Some more i915GL/skt 478 PCI-Express shenanigans. 3GHz Prescott running a HD7850 🤣

Today I entered a world of pain. That is to say, trying to get a couple of slocketed Coppermine CPUs working in my rev 1.05 P2B-DS. I got so very close to getting them working. Everything works great until I jumper them for Dual CPU then it ceases to POST. After doing some digging, I think I've found (in old Vogons posts of course) that most cheap slockets that support Coppermine only support Dual Celerons. I can either try and find a couple unobtainium name-brand slockets or I might have some luck with some bodges on the slockets I have. Been meaning to learn to solder so might be something I'll try at some point.

Dual Celerons... hmm...

Well, I got an ASUS Dual Slot 1 motherboard to recognize two slocketed CPUs, I'm calling it a night.

ubiq wrote on 2023-07-12, 05:49:

Today I entered a world of pain. That is to say, trying to get a couple of slocketed Coppermine CPUs working in my rev 1.05 P2B- […]
Show full quote

Today I entered a world of pain. That is to say, trying to get a couple of slocketed Coppermine CPUs working in my rev 1.05 P2B-DS. I got so very close to getting them working. Everything works great until I jumper them for Dual CPU then it ceases to POST. After doing some digging, I think I've found (in old Vogons posts of course) that most cheap slockets that support Coppermine only support Dual Celerons. I can either try and find a couple unobtainium name-brand slockets or I might have some luck with some bodges on the slockets I have. Been meaning to learn to solder so might be something I'll try at some point.

Dual Celerons... hmm...
IMG_5568.jpeg
Well, I got an ASUS Dual Slot 1 motherboard to recognize two slocketed CPUs, I'm calling it a night.

Had the same issue with my Rev 1.06 P2B-DS, managed to grab 2 Abit Slotket III cards which work fine with dual Coppermines, Soltek also make a Slotket that supports dual cpus SOLTEK SL-02A++ IIRC is the model.

I looked into modding my cheaper cards but most don't have the pin/finger on the socket/edge connector or if they do its not connected electrically on the PCB, thus neither can be modded, some that do have it fully connected still cant be used in SMP without a pin mod on both CPUs.

Its a mess trying to identify which cheap slotkets can be modded.

Replaced a few torn capacitors, replaced a broken keyboard port and programmed a new EEPROM for the missing BIOS chip and I now have my first working HX motherboard.. It turned out rather well considering the sorry state it came in.

ayandon wrote on 2023-07-11, 12:31:

Veeb0rg wrote on 2023-07-11, 09:00:

Looks good, real simple yet effective. I found a PCB on a youtube video and had a few made up. Found it: https://www.youtube.com […]
Show full quote

ayandon wrote on 2023-07-08, 06:46:

Today, I made this Varta battery replacement at home, no custom PCB.

Looks good, real simple yet effective. I found a PCB on a youtube video and had a few made up. Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8K9fbHOtUM

NICE!

Actually, for JLC PBC/PCBWay, Courier Charge is so high.....

I ordered through JLC PCB, they're not too bad for me as long as I'm not in a rush.

Veeb0rg wrote on 2023-07-12, 07:52:

ayandon wrote on 2023-07-11, 12:31:

Veeb0rg wrote on 2023-07-11, 09:00:

Looks good, real simple yet effective. I found a PCB on a youtube video and had a few made up. Found it: https://www.youtube.com […]
Show full quote

Looks good, real simple yet effective. I found a PCB on a youtube video and had a few made up. Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8K9fbHOtUM

NICE!

Actually, for JLC PBC/PCBWay, Courier Charge is so high.....

I ordered through JLC PCB, they're not too bad for me as long as I'm not in a rush.

Can you pls check using a Multimeter to check what is the reverse current? 0 volt or 1.x volt?
And Forward Voltage Drop?

ayandon wrote on 2023-07-12, 07:57:

Veeb0rg wrote on 2023-07-12, 07:52:

ayandon wrote on 2023-07-11, 12:31:

NICE!

Actually, for JLC PBC/PCBWay, Courier Charge is so high.....

I ordered through JLC PCB, they're not too bad for me as long as I'm not in a rush.

Can you pls check using a Multimeter to check what is the reverse current? 0 volt or 1.x volt?
And Forward Voltage Drop?

I will try to check tomorrow. Its on a 386 motherboard and the bios seems happy with it. I can't imagine its much different then the one you made.

ubiq wrote on 2023-07-12, 05:49:

Today I entered a world of pain. That is to say, trying to get a couple of slocketed Coppermine CPUs working in my rev 1.05 P2B-DS. I got so very close to getting them working. Everything works great until I jumper them for Dual CPU then it ceases to POST. After doing some digging, I think I've found (in old Vogons posts of course) that most cheap slockets that support Coppermine only support Dual Celerons. I can either try and find a couple unobtainium name-brand slockets or I might have some luck with some bodges on the slockets I have. Been meaning to learn to solder so might be something I'll try at some point.

A couple of years ago I collected info on slotkets. From notes that I made it seems that Super Slocket-III (the slotket on the left) is indeed only capable to support SMP for Celerons.
However, the slotket on the right looks like Soltek SL-02A++ and I think that that one supports SMP for Copppermines. So if you find a second one like that your problem may be solved.

Veeb0rg wrote on 2023-07-12, 08:17:

ayandon wrote on 2023-07-12, 07:57:

Veeb0rg wrote on 2023-07-12, 07:52:

I ordered through JLC PCB, they're not too bad for me as long as I'm not in a rush.

Can you pls check using a Multimeter to check what is the reverse current? 0 volt or 1.x volt?
And Forward Voltage Drop?

I will try to check tomorrow. Its on a 386 motherboard and the bios seems happy with it. I can't imagine its much different then the one you made.

I just want to cross-check the Diode's output/performance.

PARKE wrote on 2023-07-12, 10:28:

A couple of years ago I collected info on slotkets. From notes that I made it seems that Super Slocket-III (the slotket on the l […]
Show full quote

ubiq wrote on 2023-07-12, 05:49:

Today I entered a world of pain. That is to say, trying to get a couple of slocketed Coppermine CPUs working in my rev 1.05 P2B-DS. I got so very close to getting them working. Everything works great until I jumper them for Dual CPU then it ceases to POST. After doing some digging, I think I've found (in old Vogons posts of course) that most cheap slockets that support Coppermine only support Dual Celerons. I can either try and find a couple unobtainium name-brand slockets or I might have some luck with some bodges on the slockets I have. Been meaning to learn to solder so might be something I'll try at some point.

A couple of years ago I collected info on slotkets. From notes that I made it seems that Super Slocket-III (the slotket on the left) is indeed only capable to support SMP for Celerons.
However, the slotket on the right looks like Soltek SL-02A++ and I think that that one supports SMP for Copppermines. So if you find a second one like that your problem may be solved.
Soltek4.jpg

Thank you! I hadn't identified mine as a Soltek slocket - so hopefully I'm halfway there. I can also look up the 2-3 jumpers whose functions are not clear from the markings on the card.

I'll put this project on ice for a bit and if I can't find another Soltek slocket I'll try the bodge described here on my other slocket if I'm feeling up to it.

And I thought I was keeping it simple by sticking with 100MHz FSB...

Did some digging in my google search history to find the memory card part numbers for the NanTan FMA9200 laptops memory cards. Turns out it was something I found on the satech website earlier this year. Their site looks like a ghosttown of oldschool, 🤣. Probably one of those Silicon Valley businesses from the 90's dot.com boom heyday that fizzled out as the computer industry got more boring.

Spent some time figuring out how to cram 4 sound cards into the 386DX40 I'm working on.

Adding a wavetable card (Dreamblaster X2GS) complicated things since it protrudes into the adjacent ISA slot space.

A bit of ISA card juggling and everything fit and appears to be working. 😁

This retro map of abounded 90s -2000s games companies in one tower, The Tower. Joe room.

A while back I found a chipset heatsink off a server that was being scrapped that I thought would make a great 486 heatsink. I had some time so I sat down and modified a 3d printed heatsink retainer to fit how I needed. Turned out pretty well.

My 4386-VC-HD board came back from a desperately needed battery mod replacement for its Dallas RTC and also got a new BIOS (1.15K instead of 1.10K). I also upgraded the Cache to 256K (but didn't install the optional Dirty TAG, so I ordered another 32K8 cache chip) and placed it back in its original case that I prepared with a 80mm fan so that the old hardware isn't stressed as much. It also got a different HDD since the old 120MB Conner sadly didn't survive the almost 30 years in the attic. It now sports a 540MB Maxtor 7540AV that is jumpered to 504MB as I didn't want to deal with Ontrack or a different BIOS just for 36MB additional space. I also replaced the old "HighScreenBlaster 3.0" (a relabeled CPS Soundblaster 2.5) with the excellent MK8330 sporting an E-Wave wave table. Lastly I gave it a 48X CD-ROM. Didn't have anything slower and I was honestly surprised that the old ISA I/O card could even handle it, albeit the I/O controller maxes out at 2MB/s transfer rate. Next steps would be to install the additional Dirty TAG I ordered, it should enable write-back caching. I'm also considering installing a 486DX2-66 which is the fastest CPU the board supports. Right now it's running the onboard 386DX-40 with a IIT 3C87-40 FPU. The latter I'd have to replace with the 486 and swap the quartz oscillator to a 33MHz one if I understand the manual correctly. But if I install a 486 I'd have to replace the Trident TVGA9000B as well as it is quite slow even for ISA (and shows some weird bars when attached to an LCD).

Some pictures:

ubiq wrote on 2023-07-12, 15:52:

Thank you! I hadn't identified mine as a Soltek slocket - so hopefully I'm halfway there. I can also look up the 2-3 jumpers whose functions are not clear from the markings on the card.
I'll put this project on ice for a bit and if I can't find another Soltek slocket I'll try the bodge described here on my other slocket if I'm feeling up to it.

You could also check if your slotkets need the mod as described in the second half of this post:
Re: Simple passive slotket on 694X dual cpu board for Coppermine/Tualatin?

Siran wrote on 2023-07-13, 06:30:

My 4386-VC-HD board came back[...]

Nice machine! Try to get the optional cache socket filled too - it might enable write-back on that cache. I have M321 motherboard, where for writeback, there is a separate (but for mine, different from others) sram chip.

Played some Ultimate DOOM before work 😁

https://youtu.be/svZ92mhjHK4

Had to test the Roland SC-55 I bought two weeks ago.

PcBytes wrote on 2023-07-11, 21:25:

Some more i915GL/skt 478 PCI-Express shenanigans. 3GHz Prescott running a HD7850 lol […]
Show full quote

Some more i915GL/skt 478 PCI-Express shenanigans. 3GHz Prescott running a HD7850 🤣

That seems to be living a bit dangerously with that PSU, maybe it gets you to desktop but when you load up CPU and GPU it might use up all the 12V and go pop.

Veeb0rg wrote on 2023-07-13, 03:57:

A while back I found a chipset heatsink off a server that was being scrapped that I thought would make a great 486 heatsink. I had some time so I sat down and modified a 3d printed heatsink retainer to fit how I needed. Turned out pretty well.

OOO!

Are you willing to share that 3d printed part file? I'm tired of using thermal tape on 486 chips.