Alton 590 Motherboard Manual

[RTHawk]

I just purchased a used Alton 590 motherboard. I am now looking for a manual either online to download (such as Adobe pdf) or a hard copy of the manual. Any other comments or recommendations on using this board would be appreciated. I found specifications for this board at: http://www.pcware.com/Products/MB590.htm
but nothing on obtaining more information. Does anyone know the Alton website address?

[Roy]

I chased around after your board using several resources. All paths lead back to PC Ware. I'd contact them, Alton might be their own company.

[RTHawk]

Thanks for taking the time, Roy....wasn't that PCWare website strange? Not much information about who they are...the base web address page was completely blank...the contact page was a link to email them....I've never seen a company be so secretive.

[Brangwen]

I think it's here:
http://www.pcware.com/Manuals/M590v12t.pdf

Good luck.

Brangwen http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[Peter M]

PC-Ware/Alton/PC-Quest/whatever is just a reseller of PC-Chips kit.

Try this:
http://www.pcchips.com.tw/M590.html

If you have questions on this board, ask here - I've been using them a lot, including recent upgrades to large DIMMs and fast CPUs.

Regards, Peter

[RTHawk]

Thank you for your replies, folks. I felt like an idiot with my first reply - was able to finally access the http://www.pcware.com/pcwarehp.htm and navigate to the manuals and bios updates pages.

There is a slight problem with the instructions for updating the bios - the bios page gives 4 AMI Flash Update Utilities and gives the 1209.rom file as the latest corresponding Alton 590MB bios update. I noticed on the other sites you all provided that that file is named 1209s.rom
I am wondering if there is a difference AND which of the AMI Flash Utilities to use for this board.

The board I have is Rev 1.2 - it has a Sis Chipset 5591/5595 which http://www.sis.com.tw indicates has a PC97 compliance and up to 83.3 Mhz bus. This conflicts with the glowing PC97/PC98 compliance and up to 100 Mhz bus speed that I have read in specs for this board.

I downloaded the pdf manual file from PCware.
It indicates that all Dimm and Simm slots can be used at once with a memory of up to 384mb ram. I currently have 2 16mb EDO memory cards to put in the simm slots. I am considering getting a dimm to increase the memory to at least 64mb ram total. Has anyone (Peter?) used both simm and dimm slots at once?

Lastly, for the moment, I am going to use a Pentium 233MMX processor. Will the bios detect this CPU or are there settings in the bios that I have to manually enter in setup?

Thank you for helping me upgrade my first motherboard from scratch.
Nadine

[Peter M]

The 1998/12/09 BIOS is the right one, no matter what the file name is. The file on www.pcchips.com.tw (http://www.pcchips.com.tw) is just as OK as any other incarnation of it.

Use the AMIFL6xx.EXE that came with the board, not one of the newer AMIFL8xx.EXE.

The M590 does run best at 83 MHz or below, since this is the chipset's official limit. SiS said at the time that the chipset does have some headroom, and PC-Chips weren't the only ones to push it.

However, the "100 MHz" mode actually runs at 90 (despite the clock generator chip having a 100 MHz mode as well), be it a BIOS bug or deliberate or whatever.

As with almost any boards, you should NOT put SDRAM DIMMs in while you still have EDO or FPM SIMMs. EDO/FPM drives the data lines at 5V levels, while SDRAM requires 3V levels and is not 5V tolerant. This means your SDRAM will fry over time. You can put EDO DIMMs in, but these have always been rare and expensive. The best solution is to take the SIMMs out and use a current PC100 DIMM. With those, you can fit up to 512 MB, which should do.

CPU-wise, said BIOS handles anything up to K6-2 and K6-III. With any CPU, you have to set the correct speed grade in BIOS as this can't be detected. With newer K6-2 or -III speed grades, you'd also have to set a suitable voltage and bus speed/multiplier combination to avoid the "100" MHz trap. Like with a K6-2/500, the suggested 5.0x 100 MHz setting would only take you to an actual 5.0x 90 MHz = 450 MHz, while setting 2.0x 83 MHz takes you to 6.0x83=500 MHz. (PCI and AGP bus speeds are non-overclocked at any CPU bus speed.)

I've done both recently - fitted a K6-2/500, and used a very modern single-sided 8-chip 128-MByte PC100 DIMM.

Regards, Peter

[RTHawk]

Thank you Peter for your quick reply.

I do not have the CD's that came with the board...where is that AMI Bios Utility that you suggested?

Regards,
Nadine

[RTHawk]

Just received an email from tech support at pcware.com.tw to use the AMIFL816.exe because it is the latest.

[RTHawk]

Update....just visited www.pcwave.com (http://www.pcwave.com) which shows the 590 mobo as discontinued, however with a bios update file 5909625.zip dated 6/25/99 of 117kb. This is obviously newer than the 1998/12/09 one.

I also found an AMI Bios Flash utility called AMI634.zip at this site.

Getting conflicting information so I'm not sure which to use.
Have a good weekend,
Nadine

[Peter M]

If your M590 is the most common v1.2 or older, then do not use the 990625 BIOS.

You'll lose the USB ports, and some other more subtle things will also quit working. This BIOS is for a later revision of that board that uses a later revision of the SiS 5595 south bridge chip.

The best BIOS to use with a normal M590 is the 1209S.ROM.

Regards, Peter