First post, by assasincz
Hi all,
First of all, I hope you all are staying safe and healthy,
Second of all - I am currently working on a AMD K6-2 project built , the core of which are:
- 256MB SD RAM (1x128MB+2x64MB, all PC100)
- SD-to-IDE adapter and 32GB card
This has to be my most problematic build yet.
I already managed to solve a CPU FSB/multiplier issue - when set top CPU's "proper" config 4x100MHz, the system was greatly unstable (memory errors, display and text artefacts, random reboots and blank screens). I just could make the windows to install and run properly.
After some troubleshooting (swapping all components including the CPUs, setting SD RAM clock to FSB/AGP clock), I eventually figured out that the system had issues with FSB set to 100MHz and 95MHz, although they are properly suppoorted according to manual. Any FSB clock below that (83/75/66/60MHz) worked fine and the system was stable. So there is a 10-switch DIP panel controlling the CPU settings. After staring into the manual for a while, I deduced that from the DIP array 1-6 that the switches 1-3 control the FSB and 4-6 control the multiplier. All possible seetings for FSB switches are already described in the manual. However the manual only describes DIP switch settings for multipliers 2.5x, 3x, 3.5x, 4x, 4.5x. OK, but I wanted to get to the 400MHz level with the CPU, so after some more fiddling and experimenting, I found the positions for multiplier switches to set 5x, 5x5 and 6x. Eventually, I set the CPU to 5x83=415MHz and the system ran just fine, but no higher clock than that. So one problem solved that I though to share with you.
Then came the GPU time. For purposes of this build, I got myself a Manli TNT2 Pro 32MB AGP as I thought this would fit the build nicely. Running Win98SE however, after installing the Detonator drivers (any version) I was unable to get the system to boot at all. Bit of a let down, I tried other loose AGP cards I have on hand that could fit into the slot to see if the problem persists:
- Geforce4 MX 440 (MSI MS-8866) - SAME ISSUE as with the TNT2 Pro
- Radeon 9250(Sapphire Atlantis) - WORKED FINE
- Geforce4 Ti 4800SE (Leadtek Winfast A280) - SAME ISSUE as with the TNT2 Pro
Needless to say, I also tried various PCI graphics cards, these all worked fine, including the TNT2 M64 (Guillemont Gamer Cougar). I sourced MVP3 drivers from Phil that include AGP drivers, but this did not help.
So in conclusion, I could not get only any nVidia AGP card to work properly on the system, no matter the driver version(just 640x480/16color retard mode). Only ATI AGP card and PCI graphics cards worked.
During all of the above process, I tried fiddlign with CPU and SD RAM clock settings to see if these could contribute to the issue, but they do not.
I thought to try with Windows 2000, but for the love of god, I could not get the installation to work and finish properly. I will keep working on this but my suspitions are that the issues will persist.
Do you have any suggestions what could I try next? I can't figure out why the system is so picky with nVidia AGP cards Have any of you ever encountered anything of this sort?
Man, how DID we survive the 2000s?