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Everex STEP Megacube Part Deux

Isn't it pretty much true that any system made since the 5150 has a floppy driver as part of the BIOS? What I'm wondering is if the default is 1.2MB 5.25". This could result in a boot from a 1.44MB drive to foul up.

Just a theory.

As always Chuck(G) is on the right track. Problem was this is my first EISA system. The BIOS has no del/f1 option to get into it because EVERYTHING is done through the ECU including setting the HDD type and FDD types. Just like the ECU sets "options" on the EISA cards (IRQs, DMA, etc), the motherboard presents itself w/ options which include FDD, HDD, enabling ports, etc.... The BIOS defaulted to 1.2MB FDD switching it to 1.44 resolved the issue. What I don't understand is why it would boot the first time (before the NVRAM cfg was saved) if the default is 1.2? Could it just check different types until it found one that worked?

I also tried a different version of the ECU (an older one) and it seemed to work better (i.e. it told me what cards were populating what slots). Interestingly after using the older ECU to setup the system the AMI ECU fails to work. I am going to have to play around w/ the different ECUs to see which works best. The later revisions seem to have less functionality (i.e. 1.10 has a separate utility to set date/time, keyboard parameters, CMOS password all of which seem to be missing from 2.07)

However, I continue to have problems w/ running the ECU off the floppy as it continues to for the system configuration disk when I run the sd.exe utility.
 
EISA systems should have the default floppy drive enable or else the system is junk once the configuration file is lost (you need to boot from the floppy to update the config). My 486 EISA machines have a regular CMOS for system board settings (floppy, date, time) and the rest is configured with ECO software (hence 2 batteries). I forget how the P90 EISA system is setup.

Generally I just use the latest ECU software I can find, the driver files should work with any of them.
 
EISA Configuration Utility - Version 2.01
American Megatrends, Inc.
Release Notes
April 19, 1993

That looks to be the generic one, there are others but Company specific

Same here. I also have an MCS 1.10 and 2.07. Supposedly there is a versin of the AMI from 1997. I have so far been unable to locate it.

I found the following: MCS 3.10 seems even more restrictive then the older versions. G2K actually has a number of different versions of the MCS up on their FTP.
 
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Yes, we made a little trade several months back. My EISA system has a VLB slot, and the Winner 2000 had been sitting around for a while, so I thought it would be a good idea to trade it for something useful. As far as SVGA on EISA is concerned, you can't do better (and it really is quite a nice card). However, you could also consider an EISA TIGA or proprietary card in combination with ISA or EISA VGA adapter. I am currently using a VLB card for fast VGA with a Supermac Spectrum (proprietary graphics accellerator) for 24 bit high res graphics in Windows. A two card setup using the feature connector is probably more realistic, since I would consider the Elsa Winner 2000 to be quite rare. If you want one, you would be best to keep a close eye on European ebay. I originally got mine from German eBay about 6 years back.
 
Maybe in a few months. For now I am focusing on just getting this setup and tuned. First priority is still to figure out whats wrong w/ the ECU when booting from floppy disk.
 
It's currently resting in it's ESD bag, it's going into the fat Commodore tower with the Everex Eisa baby AT mobo

Yes, we made a little trade several months back. My EISA system has a VLB slot, and the Winner 2000 had been sitting around for a while, so I thought it would be a good idea to trade it for something useful. As far as SVGA on EISA is concerned, you can't do better (and it really is quite a nice card).

Did either of you guys ever get UniVBE to run w/ the Elsa cards when using the EISA connector? When I originally got mine I popped it in an old machine using the ISA connector and UniVBE detected it just fine. But using the EISA connector it errors out that no supported chipset could be found.

Update: I found and old copy of univesa and that seems to detect the card although I am not sure if it is much of an improvement. More modes seem to fail w/ it loaded then not!
 
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Did either of you guys ever get UniVBE to run w/ the Elsa cards when using the EISA connector? When I originally got mine I popped it in an old machine using the ISA connector and UniVBE detected it just fine. But using the EISA connector it errors out that no supported chipset could be found.

Update: I found and old copy of univesa and that seems to detect the card although I am not sure if it is much of an improvement. More modes seem to fail w/ it loaded then not!

Later univbe versions doesn't work since it's mainly for PCI cards.
Scitech Display Doctor 6.53 works, it can be downloaded here http://www.mediafire.com/?4mznuyeymnj

Actually tested it yesterday on my Elsa Winner 1000 :)
 
Later univbe versions doesn't work since it's mainly for PCI cards.
Scitech Display Doctor 6.53 works, it can be downloaded here http://www.mediafire.com/?4mznuyeymnj

Actually tested it yesterday on my Elsa Winner 1000 :)

E-mail me and tempt me ;)

hehe, depends on what price we're talking about here ;-)

The Elsa Winner 1000 and the Mach32 are will be Ebay'ed shortly

Is this the link off of Vogonz? If so it is the same version I got. The uniVBE that comes with it is Version 6.7. Is this what you are using as well? Thanks.
 
E-mail me and tempt me ;)



Is this the link off of Vogonz? If so it is the same version I got. The uniVBE that comes with it is Version 6.7. Is this what you are using as well? Thanks.

Yes, it's in that Vogons thread

The 6.53 version is in that archive.
6.7 doesn't work with VLB cards either.
 
Yes, it's in that Vogons thread

The 6.53 version is in that archive.
6.7 doesn't work with VLB cards either.

I tried to install 6.53 last night and it was giving me a headache. I am going to have to play with it some more later. I also upgraded the card to 2MB of VRAM and I still can't get 640x480x24bit. I am thinking it has to do w/ the poor VESA support. Like I said troubleshooting and tunning first. I had forgotten how much I loved these old systems! ;)
 
I tried to install 6.53 last night and it was giving me a headache. I am going to have to play with it some more later. I also upgraded the card to 2MB of VRAM and I still can't get 640x480x24bit. I am thinking it has to do w/ the poor VESA support. Like I said troubleshooting and tunning first. I had forgotten how much I loved these old systems! ;)

with 2mb RAm like the card has I'm using in my Compaq Deskpro it should do that res/bit depth
I'm running my desktop at 800x600 16-bit

hehe, isn't it fun to wrestle with ancient PC crap? ;-) we use to laugh at our friends when they messed with their PC's...most of my generation used Amiga computers back then, the PC/Mac thing wasn't big here as home computers
 
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