luckybob wrote:

Got a very good deal on an IBM Eququest model 55. […]
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Got a very good deal on an IBM Eququest model 55.

Basically it is an all-in-one, 486 machine that was marketed at schools. Came with an original (not lexmark) Model M keyboard. I'll probably post an unboxing video and subsequent restorations!

What's she got under the hood?

486-66 16mb of ram and an ide drive I think was 450mb.

it booted to windows 95 after a bit of dicking around. I'm working on the video now. 😀

^^ cool stuff. Is it an SLC2 (Blue Lightning) by any chance or a more standard SX/DX?

standard actually. I have a 83mhz POD, I might install. I plan to forgo ide and pimp it out with full scsi. I have a blue IBM caddy loading cd drive that would look perfect. That and some more ram.

cyclone3d wrote:

An S3-928 based ISA VGA card for my 386DX-40 build. Paid a bit more than I would have liked, but it is boxed and is a 2MB card and one of the fastest chipsets that was available for ISA.

And it was not much more than the bog-standard slow ISA VGA cards available right now.

Dang you beat me to it. I was on the fence on this one but the seller didn't respond in time to my questions concerning shipping. I was already looking for XipView 1602CI drivers... haha
Have fun with it.

cyclone3d wrote:

An S3-928 based ISA VGA card for my 386DX-40 build. Paid a bit more than I would have liked, but it is boxed and is a 2MB card a […]
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An S3-928 based ISA VGA card for my 386DX-40 build. Paid a bit more than I would have liked, but it is boxed and is a 2MB card and one of the fastest chipsets that was available for ISA.

And it was not much more than the bog-standard slow ISA VGA cards available right now.

box.jpg

card.jpg

I was looking at this card too, but ultimately decided not to buy it because of the RAMDAC. You might be disappointed with this card, because it's not capable of delivering more than 256 colours. Also, it's not totally clear if it supports 640x480, 800x600 or 1024x768. The documentation lists support for "VGA" which may imply just 640x480 in 16 colours. Please let me know how it works out.

blurks wrote:

cyclone3d wrote:

An S3-928 based ISA VGA card for my 386DX-40 build. Paid a bit more than I would have liked, but it is boxed and is a 2MB card and one of the fastest chipsets that was available for ISA.

And it was not much more than the bog-standard slow ISA VGA cards available right now.

Dang you beat me to it. I was on the fence on this one but the seller didn't respond in time to my questions concerning shipping. I was already looking for XipView 1602CI drivers... haha
Have fun with it.

Shipping in the US was "free". I couldn't find the drivers specifically for it, but a random post from years ago said the standard S3 928 drivers work for it. finding the Windows 3.1 drivers was a pain though, but I did end up finding them as well as some other random utilities including one that is supposed to speed up data transfers and a few versions of a VBE 2.0 utility.

cyclone3d wrote:

Shipping in the US was "free".

Not for me though... 😉

cyclone3d wrote:

I couldn't find the drivers specifically for it, but a random post from years ago said the standard S3 928 drivers work for it. finding the Windows 3.1 drivers was a pain though, but I did end up finding them as well as some other random utilities including one that is supposed to speed up data transfers and a few versions of a VBE 2.0 utility.

Awesome, don't forget to upload to vogonsdrivers...

Anonymous Coward wrote:

cyclone3d wrote:

An S3-928 based ISA VGA card for my 386DX-40 build. Paid a bit more than I would have liked, but it is boxed and is a 2MB card a […]
Show full quote

An S3-928 based ISA VGA card for my 386DX-40 build. Paid a bit more than I would have liked, but it is boxed and is a 2MB card and one of the fastest chipsets that was available for ISA.

And it was not much more than the bog-standard slow ISA VGA cards available right now.

box.jpg

card.jpg

I was looking at this card too, but ultimately decided not to buy it because of the RAMDAC. You might be disappointed with this card, because it's not capable of delivering more than 256 colours. Also, it's not totally clear if it supports 640x480, 800x600 or 1024x768. The documentation lists support for "VGA" which may imply just 640x480 in 16 colours. Please let me know how it works out.

Well I guess I know who the other two people watching it were. 🤣

The documentation is weird in that it shows higher resolutions but doesn't list anything below 1280x1024 except VGA.
I'm also not sure the 256 color max is accurate unless it was some weird custom driver limitation. It lists the RAMDAC as 220Mhz so I am guessing it is not the RAMDAC limiting it.

There is pretty much no real information that I could find for this card so I guess I will find out what it actually supports when I get it.

The other model numbers listed on the box bring up 0 results....

luckybob wrote:

it booted to windows 95 after a bit of dicking around. I'm working on the video now. 😀

Look forward to it!

keropi wrote:

I was gifted this 486/66 tower this week

That's a classic 486! Lovely machine and a nice case too - no yellowing 😎

Got my 5.25 inch XEROX disks today.

The box was damaged to begin with so I didn't feel too bad about opening them (Canada Post's "If it ain't broke break it" attitude didn't help with the condition). I put the disk in my drive which I had no media to read, and it gave general errors. At first I thought the drive was dead and I wasted all this time. Then I realized the disks were not formatted. I'm such a buffoon.

Got a Data Technology Corp. DTC2280 Super Controller Card.

2x Serial, 1x Parallel, 2xIDE, 2xFDD + Game Port. this will come in handy for sure.

Interestingly the manual talks about "Jumper 11" that is supposed to switch the Parallel bi-directional mode, but it is missing on my card. It's supposed to sit right under "Jumper 8" (Drive LED).

Maybe I got an earlier revision without the bi-directional support? Anyone have a clue? It's not a big deal really, but when looking through the jumper settings on the two pictures provided, I thought: "Where the hell is jumper 11?"

---<>---

I also scored a Soundblaster 16 ASP ISA CT1740 card. The text on the DSP chip is barely readable but its apparently v4.05 that doesn't have the hanging note bug (!). This is very awesome, as a Soundblaster 16 without hanging note is the exact card I had when I was a child and using the 486-DX40.

What do you think would have been a good price for a CT1740 without the hanging note bug? I am still not quite convinced I havn't been slightly robbed 😁 Anyways this card rocks...

I just got a supposedly non working CPU + motherboard + memory + video card + PSU combo I bought on Ebay.

The sellers description of the issue.

"Die Kombination lief vor kurzem noch.
Jetzt erhalte ich aber nur noch einen schwarzen Bildschirm."

The sellers picture showing the items in question.

Black screen you say... My first thought... Hmmm, I bet that is because you have put the memory modules in the two middle memory slots...

The bundle was 52 euro + 17 euro shipping and that is kind of cheap for a nice Socket 8 board with CPU and a first edition Matrox Millennium 4MB card. If the items work that is, I was pretty sure they would so I risked it.

Smoke test!

I'm not very surprised! 😀

Skyscraper wrote:

I just got a supposedly non working CPU + motherboard + memory + video card + PSU combo I bought on Ebay. […]
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I just got a supposedly non working CPU + motherboard + memory + video card + PSU combo I bought on Ebay.

The sellers description of the issue.

"Die Kombination lief vor kurzem noch.
Jetzt erhalte ich aber nur noch einen schwarzen Bildschirm."

The sellers picture showing the items in question.

Black screen you say... My first thought... Hmmm, I bet that is because you have put the memory modules in the two middle memory slots...

The bundle was 52 euro + 17 euro shipping and that is kind of cheap for a nice Socket 8 board with CPU and a first edition Matrox Millennium 4MB card. If the items work that is, I was pretty sure they would so I risked it.

Smoke test!

I'm not very surprised! 😀

Doesn't that feel great? I nabbed an Entex handheld "non-working" Defender for cheap from Goodwill like this one:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210116003119/ht … ex/Defender.htm

Cracked it open. Inspected it with my solder station magnifying glass and spotted a tiny piece of flaked off solder shorting two pins on an IC. Within 2 minutes of opening it, working again.

Found this thing sitting in a box of junk. Intel AL440LX. Already had a 440LX board, but I didn't want a quality motherboard to rust away in a pile of scrap. For 8 Euros this looked like a good piece to save.

The bad? Bios is all German. Still ok to navigate, despite my rusty German 🤣

The good? Well, it works, for one. Caps are all Japanese and working. Booted up with a 300MHz Klamath just fine.
Also, Integrated Yamaha audio!

YMF715 + YMF721 (which is a YMF704, based on what the manual states)

liqmat wrote:

Doesn't that feel great? I nabbed an Entex handheld "non-working" Defender for cheap from Goodwill like this one: […]
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Skyscraper wrote:

I just got a supposedly non working CPU + motherboard + memory + video card + PSU combo I bought on Ebay. […]
Show full quote

I just got a supposedly non working CPU + motherboard + memory + video card + PSU combo I bought on Ebay.

The sellers description of the issue.

"Die Kombination lief vor kurzem noch.
Jetzt erhalte ich aber nur noch einen schwarzen Bildschirm."

The sellers picture showing the items in question.

Black screen you say... My first thought... Hmmm, I bet that is because you have put the memory modules in the two middle memory slots...

The bundle was 52 euro + 17 euro shipping and that is kind of cheap for a nice Socket 8 board with CPU and a first edition Matrox Millennium 4MB card. If the items work that is, I was pretty sure they would so I risked it.

Smoke test!

I'm not very surprised! 😀

Doesn't that feel great? I nabbed an Entex handheld "non-working" Defender for cheap from Goodwill like this one:

http://www.geekvintage.com/entex-defender-hardware.php

Cracked it open. Inspected it with my solder station magnifying glass and spotted a tiny piece of flaked off solder shorting two pins on an IC. Within 2 minutes of opening it, working again.

It indeed does! 😀

The Entex Defender was a nice save!

Munx wrote:

Found this thing sitting in a box of junk. Intel AL440LX. Already had a 440LX board, but I didn't want a quality motherboard to […]
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Found this thing sitting in a box of junk. Intel AL440LX. Already had a 440LX board, but I didn't want a quality motherboard to rust away in a pile of scrap. For 8 Euros this looked like a good piece to save.

The bad? Bios is all German. Still ok to navigate, despite my rusty German 🤣

The good? Well, it works, for one. Caps are all Japanese and working. Booted up with a 300MHz Klamath just fine.
Also, Integrated Yamaha audio!

YMF715 + YMF721 (which is a YMF704, based on what the manual states)

I like the AL440LX! 😀

This lot of 5 ISA sound cards - I was the only bidder. 😎

Clockwise from bottom left:
Digitan Systems Analog Devices Soundport based card
Creative Sound Blaster 16XV - CT4170 (might have one of these already)
Creative Sound Blaster 16 Pro PnP (IBACT-SB16PROP49) - CT2950 (with OPL3) 😲 😀 (the wiki shows the CT2950 at both a regular SB16 and a Vibra 16. Did it come in both flavors or is the wiki wrong?
Creative Sound Blaster Vibra 16C - CT2960
ESS 1868F based card

Kinda excited about the CT2950 since it seems really hard to find one with real OPL3.

Munx wrote:

Found this thing sitting in a box of junk. Intel AL440LX. Already had a 440LX board, but I didn't want a quality motherboard to […]
Show full quote

Found this thing sitting in a box of junk. Intel AL440LX. Already had a 440LX board, but I didn't want a quality motherboard to rust away in a pile of scrap. For 8 Euros this looked like a good piece to save.

P_20180113_200325[1].jpg

The bad? Bios is all German. Still ok to navigate, despite my rusty German 🤣

The good? Well, it works, for one. Caps are all Japanese and working. Booted up with a 300MHz Klamath just fine.
Also, Integrated Yamaha audio!

P_20180113_200404[1].jpg

YMF715 + YMF721 (which is a YMF704, based on what the manual states)

Nice! That should be an awesome board. Also, a Klamath 300Mhz should allow for easy underclocking too, right?

That reminds me, I had someone offer me a system with a board identical to that a few months ago, but I haven't heard from them in a while. I might have to try to get ahold of them again once I get through some of my clutter... hah... 🙁

Well I guess I know who the other two people watching it were. :lol: […]
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Well I guess I know who the other two people watching it were. 🤣

The documentation is weird in that it shows higher resolutions but doesn't list anything below 1280x1024 except VGA.
I'm also not sure the 256 color max is accurate unless it was some weird custom driver limitation. It lists the RAMDAC as 220Mhz so I am guessing it is not the RAMDAC limiting it.

There is pretty much no real information that I could find for this card so I guess I will find out what it actually supports when I get it.

The other model numbers listed on the box bring up 0 results....

Sadly, even though the RAMDAC is 220MHz, it is only capable of producing 256 colours. Look up the BrookTree 467 datasheet.