Yep that's the one. All the way down to the stock AA batteries 🤣.

I see your's came with a Trident 8900 ISA video card same as mine. Curious if yours had a SX or DX cpu. Mine had DX but also the Mathco socket was soldered where on your board it was missing. Just curious. Mine has the original ST3283A Seagate HD which still works ok. Most of the directories are dated 1992 except a few, so am assuming it is the original.
Ok tried four different cache setups, one told me 256k cache at end of POST but hung running cachechk. The others simply did not work, either did not show or hung before end of POST. Unfortunately the manual is missing some information. With the board having 4 main cache sockets and two "tag" (or one Tag and one for parity, since manual pages mention 32x8 and 32x9) have yet to get a cache chip setup to work properly (and used known good cache chips, two sets off perfectly good working 486 boards). Back to square one with no cache and runs fine.

I can confirm, my CPU is a dx-33. As I understand, the i486 is capable of floating point operations so the coprocessor isn't needed? I wish my board had those two 28 pin sockets populated. That's a bummer. The video card is a TVGA9000B, unfortunately. I read that it is nowhere near as capable as the 8900 and only supports 512k video memory. But it has the same Seagate ST3283A. Mine clicks once really loudly at startup so imaged it and replaced it. I went with the SDtoPATA adaptor because I wanted to add a CD-ROM and lacked the fourth pair of drive brackets required to add said CD-ROM. Mine came with no sound card but I have a sound blaster that hasn't seen any action since I last used it around 2003.

486DX contains FPU, so no co-pro needed.
486SX = 486DX with disabled FPU
486DX overdrive = 486DX with 1 pin difference to disable an onboard 486SX.

So with a 486SX + DX overdrive you actually have two full and almost identical processors...

After doing some research think I found that the board 35-2527-01 only truly supports 128k of cache and it must be 15nS (20nS hangs the POST). The manual for board 35-2528-11 states 128k cache and the jumper settings are identical (except for location on the board) compared to 35-2527-01. I only have one 128kbit (16k x8) 15nS module so cannot do any further testing. When 256k (32k x8) 15nS are put in all cache sockets including sockets U42+U43 the BIOS states 256k write-through but hangs in cachechk, If I only put one chip in either U42 or U43 the POST either hangs or does not see the cache at all, so the BIOS auto detects cache size based on the chips in those two sockets. Too bad there are not jumpers to set the cache size ! Why it needs two TAGs is a bit odd unless one is for "dirty bit". Am going to order a couple of 16k x8 -15nS but won't get them for a few weeks. Thanks again for help guys !

I have no experience when it comes to cache in old x86 systems. But I do have some 1024 10ns on order that I won't be too bummed if I can't use. They are cheap coming from China and are probably rebranded slower chips. I do have a programmer to test them with though. No idea regarding the tag chips.

More thanks to you folks for the help!

RetroSpector78 wrote on 2019-10-21, 20:30:

Hi, […]
Show full quote

Hi,

I've got this Laser 386/3 desktop PC (https://retrospector78.wordpress.com/2019/10/ … 2/laser-386-pc/) , and I know that Laser was a very popular computer brand in the Netherlands (Having close to 10% marketshare in 1997 with huge advertisements budgets / adds on television).
I did not know that they were part of VTech and after doing some research came to find out that they were active in the US also starting from the eighties. (IBM PC and Apple II clones).

Just how popular was their PC line later on in the VTech / Laser timeline (XTs / 286 / 386 / 486 machines) ?

There's not a lot of information out there and the machines seem to be very rare also.

In April of 1993 me and my dad went to Best Buy and got a Vtech LASER 486DX-33, 8MB Memory, 250mb Hard Drive, Windows 3.1, 3.5 and 5.25 floppy drives for $1,628, I had also got a "Sound Blaster Pro Deluxe" for $147.87, and a Gravis game pad for $18.78, and a three year warranty for $39, my dad used his tax return to buy this computer for me.

BTW I believe this computer came with a Model 11D SVGA monitor, 14 inch screen, 0.39 Dot Pitch , it was not a very good monitor.

And in June of 1993 - I got an external Sony CDU31A drive it came in a kit from "Sun Moon Star" it had a SCSI controller card, some crappy small un-amplified speakers, and some CD-Roms, like "The Software Toolworks CD Deluxe 4 Pack" that included "Software Toolworks Chessmaster 3000", "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing", "U.S. Atlas" and "World Atlas" all on one CD, and "The Software Toolworks Multimedia Encyclopedia 1992 Groiler", Tempra Access Photo CD Imaging software, and a few other CDs I have forgotten, I think they were "Mario is Missing", and maybe "D/Generation", we got it at Sam's Club, cost was about $399.

And I had a Epson ActionPrinter 3250 24-pin dot matrix printer, that was a very loud printer, but very cheap tu use.

I loved this computer, but one thing I disliked about it was that they said it was "Pentium upgradable" but what they should have said was you could get a "Pentium OverDrive" chip, not the same thing, and the cost at the time for a "Pentium OverDrive" chip was very expensive, at the time it was cheaper to buy a real Pentium CPU or a Am486 DX4-120, at first I upgraded to a an Intel 486DX2-66, but it was just not fast enough for me, then I went to a Am486 DX4-120 before replacing this computer, another thing about this computer was that it used VLB video cards, and one of the first upgrades I made was a Western Digital Paradise Accelerator VL WD90C31 video card that had 1MB memory and the cost was around $250 to $300.

I found some links that might be useful?

https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/V/V … -CASE-ASIC.html

https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/V/V … 86-ASIC-II.html

https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/V/V … E-ASIC-163.html

They seem to show the jumper settings for a few 486 Vtech motherboards, and they show a lot of other motherboards from other systems also, I seem to remember fining this info somewhere else a long time ago, and I just now found it again.

That's a lovely Laser system! 😀 I remember a friend of my Dad's having a Laser, I think it was a smaller desktop a 386. Used to play on it a lot! Good times!

Laser wasn’t uncommon in the US at all but oddly every one I’ve seen was XT class (of some sort)
Never seen anything locally from the 286+ era

Interesting to be reminded of them, some folks were very brand loyal to things.

rmay635703 wrote on 2020-10-16, 13:06:

Laser wasn’t uncommon in the US at all but oddly every one I’ve seen was XT class (of some sort)
Never seen anything locally from the 286+ era

Interesting to be reminded of them, some folks were very brand loyal to things.

In the USA most of the Vtech 286 thru 486 were labeled as Leading Technology or PC Partner on the west coast, yes the XT's were all Laser AFAIK. Not sure why VTCL/Vtech made/sold them under different names in different parts of US and Europe but they did.
For historical sakes, Here are a couple pictures of some manuals from the 286 and 486 variants I have and kept since mid 90's (yes am a packrat)

Can anyone with Laser/VTech computers please scan their manuals and make a good quality picture of their motherboard so it can be added to Ultimate Retro please?
Some stuff is still missing:
https://www.ultimateretro.net/motherboards/?m … ufacturerId=423
They will be listed as PcPartner boards BTW, we don't have a way to combine several brands that are tied together yet.
https://www.ultimateretro.net/motherboards/?m … ufacturerId=478

It seems I found a matching set of jumper settings.

For folks curious about VTech and Laser, I just acquired a Laser 386SX/25, which is the exact model I had when I was a kid. This model has just three spots for drives—3.5 and 5 1/4 floppies and a hard drive.

Still digging through it but the machine turns on, though no video at this time. (I’m sure I’ll get that figured out soon enough.)

You know we will ask for pictures of the motherboard front and back and a bios dump for UH19. It is possibly already in there but without the 35-xxxx-xx/7xxxxxxxYYY markings, hard to tell.

I will put this topic in my mind. Will be come back later on this.. Will make a photo of my laser XT /3 motherboard.

I keep finding these old, but very interesting topics, but this one almost brought a tear to my eye, especially the photos @RetroSpector78 had posted of his Laser 386 PC, as my first IBM compatible PC computer, was infact a VTech Platinum system. Unfortunately, whenever I tell anyone I had VTech PC, they immediately think of those kids toy computers that were very popular and laugh! but no, it was a Win 95 PC System which I received as a very extravagant 1996 Christmas present from my wife, costing £1299 (around *£2400 today) from a company selling VTech PC systems in the UK called Crown Computers.

I can't find any pictures, but the AT Desktop case style and keyboard looked identical to the Laser 386 system above, but it came with a generic mouse, and a Tatung 14" CRT monitor, which looked like this one:

It had Windows 95, so as recommended for performance, the base memory was upgraded from 8mb to 16mb. Despite the Win95 compatible logo stickers, I found most games of that era were still largely DOS based, which at times were a PITA to get working, but was all part of the experience then, and helped me learn a lot more than I would've done if things had simply worked first time. Like many computer systems of the 'Multimedia' era, it came with a FREE CD ROM software bundle, adding perceived value.

OEM version bundle comprised: Microsoft Windows 95, Lotus Smartsuite 3.1, Microsoft Dangerous Creatures, Microsoft Encarta '95, Microsoft Works 3.0 including Money 3.0, and Microsoft Golf 2.0

Main specifications: Windows 95 desktop PC, VTech / PC Partner intel 430VX Socket 7 motherboard, Intel Pentium 120mhz CPU, 1.1 GB Hard Drive, 16 MB RAM (2 x 8mb 72pin EDO SIMM memory), Trio S3+ 1 MB PCi VGA, ESS Audiodrive ES1868 ISA soundcard, 8 or 16x CD ROM.

Over time I upgraded to a 200mhz CPU, but eventually, only the case & PSU were original, as I upgraded almost everything, Win 98SE, Gigabyte GA-5AA motherboard, AMD K6-2 500mhz CPU, 128 MB PC100 DIMM RAM memory, Western Digital 40GB HDD, NEC CDRW, and finally a 3D Graphics Blaster Exxtreme (Only because the Permedia 2 features looked impressive on the box, and it was the only card under £100 in my local PC World). I ended up using it for an arcade project which got sold, and by then had an Athlon system I'd built.

I wanted to get an old PC, and initially hoped to find a VTech like I had, but haven't seen one on eBay in years or anywhere else, possibly due to Crown Computers going bust. I've ended up buying a Packard Bell which I've added details and pictures of in Post your Packard Bell computers here!. It's a bit a newer being from 1998, but I've been fascinated with Packard Bells of that era for a few years anyway, so decided it will do me perfectly, and still allow me to enjoy all my old games on real vintage socket 7 hardware.

If anyone has any pictures, adverts or information on these VTech PCs, I'd love to seen them.
BTW, I still have the ES1868 Windows 95 driver disk from the old VTech which I can image if anyone needs it.

*According to Bank of England inflation calculator.

VTech intel 430VX Motherboard

Hi!

I go by Haru (23yo), and my kid sister, Ana (18yo), is a computer nerd who is very socially shy about message boards. My mom (38yo) recently bequeathed her seemingly-ancient Laser 386 to Ana, and stated that it has seen so many upgrades over the years, it could be considered a "Theseus's PC" of sorts.

Among the upgrades it currently still has:

An Intel 486/75 DX CPU
Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE 32 Stereo Sound Card
Creative Labs 6x-speed CD-ROM Drive
12 MB RAM
1.7 GB HDD

Upgrades Ana is planning:
Some sort of VESA/SVGA graphics card (she wants 256 colors in both Windows 3.11 and DOS 6.22)
A replacement for the old Gravis Gamepad our mom used as a kid
A "Floppy Emulator" (my understanding is that it will allow the use of USB storage?)
Possibly replacement 5.25" floppy drive for the one in there (90% sure it got broken in a move)
A replacement serial mouse
A more true-to-the-era keyboard (current keyboard has a Windowos Key on it, which just types the number, "4")
A modem (Ana has long-term plans to build a small, replica mainframe or something in our basement, running some sort of old software; she mentioned "AS/400")
Replacement speakers (the old ones ended up dying)

Thanks to Ana and my mom being diligent, apart from a few broken/missing components (the old mouse, the 5.25" floppy drive), the machine works like-new, and we're hoping to pass it on through the generations.

I apologize if I got any of this wrong; I'm not exactly a computer-savvy individual. Mom has worked in IT for 22 years, though, and recognizes the cool stuff Ana is capable of doing.

Cheers,
Haru