Re: Old hardware is ridiculously durable

Posted on 2011-07-22, 23:12

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Many, MANY decades. No matter what we'd like, and no matter how well something was made, the caps are going to dry out. I don't mean to discourage, but rather to point it out. If you plan to really keep this kit going, you should look into getting skilled at capacitor replacement. It varies heavily …

---

Re: Old hardware is ridiculously durable

Posted on 2011-07-21, 00:12

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Worst I have ever seen was a 386 from a local ocean biology lab. It had spent years as an unloved floor box, then relegated to the back corner where they tossed their gear after gutting dead mammals on the beach. I got it circa 2002. It was carpetted with 'dust' felt everywhere inside, and reeked. I …

---

Re: Which soundcard on which systems?

Posted on 2011-07-16, 03:38

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

VileRancour - Yes, that's what I was thinking of by "tailoring". Thank you. IBM set the standard, but their machines were rare at home. Instead we had that mishmash of early clones. Hence I'm kinda curious what software designers thought an average pc-speaker's sound was, and how close that worked …

---

Re: Which soundcard on which systems?

Posted on 2011-07-14, 07:57

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank you so much. Love the liquid tone on Monkey Island. In the brief period where game makers are tailoring sounds for the speaker, they had to have had an 'average' target defined. I'd be interesting to know how they derived it, how representational it really was, and of course what it was.

---

Re: Which soundcard on which systems?

Posted on 2011-07-14, 05:21

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

>just this piezo speaker that most of us know Ah. Got it. Difference of perspective. I was thinking you'd have a variety of experience with the AT era PC-speakers. Man, that peizo's just impossible. Makes putting the signal through a card necessary quite regardless of other advantages.

---

Re: Which soundcard on which systems?

Posted on 2011-07-14, 02:31

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh, actually both of these have true paper & tin speakers as The Creator meant AT computers to have. They even match, originating from identical spec 486's. Just the boards have moved on. So you've found most AT boards put out pretty much the same game sound through PC speakers, just different …

---

Re: Which soundcard on which systems?

Posted on 2011-07-13, 23:09

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

YES! :lol: Quick side question - is there a resource or thread discussing the variation in PC-speaker sound? Like right now with my zombie pair, the p5tx does polite a 'bip' for the DOS disk prompts during install. The ppro does a really loud full beep that rivals the smoke alarm. Then the ppro is …

---

Re: ATX-case for full-AT mobo

Posted on 2011-07-11, 22:38

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just looked up several 8 slot ATX, and none have punchouts for D-SUB. If you're going to need to do tinwork regardless, it may make as much sense to get a more common 7 slot with punchouts and add the 8th slot. Do you have a favorite style or brand of case already, Jakodemus? (Edit: wrong name)

---

Re: BIOS HDD detect gone bad

Posted on 2011-07-11, 04:56

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How embarrassing. I didn't have these two old WD Caviar drives jumpered correctly for Solo. 6 pins, labeled MA, SL, CS. So like a git I presumed MA for Solo, because that's what I've gotten used to with my modern drives. But after looking it up online, Solo for these is no jumper. And despite being …

---

Re: ATX-case for full-AT mobo

Posted on 2011-07-10, 10:50

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

YMMV - 3 of my 4 ATX cases have multiple D-SUB cutouts. 4th has only one large cutout.

---

Re: Best Linux for 386 class machine.

Posted on 2011-07-10, 10:41

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ah. Yeah, good call. "Dependency Hell" is just words till you experience it.

---

Re: BIOS HDD detect gone bad

Posted on 2011-07-10, 10:35

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Um, could you bring me up to speed on this one? Granted I can set the drive parameters to perhaps fix the symptom, but if Auto is being suddenly flaky shouldn't I be concerned that more is wrong? I'm afraid I don't know how BIOS/CMOS works, so I'm seeing this as indicating a crumbling foundation. Is …

---

BIOS HDD detect gone bad - SOLVED

Posted on 2011-07-10, 02:40

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My reliable old P3 has gone funky. For more than half the boots the BIOS doesn't detect the hdd. I've swapped drives, cables, and switched between primary and secondary IDE. Drives are set up as simple solo master. ASUS P3B-F rev1.03 WD Caviar 700 and 640MB Drives were DBAN'd and tested a year ago. …

---

Re: Best Linux for 386 class machine.

Posted on 2011-07-10, 02:21

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Any luck, sliderider? >without cutting out a lot of features What kind of features? Last time I tried to find a supported Linux for 486, things were grim. BIOS too old, and vanished driver support, particularly ISA ethernet. These days even on P1 I use obsolete distros. (Knoppix 3.1 most often. …

---

Re: ATX-case for full-AT mobo

Posted on 2011-07-10, 00:41

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would worry that the nuts might loosen over time if one is in the habit of removing the motherboard frequently. That said, it wouldn't be a big deal to tighten them again. As for EMI, I've found systems are pretty tolerant. I've had a fair number of windowed systems and that's an open side panel …

---

Re: Which Windows 3?

Posted on 2011-07-09, 06:08

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tetrium wrote: I remember years ago I had such an issue with the CDROM drive. Windows 98 installed using CDROM just fine, but after I reached the desktop the CDROM drive was gone?!?!? Perhaps it uses the boot floppy's driver until the first restart.

---

Re: Which Windows 3?

Posted on 2011-07-09, 04:36

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

win.com is the big check I think so too, but there's more to it. Have been experimenting. Tested win.com on a floppy from five sources. - win.com as an new, empty file. - win.com as the renamed WIN.CN_ from WFWG3.11 setup files - win.com as the renamed win.cnf from W95 Upgrade CD - win.com as the …

---

Re: ATX-case for full-AT mobo

Posted on 2011-07-09, 01:03

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This post makes me wish I had a set of metric taps :happyhappy:. ... The backplate won't line up, but one has to make a custom one or leave that open any ways - What do you need to tap that can't be done with a hole and nut? - Probably shouldn't leave it entirely open; you want shielding. But …

---

Re: ATX-case for full-AT mobo

Posted on 2011-07-08, 22:39

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

then don't use the plastic standoffs . An AT board can be attached with metal standoffs and screws just the same as an ATX board. ...However, keep in mind that no ATX case is going to be perfect... AT boards are 8 slot, ATX cases only have 7, so you'll lose use of the top expansion slot. Possible …

---

Re: Which Windows 3?

Posted on 2011-07-08, 01:58

by

by pewpewpew

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Upgrade is the same as full except IIRC it checks for one or two files from the older OS. Been a decade since I did it tho so my memory is fuzzy. I remember keeping the files on a floppy so I could point to them and still do a clean install with my upgrade disk. Awesome. So it's really just a file …

---