VOGONS


Reply 7320 of 27171, by clueless1

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appiah4 wrote:

I believe there already is one such thread..

I know about the DOS one, but I've not seen a Win9x/ME one. Link?

@OldCat - I could half-ass a post by copy-pasting my post above, but my dedication to maintaining it wouldn't be very high. It might just as easily get buried and lost unless others here continued to contribute to it. Let's see if we can find an existing post first and we'll go from there.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 7321 of 27171, by BitWrangler

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appiah4 wrote:

Finalized the P133 build. Ended up removing the fan on the cooler - that thing works fine on.passive.

Only issue I have is the ES1868 card and Doom games. The cards OPL and Wave ia pretty clean and silent in all games however Doom does something strange. The card is initialized with ESSVOL for Master Volume 8, Wave 8 and FM ynth 8 but when I load doom it becomes exceptipnally loud with some distortion on OPL music. When I quit Doom and rum ESSVOL I see that Wave and FM Synth are both 14. Not sure how or why it overrides my mixer settings.

Look in doom.cfg .... I think that's what the config file is, been a while.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 7324 of 27171, by amadeus777999

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Finally got a tool to flash the bios eeprom for the HOT433 - a Biostar M5ATA which was cheaper than buying the TL866 for me.
All went well using uniflash(use option flash with Bootblock - ignoring mismatch) and finally, I can use the keyboard again!
I installed 512KB of cache and completed the setup with a ViperV330 and a SB CT4760.
Now testing the system @150/50(all settings fastest) with memtest.

Reply 7325 of 27171, by liqmat

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Nabbed a very hard to find proprietary ITT ISA memory expansion board (actually most anything ITT computer related is hard to find) for my near mint condition ITT Xtra XP XT system that I am almost done cleaning up and testing. Still looking for an XT keyboard or the ever elusive ITT Xtra XT keyboard. Will be installing this as soon as I get over to the hardware store for a missing screw for the original backplate. The system has 512K memory already on the main board. Notice the pins at the back of the full length card will match the pin slots on the far left ISA slot of the motherboard. It's the first ITT memory expansion card I've seen come across Ebay since I've been looking and I picked it up for $25. Rare doesn't always mean expensive thankfully.

Update: Actually has 640K on-board. Someone did not set the dip switches correctly. The motherboard has both banks populated with 64kBx16 & 256kBx16. The expansion card has one bank populated with 256kBx16 and one bank empty yet when I set the dip switches on the motherboard it reads 1536K at the post memory test. It should be a total of 1152K according to what dram chips are installed. It would be 1536K if that fourth bank was actually populated with another 256kBx16. So now I have to investigate out why I am seeing this. Very strange.

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Motherboard memory layout

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Memory expansion board memory layout

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What the...?

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Last edited by liqmat on 2017-11-24, 15:39. Edited 4 times in total.

Reply 7328 of 27171, by appiah4

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BitWrangler wrote:
appiah4 wrote:

Finalized the P133 build. Ended up removing the fan on the cooler - that thing works fine on.passive.

Only issue I have is the ES1868 card and Doom games. The cards OPL and Wave ia pretty clean and silent in all games however Doom does something strange. The card is initialized with ESSVOL for Master Volume 8, Wave 8 and FM ynth 8 but when I load doom it becomes exceptipnally loud with some distortion on OPL music. When I quit Doom and rum ESSVOL I see that Wave and FM Synth are both 14. Not sure how or why it overrides my mixer settings.

Look in doom.cfg .... I think that's what the config file is, been a while.

It's DEFAULT.CFG and sound level values are set as 8.. So I have no idea why Doom changes the driver's sound mixer settings?

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 7329 of 27171, by cyclone3d

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Decided to test out the Roland MT-300S I received today. Got it off of eBay for a really good price.

Loaded up some Jazzy Christmas songs on a floppy and stuck it in the kids room for them to listen to while they are going to sleep.

Now they don't want me to change it off of Santa Clause Is Coming To Town.

And my little retro loving nerds are born 😁

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 7330 of 27171, by Mister Xiado

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Got a keyboard and power supply for my Atari XE that had been collecting about a quarter pound of dust over the past decade. When in BASIC mode, it locks up when the RETURN key is pressed. In test mode, the RETURN key works fine, so it's possible the BASIC ROM is fuxxored, but the chip test didn't indicate any ROM or RAM issues. Alas, I am not a high level techromancer, so burning EEPROMs is a bit outside of my demesne. Like, a fortnight's travel by a swift steed. Nay, give me a soldering iron and a light, and I shall swiftly become disinterested and leave the unfinished project on a desk somewhere.

Here's what it DOES do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-11JSfnLiA

b_ldnt2.gif - Where it's always 1995.
Icons, wallpapers, and typical Oldternet nonsense.

Reply 7331 of 27171, by brostenen

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Finished doing the testbench setup of my next 486 project. It is a low spec 486 system, based on a dx33 CPU. It has no local busses or PCI, just an old pure ISA setup. As of now it has the following hardware in it.

- ISA-Only Socket3 motherboard with 256kb 15ns Cache.
- 16mb 72-Pin 60ns Ram, in one single stick.
- ET4000ax ISA card.
- Mediavision Jazz soundcard (Don't really know the name)
- Standard IDE ISA Controller.
- 512mb CF Card in an adaptor.
- 1.44mb Floppy.
- Goldstar 8x IDE CD-Rom.
- Microsoft serial mouse (the "ergonomic" version).
- Genuine 200watt Unisys AT-Psu (it says 200watt true output).

When I recieved the board, it had no cache chip, and the barrel battery was removed (yay). So I seated 4 chips of 64kx8 cache and 1 chip of 32kx8 as the tag. All 15ns. Then I ordered a coincell rechargeable 3.6 volt battery from eBay, wich has two solderpins on it. Swett.... So far so good.

I have this cached ISA controller, that has no COM or LPT ports on it. However it actually degrades the performance and has some issues when running a CF cards, plus the CD-Rom drive will not work with it. So I picked the standard controller. Much better solution.

Ran the system through the standard package of benchmark tools, as a kind of burnin test. Everything went fine and nothing is broken. Installed MS-Dos 6.22, all the drivers, norton commander and a handfull of games. Run everything without issues.

So far so good.... Only thing that worries me, is the heat from the CPU. It runs pretty hot. Now I know it is supposed to be able to run without heatsink. I just do not like that it is getting that hot. Better cool it down. So that will be the next part to look for.

The PSU... Well... Despite that being from 1994/95'ish, and some other parts being from mid-90's, I find it astonishing, that it has nearly no dust in it or on the fan.

I think this setup is more or less what people with money, and what early adopters of the 486 platform, would have aimed for in 1991 or possibly 1992. I mean... Spec/number-wise... It shure runs the early 90's games between 1990 and 1992 without any issues, and at full hardware speed.

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen

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Reply 7332 of 27171, by Cyrix200+

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Interesting to hear your thoughts on this! I have a Compaq machine with a DX33 and am contemplating to upgrade to a DX2/66 it or just leave it original.

brostenen wrote:
Finished doing the testbench setup of my next 486 project. It is a low spec 486 system, based on a dx33 CPU. It has no local bus […]
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Finished doing the testbench setup of my next 486 project. It is a low spec 486 system, based on a dx33 CPU. It has no local busses or PCI, just an old pure ISA setup. As of now it has the following hardware in it.

- ISA-Only Socket3 motherboard with 256kb 15ns Cache.
- 16mb 72-Pin 60ns Ram, in one single stick.
- ET4000ax ISA card.
- Mediavision Jazz soundcard (Don't really know the name)
- Standard IDE ISA Controller.
- 512mb CF Card in an adaptor.
- 1.44mb Floppy.
- Goldstar 8x IDE CD-Rom.
- Microsoft serial mouse (the "ergonomic" version).
- Genuine 200watt Unisys AT-Psu (it says 200watt true output).

When I recieved the board, it had no cache chip, and the barrel battery was removed (yay). So I seated 4 chips of 64kx8 cache and 1 chip of 32kx8 as the tag. All 15ns. Then I ordered a coincell rechargeable 3.6 volt battery from eBay, wich has two solderpins on it. Swett.... So far so good.

I have this cached ISA controller, that has no COM or LPT ports on it. However it actually degrades the performance and has some issues when running a CF cards, plus the CD-Rom drive will not work with it. So I picked the standard controller. Much better solution.

Ran the system through the standard package of benchmark tools, as a kind of burnin test. Everything went fine and nothing is broken. Installed MS-Dos 6.22, all the drivers, norton commander and a handfull of games. Run everything without issues.

So far so good.... Only thing that worries me, is the heat from the CPU. It runs pretty hot. Now I know it is supposed to be able to run without heatsink. I just do not like that it is getting that hot. Better cool it down. So that will be the next part to look for.

The PSU... Well... Despite that being from 1994/95'ish, and some other parts being from mid-90's, I find it astonishing, that it has nearly no dust in it or on the fan.

I think this setup is more or less what people with money, and what early adopters of the 486 platform, would have aimed for in 1991 or possibly 1992. I mean... Spec/number-wise... It shure runs the early 90's games between 1990 and 1992 without any issues, and at full hardware speed.

1982 to 2001

Reply 7333 of 27171, by brostenen

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Cyrix200+ wrote:

Interesting to hear your thoughts on this! I have a Compaq machine with a DX33 and am contemplating to upgrade to a DX2/66 it or just leave it original.

Most people like to build dx2-66's. I find a 66 to perform a little too little, when it comes to dx2's. I like the dx2-80 better. 14mhz more and 10mhz extra on the FSB. Makes Doom run butter smooth on a S3-805-VLB.... On the other hand... Dx2-66's are for people that have nostalgic attachments. That is how I see things. For better, then go for some 5x86-133 or a genuine Dx4-120. The dx4 gives 40mhz fsb as well...

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen

001100 010010 011110 100001 101101 110011

Reply 7334 of 27171, by appiah4

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I went from a DX33 directly to a Dx-4 100 so those are my nostalgic attachments..

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 7335 of 27171, by elod

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Fujitsu socket 7 (HX chipset) desktop with a flimsy riser, P1@133, DIMM only, CL VGA onboard.
Dusted it yesterday, got some DIMMs in there, all good.
Today I installed Win98 on it but failed to get an ESS1868 to work under Win. DOS mode is fine.

This will be my "daily" DOS machine for some time, I need to play some games (remember why I'm collecting 😀 ) instead of endlessly messing around with hardware.
I also have to test the dreamblasters. S1 will do until xmas, I'll leave the heavy artillery (X2+S3) for the holiday season.

For some strange reason I developed a Fujitsu PCB fetish 😀

Reply 7336 of 27171, by appiah4

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Opened up, parted out, completely cleaned, reassembled and upgraded my Optiplex GX110. Final configuration:

Dell Optiplex GX110 Low Profile
Anakart: Dell 36XMB
PSU: Dell 140W (Proprietary)
İşlemci: Intel Pentium III 1000
RAM: 2x256MB PC133@100 (i810E restriction)
VGA: Sapphire Radeon 7000 32MB PCI
Ses1: Sound Blaster Live! Value OEM Dell CT4780
Ses2: S-Link SL-41A ESS Solo
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint 120GB IDE
Optik: NEC 16x DVD-ROM
FDD: NEC 3.5" 1.44MB
OS: Win98SE/Win2K Dual Boot (not installed yet)

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Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 7337 of 27171, by mongaccio

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I've finished my 80 columns adapter for my commodore 128. Now i can enjoy the 80 columns mode on my television.

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I've used the schematics of https://sites.google.com/site/h2obsession/CBM/C128 . Nice site, he tried a few experiments with rgbi to s-video and VGA.
I used his Rgbi to scart schematic,since my tv is equipped with a scart plug.
Modified a bit the resistor values, but it works now!

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i've also added a switch for the 40 columns mode, using the composite signal from the din plug. I can switch to 40 columns immediately when i go in c64 mode.

Reply 7338 of 27171, by bjwil1991

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Watching LGR's video about retro gaming PCs: LGR - Choosing a Retro Gaming PC! (ft. 9 YouTubers)

Discord: https://discord.gg/U5dJw7x
Systems from the Compaq Portable 1 to Ryzen 9 5950X
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/retropcuser