEM.

xjas wrote:

Predator99 wrote:

80386 "Contaq" Chipset - never heard of it

The attachment DSC_7028.JPG is no longer available

I've been after a BIOS image for a board with that chipset for ages. If you feel like dumping it I would be extremely grateful. 😀

No problem...let us know if it worked.

What about opening a separate Thread to upload BIOS-images? They are really hard to find and its a pity to dump a board just because of a missing/damaged BIOS...maybe I will start one..after my holidays 😎

Predator99 wrote:

What about opening a separate Thread to upload BIOS-images? They are really hard to find and its a pity to dump a board just because of a missing/damaged BIOS...maybe I will start one..after my holidays 😎

There is a BIOS page at vogonsdrivers. Maybe we can use that?

appiah4 wrote:

Strangely enough the system has no DVD-ROM installed, just a very beat up CD-ROM. According to those specs it should have had a 2x DVD-ROM (no wonder it did not survive). If it's an MPEG2 decoder card, then excellent. I will drop in a beige DVD-ROM into this.

Just checked online, it is probably one of the many Dell OEM Cinemaster C MPEG2 decoder card variants.

Since the CD drive is Asus branded, I suppose it's not the original 😀

My XPS D233 desktop came with a CD drive and the same Riva 128 card, it's nice to know what that header that I've seen on lots of VGA cards is for; just an internal VGA pass-through?

lazibayer wrote:

Predator99 wrote:

What about opening a separate Thread to upload BIOS-images? They are really hard to find and its a pity to dump a board just because of a missing/damaged BIOS...maybe I will start one..after my holidays 😎

There is a BIOS page at vogonsdrivers. Maybe we can use that?

Hmm there is no XT-486 images there. And they are difficult to add as many old boards dont have a brand/label. My idea would be 1 post per board with
- photo
- CPU
- list of chips
- label (if any)
- link to i.e. stason for jumper settings

So for this one:
- photo
80486
contaq 82c591, contaq 82c592, and sis 85c206
http://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/I-L/30744.htm
..and the image file

That way it can be found if searching for an unknown board?

oeuvre wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

I managed to crack my new Dimension XPS open thanks to ouevre (never thought it would be so hard to open a PC case) and it turne […]
Show full quote

I managed to crack my new Dimension XPS open thanks to ouevre (never thought it would be so hard to open a PC case) and it turned oıt to be more interesting than I thought.

2F6B5F09-58A3-4BD8-B6F7-D305D97F396C.jpeg

It is a PII 333 unsurprisingly, with 3 sticks of 64MB RAM. It came with an 8.4GB IBM HDD and 48x ASUS CDROM which is almost certainly a replacement.

The graphics card turned out to be a Riva 128 not a Permedia 2 so it is better for gaming. However I dont know if it is an original configuration card or a later upgrade.

The sound card is a Turtle Beach Montego (Aureal Vortex 1) and the ethernet card is a 3Com with ParallellTasking II chipset

The mystery card turned out to be a daughtercard not for the Turtle Beach but for the Riva 128.Itt is connected by a feature connector to the VGA and an audio cable to the audio card. The only other connector is what seems to be a composite in or out at the back.. What could this be? A TV Out daughterboard? An Mpeg card?

Most likely an MPEG card. The Riva 128 is probably original.

I've got a Riva 128 with the same secondary card attached to it via that same cable. I don't recall what I pulled it out of, but it was likely a Dell of that vintage. So that would support the theory that it's original.

Predator99 wrote:

Hmm there is no XT-486 images there. And they are difficult to add as many old boards dont have a brand/label. My idea would be […]
Show full quote

lazibayer wrote:

There is a BIOS page at vogonsdrivers. Maybe we can use that?

Hmm there is no XT-486 images there. And they are difficult to add as many old boards dont have a brand/label. My idea would be 1 post per board with
- photo
- CPU
- list of chips
- label (if any)
- link to i.e. stason for jumper settings

So for this one:
- photo
80486
contaq 82c591, contaq 82c592, and sis 85c206
http://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/I-L/30744.htm
..and the image file

That way it can be found if searching for an unknown board?

That sounds fancy! Users can also upload pictures of the board if it's no where to be found. Besides BIOS, people can also deposit other images such as GAL, PAL, video BIOS, etc.

Predator99 wrote:

Hmm there is no XT-486 images there. And they are difficult to add as many old boards dont have a brand/label. My idea would be […]
Show full quote

lazibayer wrote:

Predator99 wrote:

What about opening a separate Thread to upload BIOS-images? They are really hard to find and its a pity to dump a board just because of a missing/damaged BIOS...maybe I will start one..after my holidays 😎

There is a BIOS page at vogonsdrivers. Maybe we can use that?

Hmm there is no XT-486 images there. And they are difficult to add as many old boards dont have a brand/label. My idea would be 1 post per board with
- photo
- CPU
- list of chips
- label (if any)
- link to i.e. stason for jumper settings

So for this one:
- photo
80486
contaq 82c591, contaq 82c592, and sis 85c206
http://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/I-L/30744.htm
..and the image file

That way it can be found if searching for an unknown board?

This would especially be useful if you could quickly browse by schematic or photo/thumbnail to identify unlabelled 'mystery boards.' There are already a few BIOS archives around but they all have different specific focus and it doesn't seem like anyone's gone and collected them into a 'general purpose' repo yet.

Thanks for the ROM dump! My board (this one, MSI MS-3124) even has the same SiS 85C206 "southbridge" (or whatever that chip is called on a 486) so hopefully it should work. Very similar architecture.

Badass ISA controler (Tekram DC-600B) :

I wonder what its performances are...

@jimpqfly

Prepare to be disappointed.

These cards were designed to boost poor performing hard drives, specifically in situations where there are a lot of read/writes happening often. Such as, but not limited to, heavy multi tasking. Its still damn cool, but Its practicality is zero.

luckybob wrote:

@jimpqfly

Prepare to be disappointed.

These cards were designed to boost poor performing hard drives, specifically in situations where there are a lot of read/writes happening often. Such as, but not limited to, heavy multi tasking. Its still damn cool, but Its practicality is zero.

Yup, if you use a newer drive those cards will actually hamper performance since they will bottleneck due to the onboard CPU. As luckybob says, they were made for slow drives to become faster.

vetz wrote:

luckybob wrote:

@jimpqfly

Prepare to be disappointed.

These cards were designed to boost poor performing hard drives, specifically in situations where there are a lot of read/writes happening often. Such as, but not limited to, heavy multi tasking. Its still damn cool, but Its practicality is zero.

Yup, if you use a newer drive those cards will actually hamper performance since they will bottleneck due to the onboard CPU. As luckybob says, they were made for slow drives to become faster.

...yes but... doesn't this mean it would be a way cool component to pimp out a small capacity, poor performing period correct HD on an old sub-gig system? Would make a fun build/test project I think. Especially "outside the box" given that even purists are often down with SATA/IDE converters to graft modern drives for practical reasons. So why not push the limits of old storage.

On the otherhand the "click of death" has probably made this more than a trivial undertaking...