Re: AWARD BIOS 4.50PG vs. 4.51PG

Posted on 2011-06-16, 17:15

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

can you tell me how you benchmarked your SCSI system to reach a speed of 32,000 KB/s? I would like to run a comparitive test on a 486 with IDE, to see how far behind it is. I tend to get 37000 KB/S with a 40 MHz FSB. Well, I used a SCSI-specific Windows benchmark program from Adaptec (EZ-SCSI). …

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Re: The Ultimate 486 Benchmark Comparison

Posted on 2011-06-16, 03:57

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I currently have plans for a similar socket 7 comparison whereby all socket 7 CPUs will be tested on the same system. For completeness, I will include the PII-400, Cyrix 5x86, and POD results, in which case the results will no longer strictly be socket 7. A loosely translated title of this type of …

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Re: Info on slot1-s370 adapter

Posted on 2011-06-16, 00:54

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tetrium, you are probably right considering how one particular machine would be flakely using 1.0 GHz slot1 CPUs but not 850 MHz ones. Maybe at speeds higher than the BIOS/MB is rated for (like 1.4 GHz) some extra wait state is needed? Unfortunately, a lot of these features were taken away from more …

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Re: AWARD BIOS 4.50PG vs. 4.51PG

Posted on 2011-06-15, 23:58

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

@5u3 That is an attractive motherboard, with features similar to that of this here Biostar MB8433-UUD v3.0 w/4.51PG, except yours has the SiS chipset. I would be very curious to know: 1) With what Cyrix 5x86 enhancement features you have tried it with and with which CPU? 2) Does the PS/2 port work? …

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Re: Info on slot1-s370 adapter

Posted on 2011-06-15, 11:05

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

At around 2004-ish times, I did many tests with slocket adapters, but was never able to obtain much longterm stability out of them. I even tried some expensive ones from Powerleap at the time (~$150 per adapter) in a dual CPU configuration, but the system would crash every 5-7 days of uptime. I also …

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Re: AWARD BIOS 4.50PG vs. 4.51PG

Posted on 2011-06-15, 10:53

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

5u3, which 486 motherboard would that be? More speculation: maybe 4.51PG supports a wider variety of PCI cards? I can't seem to find much information on AWARD revision history online.

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Re: AWARD BIOS 4.50PG vs. 4.51PG

Posted on 2011-06-15, 01:46

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Maybe, though I don't have any experience with modbin and BIOS HEX word modifications. This may be more of a whole evenings' chore that I'm not really up to. If I had to speculate out on a limb, 4.51PG may allow for 32 GB hard drives whereas the 4.50PG allows for up to 8 GB IDE, PIO-4 hard drives. …

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Re: Server motherboards and 9x drivers

Posted on 2011-06-15, 01:34

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't think I've ever bought anything on eBay that was photoless. If a seller even has a hint of the bad attitude sickness, I won't buy. There's probably about a half-dozen sellers on my "Do not buy from" list. I almost always will not buy from sellers that do not offer at least a 7 day warranty …

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Re: Server motherboards and 9x drivers

Posted on 2011-06-14, 23:12

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I only have experience with the Asus CUV4X-DLS. Holey cow, somebody is trying to sell one on eBay for over $600 USD! It may take me some time to get over this kind of shock. Oceanside, California? Is that where the IC recycling depot is for Los Angeles?

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Re: AWARD BIOS 4.50PG vs. 4.51PG

Posted on 2011-06-14, 23:07

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

"Large" disks and LBA were already available on 4.50PG. In the past, I recall reading that some people wanted a MB with 4.51PG, but don't recall why. Maybe 4.51PG is user-hackable to allow for up to 128 GB hard drives?

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Re: Tillamook

Posted on 2011-06-14, 11:51

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Off topic, but... I just looked over some old posts and from the dates, it seems your attic has been 'under construction' for years. I find that old dressers work great for retro IC storage.

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AWARD BIOS 4.50PG vs. 4.51PG

Posted on 2011-06-14, 10:15

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does anyone know the main differences between the AWARD BIOS with versions 4.50PG and 4.51PG? 4.50PG seems to be popular in 486 motherboards, while 4.51PG can be found in mid-1996 486 motherboards and socket 7's up to at least mid-1998. What fixes/enhancements were introduced? FYI, if you update …

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Re: Tillamook

Posted on 2011-06-14, 10:08

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Couldn't you just use an ohm-meter on the pin side of the CPU to verify your taped connection? A simple solder "tap" and some copper wire strands should be fine. Better to be sure than to always wonder. I'll eventually get to this test as well, but not for a month or two.

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Re: Tillamook

Posted on 2011-06-12, 06:30

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Altering the motherboard's voltage regulation circuit is not much trouble. I have succeed in the past. Here are some simple steps: 1) Find the 2 voltage regulators on the socket 7 motherboard and note the part numbers. 2) Do a part number search and download the PDF spec sheet. 3) The voltage …

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Re: post up pics of your "computing area"

Posted on 2011-06-12, 05:07

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

What a great idea for a post! I decided to take a slightly different approach to label items in the photos. Why my photos not displayed live in the thread (and need to be click downloaded)? I thought I was being clever to select 1024x768 as I saw others of this resolution that displayed live. What …

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Re: The World's Fastest 486

Posted on 2011-06-11, 09:01

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, all of them except for Bsquare. I'm trying to get the Bsquare driver from Bsquare, but they are having a hard time finding it. Stay away from the Jungo USB driver, at least version 8.02. It gave me BSOD upon installation and now I cannot even boot into NT 4.0 (BSOD at boot). Good thing I tested …

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Re: Biostar MB8433 Owners

Posted on 2011-06-11, 08:04

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I didn't try a DX33 or DX2-66 as I'd never run such a slow CPU in the system. I'm really just looking for a backup motherboard to my current MB8433-UUD v3.0. Agreed, you never know what crazy abuse any of this eBay IC stuff has undergone.

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Re: The World's Fastest 486

Posted on 2011-06-11, 08:01

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I decided I might have better luck finding a USB-to-PS/2 solution for NT4.0. I gave it about 1 hour of my time and gave up. So using the IONetworks solution for USB in NT4.0, I am able to use a USB mouse flawlessl. I also tested a USB hub and a USB/SD card adapter. All worked fine on an OPTi- …

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Re: Tillamook

Posted on 2011-06-11, 06:52

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a 266 MHz version on its way, so I'll test it out when it comes in. I have a Socket7 MB that works well with K6-III+/500 and Cyrix-433GP CPUs and has an Intel TX chipset, so this is what I'll test it on. If CLKMUL is locked at 4x on these Tillimock's, then the fastest I'll be able to get it …

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Re: Biostar MB8433 Owners

Posted on 2011-06-11, 01:30

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

An old PCI bus that cannot work at 33 MHz may be the result of the growth of crystalline impurities within the chipset(s). In otherwords, a rotten lemon. I'm sure at one point it did work at 33 MHz, as this was the PCI spec, but this boy is past his prime.

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