Good to see this coming online.
Will follow your progress.
The set of components is random indeed, but that adds flavor.
Keep in mind that the Promise EIDE Pro ISA does not do well even with modest overclocks.

286 is fun, not sure where you felt negativity towards it.
Point us to the sorce of evil and we will strike it down.

I've been waiting for weeks for somebody to do a 286 build.
It seems these days everything is skewing towards post 2000 shit, which I hate.

It's too bad your build is using one of those tiny little half length boards. I'm not necessarily against 20/25MHz 286s, but a proper 286 needs to be full length, damnit!

There is something nice about old slow full sized 286 boards.

Yeah, not just full length, but full width too!
It's even better if it's in a full sized desktop case.
Just the other day on VCfed, I was reading about a system made by Sperry that is somehow even larger than a 5170.

The SB Pro2 is a bit overkill for a 286; is there really anything that a 286 can play that takes advantage of digital audio at all let alone stereo? I feel like an SB 1.x/2.0 or a clone thereof (Aztech BX/NX) would be fairly generous and fitting for a premium 286 build. Heck, even an Adlib would be fine for this build..

My dream soundcard for a 286 either either SB Pro 1.0 or a PAS. Gotta have dual OPL2. Everything about 286s is about having more and being physically larger.
Strangely the 286 CPU itself is small. I'm really disappointed they didn't make it as a 68 pin DIP, like the 68000. I think in the early stages they considered it, as I remember seeing prototype images of one.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-06-13, 08:47:

is there really anything that a 286 can play that takes advantage of digital audio at all let alone stereo?

Many games since fast 286 systems are fast enough for most 16-bit real mode games. But I too would choose something else than SB Pro 2 but for different reason. I would choose any OPL2 card since it would be more period correct and OPL2 cards deserve to be used and what would be a better system for them than a 286 (or slow 386). But SB Pro 2 is not a bad choice since it is old enough and a good card. I used SB 32 CT3930 on my 286 for a while but that was because I needed the IDE it had. But it never felt correct to use SB32 on a 286.

What a 286 really needs is an MT-32. It's just about the most 80's looking accessory you can get.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2022-06-13, 10:27:

What a 286 really needs is an MT-32. It's just about the most 80's looking accessory you can get.

Well, an MT-32 is quite a luxury compared to a simple ISA sound card but yes, I would completely endorse that setup. Unfortunately SoftMPU won't work on a 286 AFAIK, so you pretty much NEED an intelligent mode MPU-401 adapter.

pshipkov wrote on 2022-06-13, 03:16:

Good to see this coming online. Will follow your progress. The set of components is random indeed, but that adds flavor. Keep in […]
Show full quote

Good to see this coming online.
Will follow your progress.
The set of components is random indeed, but that adds flavor.
Keep in mind that the Promise EIDE Pro ISA does not do well even with modest overclocks.

286 is fun, not sure where you felt negativity towards it.
Point us to the sorce of evil and we will strike it down.

I have noticed a few little differences between your board and mine (apart from some diffenent manufacturers of the chips), I set up the jumpers as you had on yours and it disabled half the SIMM slots! So had to do a bit of testing and adjusting to get all the sockets working on mine, also intresting is the 2nd oscillator on mine.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2022-06-13, 07:35:

I've been waiting for weeks for somebody to do a 286 build.
It seems these days everything is skewing towards post 2000 shit, which I hate.

It's too bad your build is using one of those tiny little half length boards. I'm not necessarily against 20/25MHz 286s, but a proper 286 needs to be full length, damnit!

I agree, but could not find one that peeks my interest, also wife would get annoyed with another large computer in the house! It is one of the drawbacks to this board missing those extra two ISA slots.

Okay, so what I thought was going to be a simple build has thrown some curve balls at me.

1) ET4000 with no modifications acchives 6.8fps in 3D Bench v1.0, so thought that I would try some other cards to see if I can get a litter more performance and well, it hates my 'modern' ISA cards, system will not post with either my Diamond SpeedStar 64 or S3 928 cards, which is fine except I have a lot of noise on the ET4000 which I suspect is the RAMDAC.

System gives three rapid beeps then eight slow/long beeps with the 'modern' cards in, so I as remember it is telling me it cannot see a display adapter but need to check that, if it is that I do remember many years ago reading that some motherboards had issues with the newer vga cards as they did not use a certain signal, but again need to research that.

2) Tried every on board BIOS option with the Promise EIDE card but it will not detect my 512MB CF Card, but disable it and use the system BIOS and it works perfectly, so no large hard drive support (at the moment).

3) As I expected no EMS options in the BIOS so installed the EMS board, but the Upper memory has region E000-EFFF as read only, so lost a good wad of upper memory and cannot see any BIOS option to free it up.

4) Sound cards, wow reading the comments above I can see there are many thoughts, I would love an MT-32 but they are so expensive it is stupid, but due to the missing two ISA slots being a small board, like you all said it needs MIDI and digital sounds, I totally agree. Especially as I want to play Day of the Tentacle with both music and voice, especially for the opening scenes!

SB Pro 2.0: Causes system not to post, board works fine in other systems so slightly stumped there.
SB16: Digital sound is distorted/ or clipped and MIDI does not work (have a MIDI daughter board installed)
Terratec Maestro: Digital sound works sometimes and MIDI sometimes work (used same MIDI daughter board as on SB16).
PAS16: same issues as the Terratec Maestro
8-bit TopTek Goldern sound card: Works brilliantly but no MIDI without an external box (have an SC-55, it is no MT-32 but works).

However, as of today have a generic ALS100+ card in there with a MIDI daughter board and have finally both digital sound and MIDI working. The only game that won't work with the MIDI is Wing Commander 1, but remember that was always picky with MIDI and that does not bother me too much.

5) Tried to install 16mb of RAM but it hates every 4mb SIMM I have, not to concerned about that though, 4mb should be plenty for the time being.

So next plan:

1) Is to either find another ET4000 card or replace the RAMDAC in the one I have, might even try and find an ET4000 W32.
2) Install the correct crystal for a 25Mhz CPU.
3) Burn and install a MR. Bios chip, when I finally get round to getting a new programmer.

4) Had not considered overclocking but now someone has mentioned it, might try it in the future.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2022-06-13, 08:28:

Yeah, not just full length, but full width too!
It's even better if it's in a full sized desktop case.
Just the other day on VCfed, I was reading about a system made by Sperry that is somehow even larger than a 5170.

this was just added https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/motherboards/11809

Just for giggles try the newer video cards without the EIDE controller installed

Never heard of any 286 board that supports 4MB SIMMs FWIW

There were 286 boards made that used chipsets for 386SX that support 4MB SIMMs. They all would have been 90s vintage.

Are any of the 4MB simms you tried 9 chips ?

like this "4 MB Simm 30-pin 80 ns 9-Chip 4Mx9 Parity 'Chips: 9 x Siemens HYB514100BJ-80'"

maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-06-13, 15:54:

Just for giggles try the newer video cards without the EIDE controller installed

Never heard of any 286 board that supports 4MB SIMMs FWIW

I had a small slim factor
desktop 286-25 pass through my fingers that accepted 72 pin simms, IDE, serial, ps2, vga onboard with riser
92/93 date codes

It was originally a networked boss/inventory box for a Kwik Trip they unloaded late 90’s

Set it up for a family friends daughter, sadly it got tossed after it failed and didn’t even start sending post codes, stripped the memory and drives, still disappointed I didn’t keep it

weedeewee wrote on 2022-06-13, 16:43:

Are any of the 4MB simms you tried 9 chips ?

like this "4 MB Simm 30-pin 80 ns 9-Chip 4Mx9 Parity 'Chips: 9 x Siemens HYB514100BJ-80'"

Unfortunately they all are! I thought that could be part of the issue.

Weird. I expected those to function.