Bridgeport Explorer (V2XT, DX-32) Motherboard Replacement

[FugginZukin]

Hello All,

Well it looks like my motherboard is fried on my BPT explorer X-26 and will need to replace it. Are there any low-cost replacements available? Is there any reason why something like THIS would not work, just to run the DOS software?

EMI told me a replacement was ~$780.00. I told them to put down the pipe. If I have to drop that kind of coin, I may as well pony up a little more and go Mach 3.

I read somewhere that it may be possible to use something like above, but to not go higher than 133 MHz on the CPU to be compatible with the BMDC. My mill is year 1999. The above link has a 100 MHz CPU. Will this be Ok? I would like to purchase this motherboard or similar, set CMOS, boot from backup floppy, copy the software from the floppy to a new Hard Drive, re-set CMOS/DOS, and be done with it. Anything I am missing?

Thank you for your help.

Chad

[machintek]

Perfect! May I suggest that you replace the power supply as well. It is as old as the mother board.

George

[sinklar]

I have plans to write this up in detail but you seem to have need today. I have used a 1GHZ celeron computer running windows 2000. I installed the application dosbox. It is mostly used to run old dos games. My V2XT is 1993 vintage and I copied all the files from the old hard drive to the dosbos directory. Set the boot dir to something like c:\v2xt and include the line comspec=c:\ in the autoexec.bat section of the config file. Set the serial ports to direct serial for com1 and com2. My motherboard still had the real com ports. The computer is a 2001 model. The machine runs fines in a dos box and I have a windows machine for file editing and network access. I do not know if it will work with your newer machine but the software is free and for testing I just ran a serial port extension cable to the old com port connection. Post if you have any questions.

Tony

[FugginZukin]

Originally Posted by machintek Perfect! May I suggest that you replace the power supply as well. It is as old as the mother board. George

Thanks for the confirmation. Just from searching around I could tell you were the Go-To guy for these systems. Definitely going to change the power supply while I'm in there. Thanks!

Originally Posted by sinklar I have plans to write this up in detail but you seem to have need today. I have used a 1GHZ celeron computer running windows 2000. I installed the application dosbox. It is mostly used to run old dos games. My V2XT is 1993 vintage and I copied all the files from the old hard drive to the dosbos directory. Set the boot dir to something like c:\v2xt and include the line comspec=c:\ in the autoexec.bat section of the config file. Set the serial ports to direct serial for com1 and com2. My motherboard still had the real com ports. The computer is a 2001 model. The machine runs fines in a dos box and I have a windows machine for file editing and network access. I do not know if it will work with your newer machine but the software is free and for testing I just ran a serial port extension cable to the old com port connection. Post if you have any questions. Tony

Very good to know. Would love to see your full write up. For now I just plan on using the second serial port for networking/file transfers and run the DOS from the machine; however, in the future I may try the dosbox app. Sounds interesting. Would like to hear more for sure. Thanks!



I just ordered one of these from Ebay, and I'll post up how it turns out with details, pics, etc. once I get it setup.

[machintek]

Bridgeport used to sell a enhanced performance option that included solid modeling, a mouse and windows 3.1. Some of my customers took this a step further and used windows 3.11 for workgroups and put in a ethernet card to load large 3D programs. FYI

George

[FugginZukin]

Happy Memorial Day!

Well, the new motherboard came in and is working fine. Unfortunately I am having a couple of software bugs to work out. Instead of buying a HDD, I found a blank DOM laying around. It is partitioned and formatted. I loaded both DOS 6.0 and BP V2.30/4.54 to the module. For some reason the PC will not book from the DOM (I fiddled with the obvious BIOS boot settings). Anybody know why? Am I missing a file or two? Do I need a boot sector of some sort?

When using the DOS 6.0 boot disk, and running the software from C:, the software wants to reference two files from A: (BMDC.BIN and BMDCPRMS.SYS) when loading the DX-32 software and would fail to load. The only way to get the software to load was to copy these files from the DOM to the floppy and voila, the software works. It seems weird that a program from C: would reference A: for files that are already on C:. How would I fix this? Is there any way to get both DOS and the DX-32 software to boot and load from the DOM alone?

I greatly appreciate your help, I am not that skilled in the computer arena. Thank you.

Chad

[machintek]

DOS 6.20 is a 3 disk set and is self loading. It does install hidden files that make a disk bootable. Typically when I nuke a hard drive I fdisk it, format it, make the partition a active DOS partition, load DOS and then the machine software.
With only DOS loaded, it should boot from the DOM. I check this and then I load the machine software. I use the install.bat file or a autoexec.bat file. A dir of the disk tells me what is there. Using such a batch file makes sure certain files and fonts go where they need to go.

George

[FugginZukin]

Originally Posted by machintek DOS 6.20 is a 3 disk set and is self loading. It does install hidden files that make a disk bootable. Typically when I nuke a hard drive I fdisk it, format it, make the partition a active DOS partition, load DOS and then the machine software. With only DOS loaded, it should boot from the DOM. I check this and then I load the machine software. I use the install.bat file or a autoexec.bat file. A dir of the disk tells me what is there. Using such a batch file makes sure certain files and fonts go where they need to go. George

Hello George,

Thank you for your reply. I was able to get it running doing the following using a DOS 5.0 boot disk:

Erased the DOM
Made Active Partition
Format C:
fdisk/mbr
Changed floppy and Installed BP V2.30/4.54 software
Changed back to boot disk and SYS C:
Changed BIOS Boot settings back to boot from Hard Disk

It seems everthing is working fine and booting from the DOM. I start the machine, DOS starts and goes straight to loading the machine software. Am I Ok using the files that I loaded from the boot disk to the DOM as an operating system? The software seems to be functioning correctly. No errors as of yet.

Thanks,

Chad


EDIT: Boot Disk was made from HERE

[fjbart70]

I have a dicovery 308 mahcine with a DX32 controller. The motherboard is a 486dx with only ISA slots in it. I would like to replace it with a pentium or 486 that has ISA and pci slots so that I can get some usb ports and run windows 98 with a network card.

I know EMI sells an upgrade kit $$$, and told me that not all boards with ISA slots will work with BMDC. DO know if that is BS or not.

Can you please tell me what motherboard you used or what the specs needed are?

[D-Money]

Originally Posted by fjbart70 I know EMI sells an upgrade kit $$$, and told me that not all boards with ISA slots will work with BMDC. DO know if that is BS or not.

The BMDC is a "full length" card, which means it's very very long (the full length of most motherboards). Some motherboards don't have enough clearance aligned with the ISA slots (jumper-type cable blocks, heatsinks and tall cylinder caps get in the way, etc), so a very long card might not fit.