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Requesting assistance with some old 386 computers.

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bwfci

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Sep 27, 2015
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Forgive me for being stupid here, however I have come across and have in my possession now about 50 pieces of an old token ring router.
I opened them up just to see what was inside, turns out it's a 386 motherboard with the 386DX Intel chip and apparently has it's own bios in order to be able to run the token ring router functions. The keyboard port is blocked off from the outside, and there is no video card installed, so apparently the bios, when booted up, would run a program that would that would serve the token ring router functions.

The motherboard is a peak/DM board with about six or seven ISA slots. The units have 4 30 pin memory boards.
They look similar to this ebay item:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/141666616765
So I am wanting to find the correct bios to run these as regular computers.
I have not hooked one up yet because I will have to find an ISA video board.
But I would be interested in your thoughts, if these have any value, and if the bios could be purchased online already programmed into the bios chip so that I could just plug it into the board (after removing the old bios of course)
I am not under delusions of grandeur thinking that these units are a gold mine, I just simply want to find a way to convert them to standard 386 computers and sell them off to others who could find good uses for them.
The existing cases do not support bays for hard drives, floppies, and as stated, even the keyboard hole is missing.
 
Sorry this is my first time posting here. Here are some pics that I had on my phone20150921_160317.jpg
 
Shouldn't be too hard to find someone with a Chips&Technology 386 chipset motherboard. Judging from your photos, just about any old one should work. The early 286/386 chipsets were far more generic than later ones.

Old folks time--Electroglas was a customer of mine.
 
Any idea what you would offer these for? they look quite interesting both as a 386 PC and as a TR device. Can we see more pictures of the whole unit please. How is it setup when it is used for TR.
thanks.
 
Oh Cool!
It's good that the form factor and 5-pin keyboard connector are present and not some special board. I would see if there is a Stason.org motherboard layout. The jumpers might need to be re-configured for standard use. The Bios might be more of a challenge.
 
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I see no headers for devices other than a memory expansion daughterboard, so even a generic Award 386 BIOS might do the trick. It would be nice to determine what size the EPROM is though.
 
Very nice boards. I would speculate that they are probably higher quality than others since they were chosen for these token ring devices.

Is there any corrosion around the batteries? If not, then you certainly have some winners here.
 
Are you sure it has a custom BIOS? I think it's more likely there is an option ROM on the network card. I would get a video card and hook a monitor and keyboard up first before you worry about the BIOS.
 
Actually I had not considered that there was a boot ROM on one of the network cards. I have not tested the units however I plan to this week. I actually did not know if I had a five pin keyboard but I came across one yesterday so I'll just take out one of the boards in one of these units , hook it up and just check it out. Of course I have to find an isa video card too. I have lots of older stuff, have a 2000 sq ft warehouse full of stuff i used to buy at computer auctions in the DFW back in the late 90's and early 2000's
The routers are made by Acsys, and there are several different versions.
I'll post more about them when I get time. The routers are new retail boxed as far as I can tell.
Complete with manuals etc.

Regarding the batteries, the 3 units I opened had no battery corrosion. One of the routers is actually a 286 , the other 2 styles are 386's. However, that is only with 3 units opened. I am pretty sure that I only acquired 4 different types of units, but there maybe others. If I remember, I paid multiple $1000's for them but that is money long written off...

Just searched the web...
Visually checked my warehouse, and I have the token master 2000, 4000, & 5000 and the Tokenswitch 3000
The 4000 was the 286, so I am also thinking the 2000 will also be a 286 cpu. The 3000 and 5000 are 386 based...
Also looks like I have about 80 or so of these, mix of models is unknown. They are stacked in a corner of my warehouse that is difficult to get much seen.

See https://books.google.com/books?id=E...goJ#v=onepage&q=acsys token ring 5000&f=false
 
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