Uncreative Labs

Joined: 29 Mar 2007 Posts: 14 Location: Clearfield, UT

HY guys, this well be a long one...

The other day i found a computer at the thrift store for $5, I mainly got it for the at desktop style case to put my dx4 100 based system into as i don't care for the tower.

Anyways i thought before i did that i would see what this computer actually was first... the specs are as fallows:

ibm486slc2-66 (soldered onboard w/soldered onboared cyrix co prossesor).
4 megs of 30 pin simm ram
Conner 420mb HD
Cirrus Logic 5420 video card (dunno how much memory it has)
Creative labs soundblaster 16 w/ 2x sony cd rom drive connected to it ( evidently added approx 6 months after the computer was built)
Modem (dunno speed)

Now the problems:

I fire it up and find windows 3.11 and a bunch of odds and ends programs on it along with some quicken 3 personal register entry's from feb 94, But the pc seemed to lock up allot. I would try to exit windows and it would just sit their and not exit back to dos yet the pointer still worked but clicking on anything didn't work as well as when i would hit control panel the hard drive would grind then nothing no control panel window and the machine would lock up.

I figured that the current installation was hosed so i reformatted the drive and started over and that's when things got odd.

I installed dos no problem but then i go to install windows and go through disk 1 fine..it asks for disk 2 so i insert it and hit enter and... nothing no response from the computer it seems to be locked up again...urgh so this tells me its most likely hardware related (maybe cpu over heating?)

I take off the cover and notice a small 1/2in fan and heat sink and the CPU i guess under it, well as thought the fan was dead! But being that this CPU is a souped up 386sx apparently it shouldn't get hot enough to overheat would it?

SO my question is what could be wrong with it and is it even worth trying to fix given the low end CPU and hardware in it?

Thanks again

John

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Since you already got through the DOS installation, restart the Win3.11 installation after letting the machine "cool down". If it makes it beyond disk 1, and locks-up again, then I'd say you've got some thermal problem (maybe the fan, maybe the P/S, maybe something else). In that case, no, it'd not be worth the trouble, since those can sometimes be a nightmare to resolve. But should you get no response on disk 2 again, I'd suspect the disks themselves. Even if it installed on another PC, sometimes the heads on the FDD may be slightly out of kilter. Given the 486slc is somewhat of an rarity (like you said, a souped-up 386sx---and yes, even they can overheat), it might be worth having around (especially for older DOS games which still have a few issues in DOSBox)......

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

it could be a memory problem
try resetting or replacong the memory

DOS 6 ( you had an ok install)
but note the disk labell is picky

win 3.x can be installed by copying all the
contents to a directory ( not called windows)
and installing from there.

I think it is smartdrv.exe (dos 6)
the a installs and puts in smartdrv.exe
( in autoexec.bat)

windows has it as smartdrv.sys ( in config.sys)
Boot from a floppy and edit config.sys
so smartdrv.sys is not loaded.

having bot causes a problem
this is the NEXT bump you will encounter

You can use a 98 boot floppy to run scandisk
on the drive
keep the 16 bit fat as win 31 or does needs a partch to run on 32 bit fat.

scandisk c: /autofix /nosave /nosummary /surface

a 486 can use a fan ., but a decent heatsink should be enough

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:24 am

There are a few free memory test utilities out there, but I'm not sure about one for a 386 class machine. Sometimes you get one on a Linux Live CD. (I think Ubuntu includes one or maybe it was Debian.)

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

http://www.roxysoft.com/download/memtest86/

Memtest86 is the only decent memory testing program and I believe it runs on all x86's if the current version doesn't get an old version from the early 90's

I would definately keep it, even stated as being flakey on ebay you should get cash for it in present condition, folks collect those and they still have a fairly strong following regardless of condition. (people also buy them listed as non functional)

The blue lightning was the only AT bus cpu variant that really did get into real 486 computing performance.

Too bad they couldn't sell them as stand alone CPU's easily.

Anyway a fan should be easy to fix, those do get quite hot.

Remember also a video card, a crap HD or controller and of coarse a bad PSU can cause instability, process of elimination should get you to the source of the problem.

Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 3

I also was recently given a 486.

It was a 66mhz with 40 megs of RAM.

I put the HD into another machine and loaded
Damn Small Linux

then put the drive back in the 486 and it worked great.

You may want to give that a try

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

one of the troubles was many or all of the boards had limited memory slots
I don';t know if the chip was ram limited
( the 286 was limited to 16 megs)

but only 2 or 4 ram slots was a joke
yes Ibm was licencened by intel
and could not sell a bare chip
they all were soldered to a motherboard
.

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

Since a 486 SLC is a hopped up 386/SX you are stuck with 16MB max ram, so 4 x 30 pin SIMM sockets or a couple 72 pin ones are all you need.

Joined: 29 Mar 2007 Posts: 14 Location: Clearfield, UT

Hy guys

Firstly i want to thank you all for your replies and well give you a update on things.

Firstly i figured out the problem with windows hangin on shut down...It seems it was the sound blaster card gone screwy, apparently there is a conflict with the low DMA as running SB diagnostic would hang and then complan that it could not find any avalible DMA channles yet my other sound blaster card (both configured the same) ran fine right off the bat) so i assume that the card itself is messed up somehow. Also there is a VLB slot in the board that really shouldnt be there cus it isnt compatible with video cards completly. and lastly i still cant find that 2inx2in fan for it. SO i just took the board out and replaced it with my asus 486 pvi-sp3 with dx4 cpu and called it a day.

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

That board no doubt had a 386 mode VLB slot which does work correctly but only with video cards that are for 386 mode VLB.

Some video cards have a jumper, others are limited to specific resolutions and color depths in 386 mode.

Good Luck