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Xener branded chassis with V286-12 motherboard

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Petter Fossum

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2022
Messages
14
Hi,

I'm the process of collecting some computers that my father have kept over the last 35 years or something. I believe this is the first computer we bought, but I'm struggling to find any information about it. The chassis is branded with Xener, and I can't find any information about it. The motherboard is unidentified (https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/U-Z/31633.htm).

Anyone who any information about the brand or suggestions to where I can find some info?

Hope is to get in back to working order, but i appears that there at least the powersupply is toast and some other cables (probably only led's) have been cut. So having some information would be nice :)

Thanks

/Petter Fossum

20220725_135513.jpg
 
Welcome to the forum @Petter Fossum !

My first suggestion would be to talk to the folks at https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/, if you haven’t already. They have a Discord, and I’d ask there, for sure. The other place that would be worth asking is on https://www.vogons.org/. There are a ton of folks who know about early PCs there, too.

Next, please take some high resolution photos of the motherboard, and post them here. The good thing about 286 motherboards is that they are all clones of the IBM AT, so no matter the chipset, they basically work the same way. It should definitely be possible to figure out how to get this one going, even without additional information. It’s also quite easy to replace an AT power supply, either with another AT-style supply, or with a modern ATX supply, using an adapter. You can probably also figure out what is wrong with the existing power supply, and repair it, if you want to. The cut LED cables are no big deal. They are easily fixable with a little soldering and heat shrink tubing.

- Alex
 
Hello @Petter Fossum, welcome to the forum.

What have you tried so far? How did you determine the power supply is bad?

Do you have all the original equipment attached? keyboard, monitor. Is the CMOS battery removable and replaceable? Or is it soldered on to the MB?

I don't recognize that brand. But there were hundreds of brands that were selling these AT clones and many were made by a manufacturer in China and then badged and resold with one of these many brand names. I have one under the brand "MicroLab" and it had a MB made in Taiwan and sold thru a company in New Jersey. But there was very little information available for that specific brand. I suspect it will be similar for your "Xener".

Please share more pictures of the equipment.

Seaken
 
We have your board on ultimateretro.net.

[Unknown] V286-12

[Unknown] V286-12 is a motherboard based on the VLSI VL82CPCAT-QC (Popular AT 12 MHz 0/1 ws) chipset. Get specs, BIOS, documentation and more!
www.ultimateretro.net www.ultimateretro.net

Currently we dont have any more info on it than what you found on the other site (th99). Would it be possible to get a photo of the board we could use on our site? Ideally out of the case that would match the diagram on the site. Failing that, can you try to take a photo of it so we can read the part no. of the main square chips, so we can identify the chipset.

Also is there a model no. on the back of the Xener case?
 
I'll add only that in the 1980s, a lot of small outfits imported Taiwanese components and slapped their logo on the boxes. For example, somewhere around here I have tower with the "Pantex" badge. To the best of my knowledge Pantex was small Texas operation that didn't do anything more than assemble systems from commodity components.
 
seaken said:
Hello @Petter Fossum, welcome to the forum.

What have you tried so far? How did you determine the power supply is bad?

Do you have all the original equipment attached? keyboard, monitor. Is the CMOS battery removable and replaceable? Or is it soldered on to the MB?

I don't recognize that brand. But there were hundreds of brands that were selling these AT clones and many were made by a manufacturer in China and then badged and resold with one of these many brand names. I have one under the brand "MicroLab" and it had a MB made in Taiwan and sold thru a company in New Jersey. But there was very little information available for that specific brand. I suspect it will be similar for your "Xener".

Please share more pictures of the equipment.

Seaken
Click to expand...
I haven't done anything beyond having a look around, but since the powersupply was opened I assumed that it's toast, but I'll measure it to be sure :) Unforunately I don't have any peripherals (at least not yet, but there is still more fun to find). I'll take some more pictures tomorrow. Thanks for the quick reponse :)
 
mR_Slug said:
We have your board on ultimateretro.net.

[Unknown] V286-12

[Unknown] V286-12 is a motherboard based on the VLSI VL82CPCAT-QC (Popular AT 12 MHz 0/1 ws) chipset. Get specs, BIOS, documentation and more!
www.ultimateretro.net www.ultimateretro.net

Currently we dont have any more info on it than what you found on the other site (th99). Would it be possible to get a photo of the board we could use on our site? Ideally out of the case that would match the diagram on the site. Failing that, can you try to take a photo of it so we can read the part no. of the main square chips, so we can identify the chipset.

Also is there a model no. on the back of the Xener case?Thanks for
Click to expand...
Thanks for the quick reponse :) I'll send more pictures tomorrow :)
 
Oh wow, that’s some bad battery leakage. Please cut out the Varta battery (located next to the keyboard connector) with some side cutters.

You can stop further damage by soaking the board in vinegar until the blue residue has been neutralized, and then washing the board with water.

- Alex
 
I have updated our page on the board. Now has your photo and the identified chipset.

[Unknown] V286-12

[Unknown] V286-12 is a motherboard based on the VLSI VL82CPCAT-QC (Popular AT 12 MHz 0/1 ws) chipset. Get specs, BIOS, documentation and more!
www.ultimateretro.net www.ultimateretro.net

Yes you have some Battery leakage to deal with, and possible some traces to fix. thank you for the pic.
 
ajacocks said:
Oh wow, that’s some bad battery leakage. Please cut out the Varta battery (located next to the keyboard connector) with some side cutters.

You can stop further damage by soaking the board in vinegar until the blue residue has been neutralized, and then washing the board with water.

- Alex
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback :) I've read and seen some videos about cleaning using vinegar (some swears to it and some detests it). Do you have some practical tips to what you prefer (amount of time soaking etc.)?
 
I use vinegar and wads of toilet paper to keep the area moist. The blue wicks into the paper. You may have to do the process 10 times on a board like that. Some people use Navy or navel jelly I have not explored that option.
 
Once again thanks for responses :)
I've got a lot of the blue corrosion away (although a few sockets such as the ISA socket is beyond repair and must be replaced), but does it have to be completely vanished? There are still some residue in some of holes and really tight spaces, but when I measure continuity it appears to be ok (even with some blue corrosion left)
 
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