I built myself a new PC

[Pentium100]

Well, not new, more like "new for me".

I had this old motherboard for a long time, though at the time I did not know much about computers or how to connect the board. A few weeks ago I found it in storage and decided to try to make it work.

It turns out somebody took all the crystal oscillators, one transistor and the CMOS battery off it. Thankfully, the values were written on the board for every component (unlike modern boards where it's written R1 and the resistance is not given), so I bought new oscillators and the transistor and soldered them in place.

Then I fixed the power supply socket (one pin was broken), found an AT power supply and connected it. The board did not turn on at first, but after I pushed the chips into their sockets a bit harder it started working. I of course connected a video card and later a FDD/HDD controller and a floppy drive.

Now I only need the CMOS battery, it should be a 3.6V rechargeable one, I should be able to get one at my local electronics store.

So, what are the specs? You probably suspect they are not very good, anyway:
CPU: Intel 80286, 8MHz (probably, maybe 12 or 16)
RAM: 1MB, 80ns
Slots: 4x ISA 16bit, 2x ISA 8bit

It plays old DOS games quite well, I can now play one game for which my first PC (P100) was too fast.

BIOS only recognizes the standard types of HDDs, but I had a 100MB HDD somewhere and IIRC it conforms to one of those types. I will install Windows 3.1 to it when I find the HDD.

So, how do you think this PC will run Vista and Crysis?

RAM is interesting - this board does not use SIMM, but instead there are sockets for the RAM chips. I also have a ISA memory card with 128K of memory, but I do not know how to make DOS recognize it (it probably needs drivers that I do not have).

There is also a socket for the math coprocessor but I do not have it.

For now this PC is without case - the motherboard is very big (almost full size AT, so a bit bigger than EATX) and I do not have an empty case big enough.

[bork]

It will only manage 20MB in a disk partition, so you will end up with 5 drive letters.  Still have a copy of MS-Dos 3.4 laying about. 

[Pentium100]

I have MSDOS 5 install disks, though all of my working 5.25" floppy drives are in other computers. Wikipedia says that normal FAT16 support appeared with DOS 4, so Windows 3.1 should support it, so, up to 2GB partitions.

[HiddenJumper]

I'm even more impressed that you had some of the parts still lying around for an old board like this. I would be impressed if you could load Win95 (highly doubtful) onto it, unless if the specs for Windows 95 is alot lower than I remember.

Sitting back and looking at the specs puts things in perspective on how fast computer technology has devoloped over the past 30 years. Just think, 30 years ago the thought of having something like the iPad or Netbooks probably didn't cross most people's minds.

[Pentium100]

Windows 95 will not work on it. Even Windows 3.11 needs a 386, so Windows 3.1 is the latest version that supports a 286. Linux, too, needs a 386.

As for the other parts - yea, I have a lot of them, just do not know where most of them are. I found another motherboard (with a 386SX), but it is also missing some components, namely the oscillators (and this time the frequencies are not written) and more importantly, the BIOS EPROM chips. I also remember a yet another motherboard but I do not know what CPU is there or where it is. I also remember some really long (video?) cards and some other cards. Maybe if I find that other box, I'll find a XT-IDE controller as I have one such drive (I do not know if it works though). Also, maybe I'll find an ISA SCSI controller, that would be great as I have an unused ~500MB SCSI drive (other drives are in use).

The board was made in 1988 (at least BIOS copyright says so).

Here is a screenshot of its first boot

(click to show/hide)

It stopped because I did not connect the keyboard at the time, I was just trying to get the board to turn on and progress beyond POST code 0x03 (it would not display a code at all or stop at 01, 02 or 03).

But yea, this full sized computer (that needs an external floppy controller) is slower than my Psion Series 5 PDA that was made in 1997. OTOH, people could use this computer for work and simple games, even though it has so little processing power compared to "slow" 1GHz CPUs.

[Freedom Kira]

I think your epeen level just blew all the other gaming rig builders out of the water.

[Tatsujin]

I think your epeen level just blew all the other gaming rig builders out of the water.

+9000

You can sell that shit for 20,000 US dollars on eBay. Lol.

That is like a dead computer. You can just probably type .... stuff on it .... I think. What the hell did people do with those super slow machines back then anyways?

[kitamesume]

you can run traxmaker on this board, well, hopefully, and traxmaker can make you money imho.

i remember having a pentium2 400mhz pc and it could load XP border-line to lagginess when you load too much on it, i could play hocus-pocus, turbular world and mario on it xD good stuff even now.

oh yea, theres this local trade shop that you could buy pentium3s for 30$ here, i mean whole set, pentium3 800mhz/128mb ram/no gpu/40gb hhd/a floppy/cd-room(not writer) or a pentium4 1.5ghz/512mb ram/legacy nvidia mx 400/400 gpu/80gb hhd/a floppy/cd-rw(woot writer) for 60$

[HiddenJumper]

I think your epeen level just blew all the other gaming rig builders out of the water.

It impresses me in the fact that he even had these parts lying around. Up until last summer, the oldest computer I had was a P1 sitting in my closet, but since I moved, it got tossed. This however, brings refurbishing and computer building to a totally different level. 

That is like a dead computer. You can just probably type .... stuff on it .... I think. What the hell did people do with those super slow machines back then anyways?

Not sure, but he might be able to run Asteroids on it or some of the other old DOS games. I don't see why not. However getting the game on a 5 and Quarter inch floppy is a different story.

[Pentium100]

That is like a dead computer. You can just probably type .... stuff on it .... I think. What the hell did people do with those super slow machines back then anyways?

Well, people used computers like this for work and games. Just that the games were simpler. Anyway, his game runs great, I also tested some other games and they run well too. Windows 3.1 should run when I find the hard drive.

you can run traxmaker on this board, well, hopefully, and traxmaker can make you money imho.

traxmaker? is this some kind of old software that only runs on slow PCs?

It impresses me in the fact that he even had these parts lying around. Up until last summer, the oldest computer I had was a P1 sitting in my closet, but since I moved, it got tossed. This however, brings refurbishing and computer building to a totally different level. 

A neighbor gave me this board along with a box of other computer parts including some MFM hard drives (too bad none of them work, but one has some hope). At the time, I was a kid and did not understand how to use them, but those boards still were very interesting to me. Now I know how to build a computer, what the parts do and I wanted to revive this board just to try if I could do it (since the values of the missing components were written I couldn't see why not). I also know that I should have one other board (3 total), but it probably is with the rest of the parts somewhere (well, I will find them one day).

Not sure, but he might be able to run Asteroids on it or some of the other old DOS games. I don't see why not. However getting the game on a 5 and Quarter inch floppy is a different story.

More complex games can run on a 286, also, I have 3 working 5.25" floppy drives (one 360KB and 2 1.2MB) and a lot of floppy disks. The drives, however, are currently in other PCs and a bit difficult to pull out, so I just used a 3.5" floppy drive for now.

[HiddenJumper]

Let us know what kind of games you test on that system. I wonder how complex you can go before the computer just says no. The other question is where would you get your hands on some of the older, hard to find games?

[rkruger]

More complex games can run on a 286, also, I have 3 working 5.25" floppy drives (one 360KB and 2 1.2MB) and a lot of floppy disks. The drives, however, are currently in other PCs and a bit difficult to pull out, so I just used a 3.5" floppy drive for now.

Another tip; you can also transfer files through a serial or parallel connection. As long as you get the initial software to control the transfers installed that is.
I remember using a program called FastLynx to do this, but there are many. Transfer through parallel is normally the fastest, but probably require you to construct custom cable.
Serial, on the other hand, is slower but you can use a regular null-modem cable.

With this setup, you do not have to rely that much on floppy disks and drives.

[vuzedome]

P2 laptop, one right here.
These lappys used to cost thousands.

[bork]

What did we use them for?

DBase II    TurboTax (MacInTax)    WordStar 
QBasic      Console based games   
porn


BBS's  - browsing various forums that were all independent of each other meaning you had to have the modem hang-up and redial to access another BBS system; This was all before the internet was available to the public.

Usenet - If you could get access to a system running Usenet, you were then connected to the world.  Those days the Usenet server had to use modems to connect to each other to update the newsgroups hosted on a server.

[Tatsujin]

P2 laptop, one right here.
These lappys used to cost thousands.

Oh I remember that. I remember if you owned one you were the shinzile back then.

[Pentium100]

Another tip; you can also transfer files through a serial or parallel connection. As long as you get the initial software to control the transfers installed that is.

I know that, I even have the parallel cable somewhere because I used it to connect my old laptop, but since this cmputer does not have a hard drive (yet) I still have to use floppies. When I find the hard drive, I'll install Windows and will try to connect it to my network (I have a couple of ISA 10BaseT network cards).

Let us know what kind of games you test on that system. I wonder how complex you can go before the computer just says no. The other question is where would you get your hands on some of the older, hard to find games?

Wolfenstein 3D plays OK, but loads quite slow because it is loading from the floppy disk if I had a hard drive it would probably load faster, also, the first time I encounter the enemy or go to a new room it needs to load it which is slow. The game itself is a bit laggy on the highest resolution (that is, the biggest screen), but the default is OK.

Blockout plays great.

Tank Wars is a little bit slow during the animations, but I suppose if I set the background to static and tweak the speed setting it would probably be faster. Still, the game is playable.

A clone of pacman plays great.

Color Lines is a bit slow in the animation, but otherwise playable.

Master Mouse (a mouse needs to run away from a snake chasing it and collect pieces of cheese and dollar coins) plays great, this game runs too fast on a P100. I took a screenshot of the title screen since I did not find one on the internet.

(click to show/hide)

P2 laptop, one right here.

I have an older laptop - 486DX 50MHz, 16MB RAM, ~800MB HDD. Runs Windows 98 quite OK. Too bad the battery is bad and the chip inside the battery is also bad so I cannot just replace the NiMH cells.

[datora]

.
I swear, I'm gonna email you a box of squirrels and a treadwheel generator so you don't have to forge a new CMOS battery from a bit of gum wrapper and pair of frog legs ...  

[kitamesume]

traxmaker = software used for making pcb layouts, works on high-end i7 like a champ, and runs on a pentium1 200mhz like walking in the park. so yea, you can make money with traxmaker, something like you manufacture pcbs xD

pcb =

[Proin Drakenzol]

That's pretty cool. I'm honestly jealous.

[Pentium100]

traxmaker = software used for making pcb layouts, works on high-end i7 like a champ, and runs on a pentium1 200mhz like walking in the park. so yea, you can make money with traxmaker, something like you manufacture pcbs xD

Oh, when I need to make a PCB I use SprintLayout.

I swear, I'm gonna email you a box of squirrels and a treadwheel generator so you don't have to forge a new CMOS battery from a bit of gum wrapper and pair of frog legs ... 

LOL, no, I'll just buy the battery in my local electronics store.