TwistedSoul21967 wrote on 2022-05-09, 21:15:

Hi all, […]
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Hi all,

I'm a UK Retro/Vintage computer lover who just won a bid on my childhood computer of the 90s, with it's 100 MHz Pentium, 16MB of RAM (mine was actually a p75 with 8MB so this is an upgrade) and will have it a few days,

I think originally my model had the 1.2GB WD Caviar, SiS 6205 VGA chipset and the ESS1788 Audio Drive, not sure about this model yet.

However, this time there's no hard drive or manual so I'm a bit stumped on what options I have to revive it when it gets here.

So I'm looking for some information about the system, so far I think I've managed to determine that it had an Intel 430FX Chipset with integrated PIIX IDE controller.

With that in mind, I believe that it is capable of using both FPM/EDO RAM (5V, 70 ns) up to 128MB in 2 banks of 2 and that it can also make use of hard drives above 8GB due to support for LBA and Int13H support.

I'm also lead to believe that the motherboard in the 624 is actually the same across the entire 600 and 800 series machines, so maybe someone has a similar machine they can post the info for and that might point me in the right direction.

I saw some posts on here from people with 824's and wondered if they're still around or able to help me.

Can anyone help me confirm:

• If it does actually have the 430FX (Triton) chipset, some photos of the main board seem to show the DRAM controller (SB82437FX66) from that set near the CPU socket.
• The actual supported RAM types/speed + Max installed
• If it can see and configure drives above 4GB in size
• If it's able to boot from a PCI Add-In card in the event it can't use large drives
• How many PCI slots it has, from memory, I believe it was 3 + 2 ISA but I could be remembering wrong.

Welcome to Vogons 😀

If I've found the right listing (one of the seller photos shows part number 501974-002) then this old link from the Internet Archive would appear to be the parts catalog & field replacement listing for the hardware & software components of your system (once there, try clicking on the individual items for further info) - https://web.archive.org/web/20020115150246/ht … /501974-002.htm

Basic system spec would appear to be...

Cache
Integrated 256KB Level 2; not upgradable.
Core Logic Chipset
SiS5511+/5512/5513 PCI/ISA
Expansion Slots
(2) 32-bit PCI and (3) 16-bit ISA.
Memory
SIMM 4MB Non-Parity 70ns Fast Page Mode 72 Pin TIN
SIMM 8MB Non-Parity 70ns Fast Page Mode 72 Pin TIN (qty 2)
SIMM 8MB Non-Parity 60ns Fast Page Mode NATASHAII 72P (qty 2)
Processor
Intel Pentium 100MHZ 3.3V SPGA 296
General
PCI 2.1
LBA support
Yes
Video
SIS 6205
Audio
ESS® 1788

There appear to be a couple of BIOS updates (1.03 & 1.04) and although links to these and other files won't ultimately work thru the Internet Archive page, you can find them and many other old AST files here - https://www.sandyflat.net/digerati/ast486/index.htm

There is a printable manual there to download (vebedsk1.exe thru vebedsk4.exe), but I suspect it might be to old for your system.

Hope some of this helps (nice clean looking system BTW!)

EDIT: Thanks to an old post elsewhere from @evasive, it seems possible that the motherboard is a version of the BCM FM561

You absolute machine! I think you found the right listing, that's the right part number.

I searched high and low over the Wayback/IA and got no hits for AST 501974 and combinations of, but I never heard of www.ari-service.com so maybe I overlooked something.

If this information is correct, then the memory I've ordered should still work as the SiS 5211 Chipset claims to support EDO but AST seems to leave that out for some reason.

Even if it doesn't run in EDO mode, the RAM should still run in FPM mode, just a bit slower right?

And since it also shows LBA support, this Quantum Fireball EL I got which 10GB should work absolutely fine

Thank you so much for you help

Looking deeper into this, you might be onto something as the BIOS info even states:

1Advantage! Adventure! 62X System Setup (BCM 561)

And there also appears to be support for booting drives from an Add-In card:

1Hard-Disk Adapter: Choose Built-In for Secondary IDE interface on system board, Add-In to disable system board

For future reference of people looking at this forum

Happy to help - looks as if you're well set once it arrives. That's a better pic of the board than my one, though once you have the system I'm sure the team at Ultimate Retro - https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/ - would welcome hi-res photos of your board, plus any info you gather on it, so they can add it to their database.

Re. Ari Services, I found this quote online...

"ARI Service

<company>

The trading name of the remnants of AST Research, Inc.. ARI Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., of Seoul, Korea. They no longer manufacture or distribute computer hardware, but they continue to provide worldwide technical and service support to owners of systems that they manufactured.

AST Computers, LLC is a separate company.

Headquarters: 16225 Alton Parkway, POB 57005, Irvine, California 92619-7005, USA.

http://ari-service.com/. "

Interesting, so when AST got taken over by Samsung they must've changed their domain and rebranded the AST one just before the Asian economy collapsed.

I'm sure the team at Ultimate Retro - https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/ - would welcome hi-res photos of your board, plus any info you gather on it, so they can add it to their database.

Oh absolutely, I'll be taking the entire machine to bits, photographing and documenting all parts, IC numbers, jumpers, BIOS screen captures, everything.

If I have time, I'll also make a list of the electrolytic capacitors on it so people can replace them more easily if needed.