Re: Wrong BIOS update = bricked motherboard?

Posted on Yesterday, 21:56

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So, I made a stupid mistake when trying to update the BIOS of my MSI MS-6309 motherboard. I mixed up this version: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-ms-6309-v1.x-va5 with the version that I have: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-ms-6309-v2-0 and dowloaded the 1.9 BIOS for the …

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Re: Batman's Revenge PS/2 mouse header

Posted on Yesterday, 19:35

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've recently got my hands on this beautiful Batman's Revenge motherboard (see attached pic), and I'm itching to use it for a Win95 neo-retro/reverse-sleeper PC build. Unfortunately, I ran into a roadblock that I did not anticipate: as far as I can see, the board doesn't seem to have a PS/2 mouse …

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Re: Need help identifying hardware.

Posted on 2025-03-18, 20:38

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah it's been up since late august 2020, but looking back at my posts from back then, you can guess that I was onto something :D Great that you avoided stason :) (I didn't :facepalm:) Ciao If you are interested, I have several PC motherboards in my collection, and some paper manuals, for example …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-18, 17:54

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I thought that the CPUs tested on the MS6309, could now be useless, given the voltage beyond 3V, but to see if they survived, I needed another Motherboard, one that in the past I tried all possible CPUs (even the VIA C3), and I did some overclocks, unfortunately I couldn't do the most interesting …

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Re: Which graphics card for late 486 and early Pentium

Posted on 2025-03-17, 22:00

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

No love for ATi Mach64 or RAGE / RAGE II ? I think the og Rage is from 1996. A little late, since Pentium 133/166 MMX were already available, but as an upgrade to a 486 or an earlier Pentium system - why not? On my Olidata Pentium PC, originally a 133, the Intel Advance Monaco LPX motherboard, has …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-17, 18:29

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In the next few days I will have very little time, to test and try the MB, currently I have on the desk, the MS6309 that does not start, or rather tries to start, but most of the time it gets stuck on some post codes. I tried to understand, if changing RAM or CPU, you could finally start, but …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-17, 08:13

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For the problems of the MSI MS6309 VER:2, checking my notes, the BIOS present in the chip, is the latest version of the VER:1 (A6309MS V1.9 110801), it can be found on "retroweb", along with other previous versions. Unfortunately I wouldn't know on which PC it was installed, that motherboard seems …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-16, 20:32

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I forgot to mention that on the MSI MS6309, I put a Celeron Mendocino 466 MHz CPU, I have several in my collection, they are quite robust CPUs, which also withstand some overclocks, you can't make it go to FSB 100, but surely at 75 it goes. I had tried to put a Celeron 900 (Coppermine) CPU, but …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-16, 18:09

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I changed MB, since the LS K7MKLE didn't show anything, I'll try with the MSI MS6309, strangely this one doesn't do anything either, and yesterday I suspected that MB wasn't the problem, so I change the power supply, I put a higher quality one, and the card starts, and it shows some post code, at …

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Re: Troubleshooting 486 Motherboard

Posted on 2025-03-16, 08:00

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If I can suggest something, I suggest you use only one RAM at a time, instead of two, try it in all four banks, then if it doesn't work, use the other RAM (of that pair), and repeat the tests, if you get results, one of the two RAMs may be defective, once you find the right combination, you can do …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-16, 07:46

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

On the Lucky Star K7MKLE VER:1.3, I must say that it always worked badly, shortly after the repair I performed (some time ago), after replacing some swollen electrolytic capacitors, most of them in the VRM area, plus other smaller ones in other places, it didn't seem like there was still something …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-15, 16:51

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally, after several searches, I found the motherboard I was looking for, the Lucky Star K7MKLE VER:1.3, this board worked, but shortly after the first BIOS screens, it froze, this happened a few times, then at a certain point it stopped working, I can't explain why, but today I would like to do …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-14, 21:38

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have already downloaded the BIOS from the respective chips, of two of the three motherboards, I can't find the LS K7MKLE S.462, I must have put it somewhere, for now I don't know where, let's start with the LS 6ABX2V Slot1, and continue with the MSI MS-6309 VER:2 S.370. The Slot1 card, suffered a …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-14, 15:48

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

From what I have seen, almost all motherboards (except one) do not have problems with the BIOS chip, this is the final result, so every single motherboard must be checked well. One of the motherboards, in which there was the greatest suspicion, was the Chaintech 5TDM2, because sometimes it displayed …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-14, 13:19

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Another motherboard, which I have been repairing for a long time, is this ASUS P4S533-VM REV 1.02, visually it is like new, only a couple of times it showed a BIOS screen, then nothing, so to dispel any doubt, I decide to remove the BIOS chip, and try to extract the contents, this type of PLCC32 …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-13, 23:16

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Here are some photos of the ECS M6VCG REV: 1.2, there are some work to be done, some capacitors need to be replaced, plus some back tracks, they need to be repaired, there are some deep scratches, and some of the tracks are cut, this is not a problem if they were sufficiently spaced, unfortunately …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-13, 21:39

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

With the motherboards and their BIOS chips, for now I'm done, because I've finished those without visible faults, and removable BIOS chips, I have other boards with a soldered chip, but I'm not able to remove it, I risk irreparably damaging the motherboard. However, there are some other boards left, …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-13, 20:20

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Asus MEZ-M BIOS dump is also good. It is the 03/15/99-i440ZX-MEZ-M-00 Revision 1008 BIOS for this board. Comparing your MEZMXX.BIN with the copy from TRW, I see some small differences in the BIOS Setup Defaults, like for HDD S.M.A.R.T. support and Wake on LAN. So someone modified your BIOS, but …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-13, 17:43

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Here is the DFI CB61, an i440 BX S.370, a rather unusual pairing, because the PIII are usually FSB 133, and the BX is according to Intel FSB 66-100, there are still some Coppermine PIII FSB 100, the card never worked, I have no idea why, the seller had some the same ones, maybe I had bad luck, maybe …

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Re: Test and troubleshoot PC@LIVE motherboards

Posted on 2025-03-13, 16:48

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by PC@LIVE

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The last motherboard (for now) not working, from which to extract the BIOS, is a DFI CB61, purchased in 2002 and never working, the board is new, unfortunately the original box was lost, but I still have the manual and CD Driver set, I think there were also the cables for the drives, but I think I …

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