VOGONS


First post, by MMaximus

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This computer was sold in France under the brand Kenitec in the early '90s. I haven't found much information about Kenitec but google reveals it was trademarked by "Arche Technologies" (which is the brand on the PSU). Maybe the Arche brand was more known elsewhere and they had the Kenitec brand reserved for Europe?

I acquired 7 of these from the same seller a while ago and have been restoring a few of them so far. Most of them had a Suntac based 286-12 motherboard (marked "AMA-1240V1-D") - this one has 2MB of RAM.

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It came with a Paradise PVGA1A-JK 8-bit VGA:

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An ASI-5105 Controller Card. The parts seem to have received a label during assembly displaying either "TL-BL" or "TL-BK"... no idea what it meant.

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A Seagate ST-157A 42Mb IDE HDD:

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The case is quite nice and has a few similarities with an IBM 5160 - front sliding top cover, black paint on the inside, and a larger PSU (XT style?) with the classic red power switch on the side.

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The BIOS is from Phoenix (version 3.10.22) and is very basic. It doesn't allow user-type HDD but it might be possible to upgrade the board with a different BIOS.

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And finally... the original 1990 ad:

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Last edited by MMaximus on 2018-10-10, 19:59. Edited 1 time in total.

Hard Disk Sounds

Reply 1 of 8, by Predator99

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Hi, very nice machine indeed! Also in combination with the original ad 😎

You should cover the hole on the ROM-chip with a black tape asap - content will be erased under light exposition.

Can you please also contribute here please? 😉
Suntac 80286 Mainboards

Reply 2 of 8, by MMaximus

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Thanks for your comments and for the heads-up about the ROM chip. Incidentally I've only just learned about this method of erasing chips a few days ago by reading some comment on a youtube video. So you're right, I should probably check all my cards for missing stickers on these UV-erasable chips!

Hard Disk Sounds

Reply 3 of 8, by MMaximus

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Here is another one of my Kenitec 286 PCs. This chassis doesn't have any case badge - I've set it up with an EGA wonder 800+ and I find that the 286-12 is a great match for EGA games. I've tried putting the EGA Wonder in a 286-20 and some games play too fast.

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Hard Disk Sounds

Reply 4 of 8, by root42

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Lovely machines. I have a very similar mainboard, labeled Peacock. But sadly it broke down recently. Will try to fix it, but not sure what's the problem yet. Probably bad RAM chip(s).

YouTube and Bonus
80486DX@33 MHz, 16 MiB RAM, Tseng ET4000 1 MiB, SnarkBarker & GUSar Lite, PC MIDI Card+X2+SC55+MT32, OSSC

Reply 6 of 8, by MMaximus

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Thanks!

while benchmarking the EGA system above I noticed it's actually running at 8Mhz and not 12 😲

This is regardless of the Turbo setting. For example in Dr. Hard - the benchmark is 1695 Hardstones in non-turbo mode and 2173 in Turbo mode. Reported speed is 8Mhz and 8.1Mhz. Maybe the Turbo switch doesn't change the CPU speed but adds wait states instead?

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Checkit gives 2368 Dhrystones in turbo mode.

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Apart from the standard 14.31818Mhz crystal, there are two other crystals, a 16Mhz one and a 25Mhz one. I'm guessing that the CPU gets its speed from the 16Mhz crystal? Since the BIOS on this motherboard is quite basic, I don't know how to make the system run at 12Mhz. Maybe there's a jumper on the board to select the CPU speed but I don't know which one...

EDIT: I found out what was causing this: For some weird reason, having DOS=HIGH in CONFIG.SYS will make the system run at 8Mhz... and removing the line makes the system runs at its full speed of 12.5Mhz 😕

Hard Disk Sounds

Reply 7 of 8, by 46and2

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MMaximus wrote on 2018-10-10, 16:19:

This computer was sold in France under the brand Kenitec in the early '90s. I haven't found much information about Kenitec but google reveals it was trademarked by "Arche Technologies" (which is the brand on the PSU). Maybe the Arche brand was more known elsewhere and they had the Kenitec brand reserved for Europe?

I acquired 7 of these from the same seller a while ago and have been restoring a few of them so far. Most of them had a Suntac based 286-12 motherboard (marked "AMA-1240V1-D") - this one has 2MB of RAM.

Hey, I know my reply is a little late, but would you be interested in selling one of these machines? This was my very first computer, and I greatly regret getting rid of it.

I was in high school at the time, and this machine provided sooo many hours of fun visiting bbs’s, learning to program, etc. this experience is what made me fall in love with computing and lead me to study computer science

If you are open to it, Please contact me. I’d greatly appreciate it!
Dave

Reply 8 of 8, by Klench486

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46and2 etc- when the Kenitec/Arche machine boots, what is shown at the bottom of the POST screen (bios etc)? I've got an ARCHE RIVAL 286 motherboard, but I don't know the manufacturer and I am trying to get the jumper settings for the board. Any assist would be helpful. I did dump the bios chips (AWARD bios) but no additional clues there.