renejr902 wrote on 2020-09-25, 09:34:

3. I read that older bios of the motherboard dont support more than 2.1gb but more recent bios support larger disk than 2.1gb. Right now i have a 4.3gb, a 12gb, a 20gb with 2.1gb limit jumper and 40gb and 60gb. Could i get this board working with any of them ? and tell me please if this 2.1gb limit jumper would really work with the 2ogb? Thanks.

The 2.1GB jumper on the 2GB drive is supposed to solve exactly the problem you are facing. The drive reports 2.1GB to the BIOS, so the BIOS does not get confused by the big drive. Likely you can use disk manager software to make the whole drive accessible from within DOS.

renejr902 wrote on 2020-09-25, 09:34:

4. I still hesitate to contact him to exchamge the board for the 4PDS. I cant remember from 20 years ago if a PS/2 mouse is really much better than a serial mouse ? Is a serial mouse more sluggish, slow, laging.. I fear serial mouse right now. I dont have problem with the track ball ps/2 mouse i use, so i suppose i can live without optical mouse. Thanks for your opinion.

The PS/2 port has two main advantages over the serial port. The main advantage to most people is that the PS/2 port provides enough power for a standard optical mouse, so you don't have to worry about cleaning the ball and the rollers of a ball-based mouse any more. Another advantage of PS/2 mice is that most serial mice operate at a verly low data rate, reducing the reports of mouse positions per second significantly below 60. So if you smoothly move your mouse, you still get a jerky movement of the mouse cursor on the screen. This behaviour is especially frowned upon by people that previously used Amiga or Atari hardware, as those computers could read the mouse position synchronously with the screen refresh. As far as I remember, Logitech MouseMan mice using their native protocol offered to run at a higher baud rate, so you can get smooth operation with them.

If you do not care about being able to use off-the-shelf optical mice, and you either have a MouseMan or don't care about slight jerkyness of the pointer, you can go without a PS/2 port.

renejr902 wrote on 2020-09-25, 09:34:

5. Can i use the psu power supply unit from my Compaq Presario Pentium II 266mhz computer to test the Lucky Star motherboard. Its the only AT PSU 2 x 6 pins connector that i have right now. I have like 10-12 atx psu too. I fear that Compaq psu use different cable position, i dont want to burn the motherboard.

Compaq often used proprietary pinouts. I suggest you to compare wire colors with those of a standard AT power supply. If they mostly match up, and the label of the supply does not mention any strange voltages, you are most likely fine to go. Even if they don't match up, it still might fit. I remember some Compaq hardware using orange instead of yellow on the +12V line. You can easily identify the colors used for +5V and +12V if you take a look at the Molex connectors for hard drives / CDROMs. AFAIK Compaq never used a proprietary pinout of the Molex supply connectors.

for this 4DPS Ver 2.0 that have native ps/2 support
( or SS 486 REV: P2CI)

From my point of view they are more or less equal. LuckyStar has 6 functional extension slots (3 PCI + 3 ISA ) without PS/2 support, but you can use one slot for ISA PS/2 adapter. 4DPS Ver 2.0 has PS/2 but only 5 functional slots, because PCI and ISA are shared. So only 3 PCI + 2 ISA or 2 PCI + 3 ISA are possible. For extreme overclocking I would pick LuckyStar LS-486E Rev. C1/C2 with specific chipset revision, because they are well documented for their capabilities.

bios date version is 03/14/96

8Gb HDD aware.

mkarcher wrote on 2020-09-25, 10:04:

The 2.1GB jumper on the 2GB drive is supposed to solve exactly the problem you are facing. The drive reports 2.1GB to the BIOS, […]
Show full quote

renejr902 wrote on 2020-09-25, 09:34:

3. I read that older bios of the motherboard dont support more than 2.1gb but more recent bios support larger disk than 2.1gb. Right now i have a 4.3gb, a 12gb, a 20gb with 2.1gb limit jumper and 40gb and 60gb. Could i get this board working with any of them ? and tell me please if this 2.1gb limit jumper would really work with the 2ogb? Thanks.

The 2.1GB jumper on the 2GB drive is supposed to solve exactly the problem you are facing. The drive reports 2.1GB to the BIOS, so the BIOS does not get confused by the big drive. Likely you can use disk manager software to make the whole drive accessible from within DOS.

renejr902 wrote on 2020-09-25, 09:34:

4. I still hesitate to contact him to exchamge the board for the 4PDS. I cant remember from 20 years ago if a PS/2 mouse is really much better than a serial mouse ? Is a serial mouse more sluggish, slow, laging.. I fear serial mouse right now. I dont have problem with the track ball ps/2 mouse i use, so i suppose i can live without optical mouse. Thanks for your opinion.

The PS/2 port has two main advantages over the serial port. The main advantage to most people is that the PS/2 port provides enough power for a standard optical mouse, so you don't have to worry about cleaning the ball and the rollers of a ball-based mouse any more. Another advantage of PS/2 mice is that most serial mice operate at a verly low data rate, reducing the reports of mouse positions per second significantly below 60. So if you smoothly move your mouse, you still get a jerky movement of the mouse cursor on the screen. This behaviour is especially frowned upon by people that previously used Amiga or Atari hardware, as those computers could read the mouse position synchronously with the screen refresh. As far as I remember, Logitech MouseMan mice using their native protocol offered to run at a higher baud rate, so you can get smooth operation with them.

If you do not care about being able to use off-the-shelf optical mice, and you either have a MouseMan or don't care about slight jerkyness of the pointer, you can go without a PS/2 port.

renejr902 wrote on 2020-09-25, 09:34:

5. Can i use the psu power supply unit from my Compaq Presario Pentium II 266mhz computer to test the Lucky Star motherboard. Its the only AT PSU 2 x 6 pins connector that i have right now. I have like 10-12 atx psu too. I fear that Compaq psu use different cable position, i dont want to burn the motherboard.

Compaq often used proprietary pinouts. I suggest you to compare wire colors with those of a standard AT power supply. If they mostly match up, and the label of the supply does not mention any strange voltages, you are most likely fine to go. Even if they don't match up, it still might fit. I remember some Compaq hardware using orange instead of yellow on the +12V line. You can easily identify the colors used for +5V and +12V if you take a look at the Molex connectors for hard drives / CDROMs. AFAIK Compaq never used a proprietary pinout of the Molex supply connectors.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-09-25, 11:19:

From my point of view they are more or less equal. LuckyStar has 6 functional extension slots (3 PCI + 3 ISA ) without PS/2 supp […]
Show full quote

for this 4DPS Ver 2.0 that have native ps/2 support
( or SS 486 REV: P2CI)

From my point of view they are more or less equal. LuckyStar has 6 functional extension slots (3 PCI + 3 ISA ) without PS/2 support, but you can use one slot for ISA PS/2 adapter. 4DPS Ver 2.0 has PS/2 but only 5 functional slots, because PCI and ISA are shared. So only 3 PCI + 2 ISA or 2 PCI + 3 ISA are possible. For extreme overclocking I would pick LuckyStar LS-486E Rev. C1/C2 with specific chipset revision, because they are well documented for their capabilities.

bios date version is 03/14/96

8Gb HDD aware.

Thanks a lot for answers guys! Its so much appreciated and useful ! I didnt know about the PS/2 isa card possibility. Then i prefer Lucky Star, but i'm curious, it seems 4dps support 40gb with 4.00a bios version, its impressive for a 486.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-09-25, 11:19:

From my point of view they are more or less equal. LuckyStar has 6 functional extension slots (3 PCI + 3 ISA ) without PS/2 supp […]
Show full quote

for this 4DPS Ver 2.0 that have native ps/2 support
( or SS 486 REV: P2CI)

From my point of view they are more or less equal. LuckyStar has 6 functional extension slots (3 PCI + 3 ISA ) without PS/2 support, but you can use one slot for ISA PS/2 adapter. 4DPS Ver 2.0 has PS/2 but only 5 functional slots, because PCI and ISA are shared. So only 3 PCI + 2 ISA or 2 PCI + 3 ISA are possible. For extreme overclocking I would pick LuckyStar LS-486E Rev. C1/C2 with specific chipset revision, because they are well documented for their capabilities.

bios date version is 03/14/96

8Gb HDD aware.

I just think about it. Did you try to get the PS/2 mice working with the J2 4pins on your luckystar ls486e motherboard. If you use ps2suppc.com before cutemouse driver, you dont have to mod your bios to support ps/2. If you decide to try it let me know if its work. Otherwise i will try it in a few weeks when i receive it. The PS/2 pinout could be at the 5 solders points on the motherboard too.
I know you already have a isa PS/2 card but i'm interested to know it if ps/2 can be working directly on it. Let me know if you try something. Thanks.

I'm short on PS/2 cables to do that.

renejr902 wrote on 2020-09-25, 13:26:

I just think about it. Did you try to get the PS/2 mice working with the J2 4pins on your luckystar ls486e motherboard. If you use ps2suppc.com before cutemouse driver, you dont have to mod your bios to support ps/2. If you decide to try it let me know if its work. Otherwise i will try it in a few weeks when i receive it. The PS/2 pinout could be at the 5 solders points on the motherboard too.
I know you already have a isa PS/2 card but i'm interested to know it if ps/2 can be working directly on it. Let me know if you try something. Thanks.

J2 is extremely likely not a PS/2 mouse connector, but a connector for an external CMOS battery. I seem to identify a trace from J2 to a diode, possibly via a resistor. Diodes are very common at the external battery connector, but the typical PS/2 interface has ferrite beads/inductors, capacitors and pull-up resistors, no diodes.

but a connector for an external CMOS battery

Yes, that's typical placement for external battery.

Thanks for let me know. Only the 5 solder points at CN5 could be for ps/2. But it seems they go at the Winbond chip, if its true its not good. 😀

Thanks so much for answers guys! Its appreciated!

renejr902 wrote on 2020-09-25, 16:30:

Thanks for let me know. Only the 5 solder points at CN5 could be for ps/2. But it seems they go at the Winbond chip, if its true its not good. 😀

If they go to a a Winbond chip, my guess would be IrDA. Double so if the BIOS setup allows COM2 to be configured into infrared mode.