Re: PC Chips M912 BIOS update for Am5x86 and Cyrix 5x86
Posted on 2020-12-04, 14:13
Can you not just look up the required voltage, fsb and clock multiplier settings for the chip then set the motherboard jumpers accordingly?
Re: Tekram DC-680T seemingly not working
Posted on 2020-12-04, 09:14
Which version of the EPROM do you use? Do you use the common 1.50, or the modern 2.02? I can take a look into the firmware to help you find possible causes for the failure. "TAG SRAM" means the 64KiB of static RAM soldered onto the controller board, and "Parity error on cache DRAM" would indicate …
Tekram DC-680T seemingly not working
Posted on 2020-12-03, 19:42
After last nights panic with the VLB 486 (don't ask) I decided tonight to take a look at a VLB controller I picked up from eBay a while back, in particular this is the Tekram DC-680T. Its possibly dead though as on boot it gives a looping single flash on the LED and an error message "Controller …
Re: Have I just killed the VLB side of my motherboard?
Posted on 2020-12-02, 19:54
Please delete this thread, I am an idiot of the highest proportions. The VGA cable fell out of the back of the monitor and I didn't notice. Just spent the last hour in a full panic and it was the comment about trying another monitor that made me see it.
Re: Have I just killed the VLB side of my motherboard?
Posted on 2020-12-02, 19:43
Yep tried that. No difference. Also tried the 3 VLB slots, same result in each.
Have I just killed the VLB side of my motherboard?
Posted on 2020-12-02, 19:14
I was working on my PC Chips M912 again this evening getting ready to drop a VLB IO card in there. The system was working 100% at the weekend but opened her up, installed the card, powered up to no display and lots of beeps. So removed the card powered on again but still no display. The beeps …
Re: PC Chips M912 ver:1.7 green pcb black isa [ UPDATE IMPORTANT!]
Posted on 2020-11-29, 14:26
Here's a photo of my board and a close up of the bios with the sticker removed. I'm not sure if this is an eeprom or eprom. If I can't program it myself I'll have to get someone to burn a chip for me. Playing around with the computer again today and I'm no further along. Still works with 512k but …
Re: PC Chips M912 ver:1.7 green pcb black isa [ UPDATE IMPORTANT!]
Posted on 2020-11-29, 02:50
Can I ask if you ever got the bios flashed and if so what tool did you use to do it? I've been banging my head off a wall trying to upgrade my M912 with real cache. Installed 1MB (only cost me £20) but it just hangs at post. If I change the jumpers to only use 1 bank it works fine at 512kb. Oddly …
Tag ram/cache query
Posted on 2020-11-23, 20:21
I bought some cache memory to replace the fake ones in my PC Chips motherboard (yes the traces go to the chipset) but on looking up jumper setting today I discovered I also need tag ram. Probably obvious to some but news to me. Anyway... The manual says I need 64k x 8 for the tag ram. The cache …
Re: Having problems with Matrox Mystique
Posted on 2020-09-26, 21:18
I think that's infamous PCI bus mastering issue. If I turn off bus mastering windows boots to a blinking cursor? All sorts of weird actually as if windows has booted in the back ground just no display. edit: scratch that, after another reset it booted ok but no difference. I've changed the drivers …
Having problems with Matrox Mystique
Posted on 2020-09-26, 19:04
I had on of these cards back in the day and recently thought I'd build myself a system around this card just to play those few games supported by the Matrox API. Problem though... Other than the pack in games (Mech Warrior 2, Scorched Planet, Destruction Derby 2) nothing else will work when using …
Re: Help with Packard Bell Executive
Posted on 2019-11-19, 13:38
I thought you lot at least desired an update on this even if it isn't good news. The board is too far gone, really really gone. I spent maybe 3-4 hours cleaning up whats left and stopped counting at 30 broken traces and just plain lost count of vias that are simply not there anymore. While it …
Re: Help with Packard Bell Executive
Posted on 2019-11-08, 12:17
Yes if I had of knew the full extent of this damage there is no way I'd of powered it up. Less learned though, remove the board to inspect fully before diving in. I'm leaning heavily toward this thing is toast but I'll give it a couple of hours tonight, remove the corrosion and see just how bad it …
Re: Help with Packard Bell Executive
Posted on 2019-11-08, 10:26
Many thanks for the detailed reply. I pulled the board out last night and its a horror show. This one might be to far gone but I'll give it my best. I have some experience repairing damage from Varta leaking on my Amiga 500+ but this is another thing all together. It'll be fully cleaned down tonight …
Re: Help with Packard Bell Executive
Posted on 2019-11-07, 15:01
There are various chips located the the DRAM position top right of the diagram. There is also a fair bit of corrosion all over this area so I'll probably need to get the desoldering station out and remove them to clean up. I'll check the jumper setting for the SRAM but I get the impression this …
Help with Packard Bell Executive
Posted on 2019-11-07, 13:50
A while back I picked up a faulty Packard Bell Executive. From what I can tell going from the jumper settings its a 486DX at either 25 or 40mhz but I'm having some difficulty in finding any information about the motherboard. The machine is faulty. It'll power on, the HDD spins up (I love that old …
Re: Need help with password protected 286
Posted on 2019-06-06, 21:16
The battery is dead, well, only holding 0.2volts and at the time of the photo it is disconnected. I'll leave it for a few hours and see. If I disconnect the floppy ribbon it throws an error and lets me into the bios but there is nothing about passwords in there unfortunately.
Need help with password protected 286
Posted on 2019-06-06, 20:39
I recently picked up an old 286 workstation cheap but its locked out by a password. I can't find much information about it online so I was hoping one of you kind folk may be able to help me get the password cleared. Its an 8 character password and yes I've tried password and other 8 character words …
Re: Can't solve IRQ conflict
Posted on 2019-05-11, 23:49
Thank you so much as I've been banging my head against this brick wall for a few hours now and your suggestion worked. Never occurred to me that I could change the IRQ of the network card. Just need to get the rest of it set up now and I'm good to go.
Can't solve IRQ conflict
Posted on 2019-05-11, 21:53
I'm still working on my Olivetti 386 but I've hit a road block. To date I have successfully installed the ESS sound card, IDE cdrom drive (hanging off soundcard) and upgraded the ram to 10mb. I also have a network card that I've been trying to get working but its clashing with the CD drive. The card …
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