Re: SBEMU: Sound Blaster emulation on AC97

Posted on 2023-05-06, 20:24

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

This software sounds great, but unfortunately I couldn't get it to work on my Dell Precision T3400. I made a bootable USB with Freedos using Rufus and added the SBEMU 1.0 beta 3 files, config and autoexec etc. Everything seems to load correctly, no error messages. Unfortunately I don't get any sound …

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Re: TweakPCI - A DOS utility to view/modify PCI configuration registers

Posted on 2022-08-08, 13:43

by

by TimmermanV

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I guess you can use int86 instead of int386. Using int86 will not allow me to use 32-bit registers and I'd like to be able to read/write 32-bit values in my program. Of course I could split those read/write operations and perform two 16-bit read/writes but I didn't like that, as that felt too much …

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Re: TweakPCI - A DOS utility to view/modify PCI configuration registers

Posted on 2022-08-07, 17:42

by

by TimmermanV

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

BloodyCactus wrote on 2022-08-07, 16:35: not helpful now, but I have one its in; https://github.com/stu/dos_code/tree/main/e820 Cool, thanks! I already see I could learn some things from your version. Thanks for sharing. 😀

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Re: TweakPCI - A DOS utility to view/modify PCI configuration registers

Posted on 2022-08-07, 09:00

by

by TimmermanV

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Thanks! It works perfectly fine in DOS 6.22 (both real and protected modes) Awesome! Thanks for trying it out. You should be able to shorten it even more. Multiple registers can be set using a single command and adjacent registers can be combined. I think you should be able to change all those …

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TweakPCI - A DOS utility to view/modify PCI configuration registers

Posted on 2022-08-06, 13:35

by

by TimmermanV

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I just finished and released TweakPCI, which is a utility to view and optionally modify PCI configuration registers. It can be used to tweak settings that are not accessible otherwise. (Of course, you'll need a technical reference of your device to know what you're doing) I thought it might be of …

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Re: Compaq Deskpro XE Softpaq numbers (drivers / utilities)

Posted on 2021-09-27, 11:06

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Glad to be of service! 😀

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Re: Hp Vectra VE 4/100 to 5x86 133mhz but slow mem performance

Posted on 2021-05-15, 19:27

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks! I'll look into that. I wondered how much of this configuration mechanism would be common to other chipsets or PCI devices. In the mean time I'm adding more documentation and updating the program a bit to support setting multiple registers in 1 go.

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Re: Hp Vectra VE 4/100 to 5x86 133mhz but slow mem performance

Posted on 2021-05-14, 20:55

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the info on the BIOS. That sounds like it might actually work. However... I inspected the board and I'm not sure yet where the flash bios chip is. In any case it is soldered onto the motherboard, because the only socketed chips on the board are the VGA memory expansion modules. My …

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Re: Hp Vectra VE 4/100 to 5x86 133mhz but slow mem performance

Posted on 2021-04-23, 09:20

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It should be this file ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software1/vc2281/vc2281en/gp0507us.exe I haven't actually tested that myself, I'm still using GP.05.06, but I have extracted that archive and it appears to be the correct one. Other drivers for this machine are listed here: https://web.archive.org/ …

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Re: Hp Vectra VE 4/100 to 5x86 133mhz but slow mem performance

Posted on 2021-04-22, 20:26

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The manual doesn't list any way of disabling the I/O chip. I could check if there are any jumpers not listed in the manual. Try to get the old TweakBIOS utility... I think it has support for Sis496 so you can fix the memory timings after booting and regain the performance. I just tried TweakBIOS v1. …

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Re: Hp Vectra VE 4/100 to 5x86 133mhz but slow mem performance

Posted on 2021-04-22, 07:24

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The I/O chip is "PC87303VUL Super I/O Sidewinder Lite" made by National Semiconductor Corporation. So far I didn't have much luck finding other board that use this chip + SIS 496/497. Apparently the "Tulip Computers TC40" uses this I/O chip, but it has an intel chipset.

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Re: Hp Vectra VE 4/100 to 5x86 133mhz but slow mem performance

Posted on 2021-04-21, 15:23

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ah, I see. That makes sense. Maybe if the bios flash chip can be removed / replaced I'd give that a try. I don't want to risk bricking the board. :-) (I do have a chip programmer though.) How similar do you think these boards need to be to have any chance of success? I guess ideally the BIOS source …

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Re: Hp Vectra VE 4/100 to 5x86 133mhz but slow mem performance

Posted on 2021-04-21, 11:16

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Try to get the old TweakBIOS utility... I think it has support for Sis496 so you can fix the memory timings after booting and regain the performance. I didn't know this tool. I found it (on this forum) and it looks very promising. I'll try it, thanks! Can you use a generic SiS496 BIOS? I didn't …

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Re: Hp Vectra VE 4/100 to 5x86 133mhz but slow mem performance

Posted on 2021-04-20, 18:30

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have this exact same model and also planned to upgrade the CPU to a 5x86 133MHz. Did you succeed in the end? I was just reading the following part in the technical reference: DX2/DX4 Type Processors The CLKMUL pin is controlled by jumper JP16 which is defaulted to x3 mode (DX4). As the DX2 and DX4 …

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Re: PC Chips BIOS upgrade

Posted on 2020-11-04, 21:42

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Success! AT29C010 does indeed work, and allows the ESCD to be updated. Thanks again!

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Re: PC Chips BIOS upgrade

Posted on 2020-10-29, 07:26

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's good information, thank you! I incorrectly assumed it would only need to write to the chip if I would ever want to reflash the bios. I actually would like this to work, so thanks again for the warning. It was fun though to find out it was relatively easy to manipulate the bios itself like …

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Re: PC Chips BIOS upgrade

Posted on 2020-10-28, 21:43

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I downloaded Award BIOS Editor and patched out the message. 😁 I attached the modded bios based on f59_mod.bin.

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Re: PC Chips BIOS upgrade

Posted on 2020-10-28, 20:38

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good news: The ST28F101 is working. Bad news: The system still displays "Unknown Flash Type". Well I guess I won't bother trying again. :-) For reference I attached pictures of both working flash chips (W27C010 and ST28F101), some pics of the motherboard (507 v1.2) and the boot message. (I added a …

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Re: PC Chips BIOS upgrade

Posted on 2020-10-23, 15:55

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The "Unknown Flash Type" message is bothering me. 😜

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Re: PC Chips BIOS upgrade

Posted on 2020-10-23, 07:09

by

by TimmermanV

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks, that makes sense. I may give that a try, even though it seems to be working now with that W27C010. I found a German website that's selling ST 28F101 at a reasonable price.

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