VOGONS


First post, by Kouwes

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Hi all,

I have a problem with one of my old PC's and was hoping to get some help here 😀

Ok, it's a P133, Asus P/I P55SP4 mainboard with 128 MB RAM, Voodoo 3-2000 PCI and a Soundblaster 16 (CT2230) and running Win98SE.
I ran a P166MMX in it which worked fine, although the MMX part wasn't recognized by the Bios: bootscreen showed a Pentium-S 167MHz.

All worked fine until the games were extremely slow one day. With slow I mean like 3 fps in Quake 2. I tried several solutions of which none made any difference:
- I put the P133 back in
- swapped the voodoo for a S3 Trio 64+
- checked the RAM modules (I have 4x 32MB)

Nothing helped, and also Tie Fighter (DOS game) is really slow.
Also, when I connect the 3,5" floppy drive the system won't boot and just hangs in post. This started to happen before the slow video thing (I just disconnected the drive).
Might be a broken controller on the board, another drive doesnt make any differnce. Disconnected or not, the bios still shows and A: drive.

Any thoughts?
Cheers and thanks in advance!

Reply 1 of 17, by Sphere478

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Usb 2.0 card? Try taking it out?

Sphere's PCB projects.
-
Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
-
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 17, by mwdmeyer

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I assume that is a 430vx or tx board, if so it can only cache 64mb ram, so downgrade to 64mb will give you more performance.

Saying this, I doubt it is the cause for such a slow down.

Maybe check l1/l2 cache is enabled in the BIOS?

Vogons Wiki - http://vogonswiki.com

Reply 3 of 17, by Sphere478

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
mwdmeyer wrote on 2021-12-23, 10:27:

I assume that is a 430vx or tx board, if so it can only cache 64mb ram, so downgrade to 64mb will give you more performance.

Saying this, I doubt it is the cause for such a slow down.

Maybe check l1/l2 cache is enabled in the BIOS?

A k6 + cpu can get around the caching issue.

There may be a jan patched bios for this board
http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm

Edit: I don’t see your board but Jan is on here under username chkcpu

There is a good deal on k6-2+ 570 cpus on ebay right now.

Chances are you’ll be able to run it at 400-500mhz on your board depending on fsb settings

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

Reply 4 of 17, by chinny22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Are you booting into dos mode for dos games or just playing them from within windows?
If your playing both from within windows maybe somethings wrong with the install but if your booting into dos then its something low level.
Set BIOS back to default? Maybe some setting has gone a bit "funny"

Reply 5 of 17, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Sounds like you may have the turbo button plugged in the wrong way and throttling the CPU as such?

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 6 of 17, by Sphere478

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-23, 11:56:

Sounds like you may have the turbo button plugged in the wrong way and throttling the CPU as such?

I didn’t think those worked on any of the pentium motherboards though some had the plugs for them they were non functional

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

Reply 7 of 17, by chinny22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Sphere478 wrote on 2021-12-23, 12:04:
appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-23, 11:56:

Sounds like you may have the turbo button plugged in the wrong way and throttling the CPU as such?

I didn’t think those worked on any of the pentium motherboards though some had the plugs for them they were non functional

Yeh turbo was my 1st thought but the manual even says no turbo function exists

Reply 8 of 17, by Kouwes

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Thanks for the replies!

It has a SiS 5511 chipset. As for the RAM, it's been running very well with the 128mb but I will look into that and check the bios cache settings when I get home.
There's no usb 2.0 inside either, I have a CF card that works good enough.

The big tower (weighs a ton!) does have a tubro button but I don't think it is actually connected to the board.

Reply 9 of 17, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Sphere478 wrote on 2021-12-23, 12:04:
appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-23, 11:56:

Sounds like you may have the turbo button plugged in the wrong way and throttling the CPU as such?

I didn’t think those worked on any of the pentium motherboards though some had the plugs for them they were non functional

They do on many Pentium motherboards I have. Most just change FSB to 50, while some also disable L1 cache.

chinny22 wrote on 2021-12-23, 12:08:

Yeh turbo was my 1st thought but the manual even says no turbo function exists

Manual is wrong, the board does have a Turbo Switch header:

Turbo switch: J1 pins 16 & 17

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 10 of 17, by Kouwes

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
chinny22 wrote on 2021-12-23, 11:23:

Are you booting into dos mode for dos games or just playing them from within windows?
If your playing both from within windows maybe somethings wrong with the install but if your booting into dos then its something low level.
Set BIOS back to default? Maybe some setting has gone a bit "funny"

Booting into DOS mode. Sometimes I dont have enough memory and I was working on that until this problem suddenly popped up.
Anyway, Win98 or DOS game doesnt make any difference.

Come to think of it, when I first installed Quake 2 it ran smooth in 320 x 200 (obviously, with a voodoo3) but choppy when I cranked up the resolution AND when I opened the game menu. As soon as I closed the menu all ran smooth again.
This has now changed, it is always coppy in game.
Maybe I should remove the sound card and test it...?

Reply 12 of 17, by clueless1

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
rmay635703 wrote on 2021-12-23, 14:26:

I would run some memory/cache benchmarks in dos and windows

And yes remove anything new you added to see if something unintentional happened with a card

This. At a basic hardware level (MS-DOS mode), see if benchmarks like Speedsys and Norton Sysinfo peg your system performance at expected levels.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 13 of 17, by Kouwes

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Well I found it…it’s embarrassing but it actually was the turbo switch!! Just had to turn it on and presto! I always thought the turbo button was something from the pre pentium machines.
Thanks for all your input here but it’s not done yet because I have another machine with problems. But that’ll be a new topic then.
Cheers!

Reply 14 of 17, by Sphere478

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Kouwes wrote on 2021-12-23, 17:34:

Well I found it…it’s embarrassing but it actually was the turbo switch!! Just had to turn it on and presto! I always thought the turbo button was something from the pre pentium machines.
Thanks for all your input here but it’s not done yet because I have another machine with problems. But that’ll be a new topic then.
Cheers!

So you had to short or unshort it?

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

Reply 17 of 17, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Kouwes wrote on 2021-12-23, 17:34:

Well I found it…it’s embarrassing but it actually was the turbo switch!! Just had to turn it on and presto! I always thought the turbo button was something from the pre pentium machines.
Thanks for all your input here but it’s not done yet because I have another machine with problems. But that’ll be a new topic then.
Cheers!

Ha, knew it. Glad to have been of help.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.