Welcome Ben.
Feel lucky when you have a 486 with a PS/2 mouse port.
What kind of graphics is onboard? Does it has the extension to 1 MB populated?

It seems to be this board:
https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/C-D/31460.htm

Hi-res picture and bios dump wanted 😁
http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/show/1538

Nice! I've also still got our family's first PC, also a DX2/66 running dos/3x. My most used retro PC even though I've better suited 486's or other PC's

As for drivers, not much is needed on a dos/Win3x PC
Motherboard resources are all managed by dos and don't require any drivers

To give creative credit they still have drivers for all their soundcards available to download (SBBasic in this case) vogons drivers will just be the same version
The drivers also include useful software like mixer, CD player, etc but if your after the optimal stuff included with some products "TheMan" archived just about everything ever released for the ISA cards in an iso
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=13

I cant find out what the onboard video is. Dos wont require a driver but you may want to get the Win3x one. This'll allow higher resolutions, maybe a diag tool or option to change 1 or 2 settings and enable any Windows acceleration is supported.
If you cant find the specific driver the standard SVGA driver available during Windows setup works 9 times out of 10 and will also give higher resolutions

Modem, Windows may include a US Robotics driver in the install? which does look "cooler" but Standard Modem will also work.
Back in the day you would use a modem to connect to a BBS and then internet. Windows doesn't include software for either of these.
IE5 is the last version supported version supported but this era screams Netscape if you ask me! Not like any of them play nice on the modern internet anyway.
Modern browsers exist but I'm not up to speed with them.

Windows had a few updates, This page has a list. The links are broken but gives you the patch numbers to google. You probably only need the File Manager Y2K update, Win32 extensions and if your going to setup networking then the TCP/IP update.
https://www.hpcfactor.com/support/patching/win31/

Windows did have a 32bit HDD access driver but don't think this was compatible with drive overlay,. It wasn't compatible with majority of hard drives even back then and performance didn't improve much.

Hey all,

Thanks ever so much for the warm welcome! Putting this 486 machine together I almost forgot the joys of setting up your autoexec/config files 😀

chinny22 et al, thanks for your advice re the motherboard etc, this is indeed the one I have, it looks like im running the fastest DX chip I can (unless I could get away with a faster one?), Im thinking 16mb ram in here is probably enough. Actually, could you put an overdrive CPU in here?

Just on the Soundblaster, It looks like I have the CT2770A (2nd revision?). TheMans CD archive was perfect, he had the Panasonic interface CDrom drivers which works fine in DOS and Windows 3.11 and the full DOS/3.1 drivers and applications. This is working perfectly. Very nostalgic seeing these apps infact. Though my original machine has the AWE32, the apps if I recall are identical (well, enough to make me nostalgic).

So, motherboard wise, I've had a little look and it has a Western Digital graphic controller, it seems, 1mb of onboard memory with 70hz refresh upto 1024x768 (max), jumper controlled. So i've sorted out the jumpers to allow for 70Hz, though im running it at 800x600 using windows own SVGA driver (though only 256colours) at the moment. My original machine had a 1mb Paradise VGA card, though I can't find one of those here in the UK for love or money. However I could be tempted to get another ISA VGA adapter card if its worth it (though any thoughts on what would be worth a look, easy ish to come by?).

The US Robotics modem, I would love to get the original software/drivers, so its complete, though I'm not finding it easy to actually find a download that isn't being masked behind a "Use our easy driver installation software" wall. These seem to be pretty cheap on eBay so I might just find a seller who has the disks and buy it again (unless I can find a download somewhere).

I wouldn't mind putting a ethernet card in here too, I know 3com are quite compatible, though I wonder if you have any advice what would be a good one? I would mainly use it for transferring files over, probably not much point trying to get this on the internet (or if I would even want to).

chinny22 funny you mention BBS, I remember them well, back in the mid 90's trying them then getting yelled out from my dad for the phonebill! I actually collect old PC mags at the moment which most from the early 90's era has plenty of adverts for BBS' Its quite remarkable now, though where some of them were advertising 20gb+ of data was a heck of a lot back in those days!

BTW thanks for the patches/updates, I will take a look at these shortly.

Anyway, I've attached some BIOS photos, I can't upload more than 5 per post, I can upload more pics if needed.

Thanks all,

Ben

So the onboard video mystery is solved.
WD90c31A-ZS would be what you want to search under to dig up information or drivers. Looks like 1MB is as high as you can go so that's already upgraded.
http://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item/ … tal-wd90c31a-zs

Performance wont be great but I wouldn't rush off to upgrade just yet.
486's are kind of in the middle of era's plenty of power for earlier side scrollers and the like where even a slow card is fine but later games especially 3D shooters like doom start been held back by the CPU and a fast graphics card will only give a few extra FPS at best. hardly the difference between playable or not.

I'd just play Doom which is the upper limits of what a DX2/66 can play smooth and see how it feels.
You can also run its benchmark or Phils complete benchmark pack and see how for off the pace you really are.
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/phils-ultima … se-project.html

Bit for me compatibility is more important then speed, not sure how the chip fairs in this area. This list is for AGP/PCI cards but has the troublesome games you'll want to test against
https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

CPU wise your limited to 5V CPU's, DX2/66 been the fastest 5v CPU
POD supports both 3.3 and 5V so may work, I assume this is what ODP586SX jumper settings means. Is it worth it? probably not. Difference on a "modern" 486 with either VLB or PCI isn't much let alone a system stuck on ISA.

Network card the #1 thing to look for is drivers. "NE2000 compatible" is similar to Sound blaster or even IBM compatible, that level of compatibility varies. So if you can find the specific drivers for a card your reducing the risk. 3Com drivers are easy to find and tend to utilise CPU a bit less, although I'm using some generic brand I got in the mid 90's and still had the driver disk, it works fine for file transfers... and playing lan games against other retro rigs 😉

Yeh I caught the tail end of BBS. Was given a 2400bps modem in mid '95 and only had 2 BBS servers in the area. I tried downloading Terminal Velocity of a 3rd I thought was in our local area. line dropped before it completed and phonebill next month showed Telstra (Aussie BT) had other ideas of what local meant. Dad was surprisingly ok and simply said "Wont be calling them again will we"
By Feb '96 though our DX2/66 had been upgraded to Win95 and gained a 33.6 modem and internet.