I tried to install TinyCore 11.1 (Linux kernel 5.4) on my old Socket 7 Pentium MMX PC. I mostly want to see how "modern" I can get it to behave with those specs, while actually using the hardware that's in it, like actual S3 drivers, not VESA, loading GM/GS soundfonts, OPL3 etc. I got it to play nicely with everything easily except sound on my AWE32 CT3910. Maybe I should go for another distro, maybe an older one as well... Any recommendations?

I repaired 2 more CDROMS, and built not one, not two, but THREE 486 DX2/66 machines. These were in various states of working order, the last one had some corrosion on the I/O controller - conversely that port was dead and the card was not revivable. Repalced all the batteries with Li-On 3.6vs and I also built an SX-40.

Lots of retrobriting, listed three machines on eBay (P-MMX, 386, 486) and already got an offer on the 386.

Two of the 486s will need parts (I have no more sound cards or VLB cards) so I will have to source some. They will also be listed for sale when done - Wife wants some money to offset the purchasing of my classic car last week 🤣.

Had time to get to work on my old stuff for the first time in a couple of weeks. Nothing big, lots of small stuff:

- installed the Chill MIDI interface (for Waveblaster-type cards) I assembled weeks ago in my big audio setup, so I can select it on my A-880 and feed output to my mixer for recording. Will use that sometime over the next few days to do some requested recordings of a Terratec Dream GSWave 😀
- troubleshooted why I couldn't play MIDI on my partner's Roland FP-7 digital piano. Very simple: turns out I somehow mixed up input and output. Switched cables round and works perfectly - although Doom2 sounds weird on piano 😜 Now I need to check if input is also working as my eldest son has taught himself to play Coffin Dance on the piano and I'm sure he'd love to hear it over some sound modules.
- tested some hardware I acquired over the past few weeks. VLB WD 90C33 VGA and UMC multi-I/O (with dual IDE) work perfectly - although turns out I already had exactly the same UMC card in my testbench. Still, decent workhorse, so worth having two.
- made a list of drivers I need to download to test more stuff.
- gotten so frustrated with my main 486 DOS system I've decided to temporarily decommission it until I figure out what is wrong. Strange stuff; some games hang at boot, in some games AdLib is totally garbled - but it's perfect in others... obvious troubleshooting step is to move hardware from this system (with U5S-33 CPU) to my testbench with Cx5x86. Motherboards are almost identical UMC-chipset VLB, so should be simple enough to narrow down where the problem is.

Today I attempted to see if I could somehow get my Mac Rage 128 PCI working on my socket 7 motherboard, but I failed to do anything other than dump the bios from it using ATIFlash 1.0. I couldn't even write it back on to the card.

Tore apart my Commodore 1084S tonight.. replaced all the transistors in the Green video circuit on the neck board. (I have no green output) Checked for dry solder joints and all passive components and electrolytics and wires. No issues there. Plugged it back in, and still no green color output. 🙁 So, I just ordered a Philips TDA3507 to see if that will do the trick. At least the thing is easy to take apart.

For me, for the past month or so, I've been modifying a rare Sanyo MBC-775 to accept 640K of memory. (It normally has 256, but I figured installing sockets would help me or anyone in the future replace bad memory.) I've been having to map out the memory connections, though, because although this system seems to have been made for later models of Sanyo IBM clones, not all of the connections, from forgotten traces in manufacturing and design, are in place, so it also uses patch wires.

Today, though, I was able to desolder the RTC/CMOS chip off of my Compaq Portable III's motherboard (I used a heat gun along with a chip puller) and add a new socket in, as well as buy a power module to futureproof the battery. (The module I bought has a battery holder on it, which replaces the original blocky dual-cell battery.)

Opened up Proliant 1500 power supply and found why would not power on, was broken track downstream of rectifier diode bridge on one AC side. Repaired all the broken tracks and now power supply powers on and outputs good voltages. No interlock. Just hook the spade connectors together and use plug in AC as switch.

Still no luck with the Proliant 1500 motherboard, maybe the processor card is wrong one. I was using a dual processor card with one CPU installed (default), it came this way. Will buy another single CPU processor card.

PS: Sanyo MBC-775 is not exactly compatible, did you do anything to make it more compatible with standard DOS like 3.x or later and run more games properlyi? 8 bit guy evaluated a borrowed MBC-775 and found incompatibilities.

Cheers,

Figured out why the PB450 boards weren't working (the 2 from recent eBay purchases): I put the POST card upside down (the 4x 7 segment display needs to be side up, not down) and they are working as intended. Almost done rebuilding the system, just need to add 2 more sound cards currently in my 386DX/486DLC machine and I'm all set. Well, at least I know the orientation for the POST card this time.

Good news - bought a Thinkpad 240 - veritable classic in the annals of IBM portable history...great little Pentium II machine in a tiny package. The screen looks to be in great order - the seller mentioned that he can’t seem to get any video on-screen. The keyboard looks to be in superb shape - the audio chip is an ESS Solo-1. The machine seems destined for Windows 98/2k/BeOS classical machine goodness.

Bad news - the seller mentioned that he broke the drive door (the plastic part of the caddy) and didn’t include it in the package.

Even worse news - I found out the reason why there’s no video. ..looks like the video connector broke (well, the legs off the IC came off so I’ll probably need to hit it with a hot air pencil).

TechieDude wrote on 2020-11-10, 19:24:

I tried to install TinyCore 11.1 (Linux kernel 5.4) on my old Socket 7 Pentium MMX PC. I mostly want to see how "modern" I can get it to behave with those specs, while actually using the hardware that's in it, like actual S3 drivers, not VESA, loading GM/GS soundfonts, OPL3 etc. I got it to play nicely with everything easily except sound on my AWE32 CT3910. Maybe I should go for another distro, maybe an older one as well... Any recommendations?

PuppyLinux 4.3.1 Retro does pretty much all I need on Socket7 & 64MB and above. For beefier systems (Slot 1 & 128MB or above) Trisquel Mini is perfect.

Adjusted pixel clock... VGA TFTs are unable to adjust it reliably but how can one know not having used them for 15 years. I was about to open and recap the thing.

Razor sharp.

Received the ISA EIDE controller cards I ordered, and the SCPH-1001 laser to resurrect my PSX, but after working constant 12 hour shifts at the mill, the energy required to work for anything other than money is almost bottomed out. Maybe on my next three days off. Or the projects can go like my Goldstar 3DO resurrection, and I'll sit on the parts for six years before doing anything with them.
Shame that Anatek's inventory is about as plentiful as TXMicro's (that is to say, not at all), otherwise I'd order more bits and bobs to boost some of my other old systems.

I prepared the newest (oldest) computer I had for a client that will take a 1.2 Mb drive. An MSI board that did support it in BIOS in fact gave General Errors (drive worked in other machines) so the oldest newest machine I had that WOULD support it (and USB, and XP) was a Celeron 433 (Mendochino, so not shit). I threw 384 Mb at it (it has integrated video too) and am configuring XP on it now - all it has to do is read floppies and put them on another form of media, through USB likely. I'll be arming it with a good power supply and testing it overnight.

More messing with SHSUCDHD and SCSUCDX in FreeDOS on the NEC Versa M/75....I got LIghthouse working for DOS....and it turns out it supports WSS (!!!), 7th Guest....a game I've been wanting to run for awhile, does not. Still trying to figure out how the heck to get multiple disc images loaded into multiple drives and have them work so I don't have to swap....ie DISC one in Drive G, DISC2 in Drive H....etc..

Will try out 7th Guest when docked.

I've modded my Thinkpad A22p with an IPS UXGA display and it is amazing.

Had to solder on a longer cable for the CCFL backlight connector to fit, but apart from that everything looks really good now.
This machine is better than stock back in the day. 😀 It is even more heavy now, though. Thank god I don't need to be portable with it.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-11-11, 07:46:

PuppyLinux 4.3.1 Retro does pretty much all I need on Socket7 & 64MB and above. For beefier systems (Slot 1 & 128MB or above) Trisquel Mini is perfect.

Thanks, I'll try them both, although I was thinking AntiX for the latter, I'll definitely try that too. Have you set up Puppy to work with AWE32? If so, how?

Spent a very pleasant evening building a Pentium 166 MMX based system from scratch. Cut my finger only once! Installing Win95 at the moment...

assasincz wrote on 2020-11-11, 23:32:

Spent a very pleasant evening building a Pentium 166 MMX based system from scratch. Installing Win95 at the moment... […]
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Spent a very pleasant evening building a Pentium 166 MMX based system from scratch. Installing Win95 at the moment...

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That is a very nice windows 95 era system. I really like that case. It looks easy to work in.

TechieDude wrote on 2020-11-11, 22:39:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-11-11, 07:46:

PuppyLinux 4.3.1 Retro does pretty much all I need on Socket7 & 64MB and above. For beefier systems (Slot 1 & 128MB or above) Trisquel Mini is perfect.

Thanks, I'll try them both, although I was thinking AntiX for the latter, I'll definitely try that too. Have you set up Puppy to work with AWE32? If so, how?

It ran perfectly fine with an AWE64 with default alsa sound modules.

EIDE card works, CDROM drive seems to be fried. Moving the ISA cards around played havoc with everything in Windows, so it'll be "fun" reinstalling everything, after a journey to the dungeon to find another CDROM drive to test.