appiah4 wrote on 2020-07-28, 06:37:

Those pictures are really low resolution so it's very hard to say anything about the state of the cards or components, post some […]
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Those pictures are really low resolution so it's very hard to say anything about the state of the cards or components, post some high quality high resolution photos.

As for the expansion cards:

MT255S: Sound Commander ISA, keep it. MT0252 chipset and YMF262 (or clone) genuine OPl3 sound card, probably SB Pro compatible, looks like an early ISA card that isn't all that integrated (possibly a noisy card) but that isn't surprising considering the age of the PC, and makes it a more uncommon piece. Someone with more knowledge will probably confirm the capabilities of the MT0252 soon I think.
TVGA9000: Run of the mill, slow ISA VGA but can run in 8-bit slots so that makes it useful if you want VGA output on an XT or something
RAM CARD: I don't know if that's proprietary but it's probably valuable. 4MB ram is quite handily enough for a 386 too.

Appreciate your time: great insight into these pieces. I'll be sure to post some better pictures here once it is dismantled & the damage becomes more apparent. The sound card is in remarkably good condition, given the overall state of the PC (looks like battery explosion + left out to oxidise, although can't find a battery anywhere). Looking forward to cleaning the sound card up and having a play with it.

mkarcher wrote on 2020-07-28, 08:28:

Those RAM CARDs are proprietary Compaq stuff. The Deskpro 386 series used memory cards that could be upgraded with square-shaped piggyback modules. This applies both to the 386s (SX, 16-bit) and 386 (DX, 32bit) series, although they used different cards. It says 4MB on the RAM CARD, so the card itself has 4MB of RAM. I see one upgrade module being installed, so the combination has 5MB at least, more likely 8MB. See https://retroviator.files.wordpress.com/2019/ … -spec-sheet.pdf for part numbers of the original 386s components. The 4MB memory card is Assembly Number 000969, as printed on your card and shown in that document. I have high hope that the upgrade module is 000993, the 4MB module, as upgrading from 4 to 5 MB seems to be useful only in special cases.

That's a fantastic find, thank you for this data sheet. So, it's Compaq-specific. I have the square-shaped piggyback module - there are quite a few numbers on it that are mostly hidden. Have taken more photos of the layout of the board, as well as the oxidation of sorts - haven't done cleaning yet. Wasn't keen to remove the upgrade module yet - looks as if there might be some brittle plastic flathead bolts holding it on, however managed to wedge the camera for a partial shot of the underside.

devius wrote on 2020-07-28, 10:32:

Repairing that Compaq won't be easy. I'd start by checking what works and what doesn't by testing the components individually.

Appreciate your advice. I'll be photo-documenting every step of the disassembly process, and perhaps on the way I can document the journey here - which part of the forum would be appropriate for such a journal?

alienmannequin wrote on 2020-07-28, 11:28:

... which part of the forum would be appropriate for such a journal?

This one, only a separate thread. For reference: General Old Hardware You can already find a few repair related threads in here. It's always fun 😃

This Soyo Super Socket 7 board which looks like new:

OMORES wrote on 2020-07-28, 15:17:

This Soyo Super Socket 7 board which looks like new:

<snip>

Should be a nice board! What CPU did you get with it?

Wow that board looks like it's never been out of it's box and it also has the ps/2 and serial port bracket. That's a excellent find my friend

Cyrix200+ wrote on 2020-07-28, 15:33:

OMORES wrote on 2020-07-28, 15:17:

This Soyo Super Socket 7 board which looks like new:

<snip>

Should be a nice board! What CPU did you get with it?

Well, the CPU is from another movie... a Pentium-S 100 Mhz. (And I had a K6-2+ 550Mhz (with 128K on chip cache) I gave it for free....)

Meanwhile I tested the board - everything works fine... I plugged a PCI-SATA and booted from SSD with no fiddling around...

OMORES wrote on 2020-07-28, 16:24:

Cyrix200+ wrote on 2020-07-28, 15:33:

OMORES wrote on 2020-07-28, 15:17:

This Soyo Super Socket 7 board which looks like new:

<snip>

Should be a nice board! What CPU did you get with it?

Well, the CPU is from another movie... a Pentium-S 100 Mhz. (And I had a K6-2+ 550Mhz (with 128K on chip cache) I gave it for free....)

Meanwhile I tested the board - everything works fine... I plugged a PCI-SATA and booted from SSD with no fiddling around...

Imagine: a Pentium 100 with SDRAM and AGP. Clock for clock faster than you'll expect 😀

alienmannequin wrote on 2020-07-28, 11:28:

So, it's Compaq-specific. I have the square-shaped piggyback module - there are quite a few numbers on it that are mostly hidden. Have taken more photos of the layout of the board, as well as the oxidation of sorts - haven't done cleaning yet. Wasn't keen to remove the upgrade module yet - looks as if there might be some brittle plastic flathead bolts holding it on, however managed to wedge the camera for a partial shot of the underside.

That partial shot clearly captured the text "4MB - 32 B - M MODULE" which quite surely mean "4 Megabyte 32-Bit Memory Module". That's interesting, as the base card is a 16-bit memory card (unsurprising for a 386SX machine). So it seems the square-shaped piggyback modules might be the same for both the 32-bit base card and the 16-bit base card. And indeed, the 32-bit Compaq Deskpro 386/20 configuration guide at http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/PS2_MOST/ACROR … PAQ/2005010.PDF actually lists the part number as well. It seems not all modules are interchangable, though.

Bought another one of these Pioneer slot drives. This is the third one I've bought. Two others died quite soon after purchase. Maybe this will last 😁

I just like how they look. Bit different than typical PC drives, somewhat eyecatching when someone has one of these in their machine.

CrFr wrote on 2020-07-28, 22:08:

Bought another one of these Pioneer slot drives. This is the third one I've bought. Two others died quite soon after purchase. Maybe this will last 😁

I just like how they look. Bit different than typical PC drives, somewhat eyecatching when someone has one of these in their machine.

20200728_184049890_iOS_.jpg

Hopefully it lasts but it seems like the main thing those drives do is die.

I've had luck with opening the slot load drives and giving everything a good cleaning and relube and they've came back to life. Since there not really sealed like a standard tray alot of dust a debris gets in and gums up the works.

I fell over when I opened up Deskpro 4/33i that arrived today to find out this is one of convertible 486 processor or 386DX 33 with 395DX 33 16K cache controller motherboard installed. I have another motherboard with 386DX pre-installed as backup. This computer contains 486DX 33 processor currently installed. No 64K cache card installed which still are very rare item than anything else.

Came with Conner 100MB hard drive. .. blech, will swap this turd out later with more reliable and faster hard drive later. I had bad experience with Conner back in the day. Slow and unreliable. I had three hard drives back in the day: Had repaired Conner by replacing the blown Cirrus Logic ATA interface, also very easy to fail and incompatible with master/slave if you wonder where my strong dislike comes from: Conner 200MB and IBM 270MB and Quantum 210MB, both IBM and Quantum is much faster.

This replaces the other Deskpro 4/33i with non convertible motherboard but unfortunately in poor condition (rust) and smashed front bezel.

Cheers,

Picked up some more junk 😀

According to seller it is:
IBM Aptiva Model 2170-26G
AMD K6-2 450Mhz / 128MB / 4GB HDD / CDRW / NIC / MODEM

Seller says it doesn't start, nothing happens when power button is pressed. I'm hoping it is just a matter of replacing the PSU. Even if it is totally trash inside, I'm happy to have this cool looking good condition case. It seems to accept normal mATX motherboards and ATX power supply, so it would be fun case to build some sleeper system in it.

CrFr wrote on 2020-07-28, 22:08:

Bought another one of these Pioneer slot drives. This is the third one I've bought. Two others died quite soon after purchase. Maybe this will last 😁

I just like how they look. Bit different than typical PC drives, somewhat eyecatching when someone has one of these in their machine.

20200728_184049890_iOS_.jpg

I have two of those, but in CD-rom version.

One of them is in an optiplex Gx1 and has been working for years without issues, while the other one has been opened and cleaned more times than i care to count just to end up giving problems some weeks later again.

May your drive be blessed with everlasting durability.

Picked up this curious Parallel Backpack Bantam CD-ROM/16-Bit Sound Drive. Its came with the floppy disks but these would not read, but managed to find the drivers online. At first the drive was struggling to read disks, so i cleaned the eye with some alcohol and a cotton bud and it reads them fine now. I've not yet got the sound capabilities working yet. This will be use on my Armada laptop.

CrFr wrote on 2020-07-28, 22:08:

Bought another one of these Pioneer slot drives. This is the third one I've bought. Two others died quite soon after purchase. Maybe this will last 😁

I just like how they look. Bit different than typical PC drives, somewhat eyecatching when someone has one of these in their machine.

20200728_184049890_iOS_.jpg

Looks like my first DVD Drive ! I remember I had loading issues after few years 😀

Roland CM64 sound module new and sealed came today to my office 😀

very nice :3

I'm jelly x3

Dimitris1980 wrote on 2020-07-29, 12:15:

Roland CM64 sound module new and sealed came today to my office 😀

B-E-A-Utilful!

Picked up a NOS case locally for €12, a Lian Li PC-A55

First thoughts are to mod a basic window in the side panel and use it for a dual build, possibly skt370 coppermine. With its front-mounted psu I may also rethink its position (top or bottom).