This is the Epson Tiger board :-p

Yeah, looks like it:

https://pcrebuilding.altervista.org/93/35/MOT … 86+PGA-132.html

😀 Well, what I meant was, I need help finding informations about this board, what is what?, jumper settings, etc...

by the way this thing uses intel 386dx-25mhz

Have a look thru the linked user manual

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/301980/epso … ity-386-25.html

board layout and DIP / jumpers seem to be a very close match

PC Hoarder Patrol, Thank you very much !!

Update:

It turns out that this motherboard is from "epson pc ax3/25" but is very similar (maybe exactly similar) to "epson equity 386/25".
I got it working but there is one problem, it gives this error on start: "161 - System options not set (Run SETUP in REFERENCE DISK)".
Pressing F1 to bypass the error does not help.

Any idea where I can get the image of the reference diskette for this pc ?

Not sure if these are designed for desktops or laptops, but this is a partial quote from user @rubienjo on vcfed

I already found a whole ftp source of reference disks at epsons italian server in the following paths. […]
Show full quote

I already found a whole ftp source of reference disks at epsons italian server in the following paths.

ftp://ftp.epson.it/pub/es/compu/
ftp://ftp.epson.it/pub/it/pc/

Files with the prefix "rd-" are the so called reference disks for some epson models. Now its the job to find the right one!!!

I see one there call rd-ax325.zip, so that might be worth a try.

Any idea how can I properly "burn" this to a floppy, as an img file (with proper boot)?

Things I tried so far, will be updated as I try more:

* Simply copied rd_ax325.zip files to 1.44mb 3.5" floppy, it did not work
* Copied rd_ax325.zip files to a 1.44mb 3.5" floppy with a ms-dos 5.0 boot on it, it did not work
* I also found reference.img in one of the sites, it is 720kb, burned it on 720kb 3.5", again it did not work (I really thought that this one will work 🙁 ) that reference.img contains similar files to rd_ax325.zip
* After burning a 720kb floppy with reference.img, I also copied files from rd_ax325.zip on it, so relevant files are replaced and bootsector(if any) kept same, still did not work.

In all above cases the error remains "161 - System options not set (Run SETUP in REFERENCE DISK)"
(I am sure that the system recognize floppy drive and keyboard because without them it gives errors for them as well)

Did you actually run the SETUP application contained within the zip file at the DOS prompt (I'm not sure SETUP or any of the other reference disk files need to be on a bootable floppy)? Try that and see if it works (may be in Italian by the look of the .VER files).

Another option, from the same vcfed user is to try the generic setup program GSETUP

No, Let me explain problem in more detail:

I switch on the pc, after ram size check, it gives error "161 - System options not set (Run SETUP in REFERENCE DISK)"
Then it tries to read the floppy for a few seconds, and nothing happens. That's it. I am left with a screen that shows 2mb ram and that error line.
It doesn't even boot to DOS. Whatever I press on keyboard, nothing happens.
So I thought, maybe it needs the right bootable reference floppy to work correctly.
I have tried it with a 1.44mb 3.5" MS-DOS 5.0 floppy and 720kb 3.5" MS-DOS 4.01 floppy as well, it did not work.

Any idea what can I do now?

Are you sure your floppy drive is OK with that 720k disk? Did you try the combination in another PC?

If you are lucky the BIOS initializes option ROMs before trying to start the emergency floppy. Do you have a XT-IDE or a SCSI-Adapter with Boot-ROM to try?

I tried floppy/drive combinations on another pc, it is OK. I am pretty sure there are no other problems in my system(such as hardware not working or not being recognized).

To answer your second question, I don't have it.

That's kind of what I thought, but thanks for the clarification 😀

My next suggestion (for that read stab in the dark!) is a fault / dead battery in the on-board Dallas DS1287 RTC, based on the following,

The Equity 386/25 manual linked earlier mentions config error code 162, but not 161. This is an extract from the Epson Equity 486 manual which does

Replacing the Dallas RTC may solve the problem (is it socketed or soldered directly to the board?)

O M G 😳

For some reason, I decided to connect my 80mb ide hard drive as well (which has ms-dos 5.0 on it), AND it worked !
After the error line, now it says "press F1 to continue", I press F1 and it boots to ms-dos 4.01 on 720kb floppy, not hard drive, on top of that it doesn't even recognize hard drive, I type c:, it won't switch to it, tried other letters as well. Simply the presence of hard drive made it boot to floppy without even seeing hard drive, I mean wtf ?!
I'll play around with it and see what I can do, will update again.

PC Hoarder Patrol, to answer you question, I think it is soldered to motherboard, can't tell exactly, it's like a black box that sits on motherboard, with no gap, no pins can be seen.

At least you've made some progress - if you can run setup and any settings are retained then RTC is probably OK. If it's socketed you should be able to see a seam in the black box just above the board - below the seam is the socket and above is the Dallas RTC chip. If there's no seam the RTC will be soldered directly to the board.