Re: Constant hard drive errors

Posted on 2024-02-25, 02:07

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does it work with traditional hard drives? I suspect the system is just unstable, and so eventually any OS you install falls apart due to errors. Can you boot memtest86 and leave it running several hours (enough to do at least a couple passes) or overnight? You could also try Prime95 "torture test" …

---

Re: GeForce4 Ti 4200 replacement fan?

Posted on 2024-02-25, 01:44

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I use a Zalman VF700Cu on a Quadro 900, which is basically a Ti4600, so it should fit the Ti4200 also. But in a quick search I don't see them on eBay US right now. I have no idea about other sources.

---

Re: Replacing some motherboard capacitors

Posted on 2024-02-22, 23:54

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Once you can see them bulging they're beyond bad, their ESR is probably 100x higher than it's supposed to be, so they've become almost worthless in the noise filtering function that they are needed for. Sometimes motherboards can be surprisingly tolerant of the caps. You might get away with running …

---

Re: Best IPS (if any) monitor for retrogaming

Posted on 2024-02-21, 00:02

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I use a Dell 2007fpb for my retro machines and while its not a IPS it does handle 75Hz refresh at all normal DOS resolutions which makes DOS gaming pretty damn smooth. (Would love a NEC multisync but they are damn expensive) Dell 2007fpb does not support 70-75Hz refresh rate without frame skipping. …

---

Re: Tualatin Motherboard

Posted on 2024-02-20, 22:43

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just to add some cheaper possibilities - there are some brand-name prebuilt systems/motherboards that can also run a Tualatin. Sometimes you can get good prices on those, but they might not give you exactly what you want as far as expansion slots, or being able to fit in a standard ATX case and such …

---

Re: Tualatin Motherboard

Posted on 2024-02-20, 06:24

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Check whether the boards you're looking at have official support for the more demanding CPUs, like the P3-S 1.4GHz/512KB. The Shuttle AV18E2 boards don't officially support that CPU - only the 256KB chips are listed. I have one of those boards but I still haven't tried it, so no idea whether the …

---

Re: Big Box PC Games – Show and Tell

Posted on 2024-02-13, 12:02

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

Yes, I forgot to mention that you also can play on a regular 2D board which is much better if you are really want to play chess. I play against this engine until today, because the difficulty is not too high and it feels like you really can "beat" the computer (as opposed to modern engines, which …

---

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

Posted on 2024-02-11, 11:59

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

I have a Gigabyte "Ultra Durable" AM3 Phenom2 board that I've owned since new. It's never been very good as far as reliability and things working correctly. Out of necessity I started using it as my office PC. It's a terrible choice for that, but I don't have anything better handy. A few days ago …

---

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

Posted on 2024-02-10, 06:53

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

I have a Gigabyte "Ultra Durable" AM3 Phenom2 board that I've owned since new. It's never been very good as far as reliability and things working correctly. Out of necessity I started using it as my office PC. It's a terrible choice for that, but I don't have anything better handy. A few days ago it …

---

Re: Fan attachment to Diamond Viper V770 ultra

Posted on 2024-02-08, 21:55

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I have 2 of these cards (V770 non-Ultra). One of them is badly artifacting - might be a RAM chip but not sure. So I think a fan is a good idea. Moreso if you want to overclock it. A fan would also help the RAM since it gets some of the airflow, and heat conducts through the traces between the GPU …

---

Re: How to burn CD readable with old cd-rom drive?

Posted on 2024-02-08, 00:51

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Older drives are more sensitive to disc quality. This is also an issue with some 1990s game consoles. The Taiyo Yuden plant in Japan made high quality CDRs that are much more compatible with picky drives. For the last several years it was operating, Taiyo Yuden was owned by JVC and the packaging was …

---

Re: Geforce 2 ti vs Geforce 3 ti

Posted on 2024-02-03, 12:41

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Just be careful that the MX440 has 128-bit memory. Most of them should, but I've read of some 64-bit versions which will be a lot slower.

---

Re: Atari 400 - introduction

Posted on 2024-02-03, 00:13

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

As a gaming machine it's superior to the Apple 2, but Apple had more games. As a gaming machine it usually falls short of the C64, but it does have a faster CPU which gives it an advantage in rare cases. I think it also has a better floppy drive, people hate C64 floppy drives. Most game boxes back …

---

Re: Tyan s1590s Graphics Cards problems

Posted on 2024-01-30, 02:04

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I also have the Tyan s1590s. I was debating moving to a newer ATX PS and notice the jumpers are barred into the AT position. Instead of jumper pins it is a small bar solder across with both closed, which equals AT power. Has anyone seen this? Pic attached. I think my board has those same soldered …

---

Re: Using Genesis/Mega Drive controllers on an Atari?

Posted on 2024-01-27, 05:00

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

I remember using one on my 2600 as a kid and there are many posts on the internet about them working just fine, however, I recently came across a pin table and apparently the 5V pin is different between them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_joystick_port#Chart_of_compatible_systems How is …

---

Re: My 486 hard-drive and floppy works "sometimes".

Posted on 2023-12-31, 11:40

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There's lots of ways a 486 can be glitchy but still fixable. Dirty/loose connections, including any socketed DIP chips, bad solder joints, marginal power supplies, RAM, misconfigured or overly aggressive jumper settings or BIOS settings. Then there's all the old components that may be on the edge of …

---

Re: Why is Windows still called Windows?

Posted on 2023-12-31, 10:42

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

Chicago was Windows 95, wasn't it? NT4 did inherit the GUI from that at least.

---

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

Posted on 2023-12-30, 22:41

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

Trying to preserve a Windows 7 Steam install before we get excommunicated. Tossed a spare hard drive into my Win7 machine. Copied an old disk image to it that has Test Drive Unlimited 2 working (which is an abandoned game with limited activations, which I doubt can be installed anymore). Discovered …

---

Re: 75 MHz fsb on 430TX memory issue

Posted on 2023-12-20, 07:46

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Whatever timings work at 83MHz should work at 75MHz. You're unlikely to find a module that has a 75MHz entry in the SPD - the table only has room for 2 clock speeds and associated latencies to be stored there. However, a module with faster chips on it may have better stability with other conditions …

---

Re: Do you have a backup motherboard for your build.

Posted on 2023-12-20, 07:07

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't explicitly have backups of identical boards for a specific build, but I have so many motherboards overall that there's plenty of overlap in what they're good for. If I can think of anything unique about a particular board, or I just think I might use it in a build, then I end up wanting to …

---