Anapan wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2024 12:03 am
If it works up to that point, I'd suggest flash a slightly older than last bios to a different eeprom bios chip. Weird things like this are hard to tackle but I pulled a lot of hair out in a similar situation before finding out why everything *almost* worked.
Thanks for that suggestion!
I actually kinda thought to do that already, sort of. I thought maybe there could be bit rot in the BIOS ROM, and I could reflash it and see. But that's also a good suggestion, to try another version. And this board actually had both AMI and Award BIOSes available for it (that wasn't too uncommon back then), The Retro Web has a few versions for both available.
The reason I haven't tried this yet is because the PC that I use for my chip programmer is currently not set up. And I have another project taking up my work bench right now. So it's sort of a cluster fuck LOL. After getting frustrated with the whole thing, I forgot to circle back to the BIOS.
Next time I get the chance, I'll mess around with it.
The other night I wasn't completely shot from work so I decided to install the DTK Socket 7 motherboard in the case. I had pulled the DTK board out for testing (double checking things like RAM and the controller card worked on another computer) and I had also pulled the PCChips board out of the case to make it easier to test things. And that being the case, I figured let me just install the DTK board in the case. I have PCChips board out so I can more easily test things. If I get it working, great, then I'll swap it back into the case. If not, then the DTK will stay there.
I got a new sound card!
It's the PicoGUS. It uses a Raspberry Pi Pico to emulate a Gravis UltraSound, commonly abbreviated as GUS, hence PicoGUS. There's actually a few newly manufactured ISA sound cards available right now, but I think the PicoGUS is the best bang for your buck.
You might ask, if I'm bothering to use authentic hardware, then what's the point using an emulated sound card? To which I'd have to say, shut up! The thing about the GUS is that they are way too expensive and I will never own a real one. Even the recent recreations of the GUS are kinda pricey. The PicoGUS uses a minimal amount of components, all of which are extremely cheap. It's open source and you can build your own. But even if you buy one fully assembled, it's still very cheap. And to be honest, while there are a good amount of games that support the GUS, it's still a small percentage of games in the grand scheme of things. So for me, the PicoGUS is a great way to get to experience the sound card for those games, without spending a small fortune.
But the PicoGUS does more then just emulate the GUS. It can also emulate some other sound cards, notably Sound Blaster 2.0 and AdLib OPL2. So if you were on a budget, you can get a very versatile sound card for your build.
Me personally, I plan to keep the my Sound Blaster 16 in this build and have both that and the PicoGUS. Hopefully setting both up together wont be too much of a headache. I'll have the PicoGUS for games that support GUS, and the SB16 for practically everything else. But then I will have a third scenario: The PicoGUS can also operate as an MPU-401 interface.
So my SB16 has an MPU-401 function, but only in the so-called "dumb" mode. It also has the hanging note bug. The PicoGUS can emulate an actual MPU-401 card, in intelligent mode, and without bugs. The PicoGUS has a wavetable header as well as MIDI out (via a 3.5mm jack). So I'm all set. I'm not sure yet exactly what I will get or make, but I definitely want to use some sort of MIDI device.
Anyways, here's a messy shot of the DTK board and everything installed in the case. Cable management will come later, if and when I know the DTK board will be staying. There's no point until then.
There's a few things that leave me in better shape with the DTK board. With the PCChips board, I had to use a controller card. And my controller card only has one IDE channel. So it wasn't easy connecting the CD-ROM drive as well as the CF card adapter in an expansion bay slot. My resolve was to plug the middle connector of the ribbon cable into the controller card, then one side to each drive. That's a valid way to use a 40-conductor PATA cable. But it still wasn't long enough, I wanted to get the CF card in the last slot so it's easier to reach around back and grab it. But with the DTK board, I have 2 IDE channels on board. So I have these PATA cables that have only two connectors on them (no middle connector) so it's a little neater. And now I'm able to get the CF card all the way on the end, without having to use an extension cable or make a custom one.
The DTK board also has a pin header for a PS/2 mouse port. The Logitech mouse that I'm using supports both PS/2 and serial with an adapter. But it's been a long time since I've used a serial mouse, I've been reading how much smoother a PS/2 mouse is. That and I have plenty of spare PS/2 mice, but not serial. I'm always thinking of backups for hardware failure. Anyways, the pin header wasn't labeled on the board or the manual, which oddly seems typical. So I had to use the meter to figure out which pin was Vcc and ground. Then there's clock and data, which I just had to take a 50/50 guess with. Long story short, I got it working, so I'm happy about that.
Right now I'm using my S3 ViRGE/GX PCI video card. This is the so-called 3D graphics decelerator. But I haven't had any compatibility issues with it for 2D DOS games, so I will leave it in here for now.
If I didn't already mention, the CPU is an AMD K5 75 MHz.
Oh, and here's one thing I'm really liking about this board...
The BIOS has a boot order option that puts the floppy and CD drive before the HDD. On both of my other AT boards (the PCChips and my Biostar Socket 7) I only have options to put either the floppy or CD drive before the HDD, but not both. So I annoying have to change the boot order in the BIOS anytime I want to boot from a CD or floppy. I figured it wouldn't be a huge deal once a computer is fully set up, but it's been rather annoying while tweaking and setting things up, so I was really happy to see this option on the DTK board!
