Search found 59 matches

by bizzybody
Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:43 am
Forum: My motherboard is dead
Topic: Not quite dead TCT K7TA-H
Replies: 12
Views: 7409

Re your one last suggestion... That finally got a success message out of it on updating DMI, but it still won't boot. I changed it to having the floppy as the only thing connected and set to be the only bootable device. It seeks the drive then just turns it on and runs it endlessly. It's like it has...
by bizzybody
Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:02 am
Forum: General BIOS Questions
Topic: FIC VA-503+ and K6-2/450?
Replies: 5
Views: 5889

I got it working after a game of musical CPUs... ;) I dropped a K6-2 450 in place of the K6-III (which CPU-Z says is a III+ even though the hear spreader is not marked as a III+). The *later* version 1.2a with some certification sticker is supposedly able to handle the 2+, III and III+ chips. This o...
by bizzybody
Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:52 am
Forum: General BIOS Questions
Topic: FIC VA-503+ and K6-2/450?
Replies: 5
Views: 5889

*smacks forehead* I never thought of disabling L2 cache with the K6-III. Perhaps it can be turned back on once 98SE makes it through setup, if that lets it get through setup.
by bizzybody
Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:50 am
Forum: My motherboard is dead
Topic: Not quite dead TCT K7TA-H
Replies: 12
Views: 7409

Yup, tried popping the CMOS battery out with the AC unplugged and then just booting. Also tried booting without the battery. Same thing every time. :( I'll check the BIOS chip numbers and see if one of the other boards uses the same size/voltage. Do all or most of those large DIP EEPROMs use the sam...
by bizzybody
Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:21 am
Forum: General BIOS Questions
Topic: FIC VA-503+ and K6-2/450?
Replies: 5
Views: 5889

FIC VA-503+ and K6-2/450?

I have a VA-503+ that I can't get through setup on 98SE without it crashing. The chip on it currently is a 450Mhz K6-III. Think it might behave if I swapped in an ordinary K6-2 450? (I'm pretty certain it would only be worse with a K6-2+ 500!) I'm not attempting to overclock, the goal is just to hav...
by bizzybody
Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:16 pm
Forum: My motherboard is dead
Topic: Not quite dead TCT K7TA-H
Replies: 12
Views: 7409

It does the floppy seek, then hangs. Setting Resource Control to manual- still hangs. 96 - 1.build MP table 2.build and upate ESCD 3.set CMOS century to 20h or 19h 4.load CMOS time into DOS timer clock 5.build MSIRQ routing table When I set it to reset ESCD, it reports that it did, then shows the Ve...
by bizzybody
Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:50 am
Forum: My motherboard is dead
Topic: Not quite dead TCT K7TA-H
Replies: 12
Views: 7409

Not quite dead TCT K7TA-H

I have a Taiwan Commtech K7TA-H that's hanging at the "Verifying DMI pool data" line. I've already read http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm and I've unplugged everything (except for the power connector and power button) from the board and I've taken the CMOS battery out, used the CMOS cl...
by bizzybody
Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:28 am
Forum: Where can I find a motherboard manual?
Topic: Manual for Commtech K7TA-H?
Replies: 5
Views: 7943

Thanks, that's the info I needed. I can open the downloaded PDF in Photoshop and view it as 30 separate images, but Adobe Reader won't show anything but blank pages. Must be some TINY error in the file, or something the US English Reader doesn't like about this file from Taiwan... Whatever, it's som...
by bizzybody
Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:03 am
Forum: Where can I find a motherboard manual?
Topic: Manual for Commtech K7TA-H?
Replies: 5
Views: 7943

Manual for Commtech K7TA-H?

Not to be confused with the Abit KT7A! ;) I picked up a "dead" Commtech K7TA-H for free. Popped the CMOS battery out for a bit, popped it back in, added a 1.2Ghz Athlon MP in the Socket A, stick of RAM, olde AGP video card and POST card and hooked up a power button. It's a-liiiive! Unfortunately Com...
by bizzybody
Sun Nov 04, 2007 7:41 am
Forum: Where can I find a motherboard manual?
Topic: Yet another Elpnia PCChips AT board.
Replies: 9
Views: 9349

Not fakes. UT6164C32Q-6 series- Access time: 6 ns, 64 Kx 32 Bit synchronous pipelined burst CMOS SRAM in 100-pin TQFP package. A friend of mine did end up with one of the 486 PCI/VLB boards with fake cache, but it came with a real COAST module. I dug out my ISA POST card and funny thing, the board s...
by bizzybody
Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:35 am
Forum: My hard drive isn't recognized
Topic: Newer 1998 BIOS for PC Chips M5x series?
Replies: 34
Views: 22284

The BIOS is patchable for 128GB and extented AMD support. Let us know what you need! :wink: Jan. Well, that, of course! ;) There wouldn't happen to be undocumented Vcore settings, eh? If I could shoehorn a K6-2 450 onto this board, that would give me the board for Box 07 for Retro-LAN at Fandemoniu...
by bizzybody
Sat Nov 03, 2007 8:56 am
Forum: My hard drive isn't recognized
Topic: Newer 1998 BIOS for PC Chips M5x series?
Replies: 34
Views: 22284

How can I find out if the 1998 BIOS has any improvements (like CPU support) over the patched 1997 BIOS, or if the 1998 BIOS already supports drives over 32gig?

I don't have a 32 to 64 gig drive to test it, but I do have a noisy 13gig Maxtor to check it for the 8gig limit.
by bizzybody
Sat Nov 03, 2007 8:53 am
Forum: Where can I find a motherboard manual?
Topic: Yet another Elpnia PCChips AT board.
Replies: 9
Views: 9349

It's 200Mhz. That CPU was shortly before they started the PR sillyness. The printing on the chip says 150Mhz, no PR number.

I won't be using the board for anything. I'd like to find someone who likes old stuff like this to give it (and a somewhat older Biostar with a K5) to.
by bizzybody
Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:18 pm
Forum: Where can I find a motherboard manual?
Topic: Yet another Elpnia PCChips AT board.
Replies: 9
Views: 9349

Beats me. I've had it hooked up on the bench to flash a Unicore BIOS I found, didn't look to see what it said it has for cache. That BIOS is supposed to up the max hard drive size, dunno what to. Fastest CPU it can run is 75x3 and the lowest Vcore is 2.5 so that lets out running even a K6-2 450 AHX ...
by bizzybody
Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:06 pm
Forum: Where can I find a motherboard manual?
Topic: Biostar 8500TVX-A V2.1
Replies: 12
Views: 10678

Nice to know it supports LBA mode, but as to the maximum HD size? Too bad it only does two different Vcore voltages, so no K6-2 300 for this one.