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Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
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Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
Don't buy those $10 PSU "specials". They fail, and they have taken whole computers with them.
My computer doubles as a space heater.
Permanently Retired Systems:
RIP Advantech UNO-3072LA (2008-2021) - Decommissioned and taken out of service permanently due to lack of software support for it. Not very likely to ever be recommissioned again.
Asus Q550LF (Old main laptop, 2014-2022) - Decommissioned and stripped due to a myriad of problems, the main battery bloating being the final nail in the coffin.
Kooky and Kool Systems
- 1996 Power Macintosh 7200/120 + PC Compatibility Card - Under Restoration
- 1993 Gateway 2000 80486DX/50 - Fully Operational/WIP
- 2004 Athlon 64 Retro Gaming System - Indefinitely Parked
- Main Workstation - Fully operational!
sigpicTags: None
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
So here's the background on this system:
It was built on June 13, 1993 and likely delivered to its owner sometime in the not-too-distant future. The original owner said that he used it for his business and that it ran either Windows for Workgroups 3.11 or Windows NT 3.1 until he retired it in late-1999 or early-2000. It has 8MB of RAM, an ATi video card (unknown amount of VRAM), and a Sound Blaster Vibra/16 card. It had a network card installed in it, but it wasn't playing nice with DOS and the drivers for it are long-gone (it's a clone of a clone card), so I pulled it. It also had a 120MB IDE hard disk that was pulled and dismantled after the system was retired. It also has a CD-ROM drive. It may have had a 5.25" floppy drive. If it did, it was removed a long time ago and I haven't been able to find it.
Up until early this month, the system had sat dormant and had not seen power for at least 22 years. I pulled it out of storage, disconnected the power supply from everything, and dry-fired it with good results.
I then reconnected the power supply and fired the system up for the first time in more than 2 decades.
First sign of life!
Unfortunately, it also had one of those Varta 3.6V poison pills of doom that had died decades ago (the system had an old Energizer external battery pack installed that had also died long ago) and it had begun to leak. Thankfully, the damage was not fatal to the motherboard, and the Energizer pack had remained fully intact. And yes, I have long since removed both batteries from the system.
A quick butt shot. All of the expansion cards got shifted down by one because the topmost ISA slot is damaged. The Sound Blaster and network card aren't installed as I just needed the bare minimum to get it to pass POST. Multi-I/O card on top, video card on bottom.
Because the original multi-I/O card was dead (battery damage), I pulled one from another system (a cheap-and-nasty 286 clone from circa-1990), as well as a floppy drive that worked for a bit and then stopped reading diskettes. Here's a front shot with the second floppy drive installed at the top.
Now for some open case shots.
System serial number.
And now for a motherboard shot.
More to come later!Don't buy those $10 PSU "specials". They fail, and they have taken whole computers with them.
My computer doubles as a space heater.
Permanently Retired Systems:
RIP Advantech UNO-3072LA (2008-2021) - Decommissioned and taken out of service permanently due to lack of software support for it. Not very likely to ever be recommissioned again.
Asus Q550LF (Old main laptop, 2014-2022) - Decommissioned and stripped due to a myriad of problems, the main battery bloating being the final nail in the coffin.
Kooky and Kool Systems
- 1996 Power Macintosh 7200/120 + PC Compatibility Card - Under Restoration
- 1993 Gateway 2000 80486DX/50 - Fully Operational/WIP
- 2004 Athlon 64 Retro Gaming System - Indefinitely Parked
- Main Workstation - Fully operational!
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
Yes but can it play crysisCap Datasheet Depot: http://www.paullinebarger.net/DS/
^If you have datasheets not listed PM me
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
Originally posted by stj View Postit should play Quake - what more do you need!
If this turns into a failure, I have dibs on the case!! I've got a dual Pentium classic that would fit gloriously in that!<--- Badcaps.net Founder
Badcaps.net Services:
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http://folding.stanford.edu/
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
Those old Gateways... it probably weighs 90 pounds!
Now an easy way to remember that two-plug power connector:
Black to black, you're OK, Jack...
Red to white, what a fright!
Originally posted by Topcat View PostIndeed.... Choppy in 320x200 without acceleration. This board looks to have no PCI slots, so no means to add even a voodoo1 card to speed things up a little.... This one would likely be more of a Doom machine....
VLB would be it, though DX2s always ran the busses at half the internal clock; a straight DX50 would be 50 internal and external.
And off the subject- Duke3d over quake any day.
The former has aged like fine wine, esp with the mods & "HRP" stuff, while the latter has aged like milk...
DN still has staying power, not so much because of the "mutants," but its take on "futuristic dystopias," explored more in DNMP.
The "gearbox" disaster of ~10 years ago doesn't exist to us nukem2/duke3d/DNMP diehards...
Beware of those orange/yellow "balloon" tantalums. I've had them short on old boards that were "dormant" for a number of years.
Just replace with modern low-esr electros, like Pana FM or FR or Nichicon HD (or similar)."pokemon go... to hell!"
EOL it...
Originally posted by shango066All style and no substance.Originally posted by smashstuff30guilty,guilty,guilty,guilty!
guilty of being cheap-made!
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
Originally posted by Topcat View PostIndeed.... Choppy in 320x200 without acceleration. This board looks to have no PCI slots, so no means to add even a voodoo1 card to speed things up a little.... This one would likely be more of a Doom machine....
If this turns into a failure, I have dibs on the case!! I've got a dual Pentium classic that would fit gloriously in that!
Originally posted by kaboom View PostThose old Gateways... it probably weighs 90 pounds!
Originally posted by kaboom View PostNow an easy way to remember that two-plug power connector:
Black to black, you're OK, Jack...
Red to white, what a fright!
Originally posted by kaboom View PostThe implementation for PCI on 486 was always a backwards cluster- literally trying to backport () something from early pentium stuff.
VLB would be it, though DX2s always ran the busses at half the internal clock; a straight DX50 would be 50 internal and external.
Originally posted by kaboom View PostAnd off the subject- Duke3d over quake any day.
The former has aged like fine wine, esp with the mods & "HRP" stuff, while the latter has aged like milk...
DN still has staying power, not so much because of the "mutants," but its take on "futuristic dystopias," explored more in DNMP.
The "gearbox" disaster of ~10 years ago doesn't exist to us nukem2/duke3d/DNMP diehards...
Originally posted by kaboom View PostBeware of those orange/yellow "balloon" tantalums. I've had them short on old boards that were "dormant" for a number of years.
Just replace with modern low-esr electros, like Pana FM or FR or Nichicon HD (or similar).Don't buy those $10 PSU "specials". They fail, and they have taken whole computers with them.
My computer doubles as a space heater.
Permanently Retired Systems:
RIP Advantech UNO-3072LA (2008-2021) - Decommissioned and taken out of service permanently due to lack of software support for it. Not very likely to ever be recommissioned again.
Asus Q550LF (Old main laptop, 2014-2022) - Decommissioned and stripped due to a myriad of problems, the main battery bloating being the final nail in the coffin.
Kooky and Kool Systems
- 1996 Power Macintosh 7200/120 + PC Compatibility Card - Under Restoration
- 1993 Gateway 2000 80486DX/50 - Fully Operational/WIP
- 2004 Athlon 64 Retro Gaming System - Indefinitely Parked
- Main Workstation - Fully operational!
sigpic
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
I have an old gateway p5/90 case that looks very similar to this 486dx2-50...full size AT case, board is long gone. It has a K6-233 (with 256MB SDRAM on a 430TX...) board in it now.
Alas no nostalgic value to me, it's still a bit too fast to run my old EPROM burner software...
"Black to black, back to back" ... if they didn't cut out the right keys on the board and plugs.
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
Originally posted by TechGeek View PostRight now, the system is gonna sit dormant for at least a couple of weeks while I grab a sub-528MB hard disk for it from an eBay auction. (Gotta wait on the auction to end and then for shipping.)
re: power plugs. If the reds were together, +5 was grounded via the chassis, if metallic motherboard mounting was intact. Some of those old ones used nylon standoffs & fiber washers, so it wouldn't always trip the power supply- in which case "motherboard dead." And even if the short on +5 shunted that rail, the other voltages could still damage stuff during the brief period they "twitch."
re: HDDs- Maxtor 7xxxAT series were OK, and period correct.
My first real PC had a 7245AT- came to 230ish MB after formatting.
Great spinup sound, too!
The sound that meant "we're firing up the PC & doing serious work."
And they had "artwork" on the PCB; each capacity had its own "feature," IIRC.
ST3660A was OK too, had one of those alongside the Maxtor.
Was interesting setting the jumpers- these weren't simply "master-slave," etc.
You should be able to find charts to jumper them for operation on the same cable."pokemon go... to hell!"
EOL it...
Originally posted by shango066All style and no substance.Originally posted by smashstuff30guilty,guilty,guilty,guilty!
guilty of being cheap-made!
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
That socket next to the CPU might be for a Weitek FPU. I don't know the best place to find information about these old motherboards.
It seems weird that the I/O card would have its own battery, but I would guess that it was replaced at some point with whatever was available.
If you get around to cleaning the corrosion off that motherboard and removing the model rocket igniters, you can still buy new ISA slots. I don't think it will last too long with that kind of corrosion, but at least it works for now. That's an improvement over some of the leaking battery repairs I've seen.
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/...WN-S420/927281Last edited by lti; 09-27-2022, 09:14 PM.
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
Originally posted by TechGeek View PostI'll have to see about that, but if it doesn't work out, it's likely to go to a museum, as it's in otherwise nearly immaculate condition.
A gateway I was given a few years ago; complete enough to keep around:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...postcount=5102
I've got a DX4 system I need to get back to one of these days.<--- Badcaps.net Founder
Badcaps.net Services:
Motherboard Repair Services
----------------------------------------------
Badcaps.net Forum Members Folding Team
http://folding.stanford.edu/
Team : 49813
Join in!!
Team Stats
Comment
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
Originally posted by eccerr0r View PostI have an old gateway p5/90 case that looks very similar to this 486dx2-50...full size AT case, board is long gone. It has a K6-233 (with 256MB SDRAM on a 430TX...) board in it now.
Alas no nostalgic value to me, it's still a bit too fast to run my old EPROM burner software...
"Black to black, back to back" ... if they didn't cut out the right keys on the board and plugs.
I didn't even know that some boards had keying, not that I'd trust it anyways. Black to black and you'll be back! Red to red, motherboard dead!
Originally posted by kaboom View PostI read your reply, but ATM, just have time for a quick reply...
re: power plugs. If the reds were together, +5 was grounded via the chassis, if metallic motherboard mounting was intact. Some of those old ones used nylon standoffs & fiber washers, so it wouldn't always trip the power supply- in which case "motherboard dead." And even if the short on +5 shunted that rail, the other voltages could still damage stuff during the brief period they "twitch."
re: HDDs- Maxtor 7xxxAT series were OK, and period correct.
My first real PC had a 7245AT- came to 230ish MB after formatting.
Great spinup sound, too!
The sound that meant "we're firing up the PC & doing serious work."
And they had "artwork" on the PCB; each capacity had its own "feature," IIRC.
ST3660A was OK too, had one of those alongside the Maxtor.
Was interesting setting the jumpers- these weren't simply "master-slave," etc.
You should be able to find charts to jumper them for operation on the same cable.
Originally posted by lti View PostThat socket next to the CPU might be for a Weitek FPU. I don't know the best place to find information about these old motherboards.
Originally posted by lti View PostIt seems weird that the I/O card would have its own battery, but I would guess that it was replaced at some point with whatever was available.
Originally posted by lti View PostIf you get around to cleaning the corrosion off that motherboard and removing the model rocket igniters, you can still buy new ISA slots. I don't think it will last too long with that kind of corrosion, but at least it works for now. That's an improvement over some of the leaking battery repairs I've seen.
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/...WN-S420/927281
P.S.: Eaten trace is what seems to have killed the I/O card. It and the ISA slot took the brunt of the damage, as the system was stored upright for all of its life. I don't think that I'm going to risk pulling the 8042 keyboard controller, unless it's an EPROM (the UV-windowed things). I've powered the external battery connector off of an external supply and it holds time and settings fine, which is a good sign. I'll lug the beast home this weekend and clean the motherboard up and put an end to the corrosion.Don't buy those $10 PSU "specials". They fail, and they have taken whole computers with them.
My computer doubles as a space heater.
Permanently Retired Systems:
RIP Advantech UNO-3072LA (2008-2021) - Decommissioned and taken out of service permanently due to lack of software support for it. Not very likely to ever be recommissioned again.
Asus Q550LF (Old main laptop, 2014-2022) - Decommissioned and stripped due to a myriad of problems, the main battery bloating being the final nail in the coffin.
Kooky and Kool Systems
- 1996 Power Macintosh 7200/120 + PC Compatibility Card - Under Restoration
- 1993 Gateway 2000 80486DX/50 - Fully Operational/WIP
- 2004 Athlon 64 Retro Gaming System - Indefinitely Parked
- Main Workstation - Fully operational!
sigpic
Comment
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
Windows? What's Windows?
The K6-233 is running Linux (and DOS...)
BTW seems a lot of older 486 boards have a coprocessor socket for 487's... which only makes sense if the main processor socket had a 486SX in it. Of course the 487 was an entire 486DX and simply disables the 486SX.
What would have been fun is that the board was SMP capable and ran two 486 integer cores and the FPU of the second CPU...alas, nope.
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
Just photos with this post.
Starting off with a shot at the upper half of the case.
Temporary hard disk. Due to BIOS bugs, it doesn't work properly in this system. In fact, no hard disk above 528MB will work with this system.
Working I/O card pulled from the cheap-and-nasty 286 clone system.
A better view of the extent of the corrosion. Battery long gone by this point.
Damaged I/O card, not cleaned up.
Here's the cheap "NE2000-compatible" clone-of-a-clone network card that doesn't work with hardly anything I can throw at it.
Sound Blaster Vibra/16 card.
Lugged it home last weekend. Here's it all set up, running SpinRite 6.0 because I suspected hard disk problems.
As I said, this large of a drive just doesn't work on this system. This was the end result after trying to install MS-DOS 6.22.
And this is the end-result of trying to run Windows 98 setup because why not.
That's all I've got for now. More to come later.Don't buy those $10 PSU "specials". They fail, and they have taken whole computers with them.
My computer doubles as a space heater.
Permanently Retired Systems:
RIP Advantech UNO-3072LA (2008-2021) - Decommissioned and taken out of service permanently due to lack of software support for it. Not very likely to ever be recommissioned again.
Asus Q550LF (Old main laptop, 2014-2022) - Decommissioned and stripped due to a myriad of problems, the main battery bloating being the final nail in the coffin.
Kooky and Kool Systems
- 1996 Power Macintosh 7200/120 + PC Compatibility Card - Under Restoration
- 1993 Gateway 2000 80486DX/50 - Fully Operational/WIP
- 2004 Athlon 64 Retro Gaming System - Indefinitely Parked
- Main Workstation - Fully operational!
sigpic
Comment
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
Originally posted by eccerr0r View PostWindows? What's Windows?
The K6-233 is running Linux (and DOS...)
BTW seems a lot of older 486 boards have a coprocessor socket for 487's... which only makes sense if the main processor socket had a 486SX in it. Of course the 487 was an entire 486DX and simply disables the 486SX.
What would have been fun is that the board was SMP capable and ran two 486 integer cores and the FPU of the second CPU...alas, nope.
https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/4167/index.htmlDon't buy those $10 PSU "specials". They fail, and they have taken whole computers with them.
My computer doubles as a space heater.
Permanently Retired Systems:
RIP Advantech UNO-3072LA (2008-2021) - Decommissioned and taken out of service permanently due to lack of software support for it. Not very likely to ever be recommissioned again.
Asus Q550LF (Old main laptop, 2014-2022) - Decommissioned and stripped due to a myriad of problems, the main battery bloating being the final nail in the coffin.
Kooky and Kool Systems
- 1996 Power Macintosh 7200/120 + PC Compatibility Card - Under Restoration
- 1993 Gateway 2000 80486DX/50 - Fully Operational/WIP
- 2004 Athlon 64 Retro Gaming System - Indefinitely Parked
- Main Workstation - Fully operational!
sigpic
Comment
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Re: Gateway 80486-DX2/50 Revival
If you want to make a bigger drive behave on this, you can use an overlay; like Ontrack Disk Manager; with DOS or NT it would be fine up to 2gb @ the point of the install. With NT4, you could go even bigger but the install partition can't be any larger than 2gb. Once installed, you can partition the rest from within the OS. I've used this on stuff as far back as 386's that pretty much had zilch for HDD support.<--- Badcaps.net Founder
Badcaps.net Services:
Motherboard Repair Services
----------------------------------------------
Badcaps.net Forum Members Folding Team
http://folding.stanford.edu/
Team : 49813
Join in!!
Team Stats
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