SteveC wrote on 2021-02-02, 11:46:

ragefury32 wrote on 2021-02-02, 02:21:

Yeah, that's a common affliction of old subnotebooks - they generally do not boot off USB1.1 - not that USB1 is great for bootin […]
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SteveC wrote on 2021-02-01, 18:18:

So these turned up today and both work but have failed hard drives. So annoying though as you can't boot off USB and I don't have the dock to get the RJ45 port for ethernet and I don't have the custom connector floppy drive so I can't boot off floppy! Have to prepare a drive in another PC and move it over, taking the laptop to pieces in the process.

Nice little laptops though - should make nice Windows 98 machines to play with - 2 player over irDA haha. PII 300Mhz with 128Mb might struggle under XP, and 2000 might be a bit restrictive on gaming.

edit - just working on the second laptop and the hard drive is fine, just partitioned (into win98 and win2k labelled partitions), wiped and looks like someone forgot to make a partition active or put boot files on it. I bet they didn't any method of installing Windows either so gave up!

Yeah, that's a common affliction of old subnotebooks - they generally do not boot off USB1.1 - not that USB1 is great for booting ISOs anyways. If you got a Toshiba external drive + cable, it might use the TEAC FFC26 interface. If it does, you can mod yourself a nice little mini-Gotek for those machines.

If you are lucky you got a pair of Portege 7010CT - the Neomagic 256AV is an okay 2D-only chip (although gona.mactar.hu and its DOS compatibility table will disagree). The real winner here is the legit OPL3-SA3 audio (YMF725 if I remember correctly). If I am gunning for a PII class subnotebook the 7010CT and the ThinkPad 240(ESFM Solo-1) will be my choices.

If you are not so lucky? You might end up with a pair of Portege 3110CTs. You'll want to look up how to configure the ESS Maestro 2 (ES1978) for DOS if you plan to use it there...it's not that straightforward. The Maestro 2 is a decent Windows AC97 chip but not well regarded in DOS. Keep expectations low for the Trident Cyber9525 video chip onboard - use it as a 2D card (it'll do fine and compatibility should be good) and ignore whatever Direct3D hardware acceleration it claims to have. It's based on the Trident 3DImage family, essentially a 3DImage 975 but with less VRAM - let's just say that there are generally more respect for the S3 Virge MX than this one - if it's not slow in Direct3D then it's glitchy as hell -> https://vintage3d.org/trident.php

Yeah, I know. Why can't Toshiba make a small machine with the Trident Cyber9525 and the YMF725F on the SAME CHASSIS? It would at least be a decent little laptop for late DOS/Early Windows...

I wasn't so lucky and got 3110CTs but I still think it's a nice little machine. I do need to research the audio in DOS though. Shame one laptop has died, but at least I have some spares for the other one!

Heh. Well, that gives you the opportunity to buy a 7200CT/CTe. Same audio chip as the 3110CT, Cyberblade e4 graphics (some light Direct3D gaming is possible) and a Coppermine Pentium III. It’s actually a pretty decent alternative to the Sony Vaio PCG-SRxx machines (those have YMF754 but TERRIBLE keyboards).

As for the ESS Maestro drivers, I swear that one day I’ll have some bandwidth and bundle up the working DOS config off my Dell C600.

wiretap wrote on 2021-02-02, 12:16:

Deksor wrote on 2021-02-01, 20:24:

AMD goldfinger look so simple and are becoming so hard to find these days that I think we should retro-engineer them and make a open schematic.
I have no goldfinger myself but I'd love to make my own ^^

There are several schematics out there for them. I was going to start a PCB design for one a while back, but the thread on here pretty much died and there seemed to be no interest. Maybe I'll pick up the project soon.

I haven't seen your thread about making new ones. Can I have a link ?

Deksor wrote on 2021-02-02, 17:04:

wiretap wrote on 2021-02-02, 12:16:

Deksor wrote on 2021-02-01, 20:24:

AMD goldfinger look so simple and are becoming so hard to find these days that I think we should retro-engineer them and make a open schematic.
I have no goldfinger myself but I'd love to make my own ^^

There are several schematics out there for them. I was going to start a PCB design for one a while back, but the thread on here pretty much died and there seemed to be no interest. Maybe I'll pick up the project soon.

I haven't seen your thread about making new ones. Can I have a link ?

There's also a thread over at the CPU-World forums: https://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28887
Seems it has been making very very slow progress over the last months and years, but has gained a little bit of traction lately. But it still doesn't seem like that GFD remake would be available in greater quantities anytime soon.
For the record (1): I would be interested in getting one, too.
For the record (2): Seems that finding a suitable connector is one challenge that arises during this project, I once bookmarked the TE Connectivity Part No. 1734037-4 that should be a good fit. Just in case.

Skanque wrote on 2021-01-31, 13:59:

New arrivals: […]
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New arrivals:

ATI Radeon 32MB SDR PCI

Megavision3D - Trident ProVidia9685 3MB SDR PCI

ColorMax Va368 - S3 Trio 3D/2X 8MB SDR AGP

CardEx Pro GX2 / AGP (Gainward) - S3 Virge GX 2 4MB SGR AGP
,

Wow, never seen those boxes before. I somehow estimated that those Trident/Trios cards came without a box. Must have seen to many without it.
Also very nice artwork from the Radeon. This scorpion with the RADEON letters would make a very nice late 90ies t-shirt.

Deksor wrote on 2021-02-02, 17:04:

wiretap wrote on 2021-02-02, 12:16:

Deksor wrote on 2021-02-01, 20:24:

AMD goldfinger look so simple and are becoming so hard to find these days that I think we should retro-engineer them and make a open schematic.
I have no goldfinger myself but I'd love to make my own ^^

There are several schematics out there for them. I was going to start a PCB design for one a while back, but the thread on here pretty much died and there seemed to be no interest. Maybe I'll pick up the project soon.

I haven't seen your thread about making new ones. Can I have a link ?

I can't find it, it was sometime a year or more ago. Maybe it was a different forum I'm thinking of. I plan on making a replica of the Northwind GFD v1.0, since it is the easiest (all THT), I have clear pictures of all the traces, clear pictures of all components, and I have the dip switch config table. One thing I could use help with is the part number for the AMD connector, and the pinout.

https://web.archive.org/web/20001206111700/ht … dcomputers.com/

wiretap wrote on 2021-02-02, 20:23:

I can't find it, it was sometime a year or more ago. Maybe it was a different forum I'm thinking of. I plan on making a replica […]
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Deksor wrote on 2021-02-02, 17:04:

wiretap wrote on 2021-02-02, 12:16:

There are several schematics out there for them. I was going to start a PCB design for one a while back, but the thread on here pretty much died and there seemed to be no interest. Maybe I'll pick up the project soon.

I haven't seen your thread about making new ones. Can I have a link ?

I can't find it, it was sometime a year or more ago. Maybe it was a different forum I'm thinking of. I plan on making a replica of the Northwind GFD v1.0, since it is the easiest (all THT), I have clear pictures of all the traces, clear pictures of all components, and I have the dip switch config table. One thing I could use help with is the part number for the AMD connector, and the pinout.

Cool. Looks perfectly doable.
That connector actually looks like the one I mentioned above: TE Connectivity 1734037-4
https://www.te.com/usa-en/product-1734037-4.html
https://www.te.com/usa-en/product-1734037-4.datasheet.pdf

gex85 wrote on 2021-02-02, 20:43:

Cool. Looks perfectly doable. That connector actually looks like the one I mentioned above: TE Connectivity 1734037-4 https://ww […]
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wiretap wrote on 2021-02-02, 20:23:

I can't find it, it was sometime a year or more ago. Maybe it was a different forum I'm thinking of. I plan on making a replica […]
Show full quote

Deksor wrote on 2021-02-02, 17:04:

I haven't seen your thread about making new ones. Can I have a link ?

I can't find it, it was sometime a year or more ago. Maybe it was a different forum I'm thinking of. I plan on making a replica of the Northwind GFD v1.0, since it is the easiest (all THT), I have clear pictures of all the traces, clear pictures of all components, and I have the dip switch config table. One thing I could use help with is the part number for the AMD connector, and the pinout.

Cool. Looks perfectly doable.
That connector actually looks like the one I mentioned above: TE Connectivity 1734037-4
https://www.te.com/usa-en/product-1734037-4.html
https://www.te.com/usa-en/product-1734037-4.datasheet.pdf

Thanks, I totally missed that.

Well I guess we could bump the old thread if you can find it make a new one ? ^^

Deksor wrote on 2021-02-02, 21:39:

Well I guess we could bump the old thread if you can find it make a new one ? ^^

Bumping one of your old threads I found that will be a perfect fit I think.

ragefury32 wrote on 2021-02-02, 15:55:

SteveC wrote on 2021-02-02, 11:46:

ragefury32 wrote on 2021-02-02, 02:21:

Yeah, that's a common affliction of old subnotebooks - they generally do not boot off USB1.1 - not that USB1 is great for bootin […]
Show full quote

Yeah, that's a common affliction of old subnotebooks - they generally do not boot off USB1.1 - not that USB1 is great for booting ISOs anyways. If you got a Toshiba external drive + cable, it might use the TEAC FFC26 interface. If it does, you can mod yourself a nice little mini-Gotek for those machines.

If you are lucky you got a pair of Portege 7010CT - the Neomagic 256AV is an okay 2D-only chip (although gona.mactar.hu and its DOS compatibility table will disagree). The real winner here is the legit OPL3-SA3 audio (YMF725 if I remember correctly). If I am gunning for a PII class subnotebook the 7010CT and the ThinkPad 240(ESFM Solo-1) will be my choices.

If you are not so lucky? You might end up with a pair of Portege 3110CTs. You'll want to look up how to configure the ESS Maestro 2 (ES1978) for DOS if you plan to use it there...it's not that straightforward. The Maestro 2 is a decent Windows AC97 chip but not well regarded in DOS. Keep expectations low for the Trident Cyber9525 video chip onboard - use it as a 2D card (it'll do fine and compatibility should be good) and ignore whatever Direct3D hardware acceleration it claims to have. It's based on the Trident 3DImage family, essentially a 3DImage 975 but with less VRAM - let's just say that there are generally more respect for the S3 Virge MX than this one - if it's not slow in Direct3D then it's glitchy as hell -> https://vintage3d.org/trident.php

Yeah, I know. Why can't Toshiba make a small machine with the Trident Cyber9525 and the YMF725F on the SAME CHASSIS? It would at least be a decent little laptop for late DOS/Early Windows...

I wasn't so lucky and got 3110CTs but I still think it's a nice little machine. I do need to research the audio in DOS though. Shame one laptop has died, but at least I have some spares for the other one!

Heh. Well, that gives you the opportunity to buy a 7200CT/CTe. Same audio chip as the 3110CT, Cyberblade e4 graphics (some light Direct3D gaming is possible) and a Coppermine Pentium III. It’s actually a pretty decent alternative to the Sony Vaio PCG-SRxx machines (those have YMF754 but TERRIBLE keyboards).

As for the ESS Maestro drivers, I swear that one day I’ll have some bandwidth and bundle up the working DOS config off my Dell C600.

By the way the ESS Maestro DOS driver simply meant running maestro.com in DOS that was installed by the Win98 drivers - that's it!

Why yes, I will take those Apple Pro speakers that can only be used with a specific generation of hardware that I already have for $5.

Seriously apple, why did you need to make these speakers so proprietary.

BetaC wrote on 2021-02-02, 23:47:

Why yes, I will take those Apple Pro speakers that can only be used with a specific generation of hardware that I already have for $5.
image0.jpg
Seriously apple, why did you need to make these speakers so proprietary.

scnr x3

SteveC wrote on 2021-02-02, 23:17:

ragefury32 wrote on 2021-02-02, 15:55:

SteveC wrote on 2021-02-02, 11:46:

I wasn't so lucky and got 3110CTs but I still think it's a nice little machine. I do need to research the audio in DOS though. Shame one laptop has died, but at least I have some spares for the other one!

Heh. Well, that gives you the opportunity to buy a 7200CT/CTe. Same audio chip as the 3110CT, Cyberblade e4 graphics (some light Direct3D gaming is possible) and a Coppermine Pentium III. It’s actually a pretty decent alternative to the Sony Vaio PCG-SRxx machines (those have YMF754 but TERRIBLE keyboards).

As for the ESS Maestro drivers, I swear that one day I’ll have some bandwidth and bundle up the working DOS config off my Dell C600.

By the way the ESS Maestro DOS driver simply meant running maestro.com in DOS that was installed by the Win98 drivers - that's it!

ESSAudio.sys on config.sys and ESSaudio.com on autoexec.bat - but that’s the easy part. The tough part is that essaudio.com requires an essaudio.ini file (note: not in Windows INI file format, it’s actually stored in hex/ascii values) that tells the underlying hardware how to set the audio hardware up - that ini file is created via an ESS bundled utility which derives it from your Windows audio setup when you install the vxd (not wdm) version of the ESS maestro audio drivers. For me, I took the semi-easy way out. I have a Dell C600 with a working Win98 install, and a Compaq n600c that needs one.

Since the Compaq n600c and the Dell C600 are so similar I simply swap hard drives between the 2 when I want to do DOS stuff, and most things seem to work. Although there are very subtle differences. On the c600 the Maestro works on DDMA mode. On the n600c it’s TDMA mode, which messes with some games (TIE fighter locks up on load). Chances are , if I zip up that essaudio.com and the ini file and toss it over to you, it should work.

appiah4 wrote on 2021-01-27, 09:24:

I got a Biostar P4M890-M7 SE, Intel Core2Duo E4600 and 2GB DDR2 Memory for my Win98/Linux build to go with the ASUS X850Pro PCIe […]
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I got a Biostar P4M890-M7 SE, Intel Core2Duo E4600 and 2GB DDR2 Memory for my Win98/Linux build to go with the ASUS X850Pro PCIe I got a few days ago.

Biostar P4M890-M7 SE 01.jpg

ASUS Extreme AX850Pro.jpg

Trying to decide on a Linux distro to install on this..

The linux distro to use on a PC like that would depend on what you want to do with the machine, IMO. If you want to use it as a desktop, with graphical environment and everything, I'd go with a not so recent, but supported distro, like RHEL 7 (now that it is free). If you will be using it as a server, any of the newest distros would do the trick if you install it without any GUI.

Just nabbed this. Never seen one of these before, and I can't find any pictures of the card or the box online anywhere other than an old amazon.ca listing. Going by the pictures and feature set, I'm thinking it's a MediaVision Thunderboard variant. The real struggle will be to not open it play with it. I'm not one to keep sealed boxes around but this seems pretty rare.

The only other mention of an IBM Easy Options sound card I've seen is a post here relating to a 16-bit card that someone found.

It is on TH99 though!
https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/i/I-L/51749.htm

By the way... who got the sealed Windows Sound System from 1992? I was tempted but it was a bit pricey... even this one I got was not cheap. I need to block ebay on my computer for a while... 🤣

imi wrote on 2021-02-02, 23:52:

scnr x3

angryapple.jpg

Perfection.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-02-03, 05:50:

Just nabbed this. Never seen one of these before, and I can't find any pictures of the card or the box online anywhere other tha […]
Show full quote

Just nabbed this. Never seen one of these before, and I can't find any pictures of the card or the box online anywhere other than an old amazon.ca listing. Going by the pictures and feature set, I'm thinking it's a MediaVision Thunderboard variant. The real struggle will be to not open it play with it. I'm not one to keep sealed boxes around but this seems pretty rare.

ibm_opt1.jpg
ibm_opt2.jpg

The only other mention of an IBM Easy Options sound card I've seen is a post here relating to a 16-bit card that someone found.

It is on TH99 though!
https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/i/I-L/51749.htm

By the way... who got the sealed Windows Sound System from 1992? I was tempted but it was a bit pricey... even this one I got was not cheap. I need to block ebay on my computer for a while... 🤣

The AudioVision Thunderboard never had any Midi support. It was my first ever x86 sound card.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-02-03, 06:02:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-02-03, 05:50:

Just nabbed this. Never seen one of these before, and I can't find any pictures of the card or the box online anywhere other tha […]
Show full quote

Just nabbed this. Never seen one of these before, and I can't find any pictures of the card or the box online anywhere other than an old amazon.ca listing. Going by the pictures and feature set, I'm thinking it's a MediaVision Thunderboard variant. The real struggle will be to not open it play with it. I'm not one to keep sealed boxes around but this seems pretty rare.

ibm_opt1.jpg
ibm_opt2.jpg

The only other mention of an IBM Easy Options sound card I've seen is a post here relating to a 16-bit card that someone found.

It is on TH99 though!
https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/i/I-L/51749.htm

By the way... who got the sealed Windows Sound System from 1992? I was tempted but it was a bit pricey... even this one I got was not cheap. I need to block ebay on my computer for a while... 🤣

The AudioVision Thunderboard never had any Midi support. It was my first ever x86 sound card.

The Thunderboard has jumpers to enable MIDI over the gameport, but I have no idea what kind of support it has. I doubt it is MPU401 compatible... and I doubt it'd be too useful anyway, since even MediaVision's later cards had glitchy MIDI output.

Anyway, the card in the picture is definitely a Thunderboard. They list GAME\MIDI on the box because the card claims to have some kind of MIDI support. IBM was apparently under no obligation to test that functionality before designing the box. 😁

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-02-03, 07:01:

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-02-03, 06:02:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-02-03, 05:50:

Just nabbed this. Never seen one of these before, and I can't find any pictures of the card or the box online anywhere other tha […]
Show full quote

Just nabbed this. Never seen one of these before, and I can't find any pictures of the card or the box online anywhere other than an old amazon.ca listing. Going by the pictures and feature set, I'm thinking it's a MediaVision Thunderboard variant. The real struggle will be to not open it play with it. I'm not one to keep sealed boxes around but this seems pretty rare.

ibm_opt1.jpg
ibm_opt2.jpg

The only other mention of an IBM Easy Options sound card I've seen is a post here relating to a 16-bit card that someone found.

It is on TH99 though!
https://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/i/I-L/51749.htm

By the way... who got the sealed Windows Sound System from 1992? I was tempted but it was a bit pricey... even this one I got was not cheap. I need to block ebay on my computer for a while... 🤣

The AudioVision Thunderboard never had any Midi support. It was my first ever x86 sound card.

The Thunderboard has jumpers to enable MIDI over the gameport, but I have no idea what kind of support it has. I doubt it is MPU401 compatible... and I doubt it'd be too useful anyway, since even MediaVision's later cards had glitchy MIDI output.

Anyway, the card in the picture is definitely a Thunderboard. They list GAME\MIDI on the box because the card claims to have some kind of MIDI support. IBM was apparently under no obligation to test that functionality before designing the box. 😁

No it didn't. I sugest you readthis thread Topic 6452

Apart from various other items like an A2600 Darth Vader, some PC magazines from 93/94 and TAG-RAM chips I found this, rather dirty and quite beaten up, beauty.

I couldn’t resist the “wannabe from 70s” design of this 80186.

Unfortunately it’s going to need quite some effort to bring it back to it’s original glory.