Internals, front and rear of the computer.

I might experiment with an Audigy to see if I can get optical sound output in 98. Right now I use this machine and my XP Xeon system on a DVI switchbox and take optical sound from the XP machine into a usb converter to my main pc so I can hear the sound through my cordless Sony headphones. That machine has an optical in so it would be no problem to daisy chain this to it.

I've also been trying out a lot of old games from the 95/98 era that I didn't play at the time and am looking for suggestions! So if you have any favorites that you don't see in my installed list in the first post, please suggest them!

It’s the fun of over-clocking the K6-3+ CPU. It’s probably the CPU that Died.
I have mine running @ 500mhz and 550mhz. Just fine.
Very reliable.
But I think I need better CPU coolers too.
Try with different CPU to know which component was the problem.

@pete8475: What was the voltage set for CPU?

kixs wrote on 2023-08-29, 18:49:

@pete8475: What was the voltage set for CPU?

2.1V according to the jumper info I can find online. http://txp4.narod.ru/acorp/5ali61/jumpers.html

Looking at the lid of the CPU it does say 2.0V. I think I set this machine aside because it wasn't posting all the time and I got frustrated with it.

I don't remember putting it to 2.1V but I guess I did trying to get it to work more reliably all those months ago. Oh well.

I set my CPUs to what ever the CPU lid reads. I Don’t over voltage as I found there is NO need to Over voltage the K6 CPU.
You can over clock with-out boosting the voltage up.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2023-08-29, 20:24:

I set my CPUs to what ever the CPU lid reads. I Don’t over voltage as I found there is NO need to Over voltage the K6 CPU.
You can over clock with-out boosting the voltage up.

TBH I don't even remember setting it to that.

I either did that or the seller said to set it to that, unfortunately too much time has gone by for my old brain to remember and I can't see the details of ebay auctions that old.

I've run 2.0 volt K6-+ CPUs at 2.4 volts with good cooling for years, 2.1 volt shouldn't be a problem at all. I ran my 1.6 volt K6-3+ 400 at 2.4 volts for some time, it survived unscathed. Maybe its life span was reduced, but at this time it still works fine.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-08-29, 21:26:

I've run 2.0 volt K6-+ CPUs at 2.4 volts with good cooling for years, 2.1 volt shouldn't be a problem at all. I ran my 1.6 volt K6-3+ 400 at 2.4 volts for some time, it survived unscathed. Maybe its life span was reduced, but at this time it still works fine.

I think the CPU/mobo was iffy from the start, I probably stopped using it because it wasn't always posting and then subsequently forgot about it for most of the year. I have plenty of other reliable retro gear though so it's no big loss just kind of annoying. Oh well.

It would be nice if any of my usb 2.0 pci cards worked in this P3 though, none of them even show up in device manager.

Is the mobo recapped? All those SS7 mobo were flackey from the start with VIA/Ali chipset and are worst now because of the capacitor plague of their time. On the second pic, although not hires, i see one that may be a little odd on the top close to the CPU.

Xanxi wrote on 2023-08-30, 20:03:

Is the mobo recapped? All those SS7 mobo were flackey from the start with VIA/Ali chipset and are worst now because of the capacitor plague of their time. On the second pic, although not hires, i see one that may be a little odd on the top close to the CPU.

Original caps, all are quite flat on top. Obviously that doesn't necessarily mean they are good though.

Maybe worth a recap.

About the voltage to apply to these CPU, members who gave advices on previous post are probably right with 25 years experience, but at the time i did +0.1 to +0.2V when overclocking my K6-II, then K6-III+ to ensure to get them stable and i got no problem (no more than usual SS7 instability though).

After all, if you are using a Pentium III rig instead, you are loosing nothing. I had AMD at that time because it was the poor man choice and some hardware reviews try and convinced me that K6-II and K6-III were good competitors for Intel but that was terribly wrong. The whole SS7 platform was flawed. K6-III maybe a nice CPU though, but one could enjoy his rig way better with a Pentium II / Pentium III / Celeron.

Resetting cmos sometimes solves weird issues like this. Also ram.

Yea,caps and psu are on my mind as possibles.

K6-3+ is good for a "slow", highly adjustable system you can use to throttle between a 386 and a fast PII. Quake3 should be played on something a little newer.

Additionally, 30 year old PSUs need their caps replaced, same for motherboards.

PSU tests good on my tester and is in the P3.

I have about a half dozen of that model of Coolermaster power supply and all have been working reliably since new.

pete8475 wrote on 2023-08-31, 02:07:

PSU tests good on my tester and is in the P3.

I have about a half dozen of that model of Coolermaster power supply and all have been working reliably since new.

PSU testers test for voltage -- that's it. CPUs are sensitive integrated circuits that require a very clean DC power input. If your voltages read good but the PSU is passing through too much AC ripple, you will have issues. The things you need to inspect are the PSU (in particular, the secondary part which houses the output filter capacitors)and the VRM high and low capacitors. Maybe your gear is up to par, maybe it isn't. But it makes diagnosing much, much easier this way.

mockingbird wrote on 2023-08-31, 03:41:

pete8475 wrote on 2023-08-31, 02:07:

PSU tests good on my tester and is in the P3.

I have about a half dozen of that model of Coolermaster power supply and all have been working reliably since new.

PSU testers test for voltage -- that's it. CPUs are sensitive integrated circuits that require a very clean DC power input. If your voltages read good but the PSU is passing through too much AC ripple, you will have issues. The things you need to inspect are the PSU (in particular, the secondary part which houses the output filter capacitors)and the VRM high and low capacitors. Maybe your gear is up to par, maybe it isn't. But it makes diagnosing much, much easier this way.

I’m not looking for a diagnosis. That modded processor was kind of shit from day one. Earlier today I put a plain k6-2 in the board and it posts 10/10 times, something that “k6-3” never did. Also caps visually look fine in the power supply and the p3 is running without issue.

Anyway the whole point of this post originally was to hopefully get some old game recommendations, so anyone got any suggestions for dos/98 that I should check out?

2.1v will not harm that CPU in anyway. Its rated to 2.2v. CPU was probably binned correctly at 570mhz 128k cache or whatever it was to begin with. It seems that the 570mhz run was a good one in terms of clock speed yields but a lot of people reported the 256k L2 cache mod didn't have as good yields and some people reported they couldn't get to 600 stable. You might of got one of Mids in the batch. Not a bad sample but not a great sample either and its just revealing itself as such and it just cant handle the OC + cache mod and is unstable even though it seems to woork.

I would of stress test it with super PI and some other things like that to see if actually is the CPU and not the board.

Warlord wrote on 2023-08-31, 05:28:

2.1v will not harm that CPU in anyway. Its rated to 2.2v. CPU was probably binned correctly at 570mhz 128k cache or whatever it was to begin with. It seems that the 570mhz run was a good one in terms of clock speed yields but a lot of people reported the 256k L2 cache mod didn't have as good yields and some people reported they couldn't get to 600 stable. You might of got one of Mids in the batch. Not a bad sample but not a great sample either and its just revealing itself as such and it just cant handle the OC + cache mod and is unstable even though it seems to woork.

I would of stress test it with super PI and some other things like that to see if actually is the CPU and not the board.

The data I have (compiled in the first post of the mod thread) shows that almost all 570s will unlock to 256k and overclock to 600 mhz.

I suspect OP’s board still. Or maybe physical damage of the cpu from the mod. It is possible that the cpu is at fault. But that can be checked by disabling l2 in software if OP can get it to post. Or reversing the mod. And underclocking

The bios sometimes locks up when going back and forth or changing settings on these cpus I have seen this on my motherboards a few times.

Be sure that the bios is updated for these cpus. Check the diy bios modding support thread with Jan.

Anyway, OP has demonstrated that the psu is working on the p3 and so is the rest of the system including I assume cards and ram? (Would have to read back.)

Anyway, at this point, with the discription of the failure as sudden in a game board caps, bios corruption, or cpu physical damage come to mind, though I would expect physical damage to happen while servicing the unit. So less likely with the description.

If OP finds motivation, try the cpu in a different board, and re cap the main board would be my next steps to try.

. Even with a vanilla one working, the plus cpus are different and if the board can’t handle that maybe a different board can.