Fuchsrohre

Motherboard holds a Pentium series 1, circa '96

As usual there's the 2 IDE sockets and a floppy disk socket. These have the typical plastic surround that you plug the ribbon cable into.

Exactly the same, but with 15 pins and near to the above is another mystery socket. Do I take it, its COM2 ?

Serial sockets on the motherboard are normally 9 pin aren't they, but this is 15 pin.

ChrisB

I'd expect a header for a serial port to be 9 pins too.

How it being a header for a game port? They are 15 pin IIRC.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

OK - on your mobo there will be some letters usually in solder on the silicon or maybe a sticker - google them

Failing that an FCC number will be found somewhere - google that

stevem2k

Header for the parallel ( printer ) port at a guess....

DrEvil

www.guru3d.com

download SiSoft Sandra - it may tell you what make and model your mobo is.

Fuchsrohre

Ok, I'll try and ID the motherboard and check an old manual.

I'll also try the SiSoft Sandra route.

I had a look through some old cables in my garage and did find a backplate with 2 serial ports on it - one was a 9pin and the other a 15pin so I guess there WERE some mobo's with a 15 pin header on them. Just pretty rare.

The fact that the header is located right next to the IDE and FLOPPY headers is a bit remarkable.

EDITED TO ADD:
The BIOS lets me enable/disable both COM1 and COM2 - I cannot find anywhere else on the mainbaord for COM2 so do you think its a fair bet its that?

D16GER

CPU-Z, enough said Then Google the mobo

wiltshire_boy

Maybe a header for a game port on a separate backplate which are not always included. Prolly got one kicking about if you'd like it?

Roy.

Fuchsrohre

Its a siemens scenic ed machine which according to the manual has this socket on the motherboard for a "card reader"

Ok, I've ditched the PC, got another Pentium 1 series and wired up a 2nd COM port to the 9pin socket on the motherboard - everything is working.

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

I'd go with this too. The main clue will be if the inside connections are on a flying lead, rather than hardwired to the m/b. But I'm surprised that there isn't some sort of symbol on the backplane.

Edit: if it's a game port I'd expect there to be sound output sockets nearby, as even then they always went together. If there is no built-in sound then it can't be a game port.

I've seen 15-pin serial ports, but they are rare.


M

InvisibleMan

if its in the same layout as the 9pin serial (ie 2lines of pins) then game port(joystick) or vga as thats 15pin too

edit: ive seen game ports just on there own in the days of the Ad-lib soundcard...