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ECS Elite UM8810PAIO REV:2.1

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First post, by rgart

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Just wondering how do you guys rate these boards?

Are they decent for overclocking and is the support for the AMD 586-133 ADZ/ADW and Cyrix 5x86 chips ok?

The manual mentions a "VR-100/VR-102 installed" for voltages other than 5V. What exactly is a VR-100/102?

Also the manual states 3x is the maximum multiplier for the board but can you squeeze 4x out of it?

Just my luck to get dodgy silk screen on the MB......

4ugtcn.jpg
24obrjt.jpg

Reply 1 of 107, by feipoa

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I have not used this particular motherboard since I had a strong tendency in the past to only pursue PCI 486 boards with a PS/2 mouse connector.

rgart wrote:

Also the manual states 3x is the maximum multiplier for the board but can you squeeze 4x out of it?

All 486 motherboards only send a single bit instruction for CLKMUL to the CPU. The motherboard does not do any multiplication of internal CPU frequencies, it can only tell the CPU high or low. For example, the motherboard jumper setting (CLKMUL) for 2x tells the CPU to multiply the [motherboard's] front-side bus by 2x. The motherboard jumper setting for 3x tells the CPU to multiply the FSB by 3x. The 4x motherboard jumper setting is the same as the 2x jumper setting. Likewise, 3x / 1x settings are the same. It is up to the CPU to how it wants to interpret the CLKMUL request jumper. The CPU has a phase-lock loop multiplier circuit inside to multiply the motherboard's frequencies. The motherboard itself also has a phase-lock loop multiplier chip, but it is for multiplying the crystal oscillator frequency to create various FSB frequencies, i.e. 25, 33, 40, and 50 MHz.

AMD X5/5x86 CPUs interpret 2x as 4x and 3x as 3x, that is, these chips can only multiply the FSB by 3x or 4x. This is entirely independent of the motherboard. Most Cyrix 5x86 CPUs can run at 2x and 3x, while some rarer Cyrix chips can run at 3x and 4x via the CLKMUL command. There are some software programs for the Cyrix 5x86 that write to the CPU's internal registers to allow it to run at 1x instead of 3x. The same software will allow a Cyrix 4x capable chip to run at 1x, 2x, 3x, and 4x, but they have to be set in a certain order as identified in Cyrix 5x86 documentation. If you require further information on this, refer to the links in my signature.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 2 of 107, by DonutKing

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I had some strange problems with this board.

At first it wouldn't recognise a 5x86 (in POST would just say 486 ??? MHz) and would crash.

I upgraded to latest BIOS and that fixed the issue, but then I just could not get any sound cards working... AWE64 problems
I had a second board which I sold to squallstrife and he couldn't get it going either.

If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.

Reply 4 of 107, by Anonymous Coward

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I don't have much experience with Phoenix BIOS, but your board was generally regarded as being pretty good, especially the last revision which works well with the 5x86 chips. It sounds like the BIOS you've installed could be trash. Are there any others you can try?

Also, what kind of soundcards are you trying?

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 5 of 107, by SquallStrife

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DonutKing wrote:

I had a second board which I sold to squallstrife and he couldn't get it going either.

Yeah that board was weird. I tried all different configurations including 5x86/DX4 Overdrive/DX2, RAM SIMMs of all different sizes, L2 cache chips of different sizes, but nothing was ever "quite right".

HIMEM.SYS would occasionally not load due to some error, Windows 95 installation would get to random points during the installation and hard lock, very strange.

VogonsDrivers.com | Link | News Thread

Reply 6 of 107, by feipoa

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That sounds like my experience with HOT-433 boards - perhaps a characteristic of early UMC 8881/8886 chipset boards?

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 7 of 107, by rgart

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Thanks for the advice.

It has made me eager to have a shot with this board and see if I can get it potentially stable with a high end 486 CPU.

Just waiting to find myself an AT case and PSU.

Reply 8 of 107, by rgart

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So the UM8810 arrived.

However In the manual at 3-20 talking about voltage. What is that in the picture...What is a VR-100 or VR-102?

I have to find one of these things to set the voltage to 3.6? ........

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Reply 9 of 107, by feipoa

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It is refering to the style of voltage regulator used for the CPU voltages on the motherboard's PCB. I guess the board maker had two options, but I do not see that the jumper settings are different for each regulator type. Do you have a high res. image of your board, taken normal to the surface? From the small slanty image show in the OP, I do not even see a voltage regulator on your board.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 10 of 107, by rgart

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Unfortunately I don't have my camera at the moment and my phone takes a lousy photo.

basically it seems this connection on the motherboard is for the voltage regulator VR100 and VR102 and I didn't get one with the motherboard.

hehe what a pain.

98an9h.jpg

Reply 11 of 107, by feipoa

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If your motherboard doesn't have a voltage regulator for the CPU, but has a connector for one, you'll need to figure out the pin which corresponds to 5 V, the pin for the CPU voltage input, and which pins, if any, lead to the voltage set resistors. If the voltage set resistors were on the voltage regulator add-on, then you'll need to figure out which resistors you need yourself and solder it up. There are probably 3 voltage set resistors. A good place to start is with this article, Modifying a Motherboard's Voltage Regulator Circuit. There is a PDF at the bottom of the thread here,

Modifying your motherboard's voltage regulator for overclocking

By the way, I have never seen a PCI 486 motherboard which requires an external plug-in voltage regulator board to some motherboard-specific connector like this. It seems like another revision of this board has the voltage regulator soldered onto the PCB, shown here,

http://www.amoretro.de/ebay/2013/02/um8810paio.jpg

BTW, it is a lot easier to work on test motherboards when they are out of the case.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 12 of 107, by rgart

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I'm not sure if soldering, installing resistors and adjusting a circuit board in such a way is in my skill set. I have no experience 😜

Here's a close up pic of JP10 which is a kind of connector.

I have copy and pasted the last entry in the manual which is in regards to setting the voltage with JP10. See below.

Seems like this board from 1995 has no on board voltage regulator - I really picked a bad board 🙁

No VR-100 and VR-102 on ebay - this will take some time.....

51r7mb.jpg

MANUAL LAST ENTRY:

CPU VOLTAGE

Setting

JP10

3.3v

VR-100/VR-102 installed

3.45v

VR-100/VR-102 installed

3.6v

VR-100/VR-102 installed

4v

VR-100/VR-102 installed

5v

1 & 2, 3 & 4, 5 & 6, 7 & 8, 9 & 10, 11& 12, 13 & 14, 15 & 16, 17 & 18, 19 & 20

Note: Pins designated should be in the closed position.

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/E/EL … ml#.UYJq_ErxRD0

See an earlier revision had JP31 to set voltage. My board is missing that jumper. See the bottom of this link. http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/E/EL … ml#.UYKlqkrxRD0

Off topic and on a happier note here is the new case I scored:

Whipped out the Pentium 166MMX board and chip.

fx8dxj.jpg

Last edited by rgart on 2013-05-03, 03:02. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 13 of 107, by feipoa

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Your other option is to use a socket 2/3 voltage regulator interposer board, like those which come with the Gainbery IBM 5x86 chips.

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Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 14 of 107, by Mau1wurf1977

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Nice!

For a long time I thought my Acer 486 couldn't handle DX2 and DX4 chips but then I found a guide on YT involving a volt metre and two wires. Once I had the right jumper setting figured out and confirmed the lower Voltage is was working 100% 😀

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Reply 17 of 107, by rgart

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dirkmirk wrote:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3-Vintage-CPU-Inte … 1#ht_500wt_1288

That AM5x86 P75 might be exactly what you need.

what makes you say that dirk?

Reply 18 of 107, by Mau1wurf1977

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rgart wrote:

what makes you say that dirk?

If you look closely you can see that that CPU is inserted into a little PCB. There are also jumpers sticking out.

It's a conversion board with VRM and specifically for upgrade customers like you 😁

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Reply 19 of 107, by rgart

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It seems the cpu is surface mounted

"Hi,

This is the surface-mounted Am5x86-P75, the model is DS91465.

It is mounted onto a socket 3 converter with a voltage regulator."

its of no use to me then correct?