Been away from my retro 'puters for too long!

Had my Gigabyte GA-6BA on the bench in order to figure out the undocumented pinouts of the ps/2 mouse and (non-standard) USB headers. Had to fix a previous misadventure that I'd forgotten about: 🫣

All good now though, and the USB header was pretty easy (just had to reverse the pins on one row):

Back in the case, and I think I'm tapped out on how much I can cram into one wee AT box:

Celeron Tualatin 1400 MHz, 512 MB ram, GeForce3 Ti 200, SBLive, USB 2.0 card, SATA controller, 40GB IDE HD, 2TB SATA HD, DVD-RW drive, GoTek floppy, and front panel USB 2.0 😀

ubiq wrote on 2025-05-17, 03:51:

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long! […]
Show full quote

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long!

Had my Gigabyte GA-6BA on the bench in order to figure out the undocumented pinouts of the ps/2 mouse and (non-standard) USB headers. Had to fix a previous misadventure that I'd forgotten about: 🫣

The attachment IMG_2458.jpeg is no longer available

All good now though, and the USB header was pretty easy (just had to reverse the pins on one row):

The attachment IMG_2462.jpeg is no longer available

Back in the case, and I think I'm tapped out on how much I can cram into one wee AT box:

The attachment IMG_2463.jpeg is no longer available

Celeron Tualatin 1400 MHz, 512 MB ram, GeForce3 Ti 200, SBLive, USB 2.0 card, SATA controller, 40GB IDE HD, 2TB SATA HD, DVD-RW drive, GoTek floppy, and front panel USB 2.0 😀

Very nice machine, it's a beast!

With those old cases they never have an exhaust fan to take the hot air out. I highly recommend one of these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32801157180.html. I use them in all my retro machines.

Did a fresh install of Windows 10 on a laptop for a friend.

3rd gen intel core i5, surely that counts as retro by now. 🤣

ubiq wrote on 2025-05-17, 03:51:

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long! […]
Show full quote

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long!

Had my Gigabyte GA-6BA on the bench in order to figure out the undocumented pinouts of the ps/2 mouse and (non-standard) USB headers. Had to fix a previous misadventure that I'd forgotten about: 🫣

The attachment IMG_2458.jpeg is no longer available

All good now though, and the USB header was pretty easy (just had to reverse the pins on one row):

The attachment IMG_2462.jpeg is no longer available

Back in the case, and I think I'm tapped out on how much I can cram into one wee AT box:

The attachment IMG_2463.jpeg is no longer available

Celeron Tualatin 1400 MHz, 512 MB ram, GeForce3 Ti 200, SBLive, USB 2.0 card, SATA controller, 40GB IDE HD, 2TB SATA HD, DVD-RW drive, GoTek floppy, and front panel USB 2.0 😀

I've given up on putting usb 2.0 cards in all my retro machines, I find the performance hit of just having those cards in there to be too much.

Have you benchmarked anything on that machine with and without the usb 2 card?

pete8475 wrote on 2025-05-17, 06:06:

ubiq wrote on 2025-05-17, 03:51:

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long! […]
Show full quote

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long!

Had my Gigabyte GA-6BA on the bench in order to figure out the undocumented pinouts of the ps/2 mouse and (non-standard) USB headers. Had to fix a previous misadventure that I'd forgotten about: 🫣

The attachment IMG_2458.jpeg is no longer available

All good now though, and the USB header was pretty easy (just had to reverse the pins on one row):

The attachment IMG_2462.jpeg is no longer available

Back in the case, and I think I'm tapped out on how much I can cram into one wee AT box:

The attachment IMG_2463.jpeg is no longer available

Celeron Tualatin 1400 MHz, 512 MB ram, GeForce3 Ti 200, SBLive, USB 2.0 card, SATA controller, 40GB IDE HD, 2TB SATA HD, DVD-RW drive, GoTek floppy, and front panel USB 2.0 😀

I've given up on putting usb 2.0 cards in all my retro machines, I find the performance hit of just having those cards in there to be too much.

Have you benchmarked anything on that machine with and without the usb 2 card?

Well, I didn't know this. I have to redo a couple of benchmarks then.

pete8475 wrote on 2025-05-17, 06:06:

ubiq wrote on 2025-05-17, 03:51:

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long! […]
Show full quote

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long!

Had my Gigabyte GA-6BA on the bench in order to figure out the undocumented pinouts of the ps/2 mouse and (non-standard) USB headers. Had to fix a previous misadventure that I'd forgotten about: 🫣

The attachment IMG_2458.jpeg is no longer available

All good now though, and the USB header was pretty easy (just had to reverse the pins on one row):

The attachment IMG_2462.jpeg is no longer available

Back in the case, and I think I'm tapped out on how much I can cram into one wee AT box:

The attachment IMG_2463.jpeg is no longer available

Celeron Tualatin 1400 MHz, 512 MB ram, GeForce3 Ti 200, SBLive, USB 2.0 card, SATA controller, 40GB IDE HD, 2TB SATA HD, DVD-RW drive, GoTek floppy, and front panel USB 2.0 😀

I've given up on putting usb 2.0 cards in all my retro machines, I find the performance hit of just having those cards in there to be too much.

Have you benchmarked anything on that machine with and without the usb 2 card?

Im guessing the performance penalty would due to the CPU having to do the processing of USB data/transactions since in modern PCs the south bridge does that and I doubt teh puny controller on these cards could handle that..

My Tualatin+ISA+DOS/Win98 platform exploration quest continues. While Modded Tualatin i440bx-Geforce3/4 platform is hard to beat, I wanted to check contemporary ATI options. My new VIA Apollo Pro 133T allows now 1.5V AGP cards.
So I treated myself with "shiny" ASUS A9600XT version.

DOS: Vesa 2.0 support is solid. No issues with 90ies games and demos. However only negative aspect is lack of DOS tools to set higher than 60Hz refresh rates for hi res modes. BIOS mod is only option. Bonus nostalgia moment: Second Reality demo runs with CPU L1 cache disabled with GUS exactly like I recall it on my 1st personal 486sx PC.
Win98: 9600XT is slightly faster than Gf4 4200ti. With slight OC I managed to get 10300 3DMark2001SE score. AA is less taxing compared to GF4 cards. Late Win98 ATI drivers are stable. Card supports voltage, memory, temp monitoring and fan speed adjustment but to my disappointment ASUS smart doctor tool from 2003 onwards supports only WinXP.
This is fastest/latest GPU I would use for Win98.
I will probably now explore also Nvidia contemporary FX cards as well since I own only anemic FX5200 ...

vutt wrote on 2025-05-17, 08:03:

My Tualatin+ISA+DOS/Win98 platform exploration quest continues. While Modded Tualatin i440bx-Geforce3/4 platform is hard to beat […]
Show full quote

My Tualatin+ISA+DOS/Win98 platform exploration quest continues. While Modded Tualatin i440bx-Geforce3/4 platform is hard to beat, I wanted to check contemporary ATI options. My new VIA Apollo Pro 133T allows now 1.5V AGP cards.
So I treated myself with "shiny" ASUS A9600XT version.

DOS: Vesa 2.0 support is solid. No issues with 90ies games and demos. However only negative aspect is lack of DOS tools to set higher than 60Hz refresh rates for hi res modes. BIOS mod is only option. Bonus nostalgia moment: Second Reality demo runs with CPU L1 cache disabled with GUS exactly like I recall it on my 1st personal 486sx PC.
Win98: 9600XT is slightly faster than Gf4 4200ti. With slight OC I managed to get 10300 3DMark2001SE score. AA is less taxing compared to GF4 cards. Late Win98 ATI drivers are stable. Card supports voltage, memory, temp monitoring and fan speed adjustment but to my disappointment ASUS smart doctor tool from 2003 onwards supports only WinXP.
This is fastest/latest GPU I would use for Win98.
I will probably now explore also Nvidia contemporary FX cards as well since I own only anemic FX5200 ...

It’s a beautiful card. I have the exact same one. I get 4144 in 3DMark03. Could you run 03 and see what you get?

zuldan wrote on 2025-05-17, 08:09:

vutt wrote on 2025-05-17, 08:03:

So I treated myself with "shiny" ASUS A9600XT version.

It’s a beautiful card. I have the exact same one. I get 4144 in 3DMark03. Could you run 03 and see what you get?

Attached. However note that I have v3.4.0 since latest version does not support Win98SE. I'm not sure that results are comparable between versions.
PC: Win98SE,1.4Tualatin, 256MB CL3 RAM

vutt wrote on 2025-05-17, 08:50:

zuldan wrote on 2025-05-17, 08:09:

vutt wrote on 2025-05-17, 08:03:

So I treated myself with "shiny" ASUS A9600XT version.

It’s a beautiful card. I have the exact same one. I get 4144 in 3DMark03. Could you run 03 and see what you get?

Attached. However note that I have v3.4.0 since latest version does not support Win98SE. I'm not sure that results are comparable between versions.
PC: Win98SE,1.4Tualatin, 256MB CL3 RAM

That’s a descent score. I’m using a XP 3200+

I'm struggling with nVidia driver stability on my QX9650/EP45/GTX660/Win7 rig. Keep getting BSODs at random times, both while gaming and also during desktop as well.
Not willing to come to terms with the likely explanation that either the board, or the GPU, or both, are bad - currently experimenting with random driver versions.

Here's a picture of the GPU just because it's cute:

dr_st wrote on 2025-05-17, 10:01:

I'm struggling with nVidia driver stability on my QX9650/EP45/GTX660/Win7 rig. Keep getting BSODs at random times, both while ga […]
Show full quote

I'm struggling with nVidia driver stability on my QX9650/EP45/GTX660/Win7 rig. Keep getting BSODs at random times, both while gaming and also during desktop as well.
Not willing to come to terms with the likely explanation that either the board, or the GPU, or both, are bad - currently experimenting with random driver versions.

Here's a picture of the GPU just because it's cute:

Run MemTest86 just to rule that out.

pete8475 wrote on 2025-05-17, 06:06:

ubiq wrote on 2025-05-17, 03:51:

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long! […]
Show full quote

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long!

Had my Gigabyte GA-6BA on the bench in order to figure out the undocumented pinouts of the ps/2 mouse and (non-standard) USB headers. Had to fix a previous misadventure that I'd forgotten about: 🫣

The attachment IMG_2458.jpeg is no longer available

All good now though, and the USB header was pretty easy (just had to reverse the pins on one row):

The attachment IMG_2462.jpeg is no longer available

Back in the case, and I think I'm tapped out on how much I can cram into one wee AT box:

The attachment IMG_2463.jpeg is no longer available

Celeron Tualatin 1400 MHz, 512 MB ram, GeForce3 Ti 200, SBLive, USB 2.0 card, SATA controller, 40GB IDE HD, 2TB SATA HD, DVD-RW drive, GoTek floppy, and front panel USB 2.0 😀

I've given up on putting usb 2.0 cards in all my retro machines, I find the performance hit of just having those cards in there to be too much.

Have you benchmarked anything on that machine with and without the usb 2 card?

Heh yeah, there's a reason I made the effort to figure out the onboard header - USB mouse was unusably hitchy when plugged into the 2.0 card. Pretty much just have the card in there now to facilitate file transfers. Wondering if it affects the system when nothing is plugged in to it? I'll run some benchmarks later when I get a chance.

zuldan wrote on 2025-05-17, 05:08:

ubiq wrote on 2025-05-17, 03:51:

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long! […]
Show full quote

Been away from my retro 'puters for too long!

Had my Gigabyte GA-6BA on the bench in order to figure out the undocumented pinouts of the ps/2 mouse and (non-standard) USB headers. Had to fix a previous misadventure that I'd forgotten about: 🫣

The attachment IMG_2458.jpeg is no longer available

All good now though, and the USB header was pretty easy (just had to reverse the pins on one row):

The attachment IMG_2462.jpeg is no longer available

Back in the case, and I think I'm tapped out on how much I can cram into one wee AT box:

The attachment IMG_2463.jpeg is no longer available

Celeron Tualatin 1400 MHz, 512 MB ram, GeForce3 Ti 200, SBLive, USB 2.0 card, SATA controller, 40GB IDE HD, 2TB SATA HD, DVD-RW drive, GoTek floppy, and front panel USB 2.0 😀

Very nice machine, it's a beast!

With those old cases they never have an exhaust fan to take the hot air out. I highly recommend one of these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32801157180.html. I use them in all my retro machines.

Thanks - I think I will look in to getting one of those. As you can see I put a fan at the front of the case, but I'm fully aware it's mostly just making me feel better about things since the air has nowhere to go. And since AT cases like these predate having bottom-facing PSU fans, it could doubly use some help!

For what it's worth, I did as much period-incorrect cable management as I could, trying to avoid the usual AT case rat's nest and give the airflow a chance. 😀

Thermalwrong wrote on 2025-05-15, 17:46:

Brilliant 😀 The hard drive didn't give any trouble?
Is the floppy direct drive or a belt driven one? It seems to be more common for some brands to use belt-driven drives than others. My mono-screen Cx486SLC2 equipped veridata laptop used a direct-drive floppy drive while all other laptops I've seen from the era used belt-driven and needed servicing.

Yes, hard drive looks OK, need to check for the bad sectors anyway. This floppy didn't use a belt but has a leaky capacitors on a motor board. I have already one in Cordata 386 laptop that still need to be repaired. Probably this one need a service too.
Wipe everything on a disk and performing a clean installation. Will do some tests too.

pete8475 wrote on 2025-05-17, 06:06:

I've given up on putting usb 2.0 cards in all my retro machines, I find the performance hit of just having those cards in there to be too much.

The one that I use - NEC chipset I think - in my socket 7 machine only has a performance impact when a USB device is connected. Otherwise it appears to have zero impact based on some benchmarking I did to check, because I know these can be problematic.

Still messing around with my Albatron KX400. I decided to try my 9800 SE in the system. But it didn't want to POST, so I pulled it back out and cleaned the contacts. Then it worked! But I had also tried a Radeon 9600 and an X1650 Pro in this system, so the drivers were a mess, and it kept rebooting before I could do anything. So I had to reboot in VGA mode to uninstall all ATI drivers. But them I couldn't install the Omega drives for the card because the USB drive now wasn't working? After much fooling around there, I tried disabling USB 2.0 in the CMOS settings and that finally did the trick. Once I got the video card drivers installed, I was able to again enable USB 2.0 in CMOS, and the USB drive then worked normally again. The CPU I'm using is a Sempron 3000 (a renamed 3200+), but with this card in this system I have to leave it slightly underclocked at 2167 MHz since the AGP bus ends up at 78 MHz with the FSB set to 197; any higher and the video card gives out in 3D 2001.

badmojo wrote on 2025-05-17, 22:26:

pete8475 wrote on 2025-05-17, 06:06:

I've given up on putting usb 2.0 cards in all my retro machines, I find the performance hit of just having those cards in there to be too much.

The one that I use - NEC chipset I think - in my socket 7 machine only has a performance impact when a USB device is connected. Otherwise it appears to have zero impact based on some benchmarking I did to check, because I know these can be problematic.

Please post the model number of the card or a pic because I'll buy about 10 of those right now if that's the case.

EDIT - for those curious badmojo got back to me via PM and the card is a Belkin F5U219. I've now ordered several on ebay. 🤣

dr_st wrote on 2025-05-17, 10:01:

I'm struggling with nVidia driver stability on my QX9650/EP45/GTX660/Win7 rig. Keep getting BSODs at random times, both while ga […]
Show full quote

I'm struggling with nVidia driver stability on my QX9650/EP45/GTX660/Win7 rig. Keep getting BSODs at random times, both while gaming and also during desktop as well.
Not willing to come to terms with the likely explanation that either the board, or the GPU, or both, are bad - currently experimenting with random driver versions.

Here's a picture of the GPU just because it's cute:

gigabyte boards of this era are pretty reliable so i'd rule that out, i had a Q9450\G31M\4GB DDR2 800MHZ\GT640\WIN7, i had the issues you mentioned when overclocking, and it was down to the ram, when overclocking the ram was set to auto so it would increase with the cpu, it was generic 800mhz ddr2 and it didnt like going much above 800mhz also they werent matching sticks, i had to set the ram to one of the options in the bios that lowered it to 667mhz which sorted the problem.

Today inside some moving boxes that haven't been touched for 15 years, I found a full Device Manager "Resource Summary Report" for our original family PC. I've been trying to find out about this bloody thing for 2 years now.

There's a lot of red herrings here, i.e. this will always list "Pentium" as the processor type - even with W95 OSR2.5 and a Cyrix CPU. The only things variable in the first section are "Windows Version" (Windows 95 in this case) and all the BIOS fields - now these are the most interesting. The "BIOS Name: IBM" is an anomaly...I replicated this report in 86box on a couple systems and even 95 RTM can distinguish Award and American Megatrends. So what is this "IBM" BIOS? What does "ZA S T 1.06"? stand for? If anyone could help me on that or literally anything seemingly insignificant crumb of information you can glean from it, I'd greatly appreciate it.