I think I might have found it: https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/E/E … 86-US-3486.html

The jumpers (or at least the location for them) match as does the layout.

Koltoroc wrote:

I think I might have found it: https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/E/E … 86-US-3486.html

The jumpers (or at least the location for them) match as does the layout.

It looks close, but chipset is different because mine has UMC. Also it if was that motherboard, mine would have come 2 cache chips in bank 0 and 2 cache chips in bank 1 and that should not work, right?

If it's PC Chips I'd take both anything written about chipset type and what you can see on your motherboard with a big pinch of salt. They were infamous for relabeling anything. In the Pentium-era their board had unique chipset names ("VXPro" and the like), but back in 386/486 days they just blatantly relabeled whatever chipset was used with whatever a customer wanted. So if the jumpers match, I'd assume the board is right...

Also it solves the battery mystery - J7 is a header for an external battery: by far the safest option in retrospect.

dionb wrote:

If it's PC Chips I'd take both anything written about chipset type and what you can see on your motherboard with a big pinch of salt. They were infamous for relabeling anything. In the Pentium-era their board had unique chipset names ("VXPro" and the like), but back in 386/486 days they just blatantly relabeled whatever chipset was used with whatever a customer wanted. So if the jumpers match, I'd assume the board is right...

Also it solves the battery mystery - J7 is a header for an external battery: by far the safest option in retrospect.

What made you think it could be pc Chips? I have not found anything on the board that would indicate that.
What kind of external battery I would need exactly? Would it have to be rechargeable? Anyone has any ebay links for battery a pack that could be good for this motherboard that I could buy?

^I think dionb is assuming Elitegroup (ECS) and PC Chips were always the same entity. They were not; the two companies merged around ~2001 and any K7S5A or similar board made past that date and branded "ECS" certainly looked and felt like a PC Chips board. But before that (and certainly in the 386 era), ECS and PC Chips were distinct companies.

For the battery header, you should try probing with your multimetre to see if there is voltage on those pins when the board is switched on (implying that a charging circuit is implemented).

I found this old thread in vogons FX-3000 motherboard thread about a motherboard that says FX-3000 on the motherboard like on mine, but that one had 486 slot and mine doesn't have that but it has the same chipset as on my motherboard. Mine also doesn't have soldered cpu like that one has. Now I am bit confused about what cpu can be used on mine.

Also if cache banks are like on that elitegroup motherboard, how it would work with both bank 0 and bank 1 half filled?

SW-SSG wrote:

^I think dionb is assuming Elitegroup (ECS) and PC Chips were always the same entity. They were not; the two companies merged around ~2001 and any K7S5A or similar board made past that date and branded "ECS" certainly looked and felt like a PC Chips board. But before that (and certainly in the 386 era), ECS and PC Chips were distinct companies.

ECS was close to PC Chips (with similar business packages) long before that merger. This board is a case in point - just look at the TULARC link posted above: OPTi or C&T chipset... yeah right... and here we have the same board with a UMC chipset.

For the battery header, you should try probing with your multimetre to see if there is voltage on those pins when the board is switched on (implying that a charging circuit is implemented).

I'd generally assume that to be the case, but yep, checking is better than assuming. If so, a 3x AA(A) battery holder with rechargeables is the way to go.

Baoran wrote:

I found this old thread in vogons FX-3000 motherboard thread about a motherboard that says FX-3000 on the motherboard like on mine, but that one had 486 slot and mine doesn't have that but it has the same chipset as on my motherboard. Mine also doesn't have soldered cpu like that one has. Now I am bit confused about what cpu can be used on mine.

You mean a VLB slot? That can technically be combined with 386, but generally wasn't. Your board has the 486 positions on the motherboard, but no pins/socket implemented. Just like the VLB slot, that's just an option using the same basic design. Same goes for the soldered CPU- it's the same pins as the socket on your board, just with a CPU slapped straight onto it.

Come to think of it, I have what is probably exactly that board in one of the old systems I picked up two weeks back. I also has VLB, 486 socket and soldered Am486DX-40. Unfortunately it seems completely dead.

As for what CPU you can use: 132p 386DX. Or compatible (i.e. DLC(2) CPUs)

dionb wrote:

You mean a VLB slot? That can technically be combined with 386, but generally wasn't. Your board has the 486 positions on the mo […]
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Baoran wrote:

I found this old thread in vogons FX-3000 motherboard thread about a motherboard that says FX-3000 on the motherboard like on mine, but that one had 486 slot and mine doesn't have that but it has the same chipset as on my motherboard. Mine also doesn't have soldered cpu like that one has. Now I am bit confused about what cpu can be used on mine.

You mean a VLB slot? That can technically be combined with 386, but generally wasn't. Your board has the 486 positions on the motherboard, but no pins/socket implemented. Just like the VLB slot, that's just an option using the same basic design. Same goes for the soldered CPU- it's the same pins as the socket on your board, just with a CPU slapped straight onto it.

Come to think of it, I have what is probably exactly that board in one of the old systems I picked up two weeks back. I also has VLB, 486 socket and soldered Am486DX-40. Unfortunately it seems completely dead.

As for what CPU you can use: 132p 386DX. Or compatible (i.e. DLC(2) CPUs)

I meant the 486 cpu socket when I talked about slot. In any case that thread that I linked they say that it isn't a vlb slot and someone had fried their vlb card by trying the card in it. I assume that the cpu that I would use on the board has to match the 66.67Mhz crystal that is on the motherboard, right?

Edit: I think it is MCA slot.

At least the motherboard is alive. Can that bios string tell us the manufacturer of the motherboard?

Baoran wrote:

I meant the 486 cpu socket when I talked about slot. In any case that thread that I linked they say that it isn't a vlb slot and someone had fried their vlb card by trying the card in it. I assume that the cpu that I would use on the board has to match the 66.67Mhz crystal that is on the motherboard, right?

Generally your clock runs at 1/2 of the crystal's oscillations, so 66.67MHz sounds like a bus running at 33.3MHz. I'd recommend at least a 486DX-33 or DX2-66.

Edit: I think it is MCA slot.

Physically a VLB slot is exactly that: an ISA slot with an MCA slot stuck in front of it. Using MCA was a cynical and brilliant move by VESA to use up stockpiles of MCA components nobody wanted as a cheap, convenient way of making a 32b bus.

Electrically it's totally different of course- but you can be sure that whatever that thing is, it isn't MCA, if only because an MCA slot would be at the rear of the case, close to a backplate. I say it's just a VLB slot. There is exactly one person claiming it wasn't VESA-compatible, and he had soldered the slot on himself and fried something. The comment immediately below it sounds very likely:

Anonymous Coward wrote:

It should be a VLB slot. Perhaps there were some support components that you forgot to solder on with it.

VLB has very significant timing/clocking/compatibility issues, but electrically it's pretty bog standard. Even PC-Chips (the real one, on things like the M919) didn't mess around with it. OPTi Local Bus is the nasty one, as it uses the same slot as EISA but with wiring different enough to fry cards if you stick the wrong one in. The only indication you have whether a brown, tall ISA-like slot is EISA or OLB is that OLB only supports a few cards, so only a few slots will be populated with it, whereas if a board supports EISA, generally all its slots will be EISA not ISA.

dionb wrote:

Generally your clock runs at 1/2 of the crystal's oscillations, so 66.67MHz sounds like a bus running at 33.3MHz. I'd recommend […]
Show full quote

Baoran wrote:

I meant the 486 cpu socket when I talked about slot. In any case that thread that I linked they say that it isn't a vlb slot and someone had fried their vlb card by trying the card in it. I assume that the cpu that I would use on the board has to match the 66.67Mhz crystal that is on the motherboard, right?

Generally your clock runs at 1/2 of the crystal's oscillations, so 66.67MHz sounds like a bus running at 33.3MHz. I'd recommend at least a 486DX-33 or DX2-66.

Edit: I think it is MCA slot.

Physically a VLB slot is exactly that: an ISA slot with an MCA slot stuck in front of it. Using MCA was a cynical and brilliant move by VESA to use up stockpiles of MCA components nobody wanted as a cheap, convenient way of making a 32b bus.

Electrically it's totally different of course- but you can be sure that whatever that thing is, it isn't MCA, if only because an MCA slot would be at the rear of the case, close to a backplate. I say it's just a VLB slot. There is exactly one person claiming it wasn't VESA-compatible, and he had soldered the slot on himself and fried something. The comment immediately below it sounds very likely:

Anonymous Coward wrote:

It should be a VLB slot. Perhaps there were some support components that you forgot to solder on with it.

VLB has very significant timing/clocking/compatibility issues, but electrically it's pretty bog standard. Even PC-Chips (the real one, on things like the M919) didn't mess around with it. OPTi Local Bus is the nasty one, as it uses the same slot as EISA but with wiring different enough to fry cards if you stick the wrong one in. The only indication you have whether a brown, tall ISA-like slot is EISA or OLB is that OLB only supports a few cards, so only a few slots will be populated with it, whereas if a board supports EISA, generally all its slots will be EISA not ISA.

I can't put a 486 on a 386 motherboard.
There seems to be 5V in the external battery connector.
At least the motherboard works and there seems to be no problems in dos.

I assume elitegroup and pcchips made generally not so good motherboards, so would it be worth it to do anything with this motherboard or would it just be better to try find a better 386 motherboard?