Re: Slot 1 Pentium III 1000MHz registry loop issue in Windows 98SE

Posted on 2022-05-07, 18:54

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Something else to keep in mind, Win9x had a bug on "high speed" processors (approximately faster than about 700MHz IIRC) where the shutdown process would run so fast, it would actually power off the system before the hard drive can finish flushing its cache to disk. The most common symptom of this …

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Re: Green thinking still companies change computers every 3 years.

Posted on 2020-02-19, 15:13

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In our case, at least some of the computers do get left on at night on a rotating basis, because nighttime is when they are scheduled to perform incremental backups to an off-site server. This was scheduled to happen at night to limit impact on our internet connection during business hours, because …

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Re: Green thinking still companies change computers every 3 years.

Posted on 2020-02-19, 05:22

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The business I work for just finished a mass computer replacement project. All of the old computers were seven year old Ivy Bridge systems, most of them still running Windows 7 (EOL for Win7 is part of what prompted this replacement...ironically, the at-the-time impending EOL for WinXP is also what …

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Re: Victor V286P - clone of what?

Posted on 2019-12-08, 19:28

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Even if it is an attempt at a clone of the T3100, it's definitely not assembled the same way (The T3100 does not have a 16-bit ISA slot, as this system does). A closer analogy might be a Toshiba T3200, which DOES have an ISA slot (two, actually). But, the construction would still be different …

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Re: Old software you miss the most

Posted on 2019-12-08, 19:07

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Our first real family computer (i.e. the one that got us on the internet) had a Reveal SC500 sound card, and the drivers disk came with some audio applications written by a company called Voyetra. The two I used the most were WinDAT (WAV player/recorder/editor) and MIDI Orchestrator (MIDI recorder/ …

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Re: Idea for optical scanner paper floppy disk format/linux

Posted on 2019-11-13, 22:56

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Something kinda like this already exists as a means of "backing up files to paper", I remember reading about it a few years ago. https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/134427-a-paper-based-backup-solution-not-as-stupid-as-it-sounds It has a very limited capacity though. At 600DPI on a laser printer, …

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Re: Fastest rig you have running winxp 32bit

Posted on 2019-11-09, 14:59

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm probably the only one here who doesn't feel a desire or need to push XP to the absolute bleeding edge, primarily because I've never really been big on PC gaming (Doom 2 on my PMMX 200 laptop & Minecraft on my current daily driver make up the majority of my PC gaming history). Not to say I won't …

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Re: Early 2000s tat-off: let's see your colored translucent plastic things

Posted on 2019-10-02, 07:52

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

EDIT: But actually when I was a 90's kid I had a phone in my room that was transparent: https://preview.redd.it/vj8z5gz651q11.jpg?auto=webp&s=ea75b0bc0c57405ecf7dfb8270548225b91617b0 My father had this exact same model of phone in his workshop for many years. It eventually stopped working. Back in …

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Re: Very compact retro PCs?

Posted on 2019-09-28, 18:11

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The most compact computer I personally own that still has desktop-style expansion slots would be my Toshiba T5200 luggable from the early 90s. Clamshell style, so kinda like a laptop, but has no built-in battery. It's got two ISA slots in the back, one 16-bit and one 8-bit. It's only a 386 system …

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Re: What are the weirdest pieces of retro hardware you owned?

Posted on 2019-09-13, 17:27

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Perhaps the weirdest piece of retro hardware I own, at least in regards to form factor, would be my Amstrad PPC640 portable computer. It's just a really weird shape overall...a big gray slab of a thing with a tiny and horrible LCD screen, dual 3.5in floppy drives and a full-size keyboard that folds …

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Re: 486 refuses to boot from any media

Posted on 2019-08-01, 17:04

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you verified that the cache settings are correct in the BIOS or jumpers? Also might be worth checking that the cache (if there are any) is even real, since Elitegroup AKA ECS is/was a subsidiary of PC Chips, which was notorious for releasing scammy ultra-cheap 486 motherboards with fake cache. …

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Re: Lowest CPU to play MP3s?

Posted on 2019-07-23, 21:12

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been able to use a version of MPXPlay optimized specifically for the 486 to play MP3s on my 486DX4-100. I do have to disable "HQ mode" for it to work (I presume this limits it to 22kHz mono) but beyond that it seems to work fairly well, even with high-bitrate 320kbps MP3 files. The CPU is …

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Re: What's the nastiest thing you caught from a retro PC/Part?

Posted on 2019-06-28, 17:08

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I went to get an old printer out of storage many years ago, and when I picked it up a bunch of bird seed started falling out. Best I could figure is a mouse had been using it as a pantry. :lol: The bird seed part is more weird than nasty, but if a mouse had been crawling around inside there, I …

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Re: KVM Switches

Posted on 2019-06-14, 17:27

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a couple different KVMs. Neither of them have audio, but so far I've really not had any need for a KVM with audio. On my vintage computer desk, I have an old four-port Aten CS-104 that has PS/2 and AT for the keyboard, plus PS/2 and serial for the mouse. I got it from the computer recycling …

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Re: USB Transfer Cable that shows up as a Mass Storage Device on Windows 98 / ME

Posted on 2019-06-03, 21:45

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Even if a cable that worked exactly like this existed (not saying they don't, rather that all of the ones I'm aware of required special software on both ends), you would still require a monitor, keyboard and mouse on the WinME machine in order to do the actual file copying. None of the USB data …

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Re: Inner Workings of the PC Market in 1998/1999

Posted on 2019-05-31, 20:07

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As already mentioned, online PC parts stores did exist, although they were not yet the large go-to websites that they are now. My first self-built system didn't come until 2002, so I was a little late to the game. I primarily used PriceWatch to find the lowest possible prices, so I ended up ordering …

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Re: naksha - strange mouse

Posted on 2019-05-30, 15:02

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Amiga and PC mice are not compatible. Depending on which pins are used for power, connecting the wrong mouse to the wrong computer would at best mean it simply doesn't work, or at worst damage the mouse or even the computer itself.

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Re: Laser printers suitable for dos.

Posted on 2019-05-23, 16:36

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You're going to be hard-pressed to find ANY printer less than 10 years old that has a parallel port as a standard feature. Many business & industrial laser printers do have the ability to add on a parallel port using a special card, but these are often proprietary to each individual model and hard …

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Re: Compaq prolinea 486

Posted on 2019-05-17, 21:45

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How small drill bit I would need to drill something like that without breaking it? the tip of a safety pin or bulletin board push pin should be fine. If the plastic in the port is soft enough, that's all you might need...otherwise, you might also have to heat up the tip of the pin with a lighter to …

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Re: Strange issue with CD-ROM from year 2000s

Posted on 2019-05-14, 15:35

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have an HP computer where the CDrom tray does not open, i have to put a paperclip to open the tray. and if i put a CD inside, the tray starts to work perfectly... it open an closes Yeah, I've noticed this phenomenon with many desktop optical drives from about 10-20 years ago. Drive is empty, you …

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