Re: 486 System Troubleshooting?

Posted on 2015-02-17, 05:40

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm basing the beep code off of standard AMIBIOS diagnostic codes, which is part of the reason I'm confused, since those error codes are beeped out in a single burst and in a lower tone... the closest thing I could find is that it represents a base 64K memory error, but I doubt that's accurate. No …

---

486 System Troubleshooting?

Posted on 2015-02-17, 03:17

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Evening, everyone! Got a bit of a monstrosity of hardware here I'm trying to get fired up. I'll give a quick overview of the specs I'm working with: Motherboard: Young Micro VSF486F/S-3VL; 64K Cache CPU: Intel 486DX2-66 OverDrive (486DX2ODPR66) RAM: 8 x 1MB SIMM30 Video: ATI Mach32 VLB 1MB + 1MB …

---

Re: Young Micro 486 Cache Layout?

Posted on 2015-02-07, 23:43

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I thought the same thing when I'd read that, but I've seen boards do stranger things. This is the board in question: http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/JjcAAOxyNo9Sug9n/$_57.JPG ...not my own picture, but good enough to see what I'm working with. I just dropped off an order for ten ISSI 128k …

---

Young Micro 486 Cache Layout?

Posted on 2015-02-07, 22:10

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Evening, gentlemen. Got a quick question. I just recently received my new 486DX2 motherboard - a Young Micro VSF486F/S-3VL. It came to me with 64K of cache in some strange nine-8k-by-8 setup which I can't even find listed anywhere. The only information I can find is over at Stason: http://stason.org …

---

Re: 486 Board Identification?

Posted on 2015-02-03, 20:12

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, several things happened: I found and promptly purchased a nice Young Micro VLB board based on a symphony chip, complete with 486DX2-66 Overdrive. http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/JjcAAOxyNo9Sug9n/$_57.JPG http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/Y/YOUNG-MICRO-SYSTEMS-INC-486-VS486F-S- …

---

486 Board Identification?

Posted on 2015-01-30, 07:08

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Evening, gentlemen! I just put in an eBay order to finally fill out my 486DX2 system and get it up and running. She's going to run a Cyrix 486DX2-50 (hopefully) with a VLB Mach32 2MB for video, 90MB of SCSI HDD storage, an AWE32 CT3990 on sound, and a whole pile of other I/O controllers. My ' …

---

Re: Direct 56K Modem Connection? Alternatives?

Posted on 2014-05-04, 01:50

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a cheap Dell/Conexant USB 56K modem for a few uses, and when connected directly to the other system's US Robotics ISA modem (which is actually a fairly nice unit, not OEM garbage like most), neither end can register any connection, even when set to ignore a dial tone. I was under the …

---

Direct 56K Modem Connection? Alternatives?

Posted on 2014-05-03, 22:19

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hello! Back with one helluva strange project I've got going on. As a sort of proof-of-concept project, I'm building a bridge back through networking history - so far, here's what I've got set up: Comcast Modem -> Wireless Router -> HP DL380/G4 Server -> Ad-Hoc Wireless Network -> Asus G75 Laptop -> …

---

Adaptec 2370/72C RLL Controller?

Posted on 2014-04-10, 17:19

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Howdy! Back with more problems. I've been retrofitting the good old PA-2011 system with whatever I can get my hands on... Right now, it's running a Cyrix MII-300GP, an S3 Virge, the good old AWE32, and the latest addition is a Seagate ST-277R-1 half height RLL drive. Lots of other good stuff in …

---

Re: Ideas for a Pentium MMX System?

Posted on 2014-02-01, 05:29

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Welp, sorry for the long wait; I've been swamped with school work this week. Lots of updates, though. First of all, the AWE32's Synth problems weren't caused by anything even remotely related to the other hardware; apparently, the SIMM30s I've installed on it are warped or misaligned just enough …

---

Re: Ideas for a Pentium MMX System?

Posted on 2014-01-30, 21:36

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's funny you should mention that... my original plans were to use a Matrox G450. I ordered one from eBay; they ended up shipping an AGP card to me, and told me to keep it since they sent me the wrong item. Got a free AGP G450 out of that. Second attempt came from PCLiquidations (awesome store, btw …

---

Ideas for a Pentium MMX System?

Posted on 2014-01-30, 20:52

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Howdy! For the first time in a long time, I've actually finished building a system past it being a pile of parts on a test bench. Since everyone likes pictures: http://www.mediafire.com/view/jw4uu3yo9fl8rn2/DSC_0084(2).JPG http://www.mediafire.com/view/njusjoqmnsqlp8z/DSC_0085(2).JPG http://www. …

---

Re: Echo DSP Midi Synth?

Posted on 2014-01-11, 01:10

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I went ahead and ordered one - I agree... it's worth $20 to just for collection purposes. I've never even heard of half the chips on that thing. It sure is unique, that's for sure. Should be here sometime in the coming week. I wish I could make out the markings on those memory chips to get a …

---

Re: Decent PCI Video Card for AMD K6?

Posted on 2014-01-07, 22:14

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Mmm... it's taking everything I've got to not sit here and tell myself "...but the next generation is just a bit better..." over and over again. The last time I did this, I ended up nearly ten years off with an AGP GeForce 6800 running alongside a Pentium II clocked at a whopping 266Mhz. Needless to …

---

Re: Decent PCI Video Card for AMD K6?

Posted on 2014-01-07, 06:41

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's a shame... might take it just to add to the collection anyway, for $15. I've paid more than that for shipping alone. I'm seeing a lot of OEM Rage128's that are pulls out of PowerMac systems, though some of them aren't. Also a couple Rage Pros and a nice Matrox G450 - I think I might end up …

---

Decent PCI Video Card for AMD K6?

Posted on 2014-01-07, 06:05

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Howdy! Well, I've set the 486 build aside for now while I wait for a nice-looking VLB video card to pop up for it, along with a Baby-AT case. Focus looks like it's going to be on the good old AMD K6. I'm having a helluva time finding a decent PCI video card for it, though. Motherboard is an Asus …

---

Re: Echo DSP Midi Synth?

Posted on 2014-01-05, 08:21

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Mmm... guess I've not been around here long enough to have seen anything on them. It's probably true... I might just toss the $30 into funding for a Roland SC-88 instead, though its always nice to have something else you can just stick in an ISA slot. :happy: I didn't realize they'd been up there …

---

Echo DSP Midi Synth?

Posted on 2014-01-04, 21:37

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Howdy! I've been looking for the next addition to my ISA sound card collection - I could always pick up another Sound Blaster, but where's the fun in that? I ran into this on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Echo-Speech-Echo-DSP-16bit-Wavetable-ISA-Sound-Card-w-Digital-Signal-Processor-/251194456539?pt …

---

Re: Source of HDDs?

Posted on 2013-12-23, 00:32

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Don't worry - I'd received the drive a few days before this, and made sure it was thoroughly dry before spinning it up. The damage wasn't recent - looks like it was just sitting somewhere in a wet cardboard box or some such. I can say for sure that the drive is thoroughly dead, though. My Laptop - I …

---

Re: Source of HDDs?

Posted on 2013-12-22, 02:00

by

by TheAdmiralty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yep, and I was willing to risk it on having this drive in working order; looks like this is payback for having received an 'undested' yet mint-condition NIB 486 motherboard for $20. Oh well. I'm the kind of guy that would gladly dump $1000 into a few palettes of old scrap systems thrown out by some …

---