So here is a question from someone who also has his PC from '95
What software do you install?
I'm guessing this came with Dos/Win3x but was upgraded and spent most of its life with Win95 installed.
Do you go with original or the majority?
Do you install the same software from back then or the better alternatives.

In my case I had to get another 486!
I upgraded the CPU but it just didn't feel right and put the DX2/66 back in as that was its heart for all this time.
I did add more ram and larger hard drive but had to keep the SB16, again that's what this pc it sounded like all my life.
In the end I have 2 hard drives,
The original 420MB with the original PC Dos, Win3.11, MS Works
and "new" 6GB with MS Dos 6.22, Win3.11, MS Office 4.3
Games are installed on a second hard drive so common to both.

and the 2nd 486 was my "dream" one with POD83, AWE32, Win95, yet I still mainly use the DX2 as that's the one with the memories.

Just food for thought as having the exact same PC rather than recreating it does bring different challenges.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2024-07-21, 14:59:

Maybe I missed something, but I didn't see any mention of 64kb cache. At least according to the pictures provided there is 0kb cache.
Going from 0kb to anything would yield a very significant improvement (more than 3%).

I Agree!

I'll put in 256K cache as well as a Pentium Overdrive 83MHz chip.

chinny22 wrote on 2024-07-22, 07:57:

So here is a question from someone who also has his PC from '95 What software do you install? I'm guessing this came with Dos/Wi […]
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So here is a question from someone who also has his PC from '95
What software do you install?
I'm guessing this came with Dos/Win3x but was upgraded and spent most of its life with Win95 installed.
Do you go with original or the majority?
Do you install the same software from back then or the better alternatives.

In my case I had to get another 486!
I upgraded the CPU but it just didn't feel right and put the DX2/66 back in as that was its heart for all this time.
I did add more ram and larger hard drive but had to keep the SB16, again that's what this pc it sounded like all my life.
In the end I have 2 hard drives,
The original 420MB with the original PC Dos, Win3.11, MS Works
and "new" 6GB with MS Dos 6.22, Win3.11, MS Office 4.3
Games are installed on a second hard drive so common to both.

and the 2nd 486 was my "dream" one with POD83, AWE32, Win95, yet I still mainly use the DX2 as that's the one with the memories.

Just food for thought as having the exact same PC rather than recreating it does bring different challenges.

I understand exactly what you're saying.

I'm currently running Windows 98SE, but the only game that I run in windows is Warcraft II, all the rest of my gaming on this machine is done in DOS. I used Norton Commander as a File Manager back in the day, so I also have that installed.

I'm also able to write to files floppies for use on this machine using an external floppy drive connected to my Mac Book Pro!

For me, the heart of this machine is its system board, which has a will remain unchanged. It originally came with a Cyrix 486 DX4 100 installed, which I swapped out with the AMD chip that's currently installed, as one of my friends suggested it as being the better option back in the day. (Interestingly, it's registering as a DX2 100 in the BIOS!!!?)

There were conflicts between the GUS and the SB16 in Windows 98SE, so I removed the SB16 as a result.

My aim here is to get this machine to be the machine that it was supposed to be back in the day when I was running it.

I may also try to see if I can get an AWE32 up and running alongside the GUS in DOS, but the Diamond Stealth 64 VLB is a greater priority for me though.

One problem that I am having is trying to get the GUS to initialise in the config.sys in order to get CD-ROM support in DOS.

I've entered the following:

device=C:\GRAVIS\ULTRASND\IWINIT.EXE
ID=GRV00001
INTERWAVE=C:\GRAVIS\ULTRASND\IW.INI

But it continues to complain that it can't find the Interwave environment variable.

And when the CD-ROM driver tries to load it says that the CD-ROM controller hasn't yet been initialised.

So this is something that I need to sort out!

The GUS does initialise properly later in the sequence when the autoexec.bat runs, and the CD-ROM works perfectly under Windows 98SE!

There's something very weird going on here, just look at the CPU speed according to Snooper and Syschk45:

The CPU appears to ridiculously overclocked, but is running as stable as ever!!!???

The Motherboard's setup for a DX4 chip and this chip identifies itself as a DX2, so this could explain the severe overclock!?

Some of the sSpecs of 486DX4-100 were qualified to run at 2x50 rather than 3x33. Could this be the case here, since it identifies as DX2?

H3nrik V! wrote on 2024-07-22, 13:55:

Some of the sSpecs of 486DX4-100 were qualified to run at 2x50 rather than 3x33. Could this be the case here, since it identifies as DX2?

I changed the jumper settings on the mother board for a DX2 chip and it continues to run at this ludicrous speed!!!???

Am5x86 does not have a 2X multiplier, so it's definitely not running in 2x50 mode.
The BIOS for this machine does not support am5x86, so it's being misreported as a DX2.
According to your benchmark, the actual speed is 100MHz, which implies 3x33. The "throughput" speed is just some synthetic result, probably comparing to a baseline 286 or something.
I think there may be an issue with your board that prevents it from running in 4x33 (133mhz), but I think there might have been a BIOS update or workaround. Better look into that.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2024-07-22, 14:42:

Am5x86 does not have a 2X multiplier, so it's definitely not running in 2x50 mode. The BIOS for this machine does not support a […]
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Am5x86 does not have a 2X multiplier, so it's definitely not running in 2x50 mode.
The BIOS for this machine does not support am5x86, so it's being misreported as a DX2.
According to your benchmark, the actual speed is 100MHz, which implies 3x33. The "throughput" speed is just some synthetic result, probably comparing to a baseline 286 or something.
I think there may be an issue with your board that prevents it from running in 4x33 (133mhz), but I think there might have been a BIOS update or workaround. Better look into that.

It's definitely not an am586!

The BIOS is at its latest revision for this board!

I took a picture of the jumper table on the inside of the computer case just for reference:

Ive just reinstalled the Cyrix 486 DX4 100MHz chip, and it at least responds correctly to the jumper settings! 😀

The motherboard only seems to support a 33MHz bus, so when I slotted the Cyrix, it was initially only running at 66MHz.

Now it's also reporting properly in the BIOS:

In CPU-Z it reports as an AMD chip though!

Regarding Gus dos driver hell, I recommend Unisound, it is incredibly easy to setup and handles sb16 as well.

Irinikus wrote on 2024-07-22, 11:28:

..... I've entered the following: […]
Show full quote

.....
I've entered the following:

device=C:\GRAVIS\ULTRASND\IWINIT.EXE
ID=GRV00001
INTERWAVE=C:\GRAVIS\ULTRASND\IW.INI

But it continues to complain that it can't find the Interwave environment variable.
........

Afaik you need SET in MS-DOS,
for example
SET ID=GRV00001

I think it is still the same in Windows 11.

Irinikus wrote on 2024-07-22, 13:05:

There's something very weird going on here, just look at the CPU speed according to Snooper and Syschk45:

The attachment IMG_8715 copy.jpg is no longer available

The attachment IMG_8714 copy.jpg is no longer available

I know Snooper CPU speed is equivalent to IBM 5170 Mhz, i.e. how fast a 286 would have to run to match it.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-07-22, 18:23:

Irinikus wrote on 2024-07-22, 13:05:

There's something very weird going on here, just look at the CPU speed according to Snooper and Syschk45:

The attachment IMG_8715 copy.jpg is no longer available

The attachment IMG_8714 copy.jpg is no longer available

I know Snooper CPU speed is equivalent to IBM 5170 Mhz, i.e. how fast a 286 would have to run to match it.

Cool! 😎

Thanks for the info, as it was a bit confusing!

CoffeeOne wrote on 2024-07-22, 18:04:

Afaik you need SET in MS-DOS, for example SET ID=GRV00001 […]
Show full quote

Irinikus wrote on 2024-07-22, 11:28:

..... I've entered the following: […]
Show full quote

.....
I've entered the following:

device=C:\GRAVIS\ULTRASND\IWINIT.EXE
ID=GRV00001
INTERWAVE=C:\GRAVIS\ULTRASND\IW.INI

But it continues to complain that it can't find the Interwave environment variable.
........

Afaik you need SET in MS-DOS,
for example
SET ID=GRV00001

I think it is still the same in Windows 11.

Here's my config.sys entry:

and here's the result:

I managed to get the CD-ROM up and. running in DOS:

These are my config.sys entries: (I will still add the necessary entries to conserve conventional memory if need be)

These are my auto exec.bat entries:

Irinikus wrote on 2024-07-22, 14:48:

It's definitely not an am586!

I guess I've just seen too many people with these things try to upgrade to 5x86.

Irinikus wrote on 2024-07-22, 19:09:

Here's my config.sys entry: […]
Show full quote

CoffeeOne wrote on 2024-07-22, 18:04:

Afaik you need SET in MS-DOS, for example SET ID=GRV00001 […]
Show full quote

Irinikus wrote on 2024-07-22, 11:28:

..... I've entered the following: […]
Show full quote

.....
I've entered the following:

device=C:\GRAVIS\ULTRASND\IWINIT.EXE
ID=GRV00001
INTERWAVE=C:\GRAVIS\ULTRASND\IW.INI

But it continues to complain that it can't find the Interwave environment variable.
........

Afaik you need SET in MS-DOS,
for example
SET ID=GRV00001

I think it is still the same in Windows 11.

Here's my config.sys entry:

The attachment IMG_8720 copy.jpg is no longer available

and here's the result:

The attachment IMG_8723 copy.jpg is no longer available

The attachment IMG_8724 copy.jpg is no longer available

Ah yes. My bad, the set command would work in a bat file, like autoexec.bat, but not in config.sys

This is my current memory usage:

Here's my current config.sys file:

Here's my current auto exec.bat file

I did try qcdrom.sys, to try and free up some more conventional memory, but it doesn't work on my system!

I also edited the msdos.sys file, to allow the system to boot straight into DOS on startup, and if or any reason I want to boot Windows 98SE, I just type in "win" at the command prompt! (I was sick and tired of having to go for the F8 key!!!)

I'm able to run all the games that I want to for now with this configuration, but any suggestions as how to improve it will be welcome!