These tools just decode the BIOS id string, you can look it up yourself on the internet. I'm confused you said that "it doesn't give a BIOS version". You mean on the chip or on the screen? This string is usually visible at the very first screen when you power up the computer (while counting memory or right after). Unless you have a very obscure motherboard, that should reveal the manufacturer.

If you don't end up succeeding, posting a GOOD photo of the motherboard as well as of the post screen might help.

id like to post a great picture but its really dark where it is - i cant really take a great pic atm

another quick question:
how can i know if my IO controller can support a 2nd ide device?
right now theres a single IDE cable connected to the hard drive..
but id like to attach a cdr/w by replacing the ide cable with one that supports 2..
how can i be sure if the io controller supports this?

the sticker on the bios says:
1986-1992 AMI
All rights reserved
386 DX ISA BIOS
AA0260264

im trying to find another motherboard like it on google images search but im not having any luck

the big chip that normally is like the keyboard input bios says NEC japan on it
its got 8 memory slots + then the cache ram at the right of that
its got a socket for some type of co-processor that is empty
and then a big toshiba chip
and the am386dx-40 cpu
and another chip that says OPTI on it

the toshiba chip says:
4800
4L08F1243
japan 9239EAI

heres a pic of the motherboard
download/file.php?id=20808&mode=view

Your photo taken from an angle and with all cables plugged in, doesn't help. Heck, I can't even make out how many ISA slots it has. Help people who try to help you, I even emphasized on a GOOD photo 😉 Anyway, I don't feel like a dick today so here is what I believe to be your motherboard (or one similar enough for the jumpers to match -it doesn't need to be the exact manufacturer if you're only after settings): http://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/P-R/32175.htm

About the I/O card of yours, unless you have the manual the safest way is to just try it. Bear in mind that there were cards from that era who did support 2 devices on the same channel, but not ATAPI. So if I were in your place I'd first try with a second HDD to see if is supports 2 devices before attempting a CDROM.

yea no theres no UMC chipsets anywhere on the board

re: hdd first before cd, thanks for your constructive tip! 😀

The link that konc sent does seem to match your motherboard (I compared it to some of the jumpers on your motherboard).
However, if you think this is not the correct one, go to this site and try and identify your motherboard by comparing the schematics: http://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/#1
Look for something unique on your motherboard (for e.g., the arrangement of the ISA slots, number of 8-bit & 16-bit slots, where your CPU is located, etc.).

PS: I would de-solder that battery on your motherboard, before the acid leaks out and destroys it.

hey jesolo 😉

yes there are a good number of similiarities but this board says OPTI / TOSHIBA on the chips
there is not UMC chips anywhere on the board that i can see

ok so identifying the motherboard exactly isnt a huge issue i suppose
i just wanted to find out how much ram i can put in the board?
right now it has 8MB is that enough? should i just leave it?
does it need to be bumped up to 16MB for windows 3.1 operations?

right now there seems to be 1mb 30 pin simms installed

if i need to get more ram what type should i get?
30pin simms obviously.. but what size? 1mb? 2mb? 4mb? 8mb? do they have to be installed in banks of 4? o
and then of course theres speed too right? 60ns? 70ns? 80ns? are those the standard speeds?

will it help to get a better image? its hard to get a good image because of the case itself
it would be alot easier to photograph if i removed the board from the case but i have not done that yet

5 minutes on google:

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/R/RO … -GMB-386UN.html

I did an image search with this string: site:Stason.org 386 40mhz

found the one with 2 8 bit isa slots blocked by a co-pro socket and went from there.

Don't be fooled by the chipsets on the motherboard.
Some motherboard manufacturers licensed their designs to other companies and it's possible that you could sometimes see another chipset on the same motherboard.
A good example would be the ones you found on some sound cards of exactly the same model number and design. Some revisions had the Analog Devices AD1848 codec chip, while others had the Cirrus Logic CS4248 codec chip. Manufactured by two different companies, but they performed exactly the same function.

So long as the layout of your motherboard matches the layout of the links in the above posts, then at least you know what the function of each jumper is and what the overall specifications of your motherboard design is.
For a 386DX-40, 8 MB should be sufficient since, back in the day, that was plenty of memory for a Windows 3.1 PC (most people only had 4 MB RAM on board). Also, I doubt that you will find a lot of software that will benefit from having more than 8 MB RAM, since your CPU would start to become the bottleneck long before memory becomes an issue (I'm not saying there isn't, just that there aren't probably many software titles that that will run satisfactory on this CPU and will benefit from having more than 8 MB of RAM).
However, since your motherboard appears to support up to 32 MB of RAM, I don't see any harm in increasing the amount of RAM, since it could improve Windows 3.1 performance (less swap file usage - although, I haven't checked how much Windows 3.1 uses, etc.).

Since this is a 32-bit system, and each 30 pin simm has an 8-bit data width, you need to fill up a bank with 4 simms to make up 32-bit.
If you really want to increase the memory, then you can leave bank 0 filled with the 4x 1 MB simms and then just fill up bank 1 with 4x 4MB simms.
This will then give you 20 MB of RAM in total. However, I would be inclined to say that you shouldn't install more than 16 MB of RAM, since there are some games that had problems if you installed too much memory.
Just check what the current memory speed of your simms are and either get the same speed or faster, but not slower (most were either 60ns or 70ns). Also, I don't recall there being 2 MB simms.

However, before you spend money on 30 pin simms, maybe just try out the PC with the 8 MB RAM first and see how it goes.

luckybob wrote:

5 minutes on google: […]
Show full quote

5 minutes on google:

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/R/RO … -GMB-386UN.html

I did an image search with this string: site:Stason.org 386 40mhz

found the one with 2 8 bit isa slots blocked by a co-pro socket and went from there.

Great, you wasted 5 minutes of your life 🤣

Like many other things, what may take 1 person with skill a few moments, can take someone else without the experience to know which features are key quite a lot longer. luckybob was nice enough to show what features he looked for, though!

works the same way with i/o cards. just less reliable. way too many no name knockoffs.

Here's the bios string: 40-06A0-428036-00101111-060692-UNI4800-8
all ive been able to decypher from my original post is that the board is possibly from taiwan? (due to the presence of the "8" in "428036")
can this help me figure out what it is?

is there a way to browse pics of these boards on the wiki:
http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/386_Motherboards

chrisNova777 wrote:

Here's the bios string: 40-06A0-428036-00101111-060692-UNI4800-8
all ive been able to decypher from my original post is that the board is possibly from taiwan? (due to the presence of the "8" in "428036")
can this help me figure out what it is?

Appears to be a motherboard manufactured by DTK (refer this site: https://www.wimsbios.com/aminumbers.jsp & http://www.idhw.com/textual/guide/inst_mobo_ami.html).
Ignore the "42" and just refer to the 8036.
It's using a Unichip UNI-4800 chipset (must admit, never heard of them before).
However, the previous links that were posted appears to be the closest match - it's actually all that you require, since all you're interested in is what the function of each jumper is and what are the specifications of your motherboard.

chrisNova777 wrote:

is there a way to browse pics of these boards on the wiki:
http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/386_Motherboards

The Wiki doesn't contain any links, but you will find pics (schematics) of these boards on the link that I referred to in my original post.

http://www.dtk.com.tw/download.html
so this is probably the manufacturer then i guess?

DTK COMPUTER, INC. GRAFIKA 3A GRAFIKA 3B/KEEN-2531 KEEN 3304 KEEN-3332 KEEN-4000, GRAFIKA 3E, PEM 4000 KEEN-4031 PEER-1630 PEM-0 […]
Show full quote

DTK COMPUTER, INC.
GRAFIKA 3A
GRAFIKA 3B/KEEN-2531
KEEN 3304
KEEN-3332
KEEN-4000, GRAFIKA 3E, PEM 4000
KEEN-4031
PEER-1630
PEM-0030Y(S)
PEM-0036Y(S)
PEM-1601
PEM-2000 (FAST ET20)
PEM-2030B
PEM-2035
PEM-2500
PEM-2501/3301
PEM-2501/PEM-4001
PEM-2530
PEM-2531D
PEM-2532D, 2533D, 3332D, 3333D (EDIT. 1.02)
PEM-2532D/2533D/3332D/3333D
PEM-2561D (S)
PEM-3300
PEM-3301
PEM-3334D
PEM-3335D(S)/4035D(S)
PPM-1631D(S)/2031D(S)/2531D(S)
PPM-1660C/2060C
PPM-1661D(S)/PPM-2061D(S)/PPM-2561D(S)
PPM-2030C/PPM-1630C
PPM-2530P
PPM-3333P

http://www.dtk.com.tw/download/bios.html
maybe its in this list?

is there any existing threads that i could get info on installing a cdrom via awe32 IDE port in a 386DX40?

http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=311
hmm maybe this is what i need???
i have the PNP awe32 that u set up with CTCM/CTCU

oops no thats a CD image.. i thought it was a floppy included to install the CD 😀 🤣
maybe theres a floppy in this package?
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … =26&menustate=0

looking here i find the install disk has a file called
MTMCDS.SYS
maybe thats whats used to access the IDE port on the AWE32? does anyone have experience
with this?

i have a cdrom thats bootable that lets me install dos + another to install windows 3.11
but i have no floppies and id like to format this compactflash 512mb drive and
start from scratch to install dos 6.22 + win3.11

is it a bad strategy to try to install a cd on the awe32?
is there another controller card that someone can suggest that is readily purchasable that supports moer than one device?
ie: 1 hd + 1 cd?

i have two controllers here.
one is unbranded but has a bunch of goldstar chips
and the other has a winbond chipset
the winbond works for my compact flash but once i have the compact flash attached to the controller card i cant use a two port cable to try to plug them both in, but i tested with a normal drive and it didnt appear to work;
im just trying to get the cd + hard drive accessible at the same time
and i cant seem to so i think im limited by the hardware

can i simply plug in both io controllers at the same time? and use one for the cd + the other for the HD?>

I may be wrong, but it seems to me what you have to do to get a PNP Crative card with an IDE (and make sure it is an IDE, and not (Sony/Panasonic/Mitsumi) to work is load the Creative drivers FIRST and then load MSCDEX (or whatever it is called) and it should detect whatever is there. You won't be able to directly boot from it, though.

You can theoretically plug in as many controllers as you want, but in practice, you have to have separate addresses and IRQs. Also, don't forget to check your Master/Slave/Cable Select jumpers when setting up your drives.