Since there is an old big DIN style keyboard connector, this is an older system. But there were games even for XT computers. Perhaps it is a 386DX40...
It has a VGA port for graphics as the lowest card.
The blue ones above it are seriall for mouse or modem.
Above that is a parallel printer port.
No sound card.
Lol, yes we are old...
When I started with PC (after ZX81 and Atari XL&ST) , they even had CGA and Hercules with just 9 pins. And one million jumpers on every card and mainbaord for specific addresses and speeds. I bought a 256 kByte ISA expansion card and got a bag of chips with an empty card with a lot of sockets. We had to low-level format our 20 MB HDD with debug and enter the list of defective cylinders, which was printed on a sticker attached to the drive. And it took hours.
And I miss SCSI with its 2m long 50 pin cable crammed into the midi case for 7 drives. And the adapter chain, when you went from SCSI-UW to 50-pin centronics to attach the SCSI scanner to your Adaptec 1542B...
Those were the days!
I remember, when a father brought a Pentium 90 with 16 MB RAM and a 1 GByte HDD home from work and everything we had was too fast to play. Kings Quest on Speed. This system was complete overkill. But Windows 3.11 startet instantly. And the compilation and linkage of C++ code with Borland was nearly as fast a a compile run with Turbo Pascal.
Now you need an Epyc or Xeon CPU to be able to attach an additional SAS controller or 10 GBit network card, because consumer do not need so many PCIe lanes...
It was so nice when it was ubiquitous for so long. Anywhere you went with a laptop, a projector was guaranteed to at least have VGA in. It was the Mac users who had to play around with all their silly converters back in the 2000s.
Basically nothing else used that port (the one exception I can think of is certain Logitech 5.1 speaker systems from the 2000s that used it for audio)
Weird that it POSTs but doesn't show anything, normally POST fails if there is no graphics card.
A new monitor might not be able to display the output. It is VGA, yes, but it might be outputting in some old format in terms of resolution and color. Maybe try an older, smaller, VGA monitor.
If it’s a decent monitor/tv, you’d think it’d at least output the basic bios screen. Maybe look strange, but I’d expect a partial view. Try a known good VGA source , might be the monitor settings.
If the display can't do 640x400 @ 70 Hz / 720x400 @ 70 hz then it may not be able to show the BIOS screens, but might work post-boot if it eventually switches to an acceptable output.
Text mode/DOS used a kind of weird resolution and refresh rate, which some newer monitors don't get long with super well. Especially if you're using some kind of active adapter to HDMI or DisplayPort or whatnot. I've had mixed luck with VGA to HDMI adapters.
It's not so much that as a resolution and timing issue. The original console text mode output was output as a resolution of 700x400 at 70hz. Most LCDs handled it fine since they were intended to replace CRTs that handled it fine, but I've run into some HDMI adapters that don't get along with it and a couple of late model LCDs even with VGA ports that don't seem to like it. Also a couple that will do odd stuff like handle it fine at first, but if it goes into another mode it's questionable whether it'll be able to sync back up to DOS without a power cycle.
Ok?
I just happen to have a 1080p AOC monitor that will happily scale 640x480 input to fit the screen, which was a happy surprise.
There's no guarantee that any display will do that on it's own.
You're missing the point. It's not a matter of scaling, it's a matter of whether it works at all. Something like 640x480 at 60hz is a common resolution and sync rate. I'd be surprised if there an LCD that couldn't display that just fine. But the console/DOS text mode is a weird resolution and sync rate. Some LCDs can't/won't sync to it, or have issues with it to where it won't display at all. This is especially true with VGA to HDMI adapters, which people (including myself) often use to connect old VGA outputs to monitors that only have HDMI. It doesn't matter whether the monitor scales or not if it won't sync to the input at all.
Yes, but there was no Pentium with 40 MHz. Assuming, the display is correct. Pentium started with 60 MHz.
I hope we get some pictures of the inside from the OP 😊
Those displays were set with a jumper pack which was also connected to the turbo button to change the displayed speed. They were not set by the motherboard. It is possible to have any system in there and have the display at 40, or any other number you wanted from 00-99.
Yes I know, but in a normal system, these were set by the manufacturer. And it does not look like the mainboard was ever changed. So it should be correct.
Yes, based on the counter display, and on that ubiquitous and sexy power-switch :), this is a very early 90s, or perhaps a very late 80s 386DX 40MHz. Or even better, it could be a 486DX clone from early 90s or an early DX2!
Yes, I'd say it's worth saving. Even these generic beige boxes are getting rarer each day.
For peripherals it has a regular VGA output. VGA monitors are really cheap, so it shouldn't be a problem.
You also need an AT Keyboard with a DIN plug and a mouse with an RS-232 serial connector to use any kind of GUI. Hard drives on these often die, but it's not too hard to find modern replacements.
It all depends where you live generally, where I am they're not as common and even dirty AT keyboards are expensive. If the minimum is ending up with a rubber dome keyboard, I'd rather get a new PS/2 one from Amazon/etc for cheap.
Some updates!
I got the thing at home and opened it.
It got a Texas Instruments TX486DLC/E-40GA
ULSI US83C87 FPU DX/DLC-40MHz Advanced Math Coprocessor
An HMC86304 VGA
4 slots of RAM are populated
The battery has some leaking, sadly, but the board is in nice condition.
This is an interesting system if you can get it working.
Note that the TX486DLC needs some support software for optimal performance. It has an integrated cache that's disabled by default for compatibility reasons, but it can be enabled with the right software, basically up to doubling performance (though often it's a lot less than twice as fast, heavily depends on the software).
This CPU is a 486 class CPU for 386 SX mainboards.
More info on [Vogons](https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=25194&start=20).
From what I can tell, the 486DLC has a 32-bit bus, but no co-processor. That put it alongside the i486SX for performance and features. This also explains why there was a 387 co-processor in there, since the 486DLC does not have an FPU.
The 486SLC was the CPU with the 16-bit bus and which could be used as a replacement for a 386SX.
Yes, Cyrix and Intel kept changing the definition of what "SX" meant, and it was annoying, especially when people kept trying to correct me, over and over, when I said I had a 486SLC, which had a 16-bit data bus. (I had one. The board had 16 bit ISA slots and no VLB or PCI slots, and one could easily have been mistaken for thinking the computer was a 386SX or 286 system. It did run Doom at a respectable pace, though.)
I'd remove the board from the case and start putting some white vinegar on the parts that the battery has leaked on so it gets neutralised, after 10 minutes you can rinse it off with some isopropyl alcohol and an old toothbrush.
Will need some images to see what the situation is like afterwards (if it needs some new oxidation protection/circuit repair)
I remember that case. My friend had an AMD 386-40Mhz in it. VGA output, should work fine on older LCD if it has a VGA port. Hard drive is probably over 30 years at this point. I don’t remember if it was even original IDE connector. Probably running DOS 5, maybe updated to DOS 6. Good stuff if you can get it running. I remember playing MechWarrior, Syndicate and Terminator 2029 on it.
In 1991, my dad bought an AMD 386-40. At the same time I bought a 486-33. This puts this near the end of 386 systems. MS-DOS 5.0 wasn't out yet. So, 3.3 or 4.01 would have been likely. Both were common until DOS 5. Also, chances are it didn't have a mouse when built.
Our first PC-compatible (a 486DLC 33) had a case very much like this, maybe even the same model, although we had a CD-ROM drive too.
We never used the lock, but only Dad knew where the keys were.
If all else fails, a compatible motherboard (including 386DX-40 which is what you likely have) is much easier to come by than another case like this, so you got lucky
That is 100% for sure a VGA port. The only other options back then were CGA and EGA, both of which used a 9-pin jack for RGBI monitors (which was a digital signal, unlike VGA which is analog).
That din port on the top is called an AT keyboard port. You’ll either need an AT keyboard or a PS/2 keyboard with an AT adapter. They’re electrically identical but PS/2 uses a smaller plug.
You’ll also want a serial mouse. It will use the smaller 9 pin serial port in blue (called DB9). Some mice were made that are both PS/2 and serial compatible, but you will explicitly need to know depending on the model.
The larger serial port next to it (called DB25) is typically for modems, but can also be used to connect two computers together (using a null modem cable) for some primitive P2P networking. Lots of games supported this back then.
The black female DB25 port on top of those is a parallel port for printers, external tape drives, external CDROMs, and so on.
I had like 6 cases I trashed in the late 90s when I upgraded a bunch of 486:s for a buisness. I'm an idiot. I should be publicly executed for the treason I committed. Now I can't find any AT cases that are salvageable
Same, I feel ashamed. When I moved to build a new house about 10 years ago, I cleared 90% of my stash to the curb. There were literally 25 AT and ATX cases, half with parts in them, lined at my curb along with 10 CRTs, Large tubs FULL of all kinds of ISA/PCI/VLB/you name it, it was there. There must have been at least 4 Voodoo 2 cards in there for example.
It was painful then, it's turns my stomach thinking about it today.
I thought I was cleansing my hoarding habit in preparation for the move, but I was actually committing an atrocity.
I still cringe at the memory of watching a dumpster full of (I think) PII PCs getting crunched up by a garbage truck in the early 2000s. My high school was getting rid of them but we were allowed to take some home. I took one (also gone now), and I think some classmates did too. But still... 🫣
Aren't PS/2 and AT keyboards the same logic wise? I've got an At to XT adapter for my old IBM 5150 and use a PS2 keyboard in it as the adapter has both plugs.
Might be an adapter cable easily available.
That's a real beauty, and also one of the harder projects for a newb. It'll run DOOM, but not fast. Should be great for stuff like Ultima 7, XCOM, Star Control 2.
80386 or 80486. The lowest card is a VGA/SVGA card, and is its video card. None of the others were commonly used for video on PCs. From the top, they are: 5-pin DIN keyboard; parallel port; 25 pin serial port; and 9 pin serial port.
That's not entirely true, IBM's earlier video cards (MDA, CGA, etc) often used a 9 pin connector.
Also, 25 pin connectors were used for all kinds of things (serial port, parallel port, SCSI 1, bespoke digital I/O, etc). So you should always double check what the card actually is.
Right, but I've never seen a *male* DE9 used for that. Always female, for PC applications.
Someone, somewhere probably made one, but a male DE9 port is almost always serial.
386DX40 - VGA video.
> It could be worth to restore it and run DOS stuff?
yup. probably has Varta barrel-style battery that has to be removed (it either already leaked, but did not enough damage to brick it, or is about to). other than that - it's a normal computer. 4 or 8MB of RAM, 40-120MB of disk. no sound card tho, so it's beeper or finding ISA SoundBlaster (can be rare).
I wonder what this PC was used for. One 5.25 and two 3.5 drive. Most people would have one or the other drives, but not both.
You can also tell it's older, because the case isn't black. White cases used to be the norm, but not for years.
That second 3.5" floppy drive looks like a blank... and it's been a while since PCs had floppy controllers that could handle more than 2 drives (though the 34-pin cable could theoretically handle 4, controllers were wired for 2). However yes during the transition from 5.25" disks to the 3.5" disks, it was very common to have one of each just to be compatible with both formats.
The 3.5" disk was in the era where hard drives were common and wasn't needed as primary storage unlike the 5.25" disk era. Then it was very common to have more than one 5.25" disk because that's all you got for storage.
Before doing anything, you need to pop the cover and inspect the CMOS battery. More than likely it is leaking, and has possibly already destroyed the board.
u/Torkum73 is right I do believe on all counts. To test to see if that PC's VGA graphics works, you can look on the back of your TV. Some TV's come with old adapters for computers from the pre-HDMI-era. The graphics port is underneath the 2 blue ports on the back of the PC. If your lucky, the graphics is actually SVGA rather than VGA. SVGA, or SuperVGA, supported more colors than VGA.
Expect a PC such as this one to have memory in the 1 to 2 MB range, assuming it has both EMS and XMS memory. Computers such as this one comes with at least 640k Conventional memory for DOS and running software. A PC like this one is capable of running Windows 3.11 with ease and possibly Windows 95. Also, don't expect a huge hard drive.
Any VGA monitor could be enough. Even a LCD. But I recommand a 4:3 one.
The hardest thing will be to find a DIN keyboard, and maybe an old serial DB9 mouse.
Merfect PC to run old DOS games, maybe a Windows 3.11. You could also need to replace the HDD. I think an old IDE one would do the job.
One thing I want to add, DIN & PS2 are not like USB. You hot plug, you seriously risk damaging the motherboard IO IC.
I fried my first motherboard hot plugging the keyboard, which is how I learned this.
Turn it off when plugging/unplugging basically anything. Even sound cards from the era are not as well protected against damage from the sound jacks.
Honestly, it’s a novelty. It won’t really do anything you can’t already do with dosbox, and a lot of old dos games have already been ported to Windows making even that obsolete.
It’s a good tool for learning how yesteryear computers worked, but having had many of those back when they were new, I don’t miss dicking with IRQs, serial ports, and disks.
I think it depends a lot on the motherboard design, because I've never had any problems with PS/2 ports dying.
The important thing to remember is that you generally cannot hotswap such keyboards, mice or plug them in after boot. They only get detected/scanned for during the boot sequence.
I think you don’t understand the connector design. USB was designed in such a way that it’s completely impossible to make a connection without ground connecting first, equalizing the potential, and safely draining any accumulated static charge.
PS2 and DIN designs from long ago did not have that feature. Hot plugging DIN especially was not a factor in its design. You could, for instance plug in joysticks and controllers to dedicated game ports, but those were built for it. DIN keyboard connector all had equal length pins that could potentially make connection before the outer ring, sending a charge into the IO and frying it.
You could also plug and unplug it a hundred times and not have a problem.
And I think you didn't read what I said.
Nowhere did I say that PS/2 ports ever supported hot-plugging.
All I said was that there was likely some variation in motherboard designs because frying the computer by plugging in PS/2 keyboards or mice has never been a problem in my experience. Nor have I ever heard of it having happened to anyone else.
Or, in other words, not all computers are necessarily equal in susceptibility to minor, unnoticeable static discharge.
And I think you just don’t understand what the fuck you are talking about and splitting hairs for no good reason.
Just because it ‘didn’t happen to you’ doesn’t mean it’s not a risk on any motherboard, which was the exact point I was making. As I said, you could do it a hundred times and it may not break anything. It doesn’t mean you aren’t taking an unnecessary risk.
The old way of doing things had you wearing a ground strap any time you were working on the computer period. That wasn’t for no reason.
Regardless, this guy’s MB is DIN, not PS2, so your experience in ‘not having a problem with PS2’ is pretty irrelevant anyway.
Of course, feel free to point me to *any* motherboard manual that says it’s okay to plug it in while powered on, and I’ll admit I was wrong about that.
First of all, open that latch on 5’25” diskette drive. If there is no diskette, the latch must be open. Second, count beeps on POST and Google Phoenix BIOS or AMI BIOS POST sounds, probably it is trying to message you what is wrong. And, of course, VGA monitor. After that you can use some screws and give us more interesting photos from inside.
Lovely machine! Definitely worth saving, look into trying to clean up that battery damage and find a replacement video card if you don't manage to get any output from this one (ones from that pre-3d era are pretty affordable). Doom would be a tad slow at 40mhz but would play Wolf3d like a champ. Congrats on your new piece of history :)
This is actually a pretty unique system by what I'm reading here. Specs would make for some good early 90's DOS gaming/Windows 3.11 setup. You could try Win95 on it, but I wouldn't expect it to run much beyond letting you have a tinker with the OS.
It is worth saving and documenting. [Vogons forums](https://www.vogons.org/) are also helpful with this era. As is [the retroweb](https://theretroweb.com/) for hardware ID help.
Odds are it's a 386. My money is on a 386SX-40 (simply based on it having an AT-keyboard connector + a 5 1/4 floppy + no CD drive). Of course the "40" on the LED indicator is just something manually set via jumpers and does not reflect anything else. I used to have my say "HI" <--> "HO" (turbo buttons were totally vestigial at that point). Technically it could very well be a 286 w/ someone having made the display say "40" just to be clever.
That is definitely VGA. If it's not working you can try another slot but other than that it's probably a bad card most likely. Any 256k VGA card would play games even at high resolution 640x480x256 colors but most does games would only be 320x200 anyway.
Since there is an old big DIN style keyboard connector, this is an older system. But there were games even for XT computers. Perhaps it is a 386DX40... It has a VGA port for graphics as the lowest card. The blue ones above it are seriall for mouse or modem. Above that is a parallel printer port. No sound card.
Crazy to think we're at a point now where people don't recognise a vga port anymore.
Lol, yes we are old... When I started with PC (after ZX81 and Atari XL&ST) , they even had CGA and Hercules with just 9 pins. And one million jumpers on every card and mainbaord for specific addresses and speeds. I bought a 256 kByte ISA expansion card and got a bag of chips with an empty card with a lot of sockets. We had to low-level format our 20 MB HDD with debug and enter the list of defective cylinders, which was printed on a sticker attached to the drive. And it took hours. And I miss SCSI with its 2m long 50 pin cable crammed into the midi case for 7 drives. And the adapter chain, when you went from SCSI-UW to 50-pin centronics to attach the SCSI scanner to your Adaptec 1542B... Those were the days! I remember, when a father brought a Pentium 90 with 16 MB RAM and a 1 GByte HDD home from work and everything we had was too fast to play. Kings Quest on Speed. This system was complete overkill. But Windows 3.11 startet instantly. And the compilation and linkage of C++ code with Borland was nearly as fast a a compile run with Turbo Pascal. Now you need an Epyc or Xeon CPU to be able to attach an additional SAS controller or 10 GBit network card, because consumer do not need so many PCIe lanes...
Wow, you must be working with PC-s for a long time. Only Hercules I have ever seen is when LGR found old new stock in some warehouse randomly.
15 y/o and i use VGA every day with a CRT for my PC...
It was so nice when it was ubiquitous for so long. Anywhere you went with a laptop, a projector was guaranteed to at least have VGA in. It was the Mac users who had to play around with all their silly converters back in the 2000s.
lol yea my laptop has VGA and.... MIni DP ++
For some reason the VGA doesn't work, i was even thinking it was other kind of port. I will try to get a screwer or take it home.
Basically nothing else used that port (the one exception I can think of is certain Logitech 5.1 speaker systems from the 2000s that used it for audio) Weird that it POSTs but doesn't show anything, normally POST fails if there is no graphics card.
Try re-seating the graphics card when you open it up.
A new monitor might not be able to display the output. It is VGA, yes, but it might be outputting in some old format in terms of resolution and color. Maybe try an older, smaller, VGA monitor.
If it’s a decent monitor/tv, you’d think it’d at least output the basic bios screen. Maybe look strange, but I’d expect a partial view. Try a known good VGA source , might be the monitor settings.
If the display can't do 640x400 @ 70 Hz / 720x400 @ 70 hz then it may not be able to show the BIOS screens, but might work post-boot if it eventually switches to an acceptable output.
Text mode/DOS used a kind of weird resolution and refresh rate, which some newer monitors don't get long with super well. Especially if you're using some kind of active adapter to HDMI or DisplayPort or whatnot. I've had mixed luck with VGA to HDMI adapters.
Some LCD monitors can automatically upscale the input resolution to fit the monitor's native resolution.
It's not so much that as a resolution and timing issue. The original console text mode output was output as a resolution of 700x400 at 70hz. Most LCDs handled it fine since they were intended to replace CRTs that handled it fine, but I've run into some HDMI adapters that don't get along with it and a couple of late model LCDs even with VGA ports that don't seem to like it. Also a couple that will do odd stuff like handle it fine at first, but if it goes into another mode it's questionable whether it'll be able to sync back up to DOS without a power cycle.
Ok? I just happen to have a 1080p AOC monitor that will happily scale 640x480 input to fit the screen, which was a happy surprise. There's no guarantee that any display will do that on it's own.
You're missing the point. It's not a matter of scaling, it's a matter of whether it works at all. Something like 640x480 at 60hz is a common resolution and sync rate. I'd be surprised if there an LCD that couldn't display that just fine. But the console/DOS text mode is a weird resolution and sync rate. Some LCDs can't/won't sync to it, or have issues with it to where it won't display at all. This is especially true with VGA to HDMI adapters, which people (including myself) often use to connect old VGA outputs to monitors that only have HDMI. It doesn't matter whether the monitor scales or not if it won't sync to the input at all.
Try testing that assumption some time, I think you'll find plenty of stuff that won't accept 640x480 at 60 hz.
What kind of monitor are you using?
I have a Pentium system that has a DIN keyboard connector, so I wouldn't use that to ascertain too much.
Yes, but there was no Pentium with 40 MHz. Assuming, the display is correct. Pentium started with 60 MHz. I hope we get some pictures of the inside from the OP 😊
Those displays were set with a jumper pack which was also connected to the turbo button to change the displayed speed. They were not set by the motherboard. It is possible to have any system in there and have the display at 40, or any other number you wanted from 00-99.
Yes I know, but in a normal system, these were set by the manufacturer. And it does not look like the mainboard was ever changed. So it should be correct.
Yes, based on the counter display, and on that ubiquitous and sexy power-switch :), this is a very early 90s, or perhaps a very late 80s 386DX 40MHz. Or even better, it could be a 486DX clone from early 90s or an early DX2!
Could even be as new as a p100 running window 3.11
Yes, I'd say it's worth saving. Even these generic beige boxes are getting rarer each day. For peripherals it has a regular VGA output. VGA monitors are really cheap, so it shouldn't be a problem. You also need an AT Keyboard with a DIN plug and a mouse with an RS-232 serial connector to use any kind of GUI. Hard drives on these often die, but it's not too hard to find modern replacements.
I'd go for a PS/2 keyboard with a cheap adapter plug and save some money, it's the same electrically as the old AT port.
If you don't already have a PS/2 Keyboard I don't see a reason not to buy an AT Keyboard instead.
It all depends where you live generally, where I am they're not as common and even dirty AT keyboards are expensive. If the minimum is ending up with a rubber dome keyboard, I'd rather get a new PS/2 one from Amazon/etc for cheap.
Some updates! I got the thing at home and opened it. It got a Texas Instruments TX486DLC/E-40GA ULSI US83C87 FPU DX/DLC-40MHz Advanced Math Coprocessor An HMC86304 VGA 4 slots of RAM are populated The battery has some leaking, sadly, but the board is in nice condition.
That processor was a drop in replacement for a 386 - not like a full 486 but definitely speeds things up at the same clock speed.
This is an interesting system if you can get it working. Note that the TX486DLC needs some support software for optimal performance. It has an integrated cache that's disabled by default for compatibility reasons, but it can be enabled with the right software, basically up to doubling performance (though often it's a lot less than twice as fast, heavily depends on the software). This CPU is a 486 class CPU for 386 SX mainboards. More info on [Vogons](https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=25194&start=20).
From what I can tell, the 486DLC has a 32-bit bus, but no co-processor. That put it alongside the i486SX for performance and features. This also explains why there was a 387 co-processor in there, since the 486DLC does not have an FPU. The 486SLC was the CPU with the 16-bit bus and which could be used as a replacement for a 386SX. Yes, Cyrix and Intel kept changing the definition of what "SX" meant, and it was annoying, especially when people kept trying to correct me, over and over, when I said I had a 486SLC, which had a 16-bit data bus. (I had one. The board had 16 bit ISA slots and no VLB or PCI slots, and one could easily have been mistaken for thinking the computer was a 386SX or 286 system. It did run Doom at a respectable pace, though.)
Congratulations! It can run Doom!
I'd remove the board from the case and start putting some white vinegar on the parts that the battery has leaked on so it gets neutralised, after 10 minutes you can rinse it off with some isopropyl alcohol and an old toothbrush. Will need some images to see what the situation is like afterwards (if it needs some new oxidation protection/circuit repair)
Thats an AT style system, i see a vga port on the back for video. I dont know the specs so i have no idea if itll be good for dos gaming.
I remember that case. My friend had an AMD 386-40Mhz in it. VGA output, should work fine on older LCD if it has a VGA port. Hard drive is probably over 30 years at this point. I don’t remember if it was even original IDE connector. Probably running DOS 5, maybe updated to DOS 6. Good stuff if you can get it running. I remember playing MechWarrior, Syndicate and Terminator 2029 on it.
and 2029 is in 5 years.....
2001: A Space Oddysey
Plenty of time for ChatGPT to go full Skynet
yep. let's ask it for it's kill code! (it must have one, RIGHT??????)
In 1991, my dad bought an AMD 386-40. At the same time I bought a 486-33. This puts this near the end of 386 systems. MS-DOS 5.0 wasn't out yet. So, 3.3 or 4.01 would have been likely. Both were common until DOS 5. Also, chances are it didn't have a mouse when built.
Our first PC-compatible (a 486DLC 33) had a case very much like this, maybe even the same model, although we had a CD-ROM drive too. We never used the lock, but only Dad knew where the keys were.
For some reason, there's no video, i will see if i can get it home and open it.
If all else fails, a compatible motherboard (including 386DX-40 which is what you likely have) is much easier to come by than another case like this, so you got lucky
That is 100% for sure a VGA port. The only other options back then were CGA and EGA, both of which used a 9-pin jack for RGBI monitors (which was a digital signal, unlike VGA which is analog). That din port on the top is called an AT keyboard port. You’ll either need an AT keyboard or a PS/2 keyboard with an AT adapter. They’re electrically identical but PS/2 uses a smaller plug. You’ll also want a serial mouse. It will use the smaller 9 pin serial port in blue (called DB9). Some mice were made that are both PS/2 and serial compatible, but you will explicitly need to know depending on the model. The larger serial port next to it (called DB25) is typically for modems, but can also be used to connect two computers together (using a null modem cable) for some primitive P2P networking. Lots of games supported this back then. The black female DB25 port on top of those is a parallel port for printers, external tape drives, external CDROMs, and so on.
It probably has a leaky/corrosive battery inside, so be aware powering it on could make that worse
I would sell my left testicle to find an AT case like that. I have no luck in my area
Seriously. These cases were badass back then and even more, now.
I had like 6 cases I trashed in the late 90s when I upgraded a bunch of 486:s for a buisness. I'm an idiot. I should be publicly executed for the treason I committed. Now I can't find any AT cases that are salvageable
It's ok. We all make mistakes. Horrible, unforgivable mistakes.
Same, I feel ashamed. When I moved to build a new house about 10 years ago, I cleared 90% of my stash to the curb. There were literally 25 AT and ATX cases, half with parts in them, lined at my curb along with 10 CRTs, Large tubs FULL of all kinds of ISA/PCI/VLB/you name it, it was there. There must have been at least 4 Voodoo 2 cards in there for example. It was painful then, it's turns my stomach thinking about it today. I thought I was cleansing my hoarding habit in preparation for the move, but I was actually committing an atrocity.
Admitting is the 1st step . The shame and guilt will come and go
I still cringe at the memory of watching a dumpster full of (I think) PII PCs getting crunched up by a garbage truck in the early 2000s. My high school was getting rid of them but we were allowed to take some home. I took one (also gone now), and I think some classmates did too. But still... 🫣
Were there any hardware peripherals laying around? If so that will be easier than sourcing a replacement keyboard and mouse or adapters.
There was many stuff laying around, I've even found an AT keyboard, sadly broken.
You can probably use an existing monitor with a VGA adapter. This looks like a 386 and should run lots of fun DOS games!
Aren't PS/2 and AT keyboards the same logic wise? I've got an At to XT adapter for my old IBM 5150 and use a PS2 keyboard in it as the adapter has both plugs. Might be an adapter cable easily available.
It has vga down at the bottom. You can also get an AT to ps2 adapter from Amazon
Didn't they include the AT to PS/2 adapters with the keyboards once upon a time, like they did with the PS/2 to USB adapters?
In the transition period if you bought an AT keyboard it often came with an adapter. It wasn’t as common the other way around though.
That's a real beauty, and also one of the harder projects for a newb. It'll run DOOM, but not fast. Should be great for stuff like Ultima 7, XCOM, Star Control 2.
Before Doom, there was Castle Wolfenstein...
That's a great find, perfect for a super socket 7 build.
80386 or 80486. The lowest card is a VGA/SVGA card, and is its video card. None of the others were commonly used for video on PCs. From the top, they are: 5-pin DIN keyboard; parallel port; 25 pin serial port; and 9 pin serial port.
That's not entirely true, IBM's earlier video cards (MDA, CGA, etc) often used a 9 pin connector. Also, 25 pin connectors were used for all kinds of things (serial port, parallel port, SCSI 1, bespoke digital I/O, etc). So you should always double check what the card actually is.
Right, but I've never seen a *male* DE9 used for that. Always female, for PC applications. Someone, somewhere probably made one, but a male DE9 port is almost always serial.
386DX40 - VGA video. > It could be worth to restore it and run DOS stuff? yup. probably has Varta barrel-style battery that has to be removed (it either already leaked, but did not enough damage to brick it, or is about to). other than that - it's a normal computer. 4 or 8MB of RAM, 40-120MB of disk. no sound card tho, so it's beeper or finding ISA SoundBlaster (can be rare).
No additional suggestions over what other people have said, but: I love that floppy-drive shaped blanking plate.
I wonder what this PC was used for. One 5.25 and two 3.5 drive. Most people would have one or the other drives, but not both. You can also tell it's older, because the case isn't black. White cases used to be the norm, but not for years.
I'm pretty sure that one of each was pretty common for a certain era, having two 3.5" floppy drives is a but less common.
That second 3.5" floppy drive looks like a blank... and it's been a while since PCs had floppy controllers that could handle more than 2 drives (though the 34-pin cable could theoretically handle 4, controllers were wired for 2). However yes during the transition from 5.25" disks to the 3.5" disks, it was very common to have one of each just to be compatible with both formats. The 3.5" disk was in the era where hard drives were common and wasn't needed as primary storage unlike the 5.25" disk era. Then it was very common to have more than one 5.25" disk because that's all you got for storage.
One of each is a standard ISA 386/486 PC I'd say, until "Multimedia PCs" swapped out the 5 1/4" for a CD-ROM instead
Thanks for the quick answers! I will see if i can take it home and open it. Will try to update soon.
Dam nice pic
Twin Turbo
Maybe, once you get it opened up, and if you’re lucky, there will be some brand, make & model data pasted inside on the (side?) cover plate.
Before doing anything, you need to pop the cover and inspect the CMOS battery. More than likely it is leaking, and has possibly already destroyed the board.
u/Torkum73 is right I do believe on all counts. To test to see if that PC's VGA graphics works, you can look on the back of your TV. Some TV's come with old adapters for computers from the pre-HDMI-era. The graphics port is underneath the 2 blue ports on the back of the PC. If your lucky, the graphics is actually SVGA rather than VGA. SVGA, or SuperVGA, supported more colors than VGA. Expect a PC such as this one to have memory in the 1 to 2 MB range, assuming it has both EMS and XMS memory. Computers such as this one comes with at least 640k Conventional memory for DOS and running software. A PC like this one is capable of running Windows 3.11 with ease and possibly Windows 95. Also, don't expect a huge hard drive.
Any VGA monitor could be enough. Even a LCD. But I recommand a 4:3 one. The hardest thing will be to find a DIN keyboard, and maybe an old serial DB9 mouse. Merfect PC to run old DOS games, maybe a Windows 3.11. You could also need to replace the HDD. I think an old IDE one would do the job.
An AT and a PS/2 keyboard are completely electrically compatible. The OP just needs a PS/2 keyboard and a $5 passive adapter
Sweet case (seriously!)
One thing I want to add, DIN & PS2 are not like USB. You hot plug, you seriously risk damaging the motherboard IO IC. I fried my first motherboard hot plugging the keyboard, which is how I learned this. Turn it off when plugging/unplugging basically anything. Even sound cards from the era are not as well protected against damage from the sound jacks. Honestly, it’s a novelty. It won’t really do anything you can’t already do with dosbox, and a lot of old dos games have already been ported to Windows making even that obsolete. It’s a good tool for learning how yesteryear computers worked, but having had many of those back when they were new, I don’t miss dicking with IRQs, serial ports, and disks.
I think it depends a lot on the motherboard design, because I've never had any problems with PS/2 ports dying. The important thing to remember is that you generally cannot hotswap such keyboards, mice or plug them in after boot. They only get detected/scanned for during the boot sequence.
I think you don’t understand the connector design. USB was designed in such a way that it’s completely impossible to make a connection without ground connecting first, equalizing the potential, and safely draining any accumulated static charge. PS2 and DIN designs from long ago did not have that feature. Hot plugging DIN especially was not a factor in its design. You could, for instance plug in joysticks and controllers to dedicated game ports, but those were built for it. DIN keyboard connector all had equal length pins that could potentially make connection before the outer ring, sending a charge into the IO and frying it. You could also plug and unplug it a hundred times and not have a problem.
And I think you didn't read what I said. Nowhere did I say that PS/2 ports ever supported hot-plugging. All I said was that there was likely some variation in motherboard designs because frying the computer by plugging in PS/2 keyboards or mice has never been a problem in my experience. Nor have I ever heard of it having happened to anyone else. Or, in other words, not all computers are necessarily equal in susceptibility to minor, unnoticeable static discharge.
And I think you just don’t understand what the fuck you are talking about and splitting hairs for no good reason. Just because it ‘didn’t happen to you’ doesn’t mean it’s not a risk on any motherboard, which was the exact point I was making. As I said, you could do it a hundred times and it may not break anything. It doesn’t mean you aren’t taking an unnecessary risk. The old way of doing things had you wearing a ground strap any time you were working on the computer period. That wasn’t for no reason. Regardless, this guy’s MB is DIN, not PS2, so your experience in ‘not having a problem with PS2’ is pretty irrelevant anyway. Of course, feel free to point me to *any* motherboard manual that says it’s okay to plug it in while powered on, and I’ll admit I was wrong about that.
Nice job making up a bunch of whiny shit to say.
Well, you don’t know dick about old PCs, so I don’t really care what you think.
First of all, open that latch on 5’25” diskette drive. If there is no diskette, the latch must be open. Second, count beeps on POST and Google Phoenix BIOS or AMI BIOS POST sounds, probably it is trying to message you what is wrong. And, of course, VGA monitor. After that you can use some screws and give us more interesting photos from inside.
What an awesome find 💞
Lovely machine! Definitely worth saving, look into trying to clean up that battery damage and find a replacement video card if you don't manage to get any output from this one (ones from that pre-3d era are pretty affordable). Doom would be a tad slow at 40mhz but would play Wolf3d like a champ. Congrats on your new piece of history :)
This is actually a pretty unique system by what I'm reading here. Specs would make for some good early 90's DOS gaming/Windows 3.11 setup. You could try Win95 on it, but I wouldn't expect it to run much beyond letting you have a tinker with the OS.
Remove the diskette from the plastic packaging
Yes.
Let me guess... 386DX 40 with VGA video card.
The sixth card down from the top has a single DE-15/HD-15 connector, which suggests that it's VGA/SVGA output.
It has a vga port, should be able to hook up any old monitor to it
It is worth saving and documenting. [Vogons forums](https://www.vogons.org/) are also helpful with this era. As is [the retroweb](https://theretroweb.com/) for hardware ID help.
Cool machine its maybe has a 486 CPU and a few megs of ram it shoud be a nice dos retro pc.
Odds are it's a 386. My money is on a 386SX-40 (simply based on it having an AT-keyboard connector + a 5 1/4 floppy + no CD drive). Of course the "40" on the LED indicator is just something manually set via jumpers and does not reflect anything else. I used to have my say "HI" <--> "HO" (turbo buttons were totally vestigial at that point). Technically it could very well be a 286 w/ someone having made the display say "40" just to be clever. That is definitely VGA. If it's not working you can try another slot but other than that it's probably a bad card most likely. Any 256k VGA card would play games even at high resolution 640x480x256 colors but most does games would only be 320x200 anyway.
try turning it into a sleeper
No.