Following up... Thanks for all the replies. I got the original manual on Ebay (M Technology R407e motherboard), so if someone needs it I'll be happy to scan it and post it here.

Long story short:
finally I got it working, at first was hanging up on boot with some of the cache chips, got that fixed, then, it was taking an unusual time to beep and start (30 sec to a min), it worked ok after boot, days latter wasn't detecting the mouse and the sound blaster was sounding horrible, scratchy and super distorted, the problem was that the IT power connector was a little rusted and dirty, I have no idea how I figured that out, pulled the pins off the connector and sanded them with a Dremel (metal brush) and the connector pins in the motherboard too, now it boots immediately and everything works fine. The sound blaster is picking up a little noise from the ISA slots but nothing crazy, (may need to replace capacitors on both of them). My other motherboard (SOYO 025R2) works perfect and the noise it transfer to the Sound Blaster is ZERO.

Thanks again for posting!

For ease of use I recommend a PCI based board with an UM888x or SiS49x chipset. The boards I found good were the LuckyStar LS486E and the GA-486AM/S. A great board but more finicky is the Shuttle HOT433 which was even slightly faster then the GA-486 AM/S. I had one 4DPS which was nice but would not run at the settings the LS486E was able to stomach - quite a disappointment.
The one VESA Local board I had that was quite good was the GA-486VS with the SiS471 chipset.

All other 486 boards I have or had were OEM ones and not that compatible, interesting, fast(due to castrated BIOS) or pleasing.

Dusko wrote on 2020-02-20, 07:12:

Following up... Thanks for all the replies. I got the original manual on Ebay (M Technology R407e motherboard), so if someone needs it I'll be happy to scan it and post it here.

Hi, like I said there is information on R407e already on the net, and mtech only posted partial information. Some of the information should be on the motherboard silkscreen, and some of the cpu info was on their site. However, due to misinformation on the net, like the errors on the TH99 page, could you please share the complete scanned manual, picture of your board, and full bios identifier and date? I'm pretty sure I have the R407 (without e), and with the full complete manual of R407 or R407e, I could probably figure out some more of the jumpers more clearly that I had reversed engineered. I'd be particularly interested with the green function on how that works, among other things.

Yes, I have found errors on the net twice, nothing beats a copy of a manual so here you go. Let me know if you get it to work!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/on95wa2wcp9e5s1/M-T … 0R407e.pdf?dl=0
It would be a good addition to the Vogons Drivers page in case an Admin wants to post it there.

I have it set up for a Intel 486 DX2.

Dusko wrote on 2020-02-21, 04:06:

Yes, I have found errors on the net twice, nothing beats a copy of a manual so here you go. Let me know if you get it to work! […]
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Yes, I have found errors on the net twice, nothing beats a copy of a manual so here you go. Let me know if you get it to work!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/on95wa2wcp9e5s1/M-T … 0R407e.pdf?dl=0
It would be a good addition to the Vogons Drivers page in case an Admin wants to post it there.

I have it set up for a Intel 486 DX2.

That's awesome. You definitely have the R407e. And I probably have R407.

They are mostly the same except the cpu jumper blocks. This is because your revision added 3.3/3.45 V. But I already reverse engineered the jumpers so I have a pretty good idea what the correct settings are. They are similar but with some key differences. For example, JP15 is not a frequency multiplier, but something to do the processor system management pins of the 486-SL. And I also have a 486DX2 instead, so I just ended up turning it off.

Oh and the BIOS is a different, one number off your Award version. I'm not sure what your manual was trying to say but yours looks like Award. The R407 has
SIS-85C471-2C4I8R01-00 from 4/26/94

I can dump my BIOS and post it here if you want but I have no clue if it'll work on your board. In case it works, it will display a "R407e" on your boot screen (like mine) because that's info that's being read from the BIOS. Hope the manual helped a little.

Dusko wrote on 2020-02-24, 05:02:

I can dump my BIOS and post it here if you want but I have no clue if it'll work on your board. In case it works, it will display a "R407e" on your boot screen (like mine) because that's info that's being read from the BIOS. Hope the manual helped a little.

Hey Dusko, I've been looking for a BIOS for my R407 (not sure if it's an "E" or not) I have that is missing the BIOS. If you are still around and willing to post your BIOS that would be great. Thanks.

Lol, yes I'm still around thanks God! I'll try tomorrow, or Friday.

Here you go...

Dusko wrote on 2021-05-14, 02:49:

Here you go...

Wow, awesome! Thank you very much!

I'll give it a shot and see if it works.

Great! Let me know.

Thanks for the BIOS image. I was unable to get my mainboard to work though. It (both actually) have no signs of life. I get power to the processor but no beeps/display. I have two of these boards that are I think the R407 (E) variant. One came with an AMI BIOS strangely enough and the other it was missing.

Interesting and thank you ! Curious if you are using 4 - 30 pin simms to try 486-33sx and have a POST card ? Sorry did not read the whole thread just skimmed thru...

Strange. I once had an R407e that I could never get going either. I suspect mtech may have had some quality control problems or used low quality solder.

I also happen to have an R418, it's almost the same board except using the SiS PCI chipset. Mine worked pretty well until a year or two ago when it suddenly wouldn't post anymore. I spent several months trying to bring it back to life, but I could not. I recently made a discovery though. Several of the legs on the main SiS IC were not making contact with the solder pads and require a reflow.

I have noticed the same problem on two VLB cards made by Hercules as well, and reflow fixed the problem. The only problem with the SiS chip is that the pitch of the pins is very fine, and I don't have the skill to fix it with my crappy tools.

You should be able to verify which pins are loose by using a very fine tip flathead screwdriver. You just lightly apply pressure to each of the pins to see if any of them move.