gex85 wrote on 2021-01-15, 10:14:

It probably has, but since this is the only photo that I have of the card, it was hard to find out. But on the upper edge of the […]
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debs3759 wrote on 2021-01-14, 23:15:

Has that Tseng card got an FCC ID on it?

It probably has, but since this is the only photo that I have of the card, it was hard to find out.
But on the upper edge of the PCB there's a model number: 3081. In combination with the "Ara" VGA BIOS chip, it's more than likely to be this FCC ID: https://fccid.io/H3Z3081
However, there's literally nothing to be found on the internet about this card except for the FCC page.
The closest match is the "Optima 1024" card (Ara 3071 with Tseng ET3000), probably the predecessor of the 3081: http://www.amoretro.de/2013/01/optima-1024-mo … -512kb-isa.html
However, it should play along nicely with the 386 board - if it still works at all.

EDIT:
After digging a bit more, I found two eBay auctions for the 3081 and the 3091 card, the latter being almost identical to the 3081.
So there's the 3071 (Photo by Amoretro):
3071-1.jpg
The 3081 (photo found on eBay):
3081-1.jpg
The 3091 (photo found on eBay):
3091-1.jpg

In case this is interesting to anyone. I seem to have, what appears to be, a newer revision of these cards.

Nice ! weird it has only one clock crytal.

Probably in case the card's inserted into an EISA slot, it'll down clock the GPU to prevent it from overclocking and burst into flames.

But, that's just my guess.

Won this cool looking video card: Intergraph Intense 3D VooDoo

Seller's photos:

ok, quick update on the nforce 2 motherboard.

it got through 50h of memtest86, just fine:

So onto prime95. Unfortunately, at first it was unstable, with prime95 reporting hardware errors.

Since I am actually overclocking the CPU, that isn't too unexpected. So I've bumped up core voltage to 1.75V (vs 1.65V stock) and it now run for 10 hours no crashes so far.

Now, I will leave it for the rest of the weekend, hopefully no more crashes. Then one more update and I'll stop dragging this topic off-topic.

canthearu wrote on 2021-01-16, 01:57:

ok, quick update on the nforce 2 motherboard. […]
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ok, quick update on the nforce 2 motherboard.

it got through 50h of memtest86, just fine:

nforce2 - 50h.jpg

So onto prime95. Unfortunately, at first it was unstable, with prime95 reporting hardware errors.

Since I am actually overclocking the CPU, that isn't too unexpected. So I've bumped up core voltage to 1.75V (vs 1.65V stock) and it now run for 10 hours no crashes so far.

nforce2 - prime95.jpg

Now, I will leave it for the rest of the weekend, hopefully no more crashes. Then one more update and I'll stop dragging this topic off-topic.

Awesome!

Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment but I've been looking at some nforce2 boards on ebay... I just might pick up a brand I've never had before to see if I can actually have a stable nforce2 board for the first time ever.

But then I remember throwing out and smashing so many of those old ones and I end up closing the tab.

pete8475 wrote on 2021-01-16, 02:49:

But then I remember throwing out and smashing so many of those old ones and I end up closing the tab.

This particular board was stripped out of an old computer grabbed off the classified (gumtree).

Its a way to get stuff that hasn't been excessively fondled with ... but with the provision that some of it will be broken trash!

canthearu wrote on 2021-01-16, 02:58:

This particular board was stripped out of an old computer grabbed off the classified (gumtree).
Its a way to get stuff that hasn't been excessively fondled with ... but with the provision that some of it will be broken trash!

Looks like a great website but unfortunately not much use here in Canada.

canthearu wrote on 2021-01-16, 01:57:

ok, quick update on the nforce 2 motherboard. […]
Show full quote

ok, quick update on the nforce 2 motherboard.

it got through 50h of memtest86, just fine:

nforce2 - 50h.jpg

So onto prime95. Unfortunately, at first it was unstable, with prime95 reporting hardware errors.

Since I am actually overclocking the CPU, that isn't too unexpected. So I've bumped up core voltage to 1.75V (vs 1.65V stock) and it now run for 10 hours no crashes so far.

nforce2 - prime95.jpg

Now, I will leave it for the rest of the weekend, hopefully no more crashes. Then one more update and I'll stop dragging this topic off-topic.

I'm so glad you did this, because I was very tempted to do it myself. Mostly because I love my NF7-S 2.0 system and it has been rock solid for nearly 18 years... I felt like I had to defend its honor or something. 🤣

In all seriousness, I can't explain why some have had such reliability issues with nforce 2 boards while others have not. Lets all just be glad current PCs aren't like they were back in the early 2000s, at least stability wise.

I will say though, this board was a replacement. The first one had a temperature alarm issue out of the box where it would shut down with a "beedoo beedoo beedoo" at startup. I recall reading that it was a known problem with the early boards, and may have been related to overly sensitive voltage or heat protection features when overclocking (which I definitely was... and boy was I a noob). After RMAing it though (maybe twice???) they sent me one that never did that a single time, and has been perfect ever since, even with a heavily overclocked CPU.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-01-16, 04:20:

In all seriousness, I can't explain why some have had such reliability issues with nforce 2 boards while others have not.

I can explain why my nforce2 board has a reliability issue. 😀

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-01-16, 05:21:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-01-16, 04:20:

In all seriousness, I can't explain why some have had such reliability issues with nforce 2 boards while others have not.

I can explain why my nforce2 board has a reliability issue. 😀

20210116_181613.jpg

Mystery solved! 🤣

I did a very expensive thing. Looking forward to it!

mwdmeyer wrote on 2021-01-16, 06:44:

I did a very expensive thing. Looking forward to it!

Oh my. I spent too much time finding a low profile PCI video card for an Aptiva system last year. This has me all sweaty. What kind of system is it going into?

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-01-16, 06:56:

mwdmeyer wrote on 2021-01-16, 06:44:

I did a very expensive thing. Looking forward to it!

Oh my. I spent too much time finding a low profile PCI video card for an Aptiva system last year. This has me all sweaty. What kind of system is it going into?

Probably a small form factor compaq P3. I'm very happy about the HDMI port as I don't have space for a CRT monitor and my LCD doesn't do VGA and the adapter I have adds a lot of interference.

Sweet. I didn't even notice the HDMI. Enjoy!

Hi!

Normally I do not post in this thread (that's something I should probably change), but over the last couple years I've acquired quite a few interesting examples. This one isn't particularly special in itself, just a motherboard I need for a project.

But there is a longer story to it. What I wanted to build was a Cyrix/IBM 6x86 PR300, and originally I tried with an OEM board by Asus, the SPAX (pretty much SP-97XV, but one PCI slot less, and with onboard video and audio). It also doesn't cost an arm and a leg, unlike the SP-97. Trouble is, the plan was to use GUS in this build, and not just any kind of GUS, but Extreme. And the board just doesn't allow to disable the inbuilt audio. So what I needed was a similar chipset board (I know it worked with a Cyrix), but with no extras. This one is it. Being extremely yellow is a bonus.

Now waiting for it to arrive and holding my breath it is intact.

Nice board with a clean lay-out, thanks to the integrated south bridge. No need for a heatsink I presume?
Congrats. 😀

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-01-16, 04:20:

In all seriousness, I can't explain why some have had such reliability issues with nforce 2 boards while others have not. Lets all just be glad current PCs aren't like they were back in the early 2000s, at least stability wise.

Just to add to the nForce 2 debate, I've recently been putting together old gaming builds and the nForce 2 based build was my most troublesome.

Using an MSI K7N2 motherboard, it absolutely didn't like an overclocked CPU, with freezes in games. This board also did not like any AGP Radeon graphics cards, with constant crashes and weird behaviour even just trying to run 3DMark. So I had to put in an AGP GeForce FX instead.

The build now at least runs games, but a couple of specific games cause a BSOD in Windows XP after a few minutes of running, for example - Battlefield 1942 is unplayable and Halo at least caused a BSOD once. CPU doesn't seem to be overheating, everything is clean and no visible bad capacitors on the motherboard either.

I really must try running memtest for an extended period as others have been doing, as I am using dual channel. Running memtest for a short while back when I was having problems did not show up any memory errors.

Got this tank:

Murugan wrote on 2021-01-16, 12:09:

Got this tank:

Now that's a sexy case if there ever was one

PD2JK wrote on 2021-01-16, 10:36:

Nice board with a clean lay-out, thanks to the integrated south bridge. No need for a heatsink I presume?
Congrats. 😀

No idea yet, I'm still waiting for the board to arrive. Guess, we'll see when it does. But the SPAX didn't have a heatsink either, so... still no idea 😀

If this drops on you...
Never saw one like this.
I call it Blade Runner :p