Re: A tale of two PSUs

Posted on 2019-04-24, 12:20

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This PSU is definitely of exceptional quality, as the FR4 epoxy board indicates. On the third pic, the big cap could be bulgy. Does it feel like being under pressure when you press your finger at its top?

---

Re: Voting when you are uninformed?

Posted on 2019-04-24, 04:11

by

by retardware

in Milliways

in Milliways

Well, I do not read Fakebook (never had an account and never will have) so I am not informed. But I cannot understand why people like Jussie Smollett still are celebrities, in spite of what he did. I find this crazy. Here in Germany a girl slit a swastika into her arm using a knife and pretended …

---

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

Posted on 2019-04-24, 03:29

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tried to figure out what could be the cause why my P3 1200/256/100 suddenly gets "recognized" as 305MHz (87x3.5). It's really strange to me. BIOS is some Award, but it is strange... MODBIN hangs when trying to see BIOS options. CPU-Z ids the CPU correctly, but I am not sure whether it actually runs …

---

Re: Green Battery leak repair advice.

Posted on 2019-04-24, 02:48

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm not much of a fan of using IPA to displace the water after cleaning, it is a bit of a waste and would end up filling the room with IPA fumes once you place it in the oven. I reuse it. I have two labeled bottles, one for the first step (not mentioned in the post above), where I clean the muck …

---

Re: Green Battery leak repair advice.

Posted on 2019-04-24, 01:29

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Last mobo I got was similar. Used 30% vinegar concentrate, a drop of tenside and a toothbrush with very fine and soft brushes, until I couldn't see any greenspan anymore. Then thoroughly bathed in water, and then in IPA to displace the water. Finally a hour in oven at 50C, with hot air circulation …

---

Re: Which flasher and which EEPROM/flash chips do I need to read and program these BIOS chips?

Posted on 2019-04-24, 01:21

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Great, thanks! There is a counterfeit warning on http://www.autoelectric.cn/en/tl866_main.html indicating that no one should buy the TL866 A/CS versions, instead the II Plus. It seems to have new/additional functions also. Only disadvantage is that max programming voltage is 18 instead of 21V... but …

---

Re: Voting when you are uninformed?

Posted on 2019-04-24, 00:35

by

by retardware

in Milliways

in Milliways

I feel very similar. Mass media, be it OTA TV, established newspapers, and the big [brother] news sites makes me sick. So much pressing on emotions, evading any factual discussion, which gets suppressed quickly if not "convenient" and conform to the mainstream newspeak. This reminds me more and more …

---

Which flasher and which EEPROM/flash chips do I need to read and program these BIOS chips?

Posted on 2019-04-23, 23:57

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Look at this BIOS chip. Which PROM type is it? (If possible I would like to keep the sticker on it) Which (not-too-expensive) programmer do I need to read and flash this sort of chip? Thank you!

---

Re: Virge GX getting weird vertical lines on VESA modes

Posted on 2019-04-23, 21:31

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What do you think could cause it? This wasn't happening before. It only happens with VESA modes. I have UNIVBE loaded. Is the card bad? It is UNIVBE which is bad. Back then decades ago I had to tell people this often. Getting a VBE driver that is written for the specific card/chip always solved …

---

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

Posted on 2019-04-23, 01:10

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Everyone else, seems to be using tape deck recorder and a Windows machine. I wanted to do it on a real C64, and to prepare the files, I used a Linux machine. Midnight Commander are so cool, as I can extract PRG, as if D64 were a Zip file. Does this datasette really eat chromdioxide tapes well? Back …

---

Re: +12V power on Promise VLB controller & bad cap

Posted on 2019-04-22, 22:18

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If one exploded, the chance that the others follow is considerable. I'd replace all of them, as they are apparently degraded. Be careful to not mistake their polarity, as they'll bang if connected wrong way. The +-12V are needed for RS-232, i.e. com1, com2,...

---

Re: Install a hard drive in the BIOS

Posted on 2019-04-22, 20:34

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Then I am out of ideas, sorry. The Adaptec controllers and some VGA combinations are problematic not only for you: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=66445 Possibly your last resort to check that is to make a DOS boot diskette with ASPI4DOS.SYS and ASPIDISK.SYS. That should recognize SCSI …

---

Re: Anyone try a new off-brand PSU w/ strong 5v rail?

Posted on 2019-04-22, 19:52

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You have practically no load on 12V. Instead of buying another PSU, just install a hard drive, preferably one which pulls more than 1A at 12V. Then the voltages will probably come back to spec.

---

Re: Install a hard drive in the BIOS

Posted on 2019-04-22, 19:40

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you have "Boot Sequence" set as "C, A"? (Default is "A, C", which is not what you want) Edit: Which MS-DOS version are you using? Edit 2: Your Adaptec has Bios version 2.2. This is quite obsoleted, iirc. Not sure whether this plays a role in this strange story, though. Please also tell which …

---

Re: Need TCP/IP support for Win311

Posted on 2019-04-22, 18:31

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

FTP Software was once a well-known company, which surprisingly nowadays very few people remember. This is demonstrated by the incompleteness of Wikipedia's entry . It fails to list PC/NFS, which was one of their important products back then: you could use real computers instead of PCs as file …

---

Re: Install a hard drive in the BIOS

Posted on 2019-04-22, 18:18

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You need to set in BIOS which drive to boot from: [IDE] HDD, CDROM, SCSI [HDD], ... Edit: And make sure that you zero the HDD before putting it into a DOS machine. DOS is so weird that occasionally it refuses to recognize SCSI HDDs if they contain invalid partition/boot block. Use the Adaptec …

---

Re: Need TCP/IP support for Win311

Posted on 2019-04-22, 18:07

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Trumpet Winsock is no fun to use (unreliable). Try out PC/TCP from FTP Software. It is very good, even offers NFS access and printing via ethernet on DOS (even without loading Windows).

---

Re: Software for debugging Windows 95's first boot?

Posted on 2019-04-22, 07:24

by

by retardware

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

NuMega Soft-ICE

---

Re: Microwave oven interferes with CRT?!

Posted on 2019-04-22, 07:16

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Yes, ask your electrician friend where ground (PE) gets separated from neutral (N). Correct is to do this before the electric distribution main box, after which there must be no connection between N and PE. That frequent "solution" bridging neutral and PE in the wallplug is a poor and dangerous " …

---

Re: PC tower cases by year

Posted on 2019-04-21, 19:04

by

by retardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In Poland for some unexplained reason the top of the line PC case in ~1994-1997 was something like this [...] It was commonly called "Green" or "Green Power" (due to printed green text) and usually came with Enlight 200W PSU. Price wise it was ~2-3x more expensive than ordinary cheap cases. Sadly …

---