Re: .WAV player for MS DOS that runs on a 286?

Posted on 2019-01-30, 10:34

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Back in the mid-90s, I used Windows 3.10 for that. I had a 286-12 with 4MiB, a PAS16 soundcard and played large wave files by using media player (sound recorder for short recordings). Edit: Oh, just noticed you use an AWE ISA PnP card. Maybe the EMU386 + Windows 3.0 MME combo works for you. That …

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Re: Strange graphical corrpution in Windows 98 SE setup

Posted on 2019-01-27, 23:08

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I wonder if the corruption is there all the way through 98SE setup.. Because, the first part of setup is based on a cut-down Windows 3.1 (mini.cab) with a vga driver (if setup was started from DOS). Second part is Windows 9x then. You'll notice the transition by looking at the dialog windows. …

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Re: Mac Performa 6200 not recognizing CD-Rom drives

Posted on 2019-01-27, 11:07

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think the same. Also, maybe that SCSi isn't properly terminated at some point (better check).

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Re: Famous computer slogans and quotes ?

Posted on 2019-01-27, 09:49

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Who was it who said that you could run a power station using a ZX81? The ZX81 was a black and white, silent British 8 bit computer, that came with 1KB of RAM, though you could increase it to 16KB, and maybe more. I don't know, but you remember me of an old article (p.26) about measurement & control …

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Re: How long do old-floppies last?

Posted on 2019-01-27, 09:23

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I guess you were lucky that it was a permanent magnet. If the floppy was exposed to something pulsing (CRT, m. loop antenna etc), the effect may have been worse.

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Re: Oak Technology video card stuck with 16 colors :((

Posted on 2019-01-27, 00:05

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's right. With 256KiB, 640x400 is about the maximum resolution (in 256c). Unfortunately, this mode isn't supported by Windows 95. Some DOS games with VESA supported it, though (Höhlenwelt Saga ?) . If memory serves, some vendor drivers for Windows 2.x and Windows 3.x exited once. (Paradise …

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Re: CHS limiting hd size

Posted on 2019-01-26, 01:15

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, you can do that. Back in the day, this was common practice, even. If an old CMOS Setup only had hard-coded settings for fixed-disks, choosing a small drive from the list which was within the specs of the HDD was okay. Nowadays choosing a setting that does not exceed total capacity also works ( …

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Re: How long do old-floppies last?

Posted on 2019-01-26, 00:57

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hmm. I can't give a specific answer, but.. Our 5,25" and 3.5" floppies from the mid-80s and early 90s are still readable. We stored them in diskette boxes in a cabinet originally (some from the cp/m era were continuously boxed-up in the attic since the move), now these are on the loft/attic in solid …

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Re: Oak Technology video card stuck with 16 colors :((

Posted on 2019-01-25, 05:49

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Same here. Never got it to work in 640x480@256. It had got a mode utility, though, to switch to CGA, EGA and Hercules emulation modes (works). Plus, it supports 800x600@16 - according to the chip's datasheet. - Again, never got that to work, either.

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Re: Problem with 5.25" floppy drive

Posted on 2019-01-23, 23:56

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hm. My experience was a bit different here. Back in the 90s, I had barely issues with 5.25" 1.2MB drives in comparison to 3.5" 1.44MB drives. (In these times, my father and me often got ourselves 5.25" shareware floppies! ^^) Perhaps the problems are with the disks really. I remember that when I got …

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Re: Can't See D: Drive in Win 98 MS-DOS Mode

Posted on 2019-01-23, 18:58

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Makes sense. Does the mainboard (486, 586 ?) support LBA already ? I grew up with older Pcs and remember that some supported E-CHS aka LARGE, which also had an ~8GB limit. Anyway, just saying. It's unlikely, but maybe -if the CMOS Setup is set to AUTO- it could be the case that the HDD detection of …

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Re: Can't See D: Drive in Win 98 MS-DOS Mode

Posted on 2019-01-22, 23:59

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Oh, that's interesting. Would make sense, though. I'm still learning about DOS 7.x+.. :blush: (I recall that around Win9x, the enhanced inth13h interface was introduced; but I don't know if it was used by DOS 7.x ecer) The 8GB limit was famous, though. Some FastDisk drivers for Win 3.1 also had an …

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Re: Moving Mouse dramatically slows down CPU

Posted on 2019-01-22, 19:46

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's also because of the use of interrupts. Some ports use more of them than others (USB vs. PS/2 vs. V.24). Especially in old pre-586 systems, old serial UARTs were the culprit. Gratefuly, they can be replaced. See https://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Serial-HOWTO-18.html , http://www.byterunner.com/why.html …

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Re: Can't See D: Drive in Win 98 MS-DOS Mode

Posted on 2019-01-22, 19:34

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Hi, as far as I remember, in DOS, hard disks (or more precisely int13h BIOS devices) have priority over CD-ROM and network drives. You could try to specify drive "E:" for the CD-ROM drive in DOS. Not sure how muich this would cause compatibility issues with DOS games, though. Windows games were more …

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Re: Favourite version of Windows?

Posted on 2019-01-21, 05:20

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

I like KolibriOS, since it's so organic.. Also Win 2.x,Win 3.1x. For experimenting, 98SE/XP, since it can run useful devilopment software.

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Re: Windows 2000 inaccessible boot device 8.4GB BIOS - solution

Posted on 2019-01-21, 05:08

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hm, As fars as I recall, you could try some dynamic drive overly software (DDO) for Windows 9x. This could work around the BIOS limitations. However, care has to be taken here. It could be the case that Win9x uses a different drive geometry than Windows 2000 then. By the way, that also caused some …

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MIDI Association Announces MIDI 2.0 Prototyping

Posted on 2019-01-21, 00:26

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Hi everyone, just saw the news and thought I should mention it.. https://hackaday.com/2019/01/19/midi-associat … -0-prototyping/ As the title says, the new standard isn't ready yet. It rather is the start of the experimental phase. Best regards, Jo22

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Re: DOS Development Forum?

Posted on 2019-01-20, 11:24

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Such a forum would be interesting, I believe. Errius wrote: Is Usenet still a thing? Is it like FidoNet ? Not sure, was before my time, sorry. I still experienced the last few years of X.25 networks, though.. Before everything around the world got TCP/IP-ed.

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Re: 80GB hard drive on Pentium motherboard

Posted on 2019-01-18, 22:29

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I see. Makes sense to me. What I wrote was no criticism, by the way. It just ruffles my memories whenever I try to remember the past. :sweatdrop: That being said, I also love to tinker with CF/SD cards and such. I heard some people used MP3 players as a replacement for datasettes. That's about the …

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Re: 80GB hard drive on Pentium motherboard

Posted on 2019-01-18, 21:19

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It always confuses me when people pair old computer systems with -then- gigantic numbers of storage capacity. 80GB..! Boy, I didn't even had that in my Pentium 4 (it had 20 to 40GB). Back then, I felt lucky for getting that 1,5Gb to 2GB SCSI drive to work in my Pentium 166 MMX (to be able to install …

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