Re: VLB controller MS-3802 - add boot bios rom

Posted on 2021-04-02, 21:39

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It looks like there's a deliberate 0 ohm link across pins 11 & 19 of the 16V8, so it may not have been fitted originally, unless someone's made some strange mods. mt777 do you have a photo of the back of the card to help see where the traces go?

---

Re: VLB controller MS-3802 - add boot bios rom

Posted on 2021-04-02, 21:18

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can't help as such, but I did find a very similar card: https://computer-retro.de/Bilder/Multi-IO/LCS-6924-VLB-Bus-Controller-Promise-PDC20230C-UMC-Chip-1993.jpg Nearly the same PDC20230 (C rather than your B), UM82C863F and UM82C865F, and it doesn't look like it needs a separate BIOS chip, or any …

---

Re: Need DOS drivers for Promise DC4030VL-2 controller

Posted on 2021-04-02, 20:02

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thinking back, I'm not sure DOS needs any drivers. My recollection (and this was a few years ago now) is that the card had its own sort of BIOS that could be entered during post that let you set most of the settings. After that it was pretty transparent. I think Windows (3.1?) needed a driver to use …

---

Re: Dos Game Stutter in Real Mode DOS

Posted on 2021-04-02, 12:50

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good work, and a good suggestion from Auron. So it looks like the mobile PII does do some thermal throttling (maybe just stops for a bit), and that perhaps Win98 was able to have the CPU in a low power state often enough to stop it overheating. Interesting. I wonder if there's a power difference …

---

Re: Need DOS drivers for Promise DC4030VL-2 controller

Posted on 2021-04-01, 21:29

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just in case, I found the backup I had. Turns out as well as the disk images I also had the files from the first disk, which is probably easier to deal with. I'll attach them all anyway.

---

Re: Need DOS drivers for Promise DC4030VL-2 controller

Posted on 2021-04-01, 17:43

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In case I can't find the original images, I just found this: http://files.mpoli.fi/unpacked/hardware/hdd/p … se/4030vl2.zip/ That looks like it might have what you need (dosdrv.sys). Actually, it's a later version of the driver than would be on the floppy image, so might be better anyway.

---

Re: Need DOS drivers for Promise DC4030VL-2 controller

Posted on 2021-04-01, 17:33

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ooh, had one of those, stayed in the 486 when it got given away. It replaced a Tekram that might have been the first card I broke. This was all a while ago. Don't think I still have the floppies (sold off the box and disks last year), but pretty sure I'll have a disk image of them somewhere. I'll …

---

Panasonic CDROM not spinning up - read head problem? ( Fixed - could be useful for 3DO )

Posted on 2021-04-01, 11:51

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm back trying to get an old Panasonic/Matsushita CR562b working and have hit a problem with the read head. To fix earlier problems I've made a wire mod to reconnect the 12V on the top side of the PCB (flexing of the molex connector broke the PCB track) and replaced the cable linking the main PCB …

---

Re: Motherboard troubleshooting?

Posted on 2021-03-29, 22:42

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not sure if that motherboard has a speaker on it to give BIOS beep codes? You could try fitting one (photos of that model MB show an obvious spot marked buzzer) and seeing if it tells you anything. Is there on board video (I can see an HDMI port)? If you do get video, at what point does it freeze ( …

---

Re: No power to CD Rom (486)

Posted on 2021-03-28, 19:50

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you mean the fan works when plugged in to a molex connector on the PSU? I was meaning to check the connector on the cd drive, in particular the PCB solder joints. Some molex power connectors are a bit on the stiff side, so the waggling back and forth to unplug them can damage the joints. At which …

---

Re: No power to CD Rom (486)

Posted on 2021-03-28, 09:31

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Try using the manual tray eject to open the tray, then apply just power (no data cable). I'm pretty sure that even if nothing is connected, the first thing a drive will do is try to close the try when power is applied (certainly true of the several models I've been playing with recently). If it …

---

Re: CR562b cdrom clicking problem

Posted on 2021-03-27, 23:59

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just in case anyone finds this if searching for a similar problem in the future, a couple of things: 1) Hi. 2) Turns out it was simple, although perhaps not obvious. Check the 12V on the top of the molex power connector. I assumed that if a through hole pin had connections on both sides that it …

---

Re: Dos Game Stutter in Real Mode DOS

Posted on 2021-03-26, 23:10

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So, some underlying hardware issue (engineering sample cpu?) that Win98 somehow reduces the impact of (so Doom runs ok there, but not in DOS), but that's still there no matter whether booting in to DOS or Windows?

---

Re: Dos Game Stutter in Real Mode DOS

Posted on 2021-03-26, 22:27

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

auron wrote on 2021-03-26, 22:17: OP already said that pcpbench gives him erratic scores and stutter even under win98. Ah, sorry, I got it in my head that that was in safe mode. Can't think of any reason why Doom would be consistently smooth in Win98, but pcp be variable.

---

Re: Dos Game Stutter in Real Mode DOS

Posted on 2021-03-26, 22:15

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

'fraid I think I'm getting stumped here. One last thing that might give some useful information, try running the doom timedemo on both machines, booting to a command prompt, in win98 safe mode and in win98 normal. We can use the C1XF as a known good reference. If all three figures on the C1XS come …

---

Re: Dos Game Stutter in Real Mode DOS

Posted on 2021-03-26, 18:30

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Variability in Win98 testing could just be what passed for multitasking getting in the way? We know that Doom runs ok in normal Win98, but not when Win98 is in safe mode. So there must be some driver or something that gets loaded in normal mode that somehow avoids the slow downs. Unless, of course …

---

CR562b cdrom clicking problem

Posted on 2021-03-26, 17:05

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've just dug out my old SB16 with the MKE cdrom header on it. I had one CR562b that I got with the SB, then at some point I acquired another, and I'm sure at some point I had them both working, but it was years ago. I've just been reconnecting a few things and thought I'd try them both out. I …

---

Re: Dos Game Stutter in Real Mode DOS

Posted on 2021-03-26, 11:44

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think there is a thermal indicator LED on the front of the Picturebook (according to a YouTube teardown). The slow downs seem to effect everything. The SpeedSys VESA memory rate drops from ~20MB/s to ~3.5MB/s on that last run. And on some the L1 and L2 cache rates drop as well. I guess that if a …

---

Re: 486-VIP-IO Board doesn't recognize Am486 DX4-100 (100NV8T) CPU

Posted on 2021-03-25, 19:11

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Huh, interesting. Just seen an ST datasheet that has 27c101 in either UV-erasable, or as one-time-programmable. Are those ones reprogrammable?

---

Re: Help ID-ing 386 EISA/VESA board - jumper settings?

Posted on 2021-03-25, 18:55

by

by snufkin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ah, that makes sense. Using my awesome photoshop skills, something like this (original pin diagrams cribbed from a google image search): Filename 486_387_PinOverlay.png File size 115.32 KiB Views 536 views

---