Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

If there was something wrong in the clock generator the computer wouldn't have started.

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

I was thinking that it was still producing a clock signal, but a bad component caused the clock frequency to be lower than it should be.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

The BIOS reads the actual frequency of the CPU. If the POST screen reports the correct frequency then the CPU is running at that frequency.

[Wizard]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

THe help is useless if one can't face the reality that mainboard is very poor on CPU support. Also the SiS chipset is not best at most with hardware support.
I had problems with it, noisy audio, performance not best etc.

The problem you have is not found in bios actually the hardware might had failed or bad documentation for the board. In the era of socket 7 boards were still setup with jumpers. By the way, the best I can get SiS to run is 75MHz FSB, 83 FSB resulted in dead PC.

The PII 300-450 slot 1 on BX board or socket 370 board PIII 500MHz with one stick of 256MB SDRAM all on 815 chipset mainboard is much better and more reliable for DOS box and still have floppy drive. DOS era relied on floppies for installing software.

PS: What the main reason you are keeping trying with the sick board? I had share of clock generator failures on socket 5,6,7 boards because these clock generator chips ran real hot. Literally hot that almost burned your finger. I did check with my scope and they were outputting off-frequency and many cases weak output even no output.

Cheers, Wizard

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

DOS on Intel Chipsets runs fine up to the i815 chipset.

AFAIK that was last chipset where Intel provided a DOS INF and drivers for the chipset integral video.

Contrary to popular belief having more RAM in the box than DOS can cache doesn't give you a performance hit.
[That idea was debunked years ago but unfortunately only after it was repeated a billion times in the Internet so the outdated info persists.]
It simply doesn't -use- the extra RAM because it isn't mapped by DOS.
Same idea as installing 8GB physically then running a 32-bit OS that can only map 4GB.
Won't hurt, just won't get used.

I know this is true.
I have an i815 based DOS box running a 1.4GHz P-IIIS Tualatin.
This board:
http://oldweb.gigabyte.com.tw/products/6ieml.htm
Lasted BIOS takes P-IIIS and drives over 137GB [48-bit addressing] with no mods/work-arounds needed.

I have over 20 of that mobo left with various Cooler, CPU & RAM options.
[Have crap caps but none bloated [yet]. Replacement caps would be included.]
If anyone is interested let me know and I'll post an ad.
.

[Agent24]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Well what brands are the capacitors and are any bulging?

[mockingbird]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Do any of those VMs and emulators support 3D graphics at a reasonable speed? I remember hearing that DOSbox emulated a Voodoo card, but it required a faster CPU than anything currently available.

Yes! Virtualbox has better support for 3D than VMWare Workstation (And Workstation isn't free, you'll have to obtain it through "creative" means) but Virtualbox' floppy support was broken the last time I checked, though it worked perfectly in VMWare.

If you *absolutely* need floppy support and want to use Virtualbox and not VMWare Workstation, then you can always copy the floppy as an ISO and then mount it as a virtual floppy in Virtualbox. Keep in mind, VirtualBox' 3D support has to be installed seperately.

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

I know the board sucks, but until I replace my laptop I won't have a computer fast enough to run any programs under an emulator or VM.

The BIOS does not display the frequency. It only displays the CPU type. Windows programs do display the frequency, and the frequency they show matches wgat the jumpers are set to. However, all software tools and the BIOS detect the CPU as a K6-2/400 and think the CPU is overclocked. There are no BIOS updates, so the only way to get the BIOS to detect the CPU properly is to extract the data from the ROM and modify it. The BIOS ROM might be a read-only chip.

The caps on the motherboard are I.Q brand, but none appear bad. I posted images of the PSU here.

The only Windows 9x disc that I have is the system recovery disc that came with this computer. I don't know how well that would work in Virtualbox.

[mockingbird]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Should be fine in Virtualbox. Set it up and play around with it. It takes a little to get it working properly.

[Agent24]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

The caps on the motherboard are I.Q brand, but none appear bad. I posted images of the PSU here.

I.Q. don't sound like they would be high quality, and Teapo, G-Luxon, Su'scon as you said are in your PSU aren't great either.

Perhaps you need a recap? If you don't have an ESR meter it might be worth it to make one - there are some pretty good and cheap designs posted on the forum.

Someone else posted this: http://kripton2035.free.fr/esr-repository.html which links to what look like some pretty nice designs...

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

I tried running Virtualbox on my laptop and now Windows is completely screwed. Windows Media Player's color scheme has been changed to bright red and the optical drive won't read any discs. The disc takes an extremely long time to open in and Windows claims that the disc is not formatted properly. Everything worked perfectly before installing Virtualbox. Running System Restore and restoring to a point before installing Virtualbox did not change anything.

Now I have two broken computers.

[Wizard]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

This is why I'm so cautious on yes or no on dos emulators till forum know what your hardware is for notebook and the computer since OS emulators requirement is very severe.

Also when you said till you can replace the notebook instantly I was very concerned. That might had the underlying problem that caused the corruption. Even underspecified hardware can cause problems.

Time to start up the notebook in safe mode and get data backed up then reinstall the OS on the notebook. And rebuild a better DOS computer.

Did the notebook have problems for awhile that caused you to work on replacing it, do you? I was wondering.

Cheers, Wizard

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Virtualbox doesn't support Windows XP! The latest version worked until I tried to install Windows in the VM. Version 2.2.4 will not load and immediately gives me a message stating that the version of Windows I am using is not supported. Virtualbox seems to only work under Windows Vista and 7, and I don't have a computer that is capable of running either version of Windows.

The laptop has many hardware problems. The CPU runs extremely warm, the hard drive has almost 400 bad sectors, the display is very difficult to open and close, the optical drive will not burn a CD (the burn process succeeds with no error messages, but the disc is unreadable), the battery won't charge, the screen flickers unless I run the display at full brightness, and both the keyboard and touchpad have failed. It would cost less to buy a new computer than to repair the laptop, especially considering that the CPU has the performance of a 1.4GHz P4.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

I don't know where you got 2.2.4 from because here it says that the latest version is 4.0.8. http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

For the compatibility thing it could just be a stupid bug, i find it really hard to believe that it won't work on XP anymore. I think you should do yourself a favor and toss that laptop.

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

I tried the latest version as well.

If I get rid of the laptop, I lose the best computer I have. I am looking at buying a new computer soon.

[Agent24]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Your screwed up media player settings sound like the kind of thing that can be caused by faulty RAM or a bad hard drive.

I would run memtest86+ and check the HDD SMART with something like Speedfan or HDAT2


Or it's possible the virtualbox software did it for fun...

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

The hard drive is bad in the laptop, but the memory is still good.
Everything was fine until I installed Virtualbox.

[Agent24]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Maybe it was the hard drive that caused the problem, could have done something to the registry.

[NxB]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Did you try uninstalling it? Install latest version?

With so many bad and slow sectors on your hard drive anything can happen. I've seen windows come up with no task bar, display glitches, registry corruption and all kinds of other mess from failing disks. 400 sectors is pretty far along into failed.

You could get a desktop with better specs for next to nothing. If you really have no money for a PC go craigslist or dumpster dive. When I was broke and in this situation, I did the latter. Ironically it was right at the time that your dos mobo was still decent. I had a k62-450 and the celeron 500 out of the garbage kicked its ass.

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

I could find a newer computer and run Windows 98 under a VM.
I tried the latest version of Virtualbox and the first version that supported 3D acceleration. Both gave me messages stating that the program was not designed for Windows XP, but the latest version was able to open. When it tried to read the Windows 98 CD, I received a "Disk I/O Error" message. After that, no discs could be read in the optical drive.

The problem with the Compaq is that all CPUs give poor performance, not just the K6-2.