Re: Tseng 4000AX Weird Characters

Posted on 2018-06-19, 21:34

by

by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It should. As I mentioned earlier, there's no indication about its size on the "sync bios" chip, so I've read it two times, first assuming it is a 27c256 and then as a 27c512. However, the 512kb image, if split in two, produces two identical files so that should mean the chip is also 256kbit in …

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Re: Tseng 4000AX Weird Characters

Posted on 2018-06-19, 14:49

by

by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Same as on my card. The M27256 can be programmed on the TL866, but only after erasing under UV light. Not worth the hassle. The other chip (VGA4000 BIOS) cannot be erased or re-programmed. You need two chips such as these.

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Re: Tseng 4000AX Weird Characters

Posted on 2018-06-19, 12:33

by

by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a TL866CS which has helped me a lot in my retro endeavours, both for reading/programming (e)eproms/flash and for testing various logic ICs and SRAMs (yes it can do that!). I don't think the chips on your card can be programmed with means other than a dedicated programmer, if at all. On my …

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Re: No beeps from internal speaker but computer works

Posted on 2018-06-15, 21:55

by

by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There is a transistor, right behind the speaker header on your photo. Check to see if it's got any connection to the speaker header, if it does then it is the "amplifier" for the speaker signal... Desolder it and check it with your multimeter. Replace if faulty 😀

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Re: Tseng 4000AX Weird Characters

Posted on 2018-06-15, 12:04

by

by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Here it goes. On my card the "Sync BIOS" is a black chip without any clear indication of its size, so I've read this one both as 256 and 512 kbit. Most certainly it's 256kbit or it could be even smaller - if you look at the file in a hex editor it's quite repetitive. If you can find out more about …

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Re: Tseng 4000AX Weird Characters

Posted on 2018-06-14, 22:40

by

by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a slightly different revision of that card - it has socketed RAM chips (DIP) instead of SOJ packages. It is very fast for a ISA card, but unfortunately exhibits some artifacts under benchmarks (some pixels have wrong colors). Tried it with another set of RAM chips, still same artifacts. How …

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Re: Stubborn 386SX board

Posted on 2018-06-14, 22:12

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by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Solved today. My troubleshooting attempts were hampered by two aspects: - the original KBC is faulty - the board doesn't post without all 4 SIMM slots populated, which I think it's kind of strange for a 386SX board. Today I tried it for the first time with 4 modules, and it came alive... A series of …

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Re: Marl MB won't boot from HDD/FDD/CDROM

Posted on 2018-06-13, 20:52

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by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Are you 100% sure that the drive, cable and boot disk are all in working order? Can you test them on another system? Unless you are certain they all work, this is a shot in the dark... (OK, if the LED doesn't light it means it didn't even try to read the disk, so the problem is likely the cable or …

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Re: Problem with unknown motherboard

Posted on 2018-06-12, 21:48

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by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you tried booting from a DOS bootable floppy with only the FDD connected and all IDE drives disconnected (and set to "none" in BIOS)? You say POST is very slow. It is the same if you disconnect ALL drives?

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Re: My Fox II blew a cap!

Posted on 2018-06-10, 21:37

by

by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

SW2 must be set to OFF position, otherwise the board is expecting the RAM to be in the DIP sockets not the SIMM ones. I'm attaching the manual in case you don't have it. I have this board, it is very picky about the SIMMs it accepts. With most of them it seems to work fine, however if left idle for …

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Re: Mystery 486 Motherboard

Posted on 2018-06-05, 00:01

by

by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think the brown slot is an OPTi local bus. Do you have the matching video card? I don't see any "normal" VLB slots on your board...

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Re: Floppy Drive stuff

Posted on 2018-06-02, 13:05

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by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Kinky^^ One of my 286 boards wouldn't keep the settings regarding floppy because of the dead Dallas chip, maybe that could be your problem too...

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Re: Another day, another motherboard to repair (DFI P5BV3+)

Posted on 2018-05-31, 14:55

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by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

PCI bus originates from the northbridge, ISA bus from the southbridge. Maybe one of the chips is defective, or there is a broken trace/via between them.

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Re: 80286 BIOS image collection

Posted on 2018-05-27, 22:29

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by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Chipset for #9 are VL82C100 -> VL82C104, I think you put the date codes there. #12 chipset is Acer (ALi) M1207-12 Don't worry about me posting here, later I will edit post and upload some BIOS instead of all this. So #14 reserved for me! 😀

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Re: 80386 BIOS image collection

Posted on 2018-05-25, 18:34

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by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

#15 Manufacturer/Identifier: TAM/33/40-MA0 (CM318R00,M31-R00) Chipset: MX83C305, MX83C306 Filename TAM_33_40-MA0 (386DX, MX83C305).zip File size 36.82 KiB Downloads 179 downloads Filename Unknown386.jpg File size 470.23 KiB Views 10805 views

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Re: 80386 BIOS image collection

Posted on 2018-05-25, 18:30

by

by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

#14 Manufacturer/Identifier: DTK Computer PPM-3333P (originally added as "Unknown 386SX-33 with cache") Chipset: OPTi 82C291 Two BIOSes for this board, the original Award and an AMI found on the net. Filename Unknown 386SX OPTi291 Award+AMI.zip File size 75.05 KiB Downloads 213 downloads Filename …

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Re: Problem with two valuable cards - Asus V8460 Ultra Deluxe and AWE64 Gold

Posted on 2018-05-24, 18:38

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by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just a thought on the AWE64 that became "invisible" - had this happen to a friend's SB Audigy, back in 2003 or so. Card disappeared from Windows, official Creative drivers wouldn't install (no Creative Soundblaster hardware found, or something along this line). The card worked with the KX drivers, …

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Re: Found a pretty motherboard, can we get it working?

Posted on 2018-05-24, 18:19

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by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

MediaGX CPUs have built-in video core and I couldn't find a way to disable it on your board. The VGA header on this board is shared with the MIDI header. Couldn't find its pinout. Does that mean you weren't able to use/test your board so far? Well, the ICS5342 GENDAC outputs R, G and B on pins 37, …

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ATC-1425 Socket 3 board - anyone owns it?

Posted on 2018-05-23, 20:27

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by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I was given this motherboard, looks nice and shiny but unfortunately it's missing some components - two larger caps and around 12 SMD caps and resistors. There's also a broken (cracked) diode (D5, between the VRM and the BIOS socket), but I guess that a 1N4148 should work there. I cannot find high …

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Re: BIOS for Octek Fox II 286 or other board with HT12/A chipset

Posted on 2018-05-16, 20:41

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by quicknick

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Versions 2, 6, 7 and 8 here are for the HT12 chipset, but I haven't tested any of them and don't know about their features. I'm attaching another variant from a BI-025C-HT12 board that I have and I'm pretty sure that it has the memory relocation setting. Not so sure about the EMS, and unfortunately …

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