First post, by Brickpad
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In March of last year I purchased a complete 286 machine (~$90 US) from an electronics recycling facility on Ebay. The listing stated that the computer was in working condition, and the only "repair" they did to it was install a CR2032 battery. Unfortunately, the listing wasn't exactly correct. When I powered up the computer, I saw a major problem right away - a very dim, and grainy / scambled video output. I tried a couple of different monitors, moved the VGA into different slots, and even swapped out the card - problem still persisted.
I pulled the motherboard out and had a look at the onboard battery, but didn't see any surface corrosion...that is until I removed it. Hiding underneath were three large traces that suffered irreparable damage from battery acid leakage. Initially I was going to scrap the board, but I decided that it was no better time than now to hone my soldering skills, so I broke out the iron and spent about a good solid hour scraping away the solder mask, sacrificed an IDE cable, and tacked them on to bridge the traces. Mind you, this is the first time I've attempted "delicate" work. Once I was done I put the board away and forgot about it for about a year, until the other night. The repair was a total success...not too shabby for a first-timer I suppose. i may re-do the solder work to neaten things up a little bit, but for now it stays as is. 😎
Apologies for the poor quality pictures. Phone camera isn't the greatest. I have no idea what board brand / model this is. It came with 1MB (4x256KB) DIPP modules installed, and an Intel 80286 12MHz.
I used the onboard diagnostics test for every video mode - All were successful.
