Re: P5VPX97 - Cache Memory

Posted on 2023-09-17, 18:17

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

With this jumper in the wrong position the system wouldn´t boot. But I would not be surprised if "rasz_pl" had a point (wouldn´t be the first time). You are using the SD-RAM slots. SD-RAM is faster than DRAM and the speed difference between SD-RAM and L2 cache can get quite small (depending on the …

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486-VE4 EISA Motherboard

Posted on 2023-09-17, 11:07

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So you´re booting DOS from HD? Have you tried booting DOS fom floppy (with no HD attached) and running EISA cfg? EISA config might be unable to handle "non-A:\" paths I´m afraid.

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486-VE4 EISA Motherboard

Posted on 2023-09-17, 07:48

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Before running the EISA utility, have you entered BIOS setup and configured everything like time, date, boot order etc? Can you save these settings without getting any error message?

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486-VE4 EISA Motherboard

Posted on 2023-09-17, 07:04

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not exactly new - it was made in 1994. But if the battery still works it´s o.k. Does the utility write the config file on the floppy disk when you try to save the configuration? And why is there a keyboard error being reported?

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Re: Which one of theese Pentium 1 motherboards would you recommend me to buy?

Posted on 2023-09-16, 09:29

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The last one, FIC PA-2010+, does have 512K pipline-burst L2 cache and it can run a K6-2 or K6-III @ 500 MHz (6x83.33) But here I´d probably also prefer the MSI with 3 x SD-RAM slots.

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Re: P5VPX97 - Cache Memory

Posted on 2023-09-16, 09:08

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does the BIOS summary screen report "512KB cache"? If it does this might be because it just reads the jumpering (R11, R12) or because the 2 x 256K cache chips are functional, but L2 cache doesn´t work due to a defective TAG-RAM chip (UT61M256JC-12). Have you reflashed BIOS with the latest version? …

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Re: P5VPX97 - Cache Memory

Posted on 2023-09-15, 22:35

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you have a picture where both cache chips can be seen - and the TAG-RAM chip?

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486-VE4 EISA Motherboard

Posted on 2023-09-15, 18:04

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How come the configuration utility detects everything correctly, but gives you "Realtimeclock - Reserved"? Can you edit this line?

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Re: Best BIOS for PC-Chips M919?

Posted on 2023-09-15, 17:51

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

- CTCM doesn´t report correctly here, if you run "cachechk" you see the MBs that don´t get cached: 56-64MB. All the rest is o.k. This probably is some BIOS bug... - I replaced all the 10µF 25V caps by 47µF 63V Rubycon ZL. The 330µF near the "COAST" slot is now 1000µF and the 10µF for 3.3V left of …

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Re: Best BIOS for PC-Chips M919?

Posted on 2023-09-15, 17:13

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi there, Jan. VLB video is garbled and memory test stops at 64MB and jumps to 128MB with "memory test fail" with the FordLian BIOS. With 1MB L2 cache installed, PCI video does not work. Without any cache stick PCI video works, 256MB RAM are detected and it reports 256K cache at the summary screen, …

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486-VE4 EISA Motherboard

Posted on 2023-09-14, 18:13

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The VE-V is the same chipset, has EISA + 2 x VLB, it can be configured for up to 1MB L2 cache, so the BIOS and .cfg will probably be different. There´s only the .cfg. file, no overlay - bus this is not unusual.

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486-VE4 EISA Motherboard

Posted on 2023-09-14, 16:30

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you installed the .cfg (and .ovl) files for the mainboard itself and all present EISA cards? If you did and it finished without error, the EISA configuration is probably not stored correctly. And of course you need to replace the battery ("Dallas-Mod"). "Battery state low" usually means empty. …

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Re: FIC 486-GAC-2 and mystery proprietary cache module - Help needed

Posted on 2023-09-14, 14:07

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I added two pictures above after cleaning the stick. rasz_pl, do VT82C486A and VT82C496G share the same pinout? I have most of the FIC mainboards with this chipset here, so I could do the measuring. The two 244 buffer chips are on the cache-stick here - we need to measure between the chipset and the …

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486-VE4 EISA Motherboard

Posted on 2023-09-14, 11:53

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What happens when you boot into DOS and run the EISA-config utility ("ecu207.exe")? As far as I remember all is done with that utility, at POST/boot the 486-VE4 looks just like some non-EISA 486 mainboard.

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Best BIOS for PC-Chips M919?

Posted on 2023-09-14, 07:27

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

At the moment I´m experimenting with different BIOS files for my M919 V3.3B/F. I replaced the 4 x 30-pin SIMM sockets with 2 x 72-pin sockets, because 72-pin sticks are cheaper and because I would like to have 256MB EDO RAM. It´s basically a 3.4B/F now and I can keep the fake "Write Back" cache …

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Re: Cyrix 5x86 120 GP - Asus 486SV2GX4

Posted on 2023-09-13, 17:40

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The benchmarks look brilliant! Do you run the CPU @ 3 x 40 MHz? With this chipset (mobo doesn´t matter too much) and an AMD 5x86 4 x 40 MHz you still stay quite a bit below these speeds (about 145/60/45).

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Re: GA-586DX USB pinout scheme

Posted on 2023-09-10, 18:50

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That´s probably the case! A lot of more modern PCI cards don´t work or don´t work properly on this board. This BIOS supports SMP and everything, maybe they snatched some tables and data to make it fit. As long as this issue isn´t sorted you don´t have to bother about the continuity of the data …

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Re: GA-586DX USB pinout scheme

Posted on 2023-09-10, 18:41

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What I meant was if +5v supply and ground are confirmed and the BIOS supports and enables USB and USB still does not work it´s useful to check if the datalines are connected to the south bridge. Therefore you neet to set your multimeter to "resistance" or "ohms" (2K range). Then you start with pin …

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Re: GA-586DX USB pinout scheme

Posted on 2023-09-10, 14:43

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

SU903 supports USB. Sometimes there are additional components on the mainboard in the signal lines like resistors (about 22R) and capacitors that might be missing when the USB header was not populated. You can check each of the 4 lines for continuity (Ohmmeter) to make sure all lines are connected …

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Re: Ha-586DX USB pinout scheme

Posted on 2023-09-10, 11:34

by

by majestyk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

First make sure the revision of the southbridge (SB82371SB) supports USB. It´s the characters above the "INTEL Ⓜ ©" line, right of the large "i" logo. Then you need to do sme measuring: 1. Which of the pins of the USB headers are "ground"? 2. Which of the pins of the USB headers are "+5V"? 3. Are …

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