VOGONS


Using Pentium for old DOS and Win 98

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First post, by Linkintime

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I just bought this socket 7 motherboard for old my "retro" build instead of a 486 due to issues getting it running (no keyboard hang). I'll just run a clock limiter for the old stuff. I might have a second CF card with Win 98 for the extra beefy (compared to a 486) 166 mhz processor. I noticed it seems to have VRM socket for MMX maybe? It comes with 256kb l2 cache and I might try to find a compatible COAST to double it. Not sure the model but the socketed Realtime clock is a plus. This thing even has USB! I looked on the retro database but did not find it yet but the seller says it working.

Reply 2 of 22, by BinaryDemon

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🤣 @ The four “warranty void if removed” stickers on the cpu. Such overkill.

Check out DOSBox Distro:

https://sites.google.com/site/dosboxdistro/ [*]

a lightweight Linux distro (tinycore) which boots off a usb flash drive and goes straight to DOSBox.

Make your dos retrogaming experience portable!

Reply 5 of 22, by AirIntake

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Looks very similar to my PCChips M520, definitely related.

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Reply 6 of 22, by AirIntake

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Here's pictures of the COASt module that worked for my M520. It's an SEC 512KB module. Another 256KB module from ASUS didn't work at all in the M520, but worked fine in my Intel Advanced / EV motherboard.

This module may not work for you though because you already have onboard cache whereas my M520 didn't.

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Casio BE-300 Advancement Society alumni

Reply 7 of 22, by Linkintime

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https://www.elhvb.com/webhq/models/pcchips/m525p.jpg

https://www.elhvb.com/webhq/models/pcchips/m525.htm

Bingo!

PC CHIPS M525

Last edited by Linkintime on 2022-02-17, 18:53. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 8 of 22, by Linkintime

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AirIntake wrote on 2022-02-17, 18:24:

Here's pictures of the COASt module that worked for my M520. It's an SEC 512KB module. Another 256KB module from ASUS didn't work at all in the M520, but worked fine in my Intel Advanced / EV motherboard.

This module may not work for you though because you already have onboard cache whereas my M520 didn't.

Hmm now to find his smaller 256 kb brother. Thanks for the help!

Reply 9 of 22, by Repo Man11

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This site has a BIOS for that board patched for up to 64 gigabyte hard drives: http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index.php?st … rt=160&count=40

"I'd rather be rich than stupid" - Jack Handey

Reply 10 of 22, by AirIntake

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Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-02-17, 18:58:

This site has a BIOS for that board patched for up to 64 gigabyte hard drives: http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index.php?st … rt=160&count=40

How do you know whether your motherboard needs the large block flash or the small block flash version of the BIOS? I have a whole bunch of BIOS' for my M520 but I haven't tried any of them because I don't want to flash the wrong type.

Casio BE-300 Advancement Society alumni

Reply 11 of 22, by Linkintime

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Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-02-17, 18:58:

This site has a BIOS for that board patched for up to 64 gigabyte hard drives: http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index.php?st … rt=160&count=40

I'm good. I have a CF IDE adaptor and two 4 GB CF cards. One for Dos6.22 (2GB Partitions) and the other for Win 98 Goodness. It should be enough for what I'm doing with it.

Reply 12 of 22, by Repo Man11

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AirIntake wrote on 2022-02-17, 19:02:
Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-02-17, 18:58:

This site has a BIOS for that board patched for up to 64 gigabyte hard drives: http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index.php?st … rt=160&count=40

How do you know whether your motherboard needs the large block flash or the small block flash version of the BIOS? I have a whole bunch of BIOS' for my M520 but I haven't tried any of them because I don't want to flash the wrong type.

I believe it has to do with the size of the EEPROM, with some being 128K and others being 256. You'd need to Google the part number for your EEPROM to know the memory size. You could also run Uniflash to ID the EEPROM. https://www.rainbow-software.org/uniflash/

"I'd rather be rich than stupid" - Jack Handey

Reply 13 of 22, by tyuper

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Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-02-17, 18:58:

This site has a BIOS for that board patched for up to 64 gigabyte hard drives: http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index.php?st … rt=160&count=40

There's 128GB patched BIOS with CPU additions made by Jan Steunebrink. Here's readme.txt:

PCChips M520 motherboard BIOS Release 1.1A (12/07/98) with patch J.2 for Cx MII, AMD K6-2CXT, K6-III, K6-2+ and K6-III+ supp […]
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PCChips M520 motherboard BIOS Release 1.1A (12/07/98)
with patch J.2 for Cx MII, AMD K6-2CXT, K6-III, K6-2+ and K6-III+ support,
and for IDE HDDs up to 128GB (32GB bugfix).
11/08/2007
by Jan Steunebrink

The latest, and probably final, BIOS upgrade from PCChips for the M520 is
Release 1.1A. This BIOS does not support the (mobile) K6-2+/III+ CPUs.
Also the original K6-2CXT / K6-III, and Cyrix MII CPUs with 4.0x multiplier,
are not properly supported.
To overcome these problems, I have patched the Rel 1.1A BIOS to include proper
recognition and handling of the MII, K6-2CXT, K6-III, and K6-2+/III+.
I've made the following changes:
- Added detection of the Cyrix MII when set to 4.0x multiplier
- Added detection of the K6-2+, and K6-III+ CPUs
- Expanded the K6 Write Allocation feature to work also on all K6-2/III CPUs
with the CXT core and enabled this feature for the K6-2+ and K6-III+ as well
- Expanded the CPU Type display routine for correct display of the AMD-
K6(tm)-2+, and K6(tm)-III+ strings
- Extended CPU speed support for the K6-2, K6-III, K6-2+, and K6-III+
to 450MHz (6.0x75).

In addition I have applied Petr Soucek's patch to remove the 32GB IDE harddisk
limit bug, and made another patch to remove an additional 64GB limit bug.
This patch J.2 BIOS supports now IDE drives upto 128GB, provided the harddisks
TYPE and MODE are set on Auto for drives larger than 64GB.
(Note: Due to another bug the BIOS SETUP hangs when manually inserting
HD parameters above 65535MB or when using the IDE HDD Auto Detection
function of the BIOS on drives larger than 64GB. Just set the Harddisks
TYPE and MODE to Auto for any drive above 64GB to avoid this error.)

For all other functions, the patched BIOS is identical to the original Rel.1.1A,
so you don't have to clear the CMOS if you upgrade from this BIOS.

The filename of the patched BIOS is M520_J2.BIN and you can flash it with
the flash program you normally use to flash an M520 BIOS upgrade.
Please take the usual precautions when flashing your BIOS.

Note that, although this patched BIOS has been tested on different M520
systems without any problems, it is provided "as is" and you use it
at your own risk.

I like to thank everybody who participated in testing this BIOS.
Jan.

Homepage: http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/
E-mail : <deleted for protection from spam>

I flashed it on my PC Chips A101 V1.4, which shares BIOS with M520 (and probably other M5xx). Tested only with Pentiums (including MMX), because no AMD CPU for Socket7 is in my possession. Before uploading this BIOS, I need to ask @Chkcpu (Jan Steunebrink himself) for permission to upload it here, because he sent it to me via e-mail and I don't want to cause any trouble.

By the way, could anyone who have PC Chips M520/A101 check if loaded XMGR.SYS (with "/PA" or "/PN" parameter) or HimemX in DOS cause system to freeze after trying to run f.e DOOM or other DOS-extender app?

Reply 15 of 22, by tyuper

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Linkintime wrote on 2022-02-17, 21:39:

Is it flashed like a modern bios only floppy or do I need an eprom writer like I've seen some use?

I used floppy equipped with DOS and Uniflash 1.40 - I recommend this one, instead of unreliable AWDFLASH. These motherboards should have EEPROM, so can be reprogrammed on-board.

Reply 16 of 22, by AirIntake

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XMGR did not like the /PA flag, it gave me an A20 error and failed to load. /PN didn't cause an error and Doom loads just fine with the /PN flag or with no flags. However with no flag or with /PN nothing is loading high so I have only 472kB conventional memory vs 619kB with himem.sys.

With HimemX nothing is loading high as well so same 472kB conventional memory, but Doom runs fine.

Not sure why XMGR and HimemX aren't allowing stuff to load high, I swear they used to work fine, but I normally just use himem.sys.

Casio BE-300 Advancement Society alumni

Reply 17 of 22, by Linkintime

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tyuper wrote on 2022-02-17, 21:45:
Linkintime wrote on 2022-02-17, 21:39:

Is it flashed like a modern bios only floppy or do I need an eprom writer like I've seen some use?

I used floppy equipped with DOS and Uniflash 1.40 - I recommend this one, instead of unreliable AWDFLASH. These motherboards should have EEPROM, so can be reprogrammed on-board.

I appreciate it.
Thanks that processor support is crazy. Please let me know if he is willing to release; that'd be awesome.

Reply 18 of 22, by tyuper

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AirIntake wrote on 2022-02-17, 21:45:

XMGR did not like the /PA flag, it gave me an A20 error and failed to load. /PN didn't cause an error and Doom loads just fine with the /PN flag or with no flags. However with no flag or with /PN nothing is loading high so I have only 472kB conventional memory vs 619kB with himem.sys.

With HimemX nothing is loading high as well so same 472kB conventional memory, but Doom runs fine.

Not sure why XMGR and HimemX aren't allowing stuff to load high, I swear they used to work fine, but I normally just use himem.sys.

I suspected that /PA will not work, because there's no port 92h logic implemented on PIIX3 southbridge. But that situation with /PN intrigued me, because while XMGR and HimemX are loading fine on my two A101's (one of them is New Old Stock) and available convention memory of about 620 kB, they both hang when I attempt to run anything, be it simple EDIT.COM, MI.COM (replacement for MEM from UMBPCI's author) or other protected mode/DOS-extender software. I'm starting to suspect mine Pentium 120 for wrong-doing.

Thank you very much for taking your time to check this matter.

I'm not sure, but to LOADHIGH there have to be UMBs enabled and to do it, EMM386 or UMBPCI have to be loaded.

Reply 19 of 22, by Linkintime

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tyuper wrote on 2022-02-17, 22:06:
I suspected that /PA will not work, because there's no port 92h logic implemented on PIIX3 southbridge. But that situation with […]
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AirIntake wrote on 2022-02-17, 21:45:

XMGR did not like the /PA flag, it gave me an A20 error and failed to load. /PN didn't cause an error and Doom loads just fine with the /PN flag or with no flags. However with no flag or with /PN nothing is loading high so I have only 472kB conventional memory vs 619kB with himem.sys.

With HimemX nothing is loading high as well so same 472kB conventional memory, but Doom runs fine.

Not sure why XMGR and HimemX aren't allowing stuff to load high, I swear they used to work fine, but I normally just use himem.sys.

I suspected that /PA will not work, because there's no port 92h logic implemented on PIIX3 southbridge. But that situation with /PN intrigued me, because while XMGR and HimemX are loading fine on my two A101's (one of them is New Old Stock) and available convention memory of about 620 kB, they both hang when I attempt to run anything, be it simple EDIT.COM, MI.COM (replacement for MEM from UMBPCI's author) or other protected mode/DOS-extender software. I'm starting to suspect mine Pentium 120 for wrong-doing.

Thank you very much for taking your time to check this. I appreciate it.

I'm not sure, but to LOADHIGH there have to be UMBs enabled and to do it, EMM386 or UMBPCI have to be loaded.

Will I have trouble using memaker on this motherboard to get more conventional memory for X-Wing for example?