Restoring EMM386 on a 386XT

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Originally Posted by Platypus

First suggestion I'd make is confirm all the card connections inside the case are correct, something may have been dislodged or not refitted fully after checking earlier. The BIOS setting for the LPT1 address will need to be recovered before the printer port will work.

MODE saying "no rerouting" is normal if redirection isn't being used - for example LPT1 could be redirected to COM2 in order to use a serial printer. If this had been done, MODE would tell you LPT1 was being rerouted to COM2.

Since it appears the sequence with the INS key is that BIOS' instruction to update its hardware configuration, if you find something like a card not fully seated, you may need to do the INS key thing again for it to pick up the LPT1 port.

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You've done your homework, all right! ;)

The printer's expansion card was indeed loose! It must have happened after I first bolted everything back again and connected the printer's cable plug from outside, probably pushing it in a little too hard.

Actually, there is a flaw in the way that board doesn't seat itself evenly along its entire length. The side furthest from the printer socket can be pushed down tightly okay, but the printer socket side won't slide as deeply because the metal bracket that bolts to the chassis doesn't give it enough leeway. I would have to bend that bracket away enough to push the entire board in evenly, but then of course the board would only be resting in its socket and not be firmly attached to the chassis. It could work its way loose over time.

Anyway, it should hold for now. If it comes loose again, I'll figure out how to adjust that bracket in some way. No big deal.

Well, now that I'm back in business--thanks to you--here's some information to ponder:

Typing a "DIR > PRN" or "DIR > LPT1" gets a printout allright. At least now I know for a fact that "LPT1" is the correct mode--probably the default setting.
Even the BIOS shows the parallel port as "278": it's original setting.

Typing "MODE" generates the following screen display:

Status for device LPT1:

LPT1: not rerouted
Retry=NONE

Code page operation not supported on this device

The same goes for LPT2 and LPT3. Then it says:

Status for device CON:

Code page operation not supported on this device

Status for device COM1:
Retry=NONE

Then if I type in "MODE COM2", I get:

Illegal device name - COM2

Meaning the serial ports are either non-existent or not assigned. No matter.
I doubt I'll ever need them--at least for the printer.

Now that I've opened and re-opened this relic for the umpteenth time, I'm wondering again if it's worth investigating how I could make it realize it's "full potential", so to speak. There's so much room inside for 5 additional boards, not to mention some gray-coloured belts with black, ten-pin female sockets on them.

Outside there are both male and female A/C power sockets; two additional 25-pin sockets (both male); a couple of weird-looking open holes to the right of those; a hole with a 5-pin circular plug visible consisting of wires coloured black, brown, red, orange, and yellow; a microphone socket; speaker socket; RJ-11 female line socket; RJ-11 female phone socket; a 5-setting DIP switch (ON OFF OFF OFF ON); the 15-pin female CRT socket (which I'm using, of course); and an unidentified 9-pin female socket, which is similar in size to the CRT one.

One of you asked me what "brand" this device is. All I see is "Made in Taiwan" engraved on the chassis, and a sticker: "Inter Globe 1167 Apr. 24, '90".

May I presume I could somehow connect my DSL modem to this PC now that I have 4096 KB memory, even though my provider's modem has the ethernet plug which is wider than the standard RJ-11? Can I even connect my laptop's laser mouse to it? I've never even used a mouse on the 386XT before!

Most importantly of all, how much more memory can I possibly add? Is it worth the trouble? Maybe the appropriate boards no longer exist except from obscure online stores at outrageous prices?

Or should I go looking for a computer museum to which I could make a generous contribution? :p Take it up to the roof at 3:00 a.m. and let it hit the pavement? :eek: :D

Whaddayathink, gents? Does this "boat-anchor" have a future? I'll run it until it dies, of course, but why not give it some glory before it packs it in? The CMOS screen shows an end date (?) of the year 2089! Perhaps I should bury it in a time capsule somewhere so that some one will have a good laugh when they open it!

I'm sure some of you have 386s that are maxed out with all the bells and whistles. What can they do besides--as in my case--serve as "filing cabinets" and "typewriters"?

I don't care for video games, so I can forget that as an expansion possibility.

Any ideas?

Thanks for all your help! ;)

Post some pics perhaps some members can help identify a few of the unworking pieces :D

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Outside there are both male and female A/C power sockets

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Isnt this the monitor power pass through as you would see in older AT power supplies?

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Originally Posted by 104456

Post some pics perhaps some members can help identify a few of the unworking pieces :D



Isnt this the monitor power pass through as you would see in older AT power supplies?

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Don't know. That's the drawback with buying used equipment where usually no user-guide is included.

Unfortunately, I have no suitable camera to photograph the PC.

Heh, I can remember hearing a discussion in a store about how radical it was at the time that gamers were buying 386es with 8M of RAM just to play games. (At the time a 1M stick of Fast Page RAM was about AUD100)

If the system has a 386SX processor, it can theoretically utilise 16M of memory. It seems like it might use proprietary boards to carry the RAM, so chances of finding any are probably slim.

Considering I'm weighing up whether to throw out an MMX200 Pentium with 64M of RAM because no-one has any use for it, maybe a quiet life running DOS & word processing is realistic for a 386...

No real prospect of using your DSL with it, but a serial mouse should operate on COM1 (with a driver, and an adaptor if the COM port is 25-pin).

Agree with 104456 about the mains connector, and if the 9-pin socket is adjacent to the VGA socket, it may simply be an alternative VGA socket to accommodate older monitors, or some VGA cards also carried a chip providing an older video standard like MDA, Hercules or EGA to utilise even older monitors.

Incidentally, if you want to try to identify your board from a huge collection of outline drawings, try:

http://www.thegreenhouse.us/th99/m/m386_i.htm

Have a look at the pin-outs section at the link I provided earlier here it may help identify some components for you.

BTW if the system is that old it might also use a bus mouse.

This may be a silly and out of place question/comment...
Why not buy a cheap barebone system and run a free OS instead of DOS? Computers (and printers) are dirt cheap nowadays. You can get free software for all your needs, OS, office etc.
Using DOS is like going to work everyday in car that you have to wind up before starting it.

Those are fascinating websites! It seems there is still a generation of PC die-hards out there!

When you consider of all those thick PC hardware and software user-guides for "dummies" that were so necessary to own in the late 80's and early 90's, and the time one needed to plow through all of that stuff, I suppose it's no wonder there are some of us who don't want to feel we wasted all of our precious time and money learning how to efficiently use our earlier computers
--but never quite reaching that goal because of the "next best thing" on the market six months later. :(

Nothing seems so forlorn as that old PC or monitor sitting in a garbage heap and never before has "planned obsolescense" been so blatant and unavoidable! But...I digress.

I salute the well-schooled tinkerer with a room full of spare parts who is capable of cobbling together a perfectly good home-made computer rather than tossing out what most of us have been brainwashed into believing is "worthless junk".

Who said "one man's trash is another man's treasure"? ;)

Talking of well used components the EEC have a new law coming into force next summer which makes it illegal to dump old PCs,monitors and the like at the local land fill they have to be recycled in some form or other.

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Originally Posted by 104456

Talking of well used components the EEC have a new law coming into force next summer which makes it illegal to dump old PCs,monitors and the like at the local land fill they have to be recycled in some form or other.

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Yes, I've heard about that law. Trouble is, not every country has it and how do you enforce it where it does exist? That's like telling people not to throw away their old tires anywhere they like. Or soft drink and beer bottles and cans.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of hypocrisy and half-measures in the recycling industry where some states accept returned aluminum cans, for example, and others do not--depending on where they are purchased, etc., etc.

If recycling centres will pay you to bring computer junk to them, it might work.

Think of all the perfectly good fans inside PCs that can be re-used! In fact, I removed the fan from my old discarded IBM PC 256 K clone and use it now as a spare to cool one of my ham radios. The same fan would cost upwards of $20 in an electronic store! So, if you ever see an old junk PC lying around, remove the fan along with its wiring, add a switch and you're all set.

But, like I said, only someone whose hobby it is to build stuff from scratch is going to go to all the trouble to recycle old boards, diodes, and the like--particularly when some of those components become impossible to find later on.

I have a 1982 vintage VCR that needs one single IC board that I've yet to find anywhere! :mad: I hesitate throwing it out because it is far and away of superior construction and ruggedness than the absolute crap modern VCRs are made out of today! But then, a lot of stuff we buy nowadays is flimsy compared to not so long ago.

But, back on topic: computer CRT screens, on the other hand, are obviously worthless when they're dead and ought to be disposed of properly.

How cool it would be to see a custom-made computer with all the pre-existing peripherals: 5 1/4" drive, 3 1/2", CD, DVD, MP3, etc., all the old and new plugs and sockets and with total multimode capability. None of the stupid..."oops, but it won't play VCDs...sorry!" Yeah, thanks!

But only a dedicated hobbyist would build something comprehensive like that.

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Originally Posted by Northface22

I have a 1982 vintage VCR that needs one single IC board that I've yet to find anywhere! :mad: I hesitate throwing it out because it is far and away of superior construction and ruggedness than the absolute crap modern VCRs are made out of today! But then, a lot of stuff we buy nowadays is flimsy compared to not so long ago.

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Whats a VCR? ;) :p

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Originally Posted by usil

Whats a VCR? ;) :p

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Huh? VCR: Video Cassette Recorder

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/vcr.htm

What do you call them in Israel?

We call them DVD players :D

Dont listen to Usil hes still got a 78rpm record player :rolleyes: :D :D

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Originally Posted by 104456

Dont listen to Usil hes still got a 78rpm record player :rolleyes: :D :D

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LOL

You know thats true, 10! :D

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Originally Posted by usil

We call them DVD players :D

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Videocassettes are not DVDs. And anyway, I'm willing to bet that the new DVD player/recorders are cheaply built as compared with VCRs constructed up until about 1990 when the quality went down the drain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS

(Can't believe I'm actually explaining this. :rolleyes:

Don't tell me VCRs and VHS tapes are already obsolete in Israel?

Or maybe you don't have electricity in your kibbutz? :eek: :D

Don't laugh about 78 rpm: old jazz collectors need turntables with 78 rpm to play their music--at least those who haven't wisely transferred their collections to another mode.

Seriously, I was just pulling your chain :D

I just thought it was funny that you are stuck in the 80's technology... Dos, VCRs :eek:

I still have a VCR at home, but haven't used it in years. I guess that because my kibbutz doesn't have electricity since the mule got sick and can't pull the mill anymore :D

Israel is actually very technologically developed. We boast one of the highest percentage of broadband users of any country. I guess its been a while since you last been on a Kibbutz :)

Hope you didn't take offense. Was just trying to have a laugh. :p

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Originally Posted by usil

Seriously, I was just pulling your chain :D

I just thought it was funny that you are stuck in the 80's technology... Dos, VCRs :eek:

I still have a VCR at home, but haven't used it in years. I guess that because my kibbutz doesn't have electricity since the mule got sick and can't pull the mill anymore :D

Israel is actually very technologically developed. We boast one of the highest percentage of broadband users of any country. I guess its been a while since you last been on a Kibbutz :)

Hope you didn't take offense. Was just trying to have a laugh. :p

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Not in the least.

I am, however, appalled at how quickly we discard "old technology" without complaint.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it", seems to have been forgotten with respect to recording methods, not to mention too many competing "standards" and early, false starts such as DAT (digital audio tape)--remember that?

And how many of your friends are willing to transfer their videotape collections onto DVD? Since over 20 years now, average consumers have purchased and recorded hundreds if not thousands of VHS tapes! Are we all to throw our VCRs in the trash heap just because some greedy conglomerate has developed a new media? I don't think so.

Vinyl records are also sorely missed by many. Though not completely gone from the scene by any means, I prefer them over these crappy plastic CD boxes and the tiny booklets inside--all sold at outrageous prices, of course!

It's no wonder KaZaa and other peer-to-peer downloaders are so popular.

My rant for today.

Your turn...anyone?

Hello! It's been a while!

I wonder if it is possible to use old PC's such as the 386-XT as input devices for more recent computers?

It would be cool if I could hook up my still-funtioning XT directly into my HP laptops via the latters' USB ports or wherever. That way, I could recover old file data written on the PC's 640 KB hard drive, as well as from its 5.25 inch and 3.5 inch floppies. Yes, I am aware that software exists which would accomplish the same end by making the data on the old floppies readable.

A Google search has produced nothing relevant to this, nor can I find an XT manual or even a rear-panel diagram!

Here is what I see on the back and inside of my XT. Surely one or more of the first 6 can be used to accomplish my goal?


1) One circular 5-pin socket with black, brown, red, orange, and yellow wires

2) Two 25-pin male sockets (printer type)

3) One RJ-11 female line socket

4) One RJ-11 female phone socket

5) One 9-pin female socket (similar to the printer type)

6) Five unused expansion slots (internal)

7) DIP switch (five positions)

8) One 15-pin female CRT socket

9) One 25-pin female printer socket

Now I suppose someone is going to tell me that there's some sort of compatibility issue involved with this, but then perhaps a savvy technician could work around it?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Lap link with the parallel cable is what I used. I was transfering from Fat32 to fat 32, so that needs to be checked out.
http://www.laplink.com/

Or use a isa nic in the old 386 and use tcp/ip to transfer the files through your lan. The route I would use now.

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Originally Posted by Train

Lap link with the parallel cable is what I used. I was transfering from Fat32 to fat 32, so that needs to be checked out.
http://www.laplink.com/

Or use a isa nic in the old 386 and use tcp/ip to transfer the files through your lan. The route I would use now.

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Thank you, kind sir!

I will certainly look into your suggestion and let you know what the results are as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, on my new laptop, I am currently wading with apprehension into the well-publicized, murky waters of Windows Vista. Fortunately, I haven't drowned--as yet.

The reason I brought up using TCP/IP is it does not care if the files are NTFS for Fat and will change them for you.