Re: Phil's YouTube and Website updates (philscomputerlab)

Posted on Yesterday, 20:18

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by TheMobRules

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Well, if you can do better? You know where Youtube is. I'll look forward to your content. Well, I also happen to think that Phil's channel took a nosedive in quality when it started focusing on modern stuff or downright bizarre hardware (such as those unbranded not old but not really new …

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Re: ATX PSU for a 386 & 486 build.

Posted on 2020-02-14, 19:55

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Only a few ISA sound cards require the -5V line, otherwise it's not needed at all and it was removed from the ATX standard years ago. There is a thread somewhere in this forum which lists the sound cards that need -5V. If you find that your card is one of those, you could still buy an ATX-to-AT …

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Re: Advice on making a stable VLB build

Posted on 2020-02-10, 17:35

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you keep the bus frequency at <= 33MHz then you shouldn't have issues getting 2 or 3 VLB cards running at the same time without the need for adding wait states or delays. For 40MHz YMMV, sometimes you can use it without adding wait states, sometimes you can't, depends on the cards. But keep in …

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Re: Troubleshooting Asus PCI/I-P54SP4 no boot

Posted on 2020-02-09, 21:28

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am troubleshooting a Socket 5 board with the exact same symptoms, only it's a Neptune (430NX) based board (FIC PN-2000). I also tried flashing the latest BIOS on another chip, several known good PCI/ISA VGAs, CPUs, PSUs and FPM memory sticks but no dice. Voltages are fine but POST card doesn't …

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Re: Ark Logic ARK1000VL VLB videocard not working: new BIOS needed?

Posted on 2020-01-27, 15:39

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I don't have one of those cards, but there is a BIOS download link on this page: http://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item/ … logic-ark1000vl

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-01-25, 06:12

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BTW, are Asus VLB boards better that VI15G? I can get one, but it's not going to be cheap enough for an "impulse buy", so I'm figuring whether that makes sense. They both use SIS471 chipset, and the only major difference seems the absence of a PS/2 header on the AOpen board. I have both an AOpen …

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Re: any use for broken hard drives?

Posted on 2020-01-25, 06:02

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I use broken hard drives as dummy loads when testing power supplies (assuming they're not THAT broken and still power up).

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Re: Biostar MB-1433/50 AEA-V with unpopulated VLB slots: possible transplant?

Posted on 2020-01-21, 14:39

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It works!! The BIOS dumped with NSSI/ATROM did the trick! I still need to have the undocumented J01 jumper shorted in order for VLB cards to work, but other than that everything seems to work just fine! I'll populate the remaining slot and do some more extensive testing this weekend, but I haven't …

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Re: Biostar MB-1433/50 AEA-V with unpopulated VLB slots: possible transplant?

Posted on 2020-01-21, 00:41

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks Horun! I have a W27C512 (EEPROM) lying around that I can use to test these. I will let you know about the results tomorrow! Thanks again.

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Re: Biostar MB-1433/50 AEA-V with unpopulated VLB slots: possible transplant?

Posted on 2020-01-19, 23:13

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you are able to boot to MS-DOS on that board, NSSI should allow you to dump the system BIOS to a file. In the past I've also used a tool called GETROM.

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Re: Biostar MB-1433/50 AEA-V with unpopulated VLB slots: possible transplant?

Posted on 2020-01-19, 17:56

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks a lot Horun! I also have both the AEA-V and UIV variants of this board, and as you say they are quite different, the UIV is a newer design with a different chipset. If you manage to dump the BIOS of your AEA-V VER. 5 I can give it a try, mine is VER. 2 but there doesn't seem to be many …

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Re: Biostar MB-1433/50 AEA-V with unpopulated VLB slots: possible transplant?

Posted on 2020-01-19, 00:49

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I hate to resurrect my own thread, but I can't find any information about this VLB-crippled version of the board. So, I went ahead and transplated a VLB slot from a dead donor board, and gave it a try with a few different VLB cards. Nothing. With an ISA VGA it POSTs immediately, but with VLB not …

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Re: Solaris 7 build.

Posted on 2019-12-31, 22:50

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I have been curious about Solaris but haven't actually tried it. What can it do for me? . Just about everything you can expect from other Unix type OSes. Mostly server/workstation stuff, running specific software for engineering/physics applications that make good use of SMP and all that. The usual …

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Re: What HDD do you use? (1GB to 10GB)

Posted on 2019-12-31, 04:55

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Initially I was 100% on the CF-IDE camp, but I haven't had a good experience with those adapters personally. Detection problems with older motherboards, strange issues that make the FDD controller fail and missing the "feeling" of a mechanical HDD drove me away. I only use actual HDDs now, not any …

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Re: AT psu wires

Posted on 2019-12-29, 19:14

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am still bit confused. I tested continuity. So the one I thought is blue doesn't connect to any of the 3 pins at the back. The one that I thought is white connects to right pin and one of the other 2 wires connects to left pin. So do I make the switch short between those blue and white and also …

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Re: AT psu wires

Posted on 2019-12-29, 18:22

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Since you have a multimeter, you can first do a continuity test between the connectors and the plug on the back of the power supply. That way you can identify which of those are the live (brown) and neutral (blue) coming from the mains. The other two wires are the ones that connect to the PCB of the …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-12-26, 20:33

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also, when I power it on with a cheap eBay-special 9v 1A (center negative) power brick, the power led flashes a couple times (also makes my headphones thump a little each time) before it powers on fully... so I'm not going to be using that. When using a 9v 1A Roland "ACI" brick from my SC-55 it …

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Re: Strange case of Non-Post after rehousing..

Posted on 2019-12-11, 07:28

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If there is a short on the motherboard the PSU protection should kick-in as soon as you turn it on. If at least the fans start and the PSU voltages look OK as you mentioned, then the problem may be somewhere else (be sure to also check the +3.3V line). After everything was installed, I booted the PC …

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Re: What music are you listening to?

Posted on 2019-11-28, 20:57

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

JayCeeBee64 wrote: Blue Oyster Cult - Veteran Of The Psychic Wars (Fire Of Unknown Origin, 1981) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT3nz1WIaGY The live version of that song from "Extraterrestrial Live" features a mind blowing solo by Buck Dharma. Takes the song to a whole new level IMHO.

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Re: DOS programming - Where to start? Books?

Posted on 2019-11-23, 04:02

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

My go-to book for MASM programming back in college was The Art of Assembly Language . But beware, there are different editions of the book: one for 32-bit Windows, another one for 32-bit Linux and the most common one which you will probably find on Amazon, that focuses on HLA (High Level Assembly). …

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