Re: Making choices for a (super) socket 7 for DOS - Win98SE. Only 3 cards can be installed!

Posted on 2024-05-25, 12:22

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If I had to choose one sound card, it would be an SBPro clone + daughterboard. With 3 slots total - you don't really have the luxury of dual video cards or dual audio cards, especially if you need USB 2.0 or Ethernet.

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Re: Thinkpad, A Better Place to Think.

Posted on 2024-05-24, 19:44

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

ExpressCard and CardBus makes that very handy as a transitional-tech machine. I've got old PCMCIA flash cards and an E-SATA ExpressCard. Having those in a single device would make it a lot easier to get data from my contemporary equipment into my older laptops. Indeed. That thing alone makes in my …

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Re: Is the Pentium 4 underrated for retro computing?

Posted on 2024-05-24, 10:24

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If we're pedantic about it, Intel Win9x compatibility mostly can be grouped into 4 classes of south bridges: Class 1: PIIX family (Pentium 3 era with native ISA) Class 2: ICH5 (last chipset with AGP and full support for various PCI DOS sound solutions) Class 3: ICH7 (last south bridge with native …

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Re: DOS 7.1 Boot and Memory Problems

Posted on 2024-05-24, 07:09

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

There is no legit version of DOS 7.1 CD that comes on a CD (without Windows). I would stay away from those pirated 'hacks'. Either install Win98/SE proper (even if you only wish to use its DOS portion) or stay with 6.22/3.11.

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Re: Thinkpad, A Better Place to Think.

Posted on 2024-05-23, 06:33

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Looks identical to my T41, apart from the fingerprint reader which I don't have. I wonder if it has the same slight design fault as my model. If you pick it up wrong the case flexes and the motherboard flexes with it which can cause the BGA joint on the GPU to fail (found that out the hard way). …

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Re: Is the Pentium 4 underrated for retro computing?

Posted on 2024-05-20, 18:26

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-05-20, 15:35: I'm still running an i7-8700k in my "modern" gaming rig. 😁 An i7-8700K is the most modern CPU in my house. 😁

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Re: P5Q PRO troubleshooting - no POST, fans/LEDs on, no response to reset/power-off

Posted on 2024-05-20, 15:11

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Wow, inactive for 216 days? Well, I've certainly been lazy about debugging this board. However, I can confirm that changing the CR2032 had no effect. I wonder if some advice from this thread can be relevant, even though the boards are several generations apart, and I can't see any bulging caps on …

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Re: Is it possible to copy the Warcraft 2 CD?

Posted on 2024-05-18, 15:50

by

by dr_st

in DOS

in DOS

Easiest thing to check and equalize would be the CD-ROM driver and startup settings (CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT). Beyond that - BIOS settings, if they somehow differ. IDE cable?

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Re: Windows 98 SE install - How do I target installation on D: ?

Posted on 2024-05-18, 12:47

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yup, and over time, most people developed tricks to make that easier, e.g. partitioning your drive so that you could blow up your OS/apps drive without having to back up your documents (to floppy!) first. As the price of drives went down, I eventually switched to a dedicated documents drive rather …

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Re: Windows 98 SE install - How do I target installation on D: ?

Posted on 2024-05-18, 12:04

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, my aim is for it not to work the first time, so that I can rediscover the logic of the 90s, rather than applying a ‘recipe’ and coming up with yet another retro-gaming machine as quickly as possible. So I'm working on a multi-drive, multi-boot machine, including a LinuxMint volume. Switching …

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Re: Is it possible to copy the Warcraft 2 CD?

Posted on 2024-05-18, 11:56

by

by dr_st

in DOS

in DOS

I suspect there may be something wrong with your burner or your reader. Maybe some strange incompatibility. Although I must confess I don't recall using a burnt Warcraft II CD in pure DOS. If all else fails - you might be able to adapt the No-CD cracks to the German version (follow the comments on …

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Re: How important is screen resolution to you?

Posted on 2024-05-18, 08:06

by

by dr_st

in Milliways

in Milliways

Your argument holds IF you have the space for that large 16:9 display. Sure, 4:3 content looks good on a 65" or 75" 16:9 display. But, not everyone has a desk and / or desire to cart, say, a 42" 16:9 computer monitor around to display 4:3 content big enough. Yes, if your desk is very narrow and …

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Re: Is it possible to copy the Warcraft 2 CD?

Posted on 2024-05-17, 14:01

by

by dr_st

in DOS

in DOS

This is quite strange. I don't have a German Warcraft II, but I do have the English version, and I can't imagine it being so difficult to clone the disc. I'm going to try to image it now. Could you explain in detail the steps of the cloning/imaging process you used? Which version of Nero? Did you …

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Re: Warcraft 2 DOS Version: Disc Access Error at installation

Posted on 2024-05-15, 13:20

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Maybe the IDE controller is botched...

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Re: Is the Pentium 4 underrated for retro computing?

Posted on 2024-05-15, 06:33

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

sensible summary, though for me P4 is more than fine for windows XP and a late P4 around 3ghz is a rocket (and core duo is creeping into compatibility with W7 / linux territory) i tend to see it as good for 9x or xp gaming later P4 boards combined with nice agp is good for mid 2000's games That's …

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Re: How important is screen resolution to you?

Posted on 2024-05-15, 06:06

by

by dr_st

in Milliways

in Milliways

Speaking of TVs. Really miss dual picture and picture in picture. And never understand why it dissapeared. Probably because you were like one of four people in the world using it. I have this feature on almost every one of my desktop monitors (which are "sort of" high end), and haven't used it even …

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2024-05-14, 12:45

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

yojc wrote on 2024-05-14, 11:16: https://i.imgur.com/p3ZDgFbm.jpeg […] Show full quote Rayman 2: The Great Escape PC-CD 😎

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Re: How important is screen resolution to you?

Posted on 2024-05-14, 08:51

by

by dr_st

in Milliways

in Milliways

Dunno how popular the Nostalgia Nerd is around these here parts, but he has just posted a video titled Why did we Abandon 4:3? Very interesting background there. Good video. I would argue that from a practical POV - the 4:3 vs 16:9 (or wider) argument may have mattered during the early days of 16 …

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Re: what was it like watching the death of 3dfx post voodoo 3 (late 1999-2000)?

Posted on 2024-05-13, 13:25

by

by dr_st

in Milliways

in Milliways

what was it like owning a voodoo around the turn of the millennium and watching 3dfx get pushed to the wayside? For me it was like not even realizing what was going on. I wasn't following the hardware scene, wasn't connected to tech communities, and so to me it was as simple as that: When I built a …

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Re: Windows 98 SE install - How do I target installation on D: ?

Posted on 2024-05-13, 13:20

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Before I launch into a long description, here's a question to help me close the wrong doors for the next build: contents of the Windows 98 SE installation CD-ROM copied to volume E: installation target = volume D: boot under FreeDOS from volume C: Why are you aiming for a dual-boot of Win98 SE and …

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