First post, by skitters
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Are there 386 motherboards that don't work with a VGA video card?
Or that only work with some VGA video cards?
My brother and I tried to revive an old 386 motherboard that he'd used back in the 1980's. When we tried the 386 with nothing attached but a keyboard and an ISA Trident VGA card, the computer made a long continuous beep until we shut it off, and nothing ever appeared on the monitor screen. (Monitor was a CRT -- AOC 5vlr).
We think this 386 may be too old to have beep codes. There's nothing about beep codes in the manual.
There is a jumper setting for monochrome or color on the motherboard (short pins 1 and 2 for color, pins 2 and 3 for monochrome). But neither setting had an effect. Nor did completely removing the jumper so no pins were shorted. In only produced that long continuous beep with nothing displayed on the monitor.
The Trident card worked with a 486 motherboard.
It has a Trident chip on it that says 9000c.
The 386 motherboard doesn't seem to have any identification.
Even the manual only says "386 User's Manual" on it.
I'm attaching a scan of the part of the manual that shows the layout.
Is there any hope for getting this working with a different VGA card?
Maybe the Trident wasn't the best card for it.