Re: Are VIA chipsets bad for retro games?

Posted on 2024-04-15, 18:37

by

by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

VIA chipsets were generally good. The issues that I had were often related to: 1) Drivers: Intel invested more resources into driver & software development and sometimes it took VIA longer to get the bugs & quirks out of its drivers. 2) Power: Intel left the AT platform early while VIA got to deal …

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Re: VIA MVP3 (2a5led4gc) w/ K6-2 500

Posted on 2024-04-15, 13:21

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also talking about 4-in-1, if you ever use Windows 9x on it don't forget to install the vIA 4-in-1 driver as the very first driver you install. These VIA SS7 boards have all sorts of potential and fun issues with AGP support, usually blocking it to AGP 1x in the BIOS (this has multiple names) fixes …

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Re: Additional ram recognized but not usable

Posted on 2024-04-13, 11:00

by

by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The 256MB one is really strange. Possibly you mixed up something, or the markings on the chip are completely fake. The HYB25D256800BT-6 is a DDR chip which requires 2.5V , so the DIMM should be keyed completely different from the (SDR) SDRAM DIMMs. 2.5V DDR memory only has a single notch, and …

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Re: What does it take to replace an Intel 10 MHz 286 with a Harris 12 MHz 286? Hopefully... nothing?

Posted on 2024-04-13, 10:38

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Right, just to be clear, if you put a CPU rated for up to 25MHz in a motherboard running at 10 MHz, the CPU will run at 10 MHz. But in the 286 world, there were never any voltage or cache changes between the different versions, so thats all pretty simple. But changing the clock speed of a 286 …

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Re: Additional ram recognized but not usable

Posted on 2024-04-13, 02:20

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I retested the one DIMM that should report as 128MB and it wasn't found at all on a retest. I cleaned the contacts and it came up as 128MB, so yeah, go ram! Maybe. I'll run memtest for a couple hours to make sure. I also ran into someone with a bag of DIMMs they wanted to get rid of so I have more …

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Re: What does it take to replace an Intel 10 MHz 286 with a Harris 12 MHz 286? Hopefully... nothing?

Posted on 2024-04-12, 18:05

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I imagine it should be straight forward as long as the model 30 motherboard takes a 286 with 68-pin PLCC packaging.

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Re: List of VLB IDE Controllers

Posted on 2024-04-12, 13:13

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

With screechy ancient HDDs the caching controllers make much more sense. Imo those only made sense when there was no other way of adding normal ram into the computer. Smartdrive started shipping in late 1988. IN 1988, 3600RPM HDDs that sounded like marbles in a mason jar were used on computers with …

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Re: List of VLB IDE Controllers

Posted on 2024-04-11, 14:53

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

420EX: 5.5 MB/s UMC8886: 3.3 MB/s SIS496/7: 13 MB/s Finali: 13 MB/s What real life workload would cause a system sharing VLB IDE with PCI to perform poorly? Games usually read data in bursts and during loads won't really push a PCI graphics card much. Maybe something with networking? Before I …

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Re: List of VLB IDE Controllers

Posted on 2024-04-11, 14:46

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Here is a page with programming info for these three chips that are really the same chip: https://www.ardent-tool.com/Reply/Appian_ADI2.html Appian Technology, Inc. (ADI/2) Cirrus Logic, Inc. (CL-PD7220) Adaptec (AIC-25VL01) In a similar case of the same chip sold with multiple brand names, I'm …

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Re: Where to attach a SD to IDE converter?

Posted on 2024-04-11, 12:53

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sure. There are a lot of options on ebay for $10-$15 please can you show me some links? Search Ebay for "sd ide bay". Make sure you don't mistakenly order a 1/3 height, because while cheaper, few computers use that size. My local public library provides some high quality 3d printers that the public …

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Re: Where to attach a SD to IDE converter?

Posted on 2024-04-11, 12:32

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-11, 02:38: I would guess that out of 3 or 4 modems with a double line jack, you can find a bracket that will mount it to a spare slot hole and leave the SD card externally accessible. True. Modems have became a consumable resource that when activated, produce a ISA/PCI …

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Re: List of VLB IDE Controllers

Posted on 2024-04-11, 11:57

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

One of my (many...) long term project ideas is to do some benchmarks of a couple of cached controllers (and the fake cache Hornet VL-230 :P ) vs uncached, and to do that with a number of different storage devices (very old&slow HDD, CF card and something truly fast) and on some different systems ( …

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Re: Where to attach a SD to IDE converter?

Posted on 2024-04-11, 02:01

by

by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

psaez wrote on 2024-04-10, 21:18: And can't be purchased already printed? Sure. There are a lot of options on ebay for $10-$15

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Re: Where to attach a SD to IDE converter?

Posted on 2024-04-10, 20:57

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

mmx_91 wrote on 2024-04-10, 20:45: There are brackets for pci slots than can be 3D printed you can find them online no problem Or front panel brackets too-- https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4368606

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Re: Octek Hippo-VL Motherboard Repair Help Needed (MR BIOS)

Posted on 2024-04-10, 12:27

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Reading the manual on TRW it turns out these things need special ED-RAM modules in the first two slots. And as chance would have it, I happened to have two sticks of ED-RAM in my big box of 72-pin RAM: Do you have any additional info on ED-RAM? I don't see anything listed here: https://www. …

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Re: M.2 to IDE adapter being limited to UDMA2 in the bios

Posted on 2024-04-10, 02:22

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Actually I modded a SATA to IDE44 adapter like this before and it indeed does the trick. I also have some IDE40 DOMs that also have this "limited to UDMA2" issue, but I haven't tried as I don't know how to open the DOM cases without damaging them (so I can reassemble back)... I'm not sure how the …

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Re: M.2 to IDE adapter being limited to UDMA2 in the bios

Posted on 2024-04-09, 16:27

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I didn't see the 44 pin part of the first post, sorry-- Here's the goal-- Filename ide44pinout.gif File size 15.4 KiB Views 394 views I've done mods for CF's and 40 pin DOMS before. Filename CF UDMA5 Mod.jpg File size 42.93 KiB Views 394 views Filename DOM Udma5 Mod.jpg File size 39.17 KiB Views …

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Re: M.2 to IDE adapter being limited to UDMA2 in the bios

Posted on 2024-04-09, 13:22

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's an "m.2 sata"-> IDE adapter. My guess is that it is 'IDE female'at the connector, and goes straight onto the motherboard. No ide ribbon. OK, if the OP isn't using an 80 conductor cable, then it's clearly an issue caused by the lack of an 80 conductor cable. The OP could either ground pin 34 on …

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Re: M.2 to IDE adapter being limited to UDMA2 in the bios

Posted on 2024-04-09, 11:46

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sorry if this is a repeat question, but I didn't see it answered earlier. Have you tried you using a different 80 conductor cable?

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Re: Additional ram recognized but not usable

Posted on 2024-04-07, 14:42

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by douglar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Probably two things: That board likely does not support more than 64MB per "rank". A rank is the technical term for the two "sides" of a memory module that can be accessed independently. Electrical ranks are not equal to physical sides of the module. The double sided DIMMs you had in the system …

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