Ok I tried to load defaults. I don't have optimized - Just system defaults and no change there.

I then tried to change the DMA settings but I don't see anything related to the DMA in the bios. I've included screenshots of the relevant bios settings screens here.

I then realized the motherboard jesolo posted is close but the jumpers are off. I'm not sure how that site works exactly so I just did a search for 495SLC and found this: http://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/U-Z/32085.htm
Its missing the chipset but the jumpers appeared all correct. According to what that sheet says and the jumpers I have stuff is all off? Like the battery is wrong - It says for NiCad which is what has always been in there to close pins 2 & 3 in jumper 29 but I have 1 & 2 closed which is for lithium. For CPU type configuration pins 12 and 14 match up with what the sheet says but jp15 should be closed for a 486 and on mine its open?

Ok. Bios defaults are the optimised or turbo defaults. Try the other defaults, power on defaults.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Ok. Bios defaults are the optimised or turbo defaults. Try the other defaults, power on defaults.

OMG that did it! How did I miss that? Thank you Phil! I wonder what setting was messing it up.

Glad you got it sorted.
What you can do now is to change each BIOS setting until you get the same error.
However, I have a 386 motherboard that also gave me issues after I swopped the 386 CPU out for a Cyrix 486DLC.
Only after I loaded the BIOS setup defaults, would it post. I could then go and change the settings in the BIOS.

Just be very sure of the jumper settings, since you don't want to connect a non chargeable battery if the jumper setting is in the wrong position (lithium is the non chargeable one).
Also bear in mind that a Cyrix 486DLC is usually configured the same way as its 386 counterpart of the same speed (in terms of jumper settings). So, unless the system hangs or doesn't display the CPU correctly in the startup screen, I would leave it as is.

PS: When you have some time, please save the BIOS for me.

Here you go jesolo. If that doesn't work for some reason let me know.

Good news 😀

Well, just like jesolo says, you now need to enable the "speedy" features one by one and see what causes the issue.

Best to have a bootdisk with 3dbench on it and run it each time.

The Power On defaults are super slow, so you definitely don't want to use them for good. You got pictures of the BIOS default settings already, so that should give you a good start with the settings.

After doing testing with the bios I think I've hit my max in 3dBench - 22.7. I added the result to the database. It seems like a normal result. If anyone has any other things to try to bump up the score let me know. The setting that was crashing the computer was enabling hidden refresh. Not sure why this caused this as it looks like it should be a setting that should be enabled on this board.

Here are the settings I used to get the score: http://imgur.com/a/JuxJ2/

It would be interesting to see some benchmark comparisons done on this board with the 486DLC when using VLB vs. ISA graphics cards having the same graphics chipset.

feipoa wrote:

It would be interesting to see some benchmark comparisons done on this board with the 486DLC when using VLB vs. ISA graphics cards having the same graphics chipset.

I was also eager to test this a while back when I got my 3/486 hybrid motherboard (the Dataexpert EXP3406).
I actually tried it on my motherboard with two different VLB graphics cards, but I couldn't get it to post with any of the two VLB graphics cards (got the all too familiar video card error beep code).
I might try again, since I suspect that it just wasn't seated properly (I had the motherboard mounted outside a case).

jesolo wrote:

I was also eager to test this a while back when I got my 3/486 hybrid motherboard (the Dataexpert EXP3406). I actually tried it […]
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feipoa wrote:

It would be interesting to see some benchmark comparisons done on this board with the 486DLC when using VLB vs. ISA graphics cards having the same graphics chipset.

I was also eager to test this a while back when I got my 3/486 hybrid motherboard (the Dataexpert EXP3406).
I actually tried it on my motherboard with two different VLB graphics cards, but I couldn't get it to post with any of the two VLB graphics cards (got the all too familiar video card error beep code).
I might try again, since I suspect that it just wasn't seated properly (I had the motherboard mounted outside a case).

That's odd. Maybe the DLC does not support VLB cards? I have a 386 VLB board and I'm currently using a Trident 9420 VLB card with it and it works fine. Next week a friend promised he'd bring me a Cyrix 486DLC-33 and I'm going to give it a go. This is the board I use:

It's possible, since some users have indicated that some hybrid motherboards' VLB slots do not work if a 386 (or 486DLC) CPU is plugged onto the motherboard.
However, I did actually try it with an Intel 486DX-33 as well and got the same result. Either the motherboard is faulty or, as stated above, it just wasn't seated properly to "pick up" the VLB card.

jesolo wrote:

It's possible, since some users have indicated that some hybrid motherboards' VLB slots do not work if a 386 (or 486DLC) CPU is plugged onto the motherboard.
However, I did actually try it with an Intel 486DX-33 as well and got the same result. Either the motherboard is faulty or, as stated above, it just wasn't seated properly to "pick up" the VLB card.

hmm... mine is not a hybrid board tough - it's a 386 exclusive board. The chipset is Eteq but relabeled "panda" by ECS. Maybe that means that hybrid boards do not support VLB with 386 CPUs but 386 boards with VLB do...

I haven't thrown in the towel yet as the problem could be related to the cards and not necessarily an incompatibility problem with the Cyrix CPU (bearing in mind that it also exhibited the same problem with a real 486 CPU on the same motherboard).

Personally, I don't like to work with VLB cards, purely due to their length, which can sometimes lead to the cards not making proper contact and the fact that one has to be careful when inserting and removing them.

jesolo wrote:

I haven't thrown in the towel yet as the problem could be related to the cards and not necessarily an incompatibility problem with the Cyrix CPU (bearing in mind that it also exhibited the same problem with a real 486 CPU on the same motherboard).

Personally, I don't like to work with VLB cards, purely due to their length, which can sometimes lead to the cards not making proper contact and the fact that one has to be careful when inserting and removing them.

Actually they make better contact then most PCI / ISA cards, once inserted correctly. The problem with VLB is it had no time to mature. Some cards / mainboards are finicky...

Oh well - good luck with your build!

kanecvr- looking forward to your results with the DLC-33 and VLB.

feipoa wrote:

kanecvr- looking forward to your results with the DLC-33 and VLB.

I was too.. unfortunately it turns out it's some weird cyrix cx486 s33 socket 3 cpu 🙁 From what I gather it's a DLC cpu for the 486 socket 🙁 From the description I tought it was a 386 board with a 33MHz DLC cpu - all ISA, only 30 pin simm modules, etc... then I got this picture:

Oh well - I guess I'll keep looking.

The Cx486S was the equivalent of an Intel 486SX CPU (meaning no FPU), but only had 2KB of L1 cache.
This was, however, write-back cache when equivalent CPU's of the time still used write-through cache.
The Cx486DLC was actually based on this CPU.

There was also a 486DLC with 8KB of L1 cache - the 486SXL

I'd also reseat any reseatable chip on the board and expansion cards.

feipoa wrote:

There was also a 486DLC with 8KB of L1 cache - the 486SXL

I've always been meaning to get hold of a Ti486SXL, to compare the performance against my Cx486DLC.
Unfortunately, these CPU's have become scarce and when I do find one, their prices are usually too high for me to make it worthwhile to buy.