Zippy Zapp
Experienced Member
Greetings All,
I recently found a 386 Baby AT board and thought it would be fun to build a PC around it as I didn't experience 386 DOS days as I was an Amiga user until a 486 in 1994.
So I am looking for comments and suggestions and help along the way to make this thing work.
The motherboard I have is a Lucky Star 386SXA 5.0. If you look at the picture in the link there, the one I have is closer to the 2nd picture. Although I can't find any documentation on this rev of the board, there is some for the 4.0 rev. In a nut shell it is an AMD 386SX-40 with an ALI M1217 chipset. Given the dates on the chips (late 1994) this is a later model 386 well within the 486 era. Probably for basic computing and cheaper PCs I am guessing.
It has (4) 30-pin SIMM slots and I am not sure but I assume you need all 4 populated with equal SIMMs? I have 2 sets of (4) 4MB SIMMs but they are parity and maybe this board doesn't like it because no matter what I do I only get 3 short beeps at power on ( AMI BIOS = first 64k RAM error?). I ordered another set of non-parity just in case that is the problem but I am not 100% sure on this. I suppose it could be the size or underlying chip configuration?
Hopefully I can get it to POST.
Once I do here is the components I have. Its a hodge podge mix and I don't even really know what was considered decent in this era.
+ Generic 16-bit VGA card with 256k (Has slots for 2 more DRAMS for 512k). It is based on the Paradise chip (I have confirmed it functions)
+ A 16-bit Trident based VGA with 1MB video ram. (Have not actually tested this one yet)
+ DTE2280E Mulit-IO that has the usual Floppy, EIDE, Parallel, Serial and Gameport.
I have a lot of ISA sound cards from SB16 Pro 2, SB16, AWE32, etc. I also have a generic Yamaha boards, Pro Audio Spectrum, Ensoniq, Adlib clones, etc. So I am covered there.
I have a new AT PSU that I bought back about 5 years ago to use with another AT style board I found at a local thrift store. So I know the PSU works and is decent enough to use.
I have no case for this tiny board yet. I am on the look out for a small tower case that could house this but the prices on eBay are absurd. I can't justify $100-$200 just for a case. If all else fails I can always use one of the many ATX cases I have with a custom IO shield to handle the keyboard and Serial/Parallel ports. I have some 3d printable designs that do work and if you just print the first few layers they make excellent templates for creating metal shields with blank IO shields.
So first the RAM issues. Is this a common problem? Do I need to keep trying random SIMMs or does anyone have any specifics that might help?
Use case on this is probably earlier DOS games, utilities and possibly Terminal type stuff but mainly just to have fun.
Thanks!
I recently found a 386 Baby AT board and thought it would be fun to build a PC around it as I didn't experience 386 DOS days as I was an Amiga user until a 486 in 1994.
So I am looking for comments and suggestions and help along the way to make this thing work.
The motherboard I have is a Lucky Star 386SXA 5.0. If you look at the picture in the link there, the one I have is closer to the 2nd picture. Although I can't find any documentation on this rev of the board, there is some for the 4.0 rev. In a nut shell it is an AMD 386SX-40 with an ALI M1217 chipset. Given the dates on the chips (late 1994) this is a later model 386 well within the 486 era. Probably for basic computing and cheaper PCs I am guessing.
It has (4) 30-pin SIMM slots and I am not sure but I assume you need all 4 populated with equal SIMMs? I have 2 sets of (4) 4MB SIMMs but they are parity and maybe this board doesn't like it because no matter what I do I only get 3 short beeps at power on ( AMI BIOS = first 64k RAM error?). I ordered another set of non-parity just in case that is the problem but I am not 100% sure on this. I suppose it could be the size or underlying chip configuration?
Hopefully I can get it to POST.
Once I do here is the components I have. Its a hodge podge mix and I don't even really know what was considered decent in this era.
+ Generic 16-bit VGA card with 256k (Has slots for 2 more DRAMS for 512k). It is based on the Paradise chip (I have confirmed it functions)
+ A 16-bit Trident based VGA with 1MB video ram. (Have not actually tested this one yet)
+ DTE2280E Mulit-IO that has the usual Floppy, EIDE, Parallel, Serial and Gameport.
I have a lot of ISA sound cards from SB16 Pro 2, SB16, AWE32, etc. I also have a generic Yamaha boards, Pro Audio Spectrum, Ensoniq, Adlib clones, etc. So I am covered there.
I have a new AT PSU that I bought back about 5 years ago to use with another AT style board I found at a local thrift store. So I know the PSU works and is decent enough to use.
I have no case for this tiny board yet. I am on the look out for a small tower case that could house this but the prices on eBay are absurd. I can't justify $100-$200 just for a case. If all else fails I can always use one of the many ATX cases I have with a custom IO shield to handle the keyboard and Serial/Parallel ports. I have some 3d printable designs that do work and if you just print the first few layers they make excellent templates for creating metal shields with blank IO shields.
So first the RAM issues. Is this a common problem? Do I need to keep trying random SIMMs or does anyone have any specifics that might help?
Use case on this is probably earlier DOS games, utilities and possibly Terminal type stuff but mainly just to have fun.
Thanks!