soviet conscript wrote:

Skyscraper wrote:

Many 286 boards need a special driver to be able to use the upper 384K memory of the first megabyte, some boards will not do it […]
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soviet conscript wrote:

found this stuff in the past week at thrifts, swap meet

the 486 motherboard doesn't post but I figured for $5 the ST dx2-80 was worth it. the 286 board posts but doesn't detect over 640kb of RAM. do I need a special driver or something with a 286?

lastly a PAS16 which I've wanted one for awhile but never stumbled upon one until last Sunday.

Many 286 boards need a special driver to be able to use the upper 384K memory of the first megabyte, some boards will not do it at all.

If your board has 4x256KB memory the board is probably acting as it should but if the board has 4x1MB you should see 3712KB.

It seems the 486 boards previous owner needs to learn how to install memory.

the 3 RAM sticks in the 286 are all labled 512kb. and yhea, I notices that burn mark on the 72 pin ram socket, that's why I wasn't surprised when it didn't post.

30pin 512KB sticks are somewhat non standard, I would try some 1MB sticks if you have any.

There is no good reason 512KB sticks shouldnt work though but switching to other memory is worth a try in any case, you need to install 30pin memory sticks in pairs in a 286 like with a 386SX.

Lukeno94 wrote:

When it comes to the 486 board, did you try it with 30 pin SIMMS, 72 pin SIMMS, or both?

I tried both, not at the same time.

Bought some parts for some future P4 and c2d testing. I want to do a comparison of Cedar mill 3.4ghz cpu vs a dual core Presler at the same speed, and hopefully
compare that with my old P4P800dlx with pentium M cpu. Of course I'll overclock too. The Gigabyte motherboard I just received also has a E6750 installed and
I have a e5200 from an Asrock board I threw out due to major stability issues. Also received a HD6770 that was going for a decent price ($60 delivered) that
will suit the board.

Nice seeing more Aussies getting into P4 and Core 2 Duo action 😀

We have similar projects in the pipeline, so I'm very keen to hear about your findings!

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Nice seeing more Aussies getting into P4 and Core 2 Duo action 😀

We have similar projects in the pipeline, so I'm very keen to hear about your findings!

Alright Phil... What project is underway!? Can't wait!

Sorry, keeping it all under wraps 🤣

Next week's video will give you an idea of the direction I'd like to take...

But I can definitely see more and more people building newer XP gaming retro PCs, it's very interesting to watch. I really enjoyed your recent builds, very nice.

It's interesting to see XP considered a "retro" OS these days - I guess I always considered it a "modern" OS, not too different (except where stability is concerned) from 7. But I guess there is a lot of stuff which simply won't run on Windows 7 (or 10, for that matter). But I'm still a card-carrying member of the "Windows XP, Vista, 8, and 10 ought never to have existed" club.

I got the idea for this Hardware from Your recent Winxp videos phil, but also from another post where someone got nearly 40000 in 3dmark2001 with a
Cedar mill P4. That intrigued me a bit, as the P4 2.6c@3.2 wouldn't even better 19600, so I thought I might get some bits and see for myself. The HD6770 I
also got the idea from Your video, and it was a steal at $50 buy it now.
I don't think AMD's last XP drivers are optimised all that well though, as I got slightly higher in 3dmark2001 with a HD5850 (RIP) than with my current
R9-270. That's on my main rig which has a I5-750@4017mhz. I should be able to find older drivers for a HD6770 though.

Imperious wrote:

I got the idea for this Hardware from Your recent Winxp videos phil, but also from another post where someone got nearly 40000 i […]
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I got the idea for this Hardware from Your recent Winxp videos phil, but also from another post where someone got nearly 40000 in 3dmark2001 with a
Cedar mill P4. That intrigued me a bit, as the P4 2.6c@3.2 wouldn't even better 19600, so I thought I might get some bits and see for myself. The HD6770 I
also got the idea from Your video, and it was a steal at $50 buy it now.
I don't think AMD's last XP drivers are optimised all that well though, as I got slightly higher in 3dmark2001 with a HD5850 (RIP) than with my current
R9-270. That's on my main rig which has a I5-750@4017mhz. I should be able to find older drivers for a HD6770 though.

AMD Stopped optimizing XP performance right after the 10-5 drivers. Everything after that was a steady decline in XP performance for all supported cards. I think the best XP performance would be a HD4890 and 10-5 drivers. I think it's AMD's way of trying to 'encourage' people to get off XP.

Remembering XP era hardware (circa 2004) as being somewhat tricky.
Sometimes you had to take out a Socket-A CPU and reinsert it, in order for some boards to detect a CPU.
Other quirks, are stuff like incompatible GFX cards, and other stuff like that.

Finally!!!

keenmaster486 wrote:

It's interesting to see XP considered a "retro" OS these days - I guess I always considered it a "modern" OS, not too different (except where stability is concerned) from 7. But I guess there is a lot of stuff which simply won't run on Windows 7 (or 10, for that matter). But I'm still a card-carrying member of the "Windows XP, Vista, 8, and 10 ought never to have existed" club.

XP can be VERY finicky with USB HIDs at times - whilst even 98SE just works with them in my experience (when the drivers are in.) XP Update is also the most unoptimized piece of shit around; try running an early XP machine for a full update cycle, and you can be there for many, many hours, whilst your fans scream upwards because the system is so heavily loaded. I've even seen it overheat laptops that would handle gaming sessions for hours with no problem. It's nowhere near as bad on later XP systems... but older ones, yuck. And XP installs don't like being transferred to different hardware - whereas I was able to move a Vista Home Premium install from an nForce-based AMD AM2 system to an Intel LGA1155 system without any issue at all (as well as taking W10 Pro from said LGA1155 system to an LGA1150 system). I've never been a fan of XP, although that stems mostly due to running it on knackered personal hardware/knackered school hardware back in the day.

I'm curious though; why do you think that XP and onwards shouldn't have existed?

EDIT: Lukeno94, just saw your post, sorry.
Well, here's my rationale:
Microsoft, after Windows 98, as we all know, moved to pure NT systems.
They just kept building and building on the old buggy NT code, until eventually they got to XP - which has all of the problems you mentioned above and more. Then they made Vista, which added the Aero theme and a whole bunch of other stuff over and above old buggy XP. And then, as some sort of providential miracle, they got a grain of sense in their heads and released Windows 7, which (at least they claimed) was completely rebuilt. THIS is what they SHOULD have done right after Windows 98, or maybe after the early, super buggy versions of XP. And for Windows 8, the "tablet-style" interface is one of the stupidest things Microsoft ever did (well, depending on who you ask). It just doesn't work on a desktop computer. Windows 10 - perhaps I have no right to speak on that subject since I don't have Windows 10 but it seems kind of more like a marketing thing than anything else. I think Microsoft ought just to have kept perfecting Windows 7 and embraced its status as the "standard" PC OS.

So I've always been interested in old computers but being on this forum lately has really caught me the pc-building bug.
I was in Boise Friday (I live in southern Idaho) and I went to this place called the "Reuseum" (kind of a resale/recycle
kind of place), looking for old computer parts. They had a bin in the back full of motherboards and video cards, labeled
"NOT FOR SALE". I asked the guy about it - and he told me he'd sell me the stuff "$2.67 a pound". Jackpot! I picked out
six pounds of the best stuff and paid $16 for it. So here it all is:

First, the motherboards:

Some Via "eMachines" (bleah) Socket 7 motherboard (looks like late 90's - '98 maybe?). This one boots and everything, works perfect. Came with the processor shown below:

One AMD K6-II 300 MHz processor. Does this mean it's a Super Socket 7 (and the K6-II won't work with a normal Socket 7)?

Here's another Via Socket 7 board, this one seems to be older ('95?). This is one of two MBs I got which have no ports on them, only pins and one AT keyboard port. This one has some caps that look pretty bloated, which is probably why it refuses to boot. I hit the power button and the power supply fan runs intermittently with a quick, set pattern. Any ideas or is that just a capacitor problem? I want to make this board into a nice Pentium DOS machine. I got a whole bunch of breakout connectors for the ports from the local computer store 😀

And another (this time Intel 😀 ) Socket 7 board, with the same problem of not having any ports except AT keyboard. This one also doesn't have an AGP slot, so I can't use it for my DOS machine since I don't have a PCI video card 🙁. Notice the kind of dorky "Mr. BIOS" chip.

This one looks like a turn-of-the-century Win2000-style board (correct me if I'm wrong, which I probably am). Not much use to me since it's missing ISA slots, and appears to have
a Realtek built-in audio (not likely to work in DOS). Might make a nice Win98 or 2000 board for someone, though, so I'll probably sell this one. Can anyone give me a value on it?
Is the "Socket 462" backwards-compatible with Socket 7?

And now the video cards (all of which I know nothing about, but they looked really nice 😀 ):

Nvidia TNT2M64

I have no idea what this card is. Back of the card says "Vertex M1". Can anyone shed some light on this?

A Diamond card. Don't know what it is.

Same deal. Unknown (at least, to me) Diamond card.

Now, since I started this post I headed over to the local computer store to see if the guy could help me with some parts for my planned Pentium DOS machine build. Lo and behold he had a plethora of parts and sold me a whole bunch of stuff for $30:

Pentium A80502100 (does this mean that it runs at 100 MHz?)

Cyrix 686

Cyrix 486 (useless for me since I don't have a Socket 3 system(or whatever 486 uses))

And the big one:

Sound Blaster AWE64 CT4520 ISA. If I'm not mistaken, this should be completely DOS-compatible with the vast majority of games. Correct me if I'm wrong. And does this card need ANY sort of a driver in DOS?

He also sold me a 20GB 7200RPM hard drive, an AT power supply, and a whole bunch of various cords and connectors I'm going to need for the Pentium build.

Anyway, it was a productive weekend. I'll probably sell two or three of those motherboards and make some $$ off of this, the rest of the stuff will go in my "unspecified computer stuff" bin till the Lord comes.

keenmaster486:
only the 1st picture is shown.

AWE64 needs drivers for DOS compatibility.

Picked up another Audigy SB0090 today for 2$ i can't resists.

kixs wrote:

keenmaster486:
only the 1st picture is shown.

AWE64 needs drivers for DOS compatibility.

OK, it's fixed! And what are those drivers like, do they use a lot of memory? And how well do they work? With the drivers, what's the difference between AWE64 and non-PnP SB16?

@keenmaster486

Congratulations Keen! Great stock! That Gigabyte has some RAID capabilities, I can see - and nah, socket 462 is for Athlon architecture, nothing to do about socket 7 compatibility.

@keenmaster486
The last Diamond card is a Diamond Monster Fusion (3dfx Voodoo Banshee 16MB) ('98)

keenmaster486 wrote:

kixs wrote:

keenmaster486:
only the 1st picture is shown.

AWE64 needs drivers for DOS compatibility.

OK, it's fixed! And what are those drivers like, do they use a lot of memory? And how well do they work? With the drivers, what's the difference between AWE64 and non-PnP SB16?

The "driver" takes up 0 bytes, its more of an initializing utility. 😀

Later when you get the PA-2006 motherboard going I want a copy of the MR-BIOS BIOS, just make a BIOS dump with "uniflash".

Skyscraper wrote:

The "driver" takes up 0 bytes, its more of an initializing utility. 😀

OK, that's perfect.

Skyscraper wrote:

Later when you get the PA-2006 motherboard going I want a copy of the MR-BIOS BIOS, just make a BIOS dump with "uniflash".

Will do! Never done that before but I'm sure I can figure it out.