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

Posted on 2019-07-03, 20:09

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Progress on my Osborne keyboard: https://tweakers.net/ext/f/igQdVszxQTN21MY19ZYuFbYe/full.jpg Soldering completed (and debugged and fixed), controller written and it works! At least, you press keys, they generally register and the input gets fed to the computer. What it lacks is any way of detecting …

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

Posted on 2019-07-03, 07:35

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

^^ don't mention this project on VCF or they'll have your head. :P My head's safe - this is totally non-invasive. I'm doing this using the keyboard's original connector, plugging it into my own stuff. I sort of agree with those purists. First of all do no harm :) Interesting keyboard design, can't …

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

Posted on 2019-07-02, 20:51

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've decided to teach myself a bit of microelectronics - and what better way to start than with one of the oldest devices I have, an Osborne Variant 1 keyboard: https://tweakers.net/ext/f/J04Ik0t2cT0z0tFdY2BA3A8A/full.jpg The Osborne Variant 1 was the desktop version of the famous Osborne 1 luggable …

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Re: Question regarding "Intel EtherExpress(TM) PRO/10" not receiving packets

Posted on 2019-07-02, 18:19

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I was thinking about a adaper like: https://www.amazon.com/LINDY-Crossover-Adapter-Cat-5e-60194/dp/B001NYC6LI That's to turn a straight cable into a crossover cable - not anything to do with the medium being twisted pair or not... If it is straight vs crossover you're worried about: connecting a …

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Re: Question regarding "Intel EtherExpress(TM) PRO/10" not receiving packets

Posted on 2019-07-02, 11:49

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you're connecting via UTP (and not BNC or AUI), the card expects a twisted pair cable - but you switch is reporting link (at 10Mbps half duplex) over one of its RJ45 connectors, so it looks like you have UTP connected... Could you perhaps elaborate on what you mean there? Exactly what kind of …

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Re: MonochromeVGA (simulating a monochrome monitor)

Posted on 2019-07-02, 08:39

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Operating this unshielded is like operating broadcasting equipment. Might cause costly problems if people (not only radio amateurs!) feel annoyed by the noise being aired. As I said, no type of noise or distortion is appreciated. The operation is totally normal, at least visually. That's not what …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-07-01, 19:08

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] Apple has always had a penchant for making beautiful machines. I love the chrome, acrylic, and white glossy plastic of the power mac PCs, such a great aesthetic. Great - and functional - design. It's not just beautiful, it has thermal/airflow management that puts most enthousiast homebrew …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-07-01, 17:48

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Picked this up for a bottle of wine today: https://tweakers.net/ext/f/crqEI7C6jh4b1yszqrEAUPyB/full.jpg Power Mac G5 1.8 DP PCI-X. The most powerful Mac you could buy 15 years ago. Also one of the heaviest non-server computers you could buy. My back is not going to be happy with me tomorrow. Upshot: …

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

Posted on 2019-07-01, 13:59

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Which band are you operating in? 2.4GHz or 5GHz. 2.4GHz. In fact this router (F5D8233) doesn't appear to be capable of 5GHz. And its configuration page is extremely limited, sadly none of the settings you mentioned are available. Not even the beacon interval? Sure there's not an 'advanced' tab in …

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Re: Which modern Linux on highend 486 system?

Posted on 2019-07-01, 13:49

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, I missed the information. Then I need to correct it. It is possible but still it will be slow as hell. Windows 98 will be years ahead. Probably Windows NT 4 will be faster as well (and rock solid!). It really depends what you want to do with it. For graphical work (i.e. games), you're spot on …

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Re: Which modern Linux on highend 486 system?

Posted on 2019-07-01, 13:25

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This computer is just to old for anything "modern". You will need to recompile the kernel with your own flags, disabling many many features and security flags. The next step would be to rebuild the window manager. But even if you could manage to start the kernel and window manager you will get only …

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Re: Which modern Linux on highend 486 system?

Posted on 2019-07-01, 13:04

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hmm, corruption normally sounds like RAM, cache or CPU issues (or HDD & controller), but they would take down Win2k just as fast. For quick&dirty troubleshooting, I'd recommend NetBSD. It's about as easy to install as Debian, simple CLI guided installer.

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Re: Which modern Linux on highend 486 system?

Posted on 2019-07-01, 12:34

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can filter on architecture at Distrowatch.org. Choosing i486 gives you this lot: http://distrowatch.org/search.php?ostype=All&category=All&origin=All&basedon=All¬basedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=i486&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status= …

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

Posted on 2019-07-01, 12:21

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Which band are you operating in? 2.4GHz or 5GHz. If the link rate (not the same as speed!) keeps bouncing around it indicates something's not stable. In 2.4GHz the RF itself is the prime suspect, as that band is heavily and fluctuatingly polluted as a rule. In the 5GHz it's theoretically also …

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Re: Do is worth to improve a graphic SIS 6205?

Posted on 2019-07-01, 08:49

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

90% of the problem here is the shared memory architecture of the SiS5511+6205 chipsets. That loses you half of its already not stellar memory bandwidth, dropping you down to performance levels of 32b memory controllers (i.e. total crap). Even a PCI 6205 with 1 or 2MB of its own RAM would almost …

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Re: A hardware problem that I've never seen before.

Posted on 2019-06-30, 10:38

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

GA-6WMM7... that brings back memories. Generally pretty solid board, albeit with the bad performance inherent in the i810's shared memory architecture. Some boards actually had 4MB of onboard display buffer to solve that, but they were rare. As for issues... two spring to mind. First off, it's a …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-06-28, 20:04

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also, it's a sexy board It definitely is. Which of those ISA ports accept 16 bit cards? Bottom one and 2nd from the top? I noticed the layout is a bit subpar in that regard. Indeed. It's not just 16b cards (which you could say are anachronistic) but old 8b only cards that have wider PCB where the …

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Re: Clip boards made from old motherboards

Posted on 2019-06-28, 12:34

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ah, got the socket wrong, it's just plain So3. with the i420TX 'Saturn' chipset. Looks like a nice little late 486 board.

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Re: Clip boards made from old motherboards

Posted on 2019-06-28, 11:10

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Interesting board. Unless I'm mistaken that's an So4 board, with onboard SCSI and a little CMI-640 IDE controller. Given 3-chip chipset solution I suspect SiS 501 chipset.

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

Posted on 2019-06-28, 10:39

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

1001 cuts and slashes on ~2000 era razorblade cases... As for biohazards, not many exotic critters in this part of the woods, a dessicated mouse mummy was about as bad as I've seen.

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