Predator99 wrote on 2020-04-29, 10:50:

- nobody will remove a sticker to see what chip is under?

Oh I will ! On your board you have two stickers, had a board similar and peeled one of the stickers off to check the chipset and then put sticker back on. Sure was a bit rough on the one corner that I used to peel it up but did not care. Was very important to figure out the main chipset since there was no Stasons/TH99/etc that had the board. What is more important than a sticker on a chipset (to me) is the sticker on the BIOS or the board itself. Chipset stickers mean nothing on old boards. Ever see what Amptron did on many of their boards ?

HanJammer wrote on 2020-04-30, 00:38:

Oh great... I should have known better and use the programmer instead of relying on the NSSI to do the job... damn it 😒

NISSI has saved the split BIOS on a 286 for me properly but that could have just been by luck. Have not tried any other split bios boards with it..

NSSI always saves both parts (HI/LO) in a single file...

Don't use NSSI to dump the BIOS, it will create a bad image if the F000 shadow is enabled - as some BIOSes self-modify while in RAM and the checksum byte won't match.
Best to use external programmer or at least disable all ROM shadows before running NSSI, maybe that will fix it.

I dumped a couple of mobos, had problems each time. Except the 286, I never tried NSSI dump on that one so maybe an older BIOS will be fine, but it's best to always make sure the checksum is OK. Also, I had some other issues with NSSI and 64k long BIOS images (on VGA cards or mobos? can't remember) - the dumped image seemed to be 1 byte short.

Yes, I always use the external programmer, but this time I couldn't do that...

HanJammer wrote on 2020-05-02, 23:33:

#46 […]
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#46

Manufacturer/Identifier: Wearnes CL286-12/16S (CL286-12S and CL286-16S)
Chipset: Texas Instruments TACT822 / Micrel MIC921
BIOS/Version: AMI 080190
Rom Type : NMC27C256Q x 2

Nice ! I did not know Wearnes also marketed motherboards ! Had a CDROM back in early 90's that was a Wearnes. Looks like 1Mb of ram but not parity and SIMM sockets ! I want one !!!

Horun wrote on 2020-05-02, 23:43:

HanJammer wrote on 2020-05-02, 23:33:

#46 […]
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#46

Manufacturer/Identifier: Wearnes CL286-12/16S (CL286-12S and CL286-16S)
Chipset: Texas Instruments TACT822 / Micrel MIC921
BIOS/Version: AMI 080190
Rom Type : NMC27C256Q x 2

Nice ! I did not know Wearnes also marketed motherboards ! Had a CDROM back in early 90's that was a Wearnes. Looks like 1Mb of ram but not parity and SIMM sockets ! I want one !!!

Yeah... I have a CD-ROM too. It seems like an industrial motherboard (string in the ROM may confirm that). Too bad it doesn't work (for now).

HanJammer wrote on 2020-05-02, 23:55:

Yeah... I have a CD-ROM too. It seems like an industrial motherboard (string in the ROM may confirm that). Too bad it doesn't work (for now).

I do see a bit of corrosion near the battery, specially jp17 and near the KB controller. hope you get it working !

Sorry I am a noob, but I want to contribute my 386's BIOS. How do I find out which chips I need to put in chipset?
Also if I understood correctly, I can use NSSI to dump the BIOS, correct? I don't have a ROM reader.

kikendo wrote on 2020-06-11, 14:54:

Sorry I am a noob, but I want to contribute my 386's BIOS. How do I find out which chips I need to put in chipset?
Also if I understood correctly, I can use NSSI to dump the BIOS, correct? I don't have a ROM reader.

" which chips I need to put in chipset?" -> I do not understand.
To use NSSI you need to have the board bootable to a DOS bootable floppy disk with NSSI on it and then save the bios to to floppy.

@Predator99:

#20 386-4N-D04A PCB V1.0 additional information:

BIOS Version: UMC 4913 386 IVN 1.0 1993.12.22
BIOS-ID: 40-0102-428003-00101111-080893-UMC491F-F

The JP8 is not documented anywhere, does anyone have any information about it?

Horun wrote on 2020-06-13, 00:00:

kikendo wrote on 2020-06-11, 14:54:

Sorry I am a noob, but I want to contribute my 386's BIOS. How do I find out which chips I need to put in chipset?
Also if I understood correctly, I can use NSSI to dump the BIOS, correct? I don't have a ROM reader.

" which chips I need to put in chipset?" -> I do not understand.

I think he meant what info he should fill in for the chipset and/or how to identify the chipset on the motherboard.

Aerion wrote on 2020-08-11, 06:14:

@Predator99: […]
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@Predator99:

#20 386-4N-D04A PCB V1.0 additional information:

BIOS Version: UMC 4913 386 IVN 1.0 1993.12.22
BIOS-ID: 40-0102-428003-00101111-080893-UMC491F-F

The JP8 is not documented anywhere, does anyone have any information about it?

Added, thanks. I dont have further Infos.

I identified this board

Predator99 wrote on 2020-08-12, 08:25:

#67 Manufacturer/Identifier: Chipset: BIOS/Version: BIOS-ID: […]
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#67
Manufacturer/Identifier:
Chipset:
BIOS/Version:
BIOS-ID:

386-SIS-Z403736.jpg
386-SIS-Z403736.rar

It's made by PLATO TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
And here's the jumper configuration https://www.arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/U-Z/30210.htm

Deksor wrote on 2020-08-12, 08:52:

I identified this board […]
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I identified this board

Predator99 wrote on 2020-08-12, 08:25:

#67 Manufacturer/Identifier: Chipset: BIOS/Version: BIOS-ID: […]
Show full quote

#67
Manufacturer/Identifier:
Chipset:
BIOS/Version:
BIOS-ID:

386-SIS-Z403736.jpg
386-SIS-Z403736.rar

It's made by PLATO TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
And here's the jumper configuration https://www.arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/U-Z/30210.htm

Added, thanks. Seems your project is working well 😉

Yes 😀

Also the BIOS string is ESIS-1393-040990-K0 and the chipset is SiS 'rabbit'

OK also added. This board looks like new. Unfortunately the leaking battery has destroyed many traces, its not working at all at the moment, but its nice and I will keep it.

Predator99 wrote on 2020-08-12, 14:09:

OK also added. This board looks like new. Unfortunately the leaking battery has destroyed many traces, its not working at all at the moment, but its nice and I will keep it.

That's really unfortunate - those crappy NiCd batteries...

286 #49, #50 and #56 (Octek FOX M 286) share the exact same BIOS. They all have the same SHA256 hash.

Deksor wrote on 2020-08-25, 21:55:

286 #49, #50 and #56 (Octek FOX M 286) share the exact same BIOS. They all have the same SHA256 hash.

That is interesting since #49 has bios string D286-6069-040990-K8 and #50 ends 040990-KD in the pictures. I just checked too and both H and L do match from both of those, wonder why one has a slightly diff string if they match. Did not check Predator99 Fox M bios. Guess I should fire up my Fox M 286 and see if it has a different string.....

Horun wrote on 2020-08-25, 22:27:

Deksor wrote on 2020-08-25, 21:55:

286 #49, #50 and #56 (Octek FOX M 286) share the exact same BIOS. They all have the same SHA256 hash.

That is interesting since #49 has bios string D286-6069-040990-K8 and #50 ends 040990-KD in the pictures. I just checked too and both H and L do match from both of those, wonder why one has a slightly diff string if they match. Did not check Predator99 Fox M bios. Guess I should fire up my Fox M 286 and see if it has a different string.....

It's possible I've overwritten the bin-s when preparing the zip files, those were two different BIOS versions, that's why uploaded both... unfortunatelly I no longer have both motherboards and files on my HDD are identical indeed 😒