reverse-engineering power

From: Doug Yowza <yowza_at_yowza.com>
Date: Sun May 17 20:29:33 1998

On Sun, 17 May 1998 jpero_at_mail.cgo.wave.ca wrote:

> 3.2V? That's seems not right for that ttl cmos family. Should be
> ~5V +/-5% Keep cranking that power source up bit by bit slowly and
> monitor the voltage rise or no change?

Err, well, I was using one of those cheap-o low-amperage things with six
different voltage settings. (Funny how all the voltages looked pretty
much the same on the meter.) I went to the corner grocery to get a
variable regulated supply (this is silicon valley, after all), but they
were all around $300, so I went home without.

> Your pototype looked nearly complete to go into a notebook at get go.
> So that's means it should have a functioning PSU module part.
> And nearly all PSU modules use switching technologies.

OK, I took off the board to get to this black box labeled ERG INC, E1015,
9210E, but the output seems to go only to the LCD.

> 3.3V based portables started to appear after Intel and AMD introduced
> their 3.3v chips and chipsets became common after '91 or so.
> That real appearance takes place about a year after this and totally
> converted over to all 3.3V logic well after dx4 portables became
> common.

This is from early '93, and has a Cyrix 486SLCe/V25-MP.

> I have a sharp eye for someting amiss. Did you have any few
> small chips that is stuck with some kind of sticker at all even in
> socket? This is typical for bios And can you find a CPU somewhere?
> I think this is 386sx class notebook maybe based on amd or SLC type.

Man, you do have a sharp eye; there appears to be an empty ROM socket on
the bottom of the board (but I'm hoping against hope that they integrated
Flash into one of the big chips).

> Did you have that 32pin SOJ socket empty? That is might be the
> socket for that bios oh, what a big bummer!
>
> And you do have a heard drive made by Areal, long since dead HD
> maker.

There's no way you could have seen the Areal MD2060. Do you have any
picks for the stock market tomorrow?

-- Doug
Received on Sun May 17 1998 - 20:29:33 BST