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

Posted on Today, 11:48

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I installed Windows 2000 on a single core Athlon64 3200+ then after couple weeks of normal use upgraded to dual core X2, maybe Windows setup has installed a single core HAL or something? Yep, that's why. I couldn't remember off-hand how to fix it as I did something similar back in the day, so a …

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

Posted on 2021-01-17, 17:29

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tried to hook up my 1977 Pong clone console to an older generation LED TV ... didn't work that well. I guess I'll have to search the storage for some older CRT style TVs. R10-9010.jpgR10-9010-2.jpeg On the bright side - convinced my daughter to play some ATARI 2600 games with me. We had a lot of …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-01-16, 20:51

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just in case: if you haven't pulled the northbridge chip cooler off, make sure and do so. If all it has is the original thermal paste, it has become petrified and useless by now. Actually that's a good idea, thanks. I don't recall checking that so probably haven't done it! A overheating northbridge …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-01-16, 11:08

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In all seriousness, I can't explain why some have had such reliability issues with nforce 2 boards while others have not. Lets all just be glad current PCs aren't like they were back in the early 2000s, at least stability wise. Just to add to the nForce 2 debate, I've recently been putting together …

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

Posted on 2021-01-15, 13:13

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I bought a matching pair of GeForce 8800 GT graphics cards recently and so today I did a quick power on test of each card on a spare Socket AM2 motherboard from my collection (Asus M2N-VM/S with Athlon 64 X2 6400+ CPU). https://i.imgur.com/gWu9IL5l.jpg Both cards seem to be ok, at least up to the …

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Re: Are there still any worthwhile uses for an Apple G3??

Posted on 2021-01-14, 13:20

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Judging by the link in your last post, I'm guessing this is an iMac G3. You don't specify which one it is though, post some specs. The original Bondi Blue iMac G3 has pretty poor specs compared with the later ones and it's also harder to upgrade the RAM as they use SODIMM memory chips and require …

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

Posted on 2021-01-09, 15:10

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got this "Apple killer" running. apricot.jpg apricot2.jpg What spec is that, 8088 or 286 or later? I used to have an older Apricot PC (a Sirius 1, branded under the older ACT company name) which had an 8088 but it wasn't IBM PC compatible. Is this the same with the later Apricot systems or is that …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-01-08, 23:14

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bought a couple of GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCIe graphics cards. Also got an AMD Phenom X4 9650 CPU. Assuming the cards are working as they're supposed to be, 1 of the graphics cards along with the Phenom CPU will be going into my Socket AM2+ Hackintosh (replacing an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ & Radeon HD 5450) …

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

Posted on 2021-01-07, 00:39

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Todays activity is not completely retro but definitely old - working on an old Socket AM2 based PC running as a server. I didn't intend to work on this thing, but it decided today was the day to die after running 24/7 for the past 4 years. I'd been having some issues with the system hard freezing …

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

Posted on 2021-01-03, 23:01

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today I did some slight modifications to the BASIC code of a game for the Commodore VIC-20. Nothing spectacular, just simple tweaks to the old 1982 quiz game BBC Mastermind - fixing a glitch when you get a question correct and the "Correct" appears jumbled over the answer. I simply entered the down …

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Re: When did you purchase your first 386 / 486 Computer? Availability vs the early 90's affordability norm.

Posted on 2021-01-01, 23:45

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My first home PC was an 8088, 2nd hand, given to me free around 1995! Prior to that, the PC never really entered into the equation nor was it desired. Nevermind the cost, but generally nobody in my circle of friends as a kid ever considered a PC for home use. At home we all had Commodore 64 or …

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Re: VTech Laser 200 trouble

Posted on 2020-12-28, 19:49

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As you've already suggested, garbage on screen like that usually does indicate a RAM issue, particularly since you've already identified a faulty voltage regulator and RAM is very easy to damage when the power goes bad. Before testing anything else, I'd definitely recommend replacing & adding …

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

Posted on 2020-12-28, 19:25

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today I disassembled & cleaned a Commodore VIC-20 keyboard. I've been meaning to do it for months, as some of the keys were not as responsive as they should be. After cleaning the board & all key plungers with isopropyl alcohol and re-assembling + re-soldering Shift Lock key, the keyboard is now 100 …

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Re: Merry Christmas everyone and have you ever lost something in your computer stash ?

Posted on 2020-12-23, 11:11

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Many many times. I've mislaid motherboards, cards & especially cables more times than I can remember. I've even found stuff that I didn't even know I had on numerous occasions. I keep meaning to make a record of everything I have and it's location in storage, but I never get around to it. About the …

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

Posted on 2020-12-20, 19:11

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Received a 2nd Commodore Plus/4 computer today. Surprisingly it worked, I bought it as "untested". It was pretty filthy and the keyboard needed a complete dismantling & cleaning job which was rather tedious and took me several hours. I ended up mixing and matching parts from the 2 computers to end …

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Re: Potential OS Change Questions

Posted on 2020-12-16, 14:39

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Only catch is some games don't like 2k. for me I never got Need for Speed 3,4,Porche or Return Fire (really old 95 game) working so do have 98SE as a 2nd OS for those games (and only those) Can't recall if I managed to get NFS Porsche running, but recently I did mange to get NFS4 running on my …

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Re: Potential OS Change Questions

Posted on 2020-12-15, 11:15

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For Windows 2000 you might get away with just 256MB RAM, but I always find 512MB+ a little better. But like others have said, it's all going to depend upon what games you intend playing? You mention running DOS games - if this is a criteria then that pretty much limits you to just Windows 98 or ME. …

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Re: Pentium 75 machine not POSTing, is the lack of a Dallas RTC the problem?

Posted on 2020-12-13, 17:32

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah I can echo the above, I got a replacement Dallas NOS from eBay a couple of years back. It's still working great and keeping the date & time, which is pretty amazing since I hardly ever use that PC.

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Re: Voodoo card(s) with K6-III+ or PIII

Posted on 2020-12-12, 11:45

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Never had anything other than a Voodoo 3 and I always paired them with AMD K6-2 systems. For a PIII, a GeForce 2 (or 3 or 4) is a much better option. If I had or was getting a Voodoo 5, personally I'd be aiming for a PIII build, thinking pre-1GHz Coppermine. 1GHz or above PIII I'd stay with a …

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Re: Pentium 75 machine not POSTing, is the lack of a Dallas RTC the problem?

Posted on 2020-12-12, 11:05

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The only motherboard I have with a Dallas chip is also a Socket 5 with similar SIS chipset to yours, which also came with a Pentium 75. With a dead Dallas, it would POST but not boot anything. When I removed the dead Dallas chip (which was luckily socketed) and turned it on, it wouldn't POST but did …

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