Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2023-09-01, 14:39

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Found a couple of really nice IDE HDD caddies. The build quality seems great. Unfortunately the keys are missing, but can live without them. Inside there were 60GB 2.5" Hitachi Travelstars, 44 to 40 pin IDE adapters, and 3.5" to 2.5" mounting brackets as well. Nice little bonus :) caddies.jpg …

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

Posted on 2023-08-29, 02:30

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

Heh, I've got a doorknob like that that can't spell his own gmail and keeps getting stuff sent to mine. He's a right Charlie... for real, apparently his name is Charles

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

Posted on 2023-08-28, 17:23

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Prism 2.0 USB wifi works well enough on 98, but of course the protocol support is archaic, so you typically have to gateway it through an older wifi router.

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Re: IBM 386DX40...exists?

Posted on 2023-08-26, 13:29

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yep, that's what I'm saying, there isn't a DX40 sized hole because next architecture had taken over. Like there isn't a DX5-133 hole in many other PC makers lines, because they are already offering Pentiums

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Re: IBM 386DX40...exists?

Posted on 2023-08-26, 03:51

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

IBM kinda went a different way, they had an intel 486 license, they had cyrix licenses, and sorta bodged the two together and came out with the 486SLC series when AMD came out with the DX40... Now those ran on 386 boards/chipsets, but weren't very "drop in" on older boards due to needing lower …

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Re: CRT service - advices - for dummies

Posted on 2023-08-26, 00:20

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Base level meddlers guide... https://www.repairfaq.org/sam/monfaq.htm

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Re: Is it possible for me to add an l2 cache to my 486 66mhz computer motherboard?

Posted on 2023-08-25, 15:39

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

IDK if the notch in the corner of the speedsys graph is 1kb of chipset L2 cache just barely doing something or not. Anyhoo, if the challenge is "make the system extra more betterer using only this motherboard" I'd go something like, try to find a rare 5V 16Kb L1 486, double the L1 woohoo. Might not …

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Re: DOS Games on Voodoo 3

Posted on 2023-08-25, 15:18

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I think you're gonna have to get specific about what games do what. Hard to tell at the moment if you've got a general problem or a "these are Voodoo1" or "these are Voodoo2" games that need specific workarounds on the Voodoo3.

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

Posted on 2023-08-25, 14:56

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I needed an EPROM eraser to reprogram some old BIOS chips. The cheap EPROM erasers on Amazon don't have a good reputation for quality, so instead I bought a UV sterilizer designed for disinfecting baby pacifiers. Sterilizer 1.jpg It has four UV-C LEDs inside. I just taped down the EPROM on top of …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-08-25, 14:16

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Been having the retro blahs, and general blahs the last week since the MSI Kn133 was messing me around, but GoodWill might have just cheered me up, found this in local store... Box looks a little "shelf worn" I wonder if it's actually got a motherboard in it... It does, and it looks rather shiny, …

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Re: CRT experience

Posted on 2023-08-25, 05:18

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yah the QVGA size resolutions look very authentic on a TV, 640x480 authentic-ish... depending on how good a VGA monitor you had back in the day, which is kinda $500 for the lowest end in 1990, vs $150 for a "fishbowl" that would score low in reviews in 1995, but that would have been about the same, …

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Re: Market value for popular or rare classic computer hardware

Posted on 2023-08-25, 05:00

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

Just got an Asus P5A-B at a thrift for cheap, so of course wanted to see what they are "going for" on fleabay these days, holy cow, not one sold cheaper than $200 US for as far back as the sold item search goes.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-08-25, 03:16

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Please upload an iso of the CD to VogonsDrivers. I'd like a copy, as I'm sure other would as well. My board is revision 1.04 (so ready for K6+ CPUs) but I'm sure the drivers will be the same. It appears identical to the one at archive dot org under the title "Asus P5A Motherboard Driver CD 5.15" …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-08-25, 00:32

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Been having the retro blahs, and general blahs the last week since the MSI Kn133 was messing me around, but GoodWill might have just cheered me up, found this in local store... Box looks a little "shelf worn" I wonder if it's actually got a motherboard in it... It does, and it looks rather shiny, …

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Re: Market value for popular or rare classic computer hardware

Posted on 2023-08-18, 22:18

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

There's between $5- $15 worth in older CPUs, that's why I'm always happy to see them selling at more than that, it keeps them from getting crushed up. P-Pros are supposed to have rather a lot though, up to $50ish when the gold price high. A whole gram when the range in others is more like 0.1 to 0. …

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

Posted on 2023-08-17, 21:39

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The weird thing about "audio grade" is that I have heard that particularly in the case of tantalums, you need an actual high ESR to load some amplifiers and resonant circuits correctly. However you can "crappify" regular caps by putting a half ohm resistor in series.

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Re: SetMul - Multiplier control for VIA C3 / AMD K6+7+8 Mobile / Cyrix 5x86

Posted on 2023-08-16, 19:59

by

by BitWrangler

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

plain plain DOS no DMA driver loaded?

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Re: ATI VGA Wonder-16 not working in 8088

Posted on 2023-08-16, 14:18

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

copper wrote on 2023-08-16, 05:16: Does anybody know if this card needs -5V on the ISA bus? My ATX PSU may not provide it; I can check. The 100% certain way is to look at the edge connector -5V pin and if it's not connected to anything it doesn't need it, if it is it does.

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Re: Trash thrash, quick and derpy, low end socket A ...

Posted on 2023-08-16, 02:19

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Holy crap, prodding and prodding and prodding and prodding... but none of the SMDs.... got it I hope though, that big green cap to the right, happened to wobble it and felt the very faint tick, yup, moves just like it shouldn't, it's loose in a hole... had to get board out, flipped it up, could only …

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Re: Trash thrash, quick and derpy, low end socket A ...

Posted on 2023-08-15, 22:43

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

It's a precision instrument the same as a hammer is, but seem to have narrowed down problem area on board with freezer spray. Premium contact cleaner on RAM slots did "nothing" (They might be cleaner but didn't make it POST). Anyway, any time this area is hit with the freezer spray, I can get it to …

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