Random, but I find it satisfying to have just the right thing when doing a job. In this case:

For Distribution ONLY with a new COMPAQ. Good stuff.

It's still installing. I think I'm on the final reboot.

I've just realized another interesting thing about this Compaq: the power supply. It has +5VSB. It's pretty much ATX but with the AT P8/P9. My Deskpro is weird like this as well, but it doesn't have this strange green one. I checked them and they are all 3.3V

The Compaq passes and will now be added to the collection. I spent the rest of the day playing on it yesterday and it worked perfectly. Even ran the VCR through it and it works good.

This last "issue" is actually a "sh*tty disc" problem. EVERY computer I've ever tried to install ROTT DW on, it does this. I can copy the game off the disc and play it, but the installer is corrupt.

Now, I'm pulling apart a few computers to correct some issues. I jumbled together a computer with ASUS P5QPL-AM and P4 650 and it needs work. It will randomly slow down to the point where I would normally expect a blue-screen, but it troops through it and returns to normal. More frequent in CPU intensive areas. NOT do-able, so I'm going to try replacing/upgrading the CPU to either Core2Duo E6750 or Core2Quad Q6600. Not sure how I want to do it yet, but I think I'm leaning towards the Duo, since I only really need single core performance on that machine.

THIS issue was brought to you by this OTHER issue. My P5N-D computer "DiskWizard 2" crashed while gaming a while back and crashes randomly now. I know it's the motherboard, because it's been on it's last leg for YEARS and it just keeps trooping along. The Pentium D 960 is running at 4.2, so that's probably not helping, but this thing was always doggy and slow without an overclock. The P5QPL was supposed to be the back-up!

What I'm going to do, is steal the GPU out of "DW2" and put it into the P5QPL system along with the CPU upgrade. The P5QPL is running a XFX 9800GT that WAS on ITS last leg, too, but seems to be working normally after I upgraded the cooler, as a test. Since the chipset is actually "modern" I can pair the C2D or C2Q with the GTX 460 and have a decent match. The P4 was indeed a hard bottleneck.

The upgrade to the P5QPL went smoothly. I decided to go with the Core2Duo(E6750).

Started right up after the BIOS was done reconfiguring. I did "de-tune" the memory, so I could have 1:1 DRAM/FSB ratio. The difference in latency was nil between 667 and 800. I tightened the timings a little, too; 4-4-4-12. Got 5ns faster. I feel like I should be able to do better, but this is good.

I had to install windows XPx64, since I had 32-bit on it. Pretty much unnecessary, but I wanted to properly gauge performance vs. the AMD counter-part it will be playing with/against and didn't want the OS to be a variable.

I was gaming for hours and it didn't do "the thing" once. It's not belching out hell's inferno, either. The GPU is hot, but it was doing that already; normal. Ready for LAN party again!

Wow, so I decided to race these two real quick, since they're both plugged in. VISUALLY 3dmark 2001 took almost the same amount of time. Maybe 5 seconds off. I was expecting the faster computer to go faster, but it was essentially the SAME. The "FPS" readout on the AMD was almost double the other the whole time. Probably going to try racing 03 and 05 next.

I ran 2003 and it was pretty much like 2001. Both ran different speeds, but the tests were about the same.
The AMD scored 73381 and the C2D got 47652. I'm guessing this is mostly a difference in GPUs.

And now I ran 3Dmark2005 and woah! Such excitement! The AMD started off good, a few seconds lead with a quicker load time. They also went about the same until it got to the CPU test. The Core2Duo left the AMD in the dust! It was clearly going faster. The Intel finished first with a 21 second lead!

Nice scores!

I decided to benchmark my ZEOS today and had a few problems.

I just wanted to run SpeedSys and get scores for turbo ON and turbo OFF. It slows it down so hard, I'd like to see the numbers on that. It can "run" duke3d and quake with turbo ON, 🤣 Pretty hilarious turning it OFF while duke is running.

First issue, was needing to bypass my config.sys/autoexec.bat. I think this was the least of my problems...

When I opened speedsys, it reminded me and then crashed anyway. I tried it again, but it crashed again, and then gave me some of THIS sh*t...

Why does it have to give me such guff?! What happened to my memory?! I powered off and back on and it was normal again. I tried opening speedsys again, and it got hung in loading speedsys: "Determining System Contents... ATA/ATAPI device 0 at port 01f0". Ctrl+Alt+Del was dead, Reset is good.

I tried a few different things, but it kept getting stuck there. I disabled the HDD in the BIOS, as I don't really want to open it right now. This time, it actually opened and started running. Did the non-turbo test first and it took a very long time...

Only about 7 minutes with turbo. Probably 20+ without...

Interesting that the HDD is shown is speedsys still. Not sure why the drive causes it to lock-up. I was checking everything and it runs just fine.

🤣 I booted my work computer from floppy and ran speedsys after I changed the .pcx to .png. Astounding, 🤣

In other news, I went back to the ZEOS to enable the HDD and it consistently gives me the memory error and POSTs no memory. Booo. I'll open it, it suppose. It has two different sets of four in it now.

I'll try reseating them. I have a few sticks that need testing, too, so I can do that, since this is my only computer that takes 30-pin SIMMs

I opened the ZEOS and turned it on and it did absolutely nothing. I pulled all the memory out and powered it on to more nothing. Not even a beep. I tried the memory I had laying around and it beeped to life again. It just gave me this warning:

The amount of memory has to be set in the BIOS:

Luckily, during the memory check, it counts the memory that is installed, so I just put that in and it was fine again.

This time it ran SpeedSys just fine. Same result. Loading DOS seems a bit faster, though.

If I can find four more of the 4MB modules, I could have a whopping 32MB. I've been wanting to try upgrading the CPU, but it's fun just being a slowpoke. Testing these CPUs, though, would be nice. They all probably work.

My concern is if I would have to take the co-processor out. Would these faster CPUs even need the co-processor, or would that still help? I should run speedsys without it, see if it's even doing anything in that department.

I want to get the RTC module I modified out of the danger zone and back to it's board. It's a DS1220Y-200 and has another chip under it that I needed to bore into to grab the correct leg to replace the battery.

Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-05-22, 01:22:

The attachment Screenshot 2025-05-21 200426.png is no longer available

The attachment Screenshot 2025-05-21 200412.png is no longer available

Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-05-22, 23:21:

The attachment 20250522_181016.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20250522_181112.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20250522_181028.jpg is no longer available

Now I got the changer apart, and its pretty cool. The back came off and the board was in a slot with card-edge connectors. I'm glad it was so easy. This thing looks like a nightmare to take apart, SO many different screws.

I'll try testing it later, after it's all cleaned and reassembled.

I acquired a 486 board today, in the box. It was "tested" as bad. Yay, a broken board, finally (or so I thought...)

I first removed the battery and replaced it. I wasn't going to leave that battery for even a second longer.

I went to test it and it was very much alive and beeping. Memory beeps. Video beeps, sometime no beeps and nothing.

Not surprising, since the stick in it looked like this:

I got a few sticks working in it and it booted right up!
I was able to boot DOS on a floppy and run speedsys and got 8.67. Something going on, because that seems pretty low for 66Mhz...(didn't save result, crashed after removing turbo jumper).

I'm going to clean the board since all that problems it keeps having are intermittent and go away when I plug/replug VGA/memory. Very much symptoms of dirty board (even though it looks pretty clean)

I cleaned the board and added the RAM and ISA video card and powered it up. It POST'd normally and failed floppy. I added a card with a floppy header, so I could try booting. Booted just fine.

Huzzah! It seems to work just fine after a cleaning. I tried plugging in my ST1280 to the Seagate controller, but showed me a very unusual prompt about no installer software on the drive and wanted to format. I told it NO, powered off, and grabbed good ol' 1542CF, installed THAT and it booted (after I reconfigured, it wasn't set to boot device).

During one of the reboots, I switched in my Trident TGUI9400CXi VLB and tested that. Hell yeah, it works!

I haven't ran a lot on it yet, but what I have opened, works just fine. I wanted to start a fresh DOS drive for the thing, but I don't have the proper drive(s). My IDE drives are too large and confused it. Smallest I have is 1.6G right now and that was too large. System just locks up at POST, but responds to "del".

If I grab a CD drive, I can load some more stuff on the Seagate, or even use my SyQuest drive (which I previously loaded with games) since I'm using the SCSI controller and the Seagate is already set-up for it.

It has an error when loading SpeedSys and only runs the CPU test. Sounds like there is not enough memory. Could be the DOS 7.1, too.

Also, it seems to be happy with the 2032 battery. Something else to note, there is no Multi I/O controller or ANYTHING on this board. Nothing but unknown jumpers. Can't find any information about this board. The closest thing I've found is here:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/matra-486slc2-vesa

I'll have to box this back up for a bit, though, because I have a sh*tbox to work on and a mystery machine that needs re-organizing (and cleaning). When the table is clear, I want to try running Doom.

I'll try to deal with these quickly, so I don't change generations again again. The first is another Micron Millenia Pentium computer.

THIS one says it doesn't work, as well. Will it work?

I started with gutting it and giving the board a good wash.

Same Micronics M54Hi, but this one has BIOS version 10PM, the other one I have is 09PM. The socket for the BIOS was also damaged already when I removed it for cleaning. It had a single 16M stick of memory and a P150, with an unusual-looking top (at least, compared to the other ones I've been handling lately). It had a screw-type cooler with a fan on it. I will use a passive cooler for the testing.

Nothing else in the Case. Case is in good condition, but I'll chuck it if the board is bad. Probably rebuild it if it's O.K.
Time to test!

Aaaaaaand, damn it. I have to get the case from the garage, 🤣 That's a tomorrow problem.

Here's my scrap collection, some unprocessed cases, too. As long as it's not in the way, I don't toss anything until the very last second. They just sit around, looking like some kind of retro graveyard.

The board POST'd first try and wanted some CMOS settings.

I'll rebuild this thing later, I want to clean and test the next one, then get back to slow-town.

I already have that apart, but not clean yet.

MMkay, We have PCChips M848A, single 512M stick of DDR400. Hmm, this is a PCI video card, a TNT2 16M...

And hiding under this heatsink we have THIS guy:

Got another 1Ghz Thunderbird!! Totally made my day.

But... I wiped the heatsink and was disappointed with the results, so I scratched harder:

I think I'll put it aside, for when I work on the other 462 boards. I'll just get it all cleaned for now.

I had no idea what was hiding in this one! So fun!

Duuuude! What the f%^?! I was getting ready to power on that 486 board again. I'm shook. I was going to try testing one of the WDPFCARD cards, since I had the screen in the room, too. I plugged the monitor in and was working on plugging the drives when I powered it on to check a fan, heard the drive spin up, like whoops, BUT what the HECK! The screen powered on and the motherboard was POSTing!! It's getting all it's power through that interface?!? So cool.

So for my testing, I 'm using this "WDFPCARD" which has Western Digital WD90C24LC-ZZ with 1MB memory for video. The card is also a multi I/O card, which is perfect for a bare board like this one. There appears to be a VGA hearer on the board as well. The video output is going through a proprietary SCSI cable to the monitor(regular cables don't work). The problem, is I haven't been able to find any information on the card, so I'm not sure what can be set. I have three of these cards, three screens, but only two cables...

I have a floppy power plugged into the back of the "WDFPTERM" (the screen) and nothing happens if it is plugged into any of the other plugs (it has 3xfloppy headers and a molex, unsure of anything). Somehow the motherboard gets its power through the 5V going into the monitor, through that cable.

I blasted through keen1 before loading the CD and copying some more stuff over. I started with DOOM and got this fun message:

Doom Aborted!! Noooo, 🤣 I have four more megabytes of RAM, but it's mismatched, which is what was causing problems in my ZEOS and it is no different here. I tried them, but it was crashing over every little thing. Some times it would make it do DOS, but crash in a few minutes, even just sitting at the prompt. Removing them returned normal functionality.
I'll bypass autoexec/config and just run unisound for the ESS 1869F then open Doom. I added the sound card when I opened keen4 to test the sound and there was none. Because there was no sound card... 🤣

I finally opened Doom and it ran, just a bit small. Sound was good, so I played mostly through the first episode before wondering why I was doing this to myself, 🤣

Very authentic, I feel. I had Pentium or better since I first found Doom and never had an issue running it. Until I got my ZEOS. Now I get to see it AGAIN! The ZEOS is definitely faster than this thing, because I can at least DOOM in fullscreen, 🤣

Holy sh*t!! I was playing Cosmo2 when "POP" and sparks shot across my desk and I immediately turned off AC. Tant blew up on the WDFPCARD

I put another WDFPCARD in and it started just fine, booted and worked just as it was. I'll swap back to the Trident again for now, don't want to use the WD card until I get all the tants replaced.

That was my first exploding tant. Scared the sh*t out of me. Thing was loud! And because it was more or less pointed right at me, I got to see the fireworks.