Jump to content
IGNORED

Built myself a 486


Recommended Posts

I ended up disabling the printer port (as I am certain I am never going to print on this computer anyway) in order to free IRQ 7 anyway as I found using the UltraMAX on 11 and 12 was not stable. It worked 95% of the time, but the other 5% it would freeze on some games launching, or freeze when transitioning between game screens.

 

What I think this is in my situation is that IRQ 12 is for the PS2 mouse. On this motherboard it is a header and I do not have a PS2 port that plugs into it. I never worried about it as I am using a serial mouse anyway. But, there are no options to actually turn off the PS2 header/port in the BIOS. So, I think it is always active and something screwy happens here and there.

 

If I use IRQ 9 it does something really strange. When you load Windows 3.1 the beginning "tada" chime will sound and repeat over and over forever. I have never seen that happen in all of my years. So IRQ 9 is out of the question at least on this system for use with the GUS.

 

So, yeah, 7 it is. I was going to set the GUS at 7 and midi at 11, but I set them both to 7 ..and it works perfectly and all of the issues have appeared to disappear. So odd that the GUS software omits IRQ 10 for usage...I wonder why?

 

What a picky card! GUS is lucky he sounds so darn good or he would have been packing his bags by now ;)

 

 

Edited by eightbit
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I spend some time today tweaking this system....heh...spent now two months doing that. I gutted a 40pin SOJ memory chip from a S3 Virge card in order to upgrade the GUS to 1MB and that worked perfectly. I found that 1MB is needed for some games for GUS sound. Primarily "Death Rally". Well, memory passes tests and that works just so great.

 

I also wanted to flash back to the UMC I/O card I installed. The drivers for this are not necessary and if anything just cause problems...at least when using them with the flash media CF solution I have. I found not using the drivers at all is just better. I used them originally because for some reason without having them installed the HDD activity light remained ON. Well, I found out today that any software that initializes an IDE device on boot activates the activity light. The CD-ROM drivers do that. So, UMC HDD driver has been removed. The machine boots even faster now. I believe those drivers would be beneficial with actual hard drives, but with this CF to IDE solution it makes no sense....same with using SMARTDRV. 

 

Anyway, this machine runs like a dream and it is truly done now. I hope this thread has inspired people to consider building such a machine if they have that desire and I hope the information contributed by myself and many kind folks in this thread can help overcome some headaches and answer some questions for people looking to do this. 

 

And, as always, feel free to reach out to me directly if you are in the process of building a 486 machine (or any machine) and are stuck somewhere. I am always willing to help a fellow member!

 

Going in I had this idea that it would be like every other build. But, not so at all. If you are interested in building such a machine, make some time. Be patient. It's obviously not as easy and "slap it together and done". There's some very fine tweaking that needs to happen and this can take you some time. It is really a labor of love. Stick with it and you can make that dream machine a reality. I am really glad I did this not only to make a "super 486" but because it refreshed my memory and my old skills came back....it was like riding a bike again after not for decades literally.

 

 

Long live the beige indeed, and now on to the next build! ;)

 

Edited by eightbit
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...