I don't know much about 3Dfx cards but if I'm not mistaken, the Voodoo1 doesn't use an IRQ channel. Not sure about DMA.
I wonder if the fact that it doesn't need those resources might be why it's getting detected, while the other cards aren't.
Perhaps there's some problem happening with allocating resources to the expansion cards. Does the BIOS need you to assign any of that stuff manually?

What onboard devices does it have? Which of them aren't necessary? Can you turn them off?

Yuck that from factor, I am surprised that you are getting this issue but this is another reason to avoid these point of sale systems. ISA DMA might not be working or supported with this board :s

Thanks for the replies what you're saying makes sense.

In the BIOS there are options for setting Plug and Play features for something like

Windows 95 and Other and Off/None

When none is selected you can reserve IRQ/resources for an ISA card

It comes with onboard VGA USB Serial Parallel IDE the usual stuff. I turned some off to free resources but even with them all on there were still resources that were free in the list when I switched off the PlugNPlay option

Surely no would release a computer that you couldn't expand yet include expansion slots

The bios version i have is 1.00.07DLO

I found an updated bios on the NCR website "1.00.09.DLO

http://www5.ncr.com/support/support_drivers_p … pc_library_3259

the problems are

a) theres no instructions on howto apply the bios; only a set of binary files and some "iflash.exe" utility so I'm not brave enough to proceed

b) it mentions it corrects an bug with an onboard VGA option that isn't featured on my version. I have the Trio64V+ the description of the BIOS (which has no readme file it's right there on the website next to the download link) mentions it corrects an issue with the Virge option

I dont know if applying the bios update (if I could figure it out despite no instructions) would brick my motherboard because of the different VGA controller, perhaps it also overwrites the BIOS for the VGA controller; maybe thats integrated into the systems BIOS

So I'm a loss here I've got no way to actual expand the machine

IRQs for the onboard devices must be assigned properly because I can use a mouse and I installed an optical drive

I haven't tested the onboard USB but I recall it now showing up at all in Windows 98 and showing up with an error in Windows 95 under some generic device name

I'll look it it further and post a list of the files from the NCR website with respect to the BIOS update

Also the machine shipped with a Network Adapter in the ISA slot which I tested it wouldn't work either (the light was always on) I didn't test adapter with my other machine so I'm unsure if it's faulty

edit: heres a picture of the contents of the bios update the .exe extracts a bunch of files

http://postimg.org/image/5frv6nch5/

the contents of the autoexe.bat file are

it runs "beep.com" then runs "iflash.exe" with no arguments

i did some more work on the machine

i updated the bios all went well it's version 1.00.09DLO now

but still nothing; not a single ISA/PCI card is given resources BUT

i found in the manual and on the motherboard some headers (i cant do anything now i locked the machine away just before i discovered this information)

called get this: "riser card configuration headers" it's 6 pins 2 stacks of 3 and 2 jumpers

you wont believe it but the manual says nothing more about these jumpers so i dont know where to set them

there are 9 possible combinations

i will try all of them tomorrow and hopefully it doesn't alter voltage and destroy any add-in cards

It should not alter voltages (specially ISA). Its not like AGP where you can fry newer cards on old motherboards due to the signaling voltage.

tried all the jumper combinations- nothing worked

i think some circuitry is damaged with respect to setting the jumpers on the motherboard so the board cannot recognise the risercard and assign resources; this is why the voodoo will work but not any device that requires a resource

Does that board have a socketed BIOS? If it were to get a bad flash, do you have a way to program a replacement chip outside the machine?

If you feel safe trying it, then I wonder if an Intel BIOS would be better for PC usage than the NCR BIOS.

I tried to find an Intel manual for this board but couldn't find one.
I did however find documentation for a couple of other LPX form factor Intel boards. Both of them have the same 6pin jumper block for configuring the PCI riser. Both of them had the same jumpering scheme, so I'm guessing the RU430HX probably also uses the same scheme.
This link is the jumper configuration info for the Intel "Advanced/RH".
https://web.archive.org/web/20040404140846/ht … rh/rh_confg.htm
Maybe some of the info is relevant to the RU430HX, even though it's not the same board.

The thing I notice though is that the jumper options listed by Intel only address either having a riser with 2 PCI slots or 3 PCI slots. There's no option for 1 PCI slot, as what is shown in your picture. Did it come out of the box with those jumpers set in some other arrangement than what Intel shows?

Did you try taking the riser out and inspecting it for anything abnormal as well looking at the slot?

i have 2 pci and 2 isa slots on the risercard theres a pair on each side

i set the jumpers in all possible locations but theres only really 2 correct settings as listed on the article by "shamino"

i tired both extensively there was no change in behaviour

strangely if i cross-jumped the jumpers vertically there was no change either except if i cross 3 and 6 the pair on the left most end closest to the external ports on my board; theres no video out and no beeps the power light flashes and system appears to running underneath

perhaps the other 4 pins are not functioning and they dont crash the system when link them vertically which is obviously wrong

the risercard does work with my voodoo 1 geometry acceleration module in either pci port

i think NCR ruined the machine in some way they're a bunch of amateurs i should have never trusted a machine from the likes of them
i've locked it away in the shed. i will salvage the seagate magnetic disk drive when i need it for a new project

disappointed i wanted the LPX formfactor socket 7 because it's compact and excellent looking now i have to use my bulky overly large ATX socket 7 instead which is more than twice the volume but at least it works

the board must have a bios but i dont know where it is it's not a large chip like the classic motherboards have

i haven't removed the risercard to inspect it but it does work with my voodoo 1 geometry acceleration module on either PCI slot

I will remove it at some point but i will take a break from this machine

the got the PCI network card working turns out only the ISA cards wont work

I did more testing today; for some reason it wont assign resources to any ISA card

I tested 2 network cards and 2 sound cards zero functionality one was a AWE64 i know works in windows 95

i tried all the settings reserved IRQ set PnP for Windows 95 none and other

zero success

Plug and play ISA cards always confused and frustrated me. I have one such sound card that I'm pretty sure is dead, but given my history with those type of cards, I have so much doubt about getting them set up correctly that I feel like I'm never really sure.
If you have any non-pnp ISA cards, where resources are assigned by setting jumpers, it could be worth a try just to simplify the situation.

Since it's an Intel motherboard, the BIOS might be on a small surface mounted chip with tiny pins (SOIC or whatever it is) instead of a socketed PLCC or DIP. That's something I don't like about Intel boards. Supposedly their boards have a procedure to recover from a bad flash, but It hasn't worked for me when I tried it.

well i got 1 isa sound card working about 1 in 15 restarts

it looks like a race condition when the bios assigns resources

switching off onboard devices doesn't increase the chance of success

theres definitely something wrong with this motherboard/chipset or one of the onboard devices

i'll have to make it work with an external parallel network adapter that works with my application (if i can find one) and use a PCI soundcard that way i can ignore the ISA slots entirely

If you use a non-PnP ISA card then there should be no trouble - the BIOS doesn't have to allocate anything.