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Abit AB-PB4 for 486 build

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Reply 20 of 54, by feipoa

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GL1zdA wrote:

I did some benchmarks a while ago, and this board had the best memory speeds in Speedsys out of all my 486 boards - it seems the FinALI is really the fastest chipset.

What are your Speedsys results and with which CPU have you used? Thanks.

Also, could you check the cacheable limit when 512 KB is installed? Something is nagging in the back of my mind which says this particular ALi chipset might be able to cache more than 64 MB of RAM when 512 KB is set in WB mode.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 21 of 54, by indomitus

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Robin4 wrote:
indomitus wrote:

Hello...
this is my AB-PB 4 mobo; I do not remember if it works. I'll check tonight's.

Can you tell me the value of the big capacitor behind the 3 leg VRM.
What type is that VRM?

Hello....
I read for TC3 470uF 16 volt and, for the regulator U2 is a TIP 127.

Reply 23 of 54, by indomitus

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Robin4 wrote:
indomitus wrote:

Hello...
this is my AB-PB 4 mobo; I do not remember if it works. I'll check tonight's.

Can you tell me the value of the big capacitor behind the 3 leg VRM.
What type is that VRM?

Hello....
I read for TC3 470uF 16 volt and, for the regulator U2 is a TIF 127...
Link for the transistor here....
http://html.alldatasheet.com/html-pdf/65219/H … /1/HTIF127.html

Reply 24 of 54, by PCBONEZ

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I downloaded these from Abit's FTP site just before it disappeared.
Manual and BIOS for Abit P4B - attached.

The manual is a weird format and an exe file.
Click on the exe and the manual opens with a pop-up advertizing some fax-attachment crap.
Click on the ad then it goes away and the manual works like a PDF from there on out.
Note: Whoever saved the file did it backwards such that the first manual page is the last one in the file.
No. A PDF reader won't open it. Least not mine. I tried.

The BIOS is also an exe and I don't have that board so I can't verify it. Use at your own risk.
Is the only version they had so presumably it's the only or the latest version.

The FTP'ed files and the folders are named pb4_ but when you open the manual it clearly says P4B.
.

Attachments

  • Filename
    pb4e.exe
    File size
    1.79 MiB
    Downloads
    154 downloads
    File comment
    P4B Manual
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • Filename
    pb4f2.exe
    File size
    80.96 KiB
    Downloads
    115 downloads
    File comment
    P4B BIOS
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

GRUMPY OLD FART - On Hiatus, sort'a
Mann-Made Global Warming. - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.

Reply 25 of 54, by adalbert

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I also have this mainboard and using some tricks, I managed to convert that manual to a suitable format some time ago. I printed it on a 'virtual printer' in Windows 98, then reversed and scaled the pages on my modern PC. And that manual doesn't say P4B, it says PB4.

Attachments

  • Filename
    Abit PB4_2.pdf
    File size
    1.32 MiB
    Downloads
    275 downloads
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Repair/electronic stuff videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/adalbertfix
ISA Wi-fi + USB in T3200SXC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX30t3lYezs
GUI programming for Windows 3.11 (the easy way): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6L272OApVg

Reply 26 of 54, by Anonymous Coward

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Were there any other ancient manuals on Abit's site? Like for 386 boards?

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 27 of 54, by adalbert

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I don't think so, here is archived FTP index (downloads probably don't work anymore, but you can google file names)
http://web.archive.org/web/20030904103349/htt … ish/index-e.htm

i think that PB4 is the oldest one.

Repair/electronic stuff videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/adalbertfix
ISA Wi-fi + USB in T3200SXC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX30t3lYezs
GUI programming for Windows 3.11 (the easy way): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6L272OApVg

Reply 28 of 54, by PCBONEZ

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Anonymous Coward wrote:

Were there any other ancient manuals on Abit's site? Like for 386 boards?

When I heard Abit was getting out of the motherboard business I downloaded and archived their ENTIRE FTP site (except non-english manuals) to one of my home file servers.
A week or three later the FTP site was gone.

I do not have the bandwidth, time or funding to be Abit support for the entire world though.
If anyone needs something specific and I'm not too busy I'm happy to help but if it starts becoming a full time job I'll cut it off.

And FYI: In forums I tend to be active for a few days or weeks then go 'poof' for months or even years so when I'm around is the best time to ask.

If you are going to ask for help i would prefer it be done this way:
1: Open a thread asking for what you need. (I am not the only one that hoards support files.)
2: If no one responds I don't see it in a reasonable time then send me a PM telling me to look at the thread.
If I have anything I will upload as an attachment to that thread.
This way I only have to upload things once and anyone looking for the same thing later can find it.
.

Last edited by PCBONEZ on 2015-11-28, 21:07. Edited 3 times in total.

GRUMPY OLD FART - On Hiatus, sort'a
Mann-Made Global Warming. - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.

Reply 29 of 54, by PCBONEZ

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adalbert wrote:

I also have this mainboard and using some tricks, I managed to convert that manual to a suitable format some time ago. I printed it on a 'virtual printer' in Windows 98, then reversed and scaled the pages on my modern PC. And that manual doesn't say P4B, it says PB4.

Thank you! - I was hoping someone would do this.
.
I will replace the cruddy version in the archive with your fixed one.
.

Last edited by PCBONEZ on 2015-11-28, 21:09. Edited 1 time in total.

GRUMPY OLD FART - On Hiatus, sort'a
Mann-Made Global Warming. - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.

Reply 30 of 54, by gdjacobs

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PCBONEZ wrote:
When I heard Abit was getting out of the motherboard business I downloaded and archived their ENTIRE FTP site (except non-englis […]
Show full quote
Anonymous Coward wrote:

Were there any other ancient manuals on Abit's site? Like for 386 boards?

When I heard Abit was getting out of the motherboard business I downloaded and archived their ENTIRE FTP site (except non-english manuals) to one of my home file servers.
A week or three later the FTP site was gone.

I do not have the bandwidth, time or funding to be Abit support for the entire world though.
If anyone needs something specific and I'm not too busy I'm happy to help but if it starts becoming a full time job I'll cut it off.

And FYI: In forums I tend to be active for a few days or weeks then go 'poof' for months or even years so when I'm around is the best time to ask.

If you are going to ask for help i would prefer it be done this way:
1: Open a thread asking for what you need. (I am not the only one that hoards support files.)
2: If no one responds I don't see it in a reasonable time then send me a PM telling me to look at the thread.
If I have anything I will upload as an attachment to that thread.
This way I only have to upload things once and anyone looking for the same thing later can find it.
.

Could it perhaps be pushed one time to vogonsdrivers?

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 32 of 54, by PCBONEZ

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gdjacobs wrote:

Could it perhaps be pushed one time to vogonsdrivers?

No. I'm not going to do that - for a few reasons.
.
Abit obviously doesn't give a rats a** about a few files for some specific board but uploading their entire retired site might awaken their copyright police.
I might put that risk on myself but not on someone else, meaning vogonsdrivers
.
IIRC it's something over 12Gb and vogonsdrivers might not be able to handle the size or the bandwidth load it creates from people downloading.
Extra problematic as many people download without joining the forum here. (Using bandwidth without participating.)
Links from other sites will show up. The bandwidth could get huge fast.
I made such a mistake 15 years ago on my own site. The bandwidth got so huge it kept crashing my provider's servers.
Basically a hot topic got mentioned some places where LOTS of people saw it and within a few hours my forum was getting 200-300 hits a minute.
200-300 hits a minute was huge in year 2000. Especially on shared hosting.
I had to shutdown the site for a while just to keep my provider from cancelling my account.
.
If I ever do make the whole thing available it will be on my own site probably in an area restricted to select members that won't abuse the privilege.
Those members can then help with getting people the files they need.
I had that in mind when I downloaded the thing in the first place.
And no, I don't currently have a site. Least not a public one.
I ran a PC enthusiast's site with a forum and a store from 1998-2002 and I've always intended to do it again. Just never had time.
.

GRUMPY OLD FART - On Hiatus, sort'a
Mann-Made Global Warming. - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.

Reply 33 of 54, by Anonymous Coward

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Mobokive seems to have most of Abit's FTP server. But it's all Pentium and newer. I'm more interested in 386/486 generation stuff.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 34 of 54, by PCBONEZ

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Anonymous Coward wrote:

Mobokive seems to have most of Abit's FTP server. But it's all Pentium and newer. I'm more interested in 386/486 generation stuff.

Well if it was on their FTP server at the time I have it.
The only thing I didn't save were the non-english manuals and that was because they took up so much room.

I can't answer your question.
Their directory structure was (is) not such that I can just look and see how much is 386/486 stuff.
For example: -All- the BIOS's were dumped into one giant folder named "bios" so all types of boards are mixed together.
Same thing for the "Manuals" folder.
.

GRUMPY OLD FART - On Hiatus, sort'a
Mann-Made Global Warming. - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.

Reply 35 of 54, by Stiletto

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I am pretty sure some member of ArchiveTeam nabbed the Abit FTP before it went down and posted it to Archive.org, in case that helps. Don't have the link at the moment but ... pretty sure it's there and that we've all even talked about that fact before...

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

Stiletto

Reply 36 of 54, by GL1zdA

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feipoa wrote:
GL1zdA wrote:

I did some benchmarks a while ago, and this board had the best memory speeds in Speedsys out of all my 486 boards - it seems the FinALI is really the fastest chipset.

What are your Speedsys results and with which CPU have you used? Thanks.

With an Am5x86 133 MHz. As far as I can remember (did lots of PCI 486 tests in April 2013, haven't had time to put it together and post here all my findings) BIOS setting were all set to most aggressive.

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With an Am5x86 133 MHz overclocked to 160 MHz.

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Abit AB-PB4 + AMD Am5x86 160 MHz overclocked
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feipoa wrote:

Also, could you check the cacheable limit when 512 KB is installed? Something is nagging in the back of my mind which says this particular ALi chipset might be able to cache more than 64 MB of RAM when 512 KB is set in WB mode.

Not in the near feature. I have my retro gear at my parents house which I don't visit often now.

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Reply 37 of 54, by brassicGamer

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feipoa wrote:

Also, could you check the cacheable limit when 512 KB is installed? Something is nagging in the back of my mind which says this particular ALi chipset might be able to cache more than 64 MB of RAM when 512 KB is set in WB mode.

I have this board to hand, but the manual states only 128k or 256k cache amounts - the chipset might support it but this motherboard doesn't have enough slots.

Check out my blog and YouTube channel for thoughts, articles, system profiles, and tips.

Reply 38 of 54, by feipoa

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Those Abit AB-PB4 Speedsys results are horrible. I thought the results of my M918 board, also based on this ALi chipset, were bad just because it was a board from PC Chips, however it seems that the performance of these ALi-based PCI 486 boards may be chipset-dependent.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 39 of 54, by GL1zdA

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feipoa wrote:

Those Abit AB-PB4 Speedsys results are horrible.

Horrible compared to what?

Here's the UMC8881:

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Gigabyte UMC8881 board + AMD Am5x56 133 MHz
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Fair use/fair dealing exception

Intel Ninja 420EX (no L2 cache, only 500 MB HDD supported):

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1462 views
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Intel Ninja (420EX) + AMD Am5x56 133 MHz
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Fair use/fair dealing exception

ASUS PVI-486SP3

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ASUS PVI-486SP3
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Compaq Deskpro XL 560 (Intel 430LX + Pentium 60, factory HDD)

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Compaq Deskpro XL 560 (Intel 430LX)
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Memory scores are good, on-board IDE is great, what else do you need?

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