Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-05-28, 10:50:

The serial mouse will mainly be used for testing purposes, but it can also serve as a backup option in case the PS2 bracket rewiring on my M571 motherboard fails. And the MMX 166 will serve as the heart of my dedicated DOS 6.22 + Win 3.11 build.

Sweet. But #1 test might be whether you've got the right serial header on the M571 if it came bare. They were supposedly one of the less common configs IIRC... wish I could find my M571 though, got a project in mind for it.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-05-28, 12:00:

Sweet. But #1 test might be whether you've got the right serial header on the M571 if it came bare.

It did come bare, unfortunately. Which is why I'm forced to rewire a PS2 connector and possibly also an audio connector, provided that I can correctly identify the wires. There are bunch of M571 pinouts on this site including PS2, serial and audio.

I didn't know the serial port on the M571 uses non-standard wiring, figured they were all the same. In any case, I did test the mouse with a generic serial port bracket and it seemed to work fine.

Yeah I don't recall what was seen as standard at the time, going off a memory of an ancient PC chips page on geocities, but there seems to be so many PCChips boards around nowadays that maybe their parts have diluted the "wild" stock of port headers and you actually end up with a good chance of getting one.

I'm so sad... and mildly angry... I'll spare you the rest of the horrific pictures, this one should tell enough.

angry because I wrote the seller a long essay on how to properly pack it... and they replied in a manner that made me assume they heeded my advice... only they didn't.

that's the second trashed presario I received in 2 months...

imi wrote on 2021-05-28, 13:52:

I'm so sad... and mildly angry... I'll spare you the rest of the horrific pictures, this one should tell enough.

p460_dmg08.jpg

Holy crap!!! That poor computer

Awwwwww... I think a lot of sellers go "That sounds like too much trouble, ima take it to a 'professional' at the UPS store.." who of course don't have a clue and go by the usual modus operandi of putting enough bubble wrap around it to touch most sides, and stuffing it in a single thickness box.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-05-28, 14:49:

Awwwwww... I think a lot of sellers go "That sounds like too much trouble, ima take it to a 'professional' at the UPS store.." who of course don't have a clue and go by the usual modus operandi of putting enough bubble wrap around it to touch most sides, and stuffing it in a single thickness box.

And yet in their packaging instructions they say you must have at least 2" of padding on all sides which really is still not enough for these old brittle plastics.

Then you have to take I to account that some carriers seem to toss the packages off multi-story buildings or chuck it off a moving vehicle to deliver it.

Perhaps it is best to not let those precious survivors being sent across the globe to stick them into personal collections. In the end it causes more damage than good.

We all know how delicate those old computer cases and monitors are. You cannot protect them adequately from the carelessness of carriers and even if you do: a pissed off TNT/Fedex/UPS/DHL guy who had to deliver a 25 kg package at the end of its shift won't handle it with care and will most likely counter all the precaution that went into careful packaging by just slamming it on the floor. Best packaging is helpless against the human factor (may it personal misbehavior or lack of concentration).

Try to take the best out of it: maybe you can see your Presario as a restoration/rebuild project for a rainy weekend. It may be possible to glue the parts back in place. AkBKukU (YouTube channel: Tech Tangents) had a method to rebuild lost plastic structure with the help of glue and baking soda which seemed very promising. I'm sure you can solve your 3D puzzle somehow. Think positive!

No wonder most shipping companies won't accept buthane tanks and hazardous materials: they know Johnny Mcthrow would blow up the warehouse on his first day.

A SBC new boxed.

mitac-MSC-251

and A SBC useed.

Aaeon SBC-557

This motherboard for 386DX arrived today.
The card includes in addition to the 40MHz AMD 386DX CPU, four 30PIN SIMs for a total of 4MB (4X 1MB).
I don't know which manufacturer is, on the board it says TK-82C390A-4N-D11SE, this maybe could be useful, from a search I did the board was very similar to the Gigabyte GA-386UM 33/40.
In the next few days I should remove the 3.6V battery, and do a cleaning of the copper tracks, I hope nothing else needs to be removed.
After cleaning I will put a new battery, spacing it out so that it is no longer in contact with the copper tracks.
After checking the jumper settings, I will try to start it, if I have the AMI BIOS screen on the screen everything should be OK.

Horun wrote on 2021-05-28, 02:28:

Bought a mixed bag of Cables, Fans, adapters, etc for $15 today at local thift store. Has as a lot of unused case Fans, Asus cables/parts (including a dual USB back plate for older P2/P3 type board), EVGA related and other stuff.
The box for the BeQuiet Silent Wing 3's was ripped apart but all 5 fans never used. Yeah is mostly for modern stuff but could not resist due to the USB bracket and Asus SLI bridges even if I never use them.....

Wow, good catch! These black/grey fans were well made and quiet back in the day and were made by Sanyo which is also best fan maker too!

Cheers,

Oh, found and waited for seller to get weight so I can reserve money and finally got paid yesterday and bought another Compaq Deskpro M but this model is 486SX and compaq video card.

Finally most important of all that I'm looking for is *working* PSU! These days, nobody have one for sale alive or dead, even I had a wanted ad for PSU for an Deskpro M.

Located in Rome, Italy so shipping will take awhile.

This will help me to answer all the questions I had on the pinout chart I made, so others can make adapter cable to power their Deskpro M models. Very easy to do but stay tuned.

Cheers!

matze79 wrote on 2021-05-28, 01:15:

440L ? What does the L stand for ?

Maybe "LIMITED" - as I see, it has 4ns DDR (=250 MHz) and standard MX440 has 200 MHz DRAM clock, i.e. uses mainly 5ns chips.

PC@LIVE wrote on 2021-05-28, 20:04:

This motherboard for 386DX arrived today. The card includes in addition to the 40MHz AMD 386DX CPU, four 30PIN SIMs for a total […]
Show full quote

This motherboard for 386DX arrived today.
The card includes in addition to the 40MHz AMD 386DX CPU, four 30PIN SIMs for a total of 4MB (4X 1MB).
I don't know which manufacturer is, on the board it says TK-82C390A-4N-D11SE, this maybe could be useful, from a search I did the board was very similar to the Gigabyte GA-386UM 33/40.
In the next few days I should remove the 3.6V battery, and do a cleaning of the copper tracks, I hope nothing else needs to be removed.
After cleaning I will put a new battery, spacing it out so that it is no longer in contact with the copper tracks.
After checking the jumper settings, I will try to start it, if I have the AMI BIOS screen on the screen everything should be OK.

Unless you particularly enjoy the challenge, I would plug an external battery pack to the motherboard connector after having snipped the barrel battery, and call it a day

MMaximus wrote on 2021-05-29, 17:00:

PC@LIVE wrote on 2021-05-28, 20:04:

This motherboard for 386DX arrived today. The card includes in addition to the 40MHz AMD 386DX CPU, four 30PIN SIMs for a total […]
Show full quote

This motherboard for 386DX arrived today.
The card includes in addition to the 40MHz AMD 386DX CPU, four 30PIN SIMs for a total of 4MB (4X 1MB).
I don't know which manufacturer is, on the board it says TK-82C390A-4N-D11SE, this maybe could be useful, from a search I did the board was very similar to the Gigabyte GA-386UM 33/40.
In the next few days I should remove the 3.6V battery, and do a cleaning of the copper tracks, I hope nothing else needs to be removed.
After cleaning I will put a new battery, spacing it out so that it is no longer in contact with the copper tracks.
After checking the jumper settings, I will try to start it, if I have the AMI BIOS screen on the screen everything should be OK.

Unless you particularly enjoy the challenge, I would plug an external battery pack to the motherboard connector after having snipped the barrel battery, and call it a day

Yes, those old motherboards could alternatively mount an external battery, and on my first 386DX (from 1992) I had it.
In practice I would connect a new battery in place of the one on the motherboard, but instead of soldering it to the board, I would solder two wires to distance it and place it at the top of the case, in this way if it were to leak it would not corrode the tracks.
I have done it in the past with other cards, the alternative you suggest of the external battery, instead requires the setting of the jumpers, theoretically it is simple to do, unfortunately I do not have the manual and therefore I do not know how and what are the jumpers to set.
For tomorrow I should proceed with the removal of the battery and the cleaning of the oxidized (green) parts with white vinegar, hoping that there is no corrosion to the internal tracks, and therefore that the board will return to normal operation.
If after cleaning and starting everything will be ok, I will start the final configuration by adding various cards, in addition to a 1MB VGA I would put an SB16 sound card (or similar) with connectors for connecting old CD-ROMs, I would have LAN cards but they don't have the RJ connector, they only have the one for RG coaxial cable, I don't think there is a way to adapt it (maybe through HUB?)

I got this mystery ISA video card as part of a $30 lot of much newer computers in various states of disrepair, any idea what it is? All I can discern is that it has an ATI chipset and the ROM is labeled "GRAPHICS ULTRA/A".

Yeah, it's a Graphics Ultra... a 8514 chip and an ATi chip all one card, splitting the RAM between them, switching chips according to which mode requested. Found one in my stash the other day.

Slow even with 1MB vram, and limited colors even in windows, was sold on it by store person as best one and was expesnive, where I should had researched more on alteratives, but information access was limited to the magazines.

I had one, I shouldn't had bought that, later on when I had VLB machine, with this ATI ultra card for less than a year, I went and bought Hercules Dynamite 2MB tseng w32i/p card which was very good back in the day and worked on 50MHz fsb since I was overclocking the AMD 486DX 40 to 50.

Cheers,