Thanks - yes, that's exactly what I was going for and the ASUS board I currently have has all the same versatility as this one, just the speed issue with the K6. I was using SETMUL as well already and it does make quite a difference with some of the much older games. I wasn't previously getting MIDI to work correctly, but that in combination with a software MP-401 did the trick.

My case does not have a Turbo switch, but I probably could mount a basic toggle switch I would think. Any ideas?

Think this has anything to do with it?

K6-2+/III+ slowdown issues on ALi Aladdin V

New mboard on the way - looking forward to tinkering with it ASAP.

I'm afraid that I wouldn't be of any help regarding building a turbo switch, but it seems relatively simple if you could get hold of the mechanism that alternately shorts pins 1&2 and 2&3. I bought a bunch of extension wires that are the perfect size for fitting over jumper pins (male on one end/female on other). I think people use them for Arduino projects, so they're cheap and plentiful on eBay.

I don't have an Ali-based SS7, so I can't help with the BIOS. I'd certainly try resetting to the fail-safe defaults just to see if the problem is a BIOS setting issue.

Found those cables, thanks. They seem really short though...I'll keep looking.

I was thinking a toggle switch would do it by simply sending the appropriate wires to each lead end on the toggle. So, pin 2 would have 2 wires to it going to both ends and then 1 and 3 going to one each. Not sure if this would work and what rating of a switch to get or if it could be done passively. Maybe someone could give me some advice on that?

I guess you could handle it in a really low-tech fashion where you run the two sets of three wires out of your case with loose connectors at the ends (as if you're extending the header). Then just jumper the correct pins by hand. Not sure how long you can extend a header before the signal doesn't register, however.

Check phil's stealth 386 project, where he took one of those expansion slot covers, drilled holes, secured two switches there and used one as the power button and the other as the turbo button.

So, got the new mboard and it won't power up. I'm so frustrated right now... I stripped everything out of it other than the CPU and it just flickers power for a split second when hitting the switch. My old board powers up fine still with the same PSU. Any ideas? Could it be a jumper or somehow how the switch is connected that could be doing this?

Edit - pulled the whole thing out of the case, put it on some non-conductive material and shorted the power switch leads out and it still does the same thing. I can't believe it's dead, but looks that way. Seller had it all powered up too. Box was dented pretty good...maybe that was it.

What a shame. Hard to find a setup that seemed to be better cared for.

It sounds like you swapped the memory out for another stick. Do you have a single stick of 128MB? That's what I have in my VA-503+.

Have you swapped the CPU with the one from your other system? And do you have a manual with the jumper settings?

Ya, a real shame. So few around and rarely anything that old in that condition. I'm convinced it was the shipping. Wasn't packaged that well and a huge dent in the box.

I went as far as to pull absolutely everything from the board except a CPU fan and shorted the PW SW pins. ATX header is the only thing connected. It does the same thing. Tried with two different fans and those same fans spin up fine on my ASUS board. I pulled the memory as well, same thing. Swapped CPUs...same. All of these combos work in the other board. I have the manual and have tried some different jumpers, but they were correct to begin with. The seller set them all up correctly and he had it booted with those settings.

The only weird thing is that when I switch the jumper that sets the type of power supply from ATX to AT, I get power to the board but only to the CD-ROM drive. The CPU fan still doesn't power. Weird though even at that since I've got nothing connected to the AT header.

Anyway, think this is a loss. So upset as I tore apart the entire system trying everything. Had to rebuild it with the old stuff to keep temporarily until I find another one. Might be a while...

Is the 503A the same board? Looks like it has less ISA slots, but not sure if there are any other differences. Any other recommendations for alternative boards?

To make things worse.... According to some sources that fic board is not recommended with a voodoo3 agp. Could be that they fixed it with some revisions (don't know) but some boards had a lot of trouble with the voodoo3 agp cards as they couldn't provide enough power for it and could burn out. And that was for the 3000, not even the 3500 which takes even more power.

There are a lot of good boards, just search before you buy and make sure your components work with it. And revisions can be important (as with the p5a and p5a-b).
And as far as i know, only the k6+ can set the multi by software (as it is a notebook chip).

My recommendations:

p5a, p5a-b 1.03 or 1.04
Gigabyte ga-5ax (check revisions, i only know that the 5.2 is the best overclocker)
Aopen ax59pro (via mvp3 chipset so no ali, but a great board. don't know about revisions)

Good luck!

Thanks for that note. Just sucks as I have a P5A-B, but 1.05. Thought I was doing the right thing there. I think the K6+ is a fixed component as I really need the ability to adjust multi. I'm completely open to any components and price points. What about (2) voodoo 2s? I'm mostly playing older stuff, but do want to be able to get into some of the earlier 3DFX stuff too. Basically, anything that can't run on my modern gaming rig or is a better experience on the original HW. I have a 21" Viewsonic P815 CRT for this rig too, so really going for the original experience, scanlines and all.

80% of my time spent with this machine will be in a DOS 6.22 install, old point-and-click adventures with original MIDI hardware. So, really want to consider that first and foremost. The P5A 1.05 that I have now works great, expect the speed issues with the K6+. Not even able to run games calling for like a 233Mhz chip. Also, not having a USB header for it is a pretty solid inconvenience.

I'll keep my eye out for another FIC and also a 1.03 or 1.04 P5A. Incidentally, the seller was good about he FIC and refunded my entire purchase. Got a free K6 III+, Crucial memory stick, a USB header, and some cables out of it. : )

Just go with a non + chip. Sure, they are not as fast, but still plenty of performance and much faster compared to Pentium / MMX. I don't think any of my SS7 boards have a USB header.

philscomputerlab wrote:

Just go with a non + chip. Sure, they are not as fast, but still plenty of performance and much faster compared to Pentium / MMX. I don't think any of my SS7 boards have a USB header.

Really? All my S7/SS7 have either USB ports soldered or a header for two ports. I had the impression that they were pretty common.

They all have USBs at the back, but no headers.

Interesting, since NooNaN said not having headers was an inconvenience, I assumed it had no USB at all. Why would it be an inconvenience if you have the ports?

Both the FIC and ASUS boards both have the headers on the board, but finding the dongle (term?) had been challenging. What I wrote was misleading I guess. None of the ones I've seen have USB hard soldiered on the mboard though.

Phil - so the non + are also good with the ASUS 1.05 as far as you know? The lower voltage of the + is nice, but I don't really care about it that much. I'll pick up a non + to test as well, but I'm sure finding a 1.03 or 1.04 or another FIC won't be too challenging, maybe just have to wait a bit for a good one to pop up. Anything to note between the K6-III and K6-III-P chips?

Oh, yeah, many of these old SS7 boards had weird USB pinouts. But all you really have to do is get any USB header you can get you hands on, and with the help of a small screwdriver reorganize the contacts so they match the pinout on the board. Some older USB brackets/"dongles"/front ports in cases were even nice enough to have all the contacts separated (instead of having them in a single block) because how non-standard those were.

Right...understood. Nice thing is that I have the OEM one for the ASUS board now. Just need to grab a 1.03/1.04 or a non + as Phil suggested. I'm fine waiting for the board as I really like that the + seems to run quite a bit cooler.

Re: video card, I only grabbed a 3500 thinking it would give me a little more performance than a 3000. I'm not liking the giant "dongle" (chance to use it again here) for the TV out stuff I'll never use. Can I go up from that at all or is it not necessary/possible for this machine? Again, completely fine spending some money on whatever might be best. The only really price conscious thing I have left to buy for this thing is a good condition CM-32L I think.

Honestly, you might not see any performance increase in a SS7 machine going from a Voodoo3 3000 to a 3500. In fact, read this post. You'd probably be fine with a Banshee.

NooNaN wrote:

Both the FIC and ASUS boards both have the headers on the board, but finding the dongle (term?) had been challenging. What I wrote was misleading I guess. None of the ones I've seen have USB hard soldiered on the mboard though.

Do an eBay search for F3U001. Should work with FIC, but I can't verify personally.