Re: Detecting if a CPU is an AMD Am486 or an Intel i486 from within Windows

Posted on 2023-06-02, 02:46

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

FFD0 means: Model 3, Stepping 0. This does not even indicate the presence of a 486 processor at all. Wouldn't model 3 conform with DX=0430h at reset for a 486DX2? Ah, that makes sense as for it being a 486, that's easy , SYSTEM_INFO->wProcessorLevel is 3 for a 386, 4 for 486, 5 for Pentium and 6 …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-06-02, 01:24

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've had a couple of drives that failed to be recognised by the BIOS or Windows, both stating it's because of a SMART failure. Fortunately, in both cases, I had enough warning that they were about to fail that I was able to update my backups, and no data was lost. I'd be so pissed if I had lost 1TB …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-06-02, 00:46

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Damn, a lot of trash talking on the last couple of pages. I had an ATA drive fail. Does that mean all ATA drives are bad? In the same vein, I had several SATA drives fail SMART tests. Also am using a SATA drive that has over 10 years power on time and no issues. Just because some folk had a bad …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-06-01, 16:38

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Damn, a lot of trash talking on the last couple of pages. I had an ATA drive fail. Does that mean all ATA drives are bad? In the same vein, I had several SATA drives fail SMART tests. Also am using a SATA drive that has over 10 years power on time and no issues. Just because some folk had a bad …

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Re: Computer hardware 20 years ago.

Posted on 2023-06-01, 04:34

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What has that got to do with the topic (hardware from 2003, early x64 CPUs and related stuff)?

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Re: Are prices for retro hardware slowly coming down?

Posted on 2023-05-23, 02:33

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That would be nice, but it would probably mean less non professional seller will be selling as well. I've pretty much stopped buying hardware now (at 60 years old, I have more than I'll ever be able to test anyway). Buying DVDs and Blu-Rays now. Currently working on getting the complete Doctor Who …

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Re: List of VLB IDE Controllers

Posted on 2023-05-15, 17:56

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's the same Eastern (I want to say Chinese?) text repeated a few times. Definitely not an archive file of any kind. I opened it in Notepad to check.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-05-09, 18:21

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-05-08, 23:06: debs3759 wrote on 2023-05-08, 17:10: I would guess it's a memory expansion card, as it has 8 RAM chips on it. Possibly for a specific motherboard. I only see 4 RAM chips. Doh! My bad, guess I'm not the mathemagician I once was 😀

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-05-08, 17:10

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would guess it's a memory expansion card, as it has 8 RAM chips on it. Possibly for a specific motherboard.

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Re: which All in Wonder would this be?

Posted on 2023-05-06, 18:05

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

They are SGRAM. https://www.datasheetarchive.com/pdf/download … pe=O&term=TC59G

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Re: DIY MS-DOS loading screen

Posted on 2023-04-30, 11:35

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Wouldn't it be easier to just use the built in menu options in config.sys and autoexec.bat? I'd have to look up how to do it if nobody else steps in, as my DOS coding is pretty rusty 😀 Not even sure where my DOS reference books are since moving home, everything is boxed up until I get carpets …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-04-28, 19:44

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Predator99 wrote on 2023-04-28, 19:40: The POST-card also looks interesting, will dump the ROM later Good luck with that. As there is no sticker over the EPROM window, you'll be lucky if the data is complete, if it's not fully erased (depends how long it's been in the light with the window open to …

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

Posted on 2023-04-25, 20:18

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

gerry wrote on 2023-04-25, 19:14: ah well, the convoluted paths taken by vintage pc hobbyists! First World problems, don't ya just love them 😀

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Re: Need air flow help in a minitower....

Posted on 2023-04-25, 16:43

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If there is room to fit an intake fan between the case (in the position that the intake holes are in) it might help to drill air holes in the front panel and place a fan there. I don't know what your skills are, but that is the best position if the outtake fan(s) is at the top (ie your PSU or near …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-04-22, 19:58

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-04-22, 19:44: debs3759 wrote on 2023-04-22, 18:03: At most I'd expect about 6% increase. ((850/800) - 1) x 100. Basic math. Go away

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-04-22, 18:03

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

At most I'd expect about 6% increase. ((850/800) - 1) x 100. Basic math.

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

Posted on 2023-04-21, 14:32

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I thought VGA was DB15 😀

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Re: Floppy disk Image software

Posted on 2023-04-20, 19:36

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by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Zup wrote on 2023-04-20, 17:50: Wasn't Winimage the one that replaced boot sectors? Any good imaging software copies all data, including the boot sector. It's part of the disc. They might give a choice not to, but by default I fail to see why they wouldn't.

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Re: List of VLB IDE Controllers

Posted on 2023-04-20, 14:51

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's also ISA, not VLB

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Re: DDR3 Ram Question

Posted on 2023-04-19, 20:47

by

by debs3759

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

When overclocking anything, it's the luck of the draw. Not every seemingly identical kit will clock the same. You're unlucky that your kit doesn't overclock, another of the same model and specs might overclock amazingly.

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