Horun, I appreciate your participation in the thread 'cause you're the only one who's actively trying to help me with some ideas and guidance. Thank you!
Horun wrote on 2023-10-23, 00:59:
Yeah I looked into the P3VAAT and it's BIOS string actually points to VIA 693/596B <not 692/596> "Award 11/22/2000-693-596B-977-2A6LGTJNC-00"
similar to BX-6VP2 bios which proves the Northbridge is not VIA 693 just by two diff tests or else it might hang somewhere else imho.
I think Jan is correct it must be a 692/596 + W977 only bios.
I saw that through MODBIN, but I've to try it 'cause also on theretroweb I saw that for some motherboards with newer BIOS versions this string changes from 692 to 693 (like this one, but maybe those BIOSess are for different board revisions since the sizes of dump-files differ) and the only board that's closest to mine as for its topology and components was this one. Sadly it didn't work.
I'm still confused by what is potentially hiding under the glued north bridge heatsink and I'm thinking about removing it with dental floss method. I thought it could be VT82C693A (133MHz FSB support) as by the information in the user's manual this mobo supports jumper combinations for FSB up to 150MHz, but now I'm pretty sure that I can't rely on any info from the manual as it's "universal" for both intel and VIA chipset variants.
Horun wrote on 2023-10-23, 00:59:
Try this one: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/shuttl … t-661v-v1.x-2.x even though the picture shows an ITE I/O chip the bios stamp is correct for 692/596+ W 977 I/O.
Suggest you try an older BIOS first as the newer ones may be more tweaked to the exact board....
ADded: It also has jumpers to set FSB and multiplier like your board jumpers and switches, we need to look close (which you did) because if has no jumpers/switches as your board layout, itwould interfere with the "auto detection" speed set by BIOS stuff... just a thought.
I'll try it, but this one has four RAM slots, three ISA and four PCI slots which maybe will be potential problem. I've never edited PCI-tables with MODBIN or AMIBCP tools. My broken board is not bad for overclocking and I like and prefer this oldfashioned hardware way with jumpers and switches, but this also could be a problem as it differs with Shuttle's mobo. Shuttle's picture also shows intel south bridge 😁
Horun wrote on 2023-10-23, 00:59:
added2: If you look at the page Jan linked you will see that even with a great TRW crew and Vogons members only 8 of the 25 boards listed with similar chipset have actual motherboard pictures, shows the rareity of those boards at this time.
So the odds of someone else having one is a very long shot (think lottery odds 🤣)
Yeah, you just beat me (I've actually think for a while that it's pointless 😀 ) to publish Totem TM-P3VAAT 's BIOS in the thread for theretroweb's updates, but it seems to me that the guy who used to update theretroweb site through the thread here looks like he abandoned that job some time ago. Months ago I posted some better resolution pics there and nothing has been updated on the site. So, I'll not bother to make and publish some nice pics of my ill-fated board in the thread before scrapping it since nobody cares to update theretroweb database from here anymore.
Honestly, I don't expect someone to make and put here BIOS dump (for free) even if he is in possession of exactly the same BX-6AP2 VIA chipset mobo. This is kinda waste of time related with having to run a PII/Celeron system or removing the chip from the socket and looking for a programmer to read it.
P.S. I've already tried about ten different BIOS-dump files downloaded from different internet resources with no success and I think I'll start filling a list here so I don't repeat tryouts unnecessarily. Plus in this section of the forum users generate an awful lot of spam with videocards, soundcards, system configurations and software/OS topics that could easily be in the appropriate sections, but nobody cares, and thus displacing the other topics faster, not to mention the topics like "how to unsubscribe form this forum?" or "what if somewhere in the universe someone starts manufacturing brand new old hardware parts" 😁
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