8364-S20

it's a 430TX board with S3 Trio3D and Crystal CS4235 on board with a 233MMX

Installed some 3d printed retention clips to my Amiga 4000 front panel. Epoxied them in place and it works great.

Got given this over weight thing with flashing coloured leds of various colors. Ancient, 2011, gaming rig apparently. Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz cpu or something like that in an ASUS Gigabit mobo, a wopping 2gigs of Corsair ram and humongous 120gig hdd. Has an ASUS GPU with a lot of switches an knobs with fans all over the place.. The PSU is modular ENERMAX and a lot of fun stuff to play with.

The GPU was providing any output initially so I drag a trust y old S3 Virge out of the shed and managed to get in to the bios ok. Fitted a test hdd with a 32-bit Mint Linix Debian Edition ver4 on it to test it out. The original hdd has Win10 on it upgraded from Win7. Couldn't be bothered to wait for Win10 to boot up you see. Everything worked ok. Refitted the gpu a few hours later and it worked fine so I suspect a contact issue after being stored for over 5 years.

I guess hard core gamers would have had wet dreams about owning one of these back in the day 😉

Peace out.

I made a video about a NiB AT computer case, and now i'm going to put parts in it and make a build: Community Socket 7: Choose my parts!

I got a new CPU to benchmark! Winchip2 CPU Benchmarks

ATX64 progress update.... Out of parts, and need to order more. This is what I have build so far!!!

My AT PSU in my 486 PC started making funny noises, so I've replaced it with newer ATX power supply (using ATX to AT power connector). However I forgot something. The ATX PSU has the fan on the opposite side. I've went with the instalation anyway. When testing it, it doesn't seem to be overheating. After an hour or working the fan is only a little bit noisy compared to the noisiness at startup and small amount of warm air is blowing out. I wonder should I keep it like this or should I spit in my hands and empty the case, drill new holes in the back, and cut some metal on the side, to fit it the PSU correct way...

Removed the TUSL2-M with the Tualakin onto a bench as the graphics and SCSI testing platform. I found, whilst looking for other stuff, an old SCSI external cabinet with a Yamaha SCSGI rewriter and this old Quantum UW-disc.

At the same time, it was time to check the temperature on that Asus FX5900Ultra. 91° C idle - So I'll botch something together to make another find (old Zalman all copper VGA cooler) fit.

Edit: one extra hole in the back heatsink and a few long screws later, I got the temperature down to a proper 50 degrees idle.

Turbo -> wrote on 2021-05-09, 17:35:

My AT PSU in my 486 PC started making funny noises, so I've replaced it with newer ATX power supply (using ATX to AT power connector). However I forgot something. The ATX PSU has the fan on the opposite side. I've went with the instalation anyway. When testing it, it doesn't seem to be overheating. After an hour or working the fan is only a little bit noisy compared to the noisiness at startup and small amount of warm air is blowing out. I wonder should I keep it like this or should I spit in my hands and empty the case, drill new holes in the back, and cut some metal on the side, to fit it the PSU correct way...

I get the DIY ethos, but if you'd ask me, just get a PSU that DOES fit instead of drilling holes in a case that you might regret later...

Today I have prepared a Motherboard for reboot.
It is a TYAN Trinity 100AT (S1590), VIA VT82C598MVP chipset, 1MB L2 cache on board, AMD K6-III 400 CPU (overclock to 450), currently I have 128MB of RAM (PC133 CL3), but it is possible to expand it up to 768MB, yamaha OPL chip ISA sound card (LWHA151A00).
As a video card I have for the moment a 32MB TNT2 AGP, but I had problems with blue screens, so to solve the problem I was suggested to use a different one, for example a GF2MX, it seems that the TNT and W98 and the VIA chipset can create problems (perhaps for drivers).
Another change I will make will be that of the power supply, I will not use the traditional AT, but I will use an ATX, changing the setting of the JP7 jumper, and inserting a button at PIN 1-2 of the J5.
I will also change the HD by putting a 20GB ATA.
This sheet is discussed here:
Tyan S1590 (baby-AT Super7) 3.3v AGP power limits

Tested a >10 of 386 and 486 motherboards I've bought over the months. 90% of the time was searching for model and manual with jumper settings and configuring itself.
Found out that most of the motherboards are OK. Few of them have broken traces because of the barrel battery - that will be great for some side-projects for someday.

Some highlights from the test run:

Seritech 386AS aka ECS 8517 aka FORCOM M396F. Love that one. It's cacheless but I take it as an advantage. 386SX-33 without any additional waitstates to disable the cache should be perfect for Wing Commander and similar oldies. Also come on, look at that, it's so small and beautiful because of this yellow soldermask. Funny fake "TOSHIBA CHIP6" sticker included - it's just the PC Chips underneath. 😁 Great piece, will do some build with it.

Another cacheless board, this time with 386SX-40. It's awkward that there is 66.66MHz oscillator onboard. Will replace that someday to the 80MHz to fully unlock the CPU power.

Lucky Star LS-486E Rev. D. I definitely like small mobos. It's a complete solution for some last 486 parts. Will be perfect for some AMD 5x86 build.

Shuttle HOT-403H. Just a nice motherboard filled with Opti chips. Good for ISA-only, pre-72pin system.

Also found two great and working boards with AMI Winbios:

Biostar MB-1433/40/50UIV. Probably same as PCChips M912? Anyway, well-known board with big potential with its VLB slots and a good UMC chipset.

PCChips M919. Geez, I love this one. Just look at this abomination: PCI, VLB, WinBIOS, 256k cache (real one) on COAST module.

I very like WinBIOS by the way, it has some specific vibe of 90s multimedia-screaming PCs.

Building out a FreeDOS Setup for the Versa M/75. Did a quick run with Win 98 SE and it was just too much B.S. to deal with so I decided "Nah, let's put FreeDOS on that one again" - so it now has 2 HDD - one with Win95 triple boot with 3.11FW and DOS, and then the FreeDOS one which I'll probably be using most of the time.

imi wrote on 2021-05-08, 23:38:

speaking of IBM […]
Show full quote

speaking of IBM

been trying to install Win98 on this NetStation without floppy or CD-rom...
I've been duped into thinking I'd buy a 266MMX with it, seeing as every resource online I found referred to it being specd with a 266MMX, was the reason I got it in the first place, but of course there's only a 233MMX in it 🙁
...rather unsuccessful so far x3... guess I'll have to hook up a CD-rom with external PSU (I don't have the cable that plugs into the MB) after all.
project_01_02.jpg

Whenever I install 9x, I copy the contents of the installation CD into a folder on the formatted drive (I call it "win98cd" or whatever, doesn't matter), boot off of a 9x bootdisk, and run

1setup.exe /is

in that folder. Works like a charm every time.

Listed the 486 just now, and spent the early afternoon doing bodywork to a 2005 Mazda 3 which I plan to sell later on.

Next up is the 486 EISA system and the JUKO NEST machine. I kinda hate to get rid of all this vintage stuff, but it's better in someone else's hands than mine, as I won't have the time to devote to it or enjoy it, and when I do, the hardware will likely no longer work 😉

seleryba wrote on 2021-05-09, 22:47:

Also found two great and working boards with AMI Winbios: […]
Show full quote

Also found two great and working boards with AMI Winbios:

winbios01.jpg
winbios02.jpg

Biostar MB-1433/40/50UIV. Probably same as PCChips M912? Anyway, well-known board with big potential with its VLB slots and a good UMC chipset.

---

pcchips.jpg
PCChips M919. Geez, I love this one. Just look at this abomination: PCI, VLB, WinBIOS, 256k cache (real one) on COAST module.

---

winbios03.jpg
I very like WinBIOS by the way, it has some specific vibe of 90s multimedia-screaming PCs.

Duzo polakow tu teraz jest - szkoda ze ceny na Allegro tak skoczyly, ciesze sie ze moglem z tego zkozystac przed "inflacja" 😉
---
A lot of Poles are here now - it is a pity that the prices on Allegro have jumped so much, I am glad that I could have benefited from it before "inflation";)

seleryba wrote on 2021-05-09, 22:32:

... Some highlights from the test run: […]
Show full quote

...
Some highlights from the test run:

mobo00.jpg mobo01.jpg
Seritech 386AS aka ECS 8517 aka FORCOM M396F. Love that one. It's cacheless but I take it as an advantage. 386SX-33 without any additional waitstates to disable the cache should be perfect for Wing Commander and similar oldies. Also come on, look at that, it's so small and beautiful because of this yellow soldermask. Funny fake "TOSHIBA CHIP6" sticker included - it's just the PC Chips underneath. 😁 Great piece, will do some build with it.

Hah, I just put together a build with this exact board yesterday. After relocating a Shuttle HOT-541 based Pentium build into a new case, I put the M396F into the one that was now free. I combined it with 8 MB RAM, a Tseng ET4000 graphics card, Sound Blaster 2.0 CT1350B, double speed CD-ROM and a CF card for storage. Fun little system 😀

gex85 wrote on 2021-05-10, 08:50:

I combined it with 8 MB RAM, a Tseng ET4000 graphics card, Sound Blaster 2.0 CT1350B, double speed CD-ROM and a CF card for storage. Fun little system 😀

Excellent setup. CT1350B with CMS support I suppose?

seleryba wrote on 2021-05-10, 09:11:

gex85 wrote on 2021-05-10, 08:50:

I combined it with 8 MB RAM, a Tseng ET4000 graphics card, Sound Blaster 2.0 CT1350B, double speed CD-ROM and a CF card for storage. Fun little system 😀

Excellent setup. CT1350B with CMS support I suppose?

Unfortunately my card lacks the CMS chips, but I might get the remakes from eBay one day...

the_ultra_code wrote on 2021-05-10, 02:24:

Whenever I install 9x, I copy the contents of the installation CD into a folder on the formatted drive (I call it "win98cd" or w […]
Show full quote

imi wrote on 2021-05-08, 23:38:

speaking of IBM […]
Show full quote

speaking of IBM

been trying to install Win98 on this NetStation without floppy or CD-rom...
I've been duped into thinking I'd buy a 266MMX with it, seeing as every resource online I found referred to it being specd with a 266MMX, was the reason I got it in the first place, but of course there's only a 233MMX in it 🙁
...rather unsuccessful so far x3... guess I'll have to hook up a CD-rom with external PSU (I don't have the cable that plugs into the MB) after all.
project_01_02.jpg

Whenever I install 9x, I copy the contents of the installation CD into a folder on the formatted drive (I call it "win98cd" or whatever, doesn't matter), boot off of a 9x bootdisk, and run

Copy code to clipboard

1setup.exe /is

in that folder. Works like a charm every time.

that's what I would do... if there was any way to connect a floppy drive ^^
there's only a compact flash socket and an IDE connector, but no extra power without a special cable that connects to the board itself.

so I tried making the compact flash bootable with freedos and install Win98 from the CF, but the setup does not seem to like the memory management of freedos and refuses to work properly.

so yeah, will just have to connect a second drive and power externally, or just install on the CF on another machine and then just swap it in.