Curious if you have an old Cirrus logic or S3 Trio based PCI card (<-- everyone should keep one of these IMHO) you can borrow ? If it cannot boot with one of them there must be some serious board issue...
I have heard of issues with some ATI and Matrox based had issues in certain cases, maybe your board is one of them ?

Have you tried with a different power supply?
Have you tried without even your keyboard plugged in?

Now one more thing I could say, since it looks like an award bios in your picture, is when I reversed engineered a v4.51, the bf post code seemed to be the stage where pci configuration happens. This is my limited experience opinion.

But it wouldn't hurt to try some older pci cards, or even isa just to get a better feel. Those are a bit later pci cards for an early pentium board. I suppose the mystique is the oldest, and that is the one that does work, doesn't it?

Yeah, welcome to socket 7.

It helps to have a slew of cards to try.

I have had my best luck with radeon 7000, 7500, 9200 and 9250 cards.

Kinda surprised your 9250 didn’t work. But I have seen some of those fail post also. Though they usually work.

I also have a rage 128 that doesn’t like many of my socket 7 mobos.

You could try a rage xl in that 3.3v slot 😀 they are on amazon brand new.

Wonder what the root cause is here - lack of 3.3V would be an obvious reason but not the problem here.

You don't say the ATi cards are known good - are they? As in: do they work in another system?

If not, one thing to check is whether they have PC VGA BIOS or are perhaps Mac cards. Apple used a lot of ATi, definitely including the Rage128 and possibly (not 100% up to speed on every variation) the Radeon 9250 SE too. If they are Mac cards, you'd need to flash their BIOS to PC for it to work.

the3dfxdude wrote on 2023-05-09, 01:17:

Have you tried with a different power supply?
Have you tried without even your keyboard plugged in?

I tried that now and it didn't change anything. Even on a modern 1200W Corsair power supply the ATI cards don't boot.
All of the graphics cards are fine - they work in my SS7 system (Abit VH6T).

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-05-09, 03:35:

You could try a rage xl in that 3.3v slot 😀 they are on amazon brand new.

I ordered a Rage XL on eBay now. It'll be interesting to see if it runs - would be the first ATI card on this board to do so. 😁
I'd try an Nvidia PCI card, if they weren't so expensive... 😀

I've had a rocky start with the exact same board I recently purchased....this is the tale as I sent it to the seller:

I configured the jumpers for my P90 and it started fine. Then booting up, XMS reported a memory error I've never seen, then the computer went crazy and displayed multicolor ASCII garbage on the whole screen and crashed. So stopped the computer, and when trying to start it again, no picture/POST. Used my POST diagnostic card, immediately stuck on 0d0C, an error I couldn't really find much info about. I started swapping RAM, no change, tried a trio64v+ instead of the millenium, oh got a picture! but it's garbage again 😁, swapped the CPU to a P100, same issue...so out of ideas, I removed the BIOS chip and programmed it with the latest version I found online...and it works again, no issue whatsoever

I haven't tried my whole range of PCI videocards, but Matrox Millenium and ELSA Winner 1000 (S3 Trio64V+) worked fine since updating the BIOS (directly programming the chip with a TL866) to version 0312.1 beta I got off retroweb.
I also installed a P133 instead, and all is well, I've quite extensively used it and it's been rock solid with the ELSA.

Not sure this helps you much apart from confirming it looks like this board may have its quirks. Also maybe try that 0312.1 BIOS if you didn't yet?

Fingers crossed for the rage XL. I of course make no guarantees. It’s really a try it and see kind of deal.

dionb wrote on 2023-05-09, 11:35:

Wonder what the root cause is here - lack of 3.3V would be an obvious reason but not the problem here.

You don't say the ATi cards are known good - are they? As in: do they work in another system?

If not, one thing to check is whether they have PC VGA BIOS or are perhaps Mac cards. Apple used a lot of ATi, definitely including the Rage128 and possibly (not 100% up to speed on every variation) the Radeon 9250 SE too. If they are Mac cards, you'd need to flash their BIOS to PC for it to work.

If I had to guess I’d say something in vga bios does’t like these systems or vice versa. Also sometimes 3.3v issue

This right here is my own personal go to card for these 586 systems. (This exact pcb)

I have found th much cheaper though. 40$ usually

Note, haven’t tried on sis though. Usually intel/ali/via

Boohyaka wrote on 2023-05-09, 19:43:

I've had a rocky start with the exact same board I recently purchased....this is the tale as I sent it to the seller: I haven't […]
Show full quote

I've had a rocky start with the exact same board I recently purchased....this is the tale as I sent it to the seller:
I haven't tried my whole range of PCI videocards, but Matrox Millenium and ELSA Winner 1000 (S3 Trio64V+) worked fine since updating the BIOS (directly programming the chip with a TL866) to version 0312.1 beta I got off retroweb.
I also installed a P133 instead, and all is well, I've quite extensively used it and it's been rock solid with the ELSA.

Not sure this helps you much apart from confirming it looks like this board may have its quirks. Also maybe try that 0312.1 BIOS if you didn't yet?

Good job and must say:
Yep a S3 Trio for the Win at getting an old board to boot ;p

For what it’s worth, I had an ATI Mach64 on this mainboard way back then…

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-05-09, 21:24:

[...]

If I had to guess I’d say something in vga bios does’t like these systems or vice versa. Also sometimes 3.3v issue

3.3V would be my first guess with the new Radeon, but not with the Rage. Anyway, OP has already ruled that out, and if they work on that other PC board they're not Mac cards either.

Could be video BIOS compatibility, but that would surprise me - that would be a system BIOS issue, and this board is from the days when Asus was considered bullet-proof in that regard. It does raise the question whether a BIOS update would help. There's a pile here:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p … v-1.4#downloads

This issue almost makes me want to drag out my SiS 5511 board (not Asus, I forget exactly which one it is) for some tests, but I don't have any of the cards involved here.

This right here is my own personal go to card for these 586 systems. (This exact pcb)

I have found th much cheaper though. 40$ usually

Note, haven’t tried on sis though. Usually intel/ali/via

Why? It's a nice enough card and offers DVI, which is a boon on new monitors - but it's over five years younger than this board. If it supports 5V PCI it *should* work, but if not, it's like judging a pensioner for his ability to run a marathon. Some can, but it's hardly a fair criterion, and the added value of the GPU is completely lost on a system this old. If I really wanted DVI I'd rather look for an nVidia card for their better VESA support than ATi, and if I didn't care about VESA but wanted DVI, I'd go with a Matrox G450 PCI as they are much cheaper and easier to find.

My go-to for boards from this era is decent-quality S3-based cards from Diamond, Elsa or Miro, although I tend to test with an ISA card with Trident chip - they will work on anything (including 8b 4.77MHz ISA) and if something goes horribly wrong, it's not a huge loss.

dionb wrote on 2023-05-10, 07:45:

It does raise the question whether a BIOS update would help. There's a pile here:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p … v-1.4#downloads

I have already updated the BIOS to the latest version.
Also, the 01/16/96 BIOS on that website is the one I dumped from my own board. 😀

I was able to successfully install Windows 95 with a lot of workarounds. The onboard IDE cannot boot from CDROM drives, but I have an Adaptec SCSI card and a SCSI CDROM drive.
The Adaptec seemingly cannot boot from CD's that use floppy emulation, though - so I didn't have a way to boot directly from a Win9x CD.

So I tried booting a FreeDOS CD which works but when I swap out the CD after boot with a Win9X one to copy the files to the harddrive the file listing is not being updated and I can't do it.
This probably happens because the Adaptec remounts the CD drive to the A: drive and then boots from it. FreeDOS cannot handle that properly.

What worked in the end: Using this AIO installer CD.
It uses the GRUB bootloader without floppy emulation for its menu system, so it boots properly and the included DOS installer ships with Adaptec SCSI drivers. 😀
It was just a matter of copying the 95 setup files to the DOS partition and then running the setup.

Win95 runs very stable and I am happy with that. In the future I should probably get a Gotek for Floppy boot discs.
Now I only need mouse support, and maybe a better graphics card (still waiting for the Rage XL, fingers crossed!).

I bought a PS/2 bracket which I can connect to the mouse header on the mainboard.
It needs to be rewired for the correct pinout when it arrives, though - but that shouldn't be a problem.

These first two cards are too new for this board. I ran into this similar issues. Go with S3 or Cirrus logic, Riva 128 PCI.

Cheers,

dionb wrote on 2023-05-10, 07:45:

3.3V would be my first guess with the new Radeon, but not with the Rage. Anyway, OP has already ruled that out, and if they work […]
Show full quote

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-05-09, 21:24:

[...]

If I had to guess I’d say something in vga bios does’t like these systems or vice versa. Also sometimes 3.3v issue

3.3V would be my first guess with the new Radeon, but not with the Rage. Anyway, OP has already ruled that out, and if they work on that other PC board they're not Mac cards either.

Could be video BIOS compatibility, but that would surprise me - that would be a system BIOS issue, and this board is from the days when Asus was considered bullet-proof in that regard. It does raise the question whether a BIOS update would help. There's a pile here:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p … v-1.4#downloads

This issue almost makes me want to drag out my SiS 5511 board (not Asus, I forget exactly which one it is) for some tests, but I don't have any of the cards involved here.

This right here is my own personal go to card for these 586 systems. (This exact pcb)

I have found th much cheaper though. 40$ usually

Note, haven’t tried on sis though. Usually intel/ali/via

Why? It's a nice enough card and offers DVI, which is a boon on new monitors - but it's over five years younger than this board. If it supports 5V PCI it *should* work, but if not, it's like judging a pensioner for his ability to run a marathon. Some can, but it's hardly a fair criterion, and the added value of the GPU is completely lost on a system this old. If I really wanted DVI I'd rather look for an nVidia card for their better VESA support than ATi, and if I didn't care about VESA but wanted DVI, I'd go with a Matrox G450 PCI as they are much cheaper and easier to find.

My go-to for boards from this era is decent-quality S3-based cards from Diamond, Elsa or Miro, although I tend to test with an ISA card with Trident chip - they will work on anything (including 8b 4.77MHz ISA) and if something goes horribly wrong, it's not a huge loss.

Sorry, I was speaking/theorizing in general about reasons they fail on 586 boards. I know OP used my thread, possibly my project to check the 3.3v problem wasn’t the cause.

That specific 7500 is my go to because of my cards it is the fastest one and the most compatablr one I have found in all that I have tried. To be fair though, DVI is biasing many of the cards I have tried. I mainly try to find cards with DVI. There may be vga ones I missed. Also my collection isn’t all encompassing. Anyway, if I had to bet one card would work on a random 586 build I was working on I would grab that card to try first. (Personally, others may have other preferences) 😀

At OP a gotek definitely should be on your shopping list.

You might drop by this thread btw also. I don’t expect it to help this problem but might help with ide issues and processor support.

Re: Diy modding support for k6+And 120gb hard drives into bios roms

Good news! The Rage XL card indeed works, in both the converted 3.3V slot as well as on the 5V slots.

I can't get my old Logitech PS/2 mouse (Mouseman Dual Optical) to work, though.
I figured out the PS/2 header pinout, it's documented here:
Re: PS/2 Bracket for Asus Motherboard Header

I tried a few wire positions (probably not all of them) and this is the only configuration where Windows 95 detects a PS/2 mouse and it lights up.

But as soon as I move it around, the machine locks up (not in BIOS though - only when I load an operating system - also happens with a Linux live CD).

Interesting.

That card is well known to not work without 3.3v

Any chance your converted slot is transmitting to other slots or that your board was already 3.3v compatible?

It is very important to get the ps2 config correct. I have fried that port before getting it wrong.

You may have to wire into usb. For mouse now.

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-05-12, 01:43:

It is very important to get the ps2 config correct. I have fried that port before getting it wrong.

I think I haven't fried the port, but fried my mouse instead.
Because when I plug the mouse into my working VH6T board, it also hangs the system when I move it around.
Interestingly, the mouse still works with USB on a modern computer. Just the PS/2 functionality seems to be dead now.

Goddammit...since this is the only PS/2 mouse I had I ordered a new one now...if I keep going like this, this hobby will drain my bank account eventually. 😁

Lucky. Would rather fry a mouse than a board :p

I've now received an old ball mouse that works fine on all my computers with PS/2 ports.
On this Asus board, the machine still hangs when I move it around.

I guess I need to give up at this point. Something on this board must be broken, maybe it's the AMIKEY chip or something else.
If I ever get back to this I will update this thread, but for now I'll shove this into my cupboard and not think about it for a while. 😁

At least I got a nice old IBM mouse and a few PCI graphics cards out of this whole endeavour! 👌

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-05-09, 03:35:

Yeah, welcome to socket 7. […]
Show full quote

Yeah, welcome to socket 7.

It helps to have a slew of cards to try.

I have had my best luck with radeon 7000, 7500, 9200 and 9250 cards.

Kinda surprised your 9250 didn’t work. But I have seen some of those fail post also. Though they usually work.

I also have a rage 128 that doesn’t like many of my socket 7 mobos.

You could try a rage xl in that 3.3v slot 😀 they are on amazon brand new.

This is very much the case.
My PC Chips M571 will not post with my Diamond Rage 9250se PCI or even my crappy Diamond Fire GL (Permedia2) PCI.
It is happy however to boot with either of my equally crappy ATI Rage XL PCI cards.
All of these cards work just fine in my Tekram and Soyo SS7 boards.