Re: Cpu write back cache causing issues.

Posted on 2023-07-13, 17:43

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks. Yeah. The chipset seems to have many names. Seen it being called expertchip, winbond or that symphony wagner. Do you happen to know if there would be a compatible EEPROM chip that I could use instead of the original EPROM for bios on that motherboard? The original EPROM seems to be TMS …

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Re: Cpu write back cache causing issues.

Posted on 2023-07-13, 16:28

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the v2.3 BIOS dump. A first look to the CPUID tables with a hexeditor shows the expected Enhanced Am486DX2/4 support, but no Am5x86 support. But when checking this BIOS with Award’s Modbin tool, I found a hidden “Internal Cache WB/WT” option that was fixed at “Write Thru”. So unless this …

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Re: Energy efficient old hardware for win98

Posted on 2023-07-13, 12:10

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Personally if I wanted low power win98 pc I would go for K6 III+/atz400 1.6V cpu since there are powernow! drivers for win98 for multiplier change when idle and if it is for gaming I would add a voodoo 3 into that since you cant avoid some power usage when you are actually playing games on it. Since …

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Re: Cpu write back cache causing issues.

Posted on 2023-07-12, 17:40

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How does this apply with 2 motherboards having exactly same symptoms including system freezing when trying to slow down the system using turbo button when in WB more? Especially when one of them is PCI motherboard and the other one is VLB motherboard? The LS-486E PCI motherboard was made in 1996 …

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Re: Cpu write back cache causing issues.

Posted on 2023-07-12, 16:00

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How does this apply with 2 motherboards having exactly same symptoms including system freezing when trying to slow down the system using turbo button when in WB more? Especially when one of them is PCI motherboard and the other one is VLB motherboard? The LS-486E PCI motherboard was made in 1996 …

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Re: Cpu write back cache causing issues.

Posted on 2023-07-12, 12:59

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I mean all I know is that if I remove that one jumper from pins 6-7 of JP8 while all the other jumpers are the same everything works fine and CHKCPU program shows that it it has changed to WT mode. WT is way easier to implement than WB. So simply moving that one jumper is "fixing" the problem, yes, …

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Re: Cpu write back cache causing issues.

Posted on 2023-07-12, 10:42

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

so far I have figured out that jumper at pins 6-7 of JP8 changes between WB and WT cache modes It takes more than that to properly support WB on a 486 system, quite a few other signals must be connected as well - and perhaps aren't. Just telling the CPU to use WB instead of WT is not enough if the …

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Re: Cpu write back cache causing issues.

Posted on 2023-07-12, 08:49

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The 2 motherboards I have tried it on are LS-486E Rev D and Dataexpert EXP4045. In LS-486E it supports the supports that cpu directly at least based on manual and so far I have figured out that jumper at pins 6-7 of JP8 changes between WB and WT cache modes and jumper at pins 3-4 of JP6 control …

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Cpu write back cache causing issues.

Posted on 2023-07-12, 01:28

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am considering this being situation of a faulty cpu, but I am trying to find out if there is perhaps bios issue or some other kind of hardware issue that could be causing the problem. When using Amd Am5x86 cpu when I put the L1 cache to write back mode it using a jumper on a motherboard it starts …

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Re: 486 motherboard with lithium barrel battery.

Posted on 2023-07-07, 11:22

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would remove it and use an external battery, most of the time there is a designated 4-pin header for that. Should be located close to the battery. 4-pin with one key (missing pin). Also set the battery type jumper accordingly. Wasn’t there a project around here for a pcb that allowed a coin cell …

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486 motherboard with lithium barrel battery.

Posted on 2023-07-07, 02:54

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I got a 486 motheboard recently that has sixe 1/2 AA 3.6V lithium barrel battery so there is no any leakage at least yet. The battery is non rechargeable and seems to be glued to the motherboard in addition to being soldered to it. When the system is turned on multimeter shows 3.7V at the terminals …

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Re: 386 motherboard with Tseng labs isa cards issue.

Posted on 2023-07-01, 02:56

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Conversely, why care so much about using hidden refresh? It's not that significant of an improvement. I'd just keep the Tseng I have this 386 build https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=71768 and I was considering switching the motherboard that has the hidden refresh option to that system because …

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Re: 386 motherboard with Tseng labs isa cards issue.

Posted on 2023-06-30, 11:36

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can you test with only bank 0 filled? And then swap with the other 4 SIMMs and try again. My reasoning is that maybe one group of SIMMs you have there doesn't support hidden refresh (even though all the FPM chips I've seen do support it). There is nothing wrong with the memory on his motherboard, …

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Re: 386 motherboard with Tseng labs isa cards issue.

Posted on 2023-06-28, 19:52

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can you post a screenshot of that particular CMOS setup screen you referred to? Could be bad menory or also a flaky BIOS ROM chip. If you can identify your board (via the BIOS string) you might be able to burn a new BIOS. Found some potential boards: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/?showImages …

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Re: 386 motherboard with Tseng labs isa cards issue.

Posted on 2023-06-28, 19:30

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can you post a screenshot of that particular CMOS setup screen you referred to? Could be bad menory or also a flaky BIOS ROM chip. If you can identify your board (via the BIOS string) you might be able to burn a new BIOS. Found some potential boards: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/?showImages …

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Re: 386 motherboard with Tseng labs isa cards issue.

Posted on 2023-06-28, 19:03

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Vesa modes in pcpbench dont have any corruption and corruption in speedsys looks like this: Filename speedsys corruption.jpg File size 927.53 KiB Views 790 views

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386 motherboard with Tseng labs isa cards issue.

Posted on 2023-06-28, 18:14

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have been testing a 386 motherboard that I got recently and I have a bit of a strange issue with it. It has ami bios and it has refresh normal/hidden option in bios which I assume is for ram refresh. System runs slower if I set it to normal and more like normal 386 33Mhz speeds when I set the …

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Re: Older PCI gpu in newer system.

Posted on 2023-06-25, 00:43

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

You need the patch 1.02 of FF7 to use an Nvidia card, tick the Tnt to disable the paletted textures check, so all tests will pass. http://ffsf.aaron-kelley.net/patch.html You also need a particular version of the Nvidia drivers. For me the version 81.85 works well in Windows XP. With version 307, …

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Roland SC-55 with rom 2.00 related question.

Posted on 2023-06-24, 16:26

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I got my hands on a Roland SC-55 at local recycling center. I changed the battery inside and checked the rom version when I got home and it was 2.00 rom version. it is not MK2 but MK1 with 2.00 rom if I have understood correctly. I read in other threads that rom 2.00 is not ideal for old games. …

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Re: When did on board sound on motherboards equal in sound quality to older sound cards?

Posted on 2023-06-23, 21:16

by

by Baoran

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Not sure how trustworthy those specs the manufacturers say are but for the X-FI card SNR is suppose to be 109dB while motherboard manufacturer advertises 115dB SNR Of course when motherboard is 10 years old and sound blaster x-fi is 15 years old the caps in either of them might not be as good as new …

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