VOGONS

[Resolved] Pentium MMX | Stutter issue

Topic actions

First post, by Rav

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Hi,

I got a Pentium MMX system not so long ago and I have some weird issues I did not have on my 486, not sure where they might come from

1 - Stutters on windows nt4, mainly if I move windows around, It will have mini freeze during easily up 2 seconds. Sound, if playing during that time would stututututututututter. Stutters also happen when I open network drives.
2 - Descent 1 game will have mini slowdown every few seconds (That issue was not present in my 486)
3 - Transport Tycoon Deluxe "install.exe" hang the system (Used to work on the 486, Tryed with dos7, 6.22, with all the kitchen sink loaded, with nothing loaded and with the minimum. Tested with himem, xmgr, and qemm.)
4 - CPU won't even be stable with a small 233 overclock

The board is : A-Trend ATC-5130 ( https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/a-trend-atc-5130 )
The chipset is : Ali Aladdin IV+ (M1531)
The CPU is : Pentium MMX 200 (Plastic package)
The video card is : S3 Vision968 PCI 2MB, without the memory expansion board ( https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/diam … -video-vram-pci )
The network card : 3COM 3C905B ( https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/3com … l-pci-3c905b-tx )
The Sound card : Pro Audio Spectrum 16 (Used for PAS16 supported games and for FM)
The Other Sound card : Creative Vibra16C CQM edition (Used for games that don't support the PAS16, FM is DISABLED)

The sound cards are the only parts I pulled out from the 486

I did read something about "PCI Latency", not sure if it's that and if so how to fix it.

Last edited by Rav on 2026-03-02, 22:07. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 7, by Rav

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
cyclone3d wrote on 2026-01-06, 19:59:

Check to see what devices are sharing IRQs

According to WinMSD, there is no conflict
(All serials and // ports are disabled)

01 : msi8042
03 : Network card
05 : Vibra16
06 : Floppy
07 : PAS16
10 : VGA
12 : msi8042
14 : atapi
15 : atapi

But now looking at it, I was sure that the PAs16 SCSI used to be detected and I think was using IRQ11 last time I checked... But right now its not showing up... Could it be that?!? Investigating.

Reply 3 of 7, by Rav

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Did not fix anything.

Changing the IRQ in the sound card setting and rebooting, just set the IRQ back to 15 and the SCSI part of the card is nowhere to be found.
Maybe it's not initialised and do really nothing? Maybe it's conflicting with the second IDE controller, or no? (But the hard drive is on the first port so who know if it's really that).

EDIT : I think that scsi adapter don't have drivers for windows nt. Maybe what I remember was from when I tested win9x long time ago.

Reply 4 of 7, by wbahnassi

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I had the same issue installing Transport Tycoon Deluxe from original disks on my P233MMX. IIRC I had to find an alternative version that worked.

Turbo XT 12MHz, 8-bit VGA, Dual 360K drives
Intel 386 DX-33, Speedstar 24X, SB 1.5, 1x CD
Intel 486 DX2-66, CL5428 VLB, SBPro 2, 2x CD
Intel Pentium 90, Matrox Millenium 2, SB16, 4x CD
HP Z400, Xeon 3.46GHz, YMF-744, Voodoo3, RTX2080Ti

Reply 5 of 7, by Rav

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
wbahnassi wrote on 2026-01-07, 06:04:

I had the same issue installing Transport Tycoon Deluxe from original disks on my P233MMX. IIRC I had to find an alternative version that worked.

Yeah, weird, and it was already installed, and I did run the installer in the past on my 486 to change sound card settings.
That I "fixed" finally. I just wanted to reconfigure the sound. A friend did it for me and sent me the 4 sound related files that change when you change sound card setting.
Maybe they made a newer install version that don't crash on mmx?

Reply 6 of 7, by Rav

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Problem fixed [issue 1].

That machine came with a 3GB rust spinner, I did not actually use it until two days ago...
I did test it when I got the machine (surface scan with MHDD, little head exercise with hdmotion, it was "fine".

Yesterday I installed windows 98 on it with that new win98quick thing. It installed, but had a lot more "lag" spikes than NT... And it in the device manager, for the ide controller, I had ALI something, primary and secondary controller. Primary and secondary had a /!\ in front of them... I did not pay more attention, thinking that the ALI driver was overriding these or something because I also had a ALI something that had "primary and Secondary" setting in it... Also in the Performance tab of System setting, it said "Virtual Memory : MSDOS compatibility, can affect performance... or something similar"

Well, it totally crashed, pressed reset and it crashed during the scandisk, pressed reset and it would not post.
Fortunately I did ghost that new windows 98 installation sooooo

I removed that drive and made some space in my 8GB CF for the win98 partition and restored it in there.
No more lag on Win98
No more lag on NT4
and in win98, I don't have the /!\ anymore on the primary and secondary controller even if the ALI something is still there. And in the performance tab, it now say "Virtual Memory : 32 Bits".

So at the end, just don't leave old spinners in the system even if they look fine and even if your not using them.

Reply 7 of 7, by NeoG_

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Rav wrote on Yesterday, 22:13:

So at the end, just don't leave old spinners in the system even if they look fine and even if your not using them.

I'm riding my 20GB seagate drive to the grave

98/DOS Rig: BabyAT AladdinV, K6-2+/550, V3 2000, 128MB PC100, 20GB HDD, 128GB SD2IDE, SB Live!, SB16-SCSI, PicoGUS, WP32 McCake, iNFRA CD, ZIP100
XP Rig: Lian Li PC-10 ATX, Gigabyte X38-DQ6, Core2Duo E6850, ATi HD5870, 2GB DDR2, 2TB HDD, X-Fi XtremeGamer

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to General Old Hardware
Close window
Close window