I Have an old 486, and I'd like to know if there are any easy ways of identifying the motherboard besides dismantling the whole machine. Specifically, what I'm looking for is an MSDOS/Win3.1 program that would do what CPU-Z does on newer machines. Help would be appreciated. Kthx.

http://motherboards.mbarron.net/dow...

If you're trying to pin down specifics (such as type & speed of RAM, mainboard specs and such) it might be impossible without taking a peek inside (and finding some board/component identification). But for just general stuff, the links above and maybe some of these:

http://www.computercraft.com/docs/p...

should be sufficient.

If you're trying to pin down issues specific to Windows, you might like Wintune 2.0 for Win3.1. Probably the best one during it's heyday (and it even gave reasonable {albeit incomplete} instructions on how to remedy problems)...

Found here:

http://cdn.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet...

Well, I'm basically trying to find out what the motherboard's model is so that I can install more RAM, as the small amount that I have in there right now (8 MB) is really putting a bottleneck on the whole system.

You'd have to open up the case to install the RAM anyway, and you shouldn't have to dismantle the whole machine just to open it up. If you're trying to find out what kind of RAM it uses, it's likely 30-pin or 72-pin SIMMS. Most machines of that era (486DX266) were maxed out at 32 or 64MB of RAM. Likely not EDO (though possible if a later model). You possibly could figure the board out by the BIOS string if it's displayed on boot:

http://www.motherboards.org/tools/m...

And from that, look up more info on the MoBo here:

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherb...

As far as a bottleneck is concerned, you probably won't notice a big difference in speed with Windows 3.1 beyond 16-24MB of RAM. If the real issue is something other than RAM , then adding more won't solve the real problem. Maybe a utility such as Wintune (mentioned above) could also identify other issues...

Yeah, but the main reason why I want to install more RAM is so that I can run more of my old MSDOS based games on it without rebooting from a diskette. BTW, I don't actually mind opening the case, as I've done it tons of times before. What I do mind, however is having to gut the whole system, motherboard and all just to get one tiny piece of information.

I'm sure I used to have a program YEARS back which I used to use for identifying my old 486 based boards. I'm sure it was called CT'BIOS or something similar but I can't recall. It was very good in that it would tell you the name and even a possible website address.

Your first posting was at 22:04 on 01Feb
Your last posting was at 21:39 on 03Feb

I think removing a couple of screws and having a look wouldn't have taken 2 days, unless you can't see anything.

If it is one of those very compact ones, you'll probably have to take it apart just to put in the RAM. I remember having to remove the disk, CD and floppy just to get at the RAM slot. The idiot who assembled the motherboard had the RAM slots clicking in in the opposite direction.

>>>so that I can run more of my old MSDOS based games on it without rebooting from a diskette.<<<

Sure that's not a lack of conventional memory (below 640K)?

What does a "mem/c/p" command return?

Or is there a DOS game that requires more than 8MB?

Have you tried AIDA16? It runs in pure DOS, and sometimes gives information that AIDA32 does not. I think the official site closed, but you can easily find it on google.

And before I forget, here's a screenshot of AIDA16 doing its job.

Thanks for suggesting AIDA16 :). That's exactly the kind of thing that I was looking for.

http://www.hwinfo.com

DOS version is newer than AIDA16

Well, my problem has been solved :). According to Aida16, my 486 box's motherboard is an Asus VL/I-486SV2G/GX4.