Re: the trap of retro computing

Posted on 2013-09-03, 11:36

by

by feipoa

in Milliways

in Milliways

I don't know but when a K6-2 or 3 overclocked to 600mhz can't even keep up with a 450mhz P-II in games because of the lousy FPU, that pretty much says all that needs to be said. 440BX plays all the period games better and you really have to screw something up badly to make it crash while Super 7 …

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Re: My new baby - 486 DX4 100MHz with GUS.

Posted on 2013-09-02, 07:31

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Run your multi-meter across Vcc and Vss on the CPU to determine what DC voltage the CPU is receiving. I see a voltage regulator on your motherboard, but if the board came witha DX2 installed, it is probably jumpered for 5V. You need to jumper your voltage regulator to 3.3 V, or 3.45 V.

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Re: My new baby - 486 DX4 100MHz with GUS.

Posted on 2013-09-02, 05:46

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Refer to the cache jumper settings on the Zida Tomato 4DPS. This board looks very similar.

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Re: My new baby - 486 DX4 100MHz with GUS.

Posted on 2013-09-02, 05:21

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I only see about 1/3 of the board in that image.

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Re: My new baby - 486 DX4 100MHz with GUS.

Posted on 2013-09-02, 03:37

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I didn't realise your board only has the option for single-banked cache. So, 4 pieces of 64kx8 for 256KB or 4 pieces of 128kx8 for 512KB. TAG is 32kx8 in both cases.

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Re: My new baby - 486 DX4 100MHz with GUS.

Posted on 2013-09-01, 21:53

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

DIP-32, 32kx8 cache chips? Are you sure they aren't DIP-28? I've never seen any jumper settings for double-banked 256 KB L2 cache with DIP-32 chips. Or perhaps you ordered DIP-32, 64kx8 chips, for 512KB double-banked cache? That is fairly standard. For cachechk to show a proper CPU frequency on a …

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Re: My new baby - 486 DX4 100MHz with GUS.

Posted on 2013-09-01, 21:18

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Some motherboards are set to turbo 'ON' when the turbo switch is off, some need to have the turbo jumper. If your turbo header has three pins, like 1 2 3 Then there are three possibilities. 1-2 shorted, 2-3 shorted, all off.

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Re: My new baby - 486 DX4 100MHz with GUS.

Posted on 2013-09-01, 10:52

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Usually if the wrong cache jumper settings are set, you'll get HIMEM errors. Normally, when the cache is not seated properly, you'll also get HIMEM errors. Either the cache is fake (though it looks genuine), or it is somehow disabled, via a jumper, or in the BIOS. I see what looks like a 256 KB for …

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Re: My new baby - 486 DX4 100MHz with GUS.

Posted on 2013-09-01, 10:15

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Do you get errors when you run HIMEM?

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Re: My new baby - 486 DX4 100MHz with GUS.

Posted on 2013-09-01, 09:31

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I figured I'd post my Speedsys results. Don't know if they are what they should be, but I'm sure somebody would know. I'm wondering if I'd gain any noticeable performance by getting an Intel DX4 instead. Refer to the ultimate 486 benchmark comparison. The Cyrix DX4-100 has 8KB L1 cache, whereas the …

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Re: Cyrix III (i.e. VIA C3) for vintage gaming?

Posted on 2013-08-31, 10:32

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I was amazed too. The C5A 650 MHz by DOS performance is somewhere between the MMX 200 and the MMX 233 MHz. Unfortunately I have no WinChip 2 to compare them but I would be curious. :) According to the 686 benchmark comparison, the Cyrix C3 Samuel, C5A at 550 MHz was about as good as a Pentium P55C …

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Re: my 5x86 systems : 120mhz vs 133mhz

Posted on 2013-08-30, 10:27

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Regarding the RAM. I dont know if 3.3V RAM will damage a motherboard designed for 5V. Has anyone besides Feipoa had first hand experience? I received a response from 1800-memory this morning... Dear xxxxxx, My technician became available this afternoon. I did show him the picture you sent. He …

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Re: My new baby - 486 DX4 100MHz with GUS.

Posted on 2013-08-27, 21:04

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Neither gets picked up by the BIOS. Any chance the CD-ROM interfaces on my GUS conflicting with my BIOS's ability to detect ATAPI devices? If not, does anyone have any experience with CD-ROM detection problems on SiS496/497 chipset motherboards? Most probably the BIOS does not detect ATAPI devices …

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Re: my 5x86 systems : 120mhz vs 133mhz

Posted on 2013-08-24, 02:24

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you had first hand experience of 3.3 volt RAM on a 5 volt motherboard damaging the chip-set? Yes, but the damage to the chipset was not so black and white. It caused unpredictable BSOD's on a system that had been running stable for years. The BSOD's started immediately after putting in the …

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Re: The Ultimate 686 Benchmark Comparison

Posted on 2013-08-23, 23:34

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I had a topic going which asked about what people would like to see in the 686 benchmark comparison, but I received little feedback. To go back and patch these results for all CPUs tested would be very time consuming. Maybe if I ever re-test the 3DNow! chips for Quake, I'll add a row for w/FasVid …

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Re: my 5x86 systems : 120mhz vs 133mhz

Posted on 2013-08-23, 23:09

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That seller has a history of selling 3.3V memory advertised as 5V. For the Cyrix 5x86-120 system, are you sure you need both of these settings at 1: DRAM Read Wait State – 1WS DRAM Write Wait State – 1WS With a 40 MHz bus, the UMC board should be able to get away with 0ws / 0ws. At the worst case, I …

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Re: my 5x86 systems : 120mhz vs 133mhz

Posted on 2013-08-23, 14:11

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does the part number on that memory module chip say KM44V1600AK? If so, then you are using 3.3V memory in a 5V motherboard. Remove it immediately before you damage the chipset. Which eBay seller did you buy this from? If it is the one I am thinking of, I already warned him of this, but he continues …

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Re: PVI-486SP3 Documentation / Manual

Posted on 2013-08-16, 03:57

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For motherboards of this era, I believe most or all are wired as indicated on this specification sheet, http://www.datasheetarchive.com/HT6542B-datasheet.html I say this because I've seen different brand keyboard controllers used on the same motherboard PCB layout. I used this datasheet as the basis …

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Re: The Ultimate 486 Benchmark Comparison

Posted on 2013-08-15, 04:57

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice work. That is quite the deviation in slopes. Its a good thing users with a VL or PCI bus weren't using a 486-DX1 - what a waste that would have been. Seems like most VLB systems were fitted with a DX2 or a DX4. Most PCI 486's were fitted with a DX4 or DX5.

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Re: Tyan S1562 Dual Pentium MMX succes

Posted on 2013-08-12, 01:12

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Well actually I got the board fully equipped with 256 MB, Bank 1,2 with EDO and 3,4 with FPM DRAM. So I changed the FPM to EDO DRAM, memtest86 was good (non SMP), DOS etc. ran fine too. But as soon as I installed NT4 and it booted up first it went quickly BSOD. The typical random BSODs that point …

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