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Compaq Deskpro 386s20/n
What can I say? I saved it from an untimely end at a computer recyclers.
It's completely alive but unhappy about the state of its CMOS battery. Specifically, it asks me for a configuration disk. I can "press F1 to continue" and it will boot, but...I'd like to configure it if I could. Amazingly enough, HP/Compaq's web site had not forgotten about the existence of this machine. They have forgotten about all the files for it, though. Drive A is a 5.25" floppy, although that is the least of my problems. I have no problem writing out 5.25" floppies, either HD or 360K. Can anyone help spin the clock back on this one? William |
#2
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Compaq Deskpro 386s20/n
On Feb 21, 8:06 pm, "William R. Walsh"
m wrote: What can I say? I saved it from an untimely end at a computer recyclers. Untimely? It's going on 20 years old. It's completely alive but unhappy about the state of its CMOS battery. No suprise there. Do you want the bad news first? 386 machines often have a Dallas Realtime clock that holds it's own charge for about 10 years. Meaning it's a chip you have to replace, not just a battery. Dallas no longer makes that part, and it's replacement is incompatible with 386s. Last i looked, you could find the part for around $20, from various resellers. If on the other hand, you are lucky enough to have an actual battery, it's not the standard cr2032. It's a more hard do find model. Specifically, it asks me for a configuration disk. I can "press F1 to continue" and it will boot, but...I'd like to configure it if I could. Amazingly enough, HP/Compaq's web site had not forgotten about the existence of this machine. They have forgotten about all the files for it, though. Drive A is a 5.25" floppy, although that is the least of my problems. I have no problem writing out 5.25" floppies, either HD or 360K. Can anyone help spin the clock back on this one? William To be honest, given the vintage of the machine, if all you have to do to make it work is press f1, you're doing pretty good. |
#3
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Compaq Deskpro 386s20/n
If the RTC is a Dallas chip, the model number is most likely DS12887 and it
looks about the size of a black lego. It can be removed carefully by wedging it out with a small flat-bladed screwdriver. I keep a few around, pulled from 486 boards. If that's what is in a 386s20/n, send me a fiver and I'll send out a battery. The battery might instead be one of the older ones that attaches to a motherboard header with two leads and is affixed to the inside of the case with velcro. Sorry, don't have any of these... Ben Myers On 25 Feb 2007 23:16:25 -0800, " wrote: On Feb 21, 8:06 pm, "William R. Walsh" om wrote: What can I say? I saved it from an untimely end at a computer recyclers. Untimely? It's going on 20 years old. It's completely alive but unhappy about the state of its CMOS battery. No suprise there. Do you want the bad news first? 386 machines often have a Dallas Realtime clock that holds it's own charge for about 10 years. Meaning it's a chip you have to replace, not just a battery. Dallas no longer makes that part, and it's replacement is incompatible with 386s. Last i looked, you could find the part for around $20, from various resellers. If on the other hand, you are lucky enough to have an actual battery, it's not the standard cr2032. It's a more hard do find model. Specifically, it asks me for a configuration disk. I can "press F1 to continue" and it will boot, but...I'd like to configure it if I could. Amazingly enough, HP/Compaq's web site had not forgotten about the existence of this machine. They have forgotten about all the files for it, though. Drive A is a 5.25" floppy, although that is the least of my problems. I have no problem writing out 5.25" floppies, either HD or 360K. Can anyone help spin the clock back on this one? William To be honest, given the vintage of the machine, if all you have to do to make it work is press f1, you're doing pretty good. |
#4
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Compaq Deskpro 386s20/n
Hi!
Untimely? It's going on 20 years old. It runs and it works. What more do you want? I can think of useful things to do with it, although I do realize that I'm probably in something of a minority. No suprise there. Actually, there was. :-) Someone had gone to the trouble of replacing it. They cut into the original Compaq wiring and grafted a more standard battery into the system. 386 machines often have a Dallas Realtime clock that holds it's own charge for about 10 years. They really do quite better than that in real life. Ten years is the lifetime of the memory without any external power. I have some of these that are over 10 years old and still keeping excellent time. The same seems to be true of their "bigger brother" the DS1387. The DS12887 and DS12887+ (ROHS compliant) are still available and work fine in every machine I ever had to put one in. I'm not sure where you got the idea that these "don't work" in a 386. I've put new parts in 286, 386SX and 386 systems and never had a problem. Quite a few pin compatible replacements exist from other makers. In any event, this Compaq uses a large 4.5 or 3V (haven't checked yet) battery pack, not a Dallas module. To be honest, given the vintage of the machine, if all you have to do to make it work is press f1, you're doing pretty good. Which is fine, apart from the fact that it was stuck in January 1st, 1980 and the normal DOS TIME/DATE commands couldn't fix this so it would survive rebooting. I did manage to ask around and get ahold of a suitable configuration disk. This let me set the time and date without incident (and the battery now seems to be holding) but I've lost the hard disk. The program is new enough to properly configure the system, but it tells me the hard disk is not supported. I know nobody's replaced it, since it has Compaq stickers and part numbers on it. I need to figure out what the exact operating parameters of the disk are and see if I can manually pick one from the listing that will work. It's a 120MB Conner Peripherals drive. William |
#5
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Compaq Deskpro 386s20/n
Hi!
The battery might instead be one of the older ones that attaches to a motherboard header with two leads and is affixed to the inside of the case with velcro. Sorry, don't have any of these... Ben Myers It's definitely more like this type of battery and I do have a source who can get them brand new for a pretty good price. For now I've put the system aside (see my earlier post) and have been working on reviving a Compaq 386DX/33 EISA box. I plan to run FreeDOS with this system. (I always wanted to work with a 386DX/33...imagine what a nice system that would have been back when it was new. Fortunately, its battery is up (the system appears to charge it when running) and the configuration partition was easily restored from disk images on the HP/Compaq site. Now just to try and wait patiently for my EISA adapters to come in from eBay...) William |
#6
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Compaq Deskpro 386s20/n
On Mar 4, 1:16 pm, "William R. Walsh"
m wrote: Hi! Untimely? It's going on 20 years old. It runs and it works. What more do you want? Web surfing? I can think of useful things to do with it, although I do realize that I'm probably in something of a minority. I don't have a problem with using ancient beasts. It's just spending money on fixing them. If you're just having fun, go ahead, nothing wrong with that. But you can get a working pentuim 3 for under $50. No suprise there. Actually, there was. :-) Someone had gone to the trouble of replacing it. They cut into the original Compaq wiring and grafted a more standard battery into the system. 386 machines often have a Dallas Realtime clock that holds it's own charge for about 10 years. They really do quite better than that in real life. Ten years is the lifetime of the memory without any external power. I have some of these that are over 10 years old and still keeping excellent time. The same seems to be true of their "bigger brother" the DS1387. The DS12887 and DS12887+ (ROHS compliant) are still available and work fine in every machine I ever had to put one in. I'm not sure where you got the idea that these "don't work" in a 386. I've put new parts in 286, 386SX and 386 systems and never had a problem. Quite a few pin compatible replacements exist from other makers. Last time i looked, which was last year, Dallas said they stopped making the 12887 but was offering a 128887, which they said, right on the spec sheet, more or less 'this wont work in your 386.' In any event, this Compaq uses a large 4.5 or 3V (haven't checked yet) battery pack, not a Dallas module. To be honest, given the vintage of the machine, if all you have to do to make it work is press f1, you're doing pretty good. Which is fine, apart from the fact that it was stuck in January 1st, 1980 and the normal DOS TIME/DATE commands couldn't fix this so it would survive rebooting. I did manage to ask around and get ahold of a suitable configuration disk. This let me set the time and date without incident (and the battery now seems to be holding) but I've lost the hard disk. The program is new enough to properly configure the system, but it tells me the hard disk is not supported. I know nobody's replaced it, since it has Compaq stickers and part numbers on it. I need to figure out what the exact operating parameters of the disk are and see if I can manually pick one from the listing that will work. It's a 120MB Conner Peripherals drive. William |
#7
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Compaq Deskpro 386s20/n
Hi!
Web surfing? It can be done. :-) (You knew I'd say it!) http://greyghost.dyndns.org/8507/part2/DSC03100.JPG (1216x912, 70KB, from a PS/2 Model 80 and an 8507 monochrome display...) I generally agree with what you say about a Pentium III, although they don't seem that cheap around here quite yet. I just find the old computers more interesting than just about any PIII box you could find: http://greyghost.dyndns.org/mcastuff/ http://www.walshcomptech.com/comp_coll.htm Last time i looked, which was last year, Dallas said they stopped making the 12887 but was offering a 128887, which they said, right on the spec sheet, more or less 'this wont work in your 386.' I think you mean the 12C887, which doesn't work since it handles the century byte differently. By the way, I was surprised upon returning to this group for the first time in a while...it's evidently nowhere near as alive as it used to be. :-( William |
#8
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Compaq Deskpro 386s20/n
EISA adapters for what? EISA graphics cards were not even close to being what
they were cracked up to be. EISA SCSI adapters were pretty respectable. EISA network cards offered no advantage over ISA ones. I do not think that there ever was an EISA 10/100 card, but 3COM produced its 3C515 10/100 ISA NIC. You also need an EISA configuration utility program with configuration files for the motherboard and all EISA add-in cards. Wow, this takes me way back to the EISA versus MicroChannel article I worked on for PC Magazine. The 386/33 was a much nicer box in its time than IBM's ridiculously proprietary MicroChannel machines... Ben Myers On Sun, 04 Mar 2007 21:21:11 GMT, "William R. Walsh" m wrote: Hi! The battery might instead be one of the older ones that attaches to a motherboard header with two leads and is affixed to the inside of the case with velcro. Sorry, don't have any of these... Ben Myers It's definitely more like this type of battery and I do have a source who can get them brand new for a pretty good price. For now I've put the system aside (see my earlier post) and have been working on reviving a Compaq 386DX/33 EISA box. I plan to run FreeDOS with this system. (I always wanted to work with a 386DX/33...imagine what a nice system that would have been back when it was new. Fortunately, its battery is up (the system appears to charge it when running) and the configuration partition was easily restored from disk images on the HP/Compaq site. Now just to try and wait patiently for my EISA adapters to come in from eBay...) William |
#9
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Compaq Deskpro 386s20/n
Hi!
EISA adapters for what? EISA graphics cards were not even close to being what they were cracked up to be. Compaq's QVision seems to be pretty darn respectable. I've run one of these in a 486DX2/66 EISA box and it was more than fast enough at the time. It also had a VRAM upgrade fitted, so it could manage high color at up to 1024x768 resolution. This 386DX/33 box has the same adapter, and the VRAM upgrade is present on it as well. EISA SCSI adapters were pretty respectable. I found a seemingly new in box Adaptec AHA-1740 adapter with all the docs and diskettes. Another preservation effort...image the disks and scan the docs... EISA network cards offered no advantage over ISA ones. Really? Oh well, the price was right right for the three 3C579-TPs I got ahold of. I do not think that there ever was an EISA 10/100 card, but 3COM produced its 3C515 10/100 ISA NIC. Hmmm...I don't know. Guess I'd be surprised if there wasn't, as EISA did hold on for a lot longer in the x86 world than MCA. I've heard of Pentium II machines that had EISA slots. I'd really like to find a real EISA Token Ring card. Wow, this takes me way back to the EISA versus MicroChannel article I worked on for PC Magazine. The 386/33 was a much nicer box in its time than IBM's ridiculously proprietary MicroChannel machines... Funny you'd mention that (got a copy of the article? I'd love to read it...wctatsignwalshcomptechdotcom) as I have quite the Microchannel collection: http://greyghost.dyndns.org/mcastuff/ http://www.walshcomptech.com/comp_coll.htm I guess you could say that I think microchannel was "insufficiently appreciated" in its day, although I can very easily see why that was. But they are rock solid reliable boxen... Oh, by the way, there does exist a 100Mbit Ethernet card for MCA-bus systems. Too bad it's a loosely converted ISA design and a joke from a reliability perspective... William |
#10
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Compaq Deskpro 386s20/n
On Mar 4, 7:28 pm, Ben Myers
wrote: EISA adapters for what? EISA graphics cards were not even close to being what they were cracked up to be. EISA SCSI adapters were pretty respectable. EISA network cards offered no advantage over ISA ones. I do not think that there ever was an EISA 10/100 card, but 3COM produced its 3C515 10/100 ISA NIC. I've seen a few by 3com, they were in my hands just long enough for me to break off the gold leads, and put the rest in the High Grade Circuit board bin. Our linux guy tried to get one working an an SGI machine, running Gentoo linux, couldn't find drivers except 'experimental' ones. And then cursed when he remembered he could put an isa card in the eisa slot. You also need an EISA configuration utility program with configuration files for the motherboard and all EISA add-in cards. Wow, this takes me way back to the EISA versus MicroChannel article I worked on for PC Magazine. The 386/33 was a much nicer box in its time than IBM's ridiculously proprietary MicroChannel machines... Ben Myers On Sun, 04 Mar 2007 21:21:11 GMT, "William R. Walsh" m wrote: Hi! The battery might instead be one of the older ones that attaches to a motherboard header with two leads and is affixed to the inside of the case with velcro. Sorry, don't have any of these... Ben Myers It's definitely more like this type of battery and I do have a source who can get them brand new for a pretty good price. For now I've put the system aside (see my earlier post) and have been working on reviving a Compaq 386DX/33 EISA box. I plan to run FreeDOS with this system. (I always wanted to work with a 386DX/33...imagine what a nice system that would have been back when it was new. Fortunately, its battery is up (the system appears to charge it when running) and the configuration partition was easily restored from disk images on the HP/Compaq site. Now just to try and wait patiently for my EISA adapters to come in from eBay...) William |
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