I got my first true super socket 7 board today, a FIC VA-503+ to replace my AOpen AP59S that I fried years ago. It was cheap, clean, and in good shape. Now to slap a P233MMX on this puppy and see if it works.

FuzzyLogic wrote:

I got my first true super socket 7 board today, a FIC VA-503+ to replace my AOpen AP59S that I fried years ago. It was cheap, clean, and in good shape. Now to slap a P233MMX on this puppy and see if it works.

It looks gorges! What's the cache size?

This gem arrived yesterday. It's a Wang Microsystems PC361/20S. It has some interesting features for a system that was out in 1991-1992. The motherboard looks proprietary to Wang, and it contains the video and I/O subsystems. The video is a Chips & Technologies chipset with 512KB memory (I think). It has a 20MHz 386SX CPU and 4MB of memory. A Maxtor 7345AT 340MB HDD and a Sony 1.44MB 3.5" FDD. There's also an internal modem. I was surprised to discover that it has a PS/2 mouse port, and I didn't realize that the technology was as old as it was.

I saw it on eBay and threw in a low bid at the last moment because the shipping was high. My bid of $12.50 won. I thought that if the unit wasn't working, I might be able to repurpose the case. I really want a nice-looking baby-AT horizontal case. It turned out that this is not a standard baby-AT case because of the proprietary Wang motherboard. The seller did not provide any good pictures of the rear of the unit and showed only that the unit turned on.

I was afraid of seeing the corrosion on the motherboard when I opened the case (which wasn't locked), but I was thrilled by the foresight of using a replaceable battery with a header. And it did boot up, but the CMOS had lost all settings. This line of Wang computers uses software-based BIOS configuration, and it took me a little time to track down the right program, but once I did, everything pretty much worked as it should. I really appreciated the motherboard diagram that was a sticker on the inside of the case.

Overall, I really like the looks and quality of this system. You can tell that it is very well-made. I can't find much online about it, except for an old PC Mag review of a similar model. Once I have a chance to clean it up, replace the battery, and add a new HDD, I think that this will be my 386-class machine.

lazibayer wrote:

FuzzyLogic wrote:

I got my first true super socket 7 board today, a FIC VA-503+ to replace my AOpen AP59S that I fried years ago. It was cheap, clean, and in good shape. Now to slap a P233MMX on this puppy and see if it works.

It looks gorges! What's the cache size?

This is the 1MB version. I've been reading about this board and apparently there is also a 512K version.

boxpressed wrote:

This gem arrived yesterday. It's a Wang Microsystems PC361/20S. It has some interesting features for a system that was out in 1991-1992. The motherboard looks proprietary to Wang, and it contains the video and I/O subsystems. The video is a Chips & Technologies chipset with 512KB memory (I think). It has a 20MHz 386SX CPU and 4MB of memory. A Maxtor 7345AT 340MB HDD and a Sony 1.44MB 3.5" FDD. There's also an internal modem. I was surprised to discover that it has a PS/2 mouse port, and I didn't realize that the technology was as old as it was.

Nice Wa.... PC! It looks practically new. And I assume it was only $12.50 + shipping?

Today i got this for arround 2usd

Still have to test it yet.

kiwa wrote:

Today i got this for arround 2usd

tBpu84o.jpg

Still have to test it yet.

Wha?! Nice! Where did you find this for so cheap?

Artex wrote:

kiwa wrote:

Today i got this for arround 2usd

tBpu84o.jpg

Still have to test it yet.

Wha?! Nice! Where did you find this for so cheap?

In a "flea market" in my city 😀

kiwa wrote:

Artex wrote:

kiwa wrote:

Today i got this for arround 2usd

tBpu84o.jpg

Still have to test it yet.

Wha?! Nice! Where did you find this for so cheap?

In a "flea market" in my city 😀

Wow - great find. Well done!

Another pack of old HW 😀

Noname audio and Rage IIc

MX440 (blue) and MX4000

Trio32 with original floppy disks

Tseng ET4000AX

Tseng ET3000AX

No idea what this is, but PCB has a datecode of 4189 ... which makes it my oldest videocard

https://fccid.io/H85DT-5138
http://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/news/item … amarack-td3088a

Thanks to gdjacobs for spotting this for sale near me!

A couple of ISA sound cards arriving the past few days:

Sound Blaster 16 CT1700 (Mitsumi CD-ROM) with ASP

Covox Sound Master II

Some great stuff lately!

FuzzyLogic wrote:

Nice Wa.... PC! It looks practically new. And I assume it was only $12.50 + shipping?

Yes, it's in cherry condition. Item was $12.50, shipping $23.50. Bargain! I have a 4.5v battery holder on the way and will sacrifice a CD audio cable to make a new CMOS battery.

I didn't realize that some of these old boards need 4.5v. I have a 486 board that keeps losing time, and that was because I tried to use a 3v CR2032 only.

Nice to see that people can still source stuff like ET4000 and ET3000 cards.
Stuff are getting really hard to source now a days.

That Covox are looking great. I did not know that they produced ISA cards.
I actrually thought that they only produced that "Speach" thingy.

havli wrote:

Another pack of old HW :happy: […]
Show full quote

Another pack of old HW 😀

Tseng ET3000AX

I have a very similar card - yours appears to have a different model number on the PCB but they look the same. It seems to be an Optima 1024 VGA/EGA card. I have been looking for a manual for information on the dip switches but I haven't had any luck yet.

http://www.amoretro.de/2013/01/optima-1024-mo … -512kb-isa.html

The exact same case type I had back in 97. It came with the awesome CD drive and floppy.
(Not so good) Memories came back of me working with this while installing the M537 mobo. First I remembered metallic standoffs were not the norm, in this case it was only possible to use two. Plastic standoffs (which were still attached to the mobo) had to be used to secure the mobo to the chasis. I was only able to use two, the other two wouldn't fit and had to be removed. I realized that when I noticed the mobo bent. Luckily no damage was done. It was a pain removing those plastic standoffs.

Next, the mobo was (and still is) sitting kinda low, so it was quite difficult to insert the PCI cards, the CT1600 ISA didnt fit but a CT4170 went in no hassle. After a number of tests I finally got video. Not sure why but when I press the reset button I get a beep but no video, but if I turn it off and back on I get video. No further testing as I need to get at least a mini din to din converter.

My second eBay find came!

As you probably know, my first find was the IBM/Cyrix build I described two pages ago, which has a dying Quantum Bigfoot in it. Well, this one came.

It's in a really cool AT style case WITH a front mounted AT keyboard port, hooked up to an 8 bit card inside. It doesn't seem to work right now though 🙁

Specs:
Intel 80386DX @ 33 MHz WITH Cyrix FastMath copro
ATi VGA Wonder XL, 1 MB VRAM
32KB L2 Cache, 8 MB memory on a fullwidth Asus memory board (8 x 1 MB 30pin SIMMs)
Asus Cache386/33 motherboard
NO hard drive
Teac 5.25 Floppy drive, Toshiba 3.5 floppy drive
3com Etherlink III ISA network card
Generic 200watt AT PSU

A good restoration project, I'll have fun with this one 🤣

Notes:
Missing side panel.
Front mounted keyboard port doesn't seem to work, after hooking it up something weird happened and now I can't access the BIOS after it reports a dead CMOS battery, it just shows a blinking cursor and even the back keyboard port does the same thing. *Edit, the keyboard's still detected, it just hangs for some reason.
Motherboard uses a 3.6volt external battery, so no barrel corrosion! 😁
Has a sticker, "Government Property," on it. Evidently came from the University of New Mexico.
5.25 floppy drive had a disk in it. Original label was the first program diskette for a program called ANVIL-5000. Was written over with the label "Backup for Mike and John's Programs."

@cj_reha
Very nice! Grats!