So that last installed failed. After the reboot during the install, I got an "ODBC Installer DLL is not installed on this system" and after the next reboot I got registry corruption errors.

I deleted the files off the drive, copied over fresh scripted install files from a contemporary computer, did an error check on the SD, turned off UDMA in the BIOS, and then restarted the scripted install.

The install stopped here with the mouse still working but the keyboard num lock unresponsive:

douglar wrote on 2025-08-23, 15:12:

So that last installed failed. After the reboot during the install, I got an "ODBC Installer DLL is not installed on this syste […]
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So that last installed failed. After the reboot during the install, I got an "ODBC Installer DLL is not installed on this system" and after the next reboot I got registry corruption errors.

I deleted the files off the drive, copied over fresh scripted install files from a contemporary computer, did an error check on the SD, turned off UDMA in the BIOS, and then restarted the scripted install.

The install stopped here with the mouse still working but the keyboard num lock unresponsive:

The attachment Photo Aug 23 2025, 11 29 02 AM.jpg is no longer available

For any motherboard that has symptoms like this that seem to be memory related that has onboard level 2 cache - try slowing it down or entirely disabling it in bios and see if the problem goes away, or if it makes no difference

bertrammatrix wrote on 2025-08-23, 19:03:

For any motherboard that has symptoms like this that seem to be memory related that has onboard level 2 cache - try slowing it down or entirely disabling it in bios and see if the problem goes away, or if it makes no difference

Disabling the external cache fix things, thanks!

douglar wrote on Yesterday, 14:49:

bertrammatrix wrote on 2025-08-23, 19:03:

For any motherboard that has symptoms like this that seem to be memory related that has onboard level 2 cache - try slowing it down or entirely disabling it in bios and see if the problem goes away, or if it makes no difference

Disabling the external cache fix things, thanks!

Ok, well that's not really a fix but good to hear it at least made a difference. Performance will likely be pathetic without it. You could try cleaning the board around the cache, or if that doesn't help you could try cooling it with a little heatsink on it, or a fan.

Sometimes these chips were already borderline adequate for the upper FSB speeds SS7 boards could do when they were new, 30 years later the situation is obviously only worse. It may still work fine at 66, 75 or 83 but not be able to do 100 reliably

Edit - since you are using this motherboard with a k6-3 that has it's own L2 cache and effectively uses the motherboard cache as L3 - I wonder if the penalty for disabling the motherboard cache may be fairly minimal

bertrammatrix wrote on Yesterday, 15:21:

Edit - since you are using this motherboard with a k6-3 that has it's own L2 cache and effectively uses the motherboard cache as L3 - I wonder if the penalty for disabling the motherboard cache may be fairly minimal

There's a hit, but it's < 10%. It isn't a deal breaker. I was running the 03/08/1999 BIOS. It is supposed to know about the K6-III, but I see 01/03/2000 rev A is newer. I'll give that a shot.

douglar wrote on Yesterday, 20:42:

I was running the 03/08/1999 BIOS. It is supposed to know about the K6-III, but I see 01/03/2000 rev A is newer. I'll give that a shot.

Here's how it went:

1. I installed the new bios which returned settings to the default values, including external cache = enabled
2. the system rebooted and installed a couple new drivers
3. before I could restart, the registry got corrupted beyond repair
4. I'm back to reinstalling Windows 98se

douglar wrote on Yesterday, 23:50:

Here's how it went: […]
Show full quote

douglar wrote on Yesterday, 20:42:

I was running the 03/08/1999 BIOS. It is supposed to know about the K6-III, but I see 01/03/2000 rev A is newer. I'll give that a shot.

Here's how it went:

1. I installed the new bios which returned settings to the default values, including external cache = enabled
2. the system rebooted and installed a couple new drivers
3. before I could restart, the registry got corrupted beyond repair
4. I'm back to reinstalling Windows 98se

The attachment download.jpg is no longer available

Haha, yup, typical results 😀 that's the best when it looks really promising before repeat fubar 😀 well at least now you know

So after reinstalling windows I was still having trouble. I wouldn’t get a windows desktop, just a black screen in text mode. I noticed that after the crashes, the CF was unresponsive until a power cycle. The Bios upgrade had reenabled udma for the device. Turning off udma and forcing pio4 seems to have fixed that issue.

OK, I'm remembering why these super 7 boards are so addictive. Because you think you can fix them if you just do a little more work !!

Here's some speedsys benchmarks:

1) No cache / loosest memory timings. SDRAM = SLOW / CAS 3.

2) Cache Disabled - Memory throughput increases from 152MB/s to 168MB/s. SDRAM = Turbo / CAS 2.

3) Cache Enabled -- No change to the CPU score. Everything must fit in the on chip cache. SDRAM = Turbo / CAS 2.

4) Using Sandisk Ultra CF instead of Innodisk iCF 4000. SDRAM = Fast / CAS 3.
* Curiously, the CPU benchmark takes a hit with the Sandisk. That wasn't a one off. It was completely repeatable and it was the same regardless of the main memory timing.
* Sandisk didn't perform as well in Dos, but it wasn't really noticeable

5) The Sandisk doesn't have the UDMA issues.
* Operations < 8kb are slower, Operations > 8kb are faster
* The general feel of windows 98 is better. Fewer pauses. Fewer crashes.

Mother-fudgecicles! The board isn't seeing IDE devices anymore. This is definitely a toxic relationship.

One of my first computer builds was a AMD k6-2 ( 300mhz ) from what I remembers.
I was running Win95/98
It did not run very good because I was new at building computers and was just learning.
I think i may have had the jumpers set wrong and I was using the wrong type of ram too.
So it would crash everybody now and then.
I was going to get around to fixing it but I really wanted a BX440 motherboard with Pentium ll-400
So I put away the K6 and Built the BX440 instead.
That is when I decided to only use intel CPUs and I never went back.

Until, I got into retro computers I wanted to rebuild that AMD K6 computer so I didn’t.
It works okay with all the right settings and ram but I still think the Pentium computer is more stable and reliable .

I install Win98se
Then SP3 core updates only
Reboot
Then install Directx 9 from SP3 package
Reboot
And then install voodoo and Sound card software and drivers

Works pretty good.
Stable and Reliable.

Wish I knew this back in 1998
Would’ve have saved me allot of frustration

Intel486dx33 wrote on Today, 20:14:

One of my first computer builds was a AMD k6-2 ( 300mhz ) from what I remembers. I was running Win95/98 It did not run very good […]
Show full quote

One of my first computer builds was a AMD k6-2 ( 300mhz ) from what I remembers.
I was running Win95/98
It did not run very good because I was new at building computers and was just learning.
I think i may have had the jumpers set wrong and I was using the wrong type of ram too.
So it would crash everybody now and then.

That's how I felt except I'd been building computers for 10 years at that point!

I ended up keeping an AMD and and Intel computer until the Athlon 64 came out and then I want AMD. When the Core 2 E8400 came out, I went with 2 intel PC's. When the Ryzen came out I ended up going back to AMD.

I had a loose connection in my IDE socket. A quick reflow seems to have fixed the IDE issue. Tempted to put one of those Promise ATA 100 cards to work in this computer.

douglar wrote on Today, 22:06:

That's how I felt except I'd been building computers for 10 years at that point! […]
Show full quote

Intel486dx33 wrote on Today, 20:14:

One of my first computer builds was a AMD k6-2 ( 300mhz ) from what I remembers. I was running Win95/98 It did not run very good […]
Show full quote

One of my first computer builds was a AMD k6-2 ( 300mhz ) from what I remembers.
I was running Win95/98
It did not run very good because I was new at building computers and was just learning.
I think i may have had the jumpers set wrong and I was using the wrong type of ram too.
So it would crash everybody now and then.

That's how I felt except I'd been building computers for 10 years at that point!

I ended up keeping an AMD and and Intel computer until the Athlon 64 came out and then I want AMD. When the Core 2 E8400 came out, I went with 2 intel PC's. When the Ryzen came out I ended up going back to AMD.

I had a loose connection in my IDE socket. A quick reflow seems to have fixed the IDE issue. Tempted to put one of those Promise ATA 100 cards to work in this computer.

When I've used Promise IDE cards with MVP3 motherboards they have always worked, but at some point in installing Windows 98 drivers Windows would get stuck when rebooting and I would have to move the card to another PCI slot. Once all of the drivers were installed this would no longer happen and I could leave it in the same slot from then on. Just an FYI.