Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-02-14, 22:15:

Predator99 wrote on 2026-02-14, 22:03:

Box already arrived. Not sure it was worth the money...

Looks like a decent lot! Depending on how much you spent, I think it definitely has some nice stuff in it. The ET4000AX with EGA output is pretty slick... I don't think I have one of those. The S3 805 is also a solid VLB card. The boards are nice too. Especially that Epox... though I would take a close look at the caps. Some of the smaller ones might be getting a bit round on top.

I wouldn't write off that Trio32 completely. A good scrub with some soap and water would make it look a lot better. Someone who doesn't mind doing some repairs to the SMD components and straightening some pins could get that functioning without too much hassle unless there are a bunch of damaged traces. 🙂

Thanks for your comment!

After cleaning the 286 and straightening the Pins I also cleaned the Trio32. Still does not look good and one pin is loose. Dont think its worth spending more effort on this.

The 286 looks OK again:

Predator99 wrote on 2026-02-15, 18:13:

After cleaning the 286 and straightening the Pins I also cleaned the Trio32. Still does not look good and one pin is loose. Dont think its worth spending more effort on this.

That looks very repairable. Maybe put it up for hardware giveaway so someone else could take a shot.

Predator99 wrote on 2026-02-14, 22:03:

The 286 - looks unsued, have seen worse battery damage. Also many bent pins on the Headland:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/aquari … tems-bcom-ht286

I have this 286 board, it's my primary 286. I found 4 MB of SIPP memory for it. Absolutely love this board.

Predator99 wrote on 2026-02-15, 18:13:

Thanks for your comment! […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-02-14, 22:15:

Predator99 wrote on 2026-02-14, 22:03:

Box already arrived. Not sure it was worth the money...

Looks like a decent lot! Depending on how much you spent, I think it definitely has some nice stuff in it. The ET4000AX with EGA output is pretty slick... I don't think I have one of those. The S3 805 is also a solid VLB card. The boards are nice too. Especially that Epox... though I would take a close look at the caps. Some of the smaller ones might be getting a bit round on top.

I wouldn't write off that Trio32 completely. A good scrub with some soap and water would make it look a lot better. Someone who doesn't mind doing some repairs to the SMD components and straightening some pins could get that functioning without too much hassle unless there are a bunch of damaged traces. 🙂

Thanks for your comment!

After cleaning the 286 and straightening the Pins I also cleaned the Trio32. Still does not look good and one pin is loose. Dont think its worth spending more effort on this.

The attachment 1.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 2.jpg is no longer available

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The 286 looks OK again:

The attachment 5.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 4.jpg is no longer available

I'm with Shponglefan on this one. That is definitely fixable.

I have a sewing pin that I bent the tip on that works great for hooking in between and straightening bent pins like that, under a microscope of course. Once the pins aren't touching each other and are aligned with the solder pads, a bit of flux (or solder paste) and a heat gun will have those reattached in no time.

I can just barely read the label, but that is a Miro Trio32, which is pretty cool. Miro stuff is uncommon here in the US compared to Europe but it all seems to be of good quality. Of course, it will never be a pristine card... the solder mask is scratched away in several places, and those pins will never be "straight" again, but it is far from being not worth fixing for someone who does that kind of stuff frequently and has the tools\parts\experience.

I bought three CONTEC industrial PCs, IPC-BX/M400(PC)H, for a total of 9,000 yen (on Yahoo Auctions).
They are good Am5x86-133/WB machines (the upper half of the case can accommodate two ISA cards). They have 16MB of memory (72-pin SO-DIMM) and a 20GB HDD (2.5") installed.
I plan to use them as the main i486 machine in my home (for testing NetBSD, Linux, etc.).

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-02-15, 21:44:

I'm with Shponglefan on this one. That is definitely fixable. […]
Show full quote

Predator99 wrote on 2026-02-15, 18:13:

Thanks for your comment! […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-02-14, 22:15:

Looks like a decent lot! Depending on how much you spent, I think it definitely has some nice stuff in it. The ET4000AX with EGA output is pretty slick... I don't think I have one of those. The S3 805 is also a solid VLB card. The boards are nice too. Especially that Epox... though I would take a close look at the caps. Some of the smaller ones might be getting a bit round on top.

I wouldn't write off that Trio32 completely. A good scrub with some soap and water would make it look a lot better. Someone who doesn't mind doing some repairs to the SMD components and straightening some pins could get that functioning without too much hassle unless there are a bunch of damaged traces. 🙂

Thanks for your comment!

After cleaning the 286 and straightening the Pins I also cleaned the Trio32. Still does not look good and one pin is loose. Dont think its worth spending more effort on this.

The attachment 1.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 2.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 3.jpg is no longer available

The 286 looks OK again:

The attachment 5.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 4.jpg is no longer available

I'm with Shponglefan on this one. That is definitely fixable.

I have a sewing pin that I bent the tip on that works great for hooking in between and straightening bent pins like that, under a microscope of course. Once the pins aren't touching each other and are aligned with the solder pads, a bit of flux (or solder paste) and a heat gun will have those reattached in no time.

I can just barely read the label, but that is a Miro Trio32, which is pretty cool. Miro stuff is uncommon here in the US compared to Europe but it all seems to be of good quality. Of course, it will never be a pristine card... the solder mask is scratched away in several places, and those pins will never be "straight" again, but it is far from being not worth fixing for someone who does that kind of stuff frequently and has the tools\parts\experience.

If somebody likes to have it: If you provide a paid shipping label I can put it in a padded envelope and send it out. Location is Germany 😉

Predator99 wrote on 2026-02-16, 09:13:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-02-15, 21:44:

I'm with Shponglefan on this one. That is definitely fixable. […]
Show full quote

Predator99 wrote on 2026-02-15, 18:13:

Thanks for your comment! […]
Show full quote

Thanks for your comment!

After cleaning the 286 and straightening the Pins I also cleaned the Trio32. Still does not look good and one pin is loose. Dont think its worth spending more effort on this.

The attachment 1.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 2.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 3.jpg is no longer available

The 286 looks OK again:

The attachment 5.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 4.jpg is no longer available

I'm with Shponglefan on this one. That is definitely fixable.

I have a sewing pin that I bent the tip on that works great for hooking in between and straightening bent pins like that, under a microscope of course. Once the pins aren't touching each other and are aligned with the solder pads, a bit of flux (or solder paste) and a heat gun will have those reattached in no time.

I can just barely read the label, but that is a Miro Trio32, which is pretty cool. Miro stuff is uncommon here in the US compared to Europe but it all seems to be of good quality. Of course, it will never be a pristine card... the solder mask is scratched away in several places, and those pins will never be "straight" again, but it is far from being not worth fixing for someone who does that kind of stuff frequently and has the tools\parts\experience.

If somebody likes to have it: If you provide a paid shipping label I can put it in a padded envelope and send it out. Location is Germany 😉

Sadly, I am in the US so it isn't practical for me, but we do have a hardware giveaway thread and I'm sure someone will respond if you post it there. 😀
Old hardware giveaway thread.

Pair of P!!! 1000EB FCPGA SL4MF for less than US$ 35 😀

Just picked up something pretty damn cool, will post about it when I've got it all set up. Anyone know the correct way to remove the battery on this style of socket? The thin metal on these old things get proper flimsy, so I don't want to break anything.

giantenemycat wrote on 2026-02-17, 21:06:

Just picked up something pretty damn cool, will post about it when I've got it all set up. Anyone know the correct way to remove the battery on this style of socket? The thin metal on these old things get proper flimsy, so I don't want to break anything.

The attachment cm.jpg is no longer available

I believe you push the battery back toward the spring slightly until it clears the black plastic clip at the bottom.

Yeah, that is how you remove a battery from such a socket.

Picked up this mystery "386SX" yesterday.

Turns out it's actually a Socket 3.

Intel 486DX4 @ 100 MHz
Freetech/Flexus 486F39X (or some variant)
4x4MB 30 pin SIMMs
QDI CLVGA542XVL/H VLB (Cirrus Logic CL-GD5429)
Sound Blaster 16 Value (CT2770)
Conner CP30174E 170MB

Pretty good for £90?

giantenemycat wrote on Yesterday, 18:41:

Picked up this mystery "386SX" yesterday. […]
Show full quote

Picked up this mystery "386SX" yesterday.

The attachment 4.jpg is no longer available

Turns out it's actually a Socket 3.

Intel 486DX4 @ 100 MHz
Freetech/Flexus 486F39X (or some variant)
4x4MB 30 pin SIMMs
QDI CLVGA542XVL/H VLB (Cirrus Logic CL-GD5429)
Sound Blaster 16 Value (CT2770)
Conner CP30174E 170MB

Pretty good for £90?

Wow, I'd say it's a fantastic deal for that price. It's basically a complete and ready to use mid to high end 486-class system that anyone here would probably build if they had access to those parts.

If your board matches the TRW pictures, then you even managed to snag a 486 with a CR2032 rather than a corroded varta battery, so the board most likely works fine. The GD5429 is a very solid card for DOS and early Windows, and the CT2770 is a great example of an SB16 with a real OPL3 built into the CT1747 chip and fewer MIDI bugs than other models (there are no MIDI bugs if you just use OPL3). The case has a speed indicator (which obviously won't be able to display 100Mhz with only 2 digits, but it's still a desirable feature on a retro case), turbo button, Creative 4x CD-ROM with lots of cool markings on it, 5.25 and 3.5" floppies... it is a very well rounded machine. And I guess it is also technically a sleeper since it says it's a 386SX. 😅

How does it look inside? More pics! 😁

Indeed! Gotta have pics!

GD5429 could be one of the fastest VLB cards out there?

PD2JK wrote on Yesterday, 19:24:

Indeed! Gotta have pics!

GD5429 could be one of the fastest VLB cards out there?

It should be "up there". I believe Trio32 and Trio64 are fastest ones?

PD2JK wrote on Yesterday, 19:24:

Indeed! Gotta have pics!

GD5429 could be one of the fastest VLB cards out there?

I think there are several others that are faster in certain situations, especially for accelerated Windows stuff, but for this level of system running DOS games I don't think there would be much performance difference between this and something really hard to find like an ARK1000 VLB, GD5434, Trio64, etc.

Ozzuneoj wrote on Yesterday, 19:00:

Wow, I'd say it's a fantastic deal for that price. It's basically a complete and ready to use mid to high end 486-class system that anyone here would probably build if they had access to those parts.

If your board matches the TRW pictures, then you even managed to snag a 486 with a CR2032 rather than a corroded varta battery, so the board most likely works fine. The GD5429 is a very solid card for DOS and early Windows, and the CT2770 is a great example of an SB16 with a real OPL3 built into the CT1747 chip and fewer MIDI bugs than other models (there are no MIDI bugs if you just use OPL3). The case has a speed indicator (which obviously won't be able to display 100Mhz with only 2 digits, but it's still a desirable feature on a retro case), turbo button, Creative 4x CD-ROM with lots of cool markings on it, 5.25 and 3.5" floppies... it is a very well rounded machine. And I guess it is also technically a sleeper since it says it's a 386SX. 😅

How does it look inside? More pics! 😁

Funny you say that because I did ask her to send a photo of the inside so I could see if there was any battery leakage before making the trip to get it (also to rule out that it could be some less exciting Baby AT Pentium in an old case), and felt blessed to see the 2032 . At first she said the HDD would be removed for privacy - I said that was a shame but understood, then surprisingly she said you can have it for an extra £10 if you promise to wipe the drive. Absolutely. I collected it from a small business office, so it's probably been collecting dust for decades.

I've booted it up as far as the BIOS, and looking good! The Creative drive is jammed up when trying to eject, but I tried for only a brief moment so might be fixable (any advice please?). Now just need to check the floppy drives, the HDD controller (HDD itself verified working), and the SB16.

To open the CDROM has is a mechanism behind the pin hole, and that should work even when the device is powered off.

giantenemycat wrote on Yesterday, 19:49:

Ozzuneoj wrote on Yesterday, 19:00:

Wow, I'd say it's a fantastic deal for that price. It's basically a complete and ready to use mid to high end 486-class system that anyone here would probably build if they had access to those parts.

If your board matches the TRW pictures, then you even managed to snag a 486 with a CR2032 rather than a corroded varta battery, so the board most likely works fine. The GD5429 is a very solid card for DOS and early Windows, and the CT2770 is a great example of an SB16 with a real OPL3 built into the CT1747 chip and fewer MIDI bugs than other models (there are no MIDI bugs if you just use OPL3). The case has a speed indicator (which obviously won't be able to display 100Mhz with only 2 digits, but it's still a desirable feature on a retro case), turbo button, Creative 4x CD-ROM with lots of cool markings on it, 5.25 and 3.5" floppies... it is a very well rounded machine. And I guess it is also technically a sleeper since it says it's a 386SX. 😅

How does it look inside? More pics! 😁

Funny you say that because I did ask her to send a photo of the inside so I could see if there was any battery leakage before making the trip to get it (also to rule out that it could be some less exciting Baby AT Pentium in an old case), and felt blessed to see the 2032 . At first she said the HDD would be removed for privacy - I said that was a shame but understood, then surprisingly she said you can have it for an extra £10 if you promise to wipe the drive. Absolutely. I collected it from a small business office, so it's probably been collecting dust for decades.

I've booted it up as far as the BIOS, and looking good! The Creative drive is jammed up when trying to eject, but I tried for only a brief moment so might be fixable (any advice please?). Now just need to check the floppy drives, the HDD controller (HDD itself verified working), and the SB16.

Wow, that thing is in amazing condition! It must have been in a climate controlled environment it's entire life because there isn't even a hint of rust on the unfinished edges of the case. Barely any dust too. Considering it could have had a 386SX in it originally, that case could be 35 years old. That is really quite a find, and it sounds like a really nice seller to deal with as well.

I have seen 4-5 year old computers for sale locally in far far far worse condition than that. 😂

kagura1050 wrote on 2026-02-16, 08:51:

I bought three CONTEC industrial PCs, IPC-BX/M400(PC)H, for a total of 9,000 yen (on Yahoo Auctions).
They are good Am5x86-133/WB machines (the upper half of the case can accommodate two ISA cards). They have 16MB of memory (72-pin SO-DIMM) and a 20GB HDD (2.5") installed.
I plan to use them as the main i486 machine in my home (for testing NetBSD, Linux, etc.).

Kawai 😀

Have you opened it yet?
I'd like to see how it looks inside.
It's pretty handy as all the ports are on the front and not at the back.