My 286: from purchase to today
Hello! This story began a year and a half ago, when I came across an ad for the sale of a “dinosaur” on a well-known online flea market. When meeting with the seller, I learned that he was taken from work as a salary in the 90s. Around 2000, the computer was abandoned on the mezzanine and forgotten.
Without thinking, I bought it and brought it home. I got an EGA monitor with the system unit,
DIN5-keyboard and COM-mouse. A light inspection revealed that this is a MINICOMP branded computer assembled in Mumbai.
Unfortunately, the exact date of manufacture I could not find. According to indirect data, this could be from 1989 to 1992.
After cleaning, I was able to fully inspect it. So, the configuration was as follows:
CPU - Intel 80286 12Mhz + Math coprocessor Intel 80287
RAM - 640 base + 384 extended
Video - Paradise 38315B
HDD - Seagate ST-251-0
FDD - TEAC FD-55GFR 5.25 "
A MFM hard drive controller (also known as FDD controller) and a COM / LPT port controller, produced by MINICOMP, were also installed.
It was all collected on the Motherboard 286-NEAT. It has 8 ISA slots, of which three 8 bit and five 16 bit.
In the original state, it turned on, but the BIOS battery was discharged and the BIOS itself was reset. I had to drive in the HDD parameters manually, which cannot be called convenient. Suddenly, the HDD turned out to be alive (even though it had many bad blocks). In order to copy programs, 5.25 "floppy has been replaced by 3.5".
You can watch the launch video of this assembly, for simplicity, let's call it V1. Just watch carefully, CRT monitor flashes strongly on the camera.
I washed the casing, this time with full disassembly / assembly and lubricated the fan in the power supply, though it didn’t help much.
I bought an adapter from 5.25 "compartment to 3.5" for FDD and installed it in the lower compartment.
But this is more of a cosmetic improvement, then I began to upgrade the "iron"
I installed a multimap on a UMC um82c863f chip in an ISA-16 Bit slot. Judging by the marking, it is 1993, but I did not find the manufacturer.
The replacement of the slow and failing MFM-disk has been achieved by an IDE-disk “CONNER CFA170A” of 170 MB, on which DOS 6.22 is running now.
Using the adapter, I installed it in the upper compartment of 5.25 ".
Solved a problem with a failed BIOS battery, replacing it with a suitable battery. (green square on the back wall).
I also put sound and network cards, which is absolutely not important, because then they were removed due to the lack of a suitable driver.
The back wall at that time looked like this.
This assembly can be called V2.
The EGA has been replaced by a SVGA adapter with 256k of video memory. (Realtek RTG3105EH)
A small CONNER replaced HDD SAMSUNG WNR-31601A, which had to be formatted at 504MB. More than this amount, my 286-BIOS does not understand.
Sound Blaster pro-compatible ESS AudioDrive on an ES1868F chip was chosen as a sound card.
Installed a network card 3Com etherlink III 1994. Drivers for DOS for it were in the package with MS Lanman 3.0.
The network is there and pings are coming, but so far it has not been possible to use it together with the SMBD server. (the server is pinged, but does not allow itself to be mounted as a directory). Since I now have a SVGA card, I had to change the monitor.
This TYSTAR was made in 1993 and has a model TY-1415 PH, it has a slightly warped image, but I will try to fix it soon.
Some games were copied, and you can watch and listen to them in this video (sorry for some noises, it was heard from the open window).
I call this version V3, it is very different from V2 and certainly not similar to V1.
A “protective screen” was installed on the monitor, as an important part of the computer image of the 90s.
I wanted to install WIN / 286, but it requires an older version of DOS. So I stopped at Windows 3.1, which can work in protected mode 286. Plus, I edited Config.sys and AUTOEXEC.BAT for convenient work.
Also changed the keyboard to a more suitable time and design.
The columns that you could see in the photo work directly from the sound card, no external amplifier is involved there. So this layout can be called V3.5 and the last at the moment.
In the video, I remove the LCD-monitor, because CRT strongly flickers and constantly knocks down the autofocus of the camcorder.
Thanks for watching, all the best. Hope you enjoyed it.
PS I express my gratitude for the help in setting up the entire # 16bit irc channel and Dmitry Bachilo personally.
Without thinking, I bought it and brought it home. I got an EGA monitor with the system unit,
DIN5-keyboard and COM-mouse. A light inspection revealed that this is a MINICOMP branded computer assembled in Mumbai.
Unfortunately, the exact date of manufacture I could not find. According to indirect data, this could be from 1989 to 1992.
After cleaning, I was able to fully inspect it. So, the configuration was as follows:
CPU - Intel 80286 12Mhz + Math coprocessor Intel 80287
RAM - 640 base + 384 extended
Video - Paradise 38315B
HDD - Seagate ST-251-0
FDD - TEAC FD-55GFR 5.25 "
A MFM hard drive controller (also known as FDD controller) and a COM / LPT port controller, produced by MINICOMP, were also installed.
It was all collected on the Motherboard 286-NEAT. It has 8 ISA slots, of which three 8 bit and five 16 bit.
In the original state, it turned on, but the BIOS battery was discharged and the BIOS itself was reset. I had to drive in the HDD parameters manually, which cannot be called convenient. Suddenly, the HDD turned out to be alive (even though it had many bad blocks). In order to copy programs, 5.25 "floppy has been replaced by 3.5".
You can watch the launch video of this assembly, for simplicity, let's call it V1. Just watch carefully, CRT monitor flashes strongly on the camera.
But the modernization did not stop there!
I washed the casing, this time with full disassembly / assembly and lubricated the fan in the power supply, though it didn’t help much.
I bought an adapter from 5.25 "compartment to 3.5" for FDD and installed it in the lower compartment.
But this is more of a cosmetic improvement, then I began to upgrade the "iron"
I installed a multimap on a UMC um82c863f chip in an ISA-16 Bit slot. Judging by the marking, it is 1993, but I did not find the manufacturer.
The replacement of the slow and failing MFM-disk has been achieved by an IDE-disk “CONNER CFA170A” of 170 MB, on which DOS 6.22 is running now.
Using the adapter, I installed it in the upper compartment of 5.25 ".
Solved a problem with a failed BIOS battery, replacing it with a suitable battery. (green square on the back wall).
I also put sound and network cards, which is absolutely not important, because then they were removed due to the lack of a suitable driver.
The back wall at that time looked like this.
This assembly can be called V2.
And so, literally within 20 days, such significant improvements were made.
The EGA has been replaced by a SVGA adapter with 256k of video memory. (Realtek RTG3105EH)
A small CONNER replaced HDD SAMSUNG WNR-31601A, which had to be formatted at 504MB. More than this amount, my 286-BIOS does not understand.
Sound Blaster pro-compatible ESS AudioDrive on an ES1868F chip was chosen as a sound card.
Installed a network card 3Com etherlink III 1994. Drivers for DOS for it were in the package with MS Lanman 3.0.
The network is there and pings are coming, but so far it has not been possible to use it together with the SMBD server. (the server is pinged, but does not allow itself to be mounted as a directory). Since I now have a SVGA card, I had to change the monitor.
This TYSTAR was made in 1993 and has a model TY-1415 PH, it has a slightly warped image, but I will try to fix it soon.
Some games were copied, and you can watch and listen to them in this video (sorry for some noises, it was heard from the open window).
I call this version V3, it is very different from V2 and certainly not similar to V1.
Then I just added authenticity
A “protective screen” was installed on the monitor, as an important part of the computer image of the 90s.
I wanted to install WIN / 286, but it requires an older version of DOS. So I stopped at Windows 3.1, which can work in protected mode 286. Plus, I edited Config.sys and AUTOEXEC.BAT for convenient work.
Also changed the keyboard to a more suitable time and design.
The columns that you could see in the photo work directly from the sound card, no external amplifier is involved there. So this layout can be called V3.5 and the last at the moment.
In the video, I remove the LCD-monitor, because CRT strongly flickers and constantly knocks down the autofocus of the camcorder.
Thanks for watching, all the best. Hope you enjoyed it.
PS I express my gratitude for the help in setting up the entire # 16bit irc channel and Dmitry Bachilo personally.
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