Re: AOpen AX59Pro VIA MVP3 big issues with Nvidia cards

Posted on 2016-08-02, 11:30

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Visually caps can be deceiving , not all of them bulge or leak, some dry out over time and look normal, till you test them with a ESR meter. But it might not be that, its a very strange problem.

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Re: AOpen AX59Pro VIA MVP3 big issues with Nvidia cards

Posted on 2016-08-02, 10:57

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Might be a long shot but if you own a ESR meter , can you check the Caps near the AGP socket, it could just be that the other cards have better filtering? Also it might be worth a shot to try either a newer or an older bios and see if it makes any difference. Its a very strange issue, I have had a …

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Re: What is this 486 mb?

Posted on 2016-08-02, 10:28

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you have a eeprom reader you can dump the bios and the bios string will be in plain text at the bottom of the bios

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

Posted on 2016-08-01, 07:45

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So Ive got this P1-166mmz Ive been working on for some time, it has a Nec PCX-2 , S3 Virge DX, 64mb ram and a 166mhz MMX Pentuim, it had a big bottle neck when playing Quake 2 and Unreal using the Nec , I was still getting sub par frame rates at 640x480 , so I thought over the weekend I decided to …

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Re: Pentium 2 PC for DOS games

Posted on 2016-07-27, 12:19

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I agree with Jheronimus , lots of them have been patched. A SB 128 is still a PCI card, I highly recommend a 16-bit card, like a Sound Blaster 16. Wait until you get the computer and then do some tests to see if your happy with the performance or if you want to push it further.

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Re: Pentium 2 PC for DOS games

Posted on 2016-07-27, 11:41

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It might not be a perfect dos machine, but its a good computer to mess around with, I presume this will be your first dos computer? There are several things you can do to make it a bit more forgiving in dos, but personally I would dual boot Dos 6 and Windows 98se on it :) - You can Decrease the core …

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Re: Could anyone recommend some pc games for girls?

Posted on 2016-07-26, 12:37

by

by FaSMaN

in Milliways

in Milliways

Jazz Jackrabit 1,2 (2 has multiplayer and I just to play it with my sister for hours as a kid growing up) Sims Edutainment games Also let her try some of the boys games and see if there are any that she likes, just becouse its a boys game doesnt mean girls cant play them 😉

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Re: Best Socket A (462) Motherboard?

Posted on 2016-07-22, 08:21

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Best Socket A board I ever owned was a Abit NF7-S with a 3000+ XP , it was rock solid, but I would presume by now you will have to replace the caps to get it stable. Just bare in mind Socket 462 ran hot, even the nforce-2 NB ran extremely hot, so there are a lot of boards out there with a failed NB …

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Re: need help on a p5ab

Posted on 2016-07-12, 06:19

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can try to boot hirens boot disc and do a 24 hour prime test followed by a memtest to make sure your configuration is stable 😀 Also have a look on the board for bad-caps, disable non important peripherals in the bios, and booting windows 2000 with no other add in cards, just VGA.

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Re: What's the hardest part of building a retro rig for yourself?

Posted on 2016-07-11, 07:52

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by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There really isn't a single thing I can consider being the hardest but lots of little things that change during the build , each build is completely different and has its own unique chalanges so I think its best to make a list of the top 5 things that effect every build 1. Getting modern hardware to …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2016-07-11, 07:41

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For those wanting to know what the market will look like when all components run out and even the simplest of hardware is in short supply and driving up the prices , just take a look at a country that doesnt have any hardware left, you can visit http://www.valueforest.com (south African search site) …

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Re: 386 cpu and Doom

Posted on 2016-07-08, 07:28

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My Cyrix Cx486DLC-40 , has doom playable on lowres-mode (smooth) it can do highres but its not too great , this is with a Cyrus Logic 5xxx VGA card, from my understanding the doom source code is extremely well optimized so I doubt we will be able to get it to play any better. The GBA is a much lower …

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Re: A good use for an S3 Virge ?

Posted on 2016-07-07, 07:48

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pentium 1 MMX with a Voodoo 1 or PowerVR PCX 2 , will give you a nice dos and early 3D gaming PC 😀

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Re: Top hardware by year

Posted on 2016-07-06, 13:52

by

by FaSMaN

in Milliways

in Milliways

Best would probably be to scower old magazine scans on google books , normally the December issues have a recap with an outline of best hardware.

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Re: Battery leaked all over Compaq ProLinea motherboard.

Posted on 2016-07-06, 11:01

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by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That video is a worst case scenario, where the battery acid started eating away at the fibre glass , looking at yours its nowhere near as bad and if your lucky just needs a very good clean and that cap replaced. before you buy it try the vinigar method first , like I said its not that bad and you …

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Re: Battery leaked all over Compaq ProLinea motherboard.

Posted on 2016-07-06, 08:56

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for your reply. I don't think the capacitor burning out has anything to do with the battery, because they're pretty far from each other (see sixth image). As to me breaking some tracks :dead:, is there any way to fix them? Also, could you please clarify on the bad resistor? In which photo do …

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Re: Battery leaked all over Compaq ProLinea motherboard.

Posted on 2016-07-06, 07:55

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You have two main problems there, the first is a leaky battery like you mentioned, but that wasnt what caused the bad smell and smoke, you also have a blown Tantalum capacitor , I would replace the Cap, and then scrub the entire board with Kontak PCB Cleaner :) , and then asses the board for PCB …

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

Posted on 2016-07-06, 07:28

by

by FaSMaN

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BloodyCactus wrote: built a new workbench, so now I have room to put my ISA boxes on the shelf! […] Show full quote built a new workbench, so now I have room to put my ISA boxes on the shelf! now I dont have to futz about on the floor with backplanes and cords! whoooo. That is a beautiful setup!!

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Re: AMD ZEN, what do you folks think?

Posted on 2016-07-04, 12:10

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by FaSMaN

in Milliways

in Milliways

What are we going to do about it? Hoping that AMD becomes competitive isn't magically going to make them release great products. AMD has been fighting a two-fronted war for years, against Intel and nVidia, and it has taken its toll. Your right, hoping wont do any good, I didnt say we should all …

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Re: AMD ZEN, what do you folks think?

Posted on 2016-07-04, 08:33

by

by FaSMaN

in Milliways

in Milliways

We need AMD to be competitive now more than ever, Intel has become far less competitive and seem to be okay with releasing a new platform once every two years that's about 15% faster, even if you hate AMD , we need competition, intel only innovate if there is good competition, so far performance has …

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