Hi Warren, Assuming that no pack rat answers you with a free motherboard, there are some on Ebay in the 25-40 dollar range, tested and guaranteed to work.
You mentioned "upgrading" him to a P1 or P2. I might suggest you stick with exactly what he had before and let him stay with W95 unless you have a reason to move him. Along those lines how are his other components such as disks, etc? Someone mentioned a USB to ISA adapter. I tracked down the company and here is the URL for a one slot board: http://arstech.com/install/ecom-prodshow/usb2isar.html Here is the URL for a three ISA slot board: http://arstech.com/install/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=usb2isax3&sid=36o79v9t3624qpggs903m60it3010rs7 However, in reading the web page carefully you might want to to add some power supplies, a case, etc. and it appears the software that drives the interface requires a newer version of the operating system (Win XP, etc.), so there might still be application changes that you would have to make. And the three slot solution would start at 169 USD and probably be about 200 USD by the time you add the case, power supply and cables. Interesting is the fact that the converter also has a Linux driver (Intel 32/64 bit and ARM) and will run on the Raspberry Pi. I do not know how complex the user-level application that feeds the controller is, or if he still has the source code for it, but that might be another alternative. To me it sounds like the more you try to move him to newer solutions the more things might have to change and it might be easier and cheaper to just try and replace the hardware exactly. You say that "he built the machine" back in the 90s, so he might have an idea of how complex it would be to start over from scratch and move everything forward. Of course he probably has a backlog of disks now, and that solution might take too long and be too risky. I would say the fastest and least risky solution is to buy an ebay board that is a duplicate to what he has, let him stay with W95 and think about moving him over the long term to another solution. Warmest regards, maddog > On 03/10/2021 10:56 PM Warren Chris <war...@resara.com> wrote: > > > Greetings, > > It has been years since I last posted here...Alas, I could use some help > in regards to tracking down some older computer hardware. I have a friend > who built a machine to punch out discs for antique music boxes back in the > 90's that was automated by a computer running Windows 95 (i know, i > know....). well, after all these years, that computer has failed, and his > backup computer has failed. The controller that runs the machine is an ISA > card, so I am helping him track down an old P1 or PII system with ideally 2 > ISA slots that we can hopefully rebuild his system with so he can continue > his work. > > If you are curious, my friend is one of a handful, or the only person in > the world depending on the music box, conducting new works and providing new > discs for these music boxes. He works out of his basement and has been > doing this for 50 years, out of Peterborough, NH. > http://www.henstoothdiscs.com/Thorens45.htm > > any help would be greatly appreciated in tracking this PC hardware down. > ideally we would like to build a system with redundant parts (power supply, > motherboard, ram, hard drive. cpu) and willing to pay fair/reasonable cash > prices. > > Thanks for your help, best regards! > > > -- > warren > _______________________________________________ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ >
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