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

Posted on 2017-11-17, 03:42

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

...and now I find that my board maxes out at 300MHz (manual took a decade to find, and even then, only the manuals for the A and C variants), so if nothing else, I have a K6-2 500 running at 60% speed, which means it may never die. As that's the case, it's time to put it away for another fifteen …

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Re: Old hardware you didn't take or buy... but might still want?

Posted on 2017-11-16, 01:29

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Passed up a complete Coleco Adam at a Goodwill back in about 2001 because I was broke, and couldn't justify getting an old computer at the time.

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

Posted on 2017-11-16, 01:24

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got an AMD K6-2 400 in the mail, and when I took the heat sink off of my 300 to replace it, what did I see, but 500 engraved on it. Money wasted, as I only have one Socket 7 board, my first computer. The board (Biostar M5ATB) seems to only support up to 450 without causing chaos on the PCI bus, so …

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Re: Go-Tek or buy blank floppy's

Posted on 2017-11-15, 03:09

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you want to set it further back in the bay, you could just drill new mounting holes (not in the drive).

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Re: Help! New 486 build refuses to boot, can't figure out why

Posted on 2017-11-15, 03:06

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pull everything but the processor. If it doesn't beep when you power the system up, the board may have other issues. Make sure the buzzer/beeper works, too, though.

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Re: Go-Tek or buy blank floppy's

Posted on 2017-11-14, 17:21

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd buy one, but I have a ton of new floppies from when I was cleaning out K-Marts and thrift stores at the dawn of the CDR and flash drive age. As far as what to put into one of those drives to keep it from looking like an obtrusive piece of crap, there exist extremely low profile flash drives that …

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

Posted on 2017-11-13, 05:06

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Cloudflare actively blocks access to any site they have their tentacles coiled around, if you try to connect to it with an old browser. THAT is the biggest hurdle in using an older system on the web today.

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

Posted on 2017-11-13, 01:31

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Money is worthless these days. A thousand dollars in the early nineties was a fortune. Inflation and minimum wage differences matter.

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Re: Modern case for 486

Posted on 2017-11-12, 03:56

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Dremel tool and an un-cut I/O shield issues. It's a sin to let dust bunnies take up nesting inside of the case. I prematurely bought a blank shield and found the original I/O shield for my first computer in a random box in the basement before it arrived from Russia. Ah well, spare parts for the …

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Re: best way to dry out a computer

Posted on 2017-11-12, 03:52

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bake it at low temperature in the oven. At the "warm" setting, if that's an option. Don't want to melt any plastic, just be hot enough to make the water evaporate into the much dryer air around it. Not an option? If it wasn't the ass end of the year, I'd say leave it in the car with the windows …

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Re: Socket 7 Motherboard not assigning drive letter to CDROM

Posted on 2017-11-11, 05:28

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In addition to that which has already been stated, remember the first rule of technical troubleshooting: replace suspected bad with known good. Test the drive in another system without such issues, test a known-working drive in the system with the issues.

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

Posted on 2017-11-09, 00:50

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tested out a cheap VGA to s-video device. Not recommended for anything but giggles, as the aspect ratio outside of Windows is wrong. Audio is all kinds of jacked up due to the USB capture widget being used in conjunction with it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeD8yQaPX_0

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Re: Does most ISA video card have tv-out capability?

Posted on 2017-11-08, 01:03

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Coincidentally, I just got a VGA to S-video kit today, and that's how I intend to capture video from my older systems, as I am NOT interested in spending a couple hundred bucks on a superior solution. The real pain is, the system I would be capturing from is across the room from the system that …

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Re: Is there any way to put together a socket 7 dos/windows gaming pc cheaply?

Posted on 2017-11-07, 05:41

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I can't remember the last time I saw a computer of any sort in a thrift store, and I've been to dozens in two states over the past few years. I pick up almost every card I find (got a capture card and a Linksys ethernet card back in the spring), as well as any decent displays, but the systems …

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

Posted on 2017-11-06, 05:01

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also nice work. Appreciated, thank you. Admittedly, I mainly do this stuff when I should be asleep, and sometimes just say GOOD ENOUGH and save it. Ah well, who else would bother to make such limited-purpose icons? Crusader plays wonderfully on a 486 DX2. I'll have to try it out. The last time I …

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

Posted on 2017-11-06, 03:27

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

4th set, and still more games that I can't open or run from within Windows 3 on a 66MHz 486 DX2. Filename xiadoic4.gif File size 4.54 KiB Views 930 views

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

Posted on 2017-11-05, 04:14

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tech which displeases me dies in fire, or takes a ride on the business end of my 12 gauge. I have a SoundBlaster that needs some solder work, when I can cheaply source fewer than a THOUSAND surface mount capacitors, and when I can determine the values for the caps that were scraped off of the board …

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Re: 486 DX-33 question

Posted on 2017-11-03, 02:13

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Any processor can be helped with a heat sink, even an 8088. Heat sink adhesive is pretty cheap, along with heat sinks. I've yet to in-sink-erate any of my oldputers, but it sounds like something amusing to do on a day off. Alas, installing ventilation fans into older devices not made for them, is …

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Re: budget "486s"

Posted on 2017-11-02, 12:54

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My setup, while not budget for 1994, is certainly budget for now, since everything in the system was scoured from one of my boxes of random ISA cards and old hard drives acquired from a failed computer repair business. Buying anything better online starts approaching $50 per part. Budget in 1993 or …

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Re: budget "486s"

Posted on 2017-11-02, 04:24

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My 486 is a DX2 66MHz, with 32MB of RAM, a 512k ISA video card, Linksys LNE2000T ISA 10Mbps ethernet NIC, SoundBlaster Vibra16 CT4170, with a dying 1GB HDD, rocking Windows for Workgroups. No CDROM drive because the BIOS doesn't recognize anything but hard drives, but I don't really want to install …

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