Ooooo, Socket 4! I've never quite used Socket 4 and don't really know that much about it... The vast majority of the time I've used Socket 3, and Socket 7, and on occasion Socket 5. Socket 4 is certainly in the realm of the unknown for me.

Socket 4 was the early Pentium (I'd say from 1993) that OEM system manufacturers had used, but only 5V processors were supported, but a major drawback caused Intel to make Socket 5 boards since the 5V processors produced too much heat.

Source: http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Socket_4_Motherboards

bjwil1991 wrote:

Socket 4 was the early Pentium (I'd say from 1993) that OEM system manufacturers had used,

As I haven't ever dealt with OEM systems of that age, that's probably why I've never come across Socket 4 before.

The "problem" with Socket4 is the chipset(so-so speed[Intel]/buggy IDE) and the price.

If you can get past these two things you have a "legendary" piece of hardware which can be way cooler than a 486 - albeit a bit slower than the fastest ones at 133+.
Of course, opinions here differ vastly(as with all interesting/niche things) and for some folks it's just "overpriced, buggy shit".
For me... just holding that chunky CPU in your hand is worth it... maybe only the Pentium Pro can surpass that "dang.. what a solid piece".

Not all boards are Intel based - ECS' SI5PI AIO uses an SiS chipset and the "mighty" MTech. R512 does too(501/502/503). Both also offer custom cache configurations(16 + 1 or 2) where most cookie-cutter variants do not - 256KB is the pre-configured "state of the art". Robert's seems to have a non-standard 8 chip bank with a preset tag.
I would love to own a Compaq because there's a chance they came up with a custom solution that provides more speed than the standard fare Intel implementation.
I have not come across many board variations in real life but the main difference between those run of the mill Intel430LX(Mercury) setups seems to be on-board graphics, or lack thereof, where concerning former I could observe both Tseng and Cirrus Logic implementations. Would be interesting if there were other ones too.

The meek performance, which still may surpass a DX4's, can only be circumvented by non Intel chipsets + every board/cpu should be run at least at 66mhz unless absolute "period correct" fetishes set in.
It's not only a strong performer in Quake but also Doom where it can settle in the ~40fps+ region(a DX2 66 often circulating ~25+) in "timedemo'd" Doom demo3.

According to "Doom benchmark results" between 40 to 44fps for the Pentium60 and 20-34 for the Dx2-66 - yielding 48fps for a P66(extrapolated from the highest score) and thus a 41% advantage at the same clock speed over the fastest DX2-66. This score is exactly on par with the fastest DX4-100.

I hope Roberto can have his up and running soon - too few of those "goldies" around.

IF I get the socket 4 setup to work, I want to see what score I get in QUAKE with the Hercules Viper 330 RIVA 128 PCI 4MB vs AMD 5x86 133MHz. I'll install Win95 and I'll also run other tests. The comparison will be made with my 5x86 build as I already have some test results with it and I dont have another system ready at a moment's notice.

Required steps:

1. I need a DS1287 RTC
2. I need a BIOS programmer TL866A / TL866CS with adapters if the DS1287 RTC doesnt solve my problem, to see if the BIOS chip is still good. (The BIOS programmer might be used to revive the V4 4500...who knows what's in store in 2018? 😁 )

My gut feeling says that the above steps will be enough to wake up the BEAST but I've been wrong before.In any case, the motherboard is solid. No visible damage.I found something bent but was repaired. The impression that I get from it is very positive. I wasnt able to find the motherboard manual and the stuff I found was kind of general and not very informative. Some jumper settings differ from a revision to another. Some settings aren't explained too well. I'll solve this puzzle after I get the PC speaker to sing its song 😁

If the CPU is dead or damaged then I wont be able to diagnose the problem as I dont have another P66. I keep my fingers crossed that my ONLY P66 is firing on all its cylinders.

The P66 CPU is something. After I got it, I stood a few minutes to look at it. When you hold it in your hand you feel its weight. I'm pretty sure that if you were to drop it on the floor, the sound would be like that of a massive church bell 😁 DaaaAAnnngggGGGG!!!

As usual you'll read all about it here as soon as it happens 😁

I am thinking about restoring the two ISA modems I got and the Savage 3D card...I think I'll call the episode: "The three ugly sisters" 😁

During the winter holidays I dont plan to mess with HW but who knows? Maybe I'll visit the flea market just to see what's going on 😁 I might find something...

More later.

In the works 😁 the episode: THREE UGLY SISTERS!!!

I'm still debating if I should restore these cards....they are really UGLY....I might give them back their shine only because I CAN and no cause is lost until I SAY SO!!! 😁

Truth be told I only have ONE ISA modem in my stash...decisions decisions...

gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/j4ysy5qm/

Three UGLY Sisters!!!

While I'm writing these lines, I still wonder what made me try to recover these three things. They arent rare or extremely useful. They came dirty, covered with corrosion marks, verdigris and God knows what.On their forehead was written in a clear font: TOO FAR GONE!!! DONT BOTHER!

All these warning signs meant nothing to me and I decided to see what I can do. Little did I know that I was just wasting my time. Better quit while you're ahead...

After all was said and done I saw this adventure as a test of my skills, nothing more. If these things would've been rare or exotic artifacts I might've pulled up a few aces from my sleeve, but after hours allocated for this endeavour one obvious conclusion was vivid in my mind : STOP! YOU'RE WASTING YOUR TIME and MONEY! 😁

Together with the Pentium 66 I also received three other components. I knew they were in a bad shape and initially I said to the seller that I dont need them but he said he was going to send them anyway. By this time I said to myself that I want to see if I can restore them...

Let's meet the three things:

1. Apac 3901A - S3 Savage 3D - AGP - 8MB
2. Modem ACorp AT-336PCR - RCV336ACF/SP R6749-21
3. Modem NIG-EAGLE-1-V1 - DAVICOM 33.6

Nothing glamorous...

The arrival state can be seen in the above post.

gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/2ji37x7l2/

First I changed a capacitor on the S3 card because it was deformed. An easy task.

After this, I turned my attention to the three brackets. I kept them for three hours in an auto rust remover solution and I checked them at intervals of 30 minutes . At each check I removed a layer of rust. I used a sharp needle and other tools to remove the rust which turned to a black crust. After this I put the brackets back into the solution. I repeated this operation several times.

After I removed all of the rust I was left with pitting in the areas that were cleaned. I tried with a buffing wheel and polishing compound to eliminate the pitting but it was too advanced so I tried to reduce it a little and then I manually buffed the brackets with a special cream.

In the end they came out looking okay...

Next came the moment to tackle the cards. You should've seen my face while I was staring at them. What the F... Even so I still carried on.

The rust and the verdigris from the cards werent bothered by the 99% isopropyl alcohol so I took out the BIG GUNS and with the help of a few cotton sticks dipped in the rust remover I covered the entire surface of the modems, the golden pins, connectors and the BIOS socket of the graphic card with a thin layer of solution.

I had to be pacient because the procedure was slow and I had to see how it will evolve.

After a few dabs of rust remover solution and 99% isopropyl alcohol washes I removed much of the rust, verdigris, dirt and whatever was there.

Almost all of the components were contaminated and I paid close attention to each detail: pins, BIOS chips, capacitors, quartz crystals, you name it...

I replaced two screws and I recovered four.

In the end I was satisfied with the results and I decided to stop. Against all of my efforts I wasnt able to fully recover any of the cards. Each one of them remained with scars.

Test time.

S3 TEST? Ha hAHh aHahHAhhhaHahhhahah - NO IMAGE TEST ! YEP, dead, beep code: VGA NOT DETECTED!!! Well I'll be F.....Go figure...I didnt test the card when I received as it was so nasty I wouldn't've never put it inside my clean and sparkling PIII.

The modems were identified by Win 98 but I didnt find the original drivers. I installed generic drivers and that was it. As good as it gets.

Back in the BOX and I dont want to see you for a while! 😁

gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/1188ql87w/

More later. The P66 still refuses to come back to life... I'll post the full story after I have exhausted all of my options...I also did a DALLAS DS1287 rework / mod...next will come the BIOS programmer...

After the sour taste of the last adventure, today I went to the flea market to buy some "garbage" of my own 😁

Abit SA6 V1.1 - I dont know what CPU is on the board. Monday I'll take a look. ~ 2.2 EUR / 2.6 USD
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV (64 MB AGP) ~ 2.2EUR / 2.6 USD

gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/179g5gf30/

The DALLAS DS1287 RTC was modified this week.

gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/2lfbpczfg/

More later.

Robert B wrote:

After the sour taste of the last adventure, today I went to the flea market to buy some "garbage" of my own :D […]
Show full quote

After the sour taste of the last adventure, today I went to the flea market to buy some "garbage" of my own 😁

Abit SA6 V1.1 - I dont know what CPU is on the board. Monday I'll take a look. ~ 2.2 EUR / 2.6 USD
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV (64 MB AGP) ~ 2.2EUR / 2.6 USD

gallery: https://postimg.org/gallery/179g5gf30/

The DALLAS DS1287 RTC was modified this week.

gallery: https://postimg.org/gallery/2lfbpczfg/

More later.

Does the Tuner part of the Radeon work using a TV coax cable? (meaning do you recieve any channels?)

I think it is a TV tuner as stated in the review.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ati-radeo … 500-dv,399.html

I've never had or used an ATI All-In-Wonder card so this is new to me 😁

I still have to clean and test the card. It looks great. No corrosion, just a few marks on the black heatsink and one SMD capacitor was out of place but it wasnt torn off. For the price I paid I think it is quite OKAY! 😁

A user on a German "forum" got a similar Pentium board(different vendor + EISA slots) and he immediately exchanged the clock chip... so your chance is pretty high that it's the culprit of your dilemma.

The stickers on the chipset are still strange... maybe an ex-PCChips employee owned the board.

Thanks for the input amadeus777999. I'll try anything to resurrect my P66!

Listen to this tune while you watch the HYPE photos!!! 😁

Martinez-Chord Ripper (Original Mix)

http://classic.beatport.com/track/chord-rippe … nal-mix/7660290

It wont be long until I'll resume the regular show 😁

Sneak peek!

gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/1ted8ydlo/

Do I have to say it?

As usual MORE LATER 😁

Ahh, so sad, 9500 just with 64MB RAM. I have 128MB RAM version, and was able unlock it to full fat 9700 without a hitch.

Oh, and btw, some news about your V4 BIOS chip?

Nothing ATM. I hope this week I'll place the order for the BIOS programmer 80-100EUR... expensive as $..T. With that piece of kit I can try to resurrect the V4-L. I'll have to go to an electronics shop to remove the chip and solder a socket PLCC32 socket for convenience. That V4-L still haunts me BIG TIME!!!

The 9500 NonPRO 64MB can sometimes be unlocked into a 9500 PRO but I dont have a WIN XP platform to test it. I wanted to try the Omega drivers from philcomputerslab but they dont work on win 98...

https://www.philscomputerlab.com/radeon-9500- … 00-softmod.html

Robert B wrote:

The 9500 NonPRO 64MB can sometimes be unlocked into a 9500 PRO but I dont have a WIN XP platform to test it. I wanted to try the Omega drivers from philcomputerslab but they dont work on win 98...

Yeah, but Omega drivers aren't the only way, how to softmod card. There are others, and one of them don't even need WinXP.

I don't try it on all driver versions, just 3.10, which can be found here: http://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=146062

Then you have to install RivaTuner, I used this version: https://www.pcworld.pl/ftp/pc_2512/RivaTuner- … ar-Edition.html

And once you install it, you have to run w9x.rts from script dir and then you have to mod file ati2vxag.vxd, which is located in Windows\System dir. If you will have some problem with this procedure, I can send you already modded file for Catalyst 3.10 version.

Once its successfully modded, restart your PC and you should have unlocked card. Try some benchmarks/games, so you know, that your card don't produce artifacts now and if not, then enjoy some free fps 😉

Thanks Srandista for the info 😀 it is of great help! I'll try this next time when I take out the PIII build.

Tomorrow or the day after, I will receive the MiniPro TL866A Programmer and I'll see what's on the P66 chip. Wish me luck!

Afterwards, I plan to buy a hot air station and soldering iron plus special supplies, to try an repair the V4-L myself 😁 I still cant use a regular soldering iron in complete safety and I dont want to damage the PCB of any of my cards 😁 An Adjustable Temperature Electric Thermostat Soldering Iron is much better as I can control the temperature. I'll do some practice runs and I'll post my results 😁 Using the hot air station will require some accommodation and I'll use it first on a few damaged parts. The model I plan to buy is Gordak 968 - so nothing fancy here. I would've wanted to buy something better but the costs are getting out of hand...

More later.

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED! 😁

L.E.

Thar She Blows!

gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/kgdidg6u/

MORE LATER!!!

GREAT news!
So it was the bios?
This chinese programmer is pretty good - even well built according to a review on youtube. Although for semi-professional work I would still buy the expensive ones. High quality goods need support too.

Yes, it was the BIOS chip. As I suspected!

I made a copy of the existing BIOS on the chip and I made a comparison with a BIOS file I took from ASUS using the HxD editor and the CTRL+K command. The existing BIOS was missing some data and other data was placed at other addresses so I took my chance and used a known to be working BIOS file and I was greeted by a cheerful BEEP from the PC SPEAKER on the first boot. Both the BQ3287MT RTC and the DS1287 RTC worked, although the DS1287 didnt save the settings after restart and tomorrow I have to check the solder joints I made. The BQ3287MT kept all the CMOS data after reboot/power down.

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/PCII-P5MP3/HelpDesk_BIOS/

The 0205 version is for the 2.3 revision and my board is 2.4 revision. I didnt want to use the BETA bios or the one for the 3.1 revision motherboard yet. These will be tried later as I can rewrite the BIOS in complete safety and try as many versions as I want.

First I had to update the firmware on the TL866A from v6.00 to v6.60. The translation from chinese to english is kind of weird sometimes as it said FIREWARE instead of firmware 😁 This took 15s and a restart of the device. The TL866A is well build and it is well worth the price I paid. You should check youtube videos regarding the update procedure and how to use it.

The BIOS programmer didnt detect my chip so I had to select the good one from the list. The writing of the new BIOS file didnt work the first time I tried it. I selected the wrong chip from the supported list, called CAT28010 @DIP32 and this returned returned writing errors.I tried again and the same thing happened: errors at adress....Also I couldnt erase the chip although it passed the tests I did on it from the programming interface - read, verify, etc. At this moment I started deflating like a balloon 😁 I checked again the specs of the chip and I selected the right one called CAT28F010 and it worked like a charm. It was my first time doing this so in the future I MUST PAY more attention CAT28010 CAT28F010 - it was a matter of the letter "F" like I almost F....D my chip but not really 😁 My heart was pumping and my blood pressure was off the charts the moment I saw that the BIOS writing has completed successfully ! 😁 Another heart racing time was when I pressed the POWER button!

The TL866A is a great piece of kit and I can use it on many other electronics not just computers 😁 I might update the ECU software on my car...just kidding...this might come later 😁

With this device a whole new world has opened before me. I must take a moment to savour this 😁

I need to clean the ASUS PCI/I-P5MP3 V2.4 motherboard and make other preparations. Afterwards I'll post the story. I still have other ongoing projects!

After this success story there is another DEMON that I have to kill, called V4-L 😁 I'm going to write the hell out of the BIOS chip on that BABY and the TL866A will help me. If that wont work, then the V4-L graphic chip is toast and there is nothing more to do and I'll put that story to rest once and for all 😁 .

More later!!!

I decided to not buy a hot air station yet and improve my soldering skills instead 😁

Test run in preparation for the V4-L operation! 😁

More later!!!