Digikey and mouser sell them

It is unfortunate that the AWARD + VLB graphics won't work. Try something slower like a Mach64 VLB. I think the main attraction of the M919 is its VLB + PCI, and normally we'd want graphics in the VLB slot. Did you try a normally agreeable FSB like 33 MHz and an Intel DX4-100?

Are there new designs using the PS/2 style mini-DIN? If so, probably for something other than a PS/2 mouse/keyboard. I remember pulling one off an old motherboard before and haven't had to look for a new one. You can also use the keyboard coloured mini-DIN, so check your dead motherboards.

feipoa wrote on 2022-08-25, 23:48:

It is unfortunate that the AWARD + VLB graphics won't work. Try something slower like a Mach64 VLB. I think the main attraction of the M919 is its VLB + PCI, and normally we'd want graphics in the VLB slot. Did you try a normally agreeable FSB like 33 MHz and an Intel DX4-100?

Good idea, was only trying 60Mhz bus speeds.

For a sanity check I loaded the AMI bios and found that The ARK will work if I set the 1ws jumper.

Here are my benchmark results at 180(60x3)

Dosbench
Whatever #2 is: 118.7
Chris vga: 83.5
Chris svga: 24.9
PCP vga: 32.1
PCP svga: 12.7
Doom: 998
Quake: 21.1

Yeah, like most other UM888# ISA/VLB/PCI boards, M919 favors (slightly) PCI over VLB.

pshipkov wrote on 2022-08-26, 01:11:

Yeah, like most other UM888# ISA/VLB/PCI boards, M919 favors (slightly) PCI over VLB.

I think the ARK is beating my PCI cards in a couple of these tests. Doom for sure.

Had a thought, is it not possible to build faster 72pin dram say in the sub 50ns speeds from existing chips? Like what was done with megacache but with dram? Wouldn’t that allow us to run at the fastest timings at these higher FSB speeds? Easier said than done I know, but theoretically yah?

Now the Voodoo4 goes black after post, on the AMI bios, this board is something else. Goes black trying to enter the bios as well.

Edit: dropped the bus speed down to 25mhz and she makes it to dos with the voodoo4. It was previously working at 60MHz, weird stuff.

I was comparing the ark1000 numbers you posted above to what i got with MGA.
All PCI numbers are a bit higher. Also, i noticed that your PCI numbers are slightly lower too, except Q1.
Not sure why is that.

Had situations like yours before - things worl first, then dont. Without apparent reason. Irritating stuff.

Ah I see now, I should of stated the ARK numbers appear to beat some of the numbers I’ve seen with my testing. I need to try an MGA.

After a bit more fiddling I managed to get her booting into dos with the Voodoo 4 again. I swear it seems that some video cards require or prefer the ram to be in slot one over slot 4. Or it’s just completely random. I know you guys have mentioned the inconsistencies of this board and I’ve 100% witnessed it.

Here’s some of the random stuff I’m seeing now 🤣. Although def related to the voodoo4 at 60mhz bus.

And attempting to install Win95 at 100MHz(25x4).

Some mobos have more retro flavor than others.
This one is very spicy indeed - sour and hot.

Lol, indeed.

So got Win95 installed, loaded Voodoo drivers and got the protection fault error. Not sure there is a Voodoo4 driver that doesn’t require a Pentium, looking.

Used earlier windows voodoo4 drivers and I can boot into Windows but it’s not consistent, screen will sometimes go black. Tried firing up GLQuake and it went dark.

Also finally tried Voodoo3 and the monitor kicks on but nothing is displayed.

So there is some hope of a Voodoo4 working on this board but I’m not holding my breath, really inconsistent. It also seems to disable my ps2 ISA adapter.

Could the voodoo 4 be over drawing current on the board causing your issues? I'm also wondering since the voodoo 3 and 4 both require a newer version of the PCI bus than your m919 that can cause weirdness as well.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2022-08-26, 15:49:

Could the voodoo 4 be over drawing current on the board causing your issues? I'm also wondering since the voodoo 3 and 4 both require a newer version of the PCI bus than your m919 that can cause weirdness as well.

For sure power draw or chipset issues could be it. Would of been cool to see it working but it wouldn’t have been any quicker than the V3 based on previous tests I’ve done. Very interesting that it lights up on a UMC based socket 3 board though.

Most of the later SiS based socket 3 boards run the Voodoo3 no problem. Which might be pointless to some degree but def some early 3D games benefit and it’s cool to see.

It could be the later SiS boards have a more robust 3.3v vrm setup

Chadti99 wrote on 2022-08-26, 02:01:

Had a thought, is it not possible to build faster 72pin dram say in the sub 50ns speeds from existing chips? Like what was done with megacache but with dram? Wouldn’t that allow us to run at the fastest timings at these higher FSB speeds? Easier said than done I know, but theoretically yah?

1-cycle EDO memory for Voodoo 2 goes down to 20ns. Almost as fast as SDRAM.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2022-08-26, 16:10:

It could be the later SiS boards have a more robust 3.3v vrm setup

486 boards don't provide 3.3V to PCI

I didn't think they had a 3.3v supply but with these cards working on a 486 PCI board it kinda had me second guessing that.

Chadti99,
You were running your Voodoo4 tests at 60+ MHz? Could you try with just 33 MHz? Did you try the early revision Voodoo 4 driver from here: https://3dfxarchive.com/vsa100.htm

In my experience, the m919 and HOT-433 v1 are kind of like an unpredictable volcano - sometimes you can live at peace at the base of the mountain, but you know at some point, you'll have to move on.

Also, try a different PCI slot.

Great analogy, I think I’m close to moving on from this board. Another issue I seem to keep running into is losing bios settings. I’ve got a fresh battery so not sure what’s up there. Combine that with not being able to create more than a single 512mb partition and it doesn’t leave much to like.

Yes I’m pretty sure I tried at 33Mhz with the top two drivers from the site you mentioned. I’ll probably give it one more shot today though.