VOGONS


First post, by The Serpent Rider

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Motherboard in question:

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Works absolutely fine without external cache, but no matter what I've tried it just refused to boot Windows 98 (or anything really) with active external cache. Sometimes motherboard just stuck right after POST screen, sometimes in endless loading loop, sometimes blue screen after loading.

Tried write through cache setting - fail
Tried most relaxed timings - fail
Tried two another sets of SRAM - fail
Tried 25mhz FSB - fail
Tried another CPU - fail

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I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 1 of 18, by Disruptor

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Is there a reason for setting JP7 (near RAM) to 2-3 (3.6 V) instead of 1-2 (3.45 V)? Your CPU is overvolted...

Reply 2 of 18, by The Serpent Rider

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That's 1-2.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 3 of 18, by Disruptor

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Oh, you're right.
I've got same board revision and jumper settings and I do not have any problem.
AMD 5x86 133 ADZ running 40 MHz x4 and 2-1-1-1 timing.

Reply 4 of 18, by Roman555

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I would check:
0. Scratches on the board
1. Jumpers. Not only correct settings but if they really connect pins
2. Soldering of SIS 496 - slightly shove its pins with a toothpick or a needle

And maybe swap F244 buffers (I think they're U20 U21) to new ones

[ MS6168/PII-350/YMF754/98SE ]
[ 775i65G/E5500/9800Pro/Vortex2/ME ]

Reply 5 of 18, by amadeus777999

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Have you tried other srams - do you have a "master set" where you know for sure that it's working?

Last edited by amadeus777999 on 2018-07-21, 17:42. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 6 of 18, by SSTV2

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I assume that you've tested SRAM ICs in another motherboard and confirmed that they are OK. If it's so, then you should follow Roman555's advice and try to gently push pins on chipset ICs with a needle, for possibly cold-soldered pins, test if jumpers are actually shorting headers and look for PCB cuts/missing SMDs.

Question to Roman555:

Have you ever encountered faulty buffer ICs on a motherboard before, that were not I/O bus related?

Reply 7 of 18, by The Serpent Rider

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Board is in good shape, no parts are missing or damaged. I've checked the chipset pins with a needle and they look okay too, everything is solid and without short circuits. Tried to change some jumpers with no luck, will try to change all later. But it seems that buffer theory is the most plausible.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 8 of 18, by Roman555

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SSTV2 wrote:

Question to Roman555:
Have you ever encountered faulty buffer ICs on a motherboard before, that were not I/O bus related?

Never
P.S. but IMHO they are connected to cache chips, that could be inserted backward, and also connected to VLB.
Of course some measurements are necessary to make decision.

[ MS6168/PII-350/YMF754/98SE ]
[ 775i65G/E5500/9800Pro/Vortex2/ME ]

Reply 9 of 18, by SSTV2

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Yeah, buffers dying on themselves would be an unusual case, but possible. I've never encountered such problem myself personally, just curious if others did 😀

Reply 10 of 18, by Roman555

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But I wonder: can it be wrong BIOS? BIOS has to init L2 cache.
So there are more questions.
The Serpent Rider,
Did you see this mainboard had worked before?
Is the BIOS correct?
About two another sets of SRAM. Are they working for sure? Did you change all the 9 chips or just 8?
Were L1 cache activated?

Last edited by Roman555 on 2018-07-23, 18:38. Edited 1 time in total.

[ MS6168/PII-350/YMF754/98SE ]
[ 775i65G/E5500/9800Pro/Vortex2/ME ]

Reply 11 of 18, by The Serpent Rider

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Motherboard was received "as is". It works fine without L2 cache.
BIOS time stamp and description: 06/25/96-SIS-496-497B-PVI-4SP3C-00
All SRAM works fine in another board.
Yes.'

P.S.
Replaced all jumpers - no luck.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 12 of 18, by Roman555

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Ok. No new ideas.
Please pay attention that this revision of the chipset supports only FPM RAM !

[ MS6168/PII-350/YMF754/98SE ]
[ 775i65G/E5500/9800Pro/Vortex2/ME ]

Reply 13 of 18, by The Serpent Rider

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Actually it works with EDO.
Probably will put it on the back burner. Because I don't have required parts and not so sure if this will help.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 14 of 18, by quicknick

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I would change the F244 buffers. Have one mainboard that would hang during POST after installing real cache in place of the plastic blocks, because it also needed the buffers. All ok after soldering them.
Maybe you have a faulty one.

Reply 15 of 18, by Roman555

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The Serpent Rider wrote:

Actually it works with EDO.

No. Only SiS496PR (revision B5) supports EDO.
Yours is SiS496NV (revision B4). It supports only FPM.
So if you use EDO with your board the system doesn't work properly (random crashes)
If you are not sure about type of your DRAM just upload here photos of SIMMs or models of chips

Last edited by Roman555 on 2018-07-24, 05:08. Edited 1 time in total.

[ MS6168/PII-350/YMF754/98SE ]
[ 775i65G/E5500/9800Pro/Vortex2/ME ]

Reply 16 of 18, by Roman555

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quicknick wrote:

I would change the F244 buffers.

Only if the board doesn't work with proper DRAM type ... There's some confusing with this chipset.

[ MS6168/PII-350/YMF754/98SE ]
[ 775i65G/E5500/9800Pro/Vortex2/ME ]

Reply 17 of 18, by The Serpent Rider

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I did extensive tests only with FPM. so that's not the case.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.