Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on Today, 02:09

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for your feedback. I want to learn from this. I'm not a pro by any means, but having desoldered many components with lots of pins (CPU and SIMM sockets in particular) here are my thoughts: My first few attempts were wildly inconsistent, going from a flawless 72-pin SIMM socket removal which …

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Re: External CMOS battery connector pinout

Posted on 2021-03-06, 18:41

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is the 3-pin connector actually a 4-pin one with one pin removed? Something like this: o x o o 1 2 3 4 If that's the case, usually the first pin (the one near the empty spot) is connected to the battery "+" and the opposite pin (4) goes to "-". If you want to be 100% sure, just check the 2 outer …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2021-03-06, 18:30

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

Honestly, I would have preferred if id Software kept going on the route they took for Doom 3. I liked Doom 2016, but Eternal didn't do it for me at all. I don't understand what's the necessity of limiting most combat to "arenas" with endless waves of enemies popping up, and all of this "combat loop" …

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Does anyone know the part number of these connectors?

Posted on 2021-03-01, 06:20

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm troubleshooting a CRT monitor and some of the ground wires use these connectors, the male part that is soldered to the board is basically a metal post (around 11mm long by 2.5mm diameter): conn_male.jpg The female part that is crimped to the wire has a plastic shroud around it: conn_female.jpg …

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Re: Need some advice for recapping a motherboard

Posted on 2021-02-26, 00:59

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would replace all of the caps if possible, the tiny ones (<100uF) should still be OK, but since you have to do the rest, why not? Panasonic FR should be fine even though they're not as low ESR as the KZGs, I don't think you can find electrolytics of much lower ESR than those nowadays, otherwise …

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Re: PSU Oddity

Posted on 2021-02-20, 17:18

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I believe it was the 5170 that added that +5V wire in P8. Up until then it was NC on the power supplies on 5150, 5160.

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Re: Gigabyte GA-486AM/S motherboard

Posted on 2021-02-20, 05:34

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

486 CPUs are using 32bit external data bus, thus only one 32bit SIMM72 stick is needed for such system to successfully POST, wherereas socket 4/5/7+ CPUs are using 64bit external data bus and thus require at least two simm72 sticks ;) There exists at least one S7 chipset that can interface a 64bit …

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Re: PSU Oddity

Posted on 2021-02-19, 20:40

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

P8/2 should be +5VDC, the same as P9/4, 5 and 6. Which is strange since these should all measure the same (unless for some reason your PSU has that line on a separate rail, which would be uncommon for an AT unit). With the PSU off, please check continuity between P8/2 and the +5V wires of the other …

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Re: Worst LucasArts/Sierra adventure game

Posted on 2021-02-19, 17:21

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

In point & click adventures, Sierra first put the "adventure" by establishing the genre itself (meaning graphic rather than text-based) and LucasFilm/Arts added the "point & click" with the verb interface and dialog trees. So they are essentially the equivalent of what id Software was for first …

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Re: AN430TX/LT430TX Owners?

Posted on 2021-02-17, 01:10

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I have a Gateway 2000 with the same board. Intel bios disabled video. Where did you find a Gateway Bios? In my case it originally came with the Gateway BIOS, but I also found the latest version online years ago: 7502875.exe If you currently have the Intel BIOS, you probably need to use the recovery …

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Re: SIS 496/7G rev 1.02 problems, RTC stops when computer is off, FDC failure when cold booting

Posted on 2021-02-17, 01:04

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Since the SiS 497 has an integrated real time clock, the motherboard is probably using that instead of a separate chip. So you may want to check the 496/497 datasheet (there's info about the RTC in page 73): SiS 496-497.pdf Try to follow the traces to see how it connects to the battery. If the clock …

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Re: AN430TX/LT430TX Owners?

Posted on 2021-02-12, 09:08

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I have an LT430TX, more precisely an OEM version of the board that came from a Gateway 2000. It has onboard ATI Rage video but no sound. Interestingly, the onboard video works only when using the Gateway BIOS. If I flash the generic Intel BIOS, I can only use the board with an add-on PCI video card …

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Re: Cable / Connector Identification Needed

Posted on 2021-02-08, 20:21

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

I also have a PA-09, it's a quality tool but useful only up to AWG 22 wire (I have done some AWG 20 but it's a stretch). What I usually do is crimp the conductor part and make sure it's a secure connection, and then I crimp the isolation. Some specific tools can crimp both at the same time, but with …

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Re: Replacements for motherboard (male) AT power supply connector?

Posted on 2021-02-07, 22:52

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you need a new replacement for the male P8/P9 connector here's the Digi-Key part number: WM17858-ND

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Re: BIOS image collection - requests, discussion etc

Posted on 2021-02-05, 02:06

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Deksor wrote on 2021-01-17, 01:27: Can you please show us the POST string ? It's an AMI bios for sure but it's an old one and extracting the POST string from them is much harder. I added the BIOS string ID to my post and confirmed manufacturer of this 386 board is ECS/Elitegroup (1311): Filename …

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Optiquest Q71 - Erratic button behavior

Posted on 2021-02-04, 04:12

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I got a Viewsonic Optiquest Q71 (date on the back suggests it's from around 2003), and when I fired it up for testing I was pleased to find out that it has a very sharp image with vibrant colors, so it seems what the original owner said about it having very little use is true. However, when trying …

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Re: Gotek Floppy Emulator with FlashFloppy

Posted on 2021-02-01, 02:41

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I’m going to do the oled mod for my GoTek but in the interim, I can still use the flash floppy with the stock 3 digit screen? Obviously I guess I can only use one image at a time since I can’t see the .img file name. Yes, there is a mode for that, Indexed Mode I think it's called. You basically …

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Re: Orpheus Soundcard: a new DOS soundcard with SPDIF/OPL3/MPU support

Posted on 2021-01-28, 19:06

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-01-28, 18:49: That’s $279 for an ISA sound card. More expensive that 1993 prices. L O L Do you realize how much an MPU-401AT + a decent wavetable would have cost back then? And that is excluding the Sound Blaster capabilities, of which you have an example in the posts …

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Re: BIOS image collection - requests, discussion etc

Posted on 2021-01-17, 06:22

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can you please show us the POST string ? It's an AMI bios for sure but it's an old one and extracting the POST string from them is much harder. Sure, I will get the ID once I bring back the PC with that board to my desk (it's currently stored) in order to boot it up. 486 #80 Manufacturer/Identifier …

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Re: 80486 BIOS image collection

Posted on 2021-01-16, 23:16

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

#80 Manufacturer/Identifier: ASUS ISA-486 Chipset: SiS BTQ 85C401/85C402 + 85C206 BIOS/Version: AMI 486DX ISA BIOS 05/05/91 BIOS String: 40-0102-001292-00101111-050591-SIS-486 Filename ISA-486.zip File size 35.87 KiB Downloads 7 downloads Filename ISA-486.jpg File size 1.47 MiB Views 123 views

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