I found this on eBay, but at $150 that is probably a bit too pricey, but it should be the memory expansion card for this computer. I picked up an HP Vectra 286/12 and was in the same boat with memory upgrades. I just went with a Lo-Tech 2MB EMS board and called it a day.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/293110753454?hash=it … GIAAOSwfopd6B7I
IF the computer is very interesting but rare, you will have to spend lot to get that expansion board, go for it. This is life living with proprietary computers.
I had same issue with compaq 386e expansion memory boards especially 4MB variety which is rather rare. 1MB ones is common. Ditto to 4MB modules for these as well.
Even the computers like Compaq I spent about 200 to 300 total each to get one.
Cheers,
Great Northern aka Canada.
You can make them a lower offer - often times for an obscure part like that people will start high but accept much less
maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-05-20, 19:37:You can make them a lower offer - often times for an obscure part like that people will start high but accept much less
Then when you get it scan it on both sides in hi res so others might reverse engineer the card
shipping 430 usd 🤣 no thanks in Austrlia its just too expensive. i didnt think when i bought this pc that it was gonna cost me so much to get it running properly.
could someone please verify that this is a xt computer not a at and if Lo-Tech 2MB EMS board is what i need to buy also please a storage solution all the ones on ebay dont have a port for a printer or mouse they are just the board with a sd card slot and that wont work for me as then i would need to run both controllers and that will conflict so i need a better solution for storage please
RAm card from AUS:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/164859529854?hash … &frcectupt=true
...but without RAM.
ISA IDE:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/334003065200?hash … &frcectupt=true
...but such card is very common and not worth more than 10$
Post a photo of the Hard disk/Floppy controller you already have, quite sure its IDE not MFM.
Hi i will post a pic of the controller next time i open up the pc. its def mfm
my problem is that all these other cheap controller cards don't have the port on them for mouse and printer they are just mfm to sd or to ide.
the previous owner told me that this board will not accept a isa ide controller and the bios will not see it.
wherever this is true or not i don't know but he seemed to know what he was doing.
If it were me I'd just try it out for interest sake. You could get an isa EIDE paradise multi i/o card with its own bio s that can access up to 8gig iirc (memory may be wrong regarding the max size hdd so check my one i the garage when it is lighter outside)or an ISA multi i/o SCSI card and use a SCSI-CF adapter.
Another option is use one of those smaller substitutes for spinning rust hdds CF, SD or whatever and use a generic ISA multi i/o and just disable the IDE function using jumpers so you have floppy disks, printer and serial ports available to use. This is what I've done on my XT Turbo to get faster lpt and serial ports. I've also fitted a high density floppy controller to the XT Turbo to access high density 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disks.
More than one way to skin the old cat as they say.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
Yip the Promise Enhanced IDE card can handle up to 8ish gig drives.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
vkcpolice wrote on 2021-05-21, 09:08:shipping 430 usd 🤣 no thanks in Austrlia its just too expensive.
Yeah, 🤣. I had a seller who wanted something like $100 USD for sending a $5 ATX IO plate to AU. No thanks. 😀
vkcpolice wrote on 2021-05-21, 09:08:could someone please verify that this is a xt computer not a at
I'm pretty sure you have an AT because of the 286 and the 16 bit ISA slots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer_XT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer/AT
It's definitely an AT class system.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
thanks for that i might go out and get a ide controller card.
sounds like it should work. i dont see why it wouldn't.
vkcpolice wrote on 2021-05-22, 01:25:thanks for that i might go out and get a ide controller card.
sounds like it should work. i dont see why it wouldn't.
.... well, you have a day or two???
Nah, you should be fine. In your case there are no industrial measurment cards clashing on the port numbers or bios extensions clashing with the memory ranges or whatever other device munching up IRQ/DMA.
only a soundcard 😀
Hi all im kinda stuck at this point as my mfm hd crashed and now i really need another storage solution as the bios and pc wont see a isa ide controller.
i cant use any of the current mfm to ide as ive mentioned before they dont have a controller for a mouse or printer so they are useless for this pc.
where do i go from here?
The information you provide is not really helpful. What does "crashed" mean?
Of course a 286 dont "see" a ISA IDE controller. There is no IDE autodetection and most likely you only can select the disc types that are provided by the BIOS.
Provide some photos of your equipment (controller, drives,...) and a screenshot of BIOS boot and setup screen.
it means exactly like i said the hard drive has crashed the bios wont reckonise a ide controller card i dont know what else to say... maybe you should read the whole thread before you give an answer saying that my question is unhelpful...
?!
Yes its clear now!
very helpful indeed...
sorry Predator99 just a bit stressed out atm with this pc
