Restoration of an awesome 386 retro machine (Part1)

In this video I would like to rebuild an awesome 386 retro machine. This is part one, where I'm taking care of the case and basic functionality.
Ultimate Hardware 2019 link to the mainboard:
www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard...
Music by Model Povedeniya
modelp.bandcamp.com/

[@necro_ware]

Since there was the same question about the VLB board in this video and why I decided, that there is a memory error. I'm sorry, that was a row of stupid mistakes. Since I didn't want to use that board without a VLB raiser in this build anyway, I didn't spend enough time on investigation, I cut out an important part of the video and left this awkward conclusion in it. This board was defective though, the ISA bus driver was dead, as I found it later. So it ended up with the same beeps with or without a VGA card, that's why I decided, that it might be the memory. To make it worse, I compared this board to the same one, which I already had. Unfortunately, that one is with a modified BIOS and the POST beeps are differently defined there (1 long, 8 short for missing VGA). That pulled me even deeper into the wrong direction. Unfortunately I threw out some important parts during the edit and realized, that I was completely misled, after this video was released..... well shit happens, but I hope it clarifies why you saw, what you saw :D

[@andreewert6576]

All good, it's just that the hive mind wants to help you and your editing confused it :) I for one could be woken up in the middle of the night by this "beeep-bipbipbip" and i'd mumble "no VGA" while rolling over.

[@CaptainDangeax]

It makes one board with a full donation of ISA and VLB ports, always handy

[@mirlivaturab9078]

Good will,good study,good work ... For your faults. you informed, these would be informative,learning experiences for you. Thank you for that small adventure.

[@CPUGalaxy]

Fantastic restoration and awesome video! I enjoyed it fullest to the last second. Thanks for sharing! Cheers, Peter

[@necro_ware]

Thank you, Peter! Great pleasure!

[@Megatog615]

the super glue and baking soda thing was pure sorcery never seen that before

[@christopherrasmussen8718]

That HDD brings back memories. I used to know the math to figure the size by the geometry on the label. That one has the MB right on it 🤣 What an awesome machine. That BIOS. How we suffered in the past.

[@eg1885]

Love the attention to detail. The hardware looks brand new.

[@UpLateGeek]

Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to restore this PC. My family had a 386 back in the day that used this exact same case, so seeing it again brought back a lot of memories. I've been on the lookout for one of these machines on eBay, but as common as they were back then, they're not so common these days and usually sell for ridiculous prices.

[@Retro_PC]

Many thanks for the paint codes for painting the metal part of the PC case. I've been looking for this information for more than 10 years! You literally saved me!

[@Kaio7]

Your videos are works of art. Please never stop making them, it's amazing what you can do with these machines.

[@qzorn4440]

o-my... all the on the factory floor 386 PC-projects that just ran and ran... 👌then came the new powerful-PCs and along with that IT... which halted a lot of creative ideas. thanks. 🥳🤩

[@djpirtu2]

That same seagate model was my first big hdd drive in my 386sx/33 machine back in nineties. Never forget that startup rattling.

[@J.D-g8.1]

I remember the "turbo" button. Very satisfying to push for the first few times. Modern pcs should also have one. A big "super speed" button hehe.

[@dungeonseeker3087]

That Math CoPro socket is looking empty and sad. Awesome restoration BTW, thats a very nice machine.

[@necro_ware]

Exactly, the socket looks sad ;)

[@davidrmcmahon]

I had one of those ODD's back in the day... Wish I'd kept my old stuff now. Especially as it's all now expensive!

[@JorgeCarvalho_web_dev]

Hi my friend! Dont be shy with the video length :) Give us countless hours of retro goodness. Looking forward part 2. I didnt know that there was a plastic glue, will need that to repair an A500 top case, I usually solder plastic, but the result of the glue seems better

[@necro_ware]

Hi Jorge! How are you? Thank you very much. Yes, the glue makes quite a good job, better, than I thought and with the support of the superglue/baking soda compound it's feels absolutely unbreakable now.

[@aublak7492]

Nice. I just found a 386 mainboard with a surface-mounted DX-40 on it. Watching your videos has been very useful on how to proceed for me.

[@clockit-app]

Oh my!! That startup sound is so nostalgic and took me back to '90s.

[@billholloway9175]

Love your work. Brings back a lot of memories.

[@markg3506]

ST3491A. I love those disks! The sound it makes when initializing gives me goosebumps. It was in my first PC ever (486DX2; the system is till in the attic, unfortunately the VESA Trident TGUI9440 is broken 😞)

[@gayanwijethilaka9135]

grate work and grate ideas. I am also loving old computers.

[@ianhanschen]

Really nice job restoring this.

[@chriswareham]

Great information on painting the case. I'm about to restore the case on my 5150 and I'll definitely try a roller rather than the "rattle can" car paint I was originally intending to use.

[@necro_ware]

I didn't show too much of the effort in the video, but it works quite good, if you get a good quality metal paint. I also used the spray in the past just as well. I have actually no preference, but it's very important to prepare the surface properly. If you have 2 in 1 paint with ground coat included, it's ok to use that directly on the metal. If not, I strongly suggest to put a layer of ground coat before painting with the final paint. Doesn't matter, if you use a spray or a roller.

[@elbdampfer]

Großartig wie immer, ich freu mich schon auf den zweiten Teil.

[@robbirobson7330]

ich freu mich schon auf den dritten teil

[@deepblue670]

good job. waiting for part2

[@teknologyguy5638]

Awesome details here. Great Build. Thanks for sharing the color recommendations. Would love a link to the video you referenced about replacing the rechargeable battery with the CR2032

[@bengtgronlund9447]

Looks exactly like the ones we imported from Taiwan back in the days, maybe 1990-1992. Thw horisontal bus was a drag though

[@boone7777777777]

I'm a big fan of the braided pig tail wire harness for the display 👌

[@CPU-Z]

Good job ! The final result is really amazing. In order to remove a CPU from a non ZIF socket, I use to use a lego brick separator (the orange tool), that has the advantage to be in plastic and won't scratch anything. But if the CPU is very tightly set, the thin plastic may twist and break. Alternatively, a bracket slot cover does the job too, and because it is wider than a screwdriver, is is safer IMO. Well the ideal keeps being to use a dedicated tool, but it is complicated to find, unless you got an overdrive CPU with its box :)

[@necro_ware]

Thank you for your kind words and for all the advises. Especially the slot bracket is a nice idea :)

[@minombredepila1580]

Excellent video. Learned some new tricks !!!. Thank you for that :-)

[@RetroPeKar]

Интересно, когда появилось автоопределение хардов. На моей TD70 уже есть, биос середины 92. Тут 1990 вроде? И по габаритам доски это видно кстати ) Значит где-то в эти два года определение ATA устройств стало не просто возможно, но и общепринято даже в бюджетном сегменте.. Восстановил конечно круто ) Я сейчас тоже буду красить крышку, так что интересная инфа про оттенки белого )

[@jinxterx]

Really awesome restoration! :D

[@MrHBSoftware]

hi.nice job!...the old cases are powder coated usually....if you dont use 2 component paint usually it will leave a mark when you put something on top of the case for a very long time...the best paints are automotive acrylic paint or epoxy paint. both are mixed with a hardener and they dry very fast. after a day you can put a monitor on top and leave it there... automotive paint is not expensive and can be found in many places, you just cant geat away with rolling it because its thin, it should be sprayed...maybe a textured primer for car bumpers before the paint will give it the grainy texture....you can have automotive paint made for the colour you want by showing the old piece to the shop and they mix the paint for you. overhere acrylic paint is about 20€ per liter but you can buy only 1/4 of a liter....then you need hardener and thinner, both are cheap too....and primer is a good ideia...cheers

[@fra4455]

Great vídeo Necroware

[@hotplatelabs]

Fantastic video again. Thank you for making such detailed videos so specifically tailored for my interests 😂

[@hotplatelabs]

Oh and HUGO = Hugo’s House of Horrors maybe?

[@necro_ware]

Yes it is! Tested it off-camera afterwards....

[@hotplatelabs]

@@necro_ware So classic!

[@orbitaretroretro3907]

Wow! Nice restoration :) a while ago I bought this same case brand new from old stock! I still haven't used because of the ISA riser... I thought than using that riser on a normal board would give resource conflicts when plugging sound card, vga and multi controller at the same time... I'll keep tuned to see how you manage with it! Thanks for your videos :)

[@necro_ware]

Thank you! In regards of ISA riser, no reason to worry. ISA was very simply made, all slots are connected in parallel to the same bus, doesn't matter, if they are all on the mainboard, or you connect everything through a riser card. There is no glue logic or something similar between the slots. It's more just like everything would hang on the same cable, so you can't get any conflicts by just putting all cards into the same riser. I mean you will get conflicts, but the usual ones, like if you'd put your cards directly into the mainboard.

[@orbitaretroretro3907]

@@necro_ware thanks for answering! :) Didn't know that... I even bought some agp and pci risers to use a super socket 7 board on that slim case but didn't find any flexible isa Risers… will have to build one with a ribbon cable and a cut isa card... But using an Isa only motherboard is also a good choice!

[@tomaszkoszela8433]

Great job! nice looking retro PC :-)

[@sinephase]

15:00 - I'd suggest trying solder paste with a heat gun for those difficult spots! :D

[@wishusknight3009]

So I had a Laser 386/3 which was in pretty much the identical case, maybe very slightly larger. And its motherboard was NLX form factor. And had onboard IO with ports along the back, no integrated vga though, and had a full 6 16 bit isa slots. puzzlingly it did not have onboard floppy or ide ports. Just basic IO on the back plate. I outfitted it with full scsi treatment when I got it, as it was an upgrade for my then SX 20 computer, this Laser was a DX33 with 256k cache and even had a cyrix fasmath when I purchased it. And weirdly had 16 30 pin simm slots. It served me well for a couple of years as well. CL5429 vga and soundblaster AWE32 by the time I retired it. Adaptec SCSI with 340mb hd/2x cdrom and external scanner and another 210mb hd in external cage. I also had ethernet and MPU401 card, so i was nearly maxed out with it.

[@andreewert6576]

This channel is outstanding btw, criminally underrated. In fact, if one could "invest" in YT channels, i'd buy ASAP. Pretty sure Necroware will be the next Adrian, Phil or 8BitGuy.

[@fancyfakename8967]

This video is so good i pressed "like" twice.

[@stonent]

VLB brown slots if I recall correctly are physically the same connector as PCI so it may be possible to use a PCI extension ribbon cable to connect to a VLB card hanging off one of the 16 bit slots.

[@necro_ware]

PCI Slots are not quite the same as VLB, they are slightly wider. 124 vs 112 pins if I remember correctly.

[@djdjukic]

@@necro_ware you can cut some pins off the male end of the riser

[@mikelee5859]

Thank you... 我在台灣，1988年,買了1台桌上型電腦，386/SL-25，台幣5萬8000元； 買了1台VGA-800*600顯示器，台幣1萬8000元； 買了1台Panasonic印表機24針的，台幣1萬3500元； 買了1顆NEC-HDD-5.25"硬碟40MB，台幣1萬2000元； 大概合計台幣10萬元，換算成2022年新台幣大概是60萬元； 等於是2萬美金...386/SL-25,VGA-800*600,HDD-40MB,PRINTER-24PIN...@@"

[@darthtripedacus1]

I love retro rigs

[@ruthlessadmin]

Experience tells me that there are only two other things more exciting than getting zapped by a charged capacitor. First, is getting zapped by mains on accident, and Second is getting zapped by not knowing your outlet isn't grounded and simply resting your arms on the chassis.

Bravo !

[@bernsteindev]

Haha, i like it, that the computer was last used in Germany😂 You did good work, i liked the Video. Keep it up, you are making great content.👍 Greetings from Germany

[@necro_ware]

No wonder :) Look into my about page. Greetings back from Germany.

[@AbdAlgani1999]

i love your channel

[@ironhead2008]

Yeah, I think a full fat 386DX board with cache is the way to go with this case. I think there are riser cards out there that connect to the VLB slot however, so that is an option in theory.

[@necro_ware]

Yes, in theory. It is very hard to find a VLB riser at all, not mentioning one, which would fit. I thought, about to make on myself, but I think, a good 386 would be more "at home" in this case, then anything else ;)

[@ironhead2008]

@@necro_ware yeah, it looks like it's just about the right size as well. I'd go with an ESS Audiodrive (ES-1868 in particular) for a sound card if you don't have a Soundblaster at hand. They are really compatible, very common, and usually have a wavetable header that doesn't require a TSR.

[@necro_ware]

@@ironhead2008 I have an impressive collection of sound cards :D If there is something from the old times I love, then its sound cards. I have different Sound Blasters, ESS, Crystal, OPTi, Aztech, ATI (super rare) etc. etc. etc.

[@ironhead2008]

@@necro_ware Damn, didn't know ATI made sound cards. Ok, I guess you probably have a Soundblaster 16 on hand then that'll work with the drivers already on that HDD!!!

[@necro_ware]

@@ironhead2008 I'm going to format the drive and make a clean install anyway.... And yes, ATI made sound cards, however, they are super rare. Just search for ATI Stereo F/X, that's the one, I have.

[@horusfalcon]

That's a lot of love for an old '386 machine, but that's what retro is all about. It's interesting that you used a paint roller to paint the metal cover. Does the paint you are using also include a primer, and was this steel or aluminum?

[@necro_ware]

Yes the paint includes the primer and i painted it twice. The cover is made of steel.

[@ms-dosman7722]

Nice job so far! I noticed the power led wasn't working. Was it connected incorrectly or is the LED broken?

[@necro_ware]

Hehe, indeed! Totally missed that, the cable was wrong around :D Just fixed it, thank you!

[@wskinnyodden]

I'd love to see the first 386DX with VLB slots running a Trident TGUI9440 (Comes with 1Mb of RAM BUT you can add easily another 1Mb using ICs directly from a 286 for example, which I actually did when I had mine hehe, some bad pixels on screen at 1280x1024x256 colors but it worked even with a higher latency than the onboard RAM!)

[@wskinnyodden]

And yes, that is a VLB Trident model ;) It was the first 2Mb VGA card ever in my home town hehehehe

[@necro_ware]

A similar topic is planned for Doscember 2022, so stay tuned ;)

[@ArtemAleksashkin]

14:07 хочется такую штуку для pci шины. портов обычно немного на этой шине, а устройств полно.

[@MAGAMAN]

I really miss the old computer boot up sounds. lol

[@SW-no5lh]

norton ❤💯

[@EKrieger]

Hello! 😊 you said your favorite generation is 386, I have one at home and I'm trying to make it work. It has 4 modules of ram, but even though I cleaned them (anyways they were completely clean already) I continue having 3 beeps. 3 beeps in a row do you have an idea what it is? Graphics card I guess no because when I remove it, 3 beeps continue. I ask you because your experience! 😅 Greetings from Argentina ❤😊

[@crankyunicorn4423]

oh my this was the case of my first pc a 486

[@crankyunicorn4423]

wow thank you 😯 never know that the front plate number was actually a fake that explains the 8 and 88 I presume they are the default values . My processor was axtualy a intel 486 dx2 at 66Mhz had 16 Mbytes of ram and the sound of it tuening on is exactly the same wow amazing bring back memories

[@P10101G]

I do miss the Turbo LED :)

[@erikmerchant567]

What was the peroxide paste you were using for that retro-brite work? I've never seen it not in a liquid format before. It looked much simpler and less messy to do. Thanks!

[@necro_ware]

www.amazon.de/gp/product/B008F5MIL6

[@vcatafesta]

Ja mexi muito com XT, 286, 386, 486, processadores Cyrix, AMD, Intel; configuracao via jumper, conflitos de Irq e Com1 afff

[@TheWizardHW]

Hello Necroware. Where i can find the files for the 3D printed Clip? Thanks a lot for your answer.

386 Vesa local bus ! and modern memory? OMY! like and subscribe

[@pentiummmx2294]

that's not memory error, the 1 long 3 short beeps is the no video card found error, the RAM is fine. 8 short is on AMIBIOS

[@necro_ware]

Yes, I made a marked comment about it under the video.

[@FalconFour]

At 4:00 I'm _literally_ yelling at the screen "BEEEEP, BEEP-BEEP, BEEP IS A VIDEO ERROR!!". All the boards I've ever worked with had that POST code (rather, the odd stuttered long/short Morse Code-like beeps) as a fault of video of some kind. Be it a PCI, AGP, or ISA system - "beeeep, beep-beep, beep" - always meant the same thing. But ... well, at least your explanation in the comment makes some sense 😂

[@MakarovFox]

13:14 i use that a lot

[@AncapDude]

You can keep the charging circuit by using a LIR2032 battery.

[@necro_ware]

You shouldn't. It's a lithium battery, which requires special charging circuit. If you use it here it can overcharge and explode.

[@AncapDude]

@@necro_ware ok thanks

[@lordmmx1303]

we need i7-12700k overdrive cpu for 386 boards :D

[@atheatos]

Nice restoration. The original board looks ok. The beep error you get is the classic missing VGA one. And changes to missing RAM once you remove the RAM. Totally normal.

[@necro_ware]

Thank you very much! Yeah, I didn't go further in this video with the board analysis, because I didn't want to use it in this case anyway. However, I already analysed it off-camera. The strange thing was, that as soon, as I inserted any graphics card, no mater ISA, or VLB, the board didn't beep at all and hung in memory test cycle. That's why I assumed, there must be something wrong with the memory. Meanwhile, I found out, that one 74LS245 to the ISA bus was dead and the BIOS EPROM seems to have also issues on D7. I replaced the buffer and the EPROM, now the board works again. I assume, there was a short in the past, which killed the fuse in the PSU and damaged the ICs on the board. But it's just an assumption..... anyway, thank you for your educated guess.

[@atheatos]

NICE!! As usual. I am still not that good with repairs :/

[@necro_ware]

Don't be too shy, I love your channel and following your outstanding work. I don't think, that your skills are worse, than my by any mean :D

[@atheatos]

Thank you :) I enjoy your content too! When it comes down to repairing these boards, I am somewhat of a noob. I hope I reach your level of experience on this. So far my score with them is something like 1 : 6 Ok, to be fair, most of them there badly damaged by batteries. Still I was hoping to do better.

[@pentiummmx2294]

@@necro_ware have you tried fixing that ECS board with the SiS 501/502/503 chipset?

[@CoverMechanic]

does changing the crystal not affect the non-turbo speed? You set the display to 8MHz but I’d have thought it’d be closer to 10MHz now?

[@necro_ware]

As I said, this LEDs don't represent anything in real, so I don't know now how fast it will be with turbo off in relation to turbo on. I'll have to make some benchmarks, but I guess, that I'll get some numbers, which are even far lower, than what would be 8 MHz

[@CoverMechanic]

@@necro_ware I assumed that the chipset just divides the crystal frequency by 8 to arrive at the non-turbo clock? So a 66.667MHz crystal freq would divide to a 8.33MHz clock, and a 80MHz crystal would divide to a 10MHz clock. I may be totally wrong about that, I just assume that’s how the turbo button is implemented. Your videos are great, I always learn something that helps with my own retro PC repairs.

[@necro_ware]

@@CoverMechanic Well, not quite. First of all the crystal oscillator frequency is not the same as the frequency the CPU is working at, but a half (at least on this board, there are boards existing, which work at full frequency of an oscillator). So here the old CPU frequency was 66MHz/2=33MHz, that divided by 8 would be 4MHz eventually and not 8MHz. However this is still not quite right, since every board implements turbo functionality in a slightly different way. Some boards add an external frequency divider (usually a flip-flop array), or implement it directly in the chipset. The division is not always the same, some boards divide by 8, some by 4 and others by 16. So, in the end, to represent the non-turbo frequency on the front display, in a more or less precise way, you have to measure it and setup it later. However, since it's more for an aesthetic reason, it is not important to have it very precise I guess. The main thing is, that it looks cool :)

[@nickwallette6201]

Tradition is to set the low speed to 8 or 16MHz regardless of whatever the board is actually doing. :-) Nobody knew any better, and nobody cared. It looked cool, and that was enough.

[@futu1983]

The CPU does not have polarity, it's orientation.

[@f3liscatus]

Hallo, gibt's 'n Tipp, wo man hierzulande diese Mengen und Konzentrationen an Wasserstoffperoxid her bekommt? Ich brauchte letztens welches für einen völlig anderen Zweck (um den Glaspilz in einem alten Objektiv umzubringen) und weder im Baumarkt noch in der Drogerie bin ich fündig geworden. Habe dann ein kleines Fläschchen in der Apotheke besorgt, aber die Konzentration davon ist so gering, dass man damit bestimmt keine alten PC-Gehäuse bleichen kann. Außerdem: Apothekenpreise! ;-) Ansonsten: Tolle Videos, weiter so!

[@necro_ware]

Amazon. 12% 1L Flasche kostet 7€

[@fynn1202]

11:21 This Label and the Label on the CD Drive is by the way german

[@andreewert6576]

pretty sure the board is actually fine, it just beeps long short short short = no viodeo card detected.

[@necro_ware]

Yes, see the pinned comment under the video.

[@jean-francoiscaron5706]

Why do the oscillator units have to be tied down with a plastic ratchet strap?

[@necro_ware]

Because else they would fall out of the socket, during transportation.

[@MakarovFox]

i touch those caps one time, was very fun

[@necro_ware]

yes, works better than coffee :)

[@MakarovFox]

@@necro_ware yes in deed

[@JohnSmith-qn3ob]

Do you have any plans to put a 387 FPU on the board?

[@necro_ware]

Patience ;)

[@Dxceor2486]

You managed to convince your wife to keep a retro computer at home ? :D Good job ! By the way you seem to have exactly the same board as the one I was trying to fix which had a missing GAL chip (do you remember it ?) maybe you could help me fix it ? :D Which glue did you use for the corner ? I have a 486 case which has a cracked corner (the pieces aren't separated from the case, but there are many ugly notches) and I'm looking for the best way to fix it (my attempt with regular glue didn't really work)

[@necro_ware]

Hi Deksor! Thank you! We have an agreement with my wife. She doesn't see my computers, I don't see her shoes ;) Unfortunately, I don't remember the GAL issue with your board, but if I can help I'd be glad to. Probably it will not be possible to read the GAL, because they are usually protected from reading, but we can give it a try. Who knows?! The glue for plastic which I'm using is for models, as I said. You know the plastic airplanes, ships, cars and such things? It is an acetone based plastic glue, Revell Contacta in my case. From the inner side I used the superglue with baking soda. If you want to use that one, first try it on a piece of paper, you will not get even a second to correct it.

[@Dxceor2486]

@@necro_ware someone on vogons dumped their GAL, and I tried to flash what they dumped, but it didn't work. Most of the dump was filled with zeroes so I'm not sure if it actually worked ... Thanks for the glue tip !

[@necro_ware]

Yes, this is the problem. You can only dump GAL, if the manufacturer proactively disabled read protection. Unfortunately, non of them ever did....

[@Dxceor2486]

@@necro_ware do you think yours could be retro engineered ? or does it have registers ?

[@necro_ware]

Well, everything can be re-engineered :D However, I can't tell now how complicated it would be. Therefore I have to disassemble the PC again to analyse the traces.... I'm afraid, I'm a bit short on time now to do this.

[@Baoran]

At least for gaming 33Mhz is better than 40Mhz. There are some that era games that are designed for 33Mhz 386 and if you run them using 40Mhz one they run bit too fast. That is why I made my 386dx that I built few years ago 33Mhz personally. I think it is a mistake that people think that faster is better. It all depends on what you are going to use computer for.

[@necro_ware]

That's why computers had a turbo button back than. The games, which were running too fast were usually made for 286 or even XT. Later, as 386dx was on the market, games developers stopped doing that mistake and bound the timings to the rtc, instead of cpu clock. I was a game developer in the 90's that's why.... ;)

[@Stormbolter]

Uhm... correct me if I'm wrong (and forgive me if it appears in a different video) but... BIOS 1 Long 3 Short is "Video card not detected", which is normal because you had no video card installed. Maybe the board was fine?

[@necro_ware]

Well, that was a row of stupid mistakes I made. Since I didn't want to use that board in this build anyway, I didn't spend enough time on investigation, I cut out an important part of the video and left this awkward conclusion in it. This board was defective though, the ISA bus driver was dead. So it ended up with the same beeps with or without a VGA card, that's why I decided, that it might be the memory. To make it worse, I compared this board to the same one, which I already had. Unfortunately, that one is with a modified BIOS and the POST beeps are differently defined there (1 long, 8 short for missing VGA). That pulled me even deeper into the wrong direction. Unfortunately I threw out some important parts during the edit and realized, that I was completely misled, after this video was released..... well shit happens, but I hope it clarifies why you saw, what you saw :D

[@Stormbolter]

@@necro_ware definitely. Thanks for the explanation! I worked in a "pop&mom" shop in late 90s- early 00s, so I have the standard beep codes quite ingrained, and the long fixed beeps when you removed the memory seemed to confirm my bias. Pity the motherboard couldn't be saved though 😔

[@necro_ware]

@@Stormbolter Well, it could. I repaired it afterwards, as I said one ISA bus driver was defective and after changing that, the board works flawlessly.

[@Stormbolter]

@@necro_ware oh! that's good to know! ✨

[@steeviebops]

I think the beep code that Necroware was thinking of here is the AMI one. It's close enough to 9 or 10 beeps but can't remember exactly what. I know it when I hear it.

[@herauthon]

found my 386dx-40 with 8Mb . . cold as ice

[@necro_ware]

Turn it on ;)

[@herauthon]

@@necro_ware currently struggles with ch-101b, Yuko 8Bit, ST3630A, and FD55GFR not being 360k ;) digging stason, adding jumpers where need, checking boot responds, having odd things with cable pins..cooffee...!!

[@herauthon]

will buy an usb-floppy - but will they format insuch recognized by other drives - hmm . .

[@Powerack]

Oh boy, I have similar board and here this beep code means missing graphic card, so why didn't you first try it with working VGA instead of removing memory modules is beyond my understanding...

[@necro_ware]

Yes, sorry, that was a row of stupid mistakes. Since I didn't want to use that board in this build anyway, I didn't spend enough time on investigation, I cut out an important part of the video and left this awkward conclusion in it. This board was defective though, the ISA bus driver was dead. So it ended up with the same beeps with or without a VGA card, that's why I decided, that it might be the memory. To make it worse, I compared this board to the same one, which I already had. Unfortunately, that one is with a modified BIOS and the POST beeps are differently defined there (1 long, 8 short for missing VGA). That pulled me even deeper into the wrong direction. Unfortunately I threw out some important parts during the edit and realized, that I was completely misled, after this video was released..... well shit happens, but I hope it clarifies why you saw, what you saw :D

[@Astinsan]

No coprocessor?

[@necro_ware]

There is a second part...

[@outbackchillin5628]

lol ! 69 dude !

[@heinjansevanrensburg9170]

Are you going to add a math coprocessor?

[@necro_ware]

Probably ;)

[@phille8176]

Hmm, didn't they call it motherboard back in the days?

[@necro_ware]

Motherboard, Mainboard - is the same back then and today.

[@phille8176]

@@necro_ware Alright, very cool video. Quite interesting to see the differences between parts and how the would interact with each other. Keep the great work up🍻🙏

[@ratos74]

11:25 - Is this Keanu Reeves for god's sake?

[@necro_ware]

Sure ;)

[@kibblestherexouium4775]

This machine is not a intel inside. Rather its dirt inside

[@necro_ware]

Hehe, it more of a dirt outside. Inside it wasn't that bad actually ...

[@kibblestherexouium4775]

Anyways you did a great job with that retro dekstop. I love quality retro hardware content so the subscribe is sent.

[@drewduncan5774]

27:07 Don't copy that floppy!

[@Schule04]

Those office games have pretty ridiculous names

[@catvaska1627]

80387 don't present ((

[@necro_ware]

This video has >>> Part 1

[@SireSquish]

I used to set my LED MHz display to read "FU" instead of numbers.

[@loboapaixonado5675]

future sucks...

[@IUnknown984]

русский?

[@nobushi]

It seems like you have a Mitsumi CRMC-FX400E CD-ROM drive. As far as I can tell, the manual ejecting mechanism is possible by pushing and turning a plastic screw in the hole right below the tray. Source: www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=48835&start=200 Nice video btw.

[@necro_ware]

Unfortunately I cut out that moment in the video, but I tried and it still didn't want to come out, so I had to use another method.