If it has battery corrosion then you will need something to counteract the alkali in the battery solution. Something like a mild vinegar, lemon juice etc. after that then you can use the alcohol to clean it.

Unless the battery solution is neutralised it will continue the process of corroding.

megatron-uk wrote on 2024-07-27, 12:37:

If it has battery corrosion then you will need something to counteract the alkali in the battery solution. Something like a mild vinegar, lemon juice etc. after that then you can use the alcohol to clean it.

Unless the battery solution is neutralised it will continue the process of corroding.

Thank you for the info! I took the thing apart fully, and I'm not 100% sure if it is battery acid, as the motherboard doesn't seem to have a battery.

CPU is NG80386SX-16, so an old Intel 386.

I was able to find information about CompactFlash adapters for IDE, but on the attached image I have posted here about the Switch and Jumper settings it lists something about CP-344 and CP-342 and now I'm not sure is just any IDE hard drive compatible with computer this old. Do I need some kind of specific CompactFlash adapter? Many adapters don't also seem to need power from Molex, so I guess they get it from the 40-pin connector?

Can you show a closeup of the battery area?

'CP-344' stands for Conner Peripherals model 344.

https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-drives-hdd/ … -HH-IDE-AT.html

It is one of the very very first IDE drives.

You will likely be ... better served... with a copy of XTIDE XUB handling the drive geometry.

Failing that, use a dynamic drive overlay.

What's on the paper stuck between the memory modules ?

wierd_w wrote on 2024-07-27, 16:22:

Can you show a closeup of the battery area?

It's a dallas chip. ie, not nicd battery.

weedeewee wrote on 2024-07-27, 16:37:

wierd_w wrote on 2024-07-27, 16:22:

Can you show a closeup of the battery area?

It's a dallas chip. ie, not nicd battery.

Thats arguably worse, but for different reasons.

(For the OP who likely doesnt know what we're talking about)

Dallas Realtime Clock chips have a small lithium battery packaged inside them. These are incapable of leaking and causing corrosion (since they are entombed inside an epoxy brick!), like the barrel type batteries often soldered to boards of this era, but once they die, you cant replace them.

Dallas RTCs are usually soldered to the board as well.

There ... is a tedious and fiddly hack that i
personally wouldnt want to try... that involves very precise cutting of the dallas RTC chip's housing to cut the leads going to its internal battery, so that it cannot vampirically drain an external one placed on its package legs with bodge wires.

wierd_w wrote on 2024-07-27, 16:39:

Thats arguably worse, but for different reasons. […]
Show full quote

weedeewee wrote on 2024-07-27, 16:37:

wierd_w wrote on 2024-07-27, 16:22:

Can you show a closeup of the battery area?

It's a dallas chip. ie, not nicd battery.

Thats arguably worse, but for different reasons.

(For the OP who likely doesnt know what we're talking about)

Dallas Realtime Clock chips have a small lithium battery packaged inside them. These are incapable of leaking and causing corrosion (since they are entombed inside an epoxy brick!), like the barrel type batteries often soldered to boards of this era, but once they die, you cant replace them.

Dallas RTCs are usually soldered to the board as well.

There ... is a tedious and fiddly hack that i
personally wouldnt want to try... that involves very precise cutting of the dallas RTC chip's housing to cut the leads going to its internal battery, so that it cannot vampirically drain an external one placed on its package legs with bodge wires.

Thank you for clarifying that, I was wondering does this thing have a battery at all. My knowledge in computer hardware this old is pretty much zero, but I have some knowledge with computers in general so I could figure out things like that the hard drives are IDE and power is Molex.

This system doesn't seem to be the best system around even for it's time, it is what I played with when I was a kid and have some nostalgia for it but I must ask now, is it even worth it to start fiddling around with and put money into? If a standard power cable works with this I can try booting it up at least.

Where I found this there was another computer from mid 90's with Pentium 2 which seemed to be in slightly better shape I could set up instead for a retro computer. I just need to inspect it a bit closer first.

About the paper wedged in between the memory modules, seemingly one of the memory modules is loose and the paper is there to keep it in place... I did have a laugh, my father has seemed to be quite crafty back in the days.

Assuming you dont mind the system clock always being wrong and an annoying

401 SYSTEM OPTIONS NOT SET

Type error on every startup, it should work fine.
dropping an xtide equipped nic in, and having it grab network time, would kluge around most of that problem, but it would still squawk at you every boot.

wierd_w wrote on 2024-07-27, 16:39:

Thats arguably worse, but for different reasons. […]
Show full quote

weedeewee wrote on 2024-07-27, 16:37:

wierd_w wrote on 2024-07-27, 16:22:

Can you show a closeup of the battery area?

It's a dallas chip. ie, not nicd battery.

Thats arguably worse, but for different reasons.

(For the OP who likely doesnt know what we're talking about)

Dallas Realtime Clock chips have a small lithium battery packaged inside them. These are incapable of leaking and causing corrosion (since they are entombed inside an epoxy brick!), like the barrel type batteries often soldered to boards of this era, but once they die, you cant replace them.

Dallas RTCs are usually soldered to the board as well.

There ... is a tedious and fiddly hack that i
personally wouldnt want to try... that involves very precise cutting of the dallas RTC chip's housing to cut the leads going to its internal battery, so that it cannot vampirically drain an external one placed on its package legs with bodge wires.

FYi, it's not that tedious, more zen like and can easily be done with the saw blade on a swiss army knife. Takes less than an hour including soldering wires, and placing a batteryholder.
There's even another solution which involves heating up the package and cutting off the epoxy etc...

DeepGalaxyBlue wrote on 2024-07-27, 17:06:

About the paper wedged in between the memory modules, seemingly one of the memory modules is loose and the paper is there to keep it in place... I did have a laugh, my father has seemed to be quite crafty back in the days.

Ah yes, the old curse of the completely plastic simm sockets.

Looks like a Hyundai Super 386S - https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/hyundai-super-386s

The Dallas module appears to be socketed, so an easy replacement with a more recent module or the nw12887/nwX287.

Many Bothans wrote on 2024-07-27, 17:33:

Looks like a Hyundai Super 386S - https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/hyundai-super-386s

The Dallas module appears to be socketed, so an easy replacement with a more recent module or the nw12887/nwX287.

Yeah, that seems to be the model! I'll see about replacement chips for the clock/battery, but first I'll clean up the VGA card a little and see if it the thing even boots up proper.

Many thanks for everyone posting here and helping me out! I'll post some continuation in hopefully few days.

Also, IMHO, the inside of your PC looks fine... I wouldn't do anything more than a light dusting and battery replacement. Save the electronics/contact cleaner for something else.

A modern hard drive or SD/CF card adapter will need a BIOS upgrade, modification or Option ROM. Read up on XT IDE Universal BIOS or look for an expansion card like the Promise EIDE Max. I just went through a similar issue with my Zenith 386SX...

Best of luck.