So my Dell 486 uses this to power the clock and CMOS RAM: https://i.imgur.com/FG82OJo.jpg It's pretty flat, giving out 1.7V and that apparently isn't enough to keep the CMOS settings. Cracking it open reveals this: https://i.imgur.com/jyOap3J.jpg It's basically a 9V battery cut in half and the …

I've been reading a bunch of threads about what the ideal sound card for DOS games is and the argument that keeps popping up against the SBPro is that it's an 8-bit card and that you want an SB16 to get "16-bit sound" Well, yes, most games did use 22Khz/8bit samples. But that's just part of the …

How are you listening to the output? Headphones? What you're hearing is the noise on the power supply of the sound circuitry that is coupled to the output: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_rejection_ratio I had exactly the same problem with a Dell laptop a few years ago. Basically …

I've been reading a bunch of threads about what the ideal sound card for DOS games is and the argument that keeps popping up against the SBPro is that it's an 8-bit card and that you want an SB16 to get "16-bit sound". But, are there really any games that use 16-bit samples? For floppy based games, …

Thanks for the replies, guys. I actually do have a bunch of other stuff in a box somewhere. I have two Asus 486SP3G boards, one with an Intel DX4-100, another with an AMD DX4-133. Also a bunch of Slot 1 Boards and CPUs, an Asus Slot A ... problem is, no case. Good condition AT cases are really hard …

That's the linear regulator that drops the 5V down to whatever the CPU needs, like e.g. 3V. It's most likely an LT1084: http://cds.linear.com/docs/en/datasheet/108345fh.pdf It needs a big heatsink because it converts the voltage difference (VxI) into heat. Measure the resistance from pin 1 (the one …

Is there any reason to buy a 386SX-16 if you're only interested in gaming? Are there any games that would only work on a 386SX-16 but not on a 486DX-33 (ISA only, no external cache), even with the 486's clock dropped to 16MHz and the internal caches disabled? I remember back in the day, I had a DX2- …