Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on Yesterday, 19:37

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Love it too :) It's like a huge brick and it's in REALLY good condition for being this old. I happen to be messing around with an identical case, the only difference is the layout of the little black panel with the buttons and LEDs. Also in mint condition, it's really well built for being a clone. …

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Re: AMI Color BIOS (1993 and earlier) modification in hex editor

Posted on Yesterday, 19:23

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

First of all, I'm sorry about resurrecting this thread, but I wanted to thank @jakethompson1, as this has been extremely useful for some BIOS tinkering I've been doing. Also, I wanted to discuss certain details about what is mentioned in the section "Un-hiding options in SETUP": a byte identifying …

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Re: Need help complimenting my build. Lots of questions…

Posted on Yesterday, 18:50

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

One word of warning when using 1000W monsters and such to power retro systems: keep in mind that these units are rated to deliver large amounts of current on the 12V rail in particular. So if there are problems with say, a HDD or fan connector that causes it to draw a lot of current then the …

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Re: Computer aesthetics: what is your approach to your builds?

Posted on 2023-02-05, 19:32

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Even though Goteks are tremendously useful, they are not part of the "final" state of my builds for aesthetic reasons (also it would be quite expensive to get one Gotek per PC). I just use them to install all the software I need and then they get replaced with a real drive for looks and occasional …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-02-02, 17:51

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got a handful of ISA video cards this week (Acumos AVGA2 and WDC 30/31). The Diamond Speedstar 24X is a great card. Very fast when set to 0WS (for an ISA card that is), excellent game compatibility and image quality, even on LCDs. Paradise/WDC cards are usually underrated compared to the Tseng or …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-02-01, 21:39

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not PC related, but still retro-ish: my trusty fat XBox 360 died with a RROD today after replacing the thermal paste, and it's the dreaded 0022 error, which usually means CPU failure. I also assume it's something I did since it's a Jasper model, which does not have the problems of the earlier models …

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Re: One absolutely run-of-the-mill early 90's multimedia PC

Posted on 2023-02-01, 03:15

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

leonardo wrote on 2023-01-31, 10:19: I'm on the edge of my seat. 😁 The BIOS didn't work unfortunately. No sign of life when turning on the system. Which is strange given that the BIOS string is exactly the same in both, I wonder if there's any difference in the motherboard revisions that prevents …

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Re: 3 floppy drives? and how did you do it?

Posted on 2023-01-31, 17:13

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have an EISA SCSI controller (Ultrastor Ultra24F) that features an option ROM to support 3 floppy drives with a single cable (I believe it requires an additional twist or something like that, it's in the manual). Unfortunately it is a full-length card and doesn't fit any of my cases as no matter …

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Re: Asus P2B BIOS error

Posted on 2023-01-31, 16:32

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You'll need to test your PSU under load. Without load those measurements don't mean much. The pins are all connected to the same +5V plane on the PSU btw. Measuring one pin is enough and you don't need to measure at the ATX connector specifically. You can just use one of the other wires for …

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Re: One absolutely run-of-the-mill early 90's multimedia PC

Posted on 2023-01-31, 01:53

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Sorry about the long wait! I got sick and didn't get around to this until today. I've attached a screenshot of the report summary and the BIOS-file. Hope you find some use for it. Thanks a lot leonardo! By quickly examining the file in a hex editor, it seems your BIOS (A75B - Apr-21 1994) is …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2023-01-28, 06:17

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

Started playing the Dead Space remake. Game looks good and runs well in general (1440p on Ryzen 3600 + 5700 XT), but there are a few stutters, most likely from the shaders being built (a common occurrence for me in newer games, but at least it disappears after a while). Not sure if I like the new " …

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Re: Socket-8 Gaming Build

Posted on 2023-01-24, 22:23

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I've just committed to purchase this Gravis Ultrasound plug&play version 3 + disc's + CD + 2MB memory for the machine: (It will be slotted in below the AWE64 Gold!) Very nice!! Looks like that GUS is in great shape! If you have the time, could you try to image the driver floppies for archival …

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Re: ARGUS Project thread - Now with gerbers and documentation in initial post!

Posted on 2023-01-24, 22:17

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

You're supposed to run PNPMAP before any PnP initialization is done, because that utility is what actually programs the EEPROM on the card with the required PnP data. Only after that is done you can turn off and restart the PC and the card will be either detected during POST (if you have a PnP BIOS) …

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Re: What modern activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-01-23, 21:53

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

Been trying to troubleshoot a Wi-Fi issue with my iPhone 13 that started happening after upgrading to iOS 16. Basically the phone loses connection to the Internet intermittently (even though it's still connected to the Wi-Fi), which causes things like sluggish webpage loading and every online access …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-01-23, 16:40

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

CREATIVE! Sound BLASTER! 16!!! SCSI!!!!!!!!!!!! CT1770. Delivering EARTH shattering sound quality! Prepare to have your socks blown off! (not). 😁 Damn animals ... though, belive it or not I still have a plan to rescue this basket case. Some time down the line an episode will pop up on my thread. 😁 …

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Re: Intel pentium classic Write back of write through?

Posted on 2023-01-23, 01:50

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Every Pentium motherboard I've seen, from Socket 4 onwards, sets L1 as WB and in most cases there isn't even an option to change it in the BIOS. I don't think there are many reasons to run a Pentium with L1 WT.

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Re: One absolutely run-of-the-mill early 90's multimedia PC

Posted on 2023-01-22, 17:43

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Thanks in advance for taking some time to do this @leonardo. A quick search turned up NSSI, - is there a specific process for the dump? I can probably get around to trying this tomorrow. When dumping the BIOS from a running machine, it's usually recommended to set System/BIOS shadowing (F000 - FFFF) …

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Re: Heatsink for socket 4 (Pentium 60 & 66)

Posted on 2023-01-21, 17:54

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I used 3M thermal adhesive tape to attach the heatsink to my P60, works great. Looks like it was originally stuck on with some sort of thermal epoxy as some traces and marks remain on the CPU, but when I got it they were already separated. Also, the Socket 4 on my Batman's Revenge board has no tabs …

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Re: Support for "legacy" hardware

Posted on 2023-01-20, 18:15

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a Soyo SY-029C2 which is a Socket 5/Neptune board from the same era (mid-1994). It is equally bare as yours when it comes to I/O integration. Looks like Soyo wanted to cut as much cost as possible in this era. Personally I use an ASUS PCI-SC200 SCSI controller for the hard drive, it has no …

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Re: Power Supplies for sound modules? Vintage vs generic? Roland, Yamaha, etc.

Posted on 2023-01-20, 02:14

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

1. Have you ever had a power brick clearly damage a piece of equipment like a sound module? If so, was it an old brick or a modern cheap one? Not that I remember, but I guess it could happen as there are many variables, such as the quality of the adapter, its condition, and such. 2. Are the old, …

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