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Help me identify and obtain a BIOS for my old 3/486 VL motherboard

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First post, by jesolo

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The motherboard in this picture comes from the first PC that I bought for myself.

WP_20160721_002.jpg
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3/486 VL motherboard
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It's a hybrid motherboard that caters for both 386 (including Cyrix DLC's) & 5v 486 CPU's.
However, I'm curious as to who the manufacturer of this motherboard is.
I still have the manual, but there is just a motherboard model number printed on the outside (refer picture below).

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Motherboard manual
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No copyright notice or anything else printed inside the manual to indicate who the manufacturer is.

Last edited by jesolo on 2017-11-06, 16:01. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 2 of 18, by jesolo

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I'm bumping this thread of mine since I've had no luck in tracking down the BIOS for this particular motherboard (the current BIOS has died on me).
Since this is a Jetway motherboard, I'm hoping that someone else on here might have a similar Jetway motherboard with an AMI386DX BIOS.
The BIOS ID for Jetway is 1276, which will be the third set of numbers in the BIOS ID on the start up screen.
The AMIBIOS string for this motherboard should be something like this: 40-0802-001276-00101111-080893-OP495XLC-H

If anyone has a similar motherboard, I would appreciate a BIOS dump.
There is no need to remove the BIOS chip - a simple utility called Navratil Software System Information (NSSI) has the ability to dump the motherboard BIOS.

Reply 5 of 18, by jesolo

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Thanks - I think I'm just going to change the vendor ID and try this one.
Theoretically speaking, where you have two similar motherboards with identical chipsets but, manufactured by two different motherboard manufacturers, would their respective BIOS'es work on the other board?

Last edited by jesolo on 2017-12-29, 09:00. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 6 of 18, by Skyscraper

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jesolo wrote:

Thanks - I think I'm just going to chance the vendor ID and try this one.
Theoretically speaking, where you have two similar motherboards with identical chipsets but, manufactured by two different motherboard manufacturers, would their respective BIOS'es work on the other board?

With XT clone boards "all" XT clone BIOS versions work.
With 286 boards "most" BIOS versions work even if it isnt for the same exact chipset.
With 386 boards and early 486 boards I find it likely that all or at least most BIOS versions for the same chipset work.

As soon as the boards started to have lots of built in crap the BIOS versions mattered more. But even with some newer chipsets you can sometimes use a BIOS from another vendor. I did it once with a dead nForce4 board to see if it would come to life and it did.

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Reply 7 of 18, by gerwin

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I use UM498F!.ZIP from that place for my 486 motherboard, and it actually works a lot better then the WinBIOS it originally came with. A PnP soundcard works fine with it now, and the Harddisk detection is better.

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 8 of 18, by feipoa

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gerwin: You can use a BIOS intended for the UM498F chipset in motherboards containing the OPTI 495XLC chipset?

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

Reply 9 of 18, by gerwin

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No, guess that wasn't clear, but I have only one 486 motherboard and it is UMC 498 based. 486 VLB UMC-Chipset, what is it?

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 10 of 18, by feipoa

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jesolo wrote:

Theoretically speaking, where you have two similar motherboards with identical chipsets but, manufactured by two different motherboard manufacturers, would their respective BIOS'es work on the other board?

Usually, yes.

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

Reply 11 of 18, by Jo22

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Hello, I'm currently tidying up and found a few broken mainboards.
By coincidence, one of them does have got a 495 chipset from OPTI, too.

While it's not exactly what you are looking for (495SX instead of 495XLC),
maybe its BIOS is still somehow useful to you ?

By the way, does anybody know a place where someone can "donate" a BIOS ?
- I don't feel comfortable in re-using EPROMs from dead boards before making backups as a precaution.

Every time I get hold of an used EPROM, I feel like there's someone out there who is looking for its content desperately. 😢
Especially if its something exotic like, say, an EFAR EC802G-based mainboard (for example; since I'm holding that in my hands right now).

(I apologize if discussing this is not okay. If so, I'd also be happy about feedback via email/pm then.)

Attachments

  • Filename
    opti_82c495sx.zip
    File size
    42.3 KiB
    Downloads
    69 downloads
    File comment
    My personal dump of a 495SX BIOS.
    Design of the text file inspired by the ones
    found at chukaev(dot)ru54(dot)com
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

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Reply 12 of 18, by Moogle!

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Skyscraper wrote:
With XT clone boards "all" XT clone BIOS versions work. With 286 boards "most" BIOS versions work even if it isnt for the same e […]
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jesolo wrote:

Thanks - I think I'm just going to chance the vendor ID and try this one.
Theoretically speaking, where you have two similar motherboards with identical chipsets but, manufactured by two different motherboard manufacturers, would their respective BIOS'es work on the other board?

With XT clone boards "all" XT clone BIOS versions work.
With 286 boards "most" BIOS versions work even if it isnt for the same exact chipset.
With 386 boards and early 486 boards I find it likely that all or at least most BIOS versions for the same chipset work.

As soon as the boards started to have lots of built in crap the BIOS versions mattered more. But even with some newer chipsets you can sometimes use a BIOS from another vendor. I did it once with a dead nForce4 board to see if it would come to life and it did.

Fuggin' post of the year here. I have long wondered if they were inter-changable, and to what extent. I know 486 and on were usually not, assuming different chipsets. I'd like to find a better BIOS for that HP Frankenstein P2B.

Reply 13 of 18, by jesolo

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Had some time to scan in the manual of the motherboard I referred to in my first post.

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Jetway J-402B Manual (optimized).pdf
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1.94 MiB
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76 downloads
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Jetway J-402B Manual
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Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 14 of 18, by PcBytes

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Skyscraper wrote:

As soon as the boards started to have lots of built in crap the BIOS versions mattered more. But even with some newer chipsets you can sometimes use a BIOS from another vendor. I did it once with a dead nForce4 board to see if it would come to life and it did.

You just put a rundown of what I used to do for a few years. I had a ASUS P4P800-VM and so far I have used the BIOS files from about 9-10 motherboards 🤣

"Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door..."
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Reply 15 of 18, by AmiSapphire

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I'll at least contribute: got this from a board that came in a set of three in an eBay auction some five years ago. In October 2014, after obtaining a BIOS programmer, I dumped this BIOS that had this string: 40-0802-001276-00101111-080893-OP495XLC and does reference both 386 and 486 CPUs when viewed with a hex editor.

BIOS had been stored in two locations since. I misplaced my small 486 CPU collection so I can't test the board the BIOS came from right now, however, but... the board I have is a 486-only variant of OP's board.

Attachments

  • Filename
    jetway486_080893.zip
    File size
    43.9 KiB
    Downloads
    58 downloads
    File comment
    AMI BIOS dump from generic 486 board
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Site update: cwcyrix.duckdns.org -> cwcyrix.nsupdate.info due to the former no longer working.

Reply 16 of 18, by jesolo

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AmiSapphire wrote:

I'll at least contribute: got this from a board that came in a set of three in an eBay auction some five years ago. In October 2014, after obtaining a BIOS programmer, I dumped this BIOS that had this string: 40-0802-001276-00101111-080893-OP495XLC and does reference both 386 and 486 CPUs when viewed with a hex editor.

BIOS had been stored in two locations since. I misplaced my small 486 CPU collection so I can't test the board the BIOS came from right now, however, but... the board I have is a 486-only variant of OP's board.

Thank you for the BIOS dump.
I'll give it a try over the weekend and report back.

@PcBytes - I have tried numerous Opti 495XLC BIOSes from different manufacturers and the board wouldn't post.
Recently, I acquired an A-Trend 3/486 motherboard (same chipset) and that worked but, it gave me errors in terms of my secondary cache - EDIT: turns out that, at some point, I swopped out the cache RAM chips and forgot to set the jumpers accordingly. So, the A-Trend 3/486 motherboard BIOS does actually also work with the Jetway J-402B motherboard.
I also recently tried out the MR BIOS variant for the Opti 495XLC chipset and that one worked.

But, having the orginal BIOS is my preference.

EDIT: Tested out the BIOS and it works perfectly. All the BIOS settings matches what is in the manual as well.

Reply 18 of 18, by jesolo

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Just a quick follow up to my last post.
I recently build up this motherboard into my original case and, although the BIOS supplied by AmiSapphire works, I did notice some odd behaviour.

Firstly, with the turbo header connected to the motherboard, shorting out the pins actually places the motherboard in "normal" mode (not in "turbo" mode). I was able to get around this problem with an LCD display unit which allowed me to swop the jumpers/connectors around so that, when I press in the turbo button on the front of my case, the turbo LED light comes and the PC runs in "turbo" mode. However, without this LCD display, I would always end up with situation where the turbo LED light would be on when the PC is running in "normal" mode (since the motherboard only switches "on" the LED turbo light when the turbo header is shorted) - hope this makes sense.
Secondly, when I boot up the PC with EMM386.exe loaded, the turbo button does not function at all (ironically, pressing Ctrl+Alt++ or Ctrl+Alt+- does still work).

From memory, I don't seem to recall this being the case with the original BIOS.

I'm suspecting it's a small tweak in the BIOS that can "flip" these register settings around but, this is beyond my scope of expertise.

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