VOGONS


First post, by IkeFox

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Hello everyone,

I have been searching the internet for jumper settings of this board, but was not successful. Here's a top view image of the board: https://app.box.com/s/oyo83iovtuzm4fte41ft43n1pc08s2qh

The board doesn't have any identifiers except the sticker on the chipset, and the tag "Lite On 20v0" on the back. Unfortunately there are also no jumper settings on this board either, except for the CPU clock.

It boots with a 486DX2-66 installed, but cannot boot from the floppy drive. The drive only makes some seeking noise but then fails to boot. The drive and cable itself are fine, as tested on another machine.

The CMOS battery is dead, and a CMOS error is shown on each boot. I can disable the onboard FDD controller in the BIOS, but booting from an IO card with a FDD controller doesn't work either.

A search on the retro web showed some boards that look slightly similar (e.g. https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/octek-hippo-12), but the jumpers are completely different.

Here's the search result: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/?page=1& … %5D%5Bsign%5D==

I've uploaded more pictures of the board and the BIOS settings here: https://app.box.com/s/ky38atz2woqp9wuwio5m9vajuaxchcgn

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Reply 1 of 12, by Chkcpu

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Hi IkeFox,

Nice Socket 3 board with both VLB and PCI slots!
On your BIOS Setup pages, I see a 2A4KCM03 Award BIOS-ID.

This points to a motherboard from Matra with an ALi M1439/31/45 (486 VLB/PCI/ISA) chipset. There is only one board by Matra on TheRetroWeb (Matra 486SLC2 VESA), but it’s not your board. That is an earlier 386/486 board, however it does show the same Path III stickers so yours is likely a Matra board as well.

Hope this helps a bit,
Jan

CPU Identification utility
The Unofficial K6-2+ / K6-III+ page

Reply 2 of 12, by rasz_pl

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Chkcpu wrote on 2024-02-26, 16:15:

Matra 486SLC2 VESA

nice, related board is another 386SX VLB combo Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations What a weird brand, never heard of it.

Open Source AT&T Globalyst/NCR/FIC 486-GAC-2 proprietary Cache Module reproduction

Reply 3 of 12, by IkeFox

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I did some more testing with this board, but unfortunately it won't do much with an empty battery.

Booting from a floppy drive does not work, as already mentioned. Hard disks are detected, but then the BIOS shows a hard disk failure error message, even though the drives work fine on other machines.

It is possible to enter the BIOS setup and change settings, but every time the board reboots, all settings are lost (even when soft rebooting).

Let's just say I'm not a fan of soldered-on RTC modules.

I've added pictures of the boot screens for reference.

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Reply 4 of 12, by rasz_pl

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IkeFox wrote on 2024-03-08, 01:07:

Let's just say I'm not a fan of soldered-on RTC modules.

There is no module per se here, RTC is inside on of two big ALI chipsets. Sadly I cant find any documentation for those chips anywhere. You will have to manually trace RTC battery + terminal and reset RTC jumper all the way to the chipset.

nvm its right there in the corner of the board. Easy job then, some filing to dig into the battery in ODIN module and you are golden

Open Source AT&T Globalyst/NCR/FIC 486-GAC-2 proprietary Cache Module reproduction

Reply 6 of 12, by IkeFox

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MikeSG wrote on 2024-03-08, 08:41:

Are you sure a "BIOS clear" jumper is not set? Settings shouldn't reset on soft reboot.

No, not sure at all. All jumpers except the CPU clock are unlabelled, and there does not seem to be any documentation available online. The board also has more jumpers than probably ever other I've ever seen -_-

Reply 7 of 12, by weedeewee

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The battery on the RTC, the ODIN OEC12c887 chip is empty. If the bios checks the bit for valid ram & time and sees that it is zero due to an empty battery, it will just assume invalid contents in the nonvolatile ram portion of the rtc and reset back to defaults.

meh, just a guess.

Do a battery mod on the odin chip.

Deksor wrote:

You've got another unknown one here. 😁

Right to repair is fundamental. You own it, you're allowed to fix it.
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Do not ask Why !
https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Serial_port

Reply 8 of 12, by Deksor

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Indeed.
@IkeFox, can I use your pictures on theretroweb ? A BIOS dump would also be really helpful, though I don't know if you have the right tools for that ...

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative

Reply 9 of 12, by IkeFox

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Deksor wrote on 2024-03-10, 17:14:

Indeed.
@IkeFox, can I use your pictures on theretroweb ? A BIOS dump would also be really helpful, though I don't know if you have the right tools for that ...

Please go ahead, all my pictures are CC-BY-4.0. I don't have any tools for a BIOS dump, but will be handing the board to another member on Vogons. Maybe he can do that.

Reply 10 of 12, by IkeFox

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weedeewee wrote on 2024-03-08, 20:43:

Do a battery mod on the odin chip.

I'd rather not, but I'll hand the board to someone on Vogons who can do that. Turned out there are some scratches near the ISA slots on the back of the board, and a couple of traces might need resoldering. Not sure if that affects the operation of the board, as all expansion slots seem to work fine (graphics cards show a clear picture in each slot).

Reply 11 of 12, by weedeewee

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IkeFox wrote on 2024-03-11, 14:23:
weedeewee wrote on 2024-03-08, 20:43:

Do a battery mod on the odin chip.

I'd rather not, but I'll hand the board to someone on Vogons who can do that. Turned out there are some scratches near the ISA slots on the back of the board, and a couple of traces might need resoldering. Not sure if that affects the operation of the board, as all expansion slots seem to work fine (graphics cards show a clear picture in each slot).

ok, good luck!

Right to repair is fundamental. You own it, you're allowed to fix it.
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Do not ask Why !
https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Serial_port

Reply 12 of 12, by Deksor

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IkeFox wrote on 2024-03-11, 14:11:
Deksor wrote on 2024-03-10, 17:14:

Indeed.
@IkeFox, can I use your pictures on theretroweb ? A BIOS dump would also be really helpful, though I don't know if you have the right tools for that ...

Please go ahead, all my pictures are CC-BY-4.0. I don't have any tools for a BIOS dump, but will be handing the board to another member on Vogons. Maybe he can do that.

Thanks ! Keep me updated if you can figure this out 😀

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative