Re: My 3Dfx Collection

Posted on 2021-03-17, 23:43

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

havli wrote on 2021-03-17, 10:05: Oh, and one of your V2s has the new 3dfx logos, nice. 😀 You mean that some vendors were still baking those technologically outdated 3D only cards well into the new millennium? Unbelievable.

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Re: Need BIOS firmware for 386 Board Micronics Computers

Posted on 2021-03-17, 23:19

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I had this suspicion for a while that Micronics were rebranding existing chipsets under a license, If MIC 36x chipset is actually a C&T PEAK chipset, then i wonder what a MIC 471 could possibly be. MIC 471/491 chipset accepts EDO RAM, supports WB caching scheme, has VLB support but no PCI and no …

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Re: Old MSI MS-6117 SLOT 1 dead. Do you have any Idea ?

Posted on 2021-03-17, 22:44

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Still no life after reinserting something like 100 times the cpu in the slot :/ I don't understand why the CPU is dead cool athough it seems receiving the good voltage... Bad luck. Now, if you are absolutely sure that all of the traces are OK, no passive SMD components are missing or damaged, all …

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Re: Recommendations on soldering services?

Posted on 2021-03-17, 04:54

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can't agree more on the junk part, but for a small scale, one-time desoldering job it would be a perfect tool.

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Re: PC Chips M326 V5.2 motherboard adventures: testing, repairs, and other things

Posted on 2021-03-17, 02:08

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I had tested this MB recently and found out that cache settings in BIOS have no effect on its performance, tried newer Award and AMI BIOS from other manufacturers and the end result was always the same in CACHECHK - 39 us/KB for cache at 40 MHz.

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Re: Have anyone actually gotten hardware damaged due to using old PSUs?

Posted on 2021-03-17, 01:51

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pretty much, it was an older 300W PSU with a weak 12V line, IIRC the graphics card I was using back then required to have at least a 350W unit.

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Re: Recommendations on soldering services?

Posted on 2021-03-17, 01:43

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My recommendations would be - post an ad in local classifieds with such inquiry or invest in a simple desoldering pump with heater and do the deed yourself 😁

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Re: Have anyone actually gotten hardware damaged due to using old PSUs?

Posted on 2021-03-17, 01:30

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not a single case of damaged hardware by using old PSUs here, but I had fried at least a few weaker PSUs by overloading them in the early days, when video cards began to require an external power source, but those failures were minor and incapable of damaging anything further. I don't know how a PSU …

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Re: Old MSI MS-6117 SLOT 1 dead. Do you have any Idea ?

Posted on 2021-03-17, 00:38

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Reinsert CPU a few dozen times and it should come back to life (unless chipset is fried), I had a few such "dead" motherboards that ended up having only an unreliable slot 1 connection.

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Re: 80486 BIOS image collection

Posted on 2021-03-12, 14:47

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

#88 Manufacturer: ECS UM8810PAIO REV: 2.0. Chipset: UMC UM8886F, UM8881F - PCI SET; UM82C865F+FDC37C665GT - I/O; PCI0640B - IDE controller. BIOS/Version: Award v4.50PG, VBS1.10H UM8810 ECS BIOS string: 06/23/95-UMC-881/886-2A4X5E11-00 ECS.jpg POST.JPG LOGO.JPG VBS1.10H.zip Comments: This BIOS …

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Re: Compaq Armada 1592DT cooling fan not spinning

Posted on 2021-03-07, 00:55

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That 1592DT Compaq doesn't give a damn about CPU cooling, temperature sensor's tripping threshold must be set at the same level as for the older and hotter P54C Pentiums. Offtopic: The older 1550T model is a pretty decent laptop, except for the horrid VGA performance, it uses a Cirrus Logic CL- …

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Re: Decpc LPX 466d2 AT Power Supply Replacement

Posted on 2021-03-04, 19:18

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd fix the old one, if you do not have soldering equipment or knowledge of SMPS operation then you could bring it to a qualified service technician for repair, those old AT PSUs do not lie around unfortunately.

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Re: HP Vectra 486/33VL not booting up

Posted on 2021-03-04, 19:06

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Check if it beeps w/o BIOS chip, maybe it emits some random noise?

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Re: 486 Won't boot, not a Beeb

Posted on 2021-03-04, 19:02

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BIOS halts at initializing keyboard controller, you'd get exact error W/O KB controller, check traces around battery.

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Re: HP Vectra 486/33VL not booting up

Posted on 2021-03-02, 14:59

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it actually beeped, then your CPU and chipset should be OK, skip test using a diag ROM for now, perhaps a bad connection/short or cold solder joint somewhere causes MB to return momentarily. Wash board using natural bristle brush and soap, reseat every removable component, dry well and test again …

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Re: HP Vectra 486/33VL not booting up

Posted on 2021-03-02, 01:57

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I wouldn't trust POST card readings, its functionality relies solely on BIOS, if BIOS chip is bad or image inside of it is corrupted, POST card will be of little use. When a motherboard shows no signs of life, I use a "Supersoft" diagnostic ROM to quickly pinpoint the problem. This diagnostic …

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Re: Dude, you're getting a Dell

Posted on 2021-03-01, 20:58

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Once upon a time there was a DELL, the DELL was powered on with a standard ATX power supply, the DELL was no more, the end.

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Re: Compaq Armada 1592DT cooling fan not spinning

Posted on 2021-02-27, 22:13

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I had same concern once too, CPU fan on my Armada 1550T (133MHz P54C, 2.9V core) turns on when CPU reaches around 65*C, that's normal for those armadas apparently.

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Re: Abit AB-PB4 twin paradox

Posted on 2021-02-23, 04:23

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

8MB Matrox produced the same tesult in 3D bench as S3 card (its oddly fast noname card) and could not go above 103.6FPS, forgot to mention that ISA clock was set to 1/3 of PCI in BIOS.

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Re: Abit AB-PB4 twin paradox

Posted on 2021-02-20, 06:00

by

by SSTV2

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tested my AB-PB4 also, seems it's on a faster side, in 3D bench 1.0C with exact BIOS settings and 5x86 @ 160MHz + 2MB S3 Trio64 I get 103.6FPS. Noticed one oddity about that MB though, ISA bus clock affects PCI bus performance slightly.

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