(Lack of) cache? Poor ISA video card?

The GPU is a ET4000, so I can't imagine that's the problem. What sort of cache would you recommend?

I'm also not sure if I can swap out the CACHE chips on this board. I do have a spare "cache on a stick" that came out of a beefy 486, but alas, no slot to accommodate it on this board 🙁

silentwulf wrote:

I'm also not sure if I can swap out the CACHE chips on this board. I do have a spare "cache on a stick" that came out of a beefy 486, but alas, no slot to accommodate it on this board 🙁

Any pictures of that cache stick?

This is the spare cache stick that I have.

Oh, OK. I was kinda hoping you might have had one of the hard to find PCCHIPS M919 cache sticks. I have one in one of my M919's but the other has none.

If you have a manual for the board then RTFM... if you have no docs, you prolly should

- reset BIOS setings to default, then DISABLE L2 cache completely. If it helps, you have a problem with the cache. If this does not help, read on.
- disable all "Green" Power Saving nonsense on the motherboard AND in the BIOS as well
- Check whether the TURBO pins are misjumpered on the motherboard (to stay on low speed)
- Check if the type and organisation of the RAM sticks is really supported on this board
- Check your RAM for errors on an other board
- Check for an overheating CPU or video chip

Reset the BIOS to default settings.
Disabled all "Green" settings (something I always do)
Completely removed cables concerning Turbo functions to the case
Replaced memory with an equal amount to the previous setup (8MB)
No CPU or GPU overheating.

None of these steps made ANY changes to game performance.

I did disable all cache (Internal and External). This brought the PC to a crawl.

I incase I didn't word my original post well enough, for Jazz Jackrabbit, 70% of the time, the game runs very smooth and quickly. It's only when thing get hectic, or incredibly fast, is when it starts to slow down. The framerate also slows when your score is being counted at the end of a stage. The slowdowns also happen at the same spots/scenarios. Other games show slowdowns at times, Jazz Jackrabbit is the environment where I can easily re-create the problems.

The link below shows the screen when running TopBench.
http://imageshack.us/a/img255/6179/dsc01505xf.jpg

As you can see, the score is less then stellar.
I'm having problems determining if the performance issues are due to a faulty part, or a bottleneck.

At least, you have ruled out the usual suspects by now...

I think if you could successfully (here: smoothly) run the game on a computer that is inferior to this one in all aspects then this cannot be a simple "bottleneck".

It seems that in this case heavy ongoing action is not necessarily an overburden on the CPU and graphics card (calling it GPU is anachronistic).

Have you considered a misbehaving sound card as well ?

In your shoes I would stick to pure DOS testing first, leave Windows for later.

I had the same scrolling problem using Tseng cards. Try another video adapter. I'd recommend S3-based one.

I've been doing all the testing in DOS, seeing as how I rarely use Windows 3.11.

Soundcard doesn't seem to be a problem. I've been testing the game using the internal speaker.

I also experienced the exact same issues on a Trident GPU, hence why I'm skeptical it's the video card.

Lastly, memory tests seem to come up clean.

I guess one more thing I should note...with the Turbo LED cable plugged into the motherboard...the LED displays a clock speed of 18...
POST says 66MHz, and I know for a fact the case LED can display at least a 3 digit number...

The case LED has to be configured using jumpers. You are completely free to decide what you want it to display with Turbo on/off.

I guess that is something I am missing. However the Turbo button doesn't seem to have any effect on this PC.
I did manage to find a diagram of this motherboard, if that could offer some assistance.
http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/C/CH … ml#.USHjE2dTFn4

One possible theory, could the PSU be bottlenecking the system? As I mentioned, I had the same slowdowns with another board in this case (and it had a 33MHz CPU).
The PSU outputs 250W.

Your cache stick is likely not a cache stick. I didn't look up the numbers, but from what I see the chips are regular 45ns DRAM. More than likely it is a VGA DRAM expansion for an AST motherboard. AST had a habit of using CPU cards in their machines, and that is likely where the cache would be.

This likely has nothing to do with the problem you're having, but since you mentioned the PSU I felt compelled to mention that... well, in the case of pretty much every system on this sub-forum, the PSU's and motherboards, even the graphics cards, should have new capacitors installed. They are so old, it's not funny.

You don't need super-low impedance capacitors like modern motherboards do, but by simply replacing the now, very aged capacitors with fresh ones, you will increase the stability and responsiveness of your system. When I finally get around to refreshing my old KT7 or P6DBE, the PSU is definitely going to get recapped with nice Panasonics, including the main-cap(s) which will be TS-ED's.

I'd also clean up as many of the card-edges as possible, and even CPU/cache pins with some DEOXit and slap them back in. Even my P4 3.2GHz has this funky problem where a couple of the CPU contacts oxidize and then it fails to boot. Re-seating usually fixes it, but I wetted all the contacts with DEOXit and the problem hasn't returned, yet and it's been much, much longer than between the other times it failed due to this problem.

The ET4000AX I have is pretty old...and isn't in the best shape cosmetically. I did order a new Cirrus Logic CL-GD5424-80QC-C 1MB VESA for this system, which is in better shape. This might help things on the performance end. Current theory I'm testing now is general system maintenance. Defrags and such 😜

After extensive testing, I think it's just a slow GPU. Will confirm once the VESA card arrive 🤣

sliderider wrote:

Oh, OK. I was kinda hoping you might have had one of the hard to find PCCHIPS M919 cache sticks. I have one in one of my M919's but the other has none.

I'm saving all my M919 cache sticks for another 30 years, then I'm cashing in!