>Before I go ripping things out of my 486 looking for the number of this
>motherboard, I thought I'd ask if there was a standard location to see
>the numbers??
No - including the possibility of no recognisable number :-)

You might look
* in the centre of the board
* in the open area near the CPU and its jumpers
* between the expansion slots nearest the edge of the board
* along the edge of the board, esp near the expansion slots
* not very likely to be underneath the board,
  but you might find the FCC ID number there.

>I have no documentation with this thing and want to start
>figuring out just what I have.  I am hoping not to have to take out too
>much in order to find it.  ??

Before you search as above, you might try to identify the board
through its BIOS ID string, which appears on the screen at boot-up.

With luck you will either be able to identify the board directly
from a list, or you will be able to identify the manufacturer.
You may also be able to identify the manufacturer by searching
on the FCC ID. (But it might not be the name the board is
marketed under.)

Knowing the official name for the board, with further luck and
a Web search (use AltaVista or search everything via a meta
search engine - see http://kresch.com/), you will find the
manufacturer or distributor has published a datasheet on the web
or, even better, a manual by ftp.

Download that and look for any interesting identifying features
and version differences and only then think about dismantling
your computer - you will waste much less time when you know
what you are looking for.

If you find documentation, be sceptical. Hardware accumulates
features gradually and manuals catch up in fits and starts,
if at all, so you may find your board is an interesting hybrid
with features of a past or future version.

(I've seen a motherboard where the manufacturer's HTML datasheet
said it accepted parity _or_ non-parity memory but their ftp'd
manual said parity only. I worked on three of them with IDENTICAL
version numbers and two took non-parity and the third would only
work with parity memory. I've also worked on a couple of Compaq
ProLinea 4/25s where the features were fairly accurately described
for each mobo number but the layout seemed to be a blend between
numbers, which was a little disconcerting.)

You might also trawl old Usenet newsgroups through DejaNews
looking for queries about configuring your board.

BIOS Numbers- identifying a motherboard- AMI
   http://www.nice.it/bios/numbersami.shtml

BIOS Numbers- identifying a motherboard- Award
   http://www.nice.it/bios/numbers.shtml

Equipment Authorization Data Files
   http://www.fcc.gov/oet/info/database/ead/

SBS Direct's FCC ID Look-up (same data, better search interface)
   http://www.sbsdirect.com/fccenter.html

AltaVista search engine
   http://www.altavista.digital.com

The Search Engines Page - Karl Heinz Resch
   http://kresch.com/

Usenet newsgroup archive back to 1995 (!)
   http://www.dejanews.com/

Len Warner <[log in to unmask]> WWW Pager http://wwp.mirabilis.com/10120933