First post, by jdmcs
- Rank
- Newbie
I have an Emerson Elite SX386/16 PC, which as you might suspect by the model name, has a 16MHz 386SX inside. It has an AMI BIOS and a Headland Technology chipset. However, I have incomplete and confusing information, which is not helping in my quest to find a better BIOS image to try on this computer...
The information I have:
The computer is an "Emerson Elite SX386/16", and the model number on the back is SR160. The FCC ID is H9Z2008, for which the applicant was "Trigem Corporation" and the grant was to be mailed to "Rockford Engineering Services, Inc.". The computer was made in Korea.
The AMI BIOS Identification String is DG2X-6080-020491-KB, which means:
- D - BIOS w/ diagnostics
- G2X - not on the list I found (G23, for G2 chipset 386 boards, is)
- 6080 - a manufacturer not on the list I found
- 020491 - BIOS release date of February 4, 1991... oops, I missed its birthday
- KB - Keyboard BIOS revision B
The AMI labels on the ROM chips for the BIOS simply say "386 BIOS" with no version number. The serial numbers on the two chips do match, for what that's worth.
The Headland Technology chipset in use consists of three chips, in no particular order:
- HT101SX/G3A020
- GC102/B1A4000
- HT113/D3A0021
None of these chips match chipsets listed on the Vogons Wiki. However, DOS Days says the GC102 is an 80286 chipset... is this really a 286 chipset in a 386 computer?
The Reason I Need a New BIOS:
This computer has a maddening problem: the BIOS is apparently not scanning option ROMs (or is not scanning 8-bit option ROMs). I tried two different XT-IDE based cards (an XT-IDE Rev 4 and an XT-CF Lite), and on the latter, I had even tacked on the ROM from a Y2K card just to rule out some sort of incompatibility with this system and the XT-IDE Universal BIOS.
I thought that after the IBM XT, computers scanned for option ROMs... and IIRC the XT eventually had a firmware update to enable scanning of option ROMs, too.
Interestingly enough, if I run CheckIt and display a Memory Map, CheckIt shows no option ROMs between C800-DFFF. I'm not sure if this is a symptom, or just a coincidental failure in CheckIt. However, the XT-IDE Configuration Utility does see its ROMs, and can even read/write those ROMs, so I know the cards are there and those ROMs are mapped to the correct memory locations.
Viewers of my last livestream were just as stumped as I was, and the consensus is that I need to try to find a better BIOS for this computer...
The Problem:
It seems as if I have a 386SX computer that was built on a 286 chipset. Does this mean I am looking for a 286 or a 386 BIOS?
I tried to decode the AMI BIOS Identification String, but some of the values don't match the list I found, so I can't sanity-check any potential alternate BIOS and/or search for alternate BIOS images by the motherboard manufacturer's name. Any help to fill in these blanks?
Maybe someday I will be able to find an appropriate BIOS for this computer that will actually scan option ROMs.
I'm Justin D. Morgan, Host of Computerized Start™
If you use one of the photos I post on Vogons, I would appreciate being credited by name (Justin D. Morgan) instead of by user name. Thanks!