Article: 212210 of rec.games.pinball Path: news.iupui.edu!news.indiana.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.erols.net!nntp.flash.net!news.flash.net!not-for-mail From: brown_du@eisner.decus.org (Duncan Brown) Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball Subject: Re: (SWE1) MediaGX motherboard and support Reply-To: brown_du@eisner.decus.org Message-ID: <38621c16.1757194296@news.flash.net> References: <0Mf84.17892$W2.121154@iad-read.news.verio.net> <83s4600149b@news2.newsguy.com> <83s8n2$dbk$0@dosa.alt.net> <3861b226.1730074015@news.flash.net> <3861B7C2.7547ADB2@attglobal.net> <3861bacf.1732291398@news.flash.net> <3861E528.27D7462@attglobal.net> X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235 Lines: 51 Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 13:07:58 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 216.215.17.121 X-Complaints-To: abuse@flash.net X-Trace: news.flash.net 945954478 216.215.17.121 (Thu, 23 Dec 1999 07:07:58 CST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 07:07:58 CST Organization: FlashNet Communications, http://www.flash.net Xref: news.iupui.edu rec.games.pinball:212210 On Thu, 23 Dec 1999 02:02:32 -0700, Jim Hicks wrote: >Very clever. Too bad you didn't get to finish. Understatement of the year, heh heh heh... >Do you know what model MediaGX motherboard is suitable for replacement? >CPU speed? Might need to pick up a copy of Computer Shopper and get a >spare ... I presume that would be significantly cheaper than buying a >replacement through WMS parts. I don't know how badly they're marking them up, but that's certainly one way to make sure you get the right model! To be quite honest with you I was never intimately familiar with that kind of definition of the board (Chuck and Brad and Tom were the ones keeping up with that stuff); it just mattered to me what SuperIO and support chips were on it! The model number should actually be on the board somewhere. They just pull them out of the box and bolt them into the chassis without trying to disguise what they are. There was more than one vendor and even those vendors changed their boards slightly from time to time. You should be able to get one that works by following the specs gathered from a board. Here's what is in mine: -- MediaGX "GXm" processor - I believe 233MHz -- CX5520 support chip -- PC97317 SuperIO chip ...and whatever that board form factor is called. It is a small motherboard, has the "old PC" style power connector, has I/O ports on ribbon cables instead of soldered to the board. (One of you PC-building guys out there knows the name for this style board, surely?) Of course it needs a PCI slot (PRISM card) and an ISA slot (if you ever plan to use the PUB update procedure.) To be honest, if you use a board we never ran across, it's possible it won't work because they do something we didn't account for. i.e. the benefit of buying a board from Williams is that the board is "qualified" to run in a Pinball 2000. But if you try a board and it does run, it will be fine. If there were some subtle change that we didn't account for, the board would refuse to boot or display or something. If one of you runs out and finds a board that works, or if someone figures out the model number just by looking on the board (I believe it's on a sticker on the bottom?) and figures out a good place to buy them, by all means report back here for the benefit of all! (Duncan's Big Risk, Day 0.5 - Still running fine, heatsink is not even uncomfortably warm. No slag noticed puddled in case...) Duncan