VOGONS


First post, by Kabull

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Hi All!
I need your help in setting up a new graphics card in my 486. The motherboard that is currently fitted is a Biostar MB-8433UUD with AMD Am5x86-P75 133MHz@150MHz and 128MB RAM.
Expansion cards are:
PCI1 USB/Ethernet/Firewire combo card noname
PCI2 VGA was S3 Trio 64V+
PCI3 SATA controller HighPoint HPT374
ISA1 empty
ISA2 empty
ISA3 empty
ISA4 SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold

I've tried to replace the graphics card with modern PCI cards but all I get is beep code error (1 long 3 short) which is faulty graphics. Cards that I have tried so far are:
Hercules 3D Prophet 64MB
CL GeForce 2 32MB
Noname ATI 32MB
Matrox G200
Matrox G450
Ati Rage 128
Matrox G550
3dfx Voodoo2
Various S3
It appears to work with S3 cards only. I have tried running it on bare mobo, EEPROM default, different slots but with no luck. All cards are tested and working in my other 486 based on Soyo motherboard but wont work in Biostar for some reason...

AMD 5x86 133 @ 150MHz , 64MB RAM, 1TB HDD, HighPoint 1640

Reply 1 of 4, by alexanrs

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Just a heads up: the Voodoo2 is NOT a graphics card... it is a 3D accelerator. It does not work by itself.
By the way... why would you want to change that graphics card? The Trio64V is a great DOS chip with decent Windows GUI acceleration. If you really wanna try something else, maybe an S3 Savage4 or a RIVA TNT would work and still offer good compatibility with DOS games.

Reply 2 of 4, by kanecvr

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My Biostar MB-8433UUD works fine with my G200 PCI, as well as my Millennium and Millennium II cards. Never tried with other cards since anything newer than a Riva Vanta will stutter / jitter / not work well with DOS games. I wouldn't go higher then a S3 Virge on a 586 anyway. On my 586 rig I use a Voodoo 2 for 3D alongside an S3 Trio64 but only 3DFX Carmageddon, Descent, Descent II and GLQuake are playable on a 586.

Reply 3 of 4, by idspispopd

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I have experienced a Radeon PCI not working on an Asus P55T2P4 (i430HX) mainboard so I can easily believe your board is not compatible with more modern video cards. Reasons could be PCI version or the VGA BIOS using some Pentium instructions.
If you are not happy with the Trio card (why?) you could eg. try a Matrox Millennium or Mystique (better image quality than Trio). But that would depend on the reason you want to try a more modern card.
(BTW, you have quite a few cards that are rather uncommon as PCI variants...)

Reply 4 of 4, by Jolaes76

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I am using an Elsa Erasor II PCI (nvidia TNT) in my Biostar MB-8433UUD (with a 120 Mhz Cyrix 5x86). It has very good game compatibility, VBE 3.0 out of the box and already a big overkill for a 486 system.
(TNT M64 PCI is not a good choice if you need to run Scitech Display Doctor / UNIVBE.)

"Ita in vita ut in lusu alae pessima iactura arte corrigenda est."