Is this your motherboard?

Yes, that looks like it. Thank you so much.

RepoOne wrote:

Yes, that looks like it. Thank you so much.

You're welcome! 😉

Btw, I noticed in the first pic, your battery may be leaking (the dark blue barrel battery you can see on the very bottom (has Varta written on it)), it's best you remove that from the board before the board is killed.
That's got to be one of the best 386 boards around! Would be a waste if it were destroyed due to leaking battery goo. At the top right of the battery in the pic, it looks like battery goo on the PCB (the green stuff on the yellow motherboard traces). Best is to remove that from the board as well.

Just cut the connections, right? What can I use to get the battery goo off the PCB?

This was my first computer, and I'd hate to see it die. Last I checked, it worked fine; just needs a new VGA card.

RepoOne wrote:

Just cut the connections, right? What can I use to get the battery goo off the PCB?

This was my first computer, and I'd hate to see it die. Last I checked, it worked fine; just needs a new VGA card.

Yes, just cut both connections from the battery to the motherboard (be careful not to damage the board!). After the battery is removed, I typically clean up using rubbing alcohol and a paper cloth.
Be sure to remove as much of the goo as you can, just don't overdo it 😜

If in the end some traces are cut, it's usually repairable.

Some other people use vinager (if the battery goo is alcaline(is opposite to acid)) to neutralize the battery goo first, though I never tried that.

If you remove the motherboard from the computer (in case you don't have enough room around the battery to cut the 2 connections), be sure to watch out for ESD etc.

I assume you have at least some experience with computers?

Just be careful not to damage anything if you decide to disassemble the system, but if you don't, the motherboard is going to die anyway.

Oh yeah, I'm not new to computers at all.

I'm a retrocomputing enthusiast, but surprisingly enough, my first computer is the one that I've inspected the least. I had never moved the power supply to look at that area of the mobo. Now I'm glad I did. Those look like power traces (due to thickness and running from the AT power connections), and if those fail, I can probably say goodbye to the machine that got me into this hobby in the first place.

If the traces are in fact cut, what can I do to repair them? Do I simply need to solder in new wiring, or is there something more that is required (scraping away layers of PCB, etc)?

Also, would you happen to know a place to find cheap VGA ISA cards? My Headland VGA card has issues with the connector (screen turns a blue tint unless I push in on the VGA plug), and I'd rather not fiddle around with it too much.

RepoOne wrote:

Oh yeah, I'm not new to computers at all. […]
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Oh yeah, I'm not new to computers at all.

I'm a retrocomputing enthusiast, but surprisingly enough, my first computer is the one that I've inspected the least. I had never moved the power supply to look at that area of the mobo. Now I'm glad I did. Those look like power traces (due to thickness and running from the AT power connections), and if those fail, I can probably say goodbye to the machine that got me into this hobby in the first place.

If the traces are in fact cut, what can I do to repair them? Do I simply need to solder in new wiring, or is there something more that is required (scraping away layers of PCB, etc)?

Also, would you happen to know a place to find cheap VGA ISA cards? My Headland VGA card has issues with the connector (screen turns a blue tint unless I push in on the VGA plug), and I'd rather not fiddle around with it too much.

It's very good to know you're not new to retrocomputing at all! 😁

If you can solder (I know I can't 🤣 )then you could solder in new wires. Or you could use something like silverpaint(?) to draw new lines (though I never had to do that myself). Afaik you don't need to start scraping, as long as you manage to clean up all or most of the battery residue.

And about ISA graphics cards, unfortunately the stuff has gotten more expensive as the 386 generation hardware aged. If you want cheap, then basically the best option is to find someone selling such a card (or perhaps a complete rig) who doesn't actually realize the stuff is getting harder to find nowadays. Places like dumpster finds, local flea markets or perhaps your local buying/selling site come to mind.

Theres also a couple forums where buying/selling is allowed (it's not allowed here on Vogons unfortunately, mostly to keep the forums clean) like vintage-computer.com and amibay.

Then theres always Ebay.

Well, bad news: It looks like the traces have been eaten though. I'll have to get a multimeter to check for continuity, then fix the broken traces.

So, I took apart my Packard Bell 486 (got it from a guy on Craigslist for $10) that never worked to check it for battery leakage. Sure enough, it had it. And this happened while I was trying to clean it up:

Probably should just throw this one out, to be honest.

RepoOne wrote:

So, I took apart my Packard Bell 486 (got it from a guy on Craigslist for $10) that never worked to check it for battery leakage. Sure enough, it had it. And this happened while I was trying to clean it up:

-snip-

Probably should just throw this one out, to be honest.

Ow, that's bad 😢
If possible, you should pull every piece of useful hardware from that board, like cache chips and perhaps the jumpers. Also keep any other useful piece of equipment from the board like graphics and controller cards and also the cables. It's what I would've done.
And of course the processor and RAM. That board doesn't look very repairable to me.

Those batteries are ticking time-bombs

So, I tried my Cyrix 486 machine, and...

(turns out it is an FA4!)

(you can see the blue tint in the following image)

(fake cache? it looks like it is cached by these benchmarks)

I'll probably just remove the battery and be sure to wipe up all of the remaining battery leakage. It appears to run fine, and I've tested it with games, Windows, and a variety of diagnostic programs.

Neutralise the battery leakage with vinegar, then clean with Isopropyl Alcohol.

If you don't neutralise the leakage, it will continue to cause damage.

SquallStrife wrote:

Neutralise the battery leakage with vinegar, then clean with Isopropyl Alcohol.

If you don't neutralise the leakage, it will continue to cause damage.

Neutralize acid with more acid? Aren't you supposed to neutralize acid with alkali? That's what my junior high science teacher told us.

Because the shit that leaks out of the batteries is not acid. It's alkaline.

SquallStrife wrote:

Neutralise the battery leakage with vinegar, then clean with Isopropyl Alcohol.

If you don't neutralise the leakage, it will continue to cause damage.

If this is the case, then I'd better check on one of my own 386 boards. It had quite a lot of battery corrosion, but still worked. I cleaned it with alcohol but not with vinegar, as I didn't know this at the time.
Still will have to get me some vinegar though.

Took me some time to find this thread 🤣, it was moved 😜

Be sure not to substitute other household acids. The acetic acid in vinegar has the advantage of being very small, so it will simply evaporate away if you miss any when rinsing. Larger organic acids(e.g. citric) will just precipitate as salts.