Re: Issues with 486 PCI motherboard and PCI GPU

Posted on 2017-12-10, 23:00

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have also run into issues like this when using too new of drivers, like drivers which were written with the Pentium in mind. Often, but not always, the issue could be remedied by trying out every old driver release and finding the one which works. For example, there was only one or two driver …

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Re: IBM Aptiva 2144-M51

Posted on 2017-12-10, 15:16

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I recommend running CPUMark99 in Win9x as it is highly sensitive to small changes in cache and memory timings, as well as when your system contains more RAM than it can cache. It is freeware. I've attached the file. It was quite common for chipsets to allow the use of more RAM than the system can …

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Re: Issues with 486 PCI motherboard and PCI GPU

Posted on 2017-12-10, 02:47

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sometimes Windows 9x changes your monitor refresh rate when you change resolutions, sometimes to refresh rates not supported by the monitor. But in such a case, the LCD monitor just goes blank, or when I reset, I get a screen similar to that you've shown above. I battled an issue with this yesterday …

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Re: Rebuilding a usable Web for 1992 machines

Posted on 2017-12-10, 02:19

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The idea of using webpages on my 486 is an exciting one. I really hope you can get something up and running. What would be nice to have is the ability of these old browsers to use most modern websites, but in a dumbed down form, and formatted correctly (no video, no ads). Is it possible to add some …

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Re: IBM Aptiva 2144-M51

Posted on 2017-12-10, 00:50

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Gorgeous system! Love these mid-90's Aptiva beige beauties. You sure EDO RAM is "much faster" than standard FPM on this motherboard? Might be interesting to benchmark the difference. I think what this board does is automatically adjust the wait-states depending on if FPM or EDO is installed, e.g. …

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Re: Bitchin' dual p-pro setup

Posted on 2017-12-09, 22:27

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Oh my, I never took a picture of the finished insides. You guys and your computer porn! yes, I have overdrives, damn things are QUICK. runs windows 2000 like a champ. Once I get this 286 off my bench I'll take a few pics. I think I got disillusioned when I found out how little the i960 did. It's …

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Re: Pimp my 386.

Posted on 2017-12-09, 09:32

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That MSI board looks interesting to me. Have you come across any BIOSes for Contaq?

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Re: Pimp my 386.

Posted on 2017-12-09, 00:28

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

xjas: Did that Symphony BIOS workout?

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Re: Compaq Deskpro!

Posted on 2017-12-06, 21:29

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Care to share a photo of the new mouse?

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Re: Re: Compaq Deskpro!

Posted on 2017-12-06, 19:03

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice, clean, beige - except for the mouse. Would look nice paired with this beauty, https://www.amazon.com/compaq-branded-logitec … reshbuildnet-20

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Re: Pimp my 386.

Posted on 2017-12-05, 21:46

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You may also want to contact the poster of this thread, lazibayer, https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=42290 He seems to have the MS-3124 and its BIOS. If he can image it, you can put it onto an EEPROM. EDIT: Already looked at the oldest MSI website on wayback, but the oldest board BIOSes …

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Re: Pimp my 386.

Posted on 2017-12-05, 21:20

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As far as I know, there weren't EEPROM's available for BIOSes in 1990-1992. They were usually one-time programmable, or UV-erasable. Perhaps whoever nabbed them had a UV eraser. Its possible that somebody wanted backup keyboard controller chips. I've swapped around various brands of 8042 keyboard …

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Re: Pimp my 386.

Posted on 2017-12-05, 19:27

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Looking at your first post, I noticed that you were mixing RAM chips of different density, e.g. bank0 has 9-chip, while bank1 has 3-chip. Is this allowed by the chipset, or just something that people tend to avoid doing? I've never mixed chip densities like this myself on a 386. Cache wasn't that …

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Re: List of 486 motherboards to work well with the Pentium Overdrive (POD) in write-back mode

Posted on 2017-12-05, 18:05

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What a blow to the SCSI ego. When you say VLB IDE, you are referring to PIO IDE, and not some DMA bus mastering IDE, right? I also have only tested that Adaptec SCSI card, but what do you think about this DTC 3274 VLB SCSI card for working with L1:WB? https://www.ebay.ca/itm/DTC-3274-VLB-SCSI-2-Host …

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Re: List of 486 motherboards to work well with the Pentium Overdrive (POD) in write-back mode

Posted on 2017-12-05, 08:14

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Vetz, which SCSI VLB adapter did you test with? I sort of recall a similar issue with an Adaptec 2842VL and was wondering if, perhaps, some adapters might allow for the POD-WB + SCSI VLB on the VL/I-486SV2GX4. Thus far, I think I was only able to get the Am5x86 and Intel DX4 running w/2842VL and WB …

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Re: List of 486 motherboards to work well with the Pentium Overdrive (POD) in write-back mode

Posted on 2017-12-05, 03:32

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So far using the programs listed in this thread I have been unsuccessful in determining what mode the cpu cache is running in. Also the service manual I have does not detail this either. The photos you provided indicate that your Pentium Overdrive is operating in Write-Through mode. I'm not sure …

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Re: List of 486 motherboards to work well with the Pentium Overdrive (POD) in write-back mode

Posted on 2017-12-05, 02:20

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Could you attached a screenshot of what CTCM, CTCM7, cachechk7, and CHKCPU16 show?

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Re: Changing the frequency of a 386

Posted on 2017-12-05, 02:19

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh, nice that you don't have the soldered-on 386 PQFP. I've never seen that UMC 482 chipset with such small font. You definately want to use the MR BIOS bios with this motherboard as the AMI BIOS for this chipset is slow. It seems like MR BIOS did something which allowed the RAM to be run at much …

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Re: Changing the frequency of a 386

Posted on 2017-12-04, 17:10

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Are you using a UMC 481/482-based motherboard? What are the symptoms which led you to believe that you need to slow down your system? Did you already use the turbo button in the non-turbo state to ensure that this speed-down is not sufficient for your application? By the way, I've tested oscillators …

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Re: PS/2 to Microsoft Serialmouse Adapter Converter

Posted on 2017-12-04, 16:55

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you been able to pin-point what characteristic of the KVM is causing this lag? Like a sampling issue, or there being a sort of check the KVM is doing every x milliseconds? Considering that all PS/2 to serial protocal converters I've tested have had this issue (about half a dozen), chances are …

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