Re: Pci cards that get detected in device manager,but drivers won't install

Posted on 2020-11-26, 23:13

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yamaha 74x drivers are notoriously sensitive to PCI ID. I had a Dell SE440BX board with one onboard. It had been flashed with Intel retail BIOS. That messed up the PCI IDs. Result was exactly as in this topic, the device was detected but no drivers would install, not even after manually changing PCI …

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Re: VGA VRAM size and performance discussion

Posted on 2020-11-24, 13:04

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Ah so something does change on the card! Thank you guys, that was enlightening. In this case: yes. But be careful with generalizations. There are a lot of RAM upgrades on old cards that really do almost nothing; famously the CL-GD5428 can be pushed up to 2MB, but all it gives you over 1MB is a few …

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Re: Best graphics card for AMD K6-2 350 Mhz processor.

Posted on 2020-11-24, 11:10

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Surprised and impressed by the Matrox G400 in Incoming. I know it was a good Dx5 card, but even beating the best nVidia card+driver combos on a relatively slow CPU - that I had not expected.

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Re: IBM MWave related

Posted on 2020-11-23, 18:22

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Where did you guys find Mwave drivers? I'm currently restoring an Aptiva model 2176 and I can't find Mwave drivers anywhere, just broken links. I currently have Win98 installed and the Mwave card isn't even detected as a ! in device manager. Which card is in there? The commonest MWave card is the …

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Re: Do I really need a floppy drive?

Posted on 2020-11-22, 21:39

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You might get into trouble with some installers/auto-extractors/disk creators that absolutely insist on running from or to A: Complete pain in the rear-end but they exist. Of course, you don't need a real floppy drive to solve that, a Gotek works just as well, if not better,

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Re: PCI Video card works in one PC, not in another

Posted on 2020-11-22, 19:17

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] Hey Buddy I naively bought this card as well for cheap, thinking it would work in a mid 90s Packard Bell (a non-mmx P166), and much like you discovered it wasn't recognized for whatever reason, despite working fine in another machine. Which I found odd because the PCI revisions matched what …

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Re: Pentium MMX running at the wrong speed

Posted on 2020-11-19, 14:21

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ahhh, sorry, I had meant to include that, Its a "TIP122" Nope, I can't find anything on the jumpers either sadly! Andrew Yep, that's a Darlington alright. Means that the board has a very early/primitive design voltage regulator. There's probably a Zener diode in there too (that SMD thing?) and the …

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Re: Pentium MMX running at the wrong speed

Posted on 2020-11-19, 12:34

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] I pulled the board and had a closer look. What I assumed was going to be a integrated VRM is just a large Darlington transistor. My electronics knowledge is a little hazy, so apologies of I sound like I don't quite know what I'm doing! I'll attach a pic of that area of the board. There are a …

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Re: Gigabyte GA-6BA USB and PS/2 connectors?

Posted on 2020-11-18, 23:54

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

FWIW here 's the manual - Gigabyte still has support info for this board in its site - but that's not going to help you as it has all pinouts (including banal 2-pin connectors) *except* the damned PS/2 and USB. Do you have a multimeter? In that case they're easy to figure out. USB is determined by …

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Re: Pentium MMX running at the wrong speed

Posted on 2020-11-18, 15:23

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] PS. you can easily modify linear power regulator to output 2.8V instead of 2.5V by replacing resitor(s) responsible for setting Vref voltage. It will even make it more efficient ;) [...] Thanks. Sadly that doesn't appear to be the case. Setting it to 3.3v still gives no post. Not damaging the …

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Re: Can i live with a PentiumIII and a sound blaster 16?

Posted on 2020-11-18, 00:05

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

absolutely nice suggest! about yamaha chip, i found on ebay variety of models... YMF719-E YMF719E-S YMF719-S Differences between these OPL3-SAx chips are minimal and irrelevant to you as you just want it as a CODEC. Look at card PCB/layout quality (and if you can't judge that: look at the brand), …

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Re: Can i live with a PentiumIII and a sound blaster 16?

Posted on 2020-11-17, 23:38

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A good YMF719 card would do the trick, but there are lots of other WSS cards out there. Pretty much anything with a dedicated or integrated AD or Crystal CODEC would do the trick. That means most Aztech cards, a lot of OPTi options, Crystal and AD-only cards, and C-Media CMI-8330. As they're …

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Re: Can i live with a PentiumIII and a sound blaster 16?

Posted on 2020-11-17, 22:00

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In terms of raw sound, yes. In terms of hardware MIDI capabilities, it's the AWE32/64. Why exactly do you need hardware MIDI capabilities under Windows XP? Are there even XP drivers for the AWE? A system like this can use a software MIDI solution that can leave the (even in hardware terms mediocre) …

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Re: Can i live with a PentiumIII and a sound blaster 16?

Posted on 2020-11-17, 15:27

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] but the difference in cost between the two cards is enormous ... YMF719 more expensive? There's one on eBay for EUR 13.49 Buy It Now... Apart from that, any other card that supports WSS (and so 48kHz) should be fine too. There are lots of options, which is best depends on exactly what you …

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Re: Searching for Motherboard Manual or BIOS for Motherboard

Posted on 2020-11-16, 21:13

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Amptron = PC Chips. This board is also known as PC Chips M920LR Not that that immediately leads to a manual, but it doubles your options. However... If you have this sort of fluctuating issue with a board from this era, I'd worry less about manuals (board probably has less than three jumpers...) and …

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Re: Roland MPU-401 Midi Processing Unit external

Posted on 2020-11-16, 00:22

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The MPU-401 isn't designed to interface with a sound card but with a Roland ISA interface card like the MIF-IPC or MIF-IPC A. Of course, they are rare and very expensive when they turn up, so there's a replica for that: https://texelec.com/product/lo-tech-mif-ipc-b/

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-11-15, 23:40

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice one. I'd say DEC Alpha 21066. It is quite cool motherboard. Note there is no chipset. Just Intel SIO. The PCI controller and northbridge is in the CPU. Dead right. It's a DEC "noname" AXPpci33 board with 166MHz Alpha 21066 on it. Pretty low-end as Alphas go, both in terms of clock speed and …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-11-15, 22:11

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Two nice parcels this weekend: IMG_20201115_193430.jpg Yep, yet another MSI-6168 v2 i440BX board with onboard Voodoo 3. I already have three others, but first one has dead SGRAM artefacting all over the place, second is rock-solid, but refuses to boot with Coppermine, let alone Tualatin. Third loves …

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Re: Need mobo info - LS-P54CE Rev:G1

Posted on 2020-11-14, 00:19

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This board? https://wiki.preterhuman.net/images/thumb/f/fc/Luckystar1.jpg/1280px-Luckystar1.jpg Pretty much everything you need to know can be deduced from this pic: - Chipset is i430VX. The first SDRAM chipset- but no DIMM slots, so not available. - 4x 72p SIMMs. RAM needs to be installed in pairs. …

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Re: Were VLB video cards ever good?

Posted on 2020-11-12, 11:04

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] Can't agree with that :lol: When talking performance/benchmarks only hardware matters. Er, if that were the case we'd all be flying Concorde and Betamax would have won the home video wars, not to mention the fact that we certainly wouldn't all be using x86 or ARM hardware in 2020. Yes, …

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