Am posting this with my 486 100mhz

[budbd]

I finally got that 486 I talked of online, with all the parts from the P133 I talked of. This 486 right now is sporting an overdrive processor of 100mhz, 16 mb of ram, 1.9 gig hard drive, and trident video card giving full range of color of course, and a manual connection to the internet of MSN using just internet explorer version 6.

Two 64 mb ram modules arrived in the mail that I won on auction, and they won't work, likely cause they are incompatible somehow. Makes me mad of course, since they were non EDO, 5v, and my mother boarad supports 64mb in each slot. Maybe they will work in the P133, who knows. Besides, there was already one incompatible module in one of the slots already, of 16 mb.

Anyway, the hard drive has to overwork to be able to load onto a web page, but this proves a point of mine. I believe if I had at least 64 mb of ram or more, this 486 would zip around the internet with ease like the P133 did with its 64 mb of ram.

When the 64 mb modules were inserted, the computer just basically never booted up. I also tried out a couple of tin leads type of 16 mb ram, for a total of 32 mb, and they did not work. Strangely, when I tried the one working 16 mb chip and one 16 mb chip from the P133, then it showed 32 mb at startup, but never could get past safe mode cause it kept on asking to be restarted to no success at a reload.


Haha, oh well, so swell, this computer, at least the main parts(except the upgraded cpu) are listed as being made in 12/23/93(yes, 1993!). The only good thing about a computer like this is that the upgraded 100 mhz cpu does not produce much heat, has a heat sink of course, but technically that almost seems like an advantage somedays around this home.

Needless to say, I aint hunting down more ram again. Will likely put back together the P133 real soon of all the borrowed parts, especially to see if the 2x64 mb of ram I had originally got for the 486 will work in the P133, have a feeling they will, then I will have 160 mb of ram in the p133(2x64mb+2x16mb).

[GaryRouth]

. . . What, no Amiga yet? :)

I'm beginning to think that instead of sending my legacy parts to hazardous waste, I should check your latest projects first! I imagine someday such collector's items will fetch a pretty penny.

The fact the you got things running with mostly unidentified modules on a mostly unidentified motherboard really qualifies you for a lottery ticket. Those old boards care about jumpers, memory densities, timing setups. . .

Glad you're having fun: makes the nForce boards I've been putting together seem rather dull in comparison
. . . Gary

[budbd]

I went ahead and transferred back the hard drive and cd drive, video card and modem back to the P133. I also installed the two memory modules of supposed 64 mb each. Funny thing, the modules will only register 16 mb each, along with the other two 16 mb chips that were already in the P133, maybe I ought to try putting the 64 mb modules closer to the processor, likely won't help, $23 wasted for nothing basically.

As it is, I have alot of respect for that Asus 486 board, cause the P133 board with AMD 133 k5 chip won't recognize as high a color and resolution as the Intel 100 mhz and 486 board.

Yeah, I kind of understood chip density, but jeese, I didn't think they made them so different. I figured that edo ram modules were definitely for Pentium 1/pro systems, and non edo ram was for 486 systems. I have then no idea of what the 64 mb ram moduels were for other than having a Compaq sticker, other than they were advertised as 60 ns non parity, 4k refresh rate, 5 volt socket.

[GaryRouth]

Manuals are the key - even with the older boards. You'd be surprised how many speeds, densities, and module types there were, even in the 486 days.

For the resolution of a video card (or onboard video) - that's really more a function of having a good driver installed. Until a driver specifically written for that card is installed, Windows just uses a "Standard VGA" driver - which provides just enough functions to get around to the business of installing an exact-match driver.

If you'd like some good tutorials, check out the articles section here at PC Mechanic, and for some nicely illustrated, step-by-step background articles on various parts of PCs and how they're put together, you might visit some sites like these: http://www.pctechguide.com/ & http://www.pcguide.com (and for the Windows operating systems) http://www.aumha.org/

. . . Gary

[budbd]

Did a hardware installation run through, and now the card is putting out 32 bit high color in the AMD 133 which is runing at 100mhz according to "Belarc Advisor" system scanner program.
The 486 is so incomplete, that I won't be searching out any more memory or parts for it.
The AMD, I am typing with it right now, and it is working very well, so no problems there, only wished I had a working joystick/audio card for it(for some strange twisted reason, haha).

I did do a search of the part number on the ram chips I received, and they go to a Compaq Proliant 4500 server. Haha, surely that does not mean they will work in only one machine!

[glc]

How about a model number for that Asus motherboard? The Crucial configurator says that CT8M32P2M6 (generic 32mb fast page mode non-parity 72 pin simms, double sided, 8 chips per side) are compatible with some Asus 486 boards. At 50 bucks a pop, that's not cost effective. I've never seen a 486 that will accept 64mb modules - usually 64mb is the max TOTAL ram they will accept - and with 4 slots, the recommended combination is four 16mb modules (single sided, 8 chips). That's the configuration I used in my 486DX4/100 several years ago with Win95B when it was my primary machine. It had a generic EFA motherboard which is probably very much like your Asus - it had an Opti chipset with 3 VL bus slots.

Yes, it's VERY possible that those modules will only work in a Compaq. The reason they are only showing 16mb is the component density is too high for the chipset.

Here's a link to some used ram that will work, and it's CHEAP.

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=4X32FPM&cat=RAM

[budbd]

That ASUS 486 board will accept 64 mb per slot, having two slots, according to information I read online several places. It is a PVI-486SP3, a real power house of a mother board for Dec 1993.
Too bad I couldn't have got some memory for it, oh well, not spending anymore money anyway, and I would have to have at least 64 mb total for it to net worthy. Yeah, it was a powerful board at one time, thre EISA slots, three pci slots(one shared with a vlb slot). I read somewhere that some of those boards were used at early servers.

[GaryRouth]

. . . I'm guessing that if the chips were identified for a Compaq servier, they might be ECC modules [which would require that setting in a compatible motherboard's bios - the 'ECC' stands for "error correcting"] . . .

[budbd]

The compaq modules in question were listed on ebay as "Non parity, 4k refresh rate, 5 volt, 60 ns, gold lead", and supposedly never used. According to my check up on the internet fo the numbers, that seems the seller did list them correctly, if I remember rightly.
I don't believe I read they were ecc anywhere. Truthfully, I wish I did have memory for the 486 board, cause the fan on the AMD is likely gonna fail someday if I continue using it, and it holds all the nice vintage parts. The 486 just has a kind of "cool factor" about it, cause hey, ITS' A 486, AND STILL WORKING, haha.

[jnagarya]

Caught this thread via Google . . .

Speaking of the PVI-486SP3: great board, great BIOS. One could play with the BIOS for a week and remain fascinated with it. Such a good board that I'm reluctant to let it go (I have two Pentium Is that are also 100 Mhz).

I don't intend to let it go. Rather, I'm currently trying to network it, but either the card is so legacy there aren't drivers for Windows 98se, or "too new". At any rate, that's what I'm looking for: how to get a PCI Netgear FA311 NIC to work with the 486. What I get is this error message:

"This device is disabled because the BIOS for the device did not give it an IRQ. (Code 29)

"You must enable the device in the BIOS."

I've studied the BIOS, and tried all sorts of things. Read and re-read the manul. Still can't figure out what to do to get it working. And it isn't a shortage of IRQS; the machine has two HDs, one CD-ROM, PCI video card, and ISA modem.

So how does one "enable the device in the BIOS" when that's all set to be automatic?

I've pretty much narrowed it down to that: it needs to be "enabled" in the 486 BIOS. But I can't find how to do it.

Thanks. Responses via my email address welcome.

[glc]

The Netgear prolly needs a PCI 2.x slot - which 486's don't have. You need an ISA nic with jumpers or a configuration floppy to set the IRQ and I/O. PCI nics won't plug and play right on a bus that old.