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CMOS battery mystery

I was thinking that 386-33 board looked like a DTK that I had bought new at work about 1990 but it's missing the "step" in the board outline (top edge in photo) that you would normally see in a full-AT form factor.

But it does have an external cache so should be fast. The DIP switches must be for setting the start address for the optional proprietary external memory card that would have plugged into that end slot.

The DTK was the board I first tried Linux on, Slackware 1.x. I eventually used it for dial-in PPP access to the company network.

Lastly, the RTC chip looks similar to the SGS-Thomson M48T02 used in my Sun IPC. Apparently, the clock can be stopped to reduce battery drain, something I do before putting mine in storage. It's in a socket but will need the battery hack next time it fails as replacements are apparently no longer available.
 
paul said:
I was thinking that 386-33 board looked like a DTK that I had bought new at work about 1990 but it's missing the "step" in the board outline (top edge in photo) that you would normally see in a full-AT form factor.

But it does have an external cache so should be fast. The DIP switches must be for setting the start address for the optional proprietary external memory card that would have plugged into that end slot.

The DTK was the board I first tried Linux on, Slackware 1.x. I eventually used it for dial-in PPP access to the company network.

Lastly, the RTC chip looks similar to the SGS-Thomson M48T02 used in my Sun IPC. Apparently, the clock can be stopped to reduce battery drain, something I do before putting mine in storage. It's in a socket but will need the battery hack next time it fails as replacements are apparently no longer available.
Click to expand...

Agree that it looks alot like that board but the DTK board also lacked SIMM slots.
Have 4x1mb simm's in mine now...not sure if it can handle 4mb simm's
This board can be used to heat a small room, when I test the board lying flat without a case thw whole board got evenly warm all over the board...must be that it's packed with all of these components.
Have a nice full tower from the same year as the board which I'll fit it in.
 
paul said:
I was thinking that 386-33 board looked like a DTK that I had bought new at work about 1990 but it's missing the "step" in the board outline (top edge in photo) that you would normally see in a full-AT form factor.

But it does have an external cache so should be fast. The DIP switches must be for setting the start address for the optional proprietary external memory card that would have plugged into that end slot.

The DTK was the board I first tried Linux on, Slackware 1.x. I eventually used it for dial-in PPP access to the company network.

Lastly, the RTC chip looks similar to the SGS-Thomson M48T02 used in my Sun IPC. Apparently, the clock can be stopped to reduce battery drain, something I do before putting mine in storage. It's in a socket but will need the battery hack next time it fails as replacements are apparently no longer available.
Click to expand...

Regarding these dip switches...you think they can interfere with the mermory I have installed now in the 4 simm slots?
I've tried different simm's/sizes, it seems I'm limitied to 4mb total ram....if not these dip switches have something to do about it.....
 
Do you think it even supports 4 MB simms? There must be a reason for needing that memory card.
 
paul said:
Do you think it even supports 4 MB simms? There must be a reason for needing that memory card.
Click to expand...

Nope, the problem is that it won't even recognise XMS configured memory on my DFI Megalith ISA memory card so the switches must be doing something?
 
I did the Dallas chip mod with a coin cell battery a year ago on a Compaq SLT/286 laptop. Still works fine. Just follow the instructions at the beginning of this thread and you'll be fine.

Clas Ohlson has cheap soldering irons you know (You should, you're Swedish :D )
 
QuantumII said:
I did the Dallas chip mod with a coin cell battery a year ago on a Compaq SLT/286 laptop. Still works fine. Just follow the instructions at the beginning of this thread and you'll be fine.

Clas Ohlson has cheap soldering irons you know (You should, you're Swedish :D )
Click to expand...

A friend of mune soldered a socket in which I put a NOS Dallas DS12887 chip :mrgreen:

hey, I'm a "stamkund" at Clas Oholson and Kjell & Co but my soldering skills are non existing, hehe
 
It's good that you got it fixed.

Say, is it hard to get hold of vintage equipment in Sweden ?
In Norway it's not much to brag about. I've been to several flea markets (In the Oslo area) over the year, and not a single PC older than pentium II.:confused:
 
QuantumII said:
It's good that you got it fixed.

Say, is it hard to get hold of vintage equipment in Sweden ?
In Norway it's not much to brag about. I've been to several flea markets (In the Oslo area) over the year, and not a single PC older than pentium II.:confused:
Click to expand...

I know, I know... It seems for me that people more or less toss them out or overprice them on sites like Finn.no rather than selling them on flea markets (fleamarkets are also pretty uncommon in Norway). Many people I have met actually assumes that any computer equiptment older than pentium II won't work at all!
 
QuantumII said:
It's good that you got it fixed.

Say, is it hard to get hold of vintage equipment in Sweden ?
In Norway it's not much to brag about. I've been to several flea markets (In the Oslo area) over the year, and not a single PC older than pentium II.:confused:
Click to expand...

Same situation here...in fact the exaxt same situation, anything older than Pentium II hardware is impossible to find.
What you can find easily though is Atari, C64 and Amiga stuff...it's like people have more respect for these computers.
Recycling has been too efficient and if people have anything old they never bothert to sell it and go to the dumpster with it instead :(
 
Yeah.. The recycling really damages this hobby. And what's worse, it's not legal to pick up stuff from the recycling dumpsters outsite the electro stores (I do it anyway)..

Some even destroy everything in the dumpsters to avoid people picking up stuff.

On the positive side, where I work there also is a recycling station. A lot of cool stuff, but almost never vintage. I found a 386 commodore desktop there, but didn't take it.... I still regret it..
 
QuantumII said:
Yeah.. The recycling really damages this hobby. And what's worse, it's not legal to pick up stuff from the recycling dumpsters outsite the electro stores (I do it anyway)..

Some even destroy everything in the dumpsters to avoid people picking up stuff.

On the positive side, where I work there also is a recycling station. A lot of cool stuff, but almost never vintage. I found a 386 commodore desktop there, but didn't take it.... I still regret it..
Click to expand...

Seme here...we have a big recycling plant here with piles of old pc's but the staff are very brute, they give you the "evil eye" even if you look at the stuff, lol :D

Commodore 386 desktop? damn!
Did it by chance have the same chassis as the desktop at the top on this pic?

P1010001.JPG
 
It was the same as the bottom one in the picture, a slightly more yellowed case, but the same look.

I recently "rescued" 3x 5,25" floppy drives from the recycling room at work (there are many companies inside the buildings) so I'm hoping that the pc's they came from appear soon as well..
 
QuantumII said:
It was the same as the bottom one in the picture, a slightly more yellowed case, but the same look.

I recently "rescued" 3x 5,25" floppy drives from the recycling room at work (there are many companies inside the buildings) so I'm hoping that the pc's they came from appear soon as well..
Click to expand...

Sure it was a 386 then?

The only Commodore 386 I'm aware of is this model:

car1207274.jpg
 
Yes, pretty sure it was. I did pick it up to rescue the floppy drive, but I tossed the rest... I must have been drunk or something.

The bottom one with the CD-rom, what CPU does it have ?
 
QuantumII said:
Yes, pretty sure it was. I did pick it up to rescue the floppy drive, but I tossed the rest... I must have been drunk or something.

The bottom one with the CD-rom, what CPU does it have ?
Click to expand...

You're right, of course it's a 386....these are actualy my own pc's
It's built like a tank like the Amiga 2000 but I wish they had used standard AT components
It has a 386 SX 16mhz CPU in it, 4mb sipp RAM etc

I must suffer from temporary alzheimers disease, hehe
 
What part(s) of the machine is not standard AT ? Does it have it's IDE controller on a ISA card or onboard ?
 
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