Micronics 386 motherboard.
Minor battery leak was fixed.
The 2-3 lines got reconnected.
Had to remove the top ISA slot to be able to trace them propetly.
BIOS gives one long one shot one long one short beeps, no repetition.

Wont have more time to deal with it.
Feels close.
If somebody wants to thinker with it - let me know.

pshipkov wrote on 2024-05-27, 17:58:

Micronics 386 motherboard. Minor battery leak was fixed. The 2-3 lines got reconnected. Had to remove the top ISA slot to be abl […]
Show full quote

Micronics 386 motherboard.
Minor battery leak was fixed.
The 2-3 lines got reconnected.
Had to remove the top ISA slot to be able to trace them propetly.
BIOS gives one long one shot one long one short beeps, no repetition.

Wont have more time to deal with it.
Feels close.
If somebody wants to thinker with it - let me know.

Have you tried a POST card or checked the tantalums? I'm tempted to grab it because it looks like a great 386 board, but I'm not sure if I'd be up to the task of diagnosing it beyond those troubleshooting steps.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-05-28, 02:39:

pshipkov wrote on 2024-05-27, 17:58:

Micronics 386 motherboard. Minor battery leak was fixed. The 2-3 lines got reconnected. Had to remove the top ISA slot to be abl […]
Show full quote

Micronics 386 motherboard.
Minor battery leak was fixed.
The 2-3 lines got reconnected.
Had to remove the top ISA slot to be able to trace them propetly.
BIOS gives one long one shot one long one short beeps, no repetition.

Wont have more time to deal with it.
Feels close.
If somebody wants to thinker with it - let me know.

Have you tried a POST card or checked the tantalums? I'm tempted to grab it because it looks like a great 386 board, but I'm not sure if I'd be up to the task of diagnosing it beyond those troubleshooting steps.

It would be fairly obvious if a tantalum was shorted

Can they short without exploding?

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-05-28, 03:56:

Can they short without exploding?

Yes, they can fail open or fail short, and they can explode, fizzle\smoke or have no visible or audible failure. It's honestly pretty uncommon for any of those to happen from my experience, but with a board this old in such clean condition (barely used from the looks of it) it is more likely.

I just asked because that is something I would check if it hasn't been done already.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-05-28, 04:06:

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-05-28, 03:56:

Can they short without exploding?

Yes, they can fail open or fail short, and they can explode, fizzle\smoke or have no visible or audible failure. It's honestly pretty uncommon for any of those to happen from my experience, but with a board this old in such clean condition (barely used from the looks of it) it is more likely.

I just asked because that is something I would check if it hasn't been done already.

I have never seen one fail open. Ever. If it did, it wouldn't even be noticeable or cause a problem anyway, so that's a moot point to even bring up. If shorted it would absolutely smoke, unless the PSU tripped it's overcurrent and turned off. In either case, as I said, it would be extremely noticeable.

If they short you will see and hear it. : )

I had POST card once but it rarely reported anything meaningful. It broke at some point later. Never got new one. Sorry.
The board is otherwise in very good condition. The problem can be something trivial, or not so.
My expectation for quick fix didn’t happen unfortunately.

While sometimes POST cards seem no more helpful than a "Magic 8 ball" or going through a box of fortune cookies, I have found them more useful than I ever thought they would be, even with a a weird BIOS you can't get POST code table for, purely relying on "make number go bigger" mode. It seems to be universal that the early codes are related to the core of the system, CPU/RAM, the middle codes the chipset and bare essentials and the later codes more to do with i/o and peripherals. So it kind of transforms fault finding from a kind of "Blind man's buff" game in like a massive empty warehouse with unknown number of participants, ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_man%27s_buff ) to a game of "Marco Polo" which is in the confines of a pool and players have to call out "Polo" so you know they are there. In the first instance, it's easy to get frustrated and give up because you know very little about the number of issues to resolve. In the second you go kinda voice by voice and clear everything. If you get bogged down with a stubborn unknown fault code with unknown BIOS revision, you can "take votes" from all the code tables you can find, and drill down from most common specific issue to least, and it is probably gonna be one of those. All in all though, make number go bigger, you're fixing stuff, not completely in the dark, and eventually you get there.

edit: Actually, you can do better with an unknown revision if you use your early codes found to "narrow down the tree" of code tables that match, so by the time you're on your 3rd or 4th fault to clear you have one or two code tables that seem to match everything, and if a 5th code shows up, kapow, headshot, no messing around.

Board is claimed.
---
Nodded in agreement with BitWrangler.
They can be helpful in some cases, or at least aid the process somewhat, but i find them a bit of a thin sauce. Not a must-have item.

Anyone interested in AudioPCI sound cards? ES1370, ES1371, ES1373 chips?

magicmanred wrote on 2024-05-29, 20:19:

Anyone interested in AudioPCI sound cards? ES1370, ES1371, ES1373 chips?

Hi. Are you USA, Europe or elsewhere?

nfraser01 wrote on 2024-05-29, 20:35:

magicmanred wrote on 2024-05-29, 20:19:

Anyone interested in AudioPCI sound cards? ES1370, ES1371, ES1373 chips?

Hi. Are you USA, Europe or elsewhere?

USA

magicmanred wrote on 2024-05-30, 01:23:

USA

Good to know...

nfraser01 wrote on 2024-05-30, 18:40:

magicmanred wrote on 2024-05-30, 01:23:

USA

Good to know...

Thanks for asking! Made me realize I should update my profile so that it shows my location which I just did 😀

magicmanred wrote on 2024-05-30, 18:55:

Thanks for asking! Made me realize I should update my profile so that it shows my location which I just did 😀

Me too!

magicmanred wrote on 2024-05-29, 20:19:

Anyone interested in AudioPCI sound cards? ES1370, ES1371, ES1373 chips?

I do collect PCI soundcards and I am missing the ES1371 version in the original ES form--I have the Creative branded version though.

pshipkov wrote on 2024-05-28, 19:49:

Board is claimed. --- Nodded in agreement with BitWrangler. They can be helpful in some cases, or at least aid the process somew […]
Show full quote

Board is claimed.
---
Nodded in agreement with BitWrangler.
They can be helpful in some cases, or at least aid the process somewhat, but i find them a bit of a thin sauce. Not a must-have item.

Yep I mostly use them to answer the question "is the CPU executing code" -- Unless you want to spend time disassembling the BIOS to see how the tests are being done, it can often be a red herring trying to chase a specific POST code.

nezwick wrote on 2024-04-01, 21:17:

CRT was picked up

386 parts PC and Fujitsu HDD from a couple posts back are still available

is the 386 box still available?

demiurge wrote on 2024-05-31, 02:20:

magicmanred wrote on 2024-05-29, 20:19:

Anyone interested in AudioPCI sound cards? ES1370, ES1371, ES1373 chips?

I do collect PCI soundcards and I am missing the ES1371 version in the original ES form--I have the Creative branded version though.

Did you want my ES1371? Or is it not the Creative branded version you're looking for?
ES1373 may be spoken for...

a neighbor is letting go of these.
anyone interested ?