VOGONS


First post, by dukeofurl

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I don't have one but I'm very intrigued by them. They were 386s made by Wang Labs shortly before they went bankrupt in the early 1990s.

Anyways, my questions.

Can these use conventional ps/2 keyboards? I read something about how they use a special Wang "vs" keyboard but wasn't sure if that was an option in addition to regular keyboards or if that's the only type of compatible keyboard?

Do they come stock with VGA compatible video cards?

A slightly earlier Wang 286 PC apparently requires a special Wang boot disk in order to access and modify bios settings. Any idea if these use that, or if the bios might do something silly like store settings on the HDD? What bios comes on these, something used by many other manufacturers like Phoenix Bios, or something Wang proprietary?

Is this the MB used in these? https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/micron … 6-asic-cache-ve

What is the color of the computer's case? In different pictures/different light, it either looks dark grey, or tan.

Reply 1 of 7, by wangianer

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Hi, the wang microsystem series uses common 5pin keyboards and regular 8 or 16 bit graphiccards. mda/cga/vga
Yes phoenix bios, but must have the wsetup or wwsetup.exe to enter the bios-options. Normaly ibm compatible must hit the del-key.

The wang mainbords uses a special brown connector for the power supply
https://youtu.be/ZDxomTCaf9I?si=Kv6-mebgpXhAp9_I

I would say, grey.
https://x.com/wangianer/status/1835398417029419279

Reply 2 of 7, by dukeofurl

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wangianer wrote on 2024-09-16, 19:54:

Hi, the wang microsystem series uses common 5pin keyboards and regular 8 or 16 bit graphiccards. mda/cga/vga
Yes phoenix bios, but must have the wsetup or wwsetup.exe to enter the bios-options. Normaly ibm compatible must hit the del-key.

If I bought one with no HDD, would I put wsetup on a boot disk to get to the bios?

Your machine looks very nice. I've heard of it with a 16mhz CPU or a 40. Are there jumpers on the board to set the speed or do they have different mbs? (Ie, would it be worth holding out for the 40 if I wanted the faster CPU? Or could I get the 16 and swap the CPU). I read that the psus are different between the 16 and the 40, and the 16 sometimes has a bug where you need to hold the power button for a long time to make it power on.

Reply 3 of 7, by chinny22

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I parted out a WANG in the early 2000's because of the non standard PSU connector.
One of my biggest regrets as was the earliest PC I've owned.

Reply 4 of 7, by wangianer

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Yes, wwsetup.exe from bootdisk. Also you can use an SCSI Controller/HDD.

For setting up the Speed 10/12/16 MHz use the setspeed.exe command.

Reply 5 of 7, by wangianer

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chinny22 wrote on 2024-09-17, 01:27:

Are there jumpers on the board to set the speed or do they have different mbs?

Two kind of boards. The 16MHz is an 386SX, no option to upgrade the cpu. Additional 387sx is possible.

Reply 6 of 7, by dukeofurl

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Just to confirm, there is a version with a 40mhz CPU, right? 386dx40?