swaaye wrote:

Like I said the VIA AGP driver will sometimes change AGP settings regardless of the BIOS settings. He should check out what AGP driver is running on there. I've seen this firsthand with VIA MVP3, a chipset of similar AGP2x vintage and horribleness.

And I don't like any of VIA's chipsets. Keep em away. 😁

Bit offtopic but I'm curious, what chipsets do you like?

I like most of Intel's and NVIDIA's chipsets. And once you get into K8 territory, AMD's chipsets get good too. This hardware usually "just works" and it's also usually quite fast.

VIA chipsets are trouble when you are looking at Socket 7 through Socket A. K7 chipsets will at at best be slow compared to nForce 2. Once you get into the K8 era, VIA's stuff does become pretty good, but that's probably because AMD put a big part of the northbridge hardware into the CPU. Their southbridge chips are rather lame though and weren't kept up to date, and they still have slow PATA that you can literally feel if you try taking the same drive across platforms.

The AGP on VIA chipsets from the Socket 7 and Slot 1 days is so bad that it is a lost cause IMO. Put a Voodoo3/5 on there and save yourself headaches. There used to be websites with user reports on which cards did and didn't work on these boards. Most cards won't work 100% reliably. VIA AGP drivers and some graphics card drivers would reprogram the chipset to run in AGP 1x mode without sideband to try to make cards work, which is probably what Amigaz has going on.

And then there were also the wonderful PCI problems on those Super 7 / Slot 1 boards too! 😁

But I do like their K8 stuff. It works. The PATA is still slow because of their lacking southbridge chips though.

There are some not so great chipsets from every company though. I had problems with nForce4's NIC and PCI hardware. AMD has had poor SATA and USB performance. And some of the old Intel chipsets from the 486, Pentium and Pentium Pro days do have lots of quirks.

My plan is to keep the PC as it was with the hardware I had back then but I'd still like to experiment with other gfx cards to see which card that will run at full speed.

I found the AGP 2X mode in the BIOS...and it's set to 2X

Amigaz wrote:

.....

I found the AGP 2X mode in the BIOS...and it's set to 2X

Amigaz wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Amigaz wrote:

The quick specs are wrong...please d/l and read the mobo manual 😀

I can confirm that it won't take 2x 512mb RAM and different utils such as cpu-z report that the AGP port is runing at 1X

But that might not mean the slot itself is incapable of running at 2x. Check the BIOS, might be something in it 😉

Have checked that...no options even with the latest BIOS 😜

Now I'm puzzled 😵

You told us earlier that the BIOS did not have the option to set AGP to 2x. and now it does?
And btw, I read the manual you linked to in your OP, and it said AGP 2x right there also.
Maybe it's time for you to finally get those reading glasses? 😜 😜 😜

Anyway, seems your problem with the AGP is solved now, my guess would be swaaye hit the right nail on the head 😉
And he's right about the Voodoo's also, it's why I prefer Voodoo's in those boards also.

Tetrium wrote:

Now I'm puzzled :dead: […]
Show full quote

Amigaz wrote:

.....

I found the AGP 2X mode in the BIOS...and it's set to 2X

Amigaz wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

But that might not mean the slot itself is incapable of running at 2x. Check the BIOS, might be something in it 😉

Have checked that...no options even with the latest BIOS 😜

Now I'm puzzled 😵

You told us earlier that the BIOS did not have the option to set AGP to 2x. and now it does?
And btw, I read the manual you linked to in your OP, and it said AGP 2x right there also.
Maybe it's time for you to finally get those reading glasses? 😜 😜 😜

Anyway, seems your problem with the AGP is solved now, my guess would be swaaye hit the right nail on the head 😉
And he's right about the Voodoo's also, it's why I prefer Voodoo's in those boards also.

Had missed that setting...

btw. I actually bought better reading glasses today 😀 (not kidding)
Think I had some dirt on my old glasses in the area where you were suppose to see the AGP 1X/2X setting 😁
I'm getting older I guess since my eye sight is getting worse and worse 😜

Amigaz wrote:

Had missed that setting... […]
Show full quote

Tetrium wrote:

Now I'm puzzled :dead: […]
Show full quote

Amigaz wrote:

.....

I found the AGP 2X mode in the BIOS...and it's set to 2X

Amigaz wrote:

Have checked that...no options even with the latest BIOS 😜

Now I'm puzzled 😵

You told us earlier that the BIOS did not have the option to set AGP to 2x. and now it does?
And btw, I read the manual you linked to in your OP, and it said AGP 2x right there also.
Maybe it's time for you to finally get those reading glasses? 😜 😜 😜

Anyway, seems your problem with the AGP is solved now, my guess would be swaaye hit the right nail on the head 😉
And he's right about the Voodoo's also, it's why I prefer Voodoo's in those boards also.

Had missed that setting...

btw. I actually bought better reading glasses today 😀 (not kidding)
Think I had some dirt on my old glasses in the area where you were suppose to see the AGP 1X/2X setting 😁
I'm getting older I guess since my eye sight is getting worse and worse 😜

Actually you need way better reading glasses as you still you haven't noticed my post 😉
btw quoting is fun 😉

@robertmo

The more you nag/spam the less reluctant am I to do this, I don't know if you've read what I've said earlier?

Please let someone with time and interest in dosbox development to test their SB1.0, I don't use it or plan to use it so I feel no urge to take time to dig out my SB card in the basement, try and get it working in a PC when you don't even say the word "please" and act with no respect and call me names

Sorry for calling you names.

The thing is that no one else has sb 1.0. So no one but you can test it. And you don't want to sell or borrow it.

The important thing about the DSP version number is more a general question not a dosbox thing (actually dosbox doesn't need it)

We know that prototype sb has version 1.03
We know that SB 1.5 ct-1320B and C have 1.05
we know nothing about ct1320A and that is important as if it is for example 1.03 we will know that this card is the same as prototype.
If it will be 1.05 we will know that it is the same as sb 1.5 (so it is definitely not sb 1.0 !)
If it will be 1.04 we will know that it is something different.
Generally the question is whether it is really sb 1.0 or whether there is still sb 1.0 somewhere we know nothing about and we have to look for it.

So the question is about card history. You should be interested in it too to know what you have 😀

And come on... Digging it out from the basement cannot be that time consuming. 😀

robertmo wrote:

Amigaz does this mean you never played DOS games??

Anyway can you check your Sound Blaster 1.0 DSP version on it?

So robertmo, whats the deal with this anyway?

It seems to keep coming back and I have no idea what this is about (I'm still kinda new to these forums mind you 😜 )

I love the SCALEO letters (is that Arial?).

samudra wrote:

I love the SCALEO letters (is that Arial?).

Taking another look at that FS case, funny they put a mATX board in a full ATX tower.
Anyway, those FS cases are the better cases out of the oem bunch and atleast they used proper install media for XP

swaaye wrote:

Oh not a nasty VIA P3 chipset. Eeek. I suggest you install George Breese's VIA PCI patch.

BTW, it's not special that the board needs low density 256MB sticks. Most SDRAM chipsets don't have support for higher density RAM chips.

Hey! I have an Abit VP6 dual P3 mb with the VIA chipset.

Eh Amigaz, you put that box in the compost pile or are you reliving terrible framerates and instability? 😁

He should keep the case, those cases are quite decent ;D

And who knows, maybe one of these days those boards might actually become worth something.

or maybe not 😜

Anyway, no reason to toss the board while Amigaz still enjoys it and besides, atleast it's not a pc-craps board...I ment pc-chips ofcourse! Nor is it a throw-away, I meant jetway board.

Personally, I'd rather have a crappy chipset on a quality board then a good chipset on a crappy board. You can choose to install different drivers but you can't choose to install a thicker PCB 😜
AND...that VIA board is better then Intel LX chipset also!!1

And it's a slot 1 that supports coppermines...ah, the good stuff just never stops with that board hehe 😁

Tetrium wrote:

samudra wrote:

I love the SCALEO letters (is that Arial?).

Taking another look at that FS case, funny they put a mATX board in a full ATX tower.
Anyway, those FS cases are the better cases out of the oem bunch and atleast they used proper install media for XP

I guess they even tried to squeeze a few more $$ by using the mATX mobo

Agree about the case...it's very sturdy

swaaye wrote:

Eh Amigaz, you put that box in the compost pile or are you reliving terrible framerates and instability? 😁

hehe, no way it's going in the comp. pile 😁

Actually it's very stable, but back in the day there wasn't Win98SE unofficial service pack, new VIA 4in1 drivers and I probably used crappy RAM

Tetrium wrote:

He should keep the case, those cases are quite decent ;D […]
Show full quote

He should keep the case, those cases are quite decent ;D

And who knows, maybe one of these days those boards might actually become worth something.

or maybe not 😜

Anyway, no reason to toss the board while Amigaz still enjoys it and besides, atleast it's not a pc-craps board...I ment pc-chips ofcourse! Nor is it a throw-away, I meant jetway board.

Personally, I'd rather have a crappy chipset on a quality board then a good chipset on a crappy board. You can choose to install different drivers but you can't choose to install a thicker PCB 😜
AND...that VIA board is better then Intel LX chipset also!!1

And it's a slot 1 that supports coppermines...ah, the good stuff just never stops with that board hehe 😁

Yep, keeping is for nostaligic purposes, still after the Live Drive II front panel and the HP burner I use to have in it
Tempted to throw in a P3 933mhz cpu which is the max this board can take but that would ruin it's original crappiness 😁

robertmo wrote:

Sorry for calling you names. […]
Show full quote

Sorry for calling you names.

The thing is that no one else has sb 1.0. So no one but you can test it. And you don't want to sell or borrow it.

The important thing about the DSP version number is more a general question not a dosbox thing (actually dosbox doesn't need it)

We know that prototype sb has version 1.03
We know that SB 1.5 ct-1320B and C have 1.05
we know nothing about ct1320A and that is important as if it is for example 1.03 we will know that this card is the same as prototype.
If it will be 1.05 we will know that it is the same as sb 1.5 (so it is definitely not sb 1.0 !)
If it will be 1.04 we will know that it is something different.
Generally the question is whether it is really sb 1.0 or whether there is still sb 1.0 somewhere we know nothing about and we have to look for it.

So the question is about card history. You should be interested in it too to know what you have 😀

And come on... Digging it out from the basement cannot be that time consuming. 😀

I'll see what I can do when I have time to dig out the card in my basemant
When you're working in the marine business like I do you have very little spare time this time of year in this country 😜

Amigaz wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

samudra wrote:

I love the SCALEO letters (is that Arial?).

Taking another look at that FS case, funny they put a mATX board in a full ATX tower.
Anyway, those FS cases are the better cases out of the oem bunch and atleast they used proper install media for XP

I guess they even tried to squeeze a few more $$ by using the mATX mobo

Agree about the case...it's very sturdy

Yes, but many FS boards of that era are plain full ATX boards! And I found those FS boards are of good quality also. The only FS boards I remember being on my 'avoid' list are the K8 ones, particularly if made by ASUS. Those have the strange tendancy to die for no apparent reason.

Another thing I like about those FS boards is you can install a proper FS-XP on it and you don't even need to bother to activate it online.
Not trying to get in the warez section now but I thought I should mention it.

imo of all the royalty oem XP install media, I think FS is the best one out there. Even works with nlite perfectly fine!
That together with good quality boards and (especially in that era) good quality cases make them a favorite in my book 😀
And FS usually use FSP power supplies, which is also one of the better ones. Only problem is they often use PSU's that are barely enough to power the system (but atleast way better then many of the other oem's that often will put a sub 300W in a P4!)

The only issue I have about some of the cases made by FS is that some don't have a proper reset button.

...and it can be quite a challenge to find any info about discontinued boards on the FS website though everything's still there! If you know where to look...

For a pc and even brand that is considered crap (I can't say this myself, I hardly know anything about OEM except for '90 Packard Bell and Compaq) there is a lot of knowledge about it doing the rounds here.

How does one acquire that knowledge if there is no reason to come close to one?