VOGONS


Reply 20 of 54, by vetz

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Had the same issue in my Compaq Presario with 1,5x being interpreted as 2x. Only way to run it at 233mhz was to use a Powerleap adapter.

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Reply 21 of 54, by Cyberdyne

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233MMX is a special case cpu, it reuses 1,5x speed as 3,5x in capable motherboards. But i have never heard that 1,5x speed will in turn change to 2,0x speed. This is new.

I am aroused about any X86 motherboard that has full functional ISA slot. I think i have problem. Not really into that original (Turbo) XT,286,386 and CGA/EGA stuff. So just a DOS nut.

Reply 22 of 54, by rmay635703

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Cyberdyne wrote on 2020-11-03, 09:43:

233MMX is a special case cpu, it reuses 1,5x speed as 3,5x in capable motherboards. But i have never heard that 1,5x speed will in turn change to 2,0x speed. This is new.

Not all OLD boards actually use multipliers the same way.

At one point in time board manufacturers could float or ground a multiplier pin (their choice) later on this wasn’t acceptable.

That is why many boards from the socket 5 era with the 2nd multiplier pin may not behave how you want.

Reply 23 of 54, by chrisNova777

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sounds like it has to be FSB or multiplier related or some type of CPU jumpers not set correctly?

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Reply 24 of 54, by rmay635703

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chrisNova777 wrote on 2020-11-03, 19:46:

sounds like it has to be FSB or multiplier related or some type of CPU jumpers not set correctly?

It’s possible they aren’t set correctly and he can validate with an ohm /volt meter off the BF-X pins

See thread

Need some help on a motherboard.

It’s also possible his board floats the multiplier pins instead of ground which will require him to install a cheater wire to the bf pins

Remember his board was made into different revisions from 1994-1995, that is early enough that the multiplier pin behavior may be hosed.

Reply 25 of 54, by tomexplodes

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cyclone3d wrote on 2020-11-03, 04:08:

Try reseating the RAM as well as the CPU if reseating the RAM doesn't help.

Same for any expansion cards.

I'll reseat the CPU once I get more thermal paste. The last one I bought was only good for one use. I'm not even sure that's the problem. Might also replace the CPU fan, I'm bound to have another one kicking around somewhere.
I should probably also get a new bracket for the heat sink, the one I have isn't as solid as I'd like.

1.) MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium 233mhz, 32mb RAM, S3 Trio64, Sound Blaster Pro 2
2.) Windows 98SE with Unofficial SP3, AMD Athlon 1.3ghz, 768mb RAM, Geforce 4 MX 440 64mb AGP, Sound Blaster Live! Value

Reply 26 of 54, by tomexplodes

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vetz wrote on 2020-11-03, 08:49:

Had the same issue in my Compaq Presario with 1,5x being interpreted as 2x. Only way to run it at 233mhz was to use a Powerleap adapter.

Where would I get one of those compatible with this board/socket?

1.) MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium 233mhz, 32mb RAM, S3 Trio64, Sound Blaster Pro 2
2.) Windows 98SE with Unofficial SP3, AMD Athlon 1.3ghz, 768mb RAM, Geforce 4 MX 440 64mb AGP, Sound Blaster Live! Value

Reply 27 of 54, by vetz

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tomexplodes wrote on 2020-11-03, 20:30:

Where would I get one of those compatible with this board/socket?

If you get one of the adapters you might as well run a K6-2 or K6-3 at 400mhz, that is what I ended up doing with my Compaq. They show up on Ebay from time to time. Kingston Turbochip is probably cheaper. If you're open to buy from abroad (outside US) I can point you in the right direction.

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Reply 28 of 54, by tomexplodes

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So here's what happened now:
I found a MB-8500TTD kicking around in my dad's old stuff and what do you know, it supports the 233 MMX. Hooray! I got it all put together in my case with everything hooked up, I now have 40mb RAM instead of 32, I have a heat sink on the CPU and a fan. If I try to install NFSSE, locks up. I was able to install Quake, but if I run it, it crashes to DOS. I can play Dungeon Keeper in high-res mode for a little while before it crashes to DOS. I'm hard pressed to believe my CPU is overheating because of the aforementioned AND the case is wide open. I've reseated the RAM, I JUST put in the CPU, I have the jumpers all set correctly, because this board is wonderful and clearly labelled, though I double-checked it here: https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/B/B … Pentiu-205.html
I'm not 100% correct that it's EXACTLY the same board there, but when in doubt I followed the clear directions on the board itself. Specifically I have it set to 66mhz, 3.5x speed. It shows Pentium MMX 233MHZ on boot. I'm currently trying to run SPEEDSYS, but it appears to be hanging at "Determining system contents... Get DMI info" and yup, it's locked up again. Hmm. OKAY. Any help here would be greatly appreciated. I can make a whole new thread if that needs to be a thing.

EDIT I also set the 7 and 8 jumpers to be at 2.8 and 3.4v respectively, as the board said to do.
EDIT AGAIN I'm wondering if I'm having issues with the 250w PSU? I could swap to an entirely different case, even though the ones I have are crap as far as I'm concerned. I can't just swap out the PSU because I don't have one with the extra wire going to the power button as it works on this case. Yadda yadda, just thinking aloud. Text. Whatever.
ONE MORE EDIT: Also, Laura Bow - Dagger of Amon Ra claims it can't initialize my audio hardware. IRQ conflict? Music still plays, dunno 'bout sound effects. Nevermind, Gabriel Knight makes no such claims.
even another EDIT: Played Duke 3D for a bit in VESA 640x480 mode, made it through the first level, it locked up during the second.

1.) MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium 233mhz, 32mb RAM, S3 Trio64, Sound Blaster Pro 2
2.) Windows 98SE with Unofficial SP3, AMD Athlon 1.3ghz, 768mb RAM, Geforce 4 MX 440 64mb AGP, Sound Blaster Live! Value

Reply 31 of 54, by tomexplodes

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pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-11-04, 00:07:

Please post pictures of the motherboard?

Cheers,

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1.) MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium 233mhz, 32mb RAM, S3 Trio64, Sound Blaster Pro 2
2.) Windows 98SE with Unofficial SP3, AMD Athlon 1.3ghz, 768mb RAM, Geforce 4 MX 440 64mb AGP, Sound Blaster Live! Value

Reply 32 of 54, by tomexplodes

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aaand here. I did the best I could with my crappy phone camera and also not really wanting to disassemble the whole thing at the moment. If you need me to do that, I guess I could.

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1.) MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium 233mhz, 32mb RAM, S3 Trio64, Sound Blaster Pro 2
2.) Windows 98SE with Unofficial SP3, AMD Athlon 1.3ghz, 768mb RAM, Geforce 4 MX 440 64mb AGP, Sound Blaster Live! Value

Reply 33 of 54, by tomexplodes

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I guess my lack of understanding is why the same exact thing is happening, except with a DIFFERENT mobo and a DIFFERENT CPU. The old motherboard/Pentium 120 were doing the same thing to me last night, so there has got to be a common denominator in here somewhere that I 'm just not seeing. Should I try using my IDE HDD instead of my compact flash and see if that makes a difference?

1.) MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium 233mhz, 32mb RAM, S3 Trio64, Sound Blaster Pro 2
2.) Windows 98SE with Unofficial SP3, AMD Athlon 1.3ghz, 768mb RAM, Geforce 4 MX 440 64mb AGP, Sound Blaster Live! Value

Reply 34 of 54, by tomexplodes

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My computer hates my current AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. I went back to an older one from my old IDE hard drive and now things work. WHAT THE HELL. I will post pictures of the "bad" ones and the "good" ones shortly.

EDIT: all that's missing from the config.sys in both is D:1 H:5

I marked the bad ones in paint.

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1.) MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium 233mhz, 32mb RAM, S3 Trio64, Sound Blaster Pro 2
2.) Windows 98SE with Unofficial SP3, AMD Athlon 1.3ghz, 768mb RAM, Geforce 4 MX 440 64mb AGP, Sound Blaster Live! Value

Reply 35 of 54, by tomexplodes

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Turns out that only kind of helped. Duke3D still locked up after awhile. I could still CTRL+ALT+DEL at least.

I'm at my f***ing wits end. Once on boot it locked up randomly while loading the midi synth thing, upon reset most of my files were renamed garbage characters, gone again on reboot. I've swapped the compact flash to the hard drive, I've swapped the IDE cable, I've rejiggered the ram so now I have my original 32 again after swapping in just the 16 previously from this motherboard, my processor is not hot, the heat sink is not hot, there can't be a heating issue as far as I am aware. The config/autoexecs being swapped HELPED A LITTLE but didn't actually fix the problem. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY LIFE.

Everything was f***ing fine before I tried swapping my CPU. Now I have a new CPU and a new motherboard and the same problems ARG OK BYE

1.) MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium 233mhz, 32mb RAM, S3 Trio64, Sound Blaster Pro 2
2.) Windows 98SE with Unofficial SP3, AMD Athlon 1.3ghz, 768mb RAM, Geforce 4 MX 440 64mb AGP, Sound Blaster Live! Value

Reply 36 of 54, by Akuma

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Back in the day I had this method of troubleshooting:

1. Build a bare system, essentials only.
2.Make sure you have the all known working BIOSes and do a factory reset after each flash.
(work your way down from latest version to earliest version)
3. Boot from a boot disk with utilities
4. If things start working, start adding components.

I hope you find a solution, good luck 😁

Reply 38 of 54, by tomexplodes

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Welp, I tried a bunch of different configurations with the RAM, either it's all bad or none of it is. I downclocked the CPU to 200mhz, made absolutely no difference whatsoever. I'm going to swap it for a Pentium 90 I found with the motherboard I'm currently using, I'll try that and see if things work or not. Quake and Duke3d do a pretty good job of "benchmarking" whether or not I'm going to crash. If THAT doesn't work, I have to assume the power supply is bad because it's the only other common denominator between the two boards/CPUs

1.) MS-DOS 6.22, Pentium 233mhz, 32mb RAM, S3 Trio64, Sound Blaster Pro 2
2.) Windows 98SE with Unofficial SP3, AMD Athlon 1.3ghz, 768mb RAM, Geforce 4 MX 440 64mb AGP, Sound Blaster Live! Value

Reply 39 of 54, by SodaSuccubus

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Regarding testing:

Try running a test program like GoldMemory or Memtest. Try with L2 cache disabled first to isolate the ram, and then with it on afterwards.

Thatl root out any ram induced problems. Bad cache in particular can manifest as verious anomalies.