Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on Yesterday, 19:58

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Creative 3DO Blaster (Boxed) with CR-563-B IDE CD-ROM Drive Always nice to see a 3DO Blaster, I really like the whole concept of "run actual console hardware in your PC". Too bad it never really took off. I wonder how it would have performed commercially if they bundled at least one really good …

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Re: [PSU repair] Antec True480p

Posted on 2022-08-05, 16:05

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good job, I also replaced all the caps on mine (except the 2 big ones on the primary, which are Rubycons). I also had problems finding replacements for the 3300uF caps that would fit in there as the original Fuhjyyu ones were really slim, but luckily I managed to contact someone from badcaps.net who …

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Re: Anyone have AT form factor specification?

Posted on 2022-07-26, 22:12

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Supposedly the IBM XT 286 (5162) motherboard was the first Baby AT form factor and where it's derived from. Right! I think the only difference is that some of the mounting hole positions are taken from the original AT boards (though in some cases boards have holes that match both XT and AT). I'll …

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Re: Anyone have AT form factor specification?

Posted on 2022-07-26, 21:12

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

On a random ASUS Socket 7 motherboard I have at hand I measured 23mm from the center of the mounting hole to the center of the keyboard connector. I made the measurement at the edge of the board. Can you post pictures of the case you're having the problem with? Unfortunately this kind of annoyances …

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Re: old AT / ATX power supplies. Are they worth saving?

Posted on 2022-07-26, 18:01

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My concern is with untested AT supplies, its mostly due to the age of the internal components than any other factor, so if they pass inspection and testing then as you say a re-cap and new fan and they are good for another 20 years. Yes, proper testing is a must, I use stuff like dead hard drives …

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Re: What's with Creative CD drives??

Posted on 2022-07-26, 17:53

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Correct, all that extra $$$ is just the Creative logo basically. There's one special case I can think about, which is the 3DO Blaster that requires a specific model of drive. But even then, you can use the non-Creative equivalent (from Panasonic I believe) and who even has a 3DO Blaster anyway? I …

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Re: old AT / ATX power supplies. Are they worth saving?

Posted on 2022-07-26, 17:21

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm more concerned about AT PSUs to be honest, first 3 on that list. I do have a 486 and a couple of Pentium 1 builds and PSUs used to power them all don't give me much confidence. I'm capable of refurbishing them, but as you said yourself, it may not be worth doing if it's a badly designed PSU. …

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Re: old AT / ATX power supplies. Are they worth saving?

Posted on 2022-07-26, 16:29

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

They're all at least decent. For AT units they usually all use very similar topologies, so you won't find lots of differences unless we're talking about proprietary stuff. You won't need more than 150W when running AT stuff except in extreme cases (very late builds or if you put a bootload of drives …

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Re: What is your most hated/feard task in building a (retro)PC?

Posted on 2022-07-25, 01:37

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The possibility of not being able to match the beiges of my PC case, floppy, and CD-ROM always strikes fear into my heart. Heh, I have a baby AT minitower on which the 3 drives, bay cover, case front and metal chassis each have a slightly different beige color. It looks like ass, and despite many …

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Re: What is your most hated/feard task in building a (retro)PC?

Posted on 2022-07-23, 16:02

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Inserting VLB cards when the board does not have any standoffs to provide support on the 32 bit part of the slot. It usually involves trying to fit my hands in a cramped space while installing the card so that the board does not bend like a banana. Was it really that difficult to add one or two …

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Re: Is gaming a waste of time?

Posted on 2022-07-20, 18:45

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

Uh, not sure if English is your first language, but you better look up the definition of "childish" in the dictionary, because it's pretty much a derogatory term. I don't think anyone would get their feelings hurt by that, but it definitely comes across as condescending. In any case, there are …

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Re: CRT and wrong colours

Posted on 2022-07-20, 17:51

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Regarding brightness, I usually set it this way: I display a fully black screen, and set contrast and brightness to 0%. At that point the screen should be completely black. Then I turn brightness up until the point where it becomes dark gray (you may need to do this in a dark room) and then back …

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Re: Is gaming a waste of time?

Posted on 2022-07-20, 17:23

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

I'm not trying to judge you or somebody else, I'm only trying to make sense of computer games, and I make it with all due respect to all folks here including those who call themselves gamers. Well, calling someone's hobby "childish" is going to sound belittling whether you mean it or not, …

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Re: Reasons to hate modern games

Posted on 2022-07-15, 16:31

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

Riccitiello and people of his ilk are reason enough to hate how most games are made these days. The fact that he speaks about "compulsion loop" in the interview is disgusting, he's pretty much describing games as gambling machines. Unfortunately the success of video games attracted all sorts of …

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Re: When PC became soulless for you?

Posted on 2022-07-13, 20:21

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

For me the charm isn't really there anymore. I find it hard to consider what I'd say is a soul of a PC but for me it's been a very slow process. The more PCs became less personal and more connected (as a slave computer and less an individual computer), the less I consider a PC to have a soul. I'm …

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Re: CR2032 external battery holder?

Posted on 2022-07-12, 21:55

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Would the two diodes vs. one diode be a factor in which boards can use a CR2032 as external battery as-is and which can't? It mostly depends on the chip that handles the RTC/CMOS settings, some of them work just fine with little over 2V, so the voltage drop from the diodes does not affect them. …

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Re: CR2032 external battery holder?

Posted on 2022-07-12, 17:48

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The use for the resistor in the kit above is to drop voltage to expected output? Seems like it's meant for Amiga computers A resistor in series with the diode is usually suggested in the coin cell datasheets to limit the current so that in case the diode fails short the current flowing to the …

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Re: Help with information about this ET4000AX card please!

Posted on 2022-07-09, 21:38

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The usefulness of that Tseng card would be limited pretty much to ISA-only machines, think 386 or early 486. If you have other types of slots such as VLB or PCI, even mediocre cards for those buses will be way faster than the Tseng. Definitely not ideal for Doom, probably OK for more "static" types …

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Re: GA-486SA: RARE EISA + VLB, or proprietary local bus slots?

Posted on 2022-07-05, 18:35

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Could you dump your BIOS and scan the manual? Sure, I'll try and get it done the weekend Sorry for resurrecting (and kind of hijacking) the thread, but did you ever get to scan the manual @Bancho? I recently got a board just like yours, works just fine but the jumper settings available on TH99 and …

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Re: Generic VLB WD90C33 vga jumper settings

Posted on 2022-07-05, 04:22

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

erik.w.anderson wrote on 2022-07-05, 00:02: I have the same card as the one pictured here (from Ebay) and am interested in adding RAM to it. I'm hoping the manual can tell me more specifically what it needs other than being (8) 10-pint 44256 (4256X4). DRAM or VRAM? What speed? You need eight 256Kx4 …

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