With my EVGA 680i if the bios battery goes dead the board won't boot. I'd recommend checking the bios battery on it

I got this beauty in off eBay, an AST Premium Exec 386SX/20 from early 1992. I'm genuinely amazed it works at all, though I cannot get into setup no matter how many times I press CTRL+ALT+ESC.

Purchased:
Compact Flash-IDE adapter with 4GB card.

Background:
Disaster struck!

While installing Windows for Workgroups 3.11, the installer kept having trouble finding the C: drive. I was able to retry a few times and get Windows installed, but the hard drive started acting very erratically, sometimes taking 30+ seconds just to list a directory in DOS. I wondered if something was maybe wrong with the Windows installation, so I deleted Windows and cleared the autoexec.bat/config.sys files, and then reinstalled DOS. Still no good. Went in and reconnected the IDE cable and power cable, but it only got worse; the BIOS could only detect the HD once every 3-4 times I tried.

This morning I went and checked and one of the pins on the IDE connector on the HD had fallen into the connector. I tried gently pulling it back out, but it snapped! I could probably solder it back to together, but I actually would rather not deal with HDs anymore haha.

newtmonkey wrote on 2020-05-22, 04:49:

Purchased: Compact Flash-IDE adapter with 4GB card. […]
Show full quote

Purchased:
Compact Flash-IDE adapter with 4GB card.

Background:
Disaster struck!

While installing Windows for Workgroups 3.11, the installer kept having trouble finding the C: drive. I was able to retry a few times and get Windows installed, but the hard drive started acting very erratically, sometimes taking 30+ seconds just to list a directory in DOS. I wondered if something was maybe wrong with the Windows installation, so I deleted Windows and cleared the autoexec.bat/config.sys files, and then reinstalled DOS. Still no good. Went in and reconnected the IDE cable and power cable, but it only got worse; the BIOS could only detect the HD once every 3-4 times I tried.

This morning I went and checked and one of the pins on the IDE connector on the HD had fallen into the connector. I tried gently pulling it back out, but it snapped! I could probably solder it back to together, but I actually would rather not deal with HDs anymore haha.

First time I hear of that happening . I have however had a broken SATA connector on a drive .
CF adapters have pins too and they are more fragile than those on a 3.5" hard drive . I hope you are more lucky with your CF adapter .

Hi darry, I hope so too! If not, I have another HD on its way also.

EvieSigma wrote on 2020-05-22, 03:15:

I got this beauty in off eBay, an AST Premium Exec 386SX/20 from early 1992. I'm genuinely amazed it works at all, though I cannot get into setup no matter how many times I press CTRL+ALT+ESC.

What does pressing F1 do?

Could be a keyboard issue. Did 386 laptops have an external keyboard port on them or not?

newtmonkey wrote on 2020-05-22, 04:49:

Purchased: Compact Flash-IDE adapter with 4GB card. […]
Show full quote

Purchased:
Compact Flash-IDE adapter with 4GB card.

Background:
Disaster struck!

While installing Windows for Workgroups 3.11, the installer kept having trouble finding the C: drive. I was able to retry a few times and get Windows installed, but the hard drive started acting very erratically, sometimes taking 30+ seconds just to list a directory in DOS. I wondered if something was maybe wrong with the Windows installation, so I deleted Windows and cleared the autoexec.bat/config.sys files, and then reinstalled DOS. Still no good. Went in and reconnected the IDE cable and power cable, but it only got worse; the BIOS could only detect the HD once every 3-4 times I tried.

This morning I went and checked and one of the pins on the IDE connector on the HD had fallen into the connector. I tried gently pulling it back out, but it snapped! I could probably solder it back to together, but I actually would rather not deal with HDs anymore haha.

I know what you're dealing with, have had a similar problem with an old hard drive. Gentle pressure applied to get the pin back and soldered back onto the board (actually three times, because I tended to use a bit too much solder and had to redo). Felt a little fragile in the connector. Applied a little bit of super glue and now works like a charm again!

The CF adapter is great to get east file transfer on a modern computer. Speed is fast compared to old drivers and its reliable.
One cons to me are: the sound of a spinning and rattling hard disk. can't have a too quiet AT-ish computer. And it's not really period correct... But can get over it if I have to... 😀

EvieSigma wrote on 2020-05-22, 03:15:

I got this beauty in off eBay, an AST Premium Exec 386SX/20 from early 1992. I'm genuinely amazed it works at all, though I cannot get into setup no matter how many times I press CTRL+ALT+ESC.

same here 😀 do You possibly have any knowledge of the internal connectors? i would love to know the pin layout; 5 megs ram and still working original HD here ; would love to up the graphics and the lcd if possible;
i dont see the message that you are getting; check the battery? the wiring to the keyboard might simply be broken..

waterbeesje wrote on 2020-05-22, 10:10:

I know what you're dealing with, have had a similar problem with an old hard drive. Gentle pressure applied to get the pin back and soldered back onto the board (actually three times, because I tended to use a bit too much solder and had to redo). Felt a little fragile in the connector. Applied a little bit of super glue and now works like a charm again!

The CF adapter is great to get east file transfer on a modern computer. Speed is fast compared to old drivers and its reliable.
One cons to me are: the sound of a spinning and rattling hard disk. can't have a too quiet AT-ish computer. And it's not really period correct... But can get over it if I have to... 😀

Thanks for posting! I considered breaking out my soldering iron, but the HD had failed while in the middle of a format, so who knows what state it's in haha. I actually was getting slightly annoyed at the hard drive noises, as my case has the hard drive mounted on the side next to an opening for a fan or something, so it was surprisingly loud!

Was pretty depressing to go from everything working great and having a ball playing Wing Commander and Ultima Underworld, to heading off to bed with a non-functioning PC. I only discovered the broken pin this morning, so I honestly had no idea what was wrong with the PC when I went to bed last night; was worried I would have to spend all weekend swapping parts in and out, ordering test parts, etc.

I've gone crazy and paid too much for this (not the listing price they wanted on ebay, but still too much)

No idea about how good performance will be, but it is a reasonably uncommon card, so that makes it intersting for me.

Need an ISA WD90c11 to sate my nostalgia though.

nice :3

Hercules Stingray 128/3D, Voodo Rush 8MB
...needs a bit of love though

I never understood how people bend the PCI brackets so bad.

EvieSigma wrote on 2020-05-22, 03:15:

...I cannot get into setup no matter how many times I press CTRL+ALT+ESC.

Are you sure all keys work? I have an old 486SX laptop whose Ctrl key does not work and it only has 1 Ctrl key 😢

Bought these for$nz40 plus $nz20 delvery www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=2628708387 The seller will drop them of at my place. He lives 60kms away. All I really wanted was the LCD montitor. Also to null-modem and a 4 port parallel port switch turned up.

Just got this french Schneider EuroPC 😀

It's in a rather good shape externally even though it's dirty, but I can't see any cracks or broken parts in the plastic. Unfortunately it's missing a key, but it's not a really important one.
On the inside however, the battery obviously has started doing its mess

I've tested the computer but for now, it doesn't POST. I'll have to clean up that mess and find out which traces may be bad ...

EvieSigma wrote on 2020-05-22, 00:18:

What socket is the BW7? Looks like Socket 478. I have a homeless ABit IC7-G that's probably the board that succeeded this one. It's very picky about RAM density, it reads my Kingston HyperX DDR400 1GB modules as 512MB each.

It's a socket 423 board, i put a p4 2.0GHz in it and 256mb but still does not show any signs of life.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-05-22, 02:14:

With my EVGA 680i if the bios battery goes dead the board won't boot. I'd recommend checking the bios battery on it

I tried that already I didn't work. The Cpu works though so I don't know what the problem could be, looking at old forums it seems the post code led -- was a common problem.

devius wrote on 2020-05-22, 12:35:

EvieSigma wrote on 2020-05-22, 03:15:

...I cannot get into setup no matter how many times I press CTRL+ALT+ESC.

Are you sure all keys work? I have an old 486SX laptop whose Ctrl key does not work and it only has 1 Ctrl key 😢

I did manage to get into setup via an external keyboard but I must have set the hard drive wrong because it still gives me a "disk controller failure" error.

Bought these two cards for 3 EUR. It's nothing special (I believe), but everytime I see a DOS compatible component in a local sale, and for a small amount of money, I usually buy it.