What about dumping the BIOS (to have a backup) and then flashing an official BIOS?

Which PC Chips board are we talking about?

Also, 105MHz is a tiny overclock, the PCI bus is only running at 35MHz and AGP at 69MHz. That's out of spec, but only barely so. Most cards can handle 37.5MHz PCI effortlessly (and it's usually IDE/SCSI controllers that cause problems before video cards), and AGP speeds of 88MHz are rarely a problem. It's theoretically possible that a single marginal card might not work, but if you say multiple cards are showing problems I'd seriously doubt that the higher clock itself is the cause of your issues. Given the period this board is from I'd start checking capacitors first...

Zup wrote:

What about dumping the BIOS (to have a backup) and then flashing an official BIOS?

yes, but don't know how to dump the bios, and where to get a newer one, also i've found a web page where a guy modifies the bios to replace the old Novell RPL with the newer Intel PXE, and where to find the files. but he doesn't explain how to dump the bios.

dionb wrote:

Which PC Chips board are we talking about?

Also, 105MHz is a tiny overclock, the PCI bus is only running at 35MHz and AGP at 69MHz. That's out of spec, but only barely so. Most cards can handle 37.5MHz PCI effortlessly (and it's usually IDE/SCSI controllers that cause problems before video cards), and AGP speeds of 88MHz are rarely a problem. It's theoretically possible that a single marginal card might not work, but if you say multiple cards are showing problems I'd seriously doubt that the higher clock itself is the cause of your issues. Given the period this board is from I'd start checking capacitors first...

sorry i forgot to say that

it's a PCChips M810LR7, with a SIS 730S chipset, and locked to a 2x AGP implementation apparently

the cards tested are:

Trident 3DImage 9750: garbled screen and crashes in windows
ATi Rage Pro Turbo (Xpert98): Perfect
SiS 315 Pro: Perfect
S3 Savage 4 Pro: Lot of crashes and random reboots
GeForce 2 MX400: Perfect
GeForce 4 MX4000: crashes and the driver can't be installed
GeForce FX 5200: Works well in DirectX mode, the OpenGL ICD doesn't install, while in other machines with the same OS, driver, etc. everything works fine

these cards are all AGP, i've tested some 2D PCI cards but they don't seem to fail
all cards works perfect on a normal system without overclock or conflictive chipsets/AGP implementations, and in various AGP settings when supported (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x)
i've changed the PSU also, changed RAM, changed HDD (who knows) tested all bios settings and nothing

what works works perfect, and the others have some degree of failure
i've also tested with several drivers and os'es but nothing seems to fix it

weldum wrote:

yes, but don't know how to dump the bios, and where to get a newer one, also i've found a web page where a guy modifies the bios to replace the old Novell RPL with the newer Intel PXE, and where to find the files. but he doesn't explain how to dump the bios.

Usually, the same program that does the BIOS flashing lets you save a backup. I remember some thread about a pcchips website backup (but I can't find it). Google your motherboard model, maybe you can find a BIOS replacement somewhere.

Zup wrote:

weldum wrote:

yes, but don't know how to dump the bios, and where to get a newer one, also i've found a web page where a guy modifies the bios to replace the old Novell RPL with the newer Intel PXE, and where to find the files. but he doesn't explain how to dump the bios.

Usually, the same program that does the BIOS flashing lets you save a backup. I remember some thread about a pcchips website backup (but I can't find it). Google your motherboard model, maybe you can find a BIOS replacement somewhere.

i think i will have some testing, because here in Argentina, motherboards with the processor soldered and (sometimes) overclocked were very common in the 1999-2006 period, and there are a lot of variants here, also, searching in Google Argentina isn't helpful at all, all it gives me are links to a ebay-like web page (MercadoLibre).

will download several versions of awdflash and do some testing to se if i can dump it, later i will see if i can flash another newer. (have to find one aswell)

weldum wrote:

[...]

yes, but don't know how to dump the bios,

Use Uniflash 1.40

http://www.rainbow-software.org/download/uf140.zip

Just run the program (in DOS, preferably with no memory managers loaded) and you get the option to save the current firmware. Choose a filename (tip: use the BIOS version string from the POST screen) and done.

and where to get a newer one

[...]

it's a PCChips M810LR7, with a SIS 730S chipset, and locked to a 2x AGP implementation apparently

Good question, expect to need a lot of digging. Worth noting: the 810LMR is the same board as the ECS K7SEM. So maybe you would have more luck there.

also i've found a web page where a guy modifies the bios to replace the old Novell RPL with the newer Intel PXE, and where to find the files. but he doesn't explain how to dump the bios.

Modding BIOS files is not an activity for beginners, so basic skills like dumping & flashing BIOS files are assumed known.

the cards tested are: […]
Show full quote

the cards tested are:

Trident 3DImage 9750: garbled screen and crashes in windows
ATi Rage Pro Turbo (Xpert98): Perfect
SiS 315 Pro: Perfect
S3 Savage 4 Pro: Lot of crashes and random reboots
GeForce 2 MX400: Perfect
GeForce 4 MX4000: crashes and the driver can't be installed
GeForce FX 5200: Works well in DirectX mode, the OpenGL ICD doesn't install, while in other machines with the same OS, driver, etc. everything works fine

these cards are all AGP, i've tested some 2D PCI cards but they don't seem to fail
all cards works perfect on a normal system without overclock or conflictive chipsets/AGP implementations, and in various AGP settings when supported (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x)
i've changed the PSU also, changed RAM, changed HDD (who knows) tested all bios settings and nothing

what works works perfect, and the others have some degree of failure
i've also tested with several drivers and os'es but nothing seems to fix it

What about the chipset drivers? SiS AGP GART in particular. Did you install them on every OS you tried before installing the card drivers? If not, try that first.

Agp gart was installed in both XP and 98SE
what would happen if i flash the latest bios from ECS on this board?
I've tried with setfsb to modify the fsb but the pll is not supported

weldum wrote:

Agp gart was installed in both XP and 98SE

Ok, then that's not the issue.

Still interesting that you have most problems with the more advanced AGP cards though... maybe worth looking at the AGP settings in BIOS.

what would happen if i flash the latest bios from ECS on this board?

Probably just a working system with different name and BIOS (iirc the PC Chips version is Award, ECS uses AMI). But it could end up partly or wholly not working. That's why the backup of your present BIOS is so important.

Do you have another board with the same 32p BIOS EEPROM socket? Worst case you couldul use that to hot-flash the old BIOS back.

I've tried with setfsb to modify the fsb but the pll is not supported

Which version?

It doesn't have any agp option

I think i have another bios chip, have to see...

I've used the last setfsb version released

IIRC M810LR's ECS equivalent is K7SEM. You may try the latter one's BIOS, which comes with FSB adjustments.

sadly, the board doesn't power up more, and i didn't even flashed the bios
it's like sudden death
anyway thanks a lot to all of you, i like vogons a lot

respects

weldum wrote:

sadly, the board doesn't power up more, and i didn't even flashed the bios it's like sudden death anyway thanks a lot to all of […]
Show full quote

sadly, the board doesn't power up more, and i didn't even flashed the bios
it's like sudden death
anyway thanks a lot to all of you, i like vogons a lot

respects

That sounds like a capacitor or capacitors gave out. Could be mobo or PSU caps.
Bad caps (going but not gone yet) would also explain the unstable behavior.

How are you with a soldering iron?
.

PCBONEZ wrote:

That sounds like a capacitor or capacitors gave out. Could be mobo or PSU caps. Bad caps (going but not gone yet) would also exp […]
Show full quote

weldum wrote:

sadly, the board doesn't power up more, and i didn't even flashed the bios it's like sudden death anyway thanks a lot to all of […]
Show full quote

sadly, the board doesn't power up more, and i didn't even flashed the bios
it's like sudden death
anyway thanks a lot to all of you, i like vogons a lot

respects

That sounds like a capacitor or capacitors gave out. Could be mobo or PSU caps.
Bad caps (going but not gone yet) would also explain the unstable behavior.

How are you with a soldering iron?
.

Wrong

sadly, this board (with some others from my collection) are broken, in some places the traces are really broken, is too much to fix, and don't have the right tools or time to fix.

that's what i get for being lazy and putting all the motherboards in one pile.

weldum wrote:

Wrong […]
Show full quote

PCBONEZ wrote:

That sounds like a capacitor or capacitors gave out. Could be mobo or PSU caps. Bad caps (going but not gone yet) would also exp […]
Show full quote

weldum wrote:

sadly, the board doesn't power up more, and i didn't even flashed the bios it's like sudden death anyway thanks a lot to all of […]
Show full quote

sadly, the board doesn't power up more, and i didn't even flashed the bios
it's like sudden death
anyway thanks a lot to all of you, i like vogons a lot

respects

That sounds like a capacitor or capacitors gave out. Could be mobo or PSU caps.
Bad caps (going but not gone yet) would also explain the unstable behavior.

How are you with a soldering iron?
.

Wrong

sadly, this board (with some others from my collection) are broken, in some places the traces are really broken, is too much to fix, and don't have the right tools or time to fix.

that's what i get for being lazy and putting all the motherboards in one pile.

I used to buy-repair-sell as well as offer repair services for motherboards.
At times I had as many as 300 motherboards here at the same time.
I would buy pizza boxes in bulk (50-100 a pack) and those worked very well to keep mobos from breaking each other.
They also stack nicely on shelves.
.
The 12" x 12" work for full ATX if you cut 1/3 of the front fold-in flap off to clear the PCB.
10" x 10" works for most smaller boards.
8" x 8" works for bulk RAM and many add-in cards.
I put RAM in ESD HDD clamshells when ESD bags aren't convenient for the quantity.
.

Nice idea, I'll keep in mind that
I had about half of my collection in their original boxes, but the other half was jus stacked up in a corner or my workroom, most of these broke, so i have only the ones that have a box

I will sell in my country the broken boards as a scrap parts