Re: How do I turn these on?

Posted on 2022-05-21, 19:42

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, the CPU board is 20p ATX. Nothing AT there. I wouldn't be surprised if the pins right of the cf slot, to the edge of the cart, indeed would be for front panel usage. Like LEDs, power, reset...

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Re: Ooops I updated the BIOS and now my compact flash doesn't work (Tulip TC-48 motherboard)

Posted on 2022-05-21, 19:35

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you have a backup from the old bios? You could put that one back and see what it does. Maybe boot from a floppy and run sys c: could help? If not, you may try fdisk/mbr to make sure the card is bootable (no data loss) And maybe need to reset all partitions as well (losing all data). Is the cf …

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Re: Building Retro 486

Posted on 2022-05-18, 22:17

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You may check the battery. When turning the system off, the system uses the bios to keep the data. With some too low voltage, but high enough to save some of the bits, data may end up corrupted with a reset or power cycle. Since you're using the cr2032 replacing is as easy as it gets, as is …

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Re: Serial mouse worked only for a day on DOS machine

Posted on 2022-05-17, 12:06

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sometimes you can see if a cap fails. It shows cracks or seems a bit burned black/grey-ish. But more than often they fail without any sign and you can only tell with a multimeter or other testing gear. In you're case I can't see any evidence so they might just fall internally. Given the age and …

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Re: SX955 is the BEST 486DX2 CPU?

Posted on 2022-05-15, 22:16

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For that I haven't noticed any weirdness do far, but I haven't tested it purposely.

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Re: Serial mouse worked only for a day on DOS machine

Posted on 2022-05-15, 19:45

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have three identical multi io controllers from Vtech. These all have two serial ports on our. Jumper settings are on th9o and are confirmed to be set as requested. One card refuses to detect anything from the serial port. I think t saw two or three bad caps on it. That may be the reason for my …

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Re: SX955 is the BEST 486DX2 CPU?

Posted on 2022-05-15, 19:39

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

To me the SX955 is the ultimate DX2-66. I've got three of them. They all do run fine art 3,3v and without fan they keep cool to the touch. WB does require bios support. If the bios does not explicitly support it, chances are high the CPU runs WT (nothing wrong with that, runs just fine, but a waste …

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Re: SX955 is the BEST 486DX2 CPU?

Posted on 2022-05-15, 19:06

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

To me the SX955 is the ultimate DX2-66. I've got three of them. They all do run fine art 3,3v and without fan they keep cool to the touch. WB does require bios support. If the bios does not explicitly support it, chances are high the CPU runs WT (nothing wrong with that, runs just fine, but a waste …

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Re: FDD controller failure and keyboard error

Posted on 2022-05-08, 17:28

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The cable should do. The twist should be closer to the drive than to the board. Not all cables were fit with 2 floppy connectors. I second the drive 1 / drive 2 jumper should be on drive 2 position. If it's the choose between drive 0 and drive 1 it should be drive 1. Very early floppy cables cable …

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Re: 1GB vs 2GB for gaming XP build

Posted on 2022-05-08, 14:16

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In my opinion, if the costs are low, max it out. Put in 4x1GB or 2x1GB+2x513MB if possible. Just make sure it runs dual channel. It sure will help to prevent a lot of swapping if you provide enough ram. And if not all ram is used... Who cares?

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Re: Floppy Drive capability question.

Posted on 2022-04-27, 22:07

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My question is, can I use a 1.44mb 3.5 drive, to read/write floppies of that capacity or lower, and same for 1.2mb 5.25 drives to read/write floppies that are that capacity or lower? Or do I need dedicated drives for the smaller capacities? I may have to format the floppies as well, so the same …

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Re: Floppy Drive capability question.

Posted on 2022-04-27, 19:26

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There was this issue with 5,25 drives. The DD (360kB) drives spin at a different speed then a HD (1,2MB) drive. Some HD drives do have the capability to spin at the speed, but not all. Besides that, the 360k disk should be formatted in a 360 drive (I prefer twice) before writing data to it in a HD …

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Re: Low Profile PCI Riser For AT/ATX Motherboards

Posted on 2022-04-27, 09:39

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I like the idea :) I usually need only one ISA slots if I use DOS, for sound. Sometimes a second one of u want to test/program an XT CF card. But if I use just Windows 9x or higher, ISA does not have any real benefit to me Especially with the ROM and 3,3v extension it can be a nice upgrade. Lots of …

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Re: Question about Super Socket 7 system.

Posted on 2022-04-22, 13:47

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Didn't DOS 6.xx have trouble with more than 64MB of ram? Could you test things with only 64 or 32 MB installed? Still a nice setup though 😁

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Re: HSF for a Socket 3 that only has offset tabs

Posted on 2022-04-20, 22:37

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've used 3M carpet tape before on a DX2 5v CPU, with regular size sink and fan. It conducts enough heat to keep the CPU cool enough to remain comfortably warm. Can't imagine the 3,45v 586 runs much warmer...

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Re: md-4duv-ver 2.1 Motherboard DX4-100 Unstable - DX2-66 works fine

Posted on 2022-04-20, 22:28

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Cache could be the reason indeed. I've got the same board and have 15ns cache chips installed. The board runs with about every CPU I've thrown in (Intel, amd, cyrix) including DX2, dx4@100, am5x86@150 and cx5x86@100. Too short this out you may try running it without l2 cache enabled, so the cache is …

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Re: CPU Detection Help?

Posted on 2022-04-19, 14:14

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

To me it looks like it's still running at 133 with the 166 setting and degrades to 100 with the 200 setting. Could you try running out at 100 for the benchmarks? Maybe there's a multiplier pin the bios detects but the CPU ignores...

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Re: Overclocking a 233MMX to 266MHZ

Posted on 2022-04-16, 16:25

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some socket 7 board do support lower voltage. As does my IBM aptiva, supports 2,2v on a Ali IV chipset. And I've got a s7 boards with sis chipset that supports 2,0 and up the way any super7 does. And I can agree with most people: the sink you use is fine for stock MMX, but for oc I'd recommend a …

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Re: circuit board work

Posted on 2022-04-14, 10:23

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Probably not the most convenient program for n00bs, but autocad canattach / import pdf. With the raster design option you can even import lines from JPEG images.

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Re: I just realized that I don't have a Pentium MMX 233Mhz CPU in my collection

Posted on 2022-04-13, 17:37

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by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The 233MMX is the last Intel s7 chip for desktops (not counting the 266 laptop cpu). So yes, it does have collection value. Preferably the retail version with glued Intel sink/fan. If it's for speed, many and many 200s and 166s actually run fine at higher speeds too. In fact, I've put a 200MMX on a …

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