Vintage 1995 Pionex 486 DX2 66 Mhz Computer

[vintageestatefinds]

This is a vintage 1995 Pionex DX2 66 mhz computer. It has two hard drives : a Caviar 1210 with 212.6 MB, and a Seagate ST3660A with 545.5 MB. It has a 66 mhz processor. There is a female power connector on the back of the tower (15A 250V) and underneath that a male power connector (10A 250V). I checked my computer power cords and don't have one that matches either of these outlets. I'm located in the US and the machine was made here so I find it odd it has 250V on the outlets. I tried powering it up with a 10A 125V cord my current computer uses and it powered on for a second then the surge protector cut out. Not sure if I need to get a different cord or what.

I am asking $200 obo since I could not find any sold and information on the Pionex brand is limited. The original owner who sold it to me said in the 1990's he would always spend around $2,000 on his computers. I am located in Simpsonville, SC and may consider shipping .

This model also has a switch on the back between 110V and 220V.

I have additional pictures including of the inside.

 

[vintageestatefinds]

Additional pics.

 

[njroadfan]

Pionex was one of the many brands used by the now defunct Fountain Technologies out of Somerset, NJ. They are, for the most part, run of the mill generic clone boxen.

 

[PeterNC]

In case you did not flip the switch on the PSU to 110/120 you probably fried it. This means it is now electronic waste. Good luck!

 

[roflwaffle]

geez, i love that theres a computer with both a turbo button and a cdrom..
growing up, those things didnt meld.. not to say there wasnt an era, but, not in Ohio pc computer show era.

edit: well carp, its a 486, i didnt know such things had turbo. so disregard me. took me like 20 years to realize tubro was not for 12mhz cpus.. my 386 was upgraded to cdrom to play myst.. so. nevermind me.

 

[Anonymous Coward]

Even if the switch was set to 230V, I don't think it would cause a great deal of harm. However, if you're in a 230V country and use the 115V setting that's another story. I made that mistake recently during my international move. Thankfully only the power supply exploded but the rest of the PC was okay.

There is obviously still something wrong though. I would guess a bad power supply, bad line filters or a leaky battery that ate away some traces.

 

[vintageestatefinds]

It was already set to 110V when I tested it so that's not the issue. I read online that power supplies are often the first thing to fail so I guess that's the first thing I should test. The original owner I bought it from said it worked when he put it away, so if the power supply degraded over time that would match up. Hopefully that's the problem. I think it's a neat looking computer at least. Would be nice to have the HDD key. I assume this was to switch between the two hard drives installed in the system?

 

[GiGaBiTe]

I read online that power supplies are often the first thing to fail so I guess that's the first thing I should test

It's more likely that the CMOS battery has leaked out and destroyed the motherboard. The first thing you should do is a visual inspection of the motherboard around the battery. If there's green/white fluff on the battery and the motherboard is damaged around it, you have the culprit.

I assume this was to switch between the two hard drives installed in the system?

No, it's either an intrusion switch for the motherboard or actually has some latch that prevents removal of some part of the case.

That's a standard barrel key that's been used since forever, you can get them from anywhere that sells those removable 5.25" drive bays.

 

[Krille]

Would be nice to have the HDD key. I assume this was to switch between the two hard drives installed in the system?

H.D.D. refers to the harddrive activity LED just below. The lock is for the keyboard and has nothing to do with the harddrives.

 

[vintageestatefinds]

Well since I'm tinkering around with this I got a compatible power supply which will arrive tomorrow. I checked the motherboard and it all looks good cosmetically at least, and this particular 486 motherboard doesn't have a battery on it. I read some used a condenser or capacitor to hold the charge instead.

Looking around on the components I got more info on the system as well.
Motherboard 1433/50 AEA-V Ver 5.1
1 CD ROM
2 Floppy Drives :1 Chinon FR-506 5.25'' and 1 Chinon FZ-357 3.5''
2 Hard Drives : Caviar 1210 212.6 MB HDD & Seagate ST3660A 545.5 MB HDD. Room for 3 additional components to be installed in that caddy.
MVO 94V-0 stamped on board, 50-0001AZ-25-2 sound card
7 ISA slots (3 unused), 2 VESA local bus slots (1 unused)
S3 805 EAAJ2 graphics on 8MB VGA VESA video card,
8 RAM slots
1 Cardinal modem model 020-0490

Also, does anyone know why this different 50 MHz Pionex would have sold for $250 plus shipping back in 2012? Pictures of it are further down in the link.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pionex-Inte...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

[vintageestatefinds]

Just installed the new power supply and it no longer shuts down immediately tripping the surge protector, so it appears that was indeed the issue. However, when I had a monitor hooked up to it nothing showed up on the screen while I had it powered on. I read though in an old 486 manual that I may simply need an old mouse to be able to wake up the monitor while I have the tower on. If that isn't the issue what is the likely culprit? Thanks in advance.

Wake up the system:
If the system PASSWORD had not been set up, pressing
any key or moving Mouse to Wake up the system.
If the system PASSWORD had been set up, moving mouse
to Wake up the system but keyboard can not input data
until type the PASSWORD first. [ Type PASSWORD also
Wake up the system when Mouse is not being used. ]
If the system PASSWORD had been setup and when the
system is entering power down mode, the LEDs on Keyboard
will "blinking" until your type the PASSWORD.

 

[Agent Orange]

The password is the least of your concerns at this point. You need to get a battery for the motherboard first off, else there will be no way for the CMOS to save your BIOS info. You don't need a password to power up the system. In some instances you may need a password to get past the power on self test (P.O.S.T. Chances are that since your mobo is missing its battery, the password is irrelevant. Also, you need to make sure that your memory (SIMMs/DIMMs) are snug in their sockets, as well as the peripheral cards, especially the video card. Another item is the monitor itself. You need to verify that the monitor is serviceable - possibly you can check-it out with another system.

 

[vintageestatefinds]

I took that bit I posted in the manual to mean you need at least a mouse to get the monitor to show anything even with the PC on. I don't have a serial port mouse or 5-pin din keyboard to plug into this system. I'm hoping it doesn't have a password but I've seen jumpers on some pins on the motherboard so based on what I've read I should be able to reset CMOS settings if it has one. I know I don't need a password to power up the system, it just sounded like I need a mouse to have the display on the monitor work. The monitor is the one I use for my current desktop so it works fine.

I can't seem to find any battery on the motherboard. There is a Dallas TH6887A real-time clock next to the AMIBIOS chip, would this be what would need replacing? Also, Is it guaranteed it is dead or likely? I don't see any leakage around it like one poster suggested.

I'll have to find where the SIMMs and DIMMs are, but I took out the peripherals and put them back in so they shouldn't be the issue.

 

[DOS lives on!!]

The RTC chip is your real time clock + battery - and it is more than likely dead. I have only run across one chip-type battery that held it's charge recently. The RTC doesn't NEED replacing, but you'll want to if you want the computer to remember it's BIOS settings. It won't affect whether or not any video is produced upon startup, as you can run a computer without the RTC battery. The fact that there is a zip tie over your RTC chip is a promising sign that it is socketed, which means that you can just pull it out instead of desoldering it. Also, those chip-type RTCs aren't known for busting and leaking. Normally your barrel-type batteries do that.

Your battery is a Twinhead brand, but it's basically the same as a Dallas RTC.

 

[vintageestatefinds]

Alright thanks for the help. I'll look into a replacement battery if I can get the video to show up first and foremost. I guess I'll get a serial port mouse if I try it again and it still shows nothing after I've put the memory back in. I noticed my monitor goes to sleep once its unplugged from my current desktop and doesn't come out of it after its been plugged into the Pionex and the Pionex is turned on. The Pionex didn't beep at all the times I turned it on so hopefully that's encouraging. Hopefully a mouse is all I need.

 

[jmetal88]

Does it do anything at all after it powers on? Like do the floppy drives seek or anything, or can you hear it trying to access the hard drive?

I've never heard of a computer that actually NEEDS a mouse hooked up to display video, so I seriously doubt that's the issue. It could be an incompatibility between your monitor and the video card (I have one LCD that doesn't like signals from older VGA cards) or it could be something worse like a dead video card or dead motherboard. No beep could be good or bad depending on the board (on the good side, it could mean no errors were detected, although I've found it rare that a motherboard won't give at least one 'all okay' beep, or on the worst side it could mean the motherboard is completely dead and incapable of producing any beeps). The section of the manual you're referring to is probably referring to waking up the monitor under Windows with power management features enabled.

 

[Agent Orange]

I don't think you need a mouse in order to power up your 486. Once your mobo is up and running, there are BIOS settings that will permit you 'awaken' the computer with certain keys on the keyboard or a slight movement of the mouse. I am assuming that you're using an VGA monitor (15 pins)? Try turning the the brightness and contrast all the way up if your monitor is a CRT. Also, is there any chance that you could change-out the video card just to eliminate a possible problem source?

 

[vintageestatefinds]

My desktop is an HP slimline so I don't know that the video card in it is compatibile with this Pionex, but I could check. The Pionex has no PCI slots, just 7 ISA slots and 2 VESA local bus slots. That could certainly help.

As far as it doing anything after it powers up, I can hear the power supply running. The CD drive opened when I clicked it as well. I have no floppy discs to test anything with the floppy drives. I thought it was odd there was no display as well. I don't know what it sounds like when a computer tries to access a hard drive, but I can turn it on again and see if I hear anything distinct. Perhaps all it is is your suggestion that my 2009 monitor is simply incompatible with the video card. I have an old CRT VGA monitor from around 2000-2005 in storage if that should work with it?

At the moment I do not have a serial port mouse or a 5-pin din keyboard to connect to my working monitor to wake it up and see if it's displaying anything. When I power my HP up it automatically wakes the monitor up, but that may be because I bought it with that tower as a set. My VGA monitor is from 2009 and is a LCD monitor.

 

[Caluser2000]

Quite a few 486 mobos of that era had a power saving feature as AO has mentioned, but the mouse isn't required for power on, just to wake it up if its gone to sleep when powered on for a certain amount of time. It should power up fine without a keyboard or mouse and should kick out a "keyboard not detected" error or similar. Have fact the there is no beeps whatsoever is generally not a good sign. Bad ram placement or no ram or with the video card pulled and starting the machine up should generate something from the speaker.

I suspect the cpu or mobo have possibly gone tits up. Lets hope it isn't.

 

[vintageestatefinds]

So would the next step have to be turning the computer on with only the motherboard connected, then adding ram one stick at a time, then video card, etc to try to figure out what's dead if something is? I read this is done for some issues, or do I need to check out the CPU by itself somehow?

Hopefully this monitor is just incompatible with the video card as jmetal suggested. If not I'll just learn more about troubleshooting haha.