Re: Win98 machine just powers on randomly

Posted on 2022-05-15, 15:54

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My Abit AN7 likes to power on spontaneously, and I literally see it happen for no logical reason. I suspect that either the caps are in need of replacement, or there's something else faulty with the board. Maybe the circuit connected to the power on switch has some faulty components. Point is it can …

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Re: Matrox Mystique 220 crash

Posted on 2022-05-13, 18:28

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

My Matrox Mystique experienced crashes on a i815ep socket 370 board whenever the CPU was running at 800mhz/133fsb or 600mhz/100fsb. Lowering the clocks to 400mhz/66fsb fixed the crashing issue. I was using Matrox drivers 4.11 with DirectX 7 installed on Win98 SE. Don't remember seeing any errors …

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Re: Geforce 4 MX display problem on some games

Posted on 2022-05-13, 18:09

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Is there an option to disable pedestrians? I know in Midtown Madness 1 there were graphical glitches on all Geforce cards when pedestrians were shown.

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Re: GPU 7970 vs 9800 gtx

Posted on 2022-05-13, 02:47

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Yes, you should try an earlier driver. I tested several Radeons from the hd5000, hd6000, hd7000 series, and they all perform slower with the latest drivers. Try some of the earliest XP drivers that support the hd7000 series, like 12.4. The whole driver thing with XP is why I run two XP OS drives, …

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Re: GPU 7970 vs 9800 gtx

Posted on 2022-05-13, 02:38

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Yes, you should try an earlier driver. I tested several Radeons from the hd5000, hd6000, hd7000 series, and they all perform slower with the latest XP drivers. Try some of the earliest XP drivers that support the hd7000 series, like 12.4.

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Re: 1GB vs 2GB for gaming XP build

Posted on 2022-05-08, 20:04

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

2GB is plenty for XP games up to about 2007, and even 1GB is enough for games up to 2004. Consult your motherboard manual to see supported memory speeds, because many AthlonXP or P4 boards would use lower memory speeds or slower timings if more than 2 sticks of RAM are installed.

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Re: [Help]An acceptable Windows XP Gaming System

Posted on 2022-05-04, 18:28

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A high end Athlon XP was an acceptable XP gaming system back then, I personally ran a mobile XP2500 overclocked and with a Radeon 9800pro it handled Half Life 2 and Far Cry without problems. But nowadays, there are much better options. I would avoid AGP because you're limiting your choice of …

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Re: Has anyone else tested hardware that seems defective but comes back to life on it's own?

Posted on 2022-04-14, 02:29

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Had a few instances of old artifacting graphics cards coming back to life after replacing thermal paste. Even more strangely, had a few cases where I replaced the thermal paste and the artifacts or instability gets worse, but then working fine after another round of reassembly and changing how I …

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Anyone identify this card?

Posted on 2022-03-18, 18:15

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I have an ISA sound card, looks like an Opti 82c930 chipset with an Admos QS700 wavetable. But what's the make and model of the card? Is it any good? On the back the FCC ID sticker says LN5ADM-CM89405.

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Re: Replace fan for Radeon X800 XL?

Posted on 2022-03-06, 15:14

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Usually in situations like this, I would remove the fan and look at the sticker on the back, it should tell you the name and model type of the fan. Also measure the fan diameter and the mounting hole spacing, in millimeters. Then search ebay, aliexpress, or your favorite search engine for a cooler …

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Re: Thoughts on Gravis Xtermiator?

Posted on 2022-02-16, 18:37

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I used one back in the early 2000's. It was ok, but I later decided that I wanted dual analog sticks, and that's why I sold it. I only played racing games on it, so maybe the thrust slider and POV hat switch would work better for other games like flight sims.

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Re: Huge number of K6-2E+/570ACZ CPUs for sale on eBay

Posted on 2022-02-14, 14:49

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does the Ezra-T require a motherboard with Tualatin support? Or will it work with any 440bx board that can supply the correct voltage?

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Re: From DOS to Crysis 60FPS (All-in-one build dilema)

Posted on 2022-02-14, 02:15

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

All Core2 and s939 Athlon64 have downward unlocked multiplier, no need for e6500k. Also, the Asrock 4CoreDual boards have only space for a single slot agp card, so a Quadro fx3000 is not a good choice. If I was building an all in one rig (which I plan to), I'd use the Asrock 4CoreDual VSTA, and an …

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Re: 462 + 423 socket systems, could this solve the PSU dilemma?

Posted on 2022-02-01, 05:26

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What is the problem with using a modern PSU that provides 150W on the 5v rail? A good modern power supply uses DC-DC conversion to get 5v and 3.3v from the 12v rail, so heavy 5v loads should not cause the other voltages to go out of spec.

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Re: Video ghosting blurriness and dark video output

Posted on 2022-01-24, 19:46

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I have a gf2 gts with exactly the kind of problem you describe. Comparing it with an exact same version that works with a multimeter, I couldn't find anything obvious on the analog output path that would indicate an easy fix, like a broken capacitor or inductor, or noticeably different resistance …

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Re: Playing ON vs WITH retro hardware (and hardware preservation)

Posted on 2022-01-24, 16:14

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good point about modern hardware dying. I had a gtx980 die on me while gaming, and this is a card with modern power regulation and beefy cooling. For retro hardware, it's fun to see what it could back in the day, but for actually playing old games, I'm more likely to go for something that runs cool …

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Re: Which platform for "aio" pc

Posted on 2022-01-23, 17:36

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pssssst wanna really stress a FX series GPU .. just find a nice DX9 game and run it at 1600x1200 maxed details and watch that poor little FX card choke to death when it cant process DX9 draw calls fast enough. As bit wrangler suggests . .Crysis would be perfect with Far Cry a close second. Well, …

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Re: Which platform for "aio" pc

Posted on 2022-01-23, 16:52

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Or rather it tells me that Q3 and UT99 are not putting enough load on the GPU to stress a fx5900, as given by the triple digit fps numbers. That doesn't mean that the fx5900 is cpu limited by anything less than a 3+ GHz Core2. A more accurate test would be games from the late DX8 era like NOLF2, Max …

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Re: Methods to enhance retro-flexibility on Pentium 4 class hardware...

Posted on 2022-01-22, 21:05

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Turns out that CPUSPD can disable caches on a P4 completely. Below are some results from a quick test I did: P4 2.53GHz Northwood 533MHz FSB, Aopen MX46 (Sis 651), DDR-333, Radeon 9550 Test results are for 3dbench 1.0c / PCPbench / Doom (fps) Normal: 636.6 / 481.7 / 154.3 Using "cpuspd cd": 24.7 / …

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Re: Methods to enhance retro-flexibility on Pentium 4 class hardware...

Posted on 2022-01-20, 18:01

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think it's great if we can "correct the record" on the P4 and clear up some misconceptions. So far it appears that the BIOS option to disable caches no longer exists on many late P4 boards (Intel 865, 875 chipsets). It's more likely to appear on 845pe and earlier chipsets, and I have also seen …

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