VOGONS


First post, by vetz

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Got hold of a new 486 computer with case locally for 15 dollars!

The case has LED and is in really nice condition! The specs is:

Intel DX2-66
PKM-0038S E-1 SIS 471 motherboard
8MB RAM (4x1MB 30pin SIMM, 1x4MB 72pin SIMM 70ns)
ET4000/W32VL (It got a heatsink placed ontop so it's hard to see if it's the W32 or W32i chipset.)
210MB Connor IDE drive (tested and working) - Link to article at Red Hill guide. Last changes on the harddrive were in 1998.
IDE/serial/LPT controller card
3.5" Floppy drive
No sound or CD-ROM

Unfortunately the board has a serious battery leakage. Can anyone who has dealt with this previously take a look at the pictures and tell me if there is any hope? I haven't dared to power it up or start the repair yet.
If anyone has the manual to this board, please speak up. The file I found on Google was corrupt.

Click on pictures for big versions:
2013-12-02%2020.57.03_small.jpg
2013-12-02%2020.58.05smll.jpg
DSC00022small.jpg
DSC00023small.jpg

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Reply 1 of 5, by PeterLI

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The best thing is to disconnect the battery, clean up the fluid the best you can and then repair/retrace/replace lines/ICs where required. Hopefully it will come back to life.

Good luck and keep us posted! 😁

This is why I like OEM machines: VRAMs or cell batteries usually. Beside the point of course. The downside is that these boards are highly configurable and have more accessible BIOS' compared to OEMs.

Reply 2 of 5, by nforce4max

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Chances are that it could work but first pull the battery and then treat the damaged traces with vinegar then wash very well under the tap. Use compressed air (or use the old lungs) to blast away any water in the slots and sockets till it is dry. If any traces are eaten away completely you can wire jump or make a solder bridge to rebuild the lost trace. The one thing that can brick this is if any acid has leaked between some of the layers of the board or fallowed any traces beneath any of the slots or sockets near the damaged area.

With about an hour or so work you should get this board posting and running.

On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.

Reply 3 of 5, by Unknown_K

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I think you need a good contact between the keyboard connector shell and the keyboard port so that will most likely have to be replaced. You will also probably need to fix a broken trace or two from the looks of it.

A few years back I purchased a 486 system from a recycler because it was built by Fred Martin Computers (local place that ran a BBS in the early 90's I liked to call). Anyway the keyboard plug was full of blue crystals and the board had some traces that were gone (keyboard circuit). I washed it, replaced the keyboard connector from a junk donor machine and soldered 2 fine wires on the bottom side to fix the keyboard circuit and you can't tell it ever had issues from running it at looking at the board. On a 386 system board that had corrosion on the ISA slots I had to scrub them pretty good to clean that off and a couple socketed chips needed pulled and cleaned but it works.

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 5 of 5, by kixs

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I have two 386DX-40 boards which had just a minor battery leakage and both have problems. They both worked when I got them but didn't have time to clean them. I tried them again after a few months and I guess it was too late. With one the cache has to be disabled. On the other one there is a HDD controller error at POST (I tried with different I/O controllers, cables and HDDs that work on the other boards). I don't even know where to begin. I cleaned one board (the one with cache problems), measured continuity on the effected traces. Everything seems to be OK - but the cache won't work. I don't have the necessary skill nor the equipment to de-solder cache sockets - at least the ones nearest to the battery leakage. The other one has quite a bit corrosion around the keyboard connector and just a bit on the keyboard controller chip - again I'd have to de-solder the socket.

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