Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-10, 04:25

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There's no lengthy BIOS ID string like in a modern PC. After power up, the video BIOS banner is shown. Then the regular BIOS banner. And after it counts the memory it will reset and start over.

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-10, 03:11

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Unfortunately I do not. I have it packed away, and it would be a while before I go tearing through stuff to get at it. I hadn't expected to be working on an ISA computer so soon. And well here we are! This mobo has 20ns cache chips on it. The numbers end in 20. And that would be a match for the …

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-09, 23:47

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Now that's interesting. Something is beginning coalesce in my tiny head. But.. No.. I don't believe they can be disabled. If they can I don't know how, and the organization chart starts with bank0, then moves on to include 1, 2, 3 as memory size increases. There's no documented configuration that …

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-09, 23:05

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Like a good little technician I'm testing with the onboard SIMMs only. One problem at a time. One problem. Bank0 and Bank1 are on the motherboard. Bank2 and Bank3 are on the optional proprietary memory card. Each bank has 4 SIMM slots. I never got far enough to play with the expansion card. Trying …

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-09, 21:47

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Reseating socketed chips didn't affect anything. Yes this board has 2 EPROMS for the BIOS. Each marked HI or LO. I don't have any 27C256 EPROMS on hand (packed away) but the originals read & verify fine in my TL866II+ 'prommer. Can't really make new BIOS chips till like later next week. I've tried …

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-09, 08:30

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by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yikes I don't want to scare the board into running away. I can certainly try reseating all the socketed chips and SIMMs. Maybe even use a spit of Deoxit D5 here and there. I will try that later today and see what happens. Thanks for all the ongoing suggestions!

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-09, 08:21

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes. That's exactly what I believe should happen here. The board currently is simply omitting the last line of text. The one reading "Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility." Reboots instead. And from what I gather the only other way is to use from MS-DOS or other OS. At first I …

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-09, 02:08

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I believe the CPU is a DX2/50. I was told the board was a pull from a Gateway system. It’s likely an early version as GW didn’t sell a lot of the DX2/50 models. I mean they did, but didn't, because the time on market was short. The 66 and VLB rapidly took over and became the standard IIRC. The CPU …

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-08, 19:44

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A 4MB configuration with or without a Multi I/O (MIO-400KF) results in the same behavior. The 400KF is a typical all-in-one 16bit ISA board, FDD, HDD, Game, Serial, Parallel. Made by DFI. It's period correct. I have also verified the RAM is good. Tried a set of 4 1MB SIMMS in place of 4 4MB SIMMS. …

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-08, 18:34

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by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ok. I tried 2 more keyboards. One needed a PS/2 to AT adapter. Both behaved identically. The keyboards seem to be fine. The special keys like CTRL ALT SPACE DELETE INSERT SHIFT and F1-F12 seem to be in order.

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-08, 09:35

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks on that. Yes. I don't recall Gateway doing anything non-standard with the Phoenix BIOS. After the memory scan test, the system is supposed to look for a storage device, HDD, FDD.. And if it doesn't find one, the Phoenix BIOS reference manual says it's supposed to display "No boot device …

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-08, 06:01

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by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Maybe. The NumLock comes on when it's supposed to. The CapsLock and ScrollLock lights do not light up. I cannot toggle any of the LEDs via the keyboard. The only keyboard activities I can do are: 1- to reset the system. 2- Abort the memory test via . 3- Generate a Keyboard Stuck error by holding a …

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-08, 04:55

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by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the list. Still no go. Since this is a Phoenix BIOS I tried the Keylock trick too. Nope. About the battery. I removed the battery and temporarily shorted the contacts on the mainboard to ensure there was 0v. I also let it sit for an hour because there's always some residual charge. And …

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-08, 03:11

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Voltage is correct.

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-08, 02:16

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Behaves the same either way.

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Re: Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-08, 01:45

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

No leakage. I currently have the battery removed and sitting off to the side.

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Can't get into CMOS setup on old 486.

Posted on 2021-06-08, 00:56

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ladies and gents. This is a simple question & problem I have. Totally embarrassed to ask. Can't get into the CMOS setup on an old 486 Gateway motherboard. This one - https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/M-O/30102.htm [Part number 09-00081-03 Rev F1 Copyright '87 - '92] [DX2 sticker in corner, likely …

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Re: Best most modern motherboard for Windows XP?

Posted on 2021-06-03, 20:07

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by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How perfectly pedestrian and uninspiring! A green whitebox desktop board. Thanks for the PDFs. I've had intel boards in the past and like their stability, so big plus. Without going round and round for weeks, this seems to be satisfactory solution. May not be the highest performing board. But it's …

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Re: Best most modern motherboard for Windows XP?

Posted on 2021-06-03, 16:54

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by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I currently have 3 several H370 systems with 8th Gen i7 and GTX 1080 available to me for ultra cheap. Only issue here is the 1080 drivers..? I suppose I'd need to do virtualization to get XP on that? As far as graphics go, in XP, I wouldn 't expect to go above D3D 9c.

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Re: Best most modern motherboard for Windows XP?

Posted on 2021-06-03, 16:30

by

by Keatah

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I was just given three processors, E7300, E6750, and AMD FX 6100. Wonder if those are useful.. I suppose ultimately I'm looking to maintain (and expand) my WinXP experience. I don't really need to go low on DOS/w95/w98 side of things. I have a 486 and Pentium III for that and am happy with those. …

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