Microway PC164 Screamer - switch to srm console

I still don't have fully working Alpha system, however, my past experiences were about switching between AlphaBIOS and srm console. Like I said earlier, my motherboard came with AlphaBIOS. It can boot only Windows NT and some Linux distributions with this firmware. So I decided to change it to srm firmware. So I downloaded it from here, because Microway Screamer 400 is almost exact copy of AlphaPC 164. Firmware update went smoothly, however, after the system was rebooted I got only a blank screen with blinking cursor. After other reboots where was only a blank screen. Unfortunately, firstly I thought that BIOS didn't fit. I was quite disappointed and couldn't understand what I did wrong. I blamed myself for being hasty. After several days I began to read in the internet if there was something I can do. It appeared that firmware probably was right, however, a problem could be with video card or with the output mode (it can be serial or graphics). Srm console can't emulate BIOS'es of most current and earlier video cards. A list of compatible cards is not very lengthy. My old ATI Rage Pro and a little bit newer NVIDIA TNT2 PCI cards doesn't work with srm console. However, I needed to confirm this. The only way was through serial communication by connecting alpha system with any of my computers. The most known program for this purpose is HyperTerminal in Windows. So I bought null modem (serial) cable and connected to serial ports. First attempts weren't successful, however, I found two reasons of it. Firstly, cable was connected to COM2 port instead of COM1 on the PC and secondly Alpha system hanged up almost immediately with inserted ATI Rage Pro. So I pulled of video card, reconnected cable and after one more boot I finally relieved. HyperTerminal proved that firmware update was successful and the only problem is video card. Like I mentioned earlier, system always hangs with ATI card. It boots with NVIDIA TNT2 but hangs after trying to change output mode from serial to graphics. So, after this I needed to find a compatible video card. I didn't want to buy it from ebay, because they are too cheap (and still commonly more pricey than in Lithuania plus high delivery price from any part of the world). I decided to find it in Vilnius. It wasn't as easy as expected (some people tries to sell very old PCI cards for quite a big price because they are quite "rare" in our days). So I posted a request in one forum and few people answered. However, due to lack of time and other circumstances I got the card (S3 Virge/DX 2 MB) a week later. It costed me only two bottles of beer :). So the whole story ends with successful boot to srm console in graphics mode. I downloaded operating systems too. So, later steps would be the completion of the system (add hard drive, CD-ROM and to find a case for everything) and installation of Linux and/or NetBSD operating systems.

Screamer finally booted!

I finally booted my Microway Screamer 400 today :). Thanks to my dad we soldered "engineering fix" to my motherboard. I made some photos but there were not good. This engineering fix grounded PSON signal on motherboard. Because of this I can use all standard power supplies. I bought one new power supply with hard switch and my motherboard with Alpha CPU booted. I didn't have time to do something more interesting, however, I looked at firmware options. It looks like that there is only ARC firmware, so I can't boot BSDs, only Linux. However, I will try to write SRM console later (it is PC164 clone, so I downloaded it here). I am a little bit afraid that it will not fit (it is quite risky), but I probably will never have an opportunity to boot Windows NT in it, so I am more interested in other OSes (not only Linux). Lack of time can put off these new experiments for a long time, however, as I will find even some free minutes I definitely will play with my new system.

CPU collection

I started to collect CPUs this year in spring. The first item was HP PA-8700 PA-RISC cpu. By date I am posting this post there are 18 processors in my collection. I defined that I would collect only non x86 architecture cpus and not in DIP package. Because of this most processors are RISC ones. There is also one Itanium cpu, one Motorola 68040 cpu and two exceptions (Intel Pentium4 2.0 GHz Socket 423 and AMD K6-2+ 500MHz), however, they are working in my secondary computers. These cpus were released by ten different manufacturers and represents 10 different architecture families. You can look at photos of most of them in here (still 5 or 6 missing). Photos aren't professional, however, you can see what I have. I will add more photos when I will find time. Later I expect to write some posts about architectures I have.

Microway Screamer arrived

According to stamp on a package my motherboard arrived to Lithuania custom on 27 September. However, I got it only yesterday. Because of its weigth (~1,7 Kg), I needed to go to a post branch near our railway station (usually I am getting deliveries in a post near my house). However, my first visit was out of luck. It appeared that I needed to have a copy of invoice before I would get a delivery. The other day everything went quite smoothly. I paid 37 Lt of VAT for it...

The problems didn't end by this :). After I returned home, of course, I made some photos and tried to boot it up. It didn't showed any signs of life. I was very disappointed, I read the whole manual of the motherboard but didn't understand how it can be booted. Finally, I began searching for the reason of that in google. It appeared that this motherboard doesn't conform ATX standard though it has an ATX power connector... Firstly, the motherboard requires a power supply with the power switch connected directly to power supply. I have one power supply with such switch on the back panel, however, it is not enough. Such power supplies also require the PSON signal to be grounded. There are some more solutions, but I didn't try anything yesterday. So, I didn't boot the system and I will have to wait for the weekend to try it one more time.
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