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ZIDA 4DPS – the story of repairing

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First post, by winuser_pl

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I've bought the Socket 3 motherboard. It is ZIDA 4DPS model. The seller told me that he didn't checked the condition of the board but I suppose he knew that someone has already tried to fix it up.

Here is the photo of the board when I bought it:

IMG-20190523-165456.jpg

I got this for 40 zł which is an equivalent of 11 $. As you can see there are many problems.
Here is the list of problems:
1. unpopulated L2 cache – I've already bought the chips.
2. Melted jumpers
3. missing TIP32C transistor and capacitor
4. leaked battery – someone has already removed it
5. missing two ceramic capacitors and burnt traces
6. Unpopulated tag RAM – already bought – waiting for delivery

problems.jpg

I've already taken care of some of that problems like:

Melted jumpers – the plastic jumpers has been removed. A new jumpers will be put.
TIP32C transistor replaced, capacitor populated.
There is a problem with battery. As far as I understand the motherboard wil try to charge the battery so I should use diode.
The second problem is I don't if I can use 3V CR2032 battery?
And the final problem: there is missing a trace – see the picture. I don't know where is the start of that trace - probably one of the ceramic capacitors.

burnt-trace.jpg

What do you guys think, will it be possible to fix it up?

PC1: Highscreen => FIC PA-2005, 64 MB EDO RAM, Pentium MMX 200, S3 Virge + Voodoo 2 8 MB
PC2: AOpen => GA-586SG, 512 MB SDRAM, AMD K6-2 400 MHz, Geforce 2 MX 400

Reply 2 of 33, by winuser_pl

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It has been bought on allegro.pl
Does anybody have such datasheet here?

PC1: Highscreen => FIC PA-2005, 64 MB EDO RAM, Pentium MMX 200, S3 Virge + Voodoo 2 8 MB
PC2: AOpen => GA-586SG, 512 MB SDRAM, AMD K6-2 400 MHz, Geforce 2 MX 400

Reply 3 of 33, by Kubik

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The datasheed is here: http://pdf.datasheetcatalog.com/datasheets2/15/151380_1.pdf

As I read it, it's not important, you will just lose signal on one serial port, nothing else.

Did you try without cache as well? It should work.

Reply 4 of 33, by winuser_pl

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No, did not tried yet. Will it work even without tag ram?

PC1: Highscreen => FIC PA-2005, 64 MB EDO RAM, Pentium MMX 200, S3 Virge + Voodoo 2 8 MB
PC2: AOpen => GA-586SG, 512 MB SDRAM, AMD K6-2 400 MHz, Geforce 2 MX 400

Reply 7 of 33, by winuser_pl

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Ok, then I have to wait for it. Tag ram should be received this week. 😀

TAG RAM chip is MT5C2568-20 MICRON 9245 DIP28 which is 32K x 8 SRAM SRAM MEMORY ARRAY.
L2 cache is 4 x UM61512AK-15 (64K X 8 BIT HIGH Speed CMOS SRAM).

I plan to upgrade L2 to 512 KB if the board will work with 256KB.

PC1: Highscreen => FIC PA-2005, 64 MB EDO RAM, Pentium MMX 200, S3 Virge + Voodoo 2 8 MB
PC2: AOpen => GA-586SG, 512 MB SDRAM, AMD K6-2 400 MHz, Geforce 2 MX 400

Reply 8 of 33, by keropi

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how come it will not work without the tag ram?
cacheless motherboards don't have tag rams, I can remove all cache+tag on my 486 boards, adjust jumper settings for 0kb cache and they work
is this a special case?

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 9 of 33, by winuser_pl

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I received this TAG RAM chip. Will check if the motherboard will work with and without TAG RAM and let you know guys 😀

PC1: Highscreen => FIC PA-2005, 64 MB EDO RAM, Pentium MMX 200, S3 Virge + Voodoo 2 8 MB
PC2: AOpen => GA-586SG, 512 MB SDRAM, AMD K6-2 400 MHz, Geforce 2 MX 400

Reply 10 of 33, by winuser_pl

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I tried to boot this motherboard but with no luck 🙁 The CPU is going hot but nothing more happens. Even the transistor radiator near CPU is cold (I've put a new transistor).
It wont boot with TAG RAM and without it.

There are couple things to think about:
* the motherboard has no battery - can I use CR2032?
* it is missing L2 cache - there is no jumper setting in the manual for no L2 cache so I had to configure it for 256KB
* maybe BIOS is dead? It is EPROM memory (here it is https://www.alldatasheet.com/view.jsp?Searchw … d=27C010A-12&mo ) - maybe I need to reprogram it?

I'm thinking also about buying the ISA BIOS POST CODE diagnostic card. Something like that -> https://pl.aliexpress.com/item/1-Pc-PCI-i-ISA … 2833265903.html Maybe it will help me with diagnose the boot problem.

PC1: Highscreen => FIC PA-2005, 64 MB EDO RAM, Pentium MMX 200, S3 Virge + Voodoo 2 8 MB
PC2: AOpen => GA-586SG, 512 MB SDRAM, AMD K6-2 400 MHz, Geforce 2 MX 400

Reply 11 of 33, by keropi

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IIRC the board needs a battery - connect one on the EXT.BATT header

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 12 of 33, by winuser_pl

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Ok, will give a chance tomorrow.

PC1: Highscreen => FIC PA-2005, 64 MB EDO RAM, Pentium MMX 200, S3 Virge + Voodoo 2 8 MB
PC2: AOpen => GA-586SG, 512 MB SDRAM, AMD K6-2 400 MHz, Geforce 2 MX 400

Reply 13 of 33, by winuser_pl

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I just discovered that the chipset legs are burnt and probably needs to resolder it. The chipset is probably dead. The whole motherboard is dead as ****.
The battery did not helped - still not booting. 😀 Someone who sold me this as "not verified condition" had a very good time 😀

EDIT: Does anybody know where I can get brand new SIS 85C496 chipset 😀 ? 🤣

PC1: Highscreen => FIC PA-2005, 64 MB EDO RAM, Pentium MMX 200, S3 Virge + Voodoo 2 8 MB
PC2: AOpen => GA-586SG, 512 MB SDRAM, AMD K6-2 400 MHz, Geforce 2 MX 400

Reply 14 of 33, by TheMobRules

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winuser_pl wrote:

I just discovered that the chipset legs are burnt and probably needs to resolder it. The chipset is probably dead. The whole motherboard is dead as ****.
The battery did not helped - still not booting. 😀 Someone who sold me this as "not verified condition" had a very good time 😀

EDIT: Does anybody know where I can get brand new SIS 85C496 chipset 😀 ? 🤣

UTSOURCE is a good option:

https://www.utsource.net/itm/p/6632666.html

Reply 15 of 33, by Kubik

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There's certain moment when reviving something stops being worth your time. Unless you have good reason to spend more time and money on this, I think you've reached the moment 😀

There still are 486 PCI board available. I must know it, I purchased one on eBay last week.

That diagnostic card is a must for everyone who even considers purchasing an old mainboard!

Reply 16 of 33, by winuser_pl

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Yeah thats true but show me such board! There are plenty of socket 3 mobos but they are sold at very high price > 100 $ incl shipping to europe it will be 130$

PC1: Highscreen => FIC PA-2005, 64 MB EDO RAM, Pentium MMX 200, S3 Virge + Voodoo 2 8 MB
PC2: AOpen => GA-586SG, 512 MB SDRAM, AMD K6-2 400 MHz, Geforce 2 MX 400

Reply 18 of 33, by winuser_pl

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I've spoken through email to the company that specializes in soldering PQFP chips and I'm waiting for the price. But probably it will be better to buy a working motherboard. It will be cheaper and I got 100% sure that it is working.
I'm not sure if replacing the chip will cause that the motherboard will work.

PC1: Highscreen => FIC PA-2005, 64 MB EDO RAM, Pentium MMX 200, S3 Virge + Voodoo 2 8 MB
PC2: AOpen => GA-586SG, 512 MB SDRAM, AMD K6-2 400 MHz, Geforce 2 MX 400

Reply 19 of 33, by treeman

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its hard to see on the picture but the 496 chipset looks like has some bridges on top of R61 but can't see any burns, send us a close up pciture