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ISO EISA riser card, maybe EISA to VLB or ISA/PCI?

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First post, by kane198021

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Hello all,

Does anyone know of or have such a thing? I just got a new toy in today, but it doesn't have a riser card. It's obvious that it needs one as the card slot brackets are made to be mounted 90 degrees clockwise (while looking from the rear of the machine). The only expansion slot is an EISA slot. It also only has two card slots in the case. The machine in question is an Intel Storage Express XL with a 486SX-33 CPU, 8MB of RAM, WDC VGA graphics, and SCSI onboard. It's an LPX style computer. It has 2 operating systems on it somehow. They are Novell Netware v3.11 and MS-DOS 3.3. I'd like to be able to use a VLB controller card that I have on hand with it since, at the very least, both EISA and VLB are 32-bit iirc. An ISA/PCI riser will help me out as well or even just an ISA riser. I just want something so I can add a floppy/IDE drive controller card and a sound card. Now the only thing I can foresee in my way is getting the machine to recognize that is has a floppy drive connected to it. Any positive help is very much appreciated.

Reply 1 of 12, by cyclone3d

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Pics of the motherboard please.

From what very little I can find, it is a storage appliance. That system will probably not support an riser with PCI unless it was really advanced when it was released. But who knows.

What chipset does the motherboard have?

Can you even get into the BIOS?

I'm kind of tempted to get one of these but I would probably have absolutely no use for it.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 2 of 12, by PC Hoarder Patrol

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The Intel archive doesn't list any setup / support documents to search for, but this link at least gives an idea of what the expansion slot adapter was intended for

StorageExpress™ System: First Time Setup - https://web.archive.org/web/19980128164925/ht … xpress/6723.htm

Apart from that the old support pages don't give much help

https://web.archive.org/web/19980128144820/ht … storageexpress/

Also, the dual OS is likely a result of this being a joint venture with Novell (NMS + DOS / Windows) - https://techmonitor.ai/techonology/intel_and_ … nagement_system

Intel StorageExpress.jpg
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Reply 4 of 12, by dionb

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Are you sure that the slot is electrically as well as physically EISA?

A single (physical) EISA slot on an LPX board is usually actually (electrically) a PISA-slot, i.e. it carries PCI and ISA signals for a riser like this:

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To be sure you either need to check the pinout (multimeter with continuity measurement) or positively identify the motherboard.

Reply 6 of 12, by Warlord

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Board comes up as related to Intel Professional Workstation (Panther) So I don't think there is any PCI on that board neither is there any VLB. Its a EISA riser imo.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030218120558/ht … hy.nl/~ard/pws/

Reply 7 of 12, by kane198021

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Thank you Warlord! Based on that link, I was able go down the rabbit hole just a little and stumbled on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK7QMAX0BmQ

I also downloaded the BIOS which was listed on the page that you linked.

Reply 8 of 12, by Horun

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Warlord wrote on 2021-08-25, 23:25:

Board comes up as related to Intel Professional Workstation (Panther) So I don't think there is any PCI on that board neither is there any VLB. Its a EISA riser imo.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030218120558/ht … hy.nl/~ard/pws/

Excellent find Warlord !

Is this close to what your computer looks like ? See image
Also will need the EISA configs and the ECU. The main board configs can be found here: http://66.113.161.23/~mR_Slug/EISA/
look for LP486E System Board. http://66.113.161.23/~mR_Slug/EISA/!INT3061.CFG/
If you read the .CFG it has limited jumper info and states 2 EISA slots so your riser was designed with two EISA..
Also the L486 Series System Board may have something if the above does not work... hope that helps.
Not sure which EISA ECU you need, that depends on the BIOS (whether AMI, Phoenix, etc)...

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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. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 9 of 12, by kane198021

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Horun wrote on 2021-08-27, 02:30:
Excellent find Warlord ! […]
Show full quote
Warlord wrote on 2021-08-25, 23:25:

Board comes up as related to Intel Professional Workstation (Panther) So I don't think there is any PCI on that board neither is there any VLB. Its a EISA riser imo.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030218120558/ht … hy.nl/~ard/pws/

Excellent find Warlord !

Is this close to what your computer looks like ? See image
Also will need the EISA configs and the ECU. The main board configs can be found here: http://66.113.161.23/~mR_Slug/EISA/
look for LP486E System Board. http://66.113.161.23/~mR_Slug/EISA/!INT3061.CFG/
If you read the .CFG it has limited jumper info and states 2 EISA slots so your riser was designed with two EISA..
Also the L486 Series System Board may have something if the above does not work... hope that helps.
Not sure which EISA ECU you need, that depends on the BIOS (whether AMI, Phoenix, etc)...

That computer is very close, but mine has a setup for a LCD instead of the floppy drive and no reset button. Here's the link to the listing that I bought mine from:

https://www.recycledgoods.com/intel-storage-e … 35338e/#reviews

It's the only site that has pictures of it.

Reply 10 of 12, by PC Hoarder Patrol

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kane198021 wrote on 2021-08-27, 14:27:
That computer is very close, but mine has a setup for a LCD instead of the floppy drive and no reset button. Here's the link to […]
Show full quote
Horun wrote on 2021-08-27, 02:30:
Excellent find Warlord ! […]
Show full quote
Warlord wrote on 2021-08-25, 23:25:

Board comes up as related to Intel Professional Workstation (Panther) So I don't think there is any PCI on that board neither is there any VLB. Its a EISA riser imo.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030218120558/ht … hy.nl/~ard/pws/

Excellent find Warlord !

Is this close to what your computer looks like ? See image
Also will need the EISA configs and the ECU. The main board configs can be found here: http://66.113.161.23/~mR_Slug/EISA/
look for LP486E System Board. http://66.113.161.23/~mR_Slug/EISA/!INT3061.CFG/
If you read the .CFG it has limited jumper info and states 2 EISA slots so your riser was designed with two EISA..
Also the L486 Series System Board may have something if the above does not work... hope that helps.
Not sure which EISA ECU you need, that depends on the BIOS (whether AMI, Phoenix, etc)...

That computer is very close, but mine has a setup for a LCD instead of the floppy drive and no reset button. Here's the link to the listing that I bought mine from:

https://www.recycledgoods.com/intel-storage-e … 35338e/#reviews

It's the only site that has pictures of it.

These are the kinds of add-on unit it was designed to control

https://www.recycledgoods.com/intel-lds48gpb- … ess-peripheral/

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Reply 11 of 12, by Horun

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Hmm that looks like a SCSI expansion and floppy drive box for it. So it was not really designed as a standalone desktop computer but more of a networked file server ?
Explains the Netware on it....

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. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 12 of 12, by wolfig.sys

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So, I just registered to take part here, because I have one of these. StorageExpress EL.
And since information is sparse about this thing, as well as the software since Intel nuked their archives.
The Webarchive is rather complicated to navigate and not complete, missing some disks.
But this doesn't matter if you don't intend to use it like the way this thing was intended for - a stand alone remote tape backup system.

Kinda expensive and wasteful to use a whole EISA System for driving a DDS tape system in your network remotely.

Anyways I attached two hastly taken pics of the Riser Card you're looking for.
I can make schematics when have free space in my schedule.

I would also take a closer look at all SMD electrolytic caps. Mine were all leaky and I had to clean a decent bit of the mainboard.
Yours seem fine but I would recommend to change them anytime soon.

Also, does your VGA output on the StorageExpress work? Mine doesn't, but I don't know if it's just disabled by jumper or software or if there's a dead IC on my board. It works 98% fine with an external VGA card.
It's listed in the TH99, but sadly not the jumpers. 😒

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