VOGONS


First post, by lgj1107

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I got my hands on an AMD 286 computer, but I can't find out what motherboard it has, and therefor not sure about jumper settings etc.

Reply 1 of 18, by Cyrix200+

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Does the board power on at all? Does it show a BIOS ID string?

1982 to 2001

Reply 3 of 18, by lgj1107

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The board doesn't work. The CPU is good. BIOS-odd is bad.

Reply 4 of 18, by Cyrix200+

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The crystal would suggest a 12MHz part, but still odd it isn't marked. QT-129 seems to be a type indicator, but Google doesn't recognise it. The QA sticker might be a brand? LIN? UIN?

Where did you get the board? Any markings on the back?

1982 to 2001

Reply 5 of 18, by Cyrix200+

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lgj1107 wrote on 2020-01-28, 09:27:

The board doesn't work. The CPU is good. BIOS-odd is bad.

Do you have a dump of BIOS-even?

1982 to 2001

Reply 6 of 18, by imi

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the CPU seems to have had markings, you can see them very faintly still, they seem to have been scratched off?

Reply 7 of 18, by lgj1107

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There is no mark on the back. The board was bought in the second-hand market. BIOS dump is incomplete.

Reply 8 of 18, by Cyrix200+

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Hm, that's a nice puzzle 😀 With half the bytes missing, it's hard to tell what it is. In this thread: 80286 Mainboard Bios needed there is a reference to this BIOS file: http://chukaev.ru54.com/bios_cs_en.htm#Texas_Instruments.

It's an AMI BIOS for the same chipset. It might work.

Won't give you the answer to the jumper / DIP switch settings yet, but might help...

1982 to 2001

Reply 9 of 18, by neozhou

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The author is Dazhou Julao. It looks like a unbraned motherboard made in China. Don't know whether the bios dumped from a motherboard with the same chipsets may work here.

Reply 10 of 18, by maxtherabbit

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Anonymous Coward wrote on 2020-01-28, 09:00:

The CPU in this board is unusual since it doesn't appear to have a speed marking.

it used to - if you look close you can see the remnants of a -8

Reply 11 of 18, by Cyrix200+

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maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-01-28, 15:12:
Anonymous Coward wrote on 2020-01-28, 09:00:

The CPU in this board is unusual since it doesn't appear to have a speed marking.

it used to - if you look close you can see the remnants of a -8

With a 24MHz crystal, would that be divided by 3 then?

I think it's the remnants of 12-S.

The attachment 439406709.jpg is no longer available

1982 to 2001

Reply 12 of 18, by maxtherabbit

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Cyrix200+ wrote on 2020-01-28, 15:21:
With a 24MHz crystal, would that be divided by 3 then? […]
Show full quote
maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-01-28, 15:12:
Anonymous Coward wrote on 2020-01-28, 09:00:

The CPU in this board is unusual since it doesn't appear to have a speed marking.

it used to - if you look close you can see the remnants of a -8

With a 24MHz crystal, would that be divided by 3 then?

I think it's the remnants of 12-S.

439406709.jpg

yeah good call

Reply 13 of 18, by Anonymous Coward

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Being a Chinese motherboard, perhaps the CPU was being overclocked and the speed rating was sanded off to obscure that fact.

Something else odd I noticed about the board is the memory configuration. It has four SIPP sockets and four rows for DIP memory (which is pretty normal), but what is up with the extra sockets in the top right corner (which unlike there other DIPS memory banks don't seem to support parity)?

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 14 of 18, by maxtherabbit

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Anonymous Coward wrote on 2020-01-28, 16:49:

Being a Chinese motherboard, perhaps the CPU was being overclocked and the speed rating was sanded off to obscure that fact.

I think you nailed it I bet it said - 10/S before

Reply 15 of 18, by Predator99

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Thats easy. Inside your dump I see
"AadSfwrB OPTBE26BO OYIH wr otaeIcSfwr n.AadSfé W26MdlrBO eso .3LCprgtAadSfwr n. "

Translated:
A a d S f w r B O P T B E 2 6 B O O Y I H w r o t a e I c S f w r n . A a d S f
Award Software 286 BIOS COPYRIGHT Award Software Inc.Software Inc. Award Soft

2 6 M d l r B O e s o . 3 L C p r g t A a d S f w r n .
286 Modular BIOS Version 3.03HL Copyright Award Software Inc.

Your BIOS is Award 3.03HL. You will find it easily.

Reply 16 of 18, by quicknick

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Here's a couple of AMI BIOSes for the TACT823xx chipset. Hope you can get your board working, mine is still dead (but haven't given up yet).

The attachment Unknown TACT 286.rar is no longer available

(Original high/low = what was on my board. Other two, from chukaev.ru54.com - they seem to be a newer version)

Reply 17 of 18, by Intel486dx33

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I never seen a CPU with both AMD and Intel markings.

Reply 18 of 18, by Deunan

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Eh? Pretty much all licenced AMD CPUs bear the Intel copyright mark. So all 286 and earlier.