Re: Windows 3.11 + PCMCIA ethernet?

Posted on 2020-09-03, 01:04

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Here's where I get to contradict two people in one post. I personally had the Eiger 10BT card, but never got it to work under Windows 3.11. Gave up after way too much time spent on it. On the other hand, I have a Xircom CE-II-PS and I'm really happy with it. It comes with NDIS3 drivers, a graphical …

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Re: Windows 95 OSR2.5 vs Windows 98 SE for a 486 build with 32MB of ram

Posted on 2020-09-03, 00:50

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah. Windows 95 was designed to be usable on a 386DX and run nicely on a basic non-overdrive 486 with 8MB of RAM -- especially the RTM version. Even a fully updated OSR 2.5 install is happy in 16MB of RAM running real software, and without OSR2 many later programs will not run. You can avoid …

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Re: FastDoom 0.4. A new Doom port for DOS, optimized to be as fast as possible for 386/486 personal computers!

Posted on 2020-08-31, 18:53

by

by radiounix

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Cool. Finally got around to trying this out. It's no miracle, but it does seem perceptibly faster. It runs acceptably on low quality visual mode, maximized with HUD and with no sound. I haven't benched it, but I'm guessing it runs around 10 FPS on average, with smooth playback in corridors and …

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Re: Video playback on a 286? - here's how to do it

Posted on 2020-08-31, 18:28

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Cool necro. I went and played around with this a good bit, never would have figured it out myself. I can confirm this both works under Windows 7, and is easy enough it must be the simplest way of bridging multimedia worlds. I did play around with CRAM, aka Microsoft Video 1 codec, and it's really …

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Re: FastDoom 0.4. A new Doom port for DOS, optimized to be as fast as possible for 386/486 personal computers!

Posted on 2020-08-27, 15:08

by

by radiounix

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Cool. I'm interested to see how this runs on my retro computer, a 486SLC2/50 with 512K Chips and Tech VGA and no L2 cache.

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Re: Tseng Labs ET3000 based card /w Hercules compatibility?

Posted on 2020-08-26, 19:54

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

This is a great question. I have some interest in getting an amber TTL monitor portable computer and switching the video for an early multi-mode SVGA so I can hook up external SVGA when at a desk.

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Chips Tech 65530 drivers

Posted on 2020-08-25, 13:39

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I have a Packard Bell Statesman with a Chips Tech CT65530. Despite having 512K RAM and being offered with a color LCD, Packard Bell never bothered to release an SVGA driver. And the standard Chips and Technology drivers do not work. I think they might target 65535 or higher. I do have it working at …

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Re: Adding usb to an isa machine

Posted on 2020-08-02, 14:06

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it's a laptop, and I'm guessing it is since it has PC Card slots, that is the easiest way in my opinion. Fast, really fast, needs no special software to navigate. It's a bear to get working in a DOS environment, which includes Windows 3.11. But it works out of the box in Windows 95 and newer and …

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Re: Novell suggestion: upgrade your PC speaker

Posted on 2020-08-02, 13:59

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

If you can route it through to a sound card, consider yourself lucky. That's the best option! My machine is a laptop, so I do not have any slots or any inbuilt sound system aside from that buzzer. Ditto for people with IBM PS/2s who don't have trust funds and ninja sourcing skills. The best PC …

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Re: MP3 player on a 386/387?

Posted on 2020-08-01, 17:23

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Don't discount Winplay 3. for Windows 3.1. It was the official Fraunhoffer player. It's really well optimized and can play normal 44khz stereo 16-bit MP3s on a faster Overdrive 486, and has options for reproducing in 8 bit, mono as low as 11Khz. Even if it's no faster than the software you used, …

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Novel suggestion: upgrade your PC speaker

Posted on 2020-08-01, 16:52

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

No, I'm serious. The PC speaker is inherently a limited, primitive means of reproducing audio. But much of the pain of PC speaker sound comes from the physical drivers used to reproduce the sound. In most laptops and in many newer desktops, the PC speaker is a literal piezo buzzer better suited to …

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Re: If you were able to go back say 15-20 years ago what one motherboard would you buy ?

Posted on 2020-08-01, 16:37

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sheesh. I think I'd buy a very early 486 motherboard with discrete logic. A full AT one, like a Micronix. Never see those, rare as heck. Or maybe a very early clone 386 board from 1987-1988 -- the kind that was just rows of densely packed ICs and no chipset, on a full AT board with DIP ram. Now …

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Re: Retro/vintage repair in hacker/makerspaces in the Netherlands?

Posted on 2020-08-01, 16:30

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You don't really need much space or expensive tools like you see on the videos. My work station is a 18" high folding tea table that sits on the floor. Enough room for the iron, tools, solder and random junk, plus the project at hand. The floor is the spillover space for a schematic, a bulky stereo …

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Re: Dot matrix and early inkjet print quality:

Posted on 2020-08-01, 15:58

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That was incredibly helpful. I'm going to check out Superprint and see if it improves the output. My printer driver from Kodak has no such options -- really, really basic. Two other issues. One, images often don't fill the page, or occasionally, will exceed the page. There doesn't seem to be an …

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Dot matrix and early inkjet print quality:

Posted on 2020-08-01, 13:12

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hey, so I bought this early Kodak Diconix 180Si Inkjet. While it uses an ink nozzle instead of impact pins, it seems like the entire engine is adapted from a 9 pin printer. Output has characteristic 9 pin dot formations in draft mode using its internal fonts. It's basically an IBM Thinkjet from the …

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Re: 32-bit OS that will run best on 8MB 386sx-16

Posted on 2020-07-30, 17:26

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I know this thread is petering out, but just thought I'd mention that people definitely ran Linux on slower 386SX CPUs with just 4MB of RAM in the early to mid 90s. A very early version of Debian or Slackware should work well in 8MB, even with X. I believe very old version Debian mirrors are still …

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Re: Understand Windows 3.1 (standard) internet requirements

Posted on 2020-07-30, 17:20

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I have a Windows for Workgroups computer set up with TCP/IP and lots of networking software, so I can speak to this. First thing, Windows doesn't have built in TCP/IP. Back in the day folks used Trumpet with a modem, but people with Ethernet and the ability to run Windows for Workgroups should use …

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Re: Windows 3.11 + PCMCIA ethernet?

Posted on 2020-07-22, 02:40

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Holy necro, but I bought an Eiger EPX10BT and I can't get it to work. Bakemono or anyone else, do you have one of these currently running with a config.sys, protocol.ini .etc and some tips or configuration instructions you can share? I'm not sure what's going on. Eiger seems to have two sets of …

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Re: What games for a 286-6

Posted on 2020-05-05, 13:36

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It should do well running mid-late 80s EGA games. These were usually no longer terribly speed sensitive, and would load with varying degrees of playability on a Turbo XT. Most should be playable given a 286/6 is probably about twice as fast as the 8mhz 8088 people tended to own. VGA games, 1990 on, …

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Re: Packard Bell Statesman laptop power board repair:

Posted on 2020-04-29, 19:59

by

by radiounix

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well I went ahead and ordered low esr caps across the board, whatever the cheapest was on Newark.

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