Software Compatibility on AMD K5 CPU \ VOGONS

Software Compatibility on AMD K5 CPU

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by dave343

Posted on 2020-04-06, 14:30

dave343 Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 210
Joined: 2014-02-11, 17:16
Location: Toronto, Canada

I built a system around the AMD K5 PR100 CPU, using the following specs...

Asus TX97-E
16GB EDO Ram
40GB IDE Drive partitioned into 3x 2GB Drives
ATI 3D Rage II 4MB PCI
SB 16 2740 Card

Windows 95B is installed and running good, but... I noticed some issues with software running. MS Office apps will open fine, but when I exit them, I'll receive an error: "Illegal Operation has Occurred" and PuTTY, the Termial/SSH software, won't open new connections, you try to connect and nothing happens.
So fast forward, I thought I'd drop in a Pentium 100 CPU... and now no more errors, PuTTY works great, connects and brings up the connections OK, MS Office no longer crashes when exiting.

So what gives? Did the AMD K5 CPU's have compatibility issues?

Reply 1 of 7, by Garrett W

Posted on 2020-04-06, 14:40

Garrett W Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 682
Joined: 2018-09-23, 09:54

Are you sure you're giving the proper voltage to the chip? Most K5s need 3.52V instead of the 3.3V of the classic Pentiums. What you describe sounds like an unstable CPU.

Reply 2 of 7, by dave343

Posted on 2020-04-06, 14:49

dave343 Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 210
Joined: 2014-02-11, 17:16
Location: Toronto, Canada

Garrett W wrote on 2020-04-06, 14:40:

Are you sure you're giving the proper voltage to the chip? Most K5s need 3.52V instead of the 3.3V of the classic Pentiums. What you describe sounds like an unstable CPU.

You may be right, just checked... it's set to 3.4V, and.... *palm face*, the jumpers are also set to 2x50mhz FSB.... should have been 1.5x 66fsb doh!

Reply 3 of 7, by derSammler

Posted on 2020-04-06, 15:07

derSammler Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 3886
Joined: 2017-04-14, 11:30

The K5 up to P(R)100 used the model 0 core, which had hardware bugs. So it is possible that you get this behaviour from these bugs.

Correct voltage and FSB should be fixed first, of course. 😉

Reply 4 of 7, by appiah4

Posted on 2020-04-07, 06:39

appiah4 Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 9048
Joined: 2017-02-19, 07:36
Location: Sea of Sorrows

I used a K5 PR166 for quite a while and never had any issues with that..

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 5 of 7, by The Serpent Rider

Posted on 2020-04-07, 15:09

The Serpent Rider Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 5659
Joined: 2017-03-25, 19:07
Location: The Hole

Most K5s need 3.52V instead of the 3.3V of the classic Pentiums.

From my experience, late AMD K5 and IDT Wihchip C6 does not require stated voltages to work stable.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 6 of 7, by appiah4

Posted on 2020-04-07, 15:27

appiah4 Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 9048
Joined: 2017-02-19, 07:36
Location: Sea of Sorrows

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-04-07, 15:09:

Most K5s need 3.52V instead of the 3.3V of the classic Pentiums.

From my experience, late AMD K5 and IDT Wihchip C6 does not require stated voltages to work stable.

I always ran mine at 3.5V. I think the later revisions with the die shrink are fine on 3.3V but original revision silicon like the P100 the OP has require 3.5V..

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 7 of 7, by NostalgicAslinger

Posted on 2020-04-23, 23:00

NostalgicAslinger Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 223
Joined: 2018-02-22, 13:33

I have a K5 PR166 here, which run stable as a PR200 133 MHz and 3.3V, also under Windows 98 SE.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to Software

Main menu

Common searches