Re: Let's restore my 486 motherboard - AOpen Vi11

Posted on 2017-05-05, 10:17

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

1: Pretty much, yes. I used the VESA card I was experiencing almost immediate lock-ups with on the AOpen along with the VLB I/O card that I had been using on the AOpen. Waveform for bus clock on the SiS was absolutely rock solid on the scope. The AOpen one is quite noisy. Probe sat in there while …

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Re: How do you feel about old hardware in modern cases?

Posted on 2017-05-05, 07:28

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The best thing is that it is a hobby, and you get out what you put in. If you want to build a retro PC and put it in a modern case for convenience and finger safety, do it. What you may find is that you'll build in a new case, be OK with it, and then suddenly a retro case drops in your lap that …

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Re: Let's restore my 486 motherboard - AOpen Vi11

Posted on 2017-05-05, 02:17

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have some incredibly awesome bad-good news. First, that second crystal is ~14.3Mhz. Like the larger silver box counterparts on 386 boards. IMG_4198s.jpg But the BIG news is - I have noise. I have noise in the AT bus - most notably on the CLK B 20 pin. So what should be chilling at ~8.25MHz (33MHz …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2017-05-04, 05:10

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

how do we avoid bios chips from failing? is there a way to make a backup? and new bios chips can be bought flashed and installed? You can read/write using a chip burner. Backup the old one and write the same one to a fresh chip if you want to do so. It is also advantageous if someone modifies the …

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Re: Can anyone recognize this 486 motherboard?

Posted on 2017-05-03, 23:32

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't think you have to worry about straightening it. If you mount it in a case that is in good shape, use proper standoffs, and screw it down, it should be OK.

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2017-05-03, 06:01

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I guess I can build another system as I continue work on diagnosing my childhood 486 after cleaning up the corrosion. Now then, this Soyo board can ...aaaaw maaan... (Spoiler alert: Soap and water took care of most of it, fortunately) Filename IMG_4210.JPG File size 1.49 MiB Views 1001 views

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2017-05-03, 01:01

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Carlos - That front panel of that 486 is amazingly awesome.

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Re: Diamond Speedstar24 configuration.

Posted on 2017-05-02, 10:55

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Posted by a guy on experts-exchange from about 16 years ago - JP1: ZERO WAIT STATE ON (default) = ZERO WAIT STATES OFF = No ZERO WAIT STATES JP3: Set IRQ2 Interrupt ON (default) = IRQ2 ENABLED OFF = IRQ2 DISABLED JP4: 8/16 bit BIOS ACCESS ON (default) = 16 bit BIOS ACCESS OFF = 8 bit BIOS ACCESS DIP …

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Re: What sounds cards do I have here?

Posted on 2017-05-01, 23:13

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's... really odd. Why would anyone ship an AWE64 with the AWE removed? Why not just use a vibra... and it has the same CT number. Did someone /remove/ those parts? "Make a cheaper/budget sound card" - or - "We've got x1000 of these parts but no more AWE chips and production is ending in favor …

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Re: 486 stability issues

Posted on 2017-05-01, 11:37

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Looking at the BIOS string and checking out a BIOS guide online for AMIBIOS, it looks like your board was made by QDI. UMC491 chipset thanks to that part of the string. Something closer to this? http://s7.directupload.net/images/131020/lrfswtfl.jpg Is there any writing along the edges that perhaps …

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Re: My first paint job!

Posted on 2017-05-01, 08:05

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Filename green.gif File size 751.35 KiB Views 1250 views Perhaps you could paint the other parts in a shade that complements the strong shade of green. And thanks for sharing with us, petro89. Case painting is not a world that I have entered just yet.

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Re: Let's restore my 486 motherboard - AOpen Vi11

Posted on 2017-05-01, 03:01

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I actually have some good news. Mostly. Test 1 - Passed Hardware - ISA VGA. L1 cache disabed. 256k L2 cache enabled. Pulled a fan/heatsink combo from a DX2-66 to slap on the SX-33. Results - Ran somewhere around 4 to 6 Doom demo3 loops. Obviously slow. No crashes despite L2 cache enabled. Test 2 - …

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Re: 486 stability issues

Posted on 2017-04-30, 22:39

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is it only during intense graphical operations? Can you give it some I/O benchmark tasks to see how it does? What is the status of jumpers - JP3 JP11 JP17, JP18 JP8, JP9, JP21? (Apparently JP21 is a factor depending on what clock you have) JP4, JP5 Also you said 486DX 33 / 50 based on the BIOS, but …

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Re: Let's restore my 486 motherboard - AOpen Vi11

Posted on 2017-04-30, 02:15

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Apparently I am not giving up. feipoa - You have been my wingman through this. I am crossing my fingers that it isn't the cache or the chipset, but here goes - 1: Put the 4 + tag of the original 20 ns back into the Aopen Vi11 mobo and jumpered to 128k. Put in ISA VGA card with VLB I/O. Tried to …

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Re: Let's restore my 486 motherboard - AOpen Vi11

Posted on 2017-04-29, 03:38

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ahh man. I dunno. I imagine you have to pay a good amount if you want a good one that does reliable testing. What are the voltages for the static ram you have used, btw? It is something I haven't looked into. Saw a lot on eBay that are 3.3v. The board I have is all 5 - unless there are resistors …

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Re: Let's restore my 486 motherboard - AOpen Vi11

Posted on 2017-04-29, 01:46

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I put the cache back in the Soyo along with the VLB video card from my machine, and it can't start MS-DOS with L2 enabled. SOOO...perhaps I have two bad sets of cache :blah: I put the VGA card in - same issue. Maybe I zapped this set. Either that, or I need to reseat it. Perhaps I will just set …

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Re: Let's restore my 486 motherboard - AOpen Vi11

Posted on 2017-04-28, 23:26

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I had been playing with the timing throughout this cache exercise. I don't really have many other options. I put the old cache back in and had the same problem. I dropped it to 128k with the old cache and had some graphics corruption (but timedemo completed). I may have even had a freeze with 128k …

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Re: Let's restore my 486 motherboard - AOpen Vi11

Posted on 2017-04-28, 10:57

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sounds like either your cache is bad, your motherboard jumpers are incorrect for 256K, or your motherboard/chipset did not properly implement 256k. Ruling out the former should be pretty straight forward. For my perverted computer interests, an early 486 or any 386 board must work properly with …

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Re: Let's restore my 486 motherboard - AOpen Vi11

Posted on 2017-04-28, 03:02

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Actually (pulled 4 sticks out and reconfigured jumpers after your post)... yes. With VLB card, in fact. Technically tag is supposed to be 8k for 128k L2, but the jumper settings seem to work for 128k with a 32k tag. Memory holes still exist and all of that with ctcm. cachechk is happy. Hmm. I guess …

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Re: Let's restore my 486 motherboard - AOpen Vi11

Posted on 2017-04-28, 01:53

by

by CkRtech

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It always passes himem's memory whenever himem is involved in a boot. I put he VLB card back in. Put it in a different slot. Benchmarked with L2 off - Doom completed. Turned L2 back on - crash. It crashes quite quickly with L2 enabled. Changing DRAM wait state didn't seem to make a difference. Was …

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