Re: Any single platter IDE/SCSI HDDs from ~y2000?

Posted on 2020-08-13, 19:47

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Certain Quantum Bigfoot models are single-platter, and indeed they are sluggish. Interestingly, those Seagate Decathlon (ST-5****A) 3.5" slim-line drives usually aren't single-platter, with the exception of ST-5540A.

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Re: Opti 82c930 impressions and some Windows Sound System observations

Posted on 2020-08-09, 04:31

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

IIRC pinball fantasies, as a couple of other games from that era, maxes out all volume controls on the SBPro mixer chip if you start the game. The SB1 and SB2 drivers shouldn't do that, because those cards don't have a mixer chip. It's quite plausible that maxed out volume settings can cause …

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Re: Floppy disks - who still uses them, and who still makes them, any tips?

Posted on 2020-08-06, 04:47

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ive got a few old drives that appear to work, but give read errors on boot up, i cleaned the heads with isopropyl alcohol and still gives errors. Is this typically a head out of align when this sort of thing happens? It can be easily verified - an out-of-align FDD correctly reads diskettes …

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Re: I have an Aztech Sound card that I cannot seem to get the drivers working for.

Posted on 2020-08-03, 19:45

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you tried these? - ftp://ftp.aztech.com/Support/DOWNLOAD/sg/NOV16E/

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Re: What's the dumbest retro mistake you've made?

Posted on 2020-08-02, 10:32

by

by Grzyb

in Milliways

in Milliways

Today I connected a SCSI LVD/SE drive to an HVD controller... The drive has survived. Can't verify the controller now - any idea what are the chances it's still alive? Nevertheless, I solemnly swear to thoroughly flog myself!

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Re: Best isa gpu?

Posted on 2020-07-30, 14:05

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Somehow I can't believe in two ISA VGAs working together. But feel free to prove me wrong...

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Re: Best isa gpu?

Posted on 2020-07-30, 08:03

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I find it amusing to see all graphics cards referred to as "GPU". This may be true with modern graphics adapters, but in the ISA era vast majority of cards were either dumb framebuffers, or fixed-function accelerators - in both cases no processors there! About the only things deserving the term "GPU …

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Re: Windows 2.x: what can be done with it?

Posted on 2020-07-29, 21:52

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Strange, nothing about Corel Draw on that page? I think Corel was the most common reason to use pre-3.0 Windows versions, maybe even unconsciously - there was some stripped-down Windows distribution intended to be bundled with 3rd-party software, and Corel might have used that. As for networking, …

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Re: List of EGA games that used 350 lines mode?

Posted on 2020-07-29, 16:36

by

by Grzyb

in Milliways

in Milliways

comprehensive list of EGA mode 10h games?

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Re: Were CD-ROMs common on 386 computers?

Posted on 2020-07-27, 13:03

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

386 systems usually would come with a 5.25in floppy drive, a 3.5in floppy drive and perhaps a 5.25in 20MB HDD Seriously? I've never seen a 386 with a 5.25" 20MB HDD. Such disks were typical in XTs, sometimes also found in 286 machines - though in this case 40MB ones were more popular. In a 386, …

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Re: Were CD-ROMs common on 386 computers?

Posted on 2020-07-27, 06:51

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

dionb wrote on 2020-07-27, 06:27: Personally remember getting Win3.1 with my January 1995 P60 computer with CD-ROM drive. It was a big pile of floppies 😉 I think you're exaggerating... It's only 6 diskettes (1.44 MB), or 8 - for the versions with Central European and Cyrillic fonts.

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Re: Were CD-ROMs common on 386 computers?

Posted on 2020-07-27, 05:52

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Those Vobis/Highscreen WFW 3.11 CDs are only in German and/or Dutch, right? Was there any other OEM that released Windows 3.1x on CD? That MS Dev Network stuff, being from 1996/97, obviously doesn't count when searching for the earliest OS (or OS-like product) CD-ROM.

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Re: Were CD-ROMs common on 386 computers?

Posted on 2020-07-24, 17:20

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

p6889k wrote on 2020-07-24, 17:01: I remember being in a computer store selling HighScreen brand (I think) computers and them having a Win3.11 install CD. Some OEM variant, right? I think generic Windows 3.11 was only on diskettes.

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Re: Were CD-ROMs common on 386 computers?

Posted on 2020-07-24, 16:15

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm wondering what was the first PC OS shipped on a CD... perhaps Windows NT 3.1 from 1993? But it was way to heavy for an average 386, more like for a high-end 486 or Pentium. In 1994 there was OS/2 Warp 3, and in 1995 - Windows 95. Again, not good for a typical 386. So, usability of CD-ROM on 386 …

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Re: Understand Windows 3.1 (standard) internet requirements

Posted on 2020-07-24, 14:53

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

But what about the "Network" part of the Setup tool in Windows 3.1 (standard)? I installed there the Lan Manager (I read somewhere I might have needed after installing Network for DOS disks) and I suppose some basic network was in mind when developing the o.s.? It only allows to map (and unmap) …

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Re: Understand Windows 3.1 (standard) internet requirements

Posted on 2020-07-23, 16:39

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

That TCP/IP stack provided with MSIE 3.03 only supports dial-up. If you want TCP/IP on LAN under plain Windows 3.1, you probably need some third-party stack, eg. Trumpet.

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Re: Understand Windows 3.1 (standard) internet requirements

Posted on 2020-07-23, 16:07

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

But wasn't TCP/IP stack only for WFW 3.1/3.11? If you mean TCP32B.EXE a.k.a. "Microsoft TCP/IP-32 for Windows for Workgroups 3.11", then yes, the README.TXT specifically states: "This product is compatible with, and supported exclusively on, the Microsoft Windows For Workgroups 3.11 platform." I …

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Re: Understand Windows 3.1 (standard) internet requirements

Posted on 2020-07-23, 13:26

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

darry wrote on 2020-07-23, 12:41: so was Netscape Navigator, but you need the IE stuff first No, you don't need any IE stuff for Netscape. Once upon a time, I've spent a lot of time on the Internet using DOS packet driver + WINPKT.COM + Trumper Winsock + Netscape.

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Re: Creative Labs Port Blaster

Posted on 2020-07-22, 10:04

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I wonder if the Port Blaster would have supported DMA transfer via ECP/EPP? No, there wasn't ECP in 1992. Come to think of it, an LPT sound card might have been feasible for games in 1992. The main reason that few games supported Covox was that it was very hard for background music - not only no …

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Re: DOS16M or how run Dos4GW games on 286

Posted on 2020-07-22, 01:45

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, any Turing-complete machine - with enough memory - can emulate any other machine. But there's the speed problem... Somebody managed to run 32-bit Linux on an 8-bit microcontroller, but it took 2 hours to boot, with just "init=/bin/bash".

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