Re: [Commodore PC40-III] Won't start - Help requested

Posted on 2024-02-09, 11:49

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Apologies in advance digging up an old thread, but I happen to have a PC40-III with the same issue. Did the OP manage to get theirs working I wonder. Mine is the pre Dallas version so have repaired a lot of battery damage. WAS alive, then just randomly died after I left it on while I was trying to …

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Re: Different Windows eras

Posted on 2024-02-05, 14:18

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Quite difficult question to answer... But an interesting one! A software (and it is especially true for a game) is targeted to a given platform with min and recommended specs in mind. A lot of Windows 9x games until Windows 98 SE were badly programmed with no respect for the API documentation and …

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Re: The Soundblaster DSP project

Posted on 2024-01-27, 12:17

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I also missed the topic... And it is a really interesting one! That is wonderful to have a dump of all 4.xx firmware, to have an ASM commented source of v4.13 and jewel in the crown, to have the most annoying bugs corrected with optimizations in bonus, all of that in a very short period of time. …

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Re: The Soundblaster DSP project

Posted on 2024-01-24, 20:02

by

by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I also missed the topic... And it is a really interesting one! That is wonderful to have a dump of all 4.xx firmware, to have an ASM commented source of v4.13 and jewel in the crown, to have the most annoying bugs corrected with optimizations in bonus, all of that in a very short period of time. …

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Re: Why no Dual-OPL3 soundcards?

Posted on 2023-07-17, 13:33

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

the more things available the better :) Sure. For software to support a hardware, the hardware must exists first. The more a type of hardware is available, the more it will be supported (relativizing that here the target is a niche for homebrew). I have a SAAYM and I'm using it for playing arcade …

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Re: Why no Dual-OPL3 soundcards?

Posted on 2023-07-17, 10:25

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Dual-OPL3 could be nice with two times the channels and registers allowing enhanced stereo effect. But I agree with most, it is not something viable as there is today very powerful software to produce synthesis music and there was no market for that in the mid-90's. I would prefer an OPL4 based …

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Re: What's the name of this Japanese SCSI connector?

Posted on 2023-04-10, 18:25

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In fact it is Micro Centronics 3M (50-pin)

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Re: How to connect my VGA MS-DOS PC to an LCD? (with extras)

Posted on 2023-03-15, 13:51

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Great link @Jo22. Very interesting. So all what is requires as ICs is a line driver and a D flip flop. That's good to know, simple and efficient and most important not expensive to DIY. RetroVGA is Open Hardware and can be easily modified to use an USB port power it optionally (external power source …

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Re: An nvidia card prevents some MSDOS apps from starting (win98 setup included)

Posted on 2023-03-14, 19:19

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I've seen flash ROM corrupted by time. It's a track to verify. First I would make a copy of your BIOS, then try to find a corresponding MD5 or SHA-1 on a search engine. If you find one, then the BIOS is good. If not, that means your BIOS isn't know by search engines or it is corrupted. To test the …

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Re: An nvidia card prevents some MSDOS apps from starting (win98 setup included)

Posted on 2023-03-14, 15:55

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Can be a card BIOS issue. Did you try to change/update it?

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Re: An nvidia card prevents some MSDOS apps from starting (win98 setup included)

Posted on 2023-03-14, 14:26

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Maybe the card have not enough juice to run NV45 use more power than NV41. Can also be a RAM or BIOS issue. But I would test the PSU before.

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Re: How to connect my VGA MS-DOS PC to an LCD? (with extras)

Posted on 2023-03-14, 11:51

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

To answer @NightShadowPT (Sorry didn't had time before). I think your purpose is to play games on a big screen LCD TV, not a LCD computer monitor. RetroTINK-5X is an up-scaller for what I understand that can manage signal up to 480i. All what it can do is to input analog fixed 15KHz hsync with …

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Re: How to connect my VGA MS-DOS PC to an LCD? (with extras)

Posted on 2023-03-13, 22:48

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

VGA too blocky due to the way the LCD panels work. I also have a RetroTink5x that I use for older consoles, where I can apply some filters to add scanlines and/or aperture grid filters making them look more realistic in the LCD. scanlines was never a thing on VGA Any VGA (and up) CRT monitor …

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Re: "Period correct" as a practical problem

Posted on 2023-03-06, 09:33

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-06, 04:07: Many enthusiasts were on the "rolling upgrade" plan, meaning CPU this year, GPU next year, Mem and HDD after, so they practically never had a whole period correct machine, right in the period where it would be "correct". That, I think, it still true today.

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Re: "Period correct" as a practical problem

Posted on 2023-03-05, 18:11

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can contribute a lot of VIA chipsets quirks to such list. You are absolutely right @The Serpent Rider XD VIA ICs in general for me, not only motherboard chipsets (especially Apollo), How many computers using PCI cards equipped with VIA ICs of the same period (USB 2.0, IEE1394 or IDE) had issues …

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Re: Floppy drive not working maybe from resistor banks mod

Posted on 2023-03-03, 09:24

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What matters is how the BIOS is configured. If you replace your hard drive, change the setting in the BIOS config utility accordingly, or if applicable check the drive is auto-configured correctly. It is the same for the floppy disk drive. Check if its configuration is OK, sometime setting 1.44MB is …

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Re: Floppy drive not working maybe from resistor banks mod

Posted on 2023-03-02, 11:59

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't see a problem with the floppy connector. The resistors network are connected to the reset and data bus lines. I think they act as a terminator to minimize bus interference. The common pin (pin 1) being connected to the ground of the other (top) resistor network. I see nothing interfering …

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Re: Matrox G400, Nightmare Creatures and... Powervr??

Posted on 2023-03-02, 11:39

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The rendering method of the NEC PowerVR uses a very different approach than what was commonly used at that time. Everything step in the chain was thought to improve the rendering process. New techniques have been implemented for that goal. The chip drivers for Windows making the process transparent …

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Re: EWS64XL : DOS MIDI playback having reverb/echo applied on it issue [SOLVED]

Posted on 2023-03-01, 18:44

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Yep, I do know the 20-pin ones, can be found on some daughter-boards (WaveBlaster plug), but not the 28-pins ones. That is why I oriented my though to an EEPROM which I know can be found as PLCC28. But can be a GAL as PLCC28. I'll check that latter. For now what is important, is that you can play …

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Re: EWS64XL : DOS MIDI playback having reverb/echo applied on it issue

Posted on 2023-03-01, 15:43

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by Datadrainer

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

[...] Please, can you tell me what is the square component I was talking about? I didn't find any thing about it on the Web. Thanks :) the square component is indeed a GAL , doing some address work for the SAM9407<->RAM interface should be similar in function to the AWE64 SIMMCON addon - but it's …

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