JudgeMonroe wrote:

ahtoh wrote:

Looks like a workaround: http://files.mpoli.fi/unpacked/hardware/rom/i … .exe/readme.txt

What is the driving purpose behind updating the bios? Do you have release notes for the newer intel version? It won’t change the HDD support. What are you after?

I thought it's just a good practice to have the latest bios as it normally fixes things.
I don't have the release notes.

found this bios version 1.00.13.04.AX1T (BETA 4.00)
looks like the most recent, file dated 1996-06-18
https://download.cnet.com/Gateway-Neptune-Mot … 4-10007073.html

I would not recommend flashing a BETA BIOS.

ahtoh wrote:

JudgeMonroe wrote:

ahtoh wrote:

Looks like a workaround: http://files.mpoli.fi/unpacked/hardware/rom/i … .exe/readme.txt

What is the driving purpose behind updating the bios? Do you have release notes for the newer intel version? It won’t change the HDD support. What are you after?

I thought it's just a good practice to have the latest bios as it normally fixes things.
I don't have the release notes.

Really just curious. "Bug fixes" isn't worth the trouble if I don't know what the bugs are, and the one thing I'd like to see fixed -- the 2GB drive limit -- isn't, so I'm not going to jump through hoops to install an unsupported or beta BIOS.

JudgeMonroe wrote:

"Bug fixes" isn't worth the trouble if I don't know what the bugs are, and the one thing I'd like to see fixed -- the 2GB drive limit -- isn't, so I'm not going to jump through hoops to install an unsupported or beta BIOS.

Ditto.

precaud wrote:

This is interesting. The PBA number on this Plato board is 541277. According to the manual, it will only work with the 75 and 90MHz Pentiums. But when I put in a P100 and set the jumper for 100MHz, it goes into BIOS, shows the correct speed there, and boots from the floppy just fine.

IMO, that fact changes everything, and makes this board worth reviving; worth spending a little time with the dremel fixing the RTC chip. A 100MHz Pentium system is a very useful machine for software of that period. Kind of the archetypal machine for Win 3.1 really, and maybe even 95.

Where do I find a PBA number on a Gateway model?
Does it support 100Mhz CPSs?

precaud wrote:

worth spending a little time with the dremel fixing the RTC chip.

Just for the record, the board has a jumper that makes it work without fixing the RTC chip. While I put a socket onto my board for the RTC chip, I did not care about using a new / fixed one. I just set the jumper and the board posts without any error messages. Of course the date is always 1994 and it works with the default BIOS settings, but that's not an issue for me.

derSammler wrote:

Just for the record, the board has a jumper that makes it work without fixing the RTC chip.

What jumper is that? What you describe sounds ok for just testing it to see if it works, but not good if you plan to use it...

"NRM/CLR". Set it to CLR (2-3).

It's completely fine for using, unless you need correct date/time (who needs this on a retro PC anyway?). All default BIOS settings are also fine, I did not find any setting I need to change. Even IDE is auto-detecting by default.

ahtoh wrote:

precaud wrote:

This is interesting. The PBA number on this Plato board is 541277. According to the manual, it will only work with the 75 and 90MHz Pentiums. But when I put in a P100 and set the jumper for 100MHz, it goes into BIOS, shows the correct speed there, and boots from the floppy just fine.

IMO, that fact changes everything, and makes this board worth reviving; worth spending a little time with the dremel fixing the RTC chip. A 100MHz Pentium system is a very useful machine for software of that period. Kind of the archetypal machine for Win 3.1 really, and maybe even 95.

Where do I find a PBA number on a Gateway model?
Does it support 100Mhz CPSs?

The PBA is on a small sticker between the shared ISA/PCI slots. Officially, there is no 75/90 board that supports 100 mhz and vice versa. You just have to try it and see if it works.

edit: Additionally, the PBAs that support the 100mhz CPU will support the 200mhz MMX Overdrive processor. This is specifically because of an upgraded voltage regulator on those boards. I suspect this is probably the difference between the 75/90 and 100 PBAs as well, and even if a 100mhz chip "works" on the lesser board it may be subject to intermittent behavior, overheating, and/or premature failure. Individual results may vary, of course.

derSammler wrote:

"NRM/CLR". Set it to CLR (2-3).

It's completely fine for using, unless you need correct date/time (who needs this on a retro PC anyway?).

Maybe its true, if one is going into the past, there's no need to know the current time...

JudgeMonroe wrote:

edit: Additionally, the PBAs that support the 100mhz CPU will support the 200mhz MMX Overdrive processor. This is specifically because of an upgraded voltage regulator on those boards. I suspect this is probably the difference between the 75/90 and 100 PBAs as well, and even if a 100mhz chip "works" on the lesser board it may be subject to intermittent behavior, overheating, and/or premature failure. Individual results may vary, of course.

I question this. Does a P100 really require that much more power than a P90? I haven't seen the specs, but I doubt it. Certainly not sufficient to cause what you describe.

derSammler wrote:

"NRM/CLR". Set it to CLR (2-3).

It's completely fine for using, unless you need correct date/time (who needs this on a retro PC anyway?). All default BIOS settings are also fine, I did not find any setting I need to change. Even IDE is auto-detecting by default.

Yes, completely fine for using, unless you have a B: drive, a second hard drive, a PNP ISA card, or just like turning it off every now and then.

Does a P100 really require that much more power than a P90?

No.

P75 has 8 watts
P90 has 9 watts
P100 has 10.1 watts

Unlikely that this makes much difference.

However, the 10.1 watts for the P100 is for the ceramic version. The older gold cap variant may need more power.

Yes, completely fine for using, unless you have a B: drive, a second hard drive, a PNP ISA card, or just like turning it off every now and then.

Second hard disk and ISA PNP is no issue, both will work. The BIOS is very limited in what you can do anyway. I'm using my system this way since I've built it.

precaud wrote:

JudgeMonroe wrote:

edit: Additionally, the PBAs that support the 100mhz CPU will support the 200mhz MMX Overdrive processor. This is specifically because of an upgraded voltage regulator on those boards. I suspect this is probably the difference between the 75/90 and 100 PBAs as well, and even if a 100mhz chip "works" on the lesser board it may be subject to intermittent behavior, overheating, and/or premature failure. Individual results may vary, of course.

I question this. Does a P100 really require that much more power than a P90? I haven't seen the specs, but I doubt it. Certainly not sufficient to cause what you describe.

Ok, so question it. The fact is that Intel designed two different versions of the board and went out of their way to support 100mhz on only one of them, which also has the voltage requirements to support the 200MMX Overdrive. I don't know what the deal is. Maybe there exists no practical workload that will present an issue. Maybe Intel made it all up.

JudgeMonroe wrote:

Ok, so question it. The fact is that Intel designed two different versions of the board and went out of their way to support 100mhz on only one of them, which also has the voltage requirements to support the 200MMX Overdrive. I don't know what the deal is. Maybe there exists no practical workload that will present an issue. Maybe Intel made it all up.

Relax, Judge. It wasn't a personal attack, just questioning an idea that was floated. If you have data to back it up, that would be different.

derSammler wrote:

No. […]
Show full quote

Does a P100 really require that much more power than a P90?

No.

P75 has 8 watts
P90 has 9 watts
P100 has 10.1 watts

Unlikely that this makes much difference.

It doesn't look like much but the P100 at 10.1 watts crosses a 3 amp threshold. The Overdrive upgrade requires 5 amps. You can see where engineering decisions might have been made to satisfy cost requirements.

What's the correct jumper setting for 100Mhz cpu?
I will try it in my board.

Did you bother looking at the manual? It's in there.

ahtoh wrote:

found this bios version 1.00.13.04.AX1T (BETA 4.00)
looks like the most recent, file dated 1996-06-18
https://download.cnet.com/Gateway-Neptune-Mot … 4-10007073.html

Flashed this.
Worked great and I got CDROM boot support