Help with fixing Creative TNT2 Ultra

Posted on 2020-03-17, 08:34

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I have this Creative TNT2 Ultra card that works fine but outputs yellow picture. The problem is that there is interrupted path to the VGA connector, component L8 (see picture). I don't have any experience with these types of components. Do you have any idea what it is and how can I know what value …

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Re: Want to mod 486 motherboard (Chicony CH-471B) to support 486 DX4 L1 WB

Posted on 2020-03-16, 14:28

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bought them from here

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Re: Want to mod 486 motherboard (Chicony CH-471B) to support 486 DX4 L1 WB

Posted on 2020-03-16, 12:42

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I bought some DIP28 chips on eBay, it seemed there are plenty of them. Or could you use a site such as buyicnow.

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Re: Want to mod 486 motherboard (Chicony CH-471B) to support 486 DX4 L1 WB

Posted on 2020-03-14, 18:56

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also: I'm guessing the BIOS is on that EPROM and not flashable? I have a programmer but no eraser, so it'd be good to get this done in one shot. You need UV light to erase that chip. Either you have specialized device that will erase within a an hour or so, or you could leave it outside for a week …

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Re: Want to mod 486 motherboard (Chicony CH-471B) to support 486 DX4 L1 WB

Posted on 2020-03-14, 17:43

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You're right, your dump is slightly different. I've tried to open it in Modbin and got checksum error, so it's highly probable that your dump is corrupted. Those EPROMs are rather old nowadays and could start losing the stored information. My dump (got it from a seller that offered this board in …

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Re: Want to mod 486 motherboard (Chicony CH-471B) to support 486 DX4 L1 WB

Posted on 2020-03-14, 09:20

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There surely is profit to be made but it depends from where you buy the parts. I am lucky that in my country the parts are relatively cheap and I have an option to buy hardware from another two neighbour countries which are even cheaper. If I had to buy everything from eBay I wouldn't be so sure …

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Re: Want to mod 486 motherboard (Chicony CH-471B) to support 486 DX4 L1 WB

Posted on 2020-03-14, 06:55

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This is very nice and capable motherboard and deserves the best care 😊. I would certainly enjoy version 1.08, just for the heck of it. I would be glad if you're able to upload it.

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Re: Want to mod 486 motherboard (Chicony CH-471B) to support 486 DX4 L1 WB

Posted on 2020-03-12, 07:45

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I am trying to squeeze as much juice as possible from my setup, even to gain at least 1 more frame per second in Doom, as this is my goal with it - it should be speedy enough to play Doom 1 engine games well. Currently the biggest drawback is the graphics card, which is Cirrus Logic 5429. It's …

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Re: Want to mod 486 motherboard (Chicony CH-471B) to support 486 DX4 L1 WB

Posted on 2020-03-12, 04:08

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is there any practical use for so much L2 cache on this machine? I have 32 MB RAM and don't plan to upgrade it.

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Re: Want to mod 486 motherboard (Chicony CH-471B) to support 486 DX4 L1 WB

Posted on 2020-03-11, 20:11

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have some updates on this topic. 1. I have managed to obtaing BIOS version 1.06 but have some trouble making it work with DX4 100MHz WB. First time it booted, next time (and everytime from there on) I'm getting a black screen. I am attaching it for archival sake (I don't know where else to put it …

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Re: Questions about a not particularly well documented 486 board

Posted on 2020-03-07, 18:14

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Look for the Socket pinout. Find Vcc pin and stick a piece of wire in there, then lock the socket. Turn on the motherboard and measure the voltage on the wire (you have to find some ground on the board, for example four middle pins on the power connector). Of coure you have to have a multimeter to …

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Re: Sound blaster issues with Yamaha YMF724F-V PCI & YMF719E-S ISA in Prehistorik

Posted on 2020-03-06, 07:01

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There are two possibilities: 1. The CPU is too fast. Sometimes the game's sound detection relies on slower CPU and refuses to work on speedy machines. 2. Check if you have the SETBLASTER variable right in autoexec.bat. Some games look for it. Yamaha 719 is very compatible so I assume it should work. …

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Re: Questions about a not particularly well documented 486 board

Posted on 2020-03-06, 06:57

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's hard to tell when you're dealing with such an old hardware that is pretty much undocumented. I would assume that if DX4 is not supported, 586 CPus won't work either. In case of AMD the pinout is the same and if you set the multiplier to 3x it behaves like DX4. You could experiment with the …

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Re: Want to mod 486 motherboard (Chicony CH-471B) to support 486 DX4 L1 WB

Posted on 2020-03-05, 20:23

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This post has been based on my experiments done several months ago. Today I've done another research online and decided to run second set of experiments, to be sure. First, tried P24D setting on the original Vobis 1.04 BIOS and got black screen. Then tried the same setting with a BIOS from the Abit …

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Want to mod 486 motherboard (Chicony CH-471B) to support 486 DX4 L1 WB

Posted on 2020-03-05, 15:02

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have this nice and fully working motherboard Chicony CH-471B Rev 2.0: https://i.imgur.com/qra8l7ll.jpg I want to use it with my 486 DX4 EW, which is a model with write-back L1 cache. Unfortunately, I cannot manage to make it work on this board with either jumper configuration (tried classic 486 …

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Re: New sound card project: AWE64 Legacy

Posted on 2020-01-30, 11:25

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

If I'm not too late to sign in, I'm interested as well. Is it possible to provide a Value card of my own for some price drop?

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Re: Brand new looking 486 mobo won't start the PSU

Posted on 2019-12-20, 16:57

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have measured all other caps and there is certainly no additional short, not on tantalum or elecrolytics. Some caps have infinite resistance between theirs legs - is that normal? My jumper settings are fine, I have double checked them. I don't have any cache installed, could that be a problem? …

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Re: Brand new looking 486 mobo won't start the PSU

Posted on 2019-12-19, 08:24

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would like to write about a progress I have made with the board. While measuring it again I had found out short on -12V rail so I replaced a culrit cap and the short went away. The PSU now starts! Unfortunately the board doesn't POST. I tried to hook up PC speaker to it but it doesn't even beep. …

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Re: Pinout for Toptek's Golden Sound Pro 16ES wavetable header

Posted on 2019-12-12, 19:21

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Well, in that case it's not much of use to me. I think I'll pass it to somebody else. Thanks for your input!

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Pinout for Toptek's Golden Sound Pro 16ES wavetable header

Posted on 2019-12-11, 14:53

by

by Paar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I have encountered and purchased this sound card from Toptek: http://i.imgur.com/ghU5Iprt.jpg As name of the thread implies, it's Golden Sound Pro 16ES with genuine OPL3 chip. The card was in really bad shape, very filthy and dusty. After cleaning, it's looking rather nice. I have a thing for sound …

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