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Struggling to identify motherboard. No manual.

I think I have decided to abandon this board. I have other stuff that is working and I am afraid that this board is going to be too far beyond my current skill level to troubleshoot. Maybe I'll change my mind if I get farther along in my knowledge.

Is there any benefit to keeping a board like this as a "parts" piece? Can some of the chips be salvaged for other boards?

I am working on another 286 board that is working, but seems to have a bad ram chip. I wonder if I can salvage some ram from this non-working board and use on that other board. I need to learn more about ram chips. Up till now I have never tried to upgrade ram directly on a motherboard. I've always just clipped in SIMMS or other ram sticks.

How can I tell if the ram chips are compatible?

Seaken
 
seaken said:
I think I have decided to abandon this board. I have other stuff that is working and I am afraid that this board is going to be too far beyond my current skill level to troubleshoot. Maybe I'll change my mind if I get farther along in my knowledge.

Is there any benefit to keeping a board like this as a "parts" piece? Can some of the chips be salvaged for other boards?

I am working on another 286 board that is working, but seems to have a bad ram chip. I wonder if I can salvage some ram from this non-working board and use on that other board. I need to learn more about ram chips. Up till now I have never tried to upgrade ram directly on a motherboard. I've always just clipped in SIMMS or other ram sticks.

How can I tell if the ram chips are compatible?

Seaken
Click to expand...
Definitely, you can keep it for spares, but it will be a pity not trying to "resuscitate" a rare board. IMHO, if it came from a cheap Dell that was produced by the millions, I would not even care and desolder everything, but a rare 286 would really be worth a try. If you don feel like doing it now, just keep it in storage and perhaps in a couple of years, you would find the motivation (or the information) to repair it.

Anyway, I still suggest you dump the ROM and try to find the string Id.

Cheers
 
Thanks @Jaginus. I will have learn more first. I have no idea how to dump a ROM. But yes, I will keep it in storage for now. Maybe I will learn enough later to give at a try.

Seaken
 
Yes, I am considering that. If I don't decide to learn how to troubleshoot the board I will give it to someone else with the necessary skills to revive it.

Thanks,
Seaken
 
seaken said:
Thanks @Jaginus. I will have learn more first. I have no idea how to dump a ROM. But yes, I will keep it in storage for now. Maybe I will learn enough later to give at a try.

Seaken
Click to expand...
Hi Seaken,

To read ROMS and write EPROMS I would recommend a TL866-II Plus. It is a bit expensive, but if this is your hobby it will pay off in the long term. This would last forever and I could see some now on ebay.com for around Us$ 55. There are more sophisticated ones, but this one will make the job, helping you clone BIOS end and even test some ICs. Take a look on Youtube.

Cheers
 
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