ISA slot

[kellys_eye]

Has anyone got an old PC or motherboard that has an ISA slot?

I have a board that has a riser slot (not a true ISA) with an ISA expansion card in it but the board itself is showing issues that conflict with my testing of the full ISA function and there's no technical spec available for the motherboard I have

I'm repairing a machine interface card that I now need to prove works on a genuine ISA slot board but can't find one at sensible prices anywhere. Any old PC will do - if it's not working I'll fix it! - and I'll arrange collection if necessary.

I've asked all my friends/neighbours to check their garages for junk but no success so far. A 'loaner' will do.

TIA

[Bob225]

Native support for isa was phased out with AGP, iirc that was P3/K7 days, The main issue is dead or dying caps with boards of this vintage

what is the motherboard make and model ?

I take it the isa board is some sort of I/0 and power card for a bit of test equipment (AP Network Analyser ?) Driver installation has to be done in the correct order, otherwise your be chasing driver conficts rather than I/0, dma, etc


The only modern board that has isa are pc104 industrial boards and they go for big money

[kellys_eye]

I know the history of the ISA slot boards and their failings (easily fixed) the problem is (was) GETTING a board!

The ISA device I'm fixing is a control board for a PC that controlled an industrial metal folding machine which is now idle due to an exploded chip on the interface card. It didn't help that the OEM sanded all the chip markings off every device (b*st*rds) so I ended up reverse engineering it to discover the schematic and derive the part numbers from some detective work..... that'll show 'em.... I believe the board is now working but cannot prove this 100% as I don't have a true ISA mobo to test it on - I only have an 'unidientifiable' mobo that uses an ISA riser card and is indicating some other issues that stop me giving a 100% guarantee of repairedness. This particular mobo has numerous links (unmarked, undocumented etc) that may be the cause of some I/O conflicts I'm seeing hence the need for a 'real' ISA board.

This interface card is also driven by custom software (of which I have a full copy) so no drivers needed. I was also going to reverse engineer (disassemble) the software to find out the I/O base address sequence so I could write alternative software for a modern PC using a USB-based interface but if I get the OEM board going I can prevent myself going down that route, PITA that it will no doubt be.

Happily (or strangely) I found an SBC in my 'junk box' that has the PC/104 interface which, as you know (?) is a duplicate of the ISA bus and can be used if I knock up a suitable adapter - and I'm gathering the bits for that right now - but I've also found an ISA/PCI mobo overseas that is on its way to me and may be the answer.

Thanks for taking an interest anyway but if you (or anyone) can still supply me with an ISA-based Mobo I'm still prepared to cough up accordingly.

Cheers

[Bob225]

I have not used pc104 for a few years, I had a look in my boxes the oldest board I have is a core2quad Q6600 (no isa)

What processor do you have available ?

[kellys_eye]

Socket 7 Pentium 100 and 166 although I haven't got the mobo yet and don't even know if it will support them! Yeah, a bit cowboyish but at £15 I'd pay as much just to buy the bare ISA socket (rather than having to desolder it from the mobo!)

The PC/104 board I have is a 386!!! Works perfectly and I've got it booting to DOS and/or win 3.11 so a simple PC/104 to ISA adapter will allow the board to run.

[Bob225]

There are some cheap risers about if you just want a socket ?

eg. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Vectra-VL ... :rk:4:pf:0

[kellys_eye]

Yeah, another scour of my junk box revealed a riser board that I can plunder for sockets.

God bless 'junk boxes'

[Dave54]

Yeah, another scour of my junk box revealed a riser board that I can plunder for sockets.

God bless 'junk boxes'

It reminds me why I never throw stuff out.
I threw a board and processor out about 12 months ago that would have done you.
It had sat in it's original case under the bench here for about 15 years. Then I had a clear out!

[Bob225]

Yeah, another scour of my junk box revealed a riser board that I can plunder for sockets.

God bless 'junk boxes'

It reminds me why I never throw stuff out.
I threw a board and processor out about 12 months ago that would have done you.
It had sat in it's original case under the bench here for about 15 years. Then I had a clear out!

I binned a Athlon 2000xp with a gigabyte board 4-5 weeks ago, I built that when xp had just been released it even had one of them new fangled cd-r drives - the owner decided it was time for a upgrade (I had been looking after that from new)

[Dave54]

I can't remember what this one was. I bought it as a decently specced box that came with an Iiyama graphics monitor from "Panrix" must have been about 1999. Basically I couldn't buy the parts for the system for the price they wanted for it built.