Help with AST Advantage 9000 Series

[FFFlatEric]

Hello! long time no see. Well I read as guest but I don't login often. SO..

I have here an AST Advantage 9302 and I have a hard time identifying the hardware it has.
I've googled it and also duckduckgo aswell with only references to the computer but no straight specs
of the retail system. The system is built in an L shape and makes me wonder where is the motherboard...
I'm an experienced computer user and also with vintage computers but this L shaped computer is a first for me.
It's also a bit hard to understand how to unscrew it without damaging PCB boards and cards.
Is there an AST computer connaissant among the people here? I've found that it contains a P1 120Mhz with
40MB of ram and a 1MB video IGP S3 card... The rest is a bit fluid.. I don't have any brands and detailed specs.
I've installed Win95 on it since when I got it I connected the HDD on another Vintage computer to see the contents and it
contained a locked Windows 3.1 that only boots to said Floppy disk. Not the Win3.1 Boot disk neither a Dos Startup disk either. Through all that, there was nothing interesting inside the HDD so I searched further with a data recovery software just to see that there's still nothing of interest, so I wiped it and put Win95 on it since 98 didin't install or run when I installed it manually.

It would be appreciated of any help of any kind.
Something like
CPU 120mhz (?unknown cache)
Ram brands is not important.
S3 Video card Integrated of the brand...?
Sound card....?Has Mpu401 on it though and limited voices, can't go to 16 or better.
I see there's a missing card that used to be there in first slot to the left when looking it from the back, as the metal shield
has been removed.
Modem....Brand unknown?
Other things I'm unaware of..?

Thanks!

 

[krebizfan]

I must be thinking of a different system but I thought it was a standard small tower where one needs to remove 3 screws from the back and slid the case up. Front panel should have side tabs. Maybe you can provide some images of the system.

Getting at the cards was tricky requiring removal of the bottom panel by removing the screw that you haven't removed yet and then sliding it off. You may need to remove all the cards and even the riser card to get at the battery or motherboard jumpers.

I have what seems to be a general manual for all the Advantage 9000 series but it seems to have a lot of vague "depending on configuration" notices. Pictures showing the innards would be more useful than the documentation.

You probably have motherboard video which can be augmented by adding another 1 MB chip which would make it almost useful. Some models also had sound on the motherboard. Both motherboard video and sound are minimal and probably should be replaced with cards for gaming.

Note: The design requires special guide rails which are impossible to get these days so adding a 5.25" floppy or second CD-ROM may be a challenge. Save the ones already installed if you remove an existing component.