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486 motherboard manual needed, Mitac PH4500AU

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First post, by luckybob

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Quite a while back i found a 486 board on ebay for cheap and I got it for a hot-rod 486 build. Well I've finally gotten around to it, and I've been stumped by the 30 some odd jumpers on this board. Normally the TH99 database is my friend (stason.org) however, even it has failed me. It is pretty much as close to perfect in a 486 as I can expect to find. The bios is ~GLORIOUS~ for a 486 board. Its almost a late model pentium bios on a 486! However I want to disable the onboard IDE (scsi master race), enable the 586 parts of the cpu in the picture, (its set to amd dx4), install 1mb L2 cache... and so forth.

LARGE IMAGE LINK

The model on the sticker is PH4500AU, searching has come up with jack squat on this board. I've even looked at EVERY 486 image on stason.org for simialr boards. The closest boards in an amptron 9500 (or close to that)

I'm hoping someone here will recognize this board and can either help with a link to the manual / jumper settings, or at least point me in the correct direction if this is a re-branded board of some sort. I fired off an email to Mitac & Tyan and neither has replied.

Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them. - Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

Reply 2 of 10, by obobskivich

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Not sure if this is any help: all I could find was that there's apparently also a "PH4500AM" variant - but it didn't yield any better results. As far as it being a clone, I found this page (http://rich1020.iwarp.com/awardnumbers.html) which seems to indicate it isn't (at least, by its Award # they're coming back to the Mitac P/N you have), but that doesn't mean there aren't clones of it. Couldn't find a clone of it though...

Reply 3 of 10, by luckybob

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vetz wrote:

An idea could be to look at similar UMC chipset motherboards. The jumper config may be very similar.

The DX-9300A is VERY close. the jumpers are all wrong, but this is the closest i've found

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/A/AM … ml#.U3I2uPldV8E

Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them. - Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

Reply 4 of 10, by Stiletto

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Preliminary search of Internet just yields that Mitac had all their PH4500AU info on their FTP as recently as 2004, a decade ago - but nearly a decade after the board came out 😉
http://web.archive.org/web/20040606084250/htt … ervice/Ju_1.htm
Jumpers (Dead): http://web.archive.org/web/20040606084250/ftp … er/ph4500au.txt
http://web.archive.org/web/20040606080222/htt … ervice/Bi_1.htm
BIOS (R1.06) (Dead): http://web.archive.org/web/20040606080222/ftp … os/ph4500au.exe

This:
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/comp.sys.ib … nb6w/discussion
implies the official jumpers/manual may not be accurate to your board, either.

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

Stiletto

Reply 5 of 10, by luckybob

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ugg.. so close but yet so far.

Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them. - Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

Reply 6 of 10, by NJRoadfan

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Is a data sheet for that chipset available? Its time consuming, but you can likely figure out jumper settings with a continuity tester to see what jumper goes to what pins on the chipset and deriving the functions from there.

Reply 7 of 10, by Stiletto

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NJRoadfan wrote:

Is a data sheet for that chipset available? Its time consuming, but you can likely figure out jumper settings with a continuity tester to see what jumper goes to what pins on the chipset and deriving the functions from there.

Nah, UMC UM8881F / UM8886 are "most wanted" datasheets.

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

Stiletto

Reply 8 of 10, by evasive

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Sorry for the necro.

I have a settings sheet.

And a bios.
11/14/95-UMC-881/886A-2A4X5M32C-00
MiTAC International Corp. PH4500AU BIOS R1.06

Reply 9 of 10, by luckybob

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OMG!

YES!

I still have this board too! I'll test this asap. I did have a copy of my bios, and it is identical to yours, so I can rest assured I don't have any corruption.

Thanks!

**Edit

For the record, a "necro" is only when you reply to something and dont meaningfully contribute. This is the EXACT opposite.

Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them. - Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

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