The Mother Board

[dve83]

Hi trying to identify this 486 motherboard.

http://www.trueshift.za.net/Files/HW_MB_Acer486.JPG

any help would be appreciated. Found some Numbers / Tags but none of which seem to bring up results.

The following is prominent:

BIOS: 486 SX/DX BIOS U20 V1.2RI.3 Copyright Acer Inc 1993
Chipsets:
ALI M1429 A1, 9338 TS6, A41408
Cirrus Logic CL-GD5428-80QC-A

Tag: 55.413P1.0113420909C#
_________________
-dve83- Folding for 33258
Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2,AMD Athlon X2 5200+, 6GB DDR2-800, Seagate 250GB 7200 RPM, Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM,
460W Coolermaster PSU, Windows 7

"Perhaps it's not paranoia. Perhaps it's just finesse." - dve83

[dve83]

mmm. AcerMate 450s it seems.
to find some specs..
_________________
-dve83- Folding for 33258
Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2,AMD Athlon X2 5200+, 6GB DDR2-800, Seagate 250GB 7200 RPM, Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM,
460W Coolermaster PSU, Windows 7

"Perhaps it's not paranoia. Perhaps it's just finesse." - dve83

[Karlsweldt]

Did a check on Mobokive, found nothing. Evasive might know of a listing. But this site lists several Acermate 486 models.. and this model looks almost identical to yours.. just 180° reversed.
_________________
F@H.. to solve mankind's maladies.. in our lifetimes!

[dve83]

HI,

thanks for the reply.

not sure if Im just not looking in the right spot, but
http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/m486_t.html
shows an empty page (with header for acer 486).

I look around some more though. Busy building a library of my collection.
_________________
-dve83- Folding for 33258
Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2,AMD Athlon X2 5200+, 6GB DDR2-800, Seagate 250GB 7200 RPM, Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM,
460W Coolermaster PSU, Windows 7

"Perhaps it's not paranoia. Perhaps it's just finesse." - dve83

[evasive]

48.41301.001
reseller with reference
http://bit.ly/cqd6RM

A1 motherboard.
http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/acer/mb/a1.htm

have fun
_________________
We hate rut, but we fear change.



System error, strike any user to continue...

[Karlsweldt]

The first link I noted was the 'home' page for models. The second link was for the representative Acer mobo you may have.. http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/A/ACER-INC-486-ACERMATE-486.html.
The second link noted by evasive has good info and specs about that Acer mobo.

The best you could get for it is a 486 DX2/66. There are other processor types such as the DX4/100 and the "486 Overdrive" type. But they are very scarce and pricey. Anything faster than a DX2/66 requires a 3 volt CPU core supply. The DX2/66 or DX2/50 use a 5 volt core voltage.
_________________
F@H.. to solve mankind's maladies.. in our lifetimes!

[dve83]

hi and thankyou.
taking a look now. seems the stason.org info was at the way at the bottom, didn't notice the scrollbar (idiot me
_________________
-dve83- Folding for 33258
Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2,AMD Athlon X2 5200+, 6GB DDR2-800, Seagate 250GB 7200 RPM, Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM,
460W Coolermaster PSU, Windows 7

"Perhaps it's not paranoia. Perhaps it's just finesse." - dve83

[dve83]

awsome - thx to both
_________________
-dve83- Folding for 33258
Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2,AMD Athlon X2 5200+, 6GB DDR2-800, Seagate 250GB 7200 RPM, Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM,
460W Coolermaster PSU, Windows 7

"Perhaps it's not paranoia. Perhaps it's just finesse." - dve83

[Karlsweldt]

Good luck with it. Those older designs still have uses, such as CNC controllers.. or gaming machines for those older varieties that would work only in command-prompt mode.
But take a look at the memory specs for that board. most boards would take 4x32 type memory, or non-buffered, but it looks like this model needs 4x36 type memory, having the tag bit on the modules.
The memory for video is not great, but was good in its day. If you can find matching chips, bringing it up to 1 MB or 2 MB might give some decent VGA images.
The BIOS listings for a hard drive may be sketchy.. max may be only 200 megs or so.. but you could divide something larger into partitions within those limits. The BIOS types back then were not fully cross-compatible. So set up the hard drive in that machine. Use of a drive set up in another may not work at all. Should be a 'user' category to set odd drive sizes. Note the drive table listings.. if it shows only 17 sectors per track, you are limited. But if it goes out to more than 45 sectors per track, you might be good for something like an 8 GB drive.. partitioned, of course.
You shouldn't have to worry about floppy drive settings, it should be a 'standard' version.. using just the ribbon with a twist for the "A" drive. Many older machines before that period required a jumper setting on the floppy drive to set its ID!
_________________
F@H.. to solve mankind's maladies.. in our lifetimes!

[dve83]

Hi,

guess i was lucky getting the board in the actual Acer 450s AT case. Didn't start up at first (and luckily it seems like the older components didn't have much of todays capacitor problems ). Anyways, opened up, removed all the compartments, removed the board - clean it out. Reseated everything, including the CPU (definitely not a ZIF (Zero insertion force) socket rather and IF (Insertion Force) socket. Those things are tough geez.. Anyways, figured it must have been dust build up / condensation from where it was stored. After reseating, it turned on without a problem. Noticed though, that each time you remove a stick of RAM (change the configuration), the BIOS moans about it. You need to confirm the hardware change before it continues.

Its got 'n broken win95 on. Going to reinstall it. Will post pics / links as I go for those who are interested.
_________________
-dve83- Folding for 33258
Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2,AMD Athlon X2 5200+, 6GB DDR2-800, Seagate 250GB 7200 RPM, Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM,
460W Coolermaster PSU, Windows 7

"Perhaps it's not paranoia. Perhaps it's just finesse." - dve83