VOGONS


First post, by majestyk

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I know everything has been said about this legendary mainboard (but not by everyone).

I own a couple of those Baby-ATX babies and here´s about the latest inflow:

There are (at least) 3 versions in existence:
1. The full featured version with 1MB L2 cache and ATX + AT power connector
2. A version without cache and ATX + AT power connector
3. A version with 1MB L2 cache and only AT power connector

At the moment I´m repairing a Verision 3. one. It would only POST from time to time (depending on temperature) and then hang after HD-detection.
I decided to replace the shady electrolytics by some decent Rubycon and Panasonic ones and the mainboard would now start everytime but still hang. To rule out a BIOS issue I tried to upgrade to the latest version but this failed because the flash chip could not be identified by the flash utility.
Unfortunately the chip is soldered, so I fit a DIL32 socket in and inserted a new (already programmed) chip. Now the system would start with the latest (and 100% working) BIOS but still hang.
With L2 cache disabled it finised POST and I quickly found that one leg of the 2nd SRAM chip was bent and shorted and 3 legs of the first chip were damaged and broken directly at the chip.

I was able to readjust the bent pin of chip 2, then I removed chip 1. It´s a UMC "UM61 L 6464AF-5" a 512K chip with 5nS access time.
I have some TM Tech "T35L6464A-5Q" chips on stock and gave it a try.

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Everything´s working fine now, cachechk, CTCM7 and benchmark tools don´t show any errors.
I´m still not sure if this configuration with mixed L2 chips could cause any problems. Has anyone here had this constellation before?

Next I will add the missing ATX power-connector.

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Reply 1 of 5, by Sphere478

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Sweet!

I have one if you need reference. Forget which version though

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
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SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 2 of 5, by Horun

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I have two Rev 1.2A which are number 1 in your list.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 3 of 5, by BLockOUT

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i have one but i cant remember the version, it came as a gift with some pins on the ram slot destroyed, had to replace a ram slot and i still need to test the results.

how much ram are you having on it?

Reply 4 of 5, by Horun

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The actual board version (revision) is at bottom left corner near last ISA slot.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 5 of 5, by majestyk

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The revision number on my VA-503+ is "1.1A"

If you are not running a K6-III, K6-III+ or K6-2+ CPU the L2 cacheable area is limited to 256 MB (1MB L2 cache).
SInce there are two SD-RAM slots you can use a maximum of 512 MB RAM - especially when using a CPU with on-die L2 cache.

My first idea was to upgrade L2 cache to 2 MB, which the chipset can handle, but if the BIOS doesn´t support it I would have had to revert to 1 MB.