Re: 486 DX2-66 "build."

Posted on 2019-08-28, 05:19

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by athlon-power

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Here's a few updated pictures now that I've got it set up: 20190828_005410.jpg 20190828_005229.jpg 20190828_005338.jpg Here are the current specs: IBM Personal Computer 350-466DX2 (Type 6581L5F, BIOS date 03/10/95, Motherboard OAEK8XJLU7I) 486 DX2 66MHz (It could be an Intel, an AMD, a Cyrix, or …

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Re: Need to ID motherboard, Quaestions on CPU Config

Posted on 2019-08-27, 02:48

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by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I managed to get into BIOS, and got the CPU and everything configured, but the HDD LED won't work no matter what I try to do. Not sure what's going on with that. I tested the LED itself in another system, and it works fine, but no matter which position I put it in, it won't work in the PC, and the …

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Re: Need to ID motherboard, Quaestions on CPU Config

Posted on 2019-08-26, 22:36

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, it looks like a PC Chips M570. It has BIOS options for CPU speed. Here is some info and link to the manual: http://www.elhvb.com/webhq/models/pcchips/m570.htm The website is a dead link for me, not sure why. As far as BIOS options go, I could fix it, if it let me go into BIOS, but it doesn't. …

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Need to ID motherboard, Quaestions on CPU Config

Posted on 2019-08-26, 20:55

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently was lucky enough to purchase a Super Socket 7 tower, alongside a Packard Bell monitor with speakers, a vintage HP DeskJet, and a vintage flatbed scanner for the price of US$5. I also got an external SCSI CD-ROM drive and a couple of vintage cables for US$1. To say that this was a lucky …

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Re: Questions on DOOM performance on 486 DX2-66

Posted on 2019-08-24, 03:24

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by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For a 486, L2 cache, 0kb of cache vs 128kb of cache .... definitely a decent different. 128kb of cache vs 256kb of cache ... not a big different. Its there, but it won't punch you in the face. What video card you are using? This also makes a difference. Regarding being the perfect processor for 3D …

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Questions on DOOM performance on 486 DX2-66

Posted on 2019-08-24, 02:29

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This isn't as much of a "It's not doing what I want it to do," situation like it was with Half-Life, but a question of whether or not I am doing something wrong, in more ways than one. Without L2 cache, it was not possible to run DOOM without turning the settings to low detail and making the visible …

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Re: 486 DX2-66 "build."

Posted on 2019-08-23, 22:58

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Yeah, That VLB slot is pretty much useless since they put such a good graphics chip in these computers. I was looking for an IBM desktop with a VLB slot but after researching it they are NOT needed. All you can use them for is a controller card or video card. My IBM PS/1's are all ISA which is fine …

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Re: How to identify a bad cache chip.

Posted on 2019-08-23, 21:37

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've seen boards with different branded cache chips. I've seen even more with the TAG chip being a different brand than the cache chips. I would go ahead and try one of the Samsung chips. It will either work or it won't. For that matter you could replace every other one with the Samsung chips and I …

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Re: 486 DX2-66 "build."

Posted on 2019-08-23, 15:10

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

My IBM PS/1 486dx-50 originally came with a Sound Blaster 16 sound card 4mb or ram upgradeable to 64mb ( 4 x 16mb ). Possibly upgradeable to 128mb ( 4 x 32mb ) Fast Page Mode RAM. Non-parity, 72-pin. and a 540mb hard-drive. I have an Onboard Cirrus Logic 5428 graphics chip which is pretty good for …

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Re: How to identify a bad cache chip.

Posted on 2019-08-23, 14:47

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Could be that the TAG RAM is faulty or not suitable for 256kb cache. Since you don't need all sockets for 128kb, it's also possible that one of the additional sockets for 256kb is damaged. But it's hard to say if you don't have spare cache chips and no other way to test them. I do have 4 other 20NS …

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Re: How to identify a bad cache chip.

Posted on 2019-08-23, 02:00

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It can also mean the bad cache chip may be good in the first 128KB How would a defective module work in one configuration but not another? Wouldn't there be errors? This really doesn't make much sense to me now, and I say that as if it made a huge amount of sense to me in the first place. :lol: …

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Re: How to identify a bad cache chip.

Posted on 2019-08-22, 21:17

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Swap the existing chips, two at once. If the memory memory moves, one of the two chips is bad. If nothing changes, both chips are good. In the end, you know which chips are certainly good and by swapping them with the two from one must be bad, you can identify the single bad chip. For simplicity, I …

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How to identify a bad cache chip.

Posted on 2019-08-22, 20:31

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I guess this isn't all sunshine and roses. When starting MS-DOS 6.22, HIMEM.SYS will give an error message, which reads as such: Himem.sys has detected unreliable xms memory at address 0010000Ah. I did this with both of my RAM sticks and the error still appears. When I disable Level 2 Cache in BIOS, …

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Re: 486 DX2-66 "build."

Posted on 2019-08-22, 19:26

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Filename 20190822_150647_1.jpg File size 471.39 KiB Views 1126 views File comment The 486 DX2-66 unit itself. I managed to try to repair the front panel a bit and clean it up, as it and the case itself were coated in an inordinate amount of black dust. It did not have the 5.25" bay blank, nor did …

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486 DX2-66 "build."

Posted on 2019-08-22, 18:56

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

While this PC isn't technically complete, it's only missing one piece (sound card), so I figured that I might as well document it here. It's an old IBM PC, post-PS/2 era, which is in reality about the same as any other old 486 clone, as far as I can tell. It came with PC-DOS and Windows 3.1, and had …

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Re: IBM PC 350 466DX2: PSU Replacement

Posted on 2019-08-19, 23:00

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by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Torx security head screw drivers are plentiful. You can get a cheap set from most hardware outlets. Even some $2 shops have bits which are fine for light usage. I assume that the screws in the power supply are torx? If so, you can get a torch screwdriver and open it up to make sure that there's no …

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IBM PC 350 466DX2: PSU Replacement

Posted on 2019-08-19, 21:26

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by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've written about this PC before, when I was trying to fiddle with the cache on it. I found a 256k set (9 chips!) of L2 cache on eBay for quite cheap, and they aren't crappy Chinese imports. Hopefully, I'll get some L2 cache now. I can also blame the prior owners for this lack of L2 cache, as IBM …

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Re: CD Burning Software for Windows 98

Posted on 2019-08-18, 00:33

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by athlon-power

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Why Nero? What's wrong with Imgburn or Infrarecorder? I guess I don't have much else of a choice but to use Imgburn. Nero was the only pre-2000 software I could find available online, which is why I was trying to use it. Just the whole "why is 2006/2006 software on a PC from 1999," sort of deal. …

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CD Burning Software for Windows 98

Posted on 2019-08-17, 23:12

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by athlon-power

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I recently acquired an HP CD-Writer 9300 series CD burner drive, and decided to throw it into my Windows 98 PC (one that has gone through many changes recently, this being one of those), and while the CD reading function works great, Windows 98 SE obviously doesn't have CD burning support. The …

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Strange Battery Behavior on Toshiba Tecra 8000

Posted on 2019-08-17, 20:49

by

by athlon-power

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently got an AC power adapter for a Toshiba Tecra 8000 I got ages ago, and while it is a knock-off adapter, I had no choice as there were no genuine 15v adapters out there. Not much I can do about that without spending US$50+ on a universal external power supply. Anyways, I got it to power on, …

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