In today's episode of I Can't Believe It Still Boots..

I planned on having the 3C905B card write newer M919 BIOS code to an EEPROM, but that just didn't work. No matter what I did or system I put the card in, flashrom just wouldn't agree to use that particular card.

Almost ready to give up and buy an EEPROM programmer, I saw that the ASUS P3B-F was on the supported hardware list.
Well, I pulled out my P3B-F, super carefully removed its BIOS chip after booting, swapped in a blank SST 39SF010A-70-4C-PHE, had flashrom do its thing and blammo.

(Well, not exactly "blammo", that'd probably be bad.)

Anyhow, my super willing and able P3B-F survived, and so has the M919, now on 10/16/1996 "S" (whatever that means) code. Yee haw!

Win some, lose some. I tried a Promise Ultra100 TX2 card in the system, and while the performance was incredible, I had a couple of minor problems.

- CD-ROM is not supported in DOS
- the Sintech SD to IDE adapter worked great on a cold boot, but for some reason did not boot on a warm boot. The machine would just hang after POST. CF-IDE worked fine.

So, now with more hardware options and a newer BIOS, I tried the onboard IDE again. I went balls to the wall - 32bit transfers, PIO mode 4, the works. NO PROBLEMS. An 8GB SD card works, even.

I’m getting close.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Things tend to be a bit chaotic towards the end of a build for me. This applies to both modern and retro computing - on modern PCs, I'll try out Windows 11, decide I still rather dislike Windows 11, maybe do a bit of Linux distro hopping, then eventually settle on something I've got lots of mileage on.

I've got a few retro systems and when one more gets added, parts tend to exchange places. This 486 is largely safe because it's my only AT build, and the next fastest thing I've got is a K6-III+.

After spending some quality time with this machine running Windows 95, I'm reminded just how big a leap the 486-to-Pentium generation really was. Insanely expensive still, sure. But quite a different experience. The 486 is fine with a single task running, but any more than that is a tall order. Mind you this is with a decent amount of memory for the time (64MB) and utterly impossible storage speed for the era (SD card). I do remember how gentle you needed to be on these systems back in the day.

So: Designed for Windows 95? Er..maybe, but I think I might pull it back to either FreeDOS, or MS-DOS 6.22 + Windows 3.11.

The Orpheus I Sound Card and WP32 McCake are absolutely amazing products/projects. I am going to put the AWE64 Legacy in a >=Pentium-class build - it'll be better suited for that.

All that said - this was an awesome build. Everything is maxed out in the BIOS, and performance and stability are good. Glorious. Happy days!

final(?) SYSTEM SUMMARY:
OLD/RESTORED:
- Motherboard: PCChips (Matsonic/Elpina/Eurone..) M919, v3.4B/F, BIOS 10/16/1996 S
- CPU: AMD Am5x86-P75 ADZ, at 133MHz
- Chassis: Techmedia AT barebone
- CD: Sony 52X
- Video: Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 Pro (ViRGE/DX), BIOS 3.04
- Network: 3Com 3C905B-TX

NEW:
- CPU cooler: Advanced Thermal Solutions 45mm FanSINK + Sunon 45x10mm maglev fan
- RAM: 4x Memory Masters 16MB EDO 72-pin SIMMs
- L2 Cache: 1024KB "MEGACACHE" (thanks again pancakepuppy!)
- Audio: Orpheus I (thanks keropi and Marmes!)
- MIDI: WP32 McCake (thanks Serge @ serdaco!)
- Floppy: Gotek (Artery AT32F435), FlashFloppy+ 3.36
- Hard disk: Sintechi IDE2SD, 3D Printed bay mount

I built my Ultimate DOS/Win3.11 computer using a Pentium MMX 233mhz CPU and Intel tx430 Motherboard, 64mb EDO RAM, 3com 3c509b ISA
Nic, Sound Blaster 16, S3 trio64 DX video card, 6gb IDE Hard Drive.

I Love it. It’s performs so quick and responsive.
This is How DOS/Win3x was suppose to run. Even browsing the Local Network is Snappy quick.

Using a program called “SetMul” ( Short for Set Multiplier ) you can disable motherboard cache and slow the computer all the way down to
A 386@40mhz. So you can play CPU sensitive games too.

This is what recommend for anyone looking to build the Ultimate DOS/Win3x/Win95 computer.

But I also have a computer I built with an AMD 5x86-133 CPU, 32mb RAM, 8gb CF card, Media Vision PAS16, and S3 trio 64 video card.
It runs Win95 okay and plays MP3 files too.

I call it my budget Win95 computer because back around 1996. Motherboard manufactures came out with these Socket 3, PCI motherboards Specifically for the 486dx4-100 and AMD 5x86 CPU for users with 486 computers that wanted an inexpensive way to upgrade to Win95 hardware so they could run Win95.
Computer component stores would bundle the motherboard/CPU combo and sell it for about $100 as an Upgrade option for owners of 386 and 486 computers.

So don’t expect a Speed burner out of the 5x86 but it does run Win95 okay if you use a SSD or CF card.
I was amazed that my AMD 5x86 could go online and browse MSN.com.

See my post.
AMD 5x86@160mhz., Media Vision PAS16. ( Win 95 )