Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486 VE-V EISA/VLB Motherboard

Posted on 2023-02-22, 00:31

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Did you run any tests on this board? I’m curious about the memory performance. I presume it's an older design and doesn't support write-back L1 or anything like that given the looks of it? In the DIP cache area, it looks like it can take both "normal" skinny DIP cache chips as well as full sized …

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486 VE-V EISA/VLB Motherboard

Posted on 2023-02-21, 16:25

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank you Madao! This is great news!

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486 VE-V EISA/VLB Motherboard

Posted on 2023-02-21, 16:12

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Madao wrote on 2023-02-21, 16:04: I have here a FIC 486VE, it is really NOS, never in use. I took soon him...and dump ROM That would be wonderful! Brilliant, thank you! Really interested to see how this board is.

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486 VE-V EISA/VLB Motherboard

Posted on 2023-02-21, 15:51

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can find the EISA config files and tools here: https://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/archive/Fic/bios/motherboards/utilities/ I own one myself and can dump the BIOS but I hve to dig it out in the basement first if noone here has it at hand. Awesome! Thank you for this. I went ahead and saved …

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486 VE-V EISA/VLB Motherboard

Posted on 2023-02-20, 23:59

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh awesome! Thank you for this. I’ll reach out and see what they say. It seems like their site is still active and was recently updated too-all good signs so far! EDIT: Weirdly, there doesn't seem to be any contact information on this site. It's too bad, because this person has a really nice …

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Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486 VE-V EISA/VLB Motherboard

Posted on 2023-02-20, 23:40

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good catch! I keep a bunch on hand, so I put a few aside. I’m looking to see if this board can do 40MHz+ FSB, ideally even 50MHz or 60/66MHz.

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BIOS Wanted for FIC 486 VE-V EISA/VLB Motherboard

Posted on 2023-02-20, 23:28

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently acquired this FIC 486 VE-V motherboard, without its BIOS. It physically appears to be in nice shape; nothing is really per se wrong with it except for the missing BIOS. Attached is a photo from the seller. Does anyone here have one of these? s-l1600.jpg I'd appreciate any and all help! …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-12-16, 03:16

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

It's interesting that you note the modest performance difference. I found the difference, at least with the Mach64 VRAM, to be somewhere in the ~2-5% range. It seemed vastly to improve DOS benchmarks, and slightly helped in WinTune2. I suppose one interesting tidbit could be that the whole lot of S3 …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-12-15, 21:47

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Seems like now's the perfect time to pop back into this conversation! @feipoa and @pshipkov All numbers pshipkov shared are mine from a few pages ago. I tested everything on a Nice/Lion SuperEISA with the following configuration: BIOS version 1.21 was on the board at all points throughout testing …

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ALD PCI5433 Manual

Posted on 2022-12-05, 21:55

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hello all, Recently, I purchased an ALD PCI5433. It's an obscure board, from a Chinese manufacturer, but it's notable for being the only known 486 with pipeline burst L2. I haven't gotten it yet, but plan on testing it and providing some numbers here. I reached out to ALD and emailed them to ask …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-12-05, 21:45

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

@pshipkov Interesting developments with the Chicony CH-471B. Seems on paper to be a nice board. A shame about the 3x/4x issues. Seems reminiscent of the FIC VIP-IO saga. At 3x60 it seems solid. Nice that it doesn't seem picky on L2 chips. I can't help but wonder--does the BIOS set the dirty tag …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-11-22, 02:36

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

@pshipkov Tested my Cougar w/ 486 and POD a while back, so all I have are some notes. Wrote down that the board seemed to work fine w/ POD @ 83MHz, not the most stable at 100MHz. Blamed -20ns L2 at the time and haven't retested since, but can pull the board. Funny enough--I had some issues with …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-11-18, 02:23

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

@H3nrik V! Good idea! If you think there might be some interest, I can continue this 40MHz 6x86 saga elsewhere. Just wanted to add the basics here for a clock-for-clock analysis. Plus, wanted to share the info about 6x86 “classic” and its unique 1x multiplier. ——— @pshipkov Thank you! 40MHz 6x86 was …

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Re: Socket 4 VLB - enabling full 1MB cache

Posted on 2022-11-15, 01:43

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I wonder if Jan or any others here can take a look at the Acer BIOS on your J3. Perhaps it's as simple as the modifications done to run a K6-2 on a more "usual" OPTi VL/Pentium system. Seems like, at least in the case of AWARD BIOSes, there's a write to MSR 2 instruction that can mess with non-Intel …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-11-15, 01:29

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

@maxtherabbit Nice video. Thanks for sharing! Interesting to see 3x50 vs 4x40 as you and @pshipkov have been discussing. I am curious for some reason about whether some chipsets just "prefer" 50MHz. Earlier EISA 486 chipsets, for example, are rated/stamped for 50MHz and were often sold with 50MHz …

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Re: Need Help with Diamond Stealth64 Video VRAM (Bad VRAM?)

Posted on 2022-11-10, 01:05

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

@TheMobRules Thanks for the reassurance and for the advice. For a little bit there, I really felt the immense frustration one feels when doing something real silly like this. I took a quick look at the via and traced it. I'll have to grab my multimeter and test for continuity, but it seems to run …

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Re: Need Help with Diamond Stealth64 Video VRAM (Bad VRAM?)

Posted on 2022-11-09, 22:04

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, update: I ordered some replacement VRAM chips from utsource. In anticipation, I removed the originals and, while cleaning the pads, I accidentally lifted a pad. I feel really awful about this. Guess my soldering skills weren't up to par. Anyone have any suggestions? I'd really appreciate the …

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Re: Need Help with Diamond Stealth64 Video VRAM (Bad VRAM?)

Posted on 2022-11-09, 21:25

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

@Unknown_K Thanks for the information! Hm, I see. I am a bit hesitant to order another module with just 4 x chips. I think I may wait and find an OEM 8 x chip module.

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Re: Need Help with Diamond Stealth64 Video VRAM (Bad VRAM?)

Posted on 2022-11-09, 21:06

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

@Unknown_K Good call on the caps! I'll break out my continuity tester and see what's what and report back. Does your upgrade board connect to a card with 4 x chips or 8 x chips? I am curious to see whether there is cross-compatibility, and suspect there probably is, as @TheMobRules mentioned. --- @ …

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Need Help with Diamond Stealth64 Video VRAM (Bad VRAM?)

Posted on 2022-11-09, 19:50

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hello all, I just acquired this Diamond Stealth64 Video VRAM and what seems to be an aftermarket 2MB VRAM expansion board for the card. The VRAM expansion board doesn't seem to work at all and it's like none of the others I've ever seen. I've attached an image of it. I have a couple of questions, if …

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