MR BIOS compatibility for MSI MS‑3119 (VLSI 386SX) \ VOGONS

MR BIOS compatibility for MSI MS‑3119 (VLSI 386SX)

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First post, by Linoleum

Posted on 2026-02-28, 23:49

Linoleum Offline

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Joined: 2023-08-29, 02:19
Location: Canada

I’m running into a limitation with my MSI MS‑3119 (VLSI) 386SX/25 board and could use some guidance. Since I can’t reliably use a secondary ROM on this motherboard (see Re: Mini ISA ROM Card), I’m now looking at alternatives to get past the 500 MB HDD limit using the main BIOS itself.

The board uses a 27C512 EPROM and a VLSI chipset:
- VL82C320A (System Controller)
- VL82C331 (ISA Bus Controller)

I was wondering whether MR BIOS might support this chipset. Looking through the MR BIOS collection, I can’t find anything that obviously matches these VLSI parts. Is that expected? Do I need some kind of chipset equivalence chart, or is this platform simply not supported at all?

I could try a few candidate ROMs by trial and error, but I’m not sure how risky that would be for this board. Is experimenting with different MR BIOS images generally safe on these older systems, or is there a real chance of bricking the board?

P3 866, V3, SB Audigy2
P2 400, TNT, V2, SB Audigy2 ZS
P233 MMX, Mystique220, V1, AWE64
P166, S3 Virge, SB32, PicoGus
486DX4 100, CLGD5424, SB32
Prolinea 4/50, ET4000, SB16
SC386SX 25, TVGA8900D, Audician32
286 10, ATI VGA, Forte16
PS2 30/286, SBP

Reply 1 of 1, by Linoleum

Posted on 2026-03-11, 12:43

Linoleum Offline

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Rank: Member
Posts: 335
Joined: 2023-08-29, 02:19
Location: Canada

I successfully installed MR BIOS.

I can’t say whether flashing a non‑compatible MR BIOS would cause any harm, because I got lucky and found a working one on my very first try — actually two of them: V019B301 and V019B302. I just picked whatever description seemed closest to the system (386SX‑25, VLSI chipset, no cache), and that turned out to be good enough.

And wow, the speed difference is unreal. Booting takes about two seconds, video output (both direct and BIOS calls) is noticeably faster, and disk access absolutely flies.

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