SpidersWeb
Veteran Member
I just purchased it for the case, so I'm not fussed about it's dead motherboard, but thought it was interesting.
So the machine came with:
- IBM Model M from 1986, with black XT cable, and no LEDs (so sold with a late model XT).
- Newer BIOS fitted with IBM stickers, that you'd normally see on 256-640KB motherboards.
- Original IBM half height mounting hardware and black half height floppy drive with the "*".
- Bank 0 and Bank 1 are fitted with 41256 chips.
So you'd think it was a 256-640KB XT. But the motherboard says "64-256KB" and it's been marked out with a pen.
Bank 0 chips look like they've been in there a very long time (judging by amount of corrosion compared to other parts) and have 1986 date codes. The chips in Bank 1 are clearly younger, as is the AST card and HDD upgrade (hard drive is dated 1991).
Most likely this is just someone slapping parts together many moons ago. But I wondered if it was possible that by 1986/1987 that IBM Australia had left over 64-256KB boards, and tweaked them to use the newer chips?
I can't power the thing up. It's dead Jim.
Does make a clock signal, but doesn't generate RAS (which is my "should I bother" test).
So the machine came with:
- IBM Model M from 1986, with black XT cable, and no LEDs (so sold with a late model XT).
- Newer BIOS fitted with IBM stickers, that you'd normally see on 256-640KB motherboards.
- Original IBM half height mounting hardware and black half height floppy drive with the "*".
- Bank 0 and Bank 1 are fitted with 41256 chips.
So you'd think it was a 256-640KB XT. But the motherboard says "64-256KB" and it's been marked out with a pen.
Bank 0 chips look like they've been in there a very long time (judging by amount of corrosion compared to other parts) and have 1986 date codes. The chips in Bank 1 are clearly younger, as is the AST card and HDD upgrade (hard drive is dated 1991).
Most likely this is just someone slapping parts together many moons ago. But I wondered if it was possible that by 1986/1987 that IBM Australia had left over 64-256KB boards, and tweaked them to use the newer chips?
I can't power the thing up. It's dead Jim.
Does make a clock signal, but doesn't generate RAS (which is my "should I bother" test).