VOGONS


First post, by Dosler

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Hello everyone, I need your help repairing an accelerator card. I acquired the card—along with its manual—in excellent cosmetic condition, though it was missing the specific cable required for the 8088 CPU socket.
I managed to cobble together a makeshift replacement cable for the time being. Next, I removed the V20 CPU from my XT system and installed it onto the accelerator card. Unfortunately, the system failed to POST; the screen remained black. However, with the original Intel 8088 CPU installed, a POST screen appears, and the system boots up without any further issues. (Could this be a timing issue?)

There are two switches located on the card's slot bracket: the lower one (positioned closer to the ISA slot) toggles the cache on or off, while the upper one activates "Turbo Mode" (286 mode). Regrettably, I have been unable to get the card to function in Turbo Mode. There is no POST, no beep—absolutely nothing.
Just to be safe, I also swapped out the 286 CPU, but that made no difference. I was, however, able to successfully measure the clock frequency at the 286 chip.

The card also features three PAL chips. What are your thoughts on this? Is it possible that these chips have lost their programming, even though they are One-Time Programmable (OTP) devices?

Does anyone else own this card or have any experience working with it? Would anyone happen to have the capability to read out the contents of these PAL chips for me, so that I can compare them against the contents of the chips currently on my card?
I would really hate to give up on this fine piece of hardware.

Reply 1 of 3, by JvV

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Do you have an 5160 version 1 (256kb max onboard) or version 2 where you have 640kb max on board?
I also have an 286 accelerator and it only works on the first version and the second revision of the motherboard i got the same behaviour.

Reply 2 of 3, by Dosler

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Hi, thanks for your reply.
I have the 640KB variant, running BIOS versions 62X0852 and 62X0853.
However, it is quite unusual that one variant works while the latest one does not. I updated the BIOS to the newest version for testing purposes. I am now going to try an older version; perhaps that is the cause of the issue.

Please don't be surprised—the photo of the motherboard shows it in its unrestored state.

Attached are also the images of the three PAL chips. Perhaps someone might need them someday, or could use them to compare against their own.

Reply 3 of 3, by Dosler

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Quick Update: Also an older BIOS Version doesn't work with accelerator card. So maybe its really possible, that those cards dont work properly in late XT Machines. Another indicator is the malfunction with NEC V20.