Re: Time to ask before I do some damage Gigabyte GA-486VF rev7
Posted on 2021-10-08, 19:45
Hurrah! Now time for some Doomin' on that board. 😎
Re: Mikrolog Osborne 486DX 33Mhz
Posted on 2021-10-08, 19:44
You can try running Speedsys 4.78. Though it doesn't always properly detect VGA card memory, it does so about 75% of the time.
Re: The Ultimate 486 Benchmark Comparison
Posted on 2021-10-08, 18:18
Made my own little 486 'hot rod' box. Not trying to get too crazy here, just throwing together something that can put that 40MHz FSB to good use. Even so it's much faster than any of my previous 486 builds. As a stock CPU the AMD DX4-120 is really not to be underestimated. Motherboard: Shuttle HOT- …
Re: Asus TUSL2-C build initially posts with keyboard error, then no video with repeating beep code
Posted on 2021-10-07, 14:31
C151 looks like a bussed capacitor, located right behind the PS/2 ports. I think it's next to the 'CN1' legend on the board. Attached photo is of a 'straight' TUSL2, but the C151 bussed capacitor should be in the same place:
Re: PSU showcase: The worst of the bad
Posted on 2021-10-04, 14:53
It could have the best capacitors on the market, but if the rest of the PSU is shoddy and underbuilt, it really won't matter much. I generally try to find PSUs that don't have a lot of missing parts and have reasonable sized components for the wattage the supply is rated at. Cap brands are strictly …
Re: PSU showcase: The worst of the bad
Posted on 2021-10-04, 03:58
Wow, good to know about that failure mode. Guess it makes sense, as the cap would normally test fine by all other means without a capacitance meter.
Re: PSU showcase: The worst of the bad
Posted on 2021-10-04, 03:40
Those thin, frail heatsinks and "mark whatever voltage we're selling this at" checkbox group on the PCB are sure-fire guarantees of 'quality'. Also gotta love those empty silkscreens. Who needs resistors, ceramic capacitors and film capacitors? When new, regardless of whatever voltage was marked, …
Repair log: Gemlight GMB-386UN 386 Motherboard
Posted on 2021-10-01, 20:13
A bit of a running log, though right now kind of low priority. IMG_0126.JPG Got one of these from eBay earlier. As usual it was sold untested without CPU, RAM of any kind and with quite a bit of damage. Upon initial inspection, it was in pretty rough shape: four SIMM slots have broken holder pins …
Re: Swaping DAC on SB16
Posted on 2021-09-30, 18:07
@IcySon55 Pretty similar reasons as to why I use ISA ESS AudioDrive cards over most of Creative's offerings in my builds. For my finicky and particular gear, the ESS cards just work without giving me a ton of headache. Plus I've grown quite fond of ESFM's unique spin on OPL3. Mind you I am not …
Re: Does anyone have any experience with the Silicon Image SiI0680A IDE controller?
Posted on 2021-09-30, 16:37
I wince whenever I see the CMD logo on an IDE controller chip. CMD0640B was one of the most notorious IDE corruptors of its day. Those, and PC Tech RZ1000. The Silicon Image chips are allegedly descended from the CMD chips, but supposedly they don't have those bugs?
Re: 286 motherboard won't boot from cold start
Posted on 2021-09-30, 15:45
Sounds like a faulty power-on reset circuit. Possibly something up with one or both of the two transistors involved in the circuit, though without a schematic for the G2 chipset I cannot say with any degree of certainty which parts to check/replace. Or maybe an open resistor in the circuit, but …
Re: Time to ask before I do some damage Gigabyte GA-486VF rev7
Posted on 2021-09-28, 14:58
Incorrect/improper RAM timings or AT bus clock divider in CMOS Setup? Bad RAM? Oh, a common one: Video BIOS set to cacheable? This causes all kinds of weird errors. Not sure if it would help in your case but given how much trouble that has caused me in the past, I wouldn't discount anything.
Re: Prolinea 5133 + Video Card = Fatal Exception 0E
Posted on 2021-09-28, 04:03
Yikes, I hate to think that the solution to this would be to scope out those DRAM expansion connector pins, figure out where they went to the 5434 chip and make a plug-in adapter board that fitted two additional SOJ chips...
Re: Time to ask before I do some damage Gigabyte GA-486VF rev7
Posted on 2021-09-27, 23:49
Have you tried a different IDE + floppy I/O card? I had to go through several until I found one, a Goldstar Prime 2C, that didn't corrupt data on a rather strange 486 board I was using earlier. In my experience UMC controller cards tend to be more problematic on the whole. I normally trust Winbond …
Re: Time to ask before I do some damage Gigabyte GA-486VF rev7
Posted on 2021-09-26, 21:40
3.4V won't harm the CPU. I think it's safe for 3.3V +/- 0.3V. Oh, wait up... I noticed that the BIOS identified your DX4-100 as a DX2-100. I had an Award BIOS that misidentified an Am5x86-133 as a DX2-100 and it caused no end of weird problems. Try finding a different BIOS - and try blanking the …
Re: Time to ask before I do some damage Gigabyte GA-486VF rev7
Posted on 2021-09-26, 00:31
Dang! So the POST card was just faulty? What a weird failure mode. At least the board's working now!
Re: What retro hardware you killed today or in the past :(. Killing spree stories+serial killers are welcome.Rest in pie
Posted on 2021-09-24, 17:23
I foolishly broke a full-size 5.25" Fujitsu SCSI drive and perfectly good EISA 486 motherboard as a dumb-ass kid. I killed a big pile of Sega Genesis consoles trying to figure out how to solder. I also broke, smoked, sparked, ESD'd and otherwise destroyed countless cool and interesting pieces, CPUs, …
Re: Mikrolog Osborne 486DX 33Mhz
Posted on 2021-09-22, 17:21
Looking quite promising!
Re: Hi! Can i put 4mb on this 386 motherboard ?
Posted on 2021-09-19, 05:48
What a beautiful old full AT board! The PWA code makes me think either Everex or Mitac. Unfortunately without the special memory card, you're stuck with whatever DIP RAM is installed. The memory card presumably plugs into one of those extra-long slots.
Re: Computrend Systems Contaq-486 Motherboard
Posted on 2021-09-14, 06:36
Yes, it was from somewhere in that topic. I believe the file was V045B400, in MRBIOS_6.zip. MRBIOS_1.zip contains lists for various chipsets, and I just went to the one labeled CONTAQ.DOC in that zip file. From there I walked through the numbered zip files until I found the one I was looking for. …
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