The Sidewinder 3D Pro rocks - best stick in my collection. Comfortable, emulates the 2 most popular sticks of the era, and works great in DOS too 👍

I bought one of these years ago when the price was still reasonable: https://www.yard2usb.de/joomla/index.php/sidewinder-usb

Purchased today a motherboard with CPU and RAM.
It is a motherboard for CPU 386DX, the CPU is an AMD 386DX-40MHz, the RAM is 30 PIN (8 banks tot.) Of 1MB each, in total there are 4MB.
I have some ISA cards aside, some VGA various controllers, and even some sound cards.
The card will be shipped in the next few days (provided the seller doesn't change his mind in the meantime), and should arrive within a few days.
It has a battery that should be replaced, the nearby area needs cleaning, the vendor says the card was working but hasn't started it for a while.

PC@LIVE wrote on 2021-05-24, 20:17:

... the vendor says the card was working but hasn't started it for a while.

"for a while"? Probably more like a decade. If this board works with all the corrosion around the battery I'll eat my hat.

Get that battery of there asap. Then soak the whole area in white vinegar for a few minutes, then rinse thoroughly with IPA. Then check what the damage it.

pan069 wrote on 2021-05-24, 20:33:

PC@LIVE wrote on 2021-05-24, 20:17:

... the vendor says the card was working but hasn't started it for a while.

"for a while"? Probably more like a decade. If this board works with all the corrosion around the battery I'll eat my hat.

Get that battery of there asap. Then soak the whole area in white vinegar for a few minutes, then rinse thoroughly with IPA. Then check what the damage it.

Ok I hope in spite of everything it can work, thank you for the suggestion, I'll try to do as you say as soon as it arrives.
The seller did not specify how many years ago it was started, but I hope it was not damaged too much in the battery area and in the nearby ones.
For the rest if I can recover it, I'll try to find a co-processor, or at least I could change the CPU and FPU, putting a Cyrix 486DLC-40 and an IIT-40.

PC@LIVE wrote on 2021-05-24, 20:17:

Purchased today a motherboard with CPU and RAM. It is a motherboard for CPU 386DX, the CPU is an AMD 386DX-40MHz, the RAM is 30 […]
Show full quote

Purchased today a motherboard with CPU and RAM.
It is a motherboard for CPU 386DX, the CPU is an AMD 386DX-40MHz, the RAM is 30 PIN (8 banks tot.) Of 1MB each, in total there are 4MB.
I have some ISA cards aside, some VGA various controllers, and even some sound cards.
The card will be shipped in the next few days (provided the seller doesn't change his mind in the meantime), and should arrive within a few days.
It has a battery that should be replaced, the nearby area needs cleaning, the vendor says the card was working but hasn't started it for a while.

It's two banks of memory, 4 slots is one bank on a 386. Nice find though, I've been looking for a 386 socketed board at a sensible (for me) price.

Picked Biostar MB-8500UUR. I already own other UMC8890 based Pentium motherboards. However, this one is the only one with early -AF version of the chipset. I can't wait to see how it compares with -BF motherboards in my Pentium chipsets comparison. I am keen finding out where is the bad reputation of Pentium UMC chipsets coming from...

But first the soldered-in RTC Benchmarkq chip has to go....

debs3759 wrote on 2021-05-24, 21:25:

PC@LIVE wrote on 2021-05-24, 20:17:

Purchased today a motherboard with CPU and RAM. It is a motherboard for CPU 386DX, the CPU is an AMD 386DX-40MHz, the RAM is 30 […]
Show full quote

Purchased today a motherboard with CPU and RAM.
It is a motherboard for CPU 386DX, the CPU is an AMD 386DX-40MHz, the RAM is 30 PIN (8 banks tot.) Of 1MB each, in total there are 4MB.
I have some ISA cards aside, some VGA various controllers, and even some sound cards.
The card will be shipped in the next few days (provided the seller doesn't change his mind in the meantime), and should arrive within a few days.
It has a battery that should be replaced, the nearby area needs cleaning, the vendor says the card was working but hasn't started it for a while.

It's two banks of memory, 4 slots is one bank on a 386. Nice find though, I've been looking for a 386 socketed board at a sensible (for me) price.

Yes ok thanks.
You're right, it's two banks of four each, if everything goes well and works, I can put in another 4MB, so I would get a total of 8MB of RAM.
Probably this card supports RAM of higher capacity, for example those of 4MB each, unfortunately I have never had any and wanting to find them they cost a lot.
The cost was quite low, less than $ 15 (including shipping), but it remains unknown whether it is still working after years of inactivity.

Also do not use the CMD640 IDE chipset. Buggy and corrupts. Get a 3ware 2 port raid card. Works great as one drive mode and also bootable.

Cheers,

Yes. I never use IDE. Always SCSI.

PC@LIVE wrote on 2021-05-24, 21:46:

Yes ok thanks. You're right, it's two banks of four each, if everything goes well and works, I can put in another 4MB, so I woul […]
Show full quote

Yes ok thanks.
You're right, it's two banks of four each, if everything goes well and works, I can put in another 4MB, so I would get a total of 8MB of RAM.
Probably this card supports RAM of higher capacity, for example those of 4MB each, unfortunately I have never had any and wanting to find them they cost a lot.
The cost was quite low, less than $ 15 (including shipping), but it remains unknown whether it is still working after years of inactivity.

IMO there's barely anything worth running on the slower half of 486 or any 386s that needs more than 8MB, and even some things that say they want 8 run on 6. (Once you get to 95-96 era software though, 9x better on 16MB and X window on linux distros of the time) Keep your eyes open for "bag/box of old RAM" deals though on local used markets, can get a surprising variety for cheap.

for pure DOS you dont really need more than:

286 = 1mb
386 = 4mb
almost all 486 = 8mb

there is almost no programs that run OK with more memory on that processors

as always, it depends. if you have a fast 386 with 8mb you can play a lot of games where you would have otherwise needed a 486

Living wrote on 2021-05-25, 02:03:

for pure DOS you dont really need more than: […]
Show full quote

for pure DOS you dont really need more than:

286 = 1mb
386 = 4mb
almost all 486 = 8mb

there is almost no programs that run OK with more memory on that processors

Heresy!!!! The RAMs should be maxed out. If they weren't meant to be filled then why are they there in the first place?

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-05-25, 04:47:

Living wrote on 2021-05-25, 02:03:

for pure DOS you dont really need more than: […]
Show full quote

for pure DOS you dont really need more than:

286 = 1mb
386 = 4mb
almost all 486 = 8mb

there is almost no programs that run OK with more memory on that processors

Heresy!!!! The RAMs should be maxed out. If they weren't meant to be filled then why are they there in the first place?

Exaccackery. Mr 486DX2/50 with 32 megs of ram runs OS/2 v3 Warp run waaaay smoother than my 496DX2/66 with 8megs of ram.

My Zenith 286LP Plus with 8megs of ram, which runs 24/7 most of the time, runs MS Windows 3.1 as sweet as a nut.

Dos wasn't the only game in town back then.

The 386DX25 that was given to me had 8megs on it. That ran Dos based surveying software back in 1889 on it's 100meg mac scsi drive.

DOS all the way.

Living wrote on 2021-05-25, 02:03:

there is almost no programs that run OK with more memory on that processors

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I've run 386 with 8MB and 486 with 32MB, no issues. I do remember DOS memory managers not liking more than 64MB of RAM, but then again they just ignore anything beyond that.

jheronimus wrote on 2021-05-25, 07:28:

Living wrote on 2021-05-25, 02:03:

there is almost no programs that run OK with more memory on that processors

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I've run 386 with 8MB and 486 with 32MB, no issues. I do remember DOS memory managers not liking more than 64MB of RAM, but then again they just ignore anything beyond that.

maybe just means that (almost) no contemporary software requires or even utilises more than 1 or 4 or 8 mb ram for those typical 286/386/486 systems

but yes, DOS certainly copes just fine with extra

I'm sure there are a few applications that use extra RAM if its there and in a 486, if you use windows 95 or NT4 then I'd say 16mb is a minimum for comfortable use

gerry wrote on 2021-05-25, 07:58:

maybe just means that (almost) no contemporary software requires or even utilises more than 1 or 4 or 8 mb ram for those typical […]
Show full quote

jheronimus wrote on 2021-05-25, 07:28:

Living wrote on 2021-05-25, 02:03:

there is almost no programs that run OK with more memory on that processors

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I've run 386 with 8MB and 486 with 32MB, no issues. I do remember DOS memory managers not liking more than 64MB of RAM, but then again they just ignore anything beyond that.

maybe just means that (almost) no contemporary software requires or even utilises more than 1 or 4 or 8 mb ram for those typical 286/386/486 systems

but yes, DOS certainly copes just fine with extra

I'm sure there are a few applications that use extra RAM if its there and in a 486, if you use windows 95 or NT4 then I'd say 16mb is a minimum for comfortable use

If you have extra RAM, you can always use it for something like SMARTDRV. Not sure if it makes much of a difference when using solid state drives but it helps a ton for spinning rust.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-05-25, 08:06:

If you have extra RAM, you can always use it for something like SMARTDRV.

Ahh, SMARTDRV. The solid state drive of the 80's and 90's 😀