Suntek Rocket 286 XT upgrade card?

[LuigiThirty]

I picked up a Suntek Rocket 286 CPU card a few days ago. It didn’t come with any documentation and I can’t find any online.

It has a 286 rated at 10MHz on board and an 8088 plus an 8088 socket connector. There are two unmarked toggle switches on the back. I tried plugging it into my PC and was able to get it to boot as an 8088, but when I flipped (what I presume is the) 286 switch and tried to boot, I got nothing.

There’s some jumpers on the board that I don’t know how to set, which is probably what’s going on. Does anyone know anything about this board?

 

[Moogle!]

Can you post a pic? One switch should be for cache, the other should be to toggle the 286 or 8088. You're not sticking it in slot 8 are you? (only if you have an XT)

Here is an unlabelled 286 accelerator on MinusZeroDegrees. http://minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/Accelerator_286.pdf Is it that one?

 

[Exceter]

I wish these cards were easier to find. To date, I haven't even seen one on ebay at any price.

 

[Trixter]

It has a 286 rated at 10MHz on board and an 8088 plus an 8088 socket connector.

The way these usually work is that there is a ribbon cable that connects to (and replaces) the CPU socket on your mainboard. You usually can't just plug the card in and have it work. Does your card have a space for what looks like a ribbon cable?

Edit: Confirmed this requires a ribbon cable that goes to the socket: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc/duALGpOdmTk/Efvz3nZRC_8J

 

[Moogle!]

I can't imagine these cables are hard to make. Snip the end off of a 40 IDE cable, and attach one of these, observing pin assignment.

https://www.peconnectors.com/male-idc-headers-plugs-.100/hws15322/

 

[Trixter]

"pin assignment" is the kicker. Without the original cable, no idea what the arrangement is. (Granted, it's likely linear, which means there are probably only 4 possible arrangements.)

 

[LuigiThirty]

Can you post a pic? One switch should be for cache, the other should be to toggle the 286 or 8088. You're not sticking it in slot 8 are you? (only if you have an XT)

Here is an unlabelled 286 accelerator on MinusZeroDegrees. http://minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/Accelerator_286.pdf Is it that one?

That's the same card. It has the ribbon cable which is hooked up to the 8088 socket and yeah, it works with in 8088 mode. The PC doesn't boot in 286 mode. I see some suspicious bodge wires might have some cold solder joints on the back of the card so I'm going to see if that's the problem.