VOGONS


RG100 Does Socket 7

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Reply 20 of 58, by retro games 100

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Tetrium wrote:

The SCSI is the orange rectangle on the bottom left. Atleast I think it's SCSI

Alas, this is just where you plug in the power / reset / LEDs etc etc...

Tetrium wrote:

And please put some paste on the K6-3, it's a hot chip and it doesn't have any significant overheating protection, it could burn out if you put it to work.
And about the paste, just put a small drop on the center like you would a P3 coppermine.

Done! Thanks everyone. (Please see photo - the red dots were added using a paint program. This shows the boundary of where the paste is.

Regarding the driver: I am thinking of using the VIA 4-in-1 version 4.35. (I read a post about the Shuttle mobo on the net, and this user was using the same Shuttle mobo with this 4-in-1 4.35 driver.) This is a bit odd, because this is the same driver used for other VIA chipsets, eg KT133A.

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Reply 21 of 58, by Tetrium

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retro games 100 wrote:

.....Done! Thanks everyone. (Please see photo - the red dots were added using a paint program. This shows the boundary of where the paste is.....

Perfect!! ;D

Too bad about the SCSI part *woops!!*

Reply 22 of 58, by retro games 100

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I Installed the VIA 4-in-1 chipset driver, version 4.35. When prompted for the installation options, I only chose the AGP driver. I did not chose the other 3 install options. However I was feeling lucky, and decided to gamble and I chose "Turbo mode" for this AGP install option. Mistake perhaps? I also Installed George Breese's Latency patch.

Then, I installed an AGP card to test. I've got several, this is the first one: it's an ATI 8500 card. After the ATI installation completed, the first thing to go wrong is the automatic ATI Smart Gart test when the Windows 98 desktop appears. It performs some kind of illegal operation. Then, if I select any 3DMark test to run, it says that I need a DX6/7 card to run these tests. Something is definitely not right.

I uninstall the ATI driver, then uninstall the VIA 4-in-1 version 4.35 driver. Then, I install the VIA 4-in-1 driver version 4.43, then reinstall the ATI 8500 driver. However, I get the same problem: an illegal operation problem with ATI's Smart Gart test when the Desktop appears. Oh well. I'll remove the ATI card, and try one from nVidia.....

BTW, the ATI Smart Gart driver setting says "2x", and the mobo's BIOS is set to AGP 2x.

Edit:

swaaye wrote:

We need a huge megathread of troubleshooting stuff from that era now methinks!!!

Looks like I've just started one. 😉

Reply 23 of 58, by retro games 100

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I've discovered another problem. I've had this problem so many times in the past. I've never found a fix for it.

I attach a serial mouse to one of the COM ports on the mobo. When the Windows 98 desktop appears, the mouse works. However, there is no mouse device listed in the Control Panel -> System -> devices area. If I then run the Add Hardware Wizard, it finds the mouse. However, after this event occurs, the entire system slows down dramatically. The system is so slow, that I am forced to remove both the mouse and the COM port devices inside Control Panel -> System -> devices area.

In fact, I am now stuck. The system is so slow, that I can't use it. After I delete the mouse and COM port devices, when I reboot, Windows adds the COM port back in again. I then power down the mobo, then attach the mouse. After I switch on power and the desktop appears, the system is back to super slow mode, with no mouse to use!

Edit: When the Add Hardware Wizard detects the serial mouse, it says that it has found a Logitech serial mouse. However, the mouse device that is listed inside the System devices area is called ECM0001 (COM1). The mouse I have is just a generic mouse. There is no Logitech branding written on it.

Reply 24 of 58, by keropi

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above the com port headers in the mobo, there must be a ps2 mouseport header... why not invest in one and just throw away that ancient serial mouse? not really a direct solution you yer prob rg100, but a better one in the long run...

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 25 of 58, by retro games 100

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keropi wrote:

above the com port headers in the mobo, there must be a ps2 mouseport header... why not invest in one and just throw away that ancient serial mouse? not really a direct solution you yer prob rg100, but a better one in the long run...

Unfortunately, I don't have any PS/2 mouse port header cables, only a PS/2 mouse with the familiar green coloured plug. When they work, these ancient serial mice are quite good! They are fast and responsive, although not at the moment! 😉

Reply 26 of 58, by retro games 100

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Incredible. I've managed to fix something! I went on to the internet, and tried to search for a serial mouse driver. I visited various websites from google's search results, each of them leading me on a wild goose chase as I clicked on promising sounding links such as "Download serial mouse driver now!". Well, it goes without saying that all of these links did nothing. Except of course, I was given plenty of opportunity to download some garbage like Super Registry Pro Mechanic, or some other utter nonsense. And so I visited the risible driverguide.com, and I must say that I hate this website slightly less now, because I found what I was looking for. I downloaded Logitech's mouseware 7.0 program, which was written for Windows 95. It worked immediately. Well, after installation had taken place, the whole system locked up, but I blame VIA for that. Hehe! After Win98 rebooted, all was well, and the system is working at a normal speed, with the mouse working too.

Please note: the actual filename found on driverguide is called Mouse7_0.zip, and was associated with the Logitech manufacturer.

Reply 27 of 58, by Tetrium

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Hmmm...might wana try that driver myself.
I personally vastly prefer to use PS/2 whenever I can, if only for being able to use a standard 3-button optical scrollmouse 😀

Reply 29 of 58, by swaaye

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Yes CuteMouse will run PS2 and serial mice. MSMouse will work too.

In Windows 9x and later you can just use the included generic drivers for each. Win 3.x and older use DOS drivers.

I don't like serial mice because PS2 ports spoiled me with their faster report rates. Serial mice are literally choppy due to the low report rate.

Last edited by swaaye on 2010-04-14, 16:48. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 30 of 58, by retro games 100

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I removed the ATI 8500 card, and replaced it with an nVidia Geforce 3 Titanium 500 card manufactured by 3DPower. It works - well, sort of. Here are some benchies (and v-Sync was switched off for them) -

3DMark 99 Max = 2788, 6251
3DMark 2000 = 1823
3DMark 2001 s.e. = Failed. On the high detail car chase, for the first 5 seconds, the FPS value was shown as 1! Soon afterwards, the test froze.

I installed Quake 1 shareware 1.06 inside Windows 98, then ran it in Win98 using the "timedemo demo2" benchmark. I made the player viewing area full screen, and made sure there was no console window obscuring the top half of the screen. I get 66.8 FPS. (That's using the default resolution of 320x200.) I then removed the GF3, and replaced it with a PCI S3 nitro card, in order to retest Quake 1. I get 65.7 FPS.

Reply 31 of 58, by swaaye

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I really have a powerfully tangible dislike for VIA chipsets joined with AGP cards. 😁

You really don't want to mess with anything other than a Voodoo AGP card in a VIA mobo because they will be unstable in some way with just about anything else. And the strangest bottlenecks can occur too because of problems with AGP aperture and sidebanding. Voodoo cards use AGP as PCI66 so they don't rely on any of the extra features that AGP is supposed to provide. Keep It Simple with VIA, I say.

There aren't any Super 7 CPUs that can adequately "fuel" even a GeForce 2 or Radeon DDR anyway. Not even a K6-III+ at 600. The mobo memory performance and the FPUs just suck too much.

Last edited by swaaye on 2010-04-14, 17:01. Edited 4 times in total.

Reply 32 of 58, by HunterZ

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swaaye wrote:

I really have a powerfully tangible dislike for VIA chipsets joined with AGP cards. 😁

^ this

VIA + AGP = terrible performance and stability

VIA K6-2/K6-3 AGP chipsets should all be doused with gasoline and cleansed with fire, then ground into little pieces. I'm sorry for anyone that tries to build a retro rig with them.

Reply 33 of 58, by retro games 100

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swaaye wrote:

I really have a powerfully tangible dislike for VIA chipsets joined with AGP cards. 😁

I kind of half realised that I was going to have trouble of some kind. But then again, you did say that "We need a huge megathread of troubleshooting stuff from that era now methinks!!!" 😉

I removed the S3 PCI card, and put in a Voodoo3 AGP card. I'm using the Amiga Merlin 2.0 driver (not version 2.9).

3DMark 99 Max = 2795, 6215 (One test, bump mapping, could not be run on this V3 card.)
Quake = 67.2 FPS

Note to self: find your AGP Voodoo 5500 card.

Reply 34 of 58, by retro games 100

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What was I thinking - I forgot pcpbench.exe and speedsys!

pcpbench = 47.0 (LFB, default resolution mode)
pcpbench = 28.3 (LFB, 800x600)

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Reply 37 of 58, by swaaye

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I'm torn on the AGP drivers actually. Sometimes just sticking with what comes with 98SE is "best". The AGP on those boards will never work right so it's really just a magical mix of disabled features 🤣.

Reply 38 of 58, by retro games 100

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swaaye wrote:

I'm torn on the AGP drivers actually. Sometimes just sticking with what comes with 98SE is "best". The AGP on those boards will never work right so it's really just a magical mix of disabled features 🤣.

🤣 Good point. Actually, the "nice and simple" AGP V3 seemed stable. I used the 3dfx tools control panel, and increased its core clock to 180, and nothing bad happened. I was quite impressed. And that was with the mobo's BIOS settings maxed out too.

Reply 39 of 58, by swaaye

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I can't say enough how much Voodoo2/3 was the best card for a K6-2 sys. Not only is the simple AGP-as-PCI design most stable, but the Glide support gets you more from those crappy CPUs than D3D mode.

I've never used a Voodoo4/5 in one but I imagine they would be good too because they still don't use AGP's special features.