VOGONS


First post, by 2Mourty

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Wow, it's been a while since I posted here. Time sure flies by.

I put down a bid for this socket 3 motherboard and surpisingly won it for almost a decent amount of money these days for a socket 3 motherboard, $51.

It is labled as a "ELI6-II Socket 3 Motherboard w/ Pentium 486-DX2 CPU SIMM Memory and Video Card"

Now I don't know why a Pentium is mentioned, hopefully it is a socket 3 motherboard, but with the VLB slots I think that is a given. I can't find any information on and ELI6-II motherboard. Granted I'm working 15 hour days right now because it is hell week for the school musical right now so maybe my google skills are severely diminished. 😊

Does anybody recognize this motherboard and have more info on it? I'll attach the image I got from ebay. Thank you for your time!

Attachments

  • s-l1600.jpg
    Filename
    s-l1600.jpg
    File size
    141.93 KiB
    Views
    2594 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 1 of 18, by PCBONEZ

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

BIOS string?

GRUMPY OLD FART - On Hiatus, sort'a
Mann-Made Global Warming. - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.

Reply 2 of 18, by Robin4

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

VIA CHIPSET + BLACK SIMM SLOTS = Could be FIC (First International Computer)

I would guess that the bord was made for businesses applications, because two PS/2 where very rare for the regular consumer market..

~ At least it can do black and white~

Reply 3 of 18, by PCBONEZ

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

UNISYS ELI6-2 (That's the system it's from not the mobo model.)
UNISYS OEM'ed some of their boards from FIC. It may never have been offered retail.
.

GRUMPY OLD FART - On Hiatus, sort'a
Mann-Made Global Warming. - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.

Reply 4 of 18, by McBierle

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

It seems i have the same one. It is a Socket 3 board, i'm using an i486DX4-100.

Attachments

  • WP_20180401_008.jpg
    Filename
    WP_20180401_008.jpg
    File size
    791.16 KiB
    Views
    2510 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 5 of 18, by PCBONEZ

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

BIOS string?
You can usually ID the manufacture and sometimes the model by decoding that.
.

GRUMPY OLD FART - On Hiatus, sort'a
Mann-Made Global Warming. - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.

Reply 7 of 18, by McBierle

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Hi!

Bios:

WP_20180504_006.jpg
Filename
WP_20180504_006.jpg
File size
636.5 KiB
Views
2471 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Oh and i finished the puzzle:

WP_20180504_005.jpg
Filename
WP_20180504_005.jpg
File size
676.48 KiB
Views
2471 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Next: Beer

Reply 8 of 18, by PCBONEZ

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Thanks -Have another.

UNISYS ELI6-II VERSION U569.BIN
Custom UNISYS BIOS for the system. (Like a Packard Bell would have for one of their systems.)

08/26/94-VT82C486A-214L200-00
VT82C486A-214L200-00
Generic FIC ==> https://www.wimsbios.com/chipset/214L2.jsp

Can't find a FIC board with that layout.
Most likely custom made for UNISYS

If you toast the BIOS chip you aren't likely to find a replacement.
Might wanna archive a backup of your BIOS.
.

GRUMPY OLD FART - On Hiatus, sort'a
Mann-Made Global Warming. - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.

Reply 9 of 18, by 2Mourty

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Wow thank you for the quick replies and information.

McBierle, that's my sort of puzzle =)

As for the motherboard, this looks like it could be fun, especially with the built in ps/2 connectors.

I wonder if it can run my cyrix 5x86 120 or if I should stick with a dx4?

I will definitley backup the bios!

Reply 10 of 18, by McBierle

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Hi, i don't have any Cyrixes for testing but i tried an AMD DX4 which diddn't work. Alway recognized it as DX2-66. As you can see in the pics there are Options to change to Cyrix but on my board one is soldered to intel. As i don't have a fitting cyrix i diddn't do solderwork.

Attachments

  • WP_20180505_007.jpg
    Filename
    WP_20180505_007.jpg
    File size
    756.21 KiB
    Views
    2384 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • WP_20180505_003.jpg
    Filename
    WP_20180505_003.jpg
    File size
    856.75 KiB
    Views
    2384 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • WP_20180505_001.jpg
    Filename
    WP_20180505_001.jpg
    File size
    883.77 KiB
    Views
    2384 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 11 of 18, by etherlore

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

So this is interesting. I just won an auction on eBay with the same motherboard, and exactly the same description and images. I found this thread trying to figure out what this board is. I wonder if I have been duped. Maybe the seller just has a bunch of these around and is using the same pictures. Did you resell this 2Mourty? Here's the auction for reference https://www.ebay.com/itm/ELI6-II-Socket-3-Mot … d-/192533776799

Reply 12 of 18, by lazibayer

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
etherlore wrote:

Maybe the seller just has a bunch of these around and is using the same pictures.

Yep. The same seller sold 5 of them during the past month.

Attachments

Reply 13 of 18, by etherlore

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
McBierle wrote:

It seems i have the same one. It is a Socket 3 board, i'm using an i486DX4-100.

I noticed you are running with S1, S2, S3 and S4 open, which according to the print on the board would give 5 Volts. Aren't all DX4 in the 3.5 V range? Is your DX4 fine with the higher voltage?

I have a DX2-50 on mine, but am considering upgrading to a DX4. I figured I would have to try and close S1-S4, so I'm curious that maybe I don't have to?

Reply 14 of 18, by Brachabre

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Also now own one of these from the same seller. I've inspected the board upon receipt but haven't set it up yet.

Not entirely pleased with the outcome on how the seller shipped. The mobo was shipped in a static bag wrapped in bubble wrap in priority mailbox which is fine, but the VLB graphics card was shipped laying on top of the ISA slots without 'protection' and not secured. Upon inspection it 'appears' the VLB card's mounting bracket made contact with a couple of back traces of one of the memory modules. Can't tell if the traces were actually sliced looking at it with my mag visor.

Fingers crossed that the thing POSTs and all the memory modules are okay. Guess I'm going to need to do a thorough memtest. I forgot how much of a PITA it is to install and remove SIMMs 😒

Awesome forum by the way.

Reply 15 of 18, by McBierle

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
etherlore wrote:
McBierle wrote:

It seems i have the same one. It is a Socket 3 board, i'm using an i486DX4-100.

I noticed you are running with S1, S2, S3 and S4 open, which according to the print on the board would give 5 Volts. Aren't all DX4 in the 3.5 V range? Is your DX4 fine with the higher voltage?

I have a DX2-50 on mine, but am considering upgrading to a DX4. I figured I would have to try and close S1-S4, so I'm curious that maybe I don't have to?

Sorry for digging out this old thread, but i had time to play around.
S1-4 are indeed "fixed" on 5v but i measured and it seems this board has an voltage detection. Intel/amd dx4's run at 3.X V.
I soldered jumper pins on some places so i could chose cyrix as i now have an TI dx4 which if i'm right are cyrix cpus. To my surprise it runs at 5V. Does cyrix not support this voltage detection stuff?

As i wrote earlier amd dx4 is idetified as dx2-66. But after doing some benchmarks it seems to run similar to a intel dx4.
Another thing is that it seems the jumpers for 2.0x / 2.5x / 3.0x have no effect, the cpu choses its own multiplier.

Reply 16 of 18, by etherlore

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
McBierle wrote:
Sorry for digging out this old thread, but i had time to play around. S1-4 are indeed "fixed" on 5v but i measured and it seems […]
Show full quote
etherlore wrote:
McBierle wrote:

It seems i have the same one. It is a Socket 3 board, i'm using an i486DX4-100.

I noticed you are running with S1, S2, S3 and S4 open, which according to the print on the board would give 5 Volts. Aren't all DX4 in the 3.5 V range? Is your DX4 fine with the higher voltage?

I have a DX2-50 on mine, but am considering upgrading to a DX4. I figured I would have to try and close S1-S4, so I'm curious that maybe I don't have to?

Sorry for digging out this old thread, but i had time to play around.
S1-4 are indeed "fixed" on 5v but i measured and it seems this board has an voltage detection. Intel/amd dx4's run at 3.X V.
I soldered jumper pins on some places so i could chose cyrix as i now have an TI dx4 which if i'm right are cyrix cpus. To my surprise it runs at 5V. Does cyrix not support this voltage detection stuff?

As i wrote earlier amd dx4 is idetified as dx2-66. But after doing some benchmarks it seems to run similar to a intel dx4.
Another thing is that it seems the jumpers for 2.0x / 2.5x / 3.0x have no effect, the cpu choses its own multiplier.

Thank you for the update, I may look into getting an intel DX4 now.

Some other things I discovered with this board recently,

Using an intel DX266 SX955 (P24D) with the jumpers set according to the middle column, sometimes produces bad audio distortion in some games. I got around this by setting the jumpers according to the left most column (pictured)

IMG_1498.jpeg
Filename
IMG_1498.jpeg
File size
210.13 KiB
Views
1557 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

, which makes the board recognize the CPU as a "80486DX2S", rather than a "P24D". This may or may not be because of an issue with how the board handles CPUs with write-back cache functionality, like the P24D.

I also discovered that this board does support large hard drives, if set to "LBA" configuration in the bios, without changing any of the cylinders and heads etc. This has allowed me to use a 4GB drive on this system, albeit I had to partition it into two 2GB partions. The hard drive will not show up correctly during POST, in fact my 4GB drive displays as 96MB, but it is still recognized fine by FDISK as the full size.

Reply 17 of 18, by Horun

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Sorry to revise this old thread but recently got a mostly complete Unisys ELI 46665 computer. The ELI6-II board came in it and it has a label that has the jumper settings. Also shoved under the dead HD was a paper that also listed the jumper settings. Here they are along with some pics of the computer. I removed the label best I could with hot air and attached to a sheet of paper to take the picture.

Attachments

  • ELI6_II label.jpg
    Filename
    ELI6_II label.jpg
    File size
    524.17 KiB
    Views
    1369 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • ELI6_II paper.jpg
    Filename
    ELI6_II paper.jpg
    File size
    588.52 KiB
    Views
    1369 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • front label.jpg
    Filename
    front label.jpg
    File size
    212.06 KiB
    Views
    1369 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • BIOSs.jpg
    Filename
    BIOSs.jpg
    File size
    711.29 KiB
    Views
    1369 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • boards.jpg
    Filename
    boards.jpg
    File size
    608.28 KiB
    Views
    1369 views
    File license
    Public domain

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 18 of 18, by Horun

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Forgot the pic of the full front. My work shop desk has the Laser XT3 on it so was using the top of the washer and dryer to test this one 🤣

Attachments

  • IMG_0938.jpg
    Filename
    IMG_0938.jpg
    File size
    719.58 KiB
    Views
    1360 views
    File license
    Public domain

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun