Intel TC430HC works with K6-2 without any BIOS mods, so that should include OG K6 too.

This situation may require desoldering though.
HELP! - Dead Intel VS440FX motherboard with BIOS EEPROM overheating - SOLVED

nelizmastr wrote on 2025-08-16, 09:49:

Inspired by a video on YouTube where someone made a K6-2 work on a Triton Intel board, I figured I'd try MR Bios on my Tucson fo […]
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Inspired by a video on YouTube where someone made a K6-2 work on a Triton Intel board, I figured I'd try MR Bios on my Tucson for a regular K6.
Well that ended before it really began because the flash seemed to work (it said it completed after just a few seconds and promptly rebooted the system without my input) but I'm now stuck with a board that will only play the sweet music of the brick.

The recovery procedure isn't well documented it seems, because while I have the BIOS.REC file from the flash wizard, the system does nothing with it when I put it on a floppy and enable the recovery jumper.
Are there other files I need on the floppy, or some specific filename in order to process the recovery?
I even tried creating an original bios update floppy from the latest 1.00.07 version but no dice.

I'm assuming the MR Bios file was somehow corrupted, but I'd like to get the board back to life at least on the original BIOS.
It's the barebones variant and early revision, so 256K cache and no onboard sound or video.

I'm using a PCI video card (ATI Rage XL), 64M of EDO, PMMX-200 and an AWE64 value ISA.

Any hints or perhaps even a known good recovery file would be greatly appreciated.

You should
1) download original bios with flash and recovery utilities and autoexec.bat
2) make MSDOS 6.2 bootable floppy with IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM files only!
3) copy files from p. 1 to bootable floppy from p. 2
4) set recovery jumper to recovery position, insert floppy to floppy drive and turn on your system
5) listen to beeps and floppy (it should start boot from floppy disk and read information)
6) wait 5 mins (you could hear one more beep after blind flashing) and reboot your system

PS. Mr.BIOS is not so great idea on TC430HX

Babasha wrote on 2025-08-16, 10:56:

You should 1) download original bios with flash and recovery utilities and autoexec.bat 2) make MSDOS 6.2 bootable floppy with […]
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You should
1) download original bios with flash and recovery utilities and autoexec.bat
2) make MSDOS 6.2 bootable floppy with IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM files only!
3) copy files from p. 1 to bootable floppy from p. 2
4) set recovery jumper to recovery position, insert floppy to floppy drive and turn on your system
5) listen to beeps and floppy (it should start boot from floppy disk and read information)
6) wait 5 mins (you could hear one more beep after blind flashing) and reboot your system

PS. Mr.BIOS is not so great idea on TC430HX

Yep you nailed it on the head. Turns out the floppy I used to try and do the recovery was faulty. I created a new bootdisk with the right files and it flashed back to the original AMI BIOS. The board is back alive.
Unfortunately no K6 support in the original BIOS, which is a shame because this revision won't run even a 233MMX so I hoped the MR Bios could work around this.

After trying and failing once more I guess I'll give up on this particular combo for now and see if I can find some other S7 board that will take both for a small price.
It's not like I don't have a pile of Slot1 gear as well hah.

But many thanks for your reply and suggestion, it worked out beautifully.

What revision of TC430HX do u have? Photo pls
And what MR.BIOS version u try to flash?

Like I mentioned before, TC430HX can work even with K6-2 without any modding, but of course it will be recognized as Pentium MMX.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-08-16, 15:07:

Like I mentioned before, TC430HX can work even with K6-2 without any modding, but of course it will be recognized as Pentium MMX.

Mine won't boot with a K6 233ANR, not even with a 1.5x multiplier set. CPU gets warm and is known good.

Babasha wrote on 2025-08-16, 13:45:

What revision of TC430HX do u have? Photo pls
And what MR.BIOS version u try to flash?

It's an AA 659120-603. From what I gather this is one of the earliest revisions of the board, also one of the few that lacks MMX233 support.

I forgot to add, I tried MR BIOS 4.36 as listed here:

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … 0hx-tucson#bios

nelizmastr wrote on 2025-08-16, 17:36:

I forgot to add, I tried MR BIOS 4.36 as listed here:

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … 0hx-tucson#bios

There 5+ variants of MR.BIOS 3.46 for Intel TC430HX

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1v … #gid=1763344312

V098B5NT - u already try
V098E5NT - from Evergreen Spectra CD (BIOS for AMD K5-2 Upgrades)
V098S5NG - from Arcade Machine (do not work on computers motherboard!!!)
V098V5NT - for motherboards with S3 Virge (?) video
V098Y5NT - for motherboards with S3 Trio64 (?) video

U can download archive from here and try ti flash V098E5NT or other variants - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/xom2lc3ubwgrhf … b4bkoq&e=1&dl=0

Yeah most Intel boards have a BIOS restore mechanism for reading a file off a floppy. Even up until I think 2nd or 3rd gen Core mobos had this still.

Back in the day I would buy up bricked Intel mobos for cheap and fix them. Most people weren't aware of the unique recovery mechanism.

Babasha wrote on 2025-08-16, 19:34:

There 5+ variants of MR.BIOS 3.46 for Intel TC430HX […]
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nelizmastr wrote on 2025-08-16, 17:36:

I forgot to add, I tried MR BIOS 4.36 as listed here:

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … 0hx-tucson#bios

There 5+ variants of MR.BIOS 3.46 for Intel TC430HX

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1v … #gid=1763344312

V098B5NT - u already try
V098E5NT - from Evergreen Spectra CD (BIOS for AMD K5-2 Upgrades)
V098S5NG - from Arcade Machine (do not work on computers motherboard!!!)
V098V5NT - for motherboards with S3 Virge (?) video
V098Y5NT - for motherboards with S3 Trio64 (?) video

U can download archive from here and try ti flash V098E5NT or other variants - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/xom2lc3ubwgrhf … b4bkoq&e=1&dl=0

My board doesn't have onboard video so the only one I'd even dare to try would be the V09E5NT. Whenever it tries to flash it goes one of two ways:

1. It doesn't flash and just sits at please wait indefinitely
2. It flashes in 2 seconds and claims it was successful and bricks the board

I honestly greatly appreciate your guidance and suggestions, but I'm going to call this /thread and keep this board on Intel CPU only.
There's something inherently wrong with this board that prevents it from running MR Bios in this case and I'm not willing to wear out the, for me irreplaceable, flash chip.

Thanks again!