Did you Try removing the AWE32 and changing the CPU?

Have you tuned the BIOS settings?

I'm with feipoa, have you tried removing all but the bare essentials and seeing if you can exit the BIOS without freezing? Unplug all devices including CD-ROM, floppies etc and just see if you have any issues with just the VGA card?

I noticed it looks like you have a IDE-CF card in there, maybe the first thing is to unplug that to see if it's causing the issue?

No BIOS changes, I'm using defaults, I tried removing the card and changing the CPU to a 33 MHz one and the same thing happened 🙁
The CF-IDE adapter is there but it's not connected to anything, great eyes 😀

One of the times it gave me an error on startup saying there was a problem with the hard disk controller, does this VLB controllers go bad often? This will be my second one in a few months. All I have now are ISA ones, I will try with one of that and see how that goes...

DOSBox is so much easier than this! 😜

b_rros wrote:

All I have now are ISA ones, I will try with one of that and see how that goes...

DOSBox is so much easier than this! 😜

I've never heard of VLB ide controllers going bad, but fixing hardware issues is the fun part of building systems 😀 And it also gives you an excuse to load up on "spare" hardware just in case! Like buying more VLB controllers because the original one might be bad 😉

ok, it's definitely a cpu problem, I resetead the VLB controller and change the IDE cable and the message about the HD controller went away.
I then tried with a different CPU, a 486 DX 33 MHz and the PC booted just fine and reset worked again, as soon as I put the DX2 on it again the problem reappeared...

Could there be some BIOS setting that is causing this? Because the computer works just fine, I've been playing DOOM without a problem, It just hangs in the reset process...

Could you provide more information as to which CPU brands you are testing? I recall having an Am5x86-133 which would not soft reset. Repacing the CPU for another Am5x86-133 corrected the problem. Could you try a different DX2? Try another DX2 of the same brand and a DX2 of a different brand.

It's an Intel 486 DX2 SX645, I googled a bit and read that this model doesn't include SL features and does not support write-back, so mabe there's some setting in the BIOS I must deactivate, I turned off a few options regarding power management but the same thing happened...

I do have another DX2 processor, it came with a IBM computer, I didn't remember that I had this one, I tried and reset worked just fine, I can't see what model it is because the heatsink is glued to the processor. Oh! And the processor is detectec by the motherboard as 66 MHz one

The CPU with "i50" on the bottom is more than likely a 50MHz part. Probably overclocking to 66 isn't going to be a big problem.

Yes, it's a DX2 50 MHz, it was from an old IBM...

That's what I'm doing right now, and so far so good, I was never a overclocker, but it's never to late 😀

I will try to buy another DX2 66 later on

It could also be a jumper setting on the motherboard. I have a 486 motherboard that has a jumper for setting SL CPU or Non-SL CPU. Usually the CMOS setup screen in these 486 motherboards is a bit limited and a lot of the actual config has to be done with jumpers.