So how big a deal were Safedisc and SecuROM on XP Installations?

Posted on 2018-07-23, 09:26

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by EdmondDantes

in Windows

in Windows

So one reason I built an XP comp was so I could play all six Myst games (counting Uru: Complete Chronicles) but I noticed my cases said they have DRM--some have SafeDisc, others have SecuRom. Some other XP-era adventure games (I got a box of 'em a year ago) also mention either form of DRM. Now, …

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Re: What causes front USB ports to not be recognized?

Posted on 2018-07-16, 06:26

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My Dell GX260 mobo has a unique pin layout--there is just one big rectangle marked "front panel" which you plug a single cable (its similar to how IDE cables work) with all the front panel stuff into. That's what's making it weird for me as I can't possibly see how I could've "forgotten to plug …

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What causes front USB ports to not be recognized?

Posted on 2018-07-15, 06:21

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I had two comps that didn't recognize front USB ports even when said ports were hooked up to the motherboard. One was my Epox-8KTA board, which I thought this behavior was normal since that board was so old (and it was running Win98SE anyway) but recently it happened again on that Dell GX260 I …

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Re: GX150 sff case transfer

Posted on 2018-07-11, 09:53

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If its anything like this GX260 board I got, the comp can still at least boot.... I've not put mine in an actual different case, but you can remove the components and hook them up outside of the original case.

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Re: Questions about this Dell Optiplex MB

Posted on 2018-07-08, 12:53

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

K, got the cooling situation fixed. My dad had a working fan for this model (he used to get a lot of parts from old comps, most of which he got rid of eventually but some he kept) and when I put it on, the processor stopped overheating. So far this thing is up, running, and is a perfectly capable …

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Cooling solutions for old PCs?

Posted on 2018-07-07, 13:53

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So this is something I'm sure has doomed more than one of my retro PC builds. Sometimes, odd behavior is just due to overheating. So like.... what all can I do for something intended (partially) to boot into Windows 98, to make sure it runs as cool as possible? Are fans my only option, or are there …

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Re: What sound cards competed with Creative during Windows 98/XP era?

Posted on 2018-07-07, 13:44

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For what its worth, I've got my issues with the Audigy 2 figured out, but still these are interesting reading. Random googling only got me old forum discussions (not from here) where apparently for awhile people hated Creative and some were suggesting the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz as an alternative. …

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What sound cards competed with Creative during Windows 98/XP era?

Posted on 2018-07-06, 22:15

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So my recent mucking around with Sound Blaster Audigy got me to wondering. Okay, its easy to find out what Sound Blaster's competition was during the MS-DOS era... just boot up the install command to any DOS game and get to the part where it asks what your card is and bam, there's a list. But for …

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Re: Questions about this Dell Optiplex MB

Posted on 2018-07-06, 21:47

by

by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good news, Setup /p i solved the issue! I've now got Windows 98se running with a Geforce and an Audigy 2! There's only one niggling thing, its minor and the solution probably already exists somewhere: When I booted up Unreal Tournament (my go-to game as of late)... okay you know how the intro …

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Re: Questions about this Dell Optiplex MB

Posted on 2018-07-06, 17:29

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'll try setup /p i. Chipset drivers didn't work, nor did upgrading the bios (I already had an earlier version and upgraded to A06, no difference).

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Re: Questions about this Dell Optiplex MB

Posted on 2018-07-05, 12:48

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I ran into a slight hitch with Windows 98. EDIT: For clarification, Windows XP works perfectly, so I decided to test out how this motherboard works with Windows 98, with my sights on potentially setting up a dual-boot comp. I found a spare hard drive, partitioned 30gb on it, installed Windows …

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Re: Does a device like this exist? (Dual Boot question)

Posted on 2018-07-05, 09:20

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks. Bookmarking this topic. Also, is there a caddy like this for Laptop IDE drives... but which will let them install in a desktop? I have two laptop IDE drives I otherwise have nothing to do with and this just seemed like a good use for them (I'm also thinking that laptop hard drives, being …

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Re: Questions about this Dell Optiplex MB

Posted on 2018-07-05, 08:29

by

by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So, everything is up and running, I installed Windows XP (SP3) and got everything set up the way I like. By the way I should mention the specs at this point. They were in the ebay listing but some of them turned out to be wrong (in a good way) and that listing won't be around forever. So. First the …

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Re: Best WinXP Video Card

Posted on 2018-07-04, 15:33

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Awesome! If Crysis can run at 67fps minimum and 100fps average, then presumably any less intensive games that are natively DX9 should run at least as fast. You should run something really old, like the earliest 3D accelerated Windows games that work in XP. :lol: Some really early XP games were …

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Does a device like this exist? (Dual Boot question)

Posted on 2018-07-04, 14:41

by

by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I was thinking of doing a dual-boot setup, but well I wonder stuff. The setup I had planned was Win98SE + WinXP. My initial thought was to create three partitions: One for XP, one for 98, and one general data partition. The WinXP would be formatted in NTFS but the others might be FAT32 (I'm …

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Re: Questions about this Dell Optiplex MB

Posted on 2018-07-04, 07:24

by

by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a dell 270 desktop and the caps where going bad So I was able to get a NEW mobo for it for cheap. $35 https://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-OPTIPLEX-GX270-MOTHERBOARD-K5786-U1325-Y1057-YF927-H1487-H1290-FG015-DG284/332070980916?hash=item4d50f90d34:g:a8wAAOSw3z5Z1Q2h Actually half the reason I bought …

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Re: SOLVED No sound coming from SB Audigy 2

Posted on 2018-07-04, 07:20

by

by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good news guys, I GOT IT WORKING. Here's the thing... I don't quite know how I got it working. So I'll just tell you the steps I took after my previous post: I decided to make sure the motherboard could produce sound at all, and thus removed the Audigy and installed the onboard sound drivers (making …

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Re: Questions about this Dell Optiplex MB

Posted on 2018-07-03, 14:09

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is it okay to doublepost? I've been wondering something and all the sound card musings are in their own topic anyway. What I've been wondering is, why is one of the PCI slots longer than the others? What uses this length? Is it safe to put a normal-sized PCI card in it? Thanks in advance.

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Re: No sound coming from SB Audigy 2

Posted on 2018-07-03, 13:53

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just checked, the model is SB0350 on both cards. Don't know how to upload pics. Update... so, the Dell GX260 motherboard's onboard sound worked fine when I installed drivers, so that confirms for me its the card at fault (yes, I removed the card to test this. Then I slotted it back in and on boot …

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SOLVED No sound coming from SB Audigy 2

Posted on 2018-07-03, 09:03

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by EdmondDantes

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So this is kind of a repeat of a post I made in the topic about that Dell motherboard but I figured it might get more answers if I make it its own topic. So recently I got a Dell motherboard, and its all up and running now. I have power, Windows XP (SP3) is installed, the Geforce ti4200 works and is …

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