Re: New display to old laptops?

Posted on 2021-07-11, 03:08

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I guess you need to multiply the bit value or something, so when you get 1111 as "loudest" on 4 bit it sends 11111111 on 8 bit.. IDK if it would be that bad if you just sent zeros for the lower four bits, just lose a little top end, since 8 would be halfway on 4 bit, and 128 halfway on 8 bit, and 4 …

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

Posted on 2021-07-11, 02:55

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Recapping an AV11... annnd it's half alive... Got it in a box lot of boards some 15 years ago, got no history on it, was sitting there with it's bloaty caps waiting for me to get desperate enough for an s370 board. So, we go through the POST tests, and get to FF annnnd nothing happens, well the …

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Re: Are 586 Cyrix more fun?

Posted on 2021-07-10, 04:49

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have fond memories of mine from late '95, might have been early '96. It served me well and was a lot of fun, still have it stashed. However, if I was going back to those days now, I'd try and swing a P75 instead. Because what I didn't know then is that P75s from D0 stepping upward all seem to have …

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

Posted on 2021-07-10, 03:15

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Been pulling G-Luxon caps off a socket 370 Shuttle. Good thing I decided to do them all, some of them perfectly flat on top... and blown out at the bottom. Component tester doesn't even recognise them as trying to be capacitors, one of them must have corroded plates touching internally though, it …

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

Posted on 2021-07-09, 20:03

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's not a "real" hard drive unless it makes you fear for the structural integrity of the desk while it's coming up to speed 🤣 (Full height ST506)

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Re: Compaq armada 1750

Posted on 2021-07-09, 18:24

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

Ah sorry, thought it was a well known abbreviation for isopropyl alcohol, isopropanol, also sometimes known as rubbing alcohol, but things sold as rubbing alcohol can also have oils and fragrances like wintergreen in.

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Re: Compaq armada 1750

Posted on 2021-07-09, 17:37

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by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

Mine hasn't had that problem (Yet?) so nothing much to suggest. My headphone socket was crackly until I cleaned it with IPA but didn't come through speakers. However, the jack sockets all have switches in, if the contacts on those got badly oxidised it might cause crackles through the system. …

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Re: PCI slots fouling CPU heatsink

Posted on 2021-07-09, 16:17

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The other way to go might be to look for tail end of socket A heatpipe sinks that are tall enough that cards fit between the pipes.

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Re: 56K (or slower) modems, how is their flash memory for firmware arranged?

Posted on 2021-07-09, 14:20

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, could be got on internals too though. My wife's PC when I met her had this not full length, but long ISA card with a soundcard and voice modem semi integrated, they still seemed to have separate sound chips though. There was only some clunky win95 software for it for answering machine services. …

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Re: ~20 Windows 98 SE Installs later....STILL isn't 100%, ever

Posted on 2021-07-09, 03:28

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

You have to simplify and get methodical, bare minimum system, simplest vid, no sound, one fixed disk, one RAM stick or set of RAM, then get all Sherlock Holmes, eliminate the impossible, then whatever remains however improbable is your culprit, downclock, monitor voltages, run tests on components IN …

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

Posted on 2021-07-08, 21:36

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nforce and mobile don't play nice together, CPU may work in a Via, SiS, or AMD board.

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Re: Advantages of Dual Pentium3 or dual Pentium motherboards for retro PC?

Posted on 2021-07-08, 16:21

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For absolutely no reason whatsoever, I might be joining the fray in a month or two, other things on the go first, but I realised the other day I have 2 sets of 2 identical slotkets, a pair of 1Ghz PIIIs and a P2B-D board sitting in a box (might need repairs) so it's hard to resist giving it a go. I …

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Re: 56K (or slower) modems, how is their flash memory for firmware arranged?

Posted on 2021-07-08, 14:18

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, I guess there's no x86 code to execute from the firmware, it's internal code... but then we got winmodems to fog things up, but I guess they just put it all in the drivers.

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Re: The quest for the perfect retro laptop: a saga

Posted on 2021-07-08, 14:04

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Soundcards work like cats, play the games with them they like and the noises are pleasant, play the games they don't like and the noises are unpleasant.

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56K (or slower) modems, how is their flash memory for firmware arranged?

Posted on 2021-07-08, 13:53

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi folks, So I have a lot of 56k and other modems around, and it struck me last night, what if there's a possible use for them? It's all dependent on how the flash memory firmware features are implemented. If they are at an address and memory location on the PC's bus, then even if one has to …

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Re: motherboard PC speakers

Posted on 2021-07-07, 17:48

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Well anyway, ignoring paranoia of magnetism, all you need is any smallish 8 ohm speaker wired to a 4 pin wide, middle two pins absent header plug for XT through pentium, maybe 2 pin for MMX thru P4, check your board. You can find these in many old radios, toys etc.

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Re: Compaq armada 1750

Posted on 2021-07-07, 15:35

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

I guess I should clarify that the packed exe will inevitably try to install to a floppy when run, but with a 3rd party extractor winzip, 7zip, winrar etc, you can extract them manually to a directory.

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Re: motherboard PC speakers

Posted on 2021-07-07, 15:31

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

You know a hard drive magnet can pick up a full PC system unit right? If magnetic fields corrupted computers so bad, they'd have never worked with a hard drive installed.

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Re: Compaq armada 1750

Posted on 2021-07-07, 15:26

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

Possibly a E500/M500 restore CD would work as the hardware is substantially similar. Though might need an E500 serial # for it. Mine seems to have a generic minimal 98 install, but audio was already working and I found service packs to fix up the video as mentioned on first page. All the drivers …

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Re: Compaq armada 1750

Posted on 2021-07-07, 13:07

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

The good news, nusb does work on it, the bad news, that port is incredibly slow. Seems slower than the one on my Thinkpad 385D which is a year older at least I think. Prism based PCMCIA (802.11b) cards work well on Win98 though. My optical drive did read burned CDs okay though for other means of …

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