VOGONS


First post, by Gazirra

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Recently, I was able to buy a bunch of 486 PC parts, and have decided to try to get one going.
I've never built one before, but am familiar with it in a tangential sorta way. I'm relieved that my MB has a standard watch battery instead of a drum battery, for example.
Below are a compilation of both the components I bought recently and some miscellaneous ISA cards I had lying around. I'm needing guidance on where to start with all of this. Any help would be appreciated.
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[url=https://ibb.co/64FFB6h]20201114-210205.jpg[/url

Reply 1 of 7, by jakethompson1

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Between the board+RAM+CPU and Trident VGA card you at least have enough to make sure it's working. Be super careful with the power supply. The loose wires visible in the third picture are supposed to go to a power switch. Those wires carry 120VAC/240VAC.

For connecting the two PSU connectors to the motherboard remember black next to black.

And when testing the power supply, before concluding it's dead, it needs something connected to it, ideally a hard drive, in order for the fan to even spin.

Reply 2 of 7, by Pierre32

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jakethompson1 wrote on 2020-11-15, 03:50:

Be super careful with the power supply. The loose wires visible in the third picture are supposed to go to a power switch. Those wires carry 120VAC/240VAC.

Very good pickup.

OP, your case will need to have one of these chunky, mains-rated AT power switches, not the low voltage kind found in modern cases: https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Locking-Butto … h/dp/B07HF4F8FY

Reply 3 of 7, by Horun

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Gazirra wrote on 2020-11-15, 03:30:

Recently, I was able to buy a bunch of 486 PC parts, and have decided to try to get one going.
I've never built one before, but am familiar with it in a tangential sorta way. I'm relieved that my MB has a standard watch battery instead of a drum battery, for example.
Below are a compilation of both the components I bought recently and some miscellaneous ISA cards I had lying around. I'm needing guidance on where to start with all of this. Any help would be appreciated.

Nice ! Looks like it has 256k cache and is a decent motherboard. As mentioned above be careful with the PSU and hooking up the switch.
Be sure to boot it up with just the board +ram, a video card and keyboard in a "breadboard layout" (not mounted in a case but sitting on a large cardboard box) to make sure it gets to BIOS POST screen.
Then add the floppy/hd controller and see if it can boot from a floppy. If it does then you can mount the board in a case and go from there.
The Elsa 3d Labs card is PCI so will not work in that board....
added: if you need motherboard jumpers this page has good info, covers v2 thru v5: https://www.elhvb.com/webhq/models/486vlb3/v4p895v5.htm

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 4 of 7, by Spitz

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The Elsa 3d Labs card is PCI so will not work in that board....

Yep, use Your Trident 9000-I instead, there's some manual for it:
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/graphics-cards/U … TVGA-9000I.html
I own the same one, it seems tHat Yours is configured properly.
Furthermore I wouldn't use old AT PSU instead I would use ATX one with this adapter:
https://media.rs-online.com/t_large/F4994842-01.jpg just to make sure that the old one won't burn this setup.

Well... I miss 80/90s ... End of story

Reply 5 of 7, by Gazirra

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Spitz wrote on 2020-11-15, 15:01:
Yep, use Your Trident 9000-I instead, there's some manual for it: https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/graphics-cards/U … TVGA-9000I.htm […]
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The Elsa 3d Labs card is PCI so will not work in that board....

Yep, use Your Trident 9000-I instead, there's some manual for it:
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/graphics-cards/U … TVGA-9000I.html
I own the same one, it seems tHat Yours is configured properly.
Furthermore I wouldn't use old AT PSU instead I would use ATX one with this adapter:
https://media.rs-online.com/t_large/F4994842-01.jpg just to make sure that the old one won't burn this setup.

Could you elaborate on the adapter? I'm not clear on what I'd need to do with it or why

Reply 6 of 7, by Dmetsys

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With AT power supplies being as old as they are, there can be a risk of blowout and that creates a fire hazard. ATX to AT converters convert an ATX connector on your power supply to AT P8 P9, and also provide -5V rail for the ISA BUS. Some older sound cards require it.


A7N8X-LA | 2800+ | GeForce2 MX400 | Audigy 2 ZS
BE6-II 1.0 | PIII-933 | Viper 770 TNT2 | Live 5.1 Value
MS-5169 | K6-2 450 | Voodoo3 3000 AGP | AWE64 Value
P5A-B | P200-S | 64MB | MGA Millennium | Yamaha 719
LS-486E | Am5x86-P75

Reply 7 of 7, by frudi

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Most ATX to AT converters don't provide -5V, not unless the ATX power supply also provides it (which only those about 15 years old or older do). To get around that, some converters come with their own voltage converter, which gets -5V from one of the other rails (usually -12V), but such converters are hard to find and quite a bit more expensive. So no need to concern yourself with them unless you absolutely know you need the -5V rail. Here's a topic with a list of cards that require it, so unless you want to use one of those, just get a regular converter and use any spare modern ATX power supply you might have lying around.

Do a search on ebay, or wherever you prefer, for "atx to at p8 p9" and you should find plenty of options. Make sure to get one that comes with leads to connect a power switch. Some even come with switches, that is probably the simplest option. Something like this would be ideal. To use it, connect the black end (the ATX part) to your ATX power supply and the two white connectors (AT P8 and P9) to your motherboard, making sure the black wires on both parts end up adjacent when you do.