Garbage characters on faulty video card

Posted on 2020-11-09, 21:16

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

On several occasions I dealt with faulty graphics cards that shows garbage characters instead of English letters, like shown in the attached photo. Any ideas what's causing the problem? Faulty video memory, corrupted video bios, dying graphics chip? Edit: The other thing I noticed is that there is a …

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Re: Do I need a 3dfx graphics?

Posted on 2020-11-07, 15:14

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My favorite method of playing Tomb Raider is the Anniversary remake. Also, if you have Unreal patched to 1.26, the D3D renderer is as good as Glide, no point running it on 3dfx cards. Dosbox ECE has Glide emulation for the old DOS Glide games.

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Re: What are people doing for cheap cases these days...

Posted on 2020-11-06, 04:21

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I like the Corsair Carbide 200R, but those are usually closer to $70-80. Theres also the Fractal Design Focus G, those are around $50. But anyways if want a metal case with expansion bays, instead of a glass box with blinky fans, I recommend you buy one now while any are still available.

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Re: So I bought a CPU for my 98 machine without realizing that my mobo only supports up to 1.3ghz

Posted on 2020-11-06, 03:58

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I wouldn't run any system I paid good money for on an old 5V-heavy power supply from 2002, no matter how good the PSU supposedly was back in the day. Not unless you plan on replacing the capacitors inside such a PSU. (... Says the guy running his main rig on a 2006 Corsair HX PSU... but at least I …

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

Posted on 2020-11-05, 06:58

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by pixel_workbench

in Milliways

in Milliways

I transferred a cloned SATA disk of my Windows 7 install from my Intel Core i7 860 machine to a AMD Ryzen 3600 + X470 I'm upgrading to. After hunting down the required drivers, it works without problems. But then I decided to upgrade to an M.2 drive, so might do a fresh install anyways.

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Re: Playing games on periodcorrect retro computer versus playing on newer/modern machine

Posted on 2020-11-03, 06:36

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by pixel_workbench

in Milliways

in Milliways

Realistically, if a game runs well on my modern machine, that's how I prefer to play it. That machine is quiet, and is already hooked up to my nice monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse. That convenience is hard to give up. It also allows to crank up the eye candy like AA, AF, high resolutions, while …

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Re: Pentium II build for replacing an Pentium 233MMX system

Posted on 2020-11-01, 19:21

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For a P2 system, try finding an unlocked 333, 350 or 400 cpu. Then you can downclock it to 133mhz if needed (66 x2). As for games, Half Life is a demanding one, on my P2 400 I get about 20-30fps, with occasional dips below 20. On a P1, it's probably a lot worse. Unreal Gold runs in the 40s, but …

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Re: What display do you use for gaming ?

Posted on 2020-10-31, 07:05

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I still use the 27inch 1920 x 1200 Samsung 275t that I bought for about $1000 back in 2007, and it's by far the most enjoyable piece of computer equipment I've bought to date. The black levels on that thing made me forget about CRT. A few years back I picked up a cheap 24inch IPS 1080p LG monitor, …

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

Posted on 2020-10-26, 16:30

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-10-26, 14:57: Is it fully stable at the higher speeds and the stock voltage? Yes, I tested it first by overclocking in Afterburner.

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

Posted on 2020-10-26, 14:27

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not exaxtly retro yet, but I modded the bios of my Radeon 7970 to run at the clocks of the 7970 Gigahertz Edition. No change in voltage required. After replacing the thermal paste, the card runs at basically the same fan speed and temperature as the regular clocked version, and total system power …

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Re: Windows XP on newer Systems (Intel >Haswell/AMD Ryzen)

Posted on 2020-10-13, 18:06

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I know this thread is a few weeks old, but for anyone still running XP, there is such a thing as Microsoft EMET. Also available for Win7. Somehow I never saw all the "XP is unsafe, don't go online" scaremongers mention that tool.

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Re: Athlon XP VS Pentium 4 (478 Prescott) for 2003 build?

Posted on 2020-10-11, 13:59

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The P4 at 3+ GHz and 800MHz FSB is overall faster than Athlon XP, but both are overkill for any game that runs in Windows 98. Plus the i865 chipset is overall rock solid. But I would definitely prefer Northwood over a Prescott. But many Athlon XP have an unlocked multiplier, which makes them more …

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Re: Most compatible early 00's AGP cards for a Windows 98 build with a picky motherboard

Posted on 2020-10-11, 05:03

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Early Via AGP compatibility was definitely flaky. My Via 133a and 133t socket370 boards are guaranteed to crash with some early AGP cards like Trident 9850 or Number 9 Revolution 3D. The same cards work ok on Intel chipsets. For the OP, definitely try installing the Via 4 in 1 driver. And maybe …

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Re: Building a windows 98 PC. Would like to hear your thoughts.

Posted on 2020-10-09, 19:42

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd reconsider the USB2 card. I had one in my P2 400 retro rig, and noticed that it ate up about 10-20 percent performance. If transferring files often, might want to get a network card instead, and set up a shared folder. If not, then wait for the occasional transfer to complete with onboard USB1 …

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Re: Windows 98 PC Build - Better overall compatibility

Posted on 2020-10-09, 04:56

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

From my experience Geforce cards aren't all they're cracked up to be. Several of my GF4ti locked up in NFS Porsche and Half Life when AA & AF is enabled. Some Geforce only show a black screen in Blood 2. And get ready to laugh/cry if you run Midtown Madness with any Geforce (I tried GF1 - GF7). So …

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Re: Retro Hardware Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-10-09, 03:59

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How about when someone on a site posts: AT Computer Motherboard 8 ISA Slots for sale. Condition:“Tested & Working” And this is the picture.... Hmmm sure that should work just fine w/o the BIOS chip and KBC but what do I know ;p That reminds me of sellers who post "tested working" graphic cards ( …

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Re: Tualatin 1.4Ghz 512k not booting on MSI 815EPT Pro

Posted on 2020-09-29, 02:32

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a MSI 815ept pro V5, and that board had trouble starting up, until I figured out that it's caused by tight spacing around the ATX power connector. Some power supplies have a tab on the connector that's too wide, and on this board the tab can apply sideways pressure on the inductor right next …

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Re: Oops! I'll be a data recovery expert soon

Posted on 2020-09-25, 19:28

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good luck. What recovery software are you using? I once formatted an SD card in camera, and forgot that I didn't copy all the images from it first. Recovery software found a bunch of thumbnail files, but not much useful data.

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Re: What is it with overpriced LGA1155 gear

Posted on 2020-09-25, 05:02

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The way I see it, your typical gamer will have moved on a while ago to Ryzen, Skylake, or similar modern hardware. And the mass market users who are not gamers are likely happily using laptops, or some modern desktop for things like video editing and such. But the 1155 platform would be of interest …

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Re: Games that justify building a Windows XP PC

Posted on 2020-09-25, 04:18

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It also depends what games have problems running on your main rig. I personally still use Windows 7 as my primary OS, and general compatibility with XP era games is pretty good. But if you jumped on the Windows 10 bandwagon, you will probably have to deal with more hacks to get those games working, …

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