Re: Which USB 2.0 cards for old motherboards

Posted on 2022-04-23, 00:46

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Another +1 for NEC chips. I picked up this SiiG branded card today. USB 2.0 works fine under Windows 98 (NUSB36E.EXE) and OpenBSD 7.0. Attached are benches against the onboard USB 1.0 VIA chipset (FIC VA-503+), K6-2 500MHz, using my fastest Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 USB drive. It's about 0.9 MB/s vs …

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Re: FIC VA-503+ USB header question

Posted on 2022-04-18, 22:03

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I leave the pins as is on the motherboard. For the breakout cable, I would apply firm (but not gorilla) force and the pin pushes through the block off. I usually run into this with newer floppy and/or IDE ribbon cables connecting to older boards. This worked! I didn't think to try pushing the …

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Re: FIC VA-503+ USB header question

Posted on 2022-04-18, 21:37

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I use these style of USB plates on AT motherboards and adjust them as necessary: Thanks! That looks like what the board expects me to use, where each port has a separate 5 pin connector. There simply are two different styles of USB header around. The missing leg: usb1.gif And the Zig-Zag: usb2.jpeg …

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FIC VA-503+ USB header question

Posted on 2022-04-18, 18:19

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi everybody, I'm working on a FIC VA-503+ Super Socket 7 build. I noticed the onboard USB header has 10 pins, but my breakout cable that connects to the header only has 9 pins. Pin 9 is blocked on the connector since it's supposed to act as a key to make sure it's plugged in the correct way. …

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Re: Upgrades for my Olivetti 486 PC

Posted on 2022-04-17, 03:36

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's a really dreamy PC. I love how curved and bubbly the monitor is. I found the manual for the PCS44 on Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/cap36_201908/cap35/ JUMPER JP1 Not installed: i486 SX processor soldered. Default setting. Installed: i486 DX or i486 DX2 coprocessor soldered (not …

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

Posted on 2022-04-17, 01:24

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by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been trying without much success to find out what Goodwill does with computers around here. I have found some parts and even a box of software or two, but I haven't seen an actual computer at Goodwill in probably 8-10 years. I've been to at least 7 or 8 different Goodwill stores, both in the …

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Re: Recommended 2D/3D card for a 233MMX PC

Posted on 2022-04-10, 23:19

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I've tried two PCI graphics cards in my Pentium 233MMX system: ATI Rage Pro Turbo and Rage 128 Pro AIW. The Rage Pro Turbo felt like a pretty good match for the CPU but the 128 Pro is better in every way when tested with 3DMark 99/00. It produces an almost playable 5-15FPS in Half Life (1998) at …

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

Posted on 2022-02-05, 08:07

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

On my Pentium 200MMX, I switched my PCI Rage Pro Turbo 8MB for a PCI Rage Pro All-In-Wonder 128 16MB. It's not as big of an improvement as I hoped, but it's definitely a little faster everywhere I've tried it. Especially at 800x600. Still running benches. As a bonus it can natively do 1920x1200x32! …

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Re: How far back do you have to go for a graphics card not selling for an inflated price?

Posted on 2022-01-29, 01:12

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by Cosmic

in Milliways

in Milliways

it is still a great price/performance ratio in my opinion. Nah, GeForce 3060 is roughly 95% of 1080 Ti performance before any overclocking and costs just a bit more. With benefits of not being a power hog and being a new card with warranty. That price for 1080 Ti is purely due to its mining …

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Re: How far back do you have to go for a graphics card not selling for an inflated price?

Posted on 2022-01-29, 00:52

by

by Cosmic

in Milliways

in Milliways

I'm not sure what your budget is but here's an anecdote. I bought a used Zotac 1080 Ti in mid 2019 for $580.00 USD (MSRP $699). It's a little smaller than other similar cards which was ideal for me since it's living in an OEM midtower and just barely fits. Today, almost 3 years later, the same used …

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Re: How do you keep old machine Windows 95/98 stable and no crash?

Posted on 2022-01-18, 07:43

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

With Win95/Win98 get a stable configuration and then backup. I think much of the stability issues come from the ‘dll hell’, if your constantly installling and uninstalling new software you will get a mashup of old and new versions of critical dependencies. If you start to experience stability …

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Re: How do you keep old machine Windows 95/98 stable and no crash?

Posted on 2022-01-18, 07:20

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I also recommend doing a "practice run" the first time on a new build. Figure out exactly which versions of what work best then wipe and reload I really like this idea. I'm reinstalling Win98 tonight after using the same install for almost 7 years. I didn't save the drivers/patches/software so I …

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Re: Help with BSOD in 98SE on 200MMX

Posted on 2022-01-17, 23:08

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Does the BSOD point to any particular file or process? You could also try booting into safe mode and then switching to DOS, that might help rule out anything in your startup config. I think the last issue (rebooting instead of shutting down) is an ACPI issue. Maybe you have some BIOS options for …

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Re: Bootable real time ray-traced clock with shadows

Posted on 2021-10-12, 05:42

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Hi Estece! I would really like to try this. I created a bootable image using some PowerShell + nasm below, which is original & free to use. In your post you mention three modes: data entry mode which inserts data at 08000h, the default mode. To switch back, reboot and start all over. :D code entry …

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Re: Windows 11 has been released

Posted on 2021-10-12, 04:15

by

by Cosmic

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I just think that Microsoft needs to stop trying to reinvent the wheel all the time and stick to what really works and has been working wonders for decades. I agree. I feel with every version of Windows I've been able to shape and mold it to my preference over time, and I'm sure 11 will be no …

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Re: Windows 11 has been released

Posted on 2021-10-12, 02:58

by

by Cosmic

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-11-lets-you-enable-the-classic-windows-10-start-menu-heres-how/ Don't need to thank me for that. I think it's great the Windows 10 start menu is called "Classic" in the registry key, "Start_ShowClassicMode". 😂 It's too bad it's not just a …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-09-30, 17:33

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I also managed to get a NIB Evergreen MXPro 200. Hopefully that’ll find its home in my Socket 5 VLB build. Fingers crossed it’s a later revision with a WinChip2 or even a WinChip2A! It’s a late box, with Windows 98 benchmarks on the back, instead of the earlier release with data from Win95. Holy …

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Re: Socket 775 cpu temperature problems

Posted on 2021-09-01, 21:45

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's a nice system. A Q9650 would be a great upgrade, they're pretty inexpensive too, looks like around ~$50 USD right now. I have one right next to me and it runs cool at stock frequency. 4 physical cores at 3.00 GHz is pretty solid given its launch date (Q3 2008). The GT 1030 is a good idea too, …

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Re: Socket 775 cpu temperature problems

Posted on 2021-09-01, 20:15

by

by Cosmic

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In idle the temps reach 39/41°C but in seconds it goes up and down really so fast I can't say how this thing work. Would your OS let you run something like HWiNFO? It lets you enable a graph for any measurement or temperature, so maybe you could find something anomalous there. A water loop should …

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Re: YOUR favorate game era.

Posted on 2021-09-01, 19:24

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by Cosmic

in Milliways

in Milliways

I'm not sure I have a favorite time, but I definitely have some discrete game playing periods. Pre-school: I played a lot of DOS games with my dad and even learned my way around COMMAND.COM. Mostly Duke Nukem I and II, Kings Quest VI, and some learning games like Millie's Math House and Operation …

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