#P90 Mboards – OPTI ?
12 messages in this thread
I saw a posting here a while back concerning problems with OPTI chipsets on
Pentium 90 Motherboards. I would like to get a semi-technical advise/response
on the current problems. I am a 3DS dealer along with generic systems, and need
to convience a few others to go with the Intel Neptune.
If anyone has some hard facts, please let me know.
Thanks,
Jim Pope
Denver
Jim,
>> OPTI chipsets on Pentium 90 Motherboards.
Pick up the Sept. 27, 1994 issue of PC Magazine. In their review of forty
p90's, they mentioned that the Neptune chipsets outperformed the Opti chipsets
by about 10%.
I've built a number of 3DS systems based on Intel's Plato motherboard with the
Neptune chipset, and they have performed exceptionally well. The bios is flash
upgradable, and the onboard PCI controllers and I.O. have given us no problems.
(Knock on silicon…) It is important to upgrade to the 1.00.08.AX1 version of
the bios if you are planning on using SCSI.
John
John;
How can you tell what BIOS version is in my Plato Intel MB? And what does the
BIOS upgrade change? And last but not least, how can I upgrade by bios version?
Zac (AZ-TECH)
Berkeley
Zak,
>> How can you tell what BIOS version is in my Plato Intel MB? And what does
the BIOS upgrade change? And last but not least, how can I upgrade by bios
version?
If you have a Plato MB, you will see the bios version when you first start up
your computer; it should be something like 1.00.03.AX1.
There is a complete BIOS revision history in the PLATOHLP.HLP file. There are
several changes, starting with 1.00.03. The only thing mentioned as being
changed from 1.00.06 to 1.00.08 was, (and I quote):
LBX A0 errata fix. Normally seen by SCSI not being able to boot.
If you aren't having problems with SCSI booting, it sounds like the update from
the previous 1.00.06.AX1 might not be necessary. If you have 1.00.03, it is
necessary to go to 1.00.06 before you can go to 1.00.08 or higher. People have
apparently found some new bugs in 1.00.10, and many have gone back to 1.00.08.
The necessary files are available from the Intel iPAN BBS: 916-356-3600
PLATOUP.EXE (1.00.03 -> 1.00.06)
10008AX1.EXE (1.00.06 -> 1.00.08)
PLATOHLP.HLP (A Windows help file that has complete revision history
and setup info, including graphics. Very nice!)
If you do want to update your bios, be sure to read the documentation
carefully. It's necessary to copy the files to a bootable floppy, and start
from there; it's really pretty easy.
John
Why is this bios upgrade deeded for SCSI?
Ian.
Ian,
>> Why is this bios upgrade deeded for SCSI?
According the the BIOS revision history in the PLATOHLP.HLP file, the only
thing mentioned as being changed, (from 1.00.06.AX1), was, (and I quote):
LBX A0 errata fix. Normally seen by SCSI not being able to boot.
If you aren't having problems with SCSI booting, it sounds like the update from
the previous 1.00.06.AX1 might not be necessary. If you have 1.00.03, it is
necessary to go to 1.00.06 before you can go to 1.00.08 or higher. The
necessary files are available from the Intel iPAN BBS: 916-356-3600
PLATOUP.EXE (1.00.03 -> 1.00.06)
10008AX1.EXE (1.00.06 -> 1.00.08)
PLATOHLP.HLP (A Windows help file that has complete revision history
and setup info, including graphics. Very nice!)
If you do want to update your bios, be sure to read the documentation
carefully. It's necessary to copy the files to a bootable floppy, and start
from there; it's really pretty easy.
John
RE: Plato bios w/SCSI
Thanks!
Ian.
there is definatly a problem with the opti chipset and the pentium 90! we have
had 2 systems consistently lockup with 3ds and opti. we replaced them with the
intel plato/neptune mother boards and are running 10% faster then the opti
ones. we are very happy with the intel boards.
sherwood animations
Sherwood:
Which BIOS revision are you running on your Intel 90Mhz boards ?
sherwood,
I was wondering what video card you were using on your Intel motherboards.
I posted several messages about trying to get an ATI Mach 64 w/4mb to work on
an Intel pentium 90. This message is one of the latest. I haven't gotten a
lot of response on this problem. Maybe I haven't been checking the forum often
enough. Since this message I have tried another Mach 64 w/4mb on the Intel
board. I have also tried one of the Mach 64s in a Compaq 566 XL system.
Neither of these trials worked. I also tried the SoftEngine F/X ADI drivers
that ship with the Mach64. I set up vibcfg to use ADI drivers and set the
correct rcpadi environment variables. This gave me the error: Display video
hardware did not initialize
I was wondering if you might have any ideas.
<I was wondering what motherboard your using with the ATI card. I have <been
trying to get a 4Mb Mach 64 card to work with an Intel P90 <w/64Mb. It works
fine in Windoz but I get get a page fault when I try <to run 3DS3. The ATI
works fine if I remove the 2Mb upgrade, but 2Mb <won't do with a 21" monitor.
I have updated 3ds to the latest (1.0.4) <inline drivers, tried different ram,
updated the flash bios on the <motherboard and reinstalling 3DS. I am about
out of ideas. I may <have to go back to a Matrox card.
thanks
SSH -Graphic Realities-
the ati is flawed heavily, it went back imediatly after 2 hours on the phone
with teck support and it just does not work. i replaced it with a spider 64bbit
4 meg card and the other pentium with a genoa 64 phantom both installed in five
minutes and with no problems at all. both are pci one based on the s chip the
other on the seres logic(i can't spell) chip. and both under 400.00. and are
fast.
sherwood