I did the 3x multiplier hack with a resistor back in the day. On a brand new motherboard. The spec's of the board capped the speed of the processor at 166MHz, but i had bought a MMX200 (just released, so early 97? ). Brand new board and immediately starting to do mod's was super scary, but it worked. I don't know where i found the workaround, if it was on the internet or in a magazine. Loved that computer and i used it for years. I used a 1/4 Watt resistor soldered directly on the back of the motherboard on the socket. Looked crazy..
Implosions can happen when the cap's electrolyte reacts with material inside the capacitor, crystalizing and changing the pressure dynamic inside the cap, letting air pressure outside crush it in a bit. Few other ways this can happen too. Panasonics are an excellent replacement choice. Nichicon, United Chemicon, Vishay, Sanyo, all good
Happend to me but I think it was some big capacitor. A power supply did go big boom after powering a new mainboard up. Had two exact same pcs. One functioned normal. Ok see imploding.... For me was exploding.
Really enjoy the no "bs" approach on repairs. Simple things that we can check. I didn't have luck yet with a Soyo Slot 1 board I got in August, it was supposed to be 100% and tested, turns out it turns on but I get 00 or C0 codes on boot. I checked voltages, clock, shorts, all ok so far. Once the board posted, I got into BIOS and could even launch MEMTest, but it frooze. I put it aside for some time, will try again in the future. I'm pretty sure it is something simple, like a cold joint somewhere.... the thing is to find it. Concerning the BIOS battery, Scrap Computing rebuilt Necroware's module in order to fit a CR2032 battery. This is something to consider if anyone is going to order parts and build a replacement module.
I was shocked when you cut the fan wires, but I was quickly relieved when you re-pinned them. That's how I do it. I appreciate it when someone does an upgrade right versus just soldering some wires back together.
Couldn’t resist taking advantage of that dupont fan header just an inch away from the socket 😁 .. not a big fan (no pun intended) of those molex powered fans.
Such a huge range of processor speed, features, pricing, and manufacturers (comparatively). I guess now the complexity of CPU and chipset manufacture is too much and too expensive to get so much competition. Plus Intel will change sockets twice before you even need to upgrade.
Another superb video of you. I admire your skills figuring out the multiplicator issue there. Things i wouldnt ever manage this easy. Classic board, i have it here too, but never did much with it except storing it hehe.
I had a cap let out a bit of smoke as it was running, turned off the machine in frustration and the next morning came back to sort it out, and it had signs of implosion too, I'd assumed it just got hot was able to vent, and then when it cooled off collapsed in on itself a bit.
Right now i am going through all my old computers and parts, going to be selling a lot soon and I found a board a lot like this one. Thanks for talking about the retro web, I did not know about it and while I go through my hardware and upload anything i can. This is an amazing resource I wish I would have known about sooner!
Socket 7 is near and dear to my heart, my first custom built PC was running a K6/2 at 300Mhz... and also it was around that time I hacked my first website and didn't know what to use as a "hacker name" so I just went with socket7 lmao. Those were the days. 😂
Great video! Would you find time to make one on crimping these little connectors? I’m curious to see which tools and parts you’d recommend for the job.
This series of Gigabyte motherboards also have the turbo header. The turbo function works by disabling the CPU cache and dropping the bus frequency to either 50 or 43MHz, depending on the model. Not as useful as "true" turbo, but still nice to have if you're using a Pentium MMX CPU together with SetMul to hit multiple performance points (386, 486 etc.) in one PC.
Good point, thanks for sharing! You don't see turbo headers too often in Pentium-era boards, so definitely a nice bonus. I'll have to give it a try one of these days.
These are brilliant boards! I still have the one which I have had since around '98 which powered my file server for more than 10 years.. it ran all day and all night pretty much for those 10 years and its still going strong today as my main retro gaming pc with no issues.. and you might not believe this, but it has the original RTC module (made by Odin in my case) and it still holds charge and keeps the CMOS settings, even when the machine is unplugged for a while..
They are indeed! That's amazing that the RTC module is still going. It probably helped that the system was in active use for so long. I don't think the RTC module's battery would be used while the system is powered on so it likely prolonged its life.
great video! My collection of socket 7 boards are basically all PCChips - the only faulty ones I could found (wonder why!) and now I really feel I'd like a quality board to home in a case for a proper, permanent retro system I can switch on and play with every now and then! :)
Thanks Tony! Pentium systems like this are perfect "all around" retro gaming rigs. I have a higher-end 486 that I use for that purpose, but there are times I wish it was a Pentium :) .. I can't say I have much experience with PCChips stuff, but I do remember helping a friend build a system many years ago. The PCChips board he picked was defective and wouldn't POST and we had to go back to the shop to exchange it for another one. I think in the end he got a different brand.
I recently came across a Gigabyte board with a P133 in it. Might be the same board actually. I noticed it has a COAST module installed and a Benchmarq RTC. I should dig it out and test it. It used to control an old CNC machine at work
Man.. I wish you did work for others I would send you my system for you to make a video on and to do these upgrades and new caps and stuff on. great job!
i replaced an rtc recently on an asus board, it was kinda funny because it "worked" with the dead battery but the bios defaults the boot to the C drive and obviously wouldnt hold the setting of booting from A first, so i was able to boot into the existing os which was win95 but my plan was to use a cf adapter and install dos from floppy
Very strange to see something so late with even a single 8-bit only ISA slot. I guess since that slot was shared with a PCI, they figured you'd either use it for a modem or just shove a PCI card in there, but still.
Very true! I think modems were really the only common 8-bit cards you’d see around that time. Doesn’t look like there was enough clearance to get a 16-bit slot in that location either.
Decap the RTC module, solder a new CR1220 with taps. Or if you're brave, use a spot welder to solder taps to a CR1220. I can confirm V.2A has a golden heatsink. ;) Unfortunately, I don't have a cache module.
Thanks for sharing! Good to know about the v2a. I wonder if they fixed the MMX multiplier in that revision. I kept the BQ3287 just in case I need to mod it in the future 👍
Good to know! Thanks for sharing. This is the first time I’ve seen this brand used. To be fair, it was only the one cap with the issue and all the others looked fine. My multimeter refuses to measure capacitance any more but I kept all the old caps to measure them once I get a new one. I’m curious if they remained within spec over 25+ years and what the imploded one will measure 🙂
Hey there! That tray that was holding the classic Pentium 200 was 3D printed, right? Could you share that model by any chance? Congratulations on your awesome channel, you got a new Brazilian fan! :)
Thanks very much! That tray actually came with the Pentium 200 that I bought on eBay from the previous owner, but I actually did design some similar CPU trays (1, 4 and 6 CPU trays) a few years ago. There are lots of good ones available online too, but you can find the 3D models I created here: vswitchzero.com/2018/10/01/3d-printing-cpu-trays/
I’ve been looking for Necroware’s RTC replacements. I know it’s bordering on nitpicking but I’d really prefer a yellow PCB, just like yours, for my T2P4, not a black or purple one. It would simply look much better in my opinion. Any hint on where to look for them?
The PCB I used is from OSH park. It’s their afterdark version with a black PCB and clear solder mask. Looks really nice. It doesn’t quite match the brown/gold motherboards from that era but definitely blends in a bit better than the other options 🙂
Hello Mike, so now I got my eyes set on these beautiful golden Panasonic FM capacitors, not silver like the ones on my Soyo Dragon but they will look good in most of my motherboards! I will start making an inventory of the ones I need, It's Moser a good source or is too expensive?
They are great caps. Pretty much the lowest ESR you can find these days without going polymer. I got mine from Digi-Key. Newer FR series is similar spec as FM but not flashy looking. FC is also quite good but dark blue/gold instead of black/gold.
Hey no word on the COAST module ;-) It just worked without any jumper settings necessary? I went through quite a few jumpers and modules on my 430VX board until I got 512K working.
Thanks for your comment! Sorry I forgot to mention that bit. Yeah this board has nothing to configure. Just plug it in and it’s detected. One of my modules refused to work (system hangs during post) but the UMC based one works just fine thankfully. I know some boards can be very picky.
I finally fired up my 586ATV and it works, I even found an MMX166 in my stash, I'll have to give that a try. Rev.2A does not have the jumpers to enable the split voltages for MMX CPUs, that's strange. Do you know if it is possible to upgrade single-sided 16MB EDO RAM modules with 8 chips to 32MB by soldering another 8 chips on the back of the module ?
Thanks for your comment! Good question, can't say I've ever tried adding more modules to a DIMM before. This sounds right up 'bits und bolts' alley if you wanted to ask him about it :-)
For Windows 95/98 there shouldn't be anything special required on the software side. You can get the intel IDE busmaster drivers, but even those shouldn't be necessary. They are available on the retro web page for the board: theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/gigabyte-ga-586atv#downloads .. best of luck with your build!
Great video! Love your stuff :) Would be really cool to see the 166 system with a 3D accelerator try to run the original Half-Life haha. Technically could meet the recommended!
Thanks for the idea! Would love to explore some “minimum spec” performance with and without 3D acceleration. Finding the time is always the challenge 🙂
You don't necessarily even need a 3D accelerator to run Half-Life. Back in the day my family computer had a P166MMX on a i430HX motherboard, 32MB RAM and S3 Virge 2MB and I played HL through at least twice on that hardware and countless hours of multiplayer and mods. However it might not be exactly playable by today's standards but back then we just had to do with what we got :D
Thanks for the comment! They are somewhat difficult to find, but they do pop up on eBay from time to time. They are usually called "COAST" modules or "cache modules" when you search. Even though they look physically the same, there are numerous revisions out there and not all will be compatible. In my experience, it's about a 50/50 chance any given COAST module will work in a board. Best of luck! Hope you find one.
@@vswitchzero Or there is another funny thing. You can use Pentium MMX 233 (or 200 overclocked) and set multiplier to 3.5, because it is the same as 1.5 for old Pentiums. In this case both pins are shorted to ground, so it works without modification. When Intel inroduced Pentium for Socket5/7 they choosed only 2 pins for multiplier, so there were only 4 combinations. 1.5 2 2.5 3. When Pentium MMX was introduced, there were no combination for 233, so 1.5 multiplier was used as 3.5. Later AMD started to use pin BF2, it enabled 8 combinations. But with AMD K6-2 more combinations were needed, so multiplier 2 became 6 for AMD K6-2 and K6-III.
@@xsc1000 Very interesting, thanks for sharing! I always wondered how they managed a 3.5x multiplier on the 233MHz model. I do remember hearing about the 2/6 multiplier on the K6-2.
@@vswitchzero Thanks! From my inspection these are as follows (in the order of severity): - A burnt place near the edge of the CPU socket where the board bulges slightly (Looks like a short inside the PCB, which was probably the initial reason why the board was scrapped) - Bent pins and a snapped pin on one of the Chipset ICs (the pin is snapped just outside the chip); - No cache ICs and associated ICs around (I can live with it) - No 3.3V VRM (I can live with it) - Missing caps, clock oscillators and resistor arrays. Resistor arrays are used on this board to set up CPU settings (I found a person with the same board on a German forum, so I could ask for photos with the missing details). - No DIN port. I can send photos on your e-mail once I get to the board.
@@krzbrew Oh wow, quite a few missing components on there. My biggest concern would be the burn/pcb damage. Even if the components are replaced, I'm not sure if is a multi-layer PCB and there is damage that can't be accessed. Could be a fun project to try regardless! Best of luck.
I have revision 1A of this mainboard with the golden heatsink. I can’t get the PS/2 mouse to work at all. Windows 95 recognizes a mouse but it has a yellow mark and doesn’t work. I also have an optical ps/2 mouse and it has power. So the port seems to work. But in the bios ps/2 is not mentioned. Any Ideas why it doesn’t work? Do i need a bios update?
Thanks for your comment! Are you using the PS/2 header that was included with the GA-586ATV or a different/generic one? I've found that the pinout can vary quite a bit between boards in this era. I have a slot-1 motherboard with symptoms very similar to what you describe as well. In that case I discovered that the PS/2 connector itself was bad/flaky. I had to wiggle the connector and put a lot of pressure in order for it to work properly. I don't think the BIOS should matter as all revisions should include PS/2 mouse support.
Thanks for the reply! I think I am using the original header and slot bracket that also has a parallel port. I have the mainboard still in the same case that it was used in back in the 90s. But I am not sure if I added the bracket later. I checked the pinout and the wiring and it looks the same as in the manual. It could be a loose connector indeed. I am about to rewire the bracket and use it on a dfi p5bv3+ and a shuttle hot-591p that have a different pinout. Then the ga586atv will go into storage. I wanted k6-2 anyways and so I will use those boards as they also have usb and the dfi also supports usb keyboards. The convenience of being able to use usb input devices is quite big for me. Hopefully it will finally serve me as the retro pc I wanted to build for many years. Its a nice tiny case for baby AT with a K6 sticker. I have collected so many parts, I also want to use my 486 and pentium mmx stuff, but I need to shrink it down to a small unit and I guess k6-2 will be able to do more on top of what those older CPUs can do. Might combine it with voodoo 3 agp and sb awe 32. We‘ll see ;)
Very well and informative video. May be you could try to use one of the more faster processors from AMD. Thanks for the efforts and The informations on the video. Keep up the good work.
It's a Dupont Crimping Tool. You can find kits on Amazon for around $20-30. Most can crimp other connector types as well, but I've only used it for dupont connectors.
@@vswitchzero wont those small server fans fit? Or.. 3Dprint a 'converter' for their smallest fan. I dunno know. I'm talking outta my ass here. Love your channel.
@@all_the_moga Thanks very much! :) .. I'm sure there is probably some way to adapt a 40/60mm fan to fit cleanly on there. These Pentiums don't need a lot of airflow to stay cool. I could probably use one of those Noctua LN adapters too.
Thanks for your comment! Yes, I didn't know much about them before doing this video. I actually just tested all of the caps I removed (including the imploded one) and they were all pretty close to their rated capacitance value and had a decent ESR too. Not bad for 25+ year old electrolytics!
Thanks for your comment! I'm just a hobbyist and not an electronics repair expert by any means. There is lots of risk for things to go wrong with repairs as well so I don't feel comfortable working on other people's hardware at this time. Cheers!
Thumbs up as always and thanks for the shout out ;)
Thanks Necroware! 😁👍
I did the 3x multiplier hack with a resistor back in the day. On a brand new motherboard. The spec's of the board capped the speed of the processor at 166MHz, but i had bought a MMX200 (just released, so early 97? ). Brand new board and immediately starting to do mod's was super scary, but it worked. I don't know where i found the workaround, if it was on the internet or in a magazine. Loved that computer and i used it for years. I used a 1/4 Watt resistor soldered directly on the back of the motherboard on the socket. Looked crazy..
Implosions can happen when the cap's electrolyte reacts with material inside the capacitor, crystalizing and changing the pressure dynamic inside the cap, letting air pressure outside crush it in a bit. Few other ways this can happen too. Panasonics are an excellent replacement choice. Nichicon, United Chemicon, Vishay, Sanyo, all good
Happend to me but I think it was some big capacitor. A power supply did go big boom after powering a new mainboard up. Had two exact same pcs. One functioned normal. Ok see imploding.... For me was exploding.
Thanks for another great video!!
Thanks so much! 😁
I love socket 7. The early 3d days was truly the most exciting period in gaming history!
I hate the cooler clips, broke a motherboard cause they are so slippery
Nice to see a board I actually have.
I equipped mine with a K6-2 450. Runs about as well as you'd expect, with the chipset holding it back...
Nice recap and interesting info about the multiplier…
Really enjoy the no "bs" approach on repairs. Simple things that we can check. I didn't have luck yet with a Soyo Slot 1 board I got in August, it was supposed to be 100% and tested, turns out it turns on but I get 00 or C0 codes on boot. I checked voltages, clock, shorts, all ok so far. Once the board posted, I got into BIOS and could even launch MEMTest, but it frooze. I put it aside for some time, will try again in the future. I'm pretty sure it is something simple, like a cold joint somewhere.... the thing is to find it.
Concerning the BIOS battery, Scrap Computing rebuilt Necroware's module in order to fit a CR2032 battery. This is something to consider if anyone is going to order parts and build a replacement module.
ua-cam.com/video/k7J6g3XWbXA/v-deo.html
I am thrilled to exclaim that I picked up one of these today inside a complete build.
I was shocked when you cut the fan wires, but I was quickly relieved when you re-pinned them. That's how I do it. I appreciate it when someone does an upgrade right versus just soldering some wires back together.
Couldn’t resist taking advantage of that dupont fan header just an inch away from the socket 😁 .. not a big fan (no pun intended) of those molex powered fans.
Socket 7 is where a lot of people made their start into computer hardware, should be a good series.
Such a huge range of processor speed, features, pricing, and manufacturers (comparatively). I guess now the complexity of CPU and chipset manufacture is too much and too expensive to get so much competition. Plus Intel will change sockets twice before you even need to upgrade.
Yup! My First build late '97: Iwill p55xb2(Intel 430TX) here - still alive 03-27-2023..(CR2032 = lucky me)
Another superb video of you. I admire your skills figuring out the multiplicator issue there. Things i wouldnt ever manage this easy. Classic board, i have it here too, but never did much with it except storing it hehe.
Many thanks! 🙂👍
I had a cap let out a bit of smoke as it was running, turned off the machine in frustration and the next morning came back to sort it out, and it had signs of implosion too, I'd assumed it just got hot was able to vent, and then when it cooled off collapsed in on itself a bit.
Ah I had that same problem with the multiplier! No end of frustration.
Right now i am going through all my old computers and parts, going to be selling a lot soon and I found a board a lot like this one.
Thanks for talking about the retro web, I did not know about it and while I go through my hardware and upload anything i can.
This is an amazing resource I wish I would have known about sooner!
You wouldn't have an AMD K6-III AHX 400MHz lying around?
@@dallesamllhals9161 Nope sorry I have a k62/350afr and a k6-3+/450apz thats all the amd cpus of that era i have.
@@goxodsgames3363 Dang it! But thanks for checking 🙂
MY first PC i got at home was a Pentium 200 mmx back from my dad who used it as a classroom pc. Along with my Voodoo 3 2000, i was in gaming heaven :)
Great video thanks for sharing Necros info, had not found that channel yet.
Socket 7 is near and dear to my heart, my first custom built PC was running a K6/2 at 300Mhz... and also it was around that time I hacked my first website and didn't know what to use as a "hacker name" so I just went with socket7 lmao. Those were the days. 😂
Great video! Would you find time to make one on crimping these little connectors? I’m curious to see which tools and parts you’d recommend for the job.
Good idea! I’ve got a huge backlog of videos to do but will hopefully find some time one of these days 🙂
This series of Gigabyte motherboards also have the turbo header. The turbo function works by disabling the CPU cache and dropping the bus frequency to either 50 or 43MHz, depending on the model. Not as useful as "true" turbo, but still nice to have if you're using a Pentium MMX CPU together with SetMul to hit multiple performance points (386, 486 etc.) in one PC.
Good point, thanks for sharing! You don't see turbo headers too often in Pentium-era boards, so definitely a nice bonus. I'll have to give it a try one of these days.
Great Job as always! And really impressive knowledge on the resistors for the multiplier. This would have driven me crazy 😂
Thanks so much! 🙂👍
Imploding caps... Just when you thought you've seen capacitors do it all.
These are brilliant boards! I still have the one which I have had since around '98 which powered my file server for more than 10 years.. it ran all day and all night pretty much for those 10 years and its still going strong today as my main retro gaming pc with no issues.. and you might not believe this, but it has the original RTC module (made by Odin in my case) and it still holds charge and keeps the CMOS settings, even when the machine is unplugged for a while..
They are indeed! That's amazing that the RTC module is still going. It probably helped that the system was in active use for so long. I don't think the RTC module's battery would be used while the system is powered on so it likely prolonged its life.
That song is super cool!
great video! My collection of socket 7 boards are basically all PCChips - the only faulty ones I could found (wonder why!) and now I really feel I'd like a quality board to home in a case for a proper, permanent retro system I can switch on and play with every now and then! :)
Thanks Tony! Pentium systems like this are perfect "all around" retro gaming rigs. I have a higher-end 486 that I use for that purpose, but there are times I wish it was a Pentium :) .. I can't say I have much experience with PCChips stuff, but I do remember helping a friend build a system many years ago. The PCChips board he picked was defective and wouldn't POST and we had to go back to the shop to exchange it for another one. I think in the end he got a different brand.
Great solder work
Thanks 👍
Do you think you could do a workbench rundown video sometime? What you use, and how often, etc.
Good idea, will look into this 👍
166MHz is a good speed, since you avoid some speed issues games have at 200+MHz (Turbo Pascal Compiler Bug).
Good point! 👍
I recently came across a Gigabyte board with a P133 in it. Might be the same board actually. I noticed it has a COAST module installed and a Benchmarq RTC. I should dig it out and test it. It used to control an old CNC machine at work
Good job, more videos like this please :)
Man.. I wish you did work for others I would send you my system for you to make a video on and to do these upgrades and new caps and stuff on. great job!
i replaced an rtc recently on an asus board, it was kinda funny because it "worked" with the dead battery but the bios defaults the boot to the C drive and obviously wouldnt hold the setting of booting from A first, so i was able to boot into the existing os which was win95 but my plan was to use a cf adapter and install dos from floppy
Very strange to see something so late with even a single 8-bit only ISA slot. I guess since that slot was shared with a PCI, they figured you'd either use it for a modem or just shove a PCI card in there, but still.
Very true! I think modems were really the only common 8-bit cards you’d see around that time. Doesn’t look like there was enough clearance to get a 16-bit slot in that location either.
well done, great channel !!!
Thank you very much! :)
Decap the RTC module, solder a new CR1220 with taps. Or if you're brave, use a spot welder to solder taps to a CR1220.
I can confirm V.2A has a golden heatsink. ;) Unfortunately, I don't have a cache module.
Thanks for sharing! Good to know about the v2a. I wonder if they fixed the MMX multiplier in that revision. I kept the BQ3287 just in case I need to mod it in the future 👍
@@vswitchzero I don't know, don't have a 200MHz MMX P5 and don't have a manual for this board.
'mystery' brand Hitano capacitors are from Taiwan and still in business, ok caps actually
Good to know! Thanks for sharing. This is the first time I’ve seen this brand used. To be fair, it was only the one cap with the issue and all the others looked fine. My multimeter refuses to measure capacitance any more but I kept all the old caps to measure them once I get a new one. I’m curious if they remained within spec over 25+ years and what the imploded one will measure 🙂
Hey there! That tray that was holding the classic Pentium 200 was 3D printed, right? Could you share that model by any chance? Congratulations on your awesome channel, you got a new Brazilian fan! :)
Thanks very much! That tray actually came with the Pentium 200 that I bought on eBay from the previous owner, but I actually did design some similar CPU trays (1, 4 and 6 CPU trays) a few years ago. There are lots of good ones available online too, but you can find the 3D models I created here: vswitchzero.com/2018/10/01/3d-printing-cpu-trays/
Maybe a 3D printed cover and a label for the RTC to disguise it?
I’ve been looking for Necroware’s RTC replacements. I know it’s bordering on nitpicking but I’d really prefer a yellow PCB, just like yours, for my T2P4, not a black or purple one. It would simply look much better in my opinion. Any hint on where to look for them?
The PCB I used is from OSH park. It’s their afterdark version with a black PCB and clear solder mask. Looks really nice. It doesn’t quite match the brown/gold motherboards from that era but definitely blends in a bit better than the other options 🙂
love your videos and necroware's
Thanks so much 😁👍
Hello Mike, so now I got my eyes set on these beautiful golden Panasonic FM capacitors, not silver like the ones on my Soyo Dragon but they will look good in most of my motherboards!
I will start making an inventory of the ones I need, It's Moser a good source or is too expensive?
They are great caps. Pretty much the lowest ESR you can find these days without going polymer. I got mine from Digi-Key. Newer FR series is similar spec as FM but not flashy looking. FC is also quite good but dark blue/gold instead of black/gold.
Bag PCI 칩 생산하던 기억이 나내요 잘보고 갑니다
I fell into the same pit hole to make my systems color matched...chasing perfection is annoying sometimes 🤣
South bridge is here still waiting for me to install it :)
Hey no word on the COAST module ;-) It just worked without any jumper settings necessary? I went through quite a few jumpers and modules on my 430VX board until I got 512K working.
Thanks for your comment! Sorry I forgot to mention that bit. Yeah this board has nothing to configure. Just plug it in and it’s detected. One of my modules refused to work (system hangs during post) but the UMC based one works just fine thankfully. I know some boards can be very picky.
I finally fired up my 586ATV and it works, I even found an MMX166 in my stash, I'll have to give that a try.
Rev.2A does not have the jumpers to enable the split voltages for MMX CPUs, that's strange.
Do you know if it is possible to upgrade single-sided 16MB EDO RAM modules with 8 chips to 32MB by soldering another 8 chips on the back of the module ?
Thanks for your comment! Good question, can't say I've ever tried adding more modules to a DIMM before. This sounds right up 'bits und bolts' alley if you wanted to ask him about it :-)
Throw a tiny dab of thermal paste on the back of the regulator when swapping the heatsink, it won't be massive but it will cool better.
That’s a good idea. I thought about using a thermal pad but paste would definitely work too. I may give that a try 👍
Where can one get drivers for GA-586ATV? Found one on ebay but no s/w. WOuld like to build a Win95 P 200 MMX system.
For Windows 95/98 there shouldn't be anything special required on the software side. You can get the intel IDE busmaster drivers, but even those shouldn't be necessary. They are available on the retro web page for the board: theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/gigabyte-ga-586atv#downloads .. best of luck with your build!
Great video! Love your stuff :) Would be really cool to see the 166 system with a 3D accelerator try to run the original Half-Life haha. Technically could meet the recommended!
Thanks for the idea! Would love to explore some “minimum spec” performance with and without 3D acceleration. Finding the time is always the challenge 🙂
You don't necessarily even need a 3D accelerator to run Half-Life. Back in the day my family computer had a P166MMX on a i430HX motherboard, 32MB RAM and S3 Virge 2MB and I played HL through at least twice on that hardware and countless hours of multiplayer and mods. However it might not be exactly playable by today's standards but back then we just had to do with what we got :D
So lucky that clock chip is socketed. I hate desoldering them.
I have a bunch of old motherboards in my basement, should I sell them on eBay?
i have an older MSI dual pentium pro mainboad the RTC died and i lost it i got one of them replasment RTC's and still cant get it to post.. :(
Any tips for finding one of those cache modules on eBay? I have one of these boards and would love to find one.
Thanks for the comment! They are somewhat difficult to find, but they do pop up on eBay from time to time. They are usually called "COAST" modules or "cache modules" when you search. Even though they look physically the same, there are numerous revisions out there and not all will be compatible. In my experience, it's about a 50/50 chance any given COAST module will work in a board. Best of luck! Hope you find one.
I had one of those with my K6-2 200Mhz ...
Where did you buy the rtc board. I can source the components but was it pcbway? Thanks
This one was from OSH park. It’s their “after dark” version, which is a black PCB with clear solder mask 👍
Added pull up resistor works fine with original Pentium - its just parallel to internal one.
Ah cool! That makes sense. I may go back and do the mod when I get some time 👍
@@vswitchzero Or there is another funny thing. You can use Pentium MMX 233 (or 200 overclocked) and set multiplier to 3.5, because it is the same as 1.5 for old Pentiums. In this case both pins are shorted to ground, so it works without modification. When Intel inroduced Pentium for Socket5/7 they choosed only 2 pins for multiplier, so there were only 4 combinations. 1.5 2 2.5 3. When Pentium MMX was introduced, there were no combination for 233, so 1.5 multiplier was used as 3.5. Later AMD started to use pin BF2, it enabled 8 combinations. But with AMD K6-2 more combinations were needed, so multiplier 2 became 6 for AMD K6-2 and K6-III.
@@xsc1000 Very interesting, thanks for sharing! I always wondered how they managed a 3.5x multiplier on the 233MHz model. I do remember hearing about the 2/6 multiplier on the K6-2.
Hmm, ever heard of Iwill - Socket 7 boards?
I've heard of the brand before but I've never tried one of their boards before.
May I ask an advise in repairing a 486 VLB+PCI board which someone used for soldering and desoldering practice?
Sure, what is the condition of the board?
@@vswitchzero Thanks! From my inspection these are as follows (in the order of severity):
- A burnt place near the edge of the CPU socket where the board bulges slightly (Looks like a short inside the PCB, which was probably the initial reason why the board was scrapped)
- Bent pins and a snapped pin on one of the Chipset ICs (the pin is snapped just outside the chip);
- No cache ICs and associated ICs around (I can live with it)
- No 3.3V VRM (I can live with it)
- Missing caps, clock oscillators and resistor arrays. Resistor arrays are used on this board to set up CPU settings (I found a person with the same board on a German forum, so I could ask for photos with the missing details).
- No DIN port.
I can send photos on your e-mail once I get to the board.
@@krzbrew Oh wow, quite a few missing components on there. My biggest concern would be the burn/pcb damage. Even if the components are replaced, I'm not sure if is a multi-layer PCB and there is damage that can't be accessed. Could be a fun project to try regardless! Best of luck.
Any way you could help point me in the right direction so I can locate some ram to upgrade my Voodoo2 8Mb card?
I have revision 1A of this mainboard with the golden heatsink. I can’t get the PS/2 mouse to work at all. Windows 95 recognizes a mouse but it has a yellow mark and doesn’t work. I also have an optical ps/2 mouse and it has power. So the port seems to work. But in the bios ps/2 is not mentioned. Any Ideas why it doesn’t work? Do i need a bios update?
Thanks for your comment! Are you using the PS/2 header that was included with the GA-586ATV or a different/generic one? I've found that the pinout can vary quite a bit between boards in this era. I have a slot-1 motherboard with symptoms very similar to what you describe as well. In that case I discovered that the PS/2 connector itself was bad/flaky. I had to wiggle the connector and put a lot of pressure in order for it to work properly. I don't think the BIOS should matter as all revisions should include PS/2 mouse support.
Thanks for the reply! I think I am using the original header and slot bracket that also has a parallel port. I have the mainboard still in the same case that it was used in back in the 90s. But I am not sure if I added the bracket later. I checked the pinout and the wiring and it looks the same as in the manual. It could be a loose connector indeed. I am about to rewire the bracket and use it on a dfi p5bv3+ and a shuttle hot-591p that have a different pinout. Then the ga586atv will go into storage. I wanted k6-2 anyways and so I will use those boards as they also have usb and the dfi also supports usb keyboards. The convenience of being able to use usb input devices is quite big for me. Hopefully it will finally serve me as the retro pc I wanted to build for many years. Its a nice tiny case for baby AT with a K6 sticker. I have collected so many parts, I also want to use my 486 and pentium mmx stuff, but I need to shrink it down to a small unit and I guess k6-2 will be able to do more on top of what those older CPUs can do. Might combine it with voodoo 3 agp and sb awe 32. We‘ll see ;)
Nice MMX trick :)
I have another 586 motherboard, which has two different types of power connector as well as it can handle two different types of rams... interesting.
Very well and informative video. May be you could try to use one of the more faster processors from AMD.
Thanks for the efforts and The informations on the video.
Keep up the good work.
Interesting, like!
👍
9:04 what is the name of this tool you using?
It's a Dupont Crimping Tool. You can find kits on Amazon for around $20-30. Most can crimp other connector types as well, but I've only used it for dupont connectors.
@@vswitchzero Thanks :)
Ive got a socket 7 board same cpu but no slot for the cashe module runs slowwww
On Gigabyte Site Bios Update Avaible or This Mobo
430HX is high-end chiset and was never called a Triton. Triton 2 is VX and TX was mobile triton
noctua the S'#& out of that fan, please ;)
I can’t wait for Noctua to release a 50x10mm fan. So many old heatsinks used 50mm for some reason.
@@vswitchzero wont those small server fans fit? Or.. 3Dprint a 'converter' for their smallest fan. I dunno know. I'm talking outta my ass here. Love your channel.
@@all_the_moga Thanks very much! :) .. I'm sure there is probably some way to adapt a 40/60mm fan to fit cleanly on there. These Pentiums don't need a lot of airflow to stay cool. I could probably use one of those Noctua LN adapters too.
FYI: Hitano is a Taiwanes brand (manufacturing in China) of average quality.
Thanks for your comment! Yes, I didn't know much about them before doing this video. I actually just tested all of the caps I removed (including the imploded one) and they were all pretty close to their rated capacitance value and had a decent ESR too. Not bad for 25+ year old electrolytics!
Are you Open to take job, have you an ebay adress?
Thanks for your comment! I'm just a hobbyist and not an electronics repair expert by any means. There is lots of risk for things to go wrong with repairs as well so I don't feel comfortable working on other people's hardware at this time. Cheers!