What retro activity did you get up to today?

[shyember]

My Acu-MOS AVGA2 card arrived, so I was able to test my Dolch 386-P.A.C.

It boots! But it doesn't find the hard drive, even when I enter the parameters for it.

The motherboard battery (a Dallas unit) is quite dead, but it has an external battery header, so I can hook up a few AA batteries to it via an adapter.

It's a 386SX-16 with 387 FPU and 4 MB of RAM. Since it runs, I ordered some parts for it: a 512MB disk-on-module, Dos 6 on 5.25" floppies, and an ESS-1869 soundcard.

Looking forward to discovering just how pathetic this little cacheless, 16-bit-bus 386 really is.

I'll need to replace the fan in the power supply if I'm going to be running this for extended periods of time, but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

[shamino]

It's a 386SX-16 with 387 FPU and 4 MB of RAM. Since it runs, I ordered some parts for it: a 512MB disk-on-module, Dos 6 on 5.25" floppies, and an ESS-1869 soundcard.

Looking forward to discovering just how pathetic this little cacheless, 16-bit-bus 386 really is.

Those CPU and RAM specs are exactly like the computer I had in the early 90s.
I dare you to play Ultima 7 on it.

[luckybob]

So I got the 1024k Sram chips today. Intending to drop them into my IBM eduquest 55.



Yea, I completely forget to even CHECK if the eduquest will take 32 pin srams. SPOILER ALERT: It doesn't

Icing on the cake, I have 2 other 496 boards that I know can fit 32-pin srams. 1 has fake cache in the bios i can't turn off and can't reprogram said bios, the 2nd board is from daewoo and has Z-E-R-O info on the internet about jumper settings. So I can't even check these things to see if they are fake.

[bjwil1991]

Last night, I swapped the loud and boisterous 6GB Maxtor HDD that was pulled from a PowerMac G3/400 in my K6-2/300 machine with a silent 4.6GB Fujitsu 2.5" laptop HDD with the 2.5" to 3.5" bay adapter. Created the new partition, formatted the drive, installed Windows 95C, drivers for my Ethernet card (2 resource conflicts, but I did fix that) and VooDoo3 3000 PCI card, Internet Explorer 4.0, Plus! 95, and USB drivers (yes, Windows 95C does support USB). Going to install the Bus drivers after acquiring the motherboard drivers from the Internet (Abit AB-TX5).

[TheAbandonwareGuy]

Currently upgrading my Xbox 1.1 to a 160GB WD with 8MB cache from a 60GB Maxtor with no cache.

[bjwil1991]

I upgraded my Xbox Original v1.6b 's HDD from the 10GB Seagate that died unexpectedly, as well as the PSU (replaced the PSU with a new one) to an 80GB Maxtor HDD after obtaining the EEPROM reader (serial) cable on eBay to obtain the passcode for the HDD. Still lives for a 12-year old system. Going to take my systems out of storage and hook them up in my room sometime (SNES, PS1, N64, Xbox Original, GameCube) to my 19" monitor using the DVD Recorder as the main rig for hooking up the systems.

[sketchus]

Not quite on a PC, but I spent the day cleaning out an original Xbox that had capacitor leakage EVERWHERE. Works properly now, I'm still impressed Half Life 2 could run on the ol' beast!

Half Life 2 barely ran on Xbox to begin with. It was considered the laggiest game on Xbox.

Sure, but if you had no way else to play it it was good! I was playing some more today, pretty funny to look up and see the framerate massively increase.

[dionb]

Was listening to audio from my Aztech Sound Galaxy Pro 16 II (AZT2316A) sound card yesterday evening. I was spoiled back in the '90s as I went straight from PC speaker to GUS MAX. Hearing proper SB-compatible FM for essentially the first time was somewhat... underwhelming. So today I was reading up on Roland MT-32 and SC-55, looking at what was available and at prices - high prices. Then I realized we have an electric piano in the same room as my retro stuff, and that it's a Roland FP-7 with general MIDI support. So I just ordered a DB15 to DIN MIDI cable. With a bit of luck it should sound just like an SC-55.

[bjwil1991]

I have the Sound Galaxy NX Pro, and with integrated Covox Speech Thing and Disney Sound Source really is amazing, as well as SB Pro compatible with the genuine Yamaha YMF-262M (OPL3) chip, it's amazing at what that card can do. Had the card for 2 years, repaired the solder points by jumping wires from one spot to the next, and it still sounds amazing. I might test the MPU-401 with my K6-2/300 system and see if the card can handle the MPU-401 with the sound card's Gameport, in MS-DOS, that is.

[brostenen]

Yup... I had a Sound Galaxy like that, back in 93/94. It was a wonderfull card, yet it died on me after 2 years of use.
It had all the bells and whistles that creative did not offer. Yet I bought a SB16-Value instead, when it died.

[DaveJustDave]

made me an adlib!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVdZTNWG4Y0

[bjwil1991]

Yup... I had a Sound Galaxy like that, back in 93/94. It was a wonderfull card, yet it died on me after 2 years of use.
It had all the bells and whistles that creative did not offer. Yet I bought a SB16-Value instead, when it died.

Probably the capacitors or overload. I lost a Sound Blaster 16 WavEffects CT4170 when the ISA slots shorted somehow. But, I did get one off of eBay, though. My Sound Galaxy still works, and I can honestly say, it's better than the Sound Blaster cards that have the hanging note bug, or the CQM synthesizer. Genuine OPL3 or CT1747 bus with the OPL3 integrated is music to my ears.

[derSammler]

My Sound Galaxy still works, and I can honestly say, it's better than the Sound Blaster cards that have the hanging note bug

How's that relevant? The Sound Galaxy NX Pro has no MPU-401 interface anyway.

[oeuvre]

Recorded the Intellistation booting up http://k003.kiwi6.com/hotlink/fccqxmkap4/SCSIDRV.mp3

[Jed118]

So I got the 1024k Sram chips today. Intending to drop them into my IBM eduquest 55.



Yea, I completely forget to even CHECK if the eduquest will take 32 pin srams. SPOILER ALERT: It doesn't

Icing on the cake, I have 2 other 496 boards that I know can fit 32-pin srams. 1 has fake cache in the bios i can't turn off and can't reprogram said bios, the 2nd board is from daewoo and has Z-E-R-O info on the internet about jumper settings. So I can't even check these things to see if they are fake.

What's the model number on the Daewoo board? I'll ask my wife to NAVER it (she's Korean) maybe we can find something.

PM me the answer in case I don't check back here.

[Jed118]

made me an adlib!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVdZTNWG4Y0

I am super interested. How can I get my hands on the PCB? Everything else I can likely source with relative ease.

[kaputnik]

Currently upgrading my Xbox 1.1 to a 160GB WD with 8MB cache from a 60GB Maxtor with no cache.

Early Xboxes has an aerogel cap instead of a CMOS battery, that tends to fail and start leaking. You can simply remove it without replacing it, and you should before it's too late, if you haven't done so already

Also, have you looked into VGA modding the Xbox? The BIOS chip in 1.1's is 1 MB. You can "split" it to hold 2x512kB or 4x256kB BIOS images. Got my Xbox 1.0 setup for dual BIOSes, keeping Frostythesnowman's X2_5035_VGA_67 BIOS in one half, and a regular M8 one in the other. Image quality in VGA mode is fantastic - see the attachment - and haven't found any games/apps it won't work as supposed with so far.

Another thing that might be good to know if you ever need more storage space, is that the XBox works perfectly with those cheap SATA-IDE-adapters from Ebay. Got a 500MB SATA drive hooked up in my 1.0 box, and it works with drives up to 2TB if I remember it right.

[CkRtech]

Also, have you looked into VGA modding the Xbox?

Man. Reading all this original Xbox talk has me wanting to dive back into mine and maybe even get away with a thread on vogons (if possible).

That VGA mod sounds appealing. I last did a mod in... 2005? Xecuter 2 chip. I have noticed that quite a few alternative methods and various "other things" have come about over the last 13 years, but I am overall in the dark compared to 2005.

[DaveJustDave]

in the video description i linked to a video which details how it's put together. Contact the owner of that channel, he should have some extra boards.

made me an adlib!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVdZTNWG4Y0

I am super interested. How can I get my hands on the PCB? Everything else I can likely source with relative ease.

[KCompRoom2000]

Currently upgrading my Xbox 1.1 to a 160GB WD with 8MB cache from a 60GB Maxtor with no cache.

Early Xboxes has an aerogel cap instead of a CMOS battery, that tends to fail and start leaking. You can simply remove it without replacing it, and you should before it's too late, if you haven't done so already

Good thing I looked this up, I've removed the aerogel CMOS capacitor from my original XBOX just now, thank god it hasn't leaked. Once I find another XBOX at a thrift store or something, I'll dive into the wonderful world of softmodding and hard drive replacement, I don't want to risk messing up my only XBOX any further just in case.