Soon I will be able to complete various PCs, which I kept waiting for missing HW, most of them are AMD, but I have some things that I had temporarily assembled, and which I will be able to recover for Intel PCs, many of the cards repaired in the past (also visible in the previous pages), must be tested and completed, it will take some time, but initially I will choose some, I have temporarily discarded those still to be repaired, because more time is needed, to start and complete the work of replacing some parts (visibly faulty), I will also re-examine these cards in the future, and perhaps I will entrust them to someone more equipped than me, in order to make them work again.

Having several heatsinks for AMD A64 or similar, I have in my hands 🐾 some motherboards, one is visually very beautiful 😍 🤩, it seems new, I don't remember what repairs I did (assuming I did any), it has a Sempron 3200+ CPU, and it has AM2 socket, strangely it doesn't have PCI-E but it has AGP, it is only useful if you want to use a VGA card, instead 💺 of the integrated video.

It is a uATX, and this greatly limits the number of cards that can be installed, in addition to the AGP, there are three PCI, an integrated audio with three connectors, and only two banks for DDR2 memories, this limits the maximum quantity a bit, which should be 4 GB 🇬🇧.

The card, as you can see from the image, is a nice red, as is the AGP Slot, maybe 🤔 it's almost an obligation to use, a VGA with red PCB, some red RAM, and a case 🏘 with red?? ?, I have the red power supply, 600W Enermax, even too many for a similar PC.

I forgot, the card is an MSI MS-7312, or K9MM-V, VIA chipset, in short, nothing exceptional, but I don't know 😐 if it was mounted on a branded PC, such as HP or Acer or others?

I hope to start it as soon as possible, and to see a nice 🤩 BIOS screen, if so it means that it works!!!

Today I did a short startup test, the card is an ASUS K8N-E DeLuxe, for the moment I am equipped with the bare minimum, Sempron 64 2800+ CPU, 128 MB DDR 400, 8 MB ATi Rage XL PCI VGA.
After connecting a power supply and the usual ISA-PCI post card, I started the PC and it works!!!
In the next few days I will do some tests and benches, I will put a VGA AGP and more RAM, and I will connect an HD to load Windows, 🤔 maybe 7?

Did you ever manage to get any life out of the Siemens slot 1 board? It looks an ideal little mATX board with both AGP and ISA!

justin1985 wrote on 2023-11-23, 09:46:

Did you ever manage to get any life out of the Siemens slot 1 board? It looks an ideal little mATX board with both AGP and ISA!

In the past I have had success with a Siemens ATX BX, I can't tell you which model, because I don't remember it by heart, what you say should be a ZX, currently I have too many commitments to be able to dedicate time to repairs, perhaps for the end of the year I may have some, I have several repaired boards to try, and I'm currently trying to choose the best parts, to complement the motherboards that I test and that are working.
Maybe if you're really interested in the Siemens one, if you can tell me which one it is (or on which page), usually it's Dxxxx, I can put it on the bench and do some checks, maybe 🤔 I might get lucky and the card starts!

PC@LIVE wrote on 2023-11-23, 16:51:

justin1985 wrote on 2023-11-23, 09:46:

Did you ever manage to get any life out of the Siemens slot 1 board? It looks an ideal little mATX board with both AGP and ISA!

In the past I have had success with a Siemens ATX BX, I can't tell you which model, because I don't remember it by heart, what you say should be a ZX, currently I have too many commitments to be able to dedicate time to repairs, perhaps for the end of the year I may have some, I have several repaired boards to try, and I'm currently trying to choose the best parts, to complement the motherboards that I test and that are working.
Maybe if you're really interested in the Siemens one, if you can tell me which one it is (or on which page), usually it's Dxxxx, I can put it on the bench and do some checks, maybe 🤔 I might get lucky and the card starts!

Well I just bought one "untested" on eBay, and Googling the model number (D1115 - deduced via the Retroweb ) brought me to your thread. Then I noticed the one I had bought is shipping from Italy, and that you're in Italy - I half wondered if it was the same one!

Really impressed by all of your work on these motherboards though 😀

justin1985 wrote on 2023-11-23, 20:33:

PC@LIVE wrote on 2023-11-23, 16:51:

justin1985 wrote on 2023-11-23, 09:46:

Did you ever manage to get any life out of the Siemens slot 1 board? It looks an ideal little mATX board with both AGP and ISA!

In the past I have had success with a Siemens ATX BX, I can't tell you which model, because I don't remember it by heart, what you say should be a ZX, currently I have too many commitments to be able to dedicate time to repairs, perhaps for the end of the year I may have some, I have several repaired boards to try, and I'm currently trying to choose the best parts, to complement the motherboards that I test and that are working.
Maybe if you're really interested in the Siemens one, if you can tell me which one it is (or on which page), usually it's Dxxxx, I can put it on the bench and do some checks, maybe 🤔 I might get lucky and the card starts!

Well I just bought one "untested" on eBay, and Googling the model number (D1115 - deduced via the Retroweb ) brought me to your thread. Then I noticed the one I had bought is shipping from Italy, and that you're in Italy - I half wondered if it was the same one!

Really impressed by all of your work on these motherboards though 😀

Ok thanks, in fact I have worked on so many cards that I don't remember all the models, in any case it is not my card, the one you bought, it must have been a coincidence that it came from Italy, apart from this my D1115 has a problem that I haven't solved it yet, assuming it's possible to do so, I had better luck with the D1107, while there is a D1120 that I can't get it to restart.
On the D1115 I remember (from memory) that it didn't start when I pressed PWR-ON, but I had the doubt that the pins weren't the right ones, from the manual you can understand what they are, but after a few attempts, I didn't get it to start, and I have temporarily suspended any further checks.
That said, if you need help, just ask, I can possibly take the D1115 back and do some checks, or tell you what voltage I have, probably if mine is faulty, some are at zero.

Just 😅 finished doing some updates to the ASUS K8N-E DeLuxe, I removed the 128 MB RAM, and put in a pair 💏 of DDR 400 RAM, I thought they were 512 each, in reality they are 256 MB, and maybe 🤔 these will also be temporary, because I wanted to have 1 GB 🇬🇧 of RAM, but for the moment they can be more than fine 😌.

Next upgrade, VGA AGP instead of PCI, I have various cards, in the end I chose to put a 128MB Sapphire ATi 9250, a fairly normal card, but which could later be changed with another, I had initially chosen a card with Red PCB, but the Sapphire is green, I wanted something similar to the MB, but neither are, so I chose the green one.

I put two BIOS screens, in one you can read 📖 the type of CPU, strangely there is no Sempron, but ES!!!

I don't know if that wording is real 🤴, but it would be quite interesting 🧐, if so, you could vary the multi as you like and who knows what else!!!

We'll see when I connect the hard disk, and load CPU-Z and other diagnostic software, I don't expect any surprises 😱, but maybe 🤔 who knows, if it were confirmed that it is an ES, it would be too nice 🤩

I tried to complete the configuration of the ASUS K8N-E DeLuxe, now it's like this:
Sempron 754 2800+
512MB DDR 400 (2X 256MB)
ATi 9250 128MB AGP
HD Maxtor 250GB SATA
DVD IDE RW
This is what I added to the MB, but there is integrated audio, and SATA RAID, which are standard in this MB.
I tried to install Windows, first 7 and then XP, unfortunately a problem arises (blue screen), which prevents the installation, I have not tried 98, because I use a SATA HD, and this technology should not have a native driver for 98 .
Unfortunately I'm stuck here, the next attempt I'll make will be the IDE-CF adapter with memory card and DOS, I use it in all the PCs I try, for benching and diagnostics, and usually there are no problems.

An MB ISA-OPTI 486 arrived today, with 30 PIN RAM (4 PCS), Intel 486 DX2-66 CPU, everything needs to be tested, but I'm currently away, I might try this card next week, overall it's quite interesting for me 🧐, I haven't had a 486 DX2-66 ISA since '96, I have other DX2-66s but these are VLB (Vesa Local Bus 🚌), I have four like this, but I had a DX2-80 ISA, which I I really liked it 😻, I still have it ⚓️ but it's broken, one day I hope 🤞 to fix it, however I don't think there is that much difference between an 80 and a 66.

I already have a few cards I'll use here, a 1MB Paradise ISA, and several Audio ISAs, plus some controllers and parallel serial ports.

Today I restarted the 754, to see if it boots from HD, I used the usual CF card with DOS and IDE adapter, the PC started, basically I'm not surprised 😱, it would have been strange if it didn't work, I started from there to do some diagnostic tests, I didn't really understand 😌 what problem there could be, apart from the battery being completely flat, however we'll see later if something (or a problem) emerges, hoping that it can be resolved by replacing something.

I put the images of the QTPRO, in which you can read the components of this configuration, the CPU is not identified as Sempron, but as ES, I don't think it is the BIOS that identifies it like this, it would be interesting 🧐 try another CPU, and see if it is detected as Sempron, so maybe later 🤔 I'll do this test, but I don't think it changes much, talking about results in the benches.

Going back for a moment to the ASUS 754 with Sempron, I decided to put it aside temporarily, sometimes it crashes, I don't know and I don't understand why, we need to investigate more thoroughly, but I decided that for the moment I'll move on to something else, in order to reduce some motherboards waiting for a long time ⏱, I changed the board, switching to an MSI MS-7312 with Sempron AM2, the board is microATX, with integrated video and audio, a part of the RAM is dedicated to the video card, the quantity varies from BIOS, obviously 🙄 is limited by how much RAM you have, at most I think 2 or 4 GB are possible 🇬🇧, for what can be used by the VGA, I don't think you can go beyond 256-512 MB.

I currently have two RAM 667s of 256 MB each, so 512 MB in total, I think that if there are no problems, and I manage to install Windows, then I could also max out the installed RAM, and then I think of putting an Athlon X2, which in my opinion it could give a bit of a boost to performance, and perhaps 🤔 it would make the PC quite balanced (apart from VGA), if you want you can also improve the video, there is an AGP slot, but the best AGP cards are rare and expensive 💲 .

A small step forward, I find this MB MSI very interesting 🧐, in itself not having a PCI-E slot, it is quite limited in terms of VGA expansion, so perhaps use with recent software is a bit prohibitive, for various reasons, the first that comes to mind, and the fluidity of the videos, could be quite snappy (i.e. many shots between various images), and also the single core CPU and frequency of only 1800 GHz certainly doesn't help.

I ran the first bench, with the current configuration, 512 MB RAM DDR2 667, Sempron 3200+, HD Maxtor SATA 250? GB 🇬🇧, integrated VGA 16 MB, etc…

You can see the results in the images, nothing exceptional, but later we will be able to see the difference, when I change some components of the (current) configuration.

I will do other benches, and then start a new round, adding RAM or changing CPU, for this last thing, I don't know if I will wait some time ⏱, for the moment this single core Sempron, it's fine, I don't think I'll make the Internet with it, because it has AGP and maximum RAM 2 GB 🇬🇧, not the maximum in my opinion, if it had PCI-E and 4 GB 🇬🇧 with an Athlon X2, it would be quite suitable for this use.

I spent some time dusting an ASROCK 775Dual-VSTA, I recently recovered it together with an ATi AGP video card, apart from some inaccessible points, I eliminated the layer of dust accumulated over time, perhaps several years, for the more difficult to reach points will require a very thin brush.
The positive thing about this card is the possibility of using the recent VGA PCI-E ones, in fact there is an RAM, there are a pair of DDR and DDR2, preferably it is better to use DDR2, but in its absence you can fall back on normal DDR.
Even the CPUs have a certain flexibility, you can use P4 775 or Celeron, or if you want a dual Core, even the Core2 Duo with FSB 800 or 1066.

In the meantime, since for Christmas 🎅 I should have some free time 💆‍♂️, I'm preparing some 486 motherboards, probably only some will be functional again, I would still like to fix at least a few of them, I have various types ISA VLB and PCI, certainly the best one would be PCI, which is also a Socket 3, unfortunately 😣 I have never had a Pentium Overdrive 63 MHz (if I'm not mistaken there was another frequency), and strangely Intel didn't make other CPUs with the same number of PINs (one more row compared to the 486), but not even AMD or others made CPUs compatible with the P.O.486, however as far as I know, the best 486 CPU is the AMD 5x86 133 - P75, maybe 🤔 the ​​Cyrix 5x86 is even the same or slightly better?

Of course we are talking about fairly common CPUs at the time, even PCs like this were given away (or thrown away!), but today after thirty years the situation 🎤 has changed, it is difficult to find something at a good price, of course 👌 if one has been farsighted in the past , today we find ourselves with some CPUs, personally I have some, not many, so today I don't have to look for them 🔍, unless I need particular frequencies or types of CPU.

This MB 486 PCI will arrive in the next few days, it's probably not working, at least that's what the seller says, but sometimes it can happen that there isn't a real fault, but it's just incorrect jumper settings, which prevent correct booting, this at least in the simplest cases, if there is a faulty component, well you have to find it, and it's neither easy nor simple.
In the past I had a similar motherboard, it was a BEK, with 4 banks of RAM, here there are only three, but using large memories, up to 128 MB can be installed, which allows the installation of subsequent Windows to those of the period (mid 90s).
Only after having solved this, will I try to complete the configuration, adding VGA PCI and ISA audio, as a CPU I initially thought of an i486-33 because the heatsink is not needed, later I change it with an AMD 5x86 133 or an Intel DX4 100, but I think to use the 5x86 133, because it's the fastest 486 I have available.

I am completing the installation of Windows 7, on the MSI MS-7312 PC with Sempron 3200+ AM2, I currently had Windows XP installed on the HD, but I thought that for the disk capacity, a 250 GB Maxtor, 7 would be better, I will also add more RAM, going from the current 512 MB to at least 2 GB.

After installing Windows 7, I ran the classification index, the score obtained by the PC is 1.0, the reason for this score is the integrated graphics, both VGA and 3D become only 1.0, the memories 2.0, I point out that later this score will rise, because I thought of increasing the total quantity up to 2 GB, the Sempron 3200+ CPU gets 3.5, here too I think of changing it in the future, the highest score obtained is 5.9, and it is of the disk a 250 GB Maxtor (DiamondMax21), this is more than enough for the moment.
Running the CPU-Z bank, I noticed an improvement in scores, compared to XP, I will try other programs later, we will see if these improve too???

I continue with the Windows 7 benches, it's time for SuperPI and HWInfo32, I did the tests a little while ago, and I haven't seen if the results are (possibly) different, however I want to point out that for the first time one of my PC gets an exact time to the thousandth, it doesn't mean anything, but it's strange that it stopped at 000, rather than 999 or 666 or some other number repeated three times.

So I would say that for the moment I would have gotten what I was interested in, that is, Windows 7 installed and the main banks working, I couldn't get BMX to run, because it crashes, strangely I couldn't start it, I have to see if it's possible to make it work, by modifying something, like make it boot in W98 compatible mode, apart from that I would also have CPU-Z for W95, I want to bench it, before adding RAM, or making any changes.

Since Christmas is approaching, I try to stay on topic, I have among the motherboards to try, some cards with red PCB (Christmas), I have two waiting to be tested, these are two MSI MS-6741 VER 1.0, the the difference between the two is that one has integrated VGA and the other does not.
For convenience I would try the one with integrated VGA first, if I can't view anything, I would switch to the one without integrated VGA.
Making a brief summary, there are two Socket 754, with two banks of DDR RAM (max 400), 8X AGP slot, unfortunately that socket does not allow you to use dual core CPUs, you can install Athlon 64 or Sempron 64, the only difference between the two is the amount of cache, lower on the Sempron.