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

Posted on 2025-05-17, 07:25

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long! Had my Gigabyte GA-6BA on the bench in order to figure out the undocumented pinouts of the ps/2 mouse and (non-standard) USB headers. Had to fix a previous misadventure that I'd forgotten about: 🫣 IMG_2458.jpeg All good now though, and the USB header …

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Re: PcChips M530 Bios - looking for a newer version

Posted on 2025-05-16, 07:49

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have two updates to report with this board. First, I believe the Dallas DS1287 is not fully compatible. The other pictures I've found show a Houston Tech HT12888A being used. I saw a video from vswitchzero about a similar problem on a Gigabyte GA-586ATV Socket 7 motherboard, where the machine …

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Re: Retro PC died

Posted on 2025-05-11, 09:21

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pics of the heatsink, pls. Warm it and remove the lid using a fine metal thread. Requires a vice. You can try without warming first.

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Re: Retro PC died

Posted on 2025-05-11, 08:26

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … v2-brownville-2 You must check voltages on all mosfets. Do you have a post card?

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Re: Retro PC died

Posted on 2025-05-10, 07:07

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hello all, Yesterday, I took out the motherboard to check the caps. Noted quite a significant dust buildup and used a brush to clean it off. Then connected the board using the graphics card. However, it wouldn't post. So, I used the onboard video and it posted. After a while, I connected a …

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Re: Unknown 286 motherboard

Posted on 2025-05-09, 22:39

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank You for quick answer but I saw this documentation on The Retro Web and it is not working because my BIOS is from Phenix. It would be also good solution to have other BIOS for this motherboard. I have a programmer so I could replace it. Now I saw that there is some BIOS so I have to try it but …

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Re: Unknown 286 motherboard

Posted on 2025-05-09, 22:30

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank You for quick answer but I saw this documentation on The Retro Web and it is not working because my BIOS is from Phenix. It would be also good solution to have other BIOS for this motherboard. I have a programmer so I could replace it. Now I saw that there is some BIOS so I have to try it but …

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Re: Unknown 286 motherboard

Posted on 2025-05-09, 22:20

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank You for quick answer but I saw this documentation on The Retro Web and it is not working because my BIOS is from Phenix. It would be also good solution to have other BIOS for this motherboard. I have a programmer so I could replace it. I'm looking at other boards with this chipset, maybe one …

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Re: Unknown 286 motherboard

Posted on 2025-05-09, 22:09

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

from the manual (in italian): 1) reset the machine (by power off-on; reset by keyboard or switch) 2) before the OS is loaded into memory, press ctrl-alt-esc 3) award setup cmos will show up (you have phoenix though). Honestly, that's all there is. Maybe you have to press that combination from reset …

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

Posted on 2025-05-09, 07:58

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

JustJulião wrote on 2025-05-08, 23:06: Treasure trove. 😀

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

Posted on 2025-05-08, 22:29

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I responded to an ad for 'very old computers at €1 each,' with no photos. Since it was only 20 minutes from my place, I went without asking for pictures, thinking someone wanting to get rid of them wouldn’t bother taking photos, especially an elderly seller. I found some nice stuff! IMG_0884.jpg …

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Re: Bought this (Modern) hardware today

Posted on 2025-04-30, 20:03

by

by Nexxen

in Milliways

in Milliways

4 x 500GB 2.5" - SATA 7200rpm Never enough for data transfers

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2025-04-29, 11:53

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My Wingman Force arrived today. Can't test it besides being recognized by W10 (no driver available).

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Re: Are collecting groups more hostile / useless these days? (Facebook and Reddit mostly I mean)

Posted on 2025-04-28, 13:24

by

by Nexxen

in Milliways

in Milliways

Someone said earlier that the high priced stuff indeed doesn’t sell, it just sits there. And that’s true: it sits there until someone who doesn’t know better and has too much money to spend buys it. That’s how it works on eBay. The snootiest sellers will wait months sometimes for someone to overpay …

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Re: New forum suggestions/Feedback

Posted on 2025-04-28, 05:47

by

by Nexxen

in Milliways

in Milliways

I don't know where to write this, but when I refresh the page all pictures increase the view count by +1. If I refresh the page 20 times all pics will get a +20 count. IDK if it is me but I tried with all my browsers and the result is the same. I see the same - to some extent - it seems that it's …

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Re: New forum suggestions/Feedback

Posted on 2025-04-27, 08:01

by

by Nexxen

in Milliways

in Milliways

I don't know where to write this, but when I refresh the page all pictures increase the view count by +1. If I refresh the page 20 times all pics will get a +20 count. IDK if it is me but I tried with all my browsers and the result is the same.

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Re: HP Omnibook XE3 - help for troubleshooting

Posted on 2025-04-26, 21:09

by

by Nexxen

in Milliways

in Milliways

After reseating CMOS battery, keyboard and mousepad connectors it started allowing to finish the POST every 4th time I power off and on the machine. I'm currently stuck at password check to enter the BIOS after pressing F2. I found this here from Deksor, https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=84763 …

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HP Omnibook XE3 - help for troubleshooting

Posted on 2025-04-26, 14:35

by

by Nexxen

in Milliways

in Milliways

Hello all! I recently bought this XE3, L variant, laptop. My issue so far is that it powers on, does some POST until a point and then stops. If I press F2 to enter BIOS it stops there forever, if I press ESC to chose the boot source, it doesn't do anything. "Entering SETUP ... " stays there …

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Re: PC Chips M912 BIOS update for Am5x86 and Cyrix 5x86

Posted on 2025-04-26, 10:00

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Here it is; Your results are better than mine :) Probably cause of CHips&Tech VLBus graphic card. This card outperforms most of the cards out there. I'll test it in detail. Found it recently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp2Nzw0dH0U Boosts available. https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=30607 …

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

Posted on 2025-04-26, 08:38

by

by Nexxen

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I got an old HP XE3L, 128MB + 10GB HDD. 12.1" with vinegar syndrome. It powers on but gets stuck at POST screen, freezing after RAM check and never entering BIOS staying at "entering bios" forever. HDD is detected from time to time and then it proceeds to the later stages of POST, but won't react to …

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