First post, by Jed118
- Rank
- Oldbie
Good day,
It's been a while since I posted here. The other day, while working at my Uni, I came across an old 386 machine in a prof's office. Weeks of emails back and fourth yielded not only the 386 machine (all boxes, manuals, original CRT with box, keyboard, mouse, and Raven 24pin printer), but a host of literature about software from the era, and as a bonus, a P100 clone with 16Mb RAM and a 1.3G hard disk - It won't boot because it will not remember the hard disk parameters (even though they are entered before boot time) due to a dead battery (DS1287 - yay...).
In any case, the 386 is giving me several problems. First, the BIOS is INCREDIBLY complex. I did receive the manual which was read front to back (supports three different types of RAM, none of which are SIMMS - I just purchased 1Mb worth of SIPPS from Poland) but even the manual points to the utility diskette - Which of course I don't have. If anyone has it, it's called NEATsx QuickSet. So, first problem I have (see attached pictures) is the fact that I have 1Mb RAM but the BIOS only sees 640K (tests 1024K ok, but BIOS and BIOS summary show 0K extended). The manual does not indicate how to configure it, however occasionally (twice to be exact) when booting holding the INS key, it *will* see the extra 384K, but by then it's too late to go into the XBIOS and see what the table configuration looks like, as it has booted. Of course, it doesn't keep these settings because they're fail-safe. Interestingly, sometimes when booting up holding "INS", it will count 512KB, other times 896KB - Very strange behaviour. If anyone can help with activating the EMS memory, please help!!
Interestingly, the hard disk (A seagate 157A) was *seized* and didn't spin up. After an hour of trying different BIOS C/H/S settings, I took the drive in my hand as the computer was turning on, as I started to think that this disk is very quiet for the type and era... Hey, wait a minute, I can only hear the head mechanism actuate! Plus, on this drive there's an exposed part of the platter bearing, and it was not moving. So, a quick, flat smack against the table and we're in business again. I've never seen a drive seize like that before...
After two hours of messing with the settings, I decided, to hell with this, I'm booting it up and putting Windows 3.0 with base memory. Now, the computer has an ATI Wonder card (256K... Need to get me some 4-64 RAM chips for the 512K upgrade) which has a BUS mouse port. I have a BUS mouse, so I put it on. The autoexec calls mouse.com from the video driver directory and the test program (and DOSSHELL) see it and it works. Time to load Windows. As the setup does its hardware scan, it fails to detect the mouse. I manually go over and put in "Logitech BUS or PS/2" and continue with the setup. I walk away after putting in Disk #2 (this is the part of the install that turns on the GUI portion of Windows) only to return moments later to a completely dead - as in, no power anywhere. Standard troubleshooting revealed that the I/O card (2 COM, 1 LPT, 1 Game) is causing a short somehow and not permitting the powering on of the computer. Take that card out, computer comes to life. Put it back in, power supply makes a weird noise and nothing happens. Is it possible that I blew the I/O card by selecting (likely the wrong) driver for the BUS mouse? Luckily, the Winchester/FDC is on a different card, so I can still use the computer, however Windows still doesn't see a mouse. Can anyone explain this I/O card death, and possibly point me to a Microsoft InPort driver for windows 3.x?
Here are some pics:
Youtube channel- The Kombinator
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