Re: ASUS ISA-486SV2 restoration: L2 cache not working

Posted on 2024-02-25, 17:45

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

0KB cache means bios tried detecting cache size but determined there is none or malfunctioning - in that case it will not enable Cache at all. Disabled cache will deactivate cache controller TAG inputs. I cant come up with a scenario where behavior you describe would make sense 🙁 How would TAGs …

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Re: Panasonic/Creative CR-563 CD-ROM Drivers

Posted on 2024-02-25, 02:48

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a CR-562-B here, do they need different drivers? I tried SBCD, as well as SBCDMKE but they don't find the drive. Soundcard is a SB 16 CT 2770 If you insert a CD in the drive, does it try to spin up and detect the disc? I am asking this because at least the CR-563-B model usually suffers a …

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Re: ASUS ISA-486SV2 restoration: L2 cache not working

Posted on 2024-02-25, 02:29

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

OK, so I ran a few more tests, and what I found is that if the TAG chip is inserted, regardless of whether any of the other 8 cache sockets are populated or not, I get the slightly long POST beep and it hangs on "Starting MS-DOS...". Also I noticed that the table that displays the AMIBIOS settings …

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Re: ASUS ISA-486SV2 restoration: L2 cache not working

Posted on 2024-02-25, 01:07

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tried another cpu? Board might always display amount of cache detected, even when its disabled. It not detecting any might mean there is something wrong between cache and main CPU bus. You can look into my signature to see typical ASYNC 486 cache diagram. TAG chip outputs always go back to the …

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[SOLVED] ASUS ISA-486SV2 restoration: L2 cache not working

Posted on 2024-02-24, 20:12

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

EDIT: read the post below , the problem was due to a broken trace. I've been restoring an ASUS ISA-486SV2 rev 2.4 motherboard, I got it very cheap as it was listed in "not working" condition and was also full of grime, most of the SIMM slots were mangled and broken (as if someone had just ripped out …

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Re: Quantum Fireball 1.2GB SCSI prices

Posted on 2024-02-12, 16:03

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's probably a model that was used in old Macs or something. Everything related to Mac or Amiga (even if it's just a regular item like a SCSI drive) tends to be absurdly priced.

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2024-02-08, 17:21

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I was surprised that by replacing BIOS chip all my settings remained intact. Where the hell 486 era boards are storing custom settings? CMOS settings are not saved to the BIOS chip. The motherboard provides a small amount of non-volatile RAM to store these settings (the battery keeps it powered …

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Re: Future planning for my 486DX4 100 (Upgrading my first PC which I acquired in 1994)

Posted on 2024-02-07, 20:19

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

CoffeeOne wrote on 2024-02-07, 20:08: I am curious: For what purpose you would add the US Robotics modem? Just look at that user's post history and you will quickly realize that there isn't any "purpose" to those suggestions. It's almost AI/chatbot level stuff.

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Re: "Bioteq" chipset

Posted on 2024-02-05, 02:42

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I tried the ATROM bios from that, but it still gives me the same symptoms as all the other BIOSes I've tried: on the two VLB VGA cards this board wants to work with, I get characters that "drop" or are not properly updated when the screen scrolls. Fuddling with the jumpers on the cards has no …

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Re: ISA Riser problems

Posted on 2024-02-05, 02:12

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a pizza-box style case with a riser card that looks very similar to the one on this post, and it works without problems for me with regular 8-slot motherboards. And the case is definitely intended for Baby AT form factor boards, not LPX. My riser card has 3 16-bit slots on one side and 2 8- …

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Re: Help to identify 386 motherboard

Posted on 2024-01-28, 22:39

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Before attempting to turn it on, you may want to check a couple of pins in the bottom slot: pins.jpg It looks like those pins are bent and touching the opposing ones. Depending on what these pins are for, the short could prevent your system from turning on, working properly or even cause some damage …

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Re: Very slow 486 board - FIC 486-KVD

Posted on 2024-01-26, 22:13

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Which is the most likely culprit? First I would check the turbo switch header. In ASUS boards you usually need to short those in order to run at full speed. Otherwise I would probably blame the AMI BIOS. By analyzing the BIOS of several SiS471 based boards I found that it does not program the …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2024-01-26, 21:26

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

appiah4 wrote on 2024-01-26, 19:37: I finally found the time to have one last go at fixing this A-Trend ATC-1762 VLB motherboard. Nice fix! VLB boards are probably my favorite along with EISA due to all the quirks. By the way, you may want to tin those exposed traces, otherwise the bare copper may …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2024-01-26, 21:18

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

I didn't experience a lot of bugs at launch with CP2077 (at least compared to other people), but what disappointed me the most was how short and on-rails the main quest was. The side quests were a mixed bag. One minor thing that annoyed me greatly was the inability to drive in first person …

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Re: 2024 - End of the era of Retro Computing Youtube channels?

Posted on 2024-01-26, 19:03

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

The increasing infrastructure cost is a good point, but again I ask: why doesn't YT lock their videos behind a paywall? Netflix and others do it and it works for them. Maybe they suspect that the content they offer doesn't provide enough value for the current subscription prices? For example, free …

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Re: 2024 - End of the era of Retro Computing Youtube channels?

Posted on 2024-01-26, 17:41

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

It's no hypocrisy at all, the subscription business model is completely broken and has been abused by corporations to a point where it's ridiculous. I pay for Netflix, HBO and other stuff but I wouldn't give YouTube a single cent by principle. The appeal of YouTube was that it was a place where …

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Re: The Soundblaster DSP project

Posted on 2024-01-26, 03:53

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just replaced the bugged DSP on one of my SB16 cards (CT2910) with Maelgrum's latest release burned to an AT89C52. Great stuff! Initial tests indicate that digital audio and FM is working properly, but I wasn't able to test MIDI yet since I didn't have my SC-55 at hand. So I wanted to ask, knowing …

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Re: Varta replacer

Posted on 2024-01-26, 03:43

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, whenever possible disabling the charging circuit is a much better option if you're trying to use a CR2032. Not only a coin cell provides a lower voltage (3V) than the original barrel (3.6V) but also the extra diode you add will lower that voltage even further, which can result in the battery …

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Re: Confirm a question about this forum

Posted on 2024-01-26, 03:37

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

I get the impression that many people spend more time collecting and working on hardware than playing games. I think people get a dopamine hit from finding rare computers or parts. It's like a treasure hunt! I think it's more due to stuff like DOSBox and SCUMMVM reaching a level of maturity that …

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Re: Dead 486! Anyone able to repair what I can't?

Posted on 2024-01-26, 03:25

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm nowhere near the US so I cannot offer to attempt a fix, but one thing you should consider is getting a PCI/ISA POST card on eBay (they're very cheap). It will let you know whether the CPU is trying to execute BIOS code, which is an important first step when troubleshooting a board.

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