DOS drivers, .sys vs executable

Posted on Today, 08:02

by

by Oetker

in DOS

in DOS

Why is it that some DOS drivers are .sys files that need a device= line in config.sys, while others are .exe or .com files? I can see that .sys files have to adhere to a specific interface, is that too limited in some cases? For example, every mouse driver I've seen was a .com file, sound card …

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Re: Attn admin: Best pci NICs by cpu usage.

Posted on Yesterday, 15:28

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In the meantime, there are these results to consider : https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=60114&start=40 They were run on a level playing field and give a good idea of relative performance . Interesting, thanks for finding that (and dionb for running those tests). Seems it isn't as clear-cut as …

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Re: Attn admin: Best pci NICs by cpu usage.

Posted on Yesterday, 14:05

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't get it, are you soliciting opinions on what people think has the lowest CPU usage, or are you going to benchmark all of them? Everyone will tell you to use the Intel card, like before. Though it would be interesting to test a 100mbit adapter, might have lower CPU usage at 100mbit due to …

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Re: Reverse-Engineering the 3DFX VSA-100 Chipset

Posted on Yesterday, 13:05

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Did you see this panel with the 3dfx founders, it goes into why they failed, buying STB was definitely part of it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MghYhf-GhU

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Re: Best and worst sound cards you have ever owned?

Posted on 2021-02-26, 14:16

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

[...] All three ALS100 cards I've bought now refuse to work on my machine, one is detected by Windows/UNISOUND only works for a couple of seconds, the others aren't detected most of the time and when they are they refuse to play audio as well. It might be due to my specific machine (Compaq Deskpro) …

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Re: Seasonic ATX PSU and my P4 motherboard

Posted on 2021-02-26, 08:45

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Are you 100% sure that you can't just slide the extended part off the bigger connector It's like a hinge with a clip on the other side. So, you can "unclip" it and it then bends but it does not detach, which is unfortunate. PXL_20210226_083401822.jpg Oh that's stupid, sorry for doubting you. If I …

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Re: Seasonic ATX PSU and my P4 motherboard

Posted on 2021-02-26, 07:58

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Are you 100% sure that you can't just slide the extended part off the bigger connector, it's always been that way with PSU's I've encountered. I think you should connect the aux connector but I'm not sure what happens if you don't. Might depend on the CPU and its power consumption.

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Re: WP32 McCake : MT32 compatible waveblaster board

Posted on 2021-02-26, 07:45

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Warlord wrote on 2021-02-26, 01:24: This thing will make a real MT-32, hardmpu and just about every soundcard project obsolete. Can't wait. Won't this still require hardmpu / softmpu for games that need it for a real mt-32? Not to mention you still need a card with otherwise bug-free midi.

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Re: Best and worst sound cards you have ever owned?

Posted on 2021-02-26, 07:39

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Ya, I can't stand anything creative. While the AWE64 has been card I have ever owned there is enough things wrong with it to always experiment and look elsewhere for other alternatives. It pretty much just works but the wavetable is not that good and the CQM is not that good, other than that its …

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Re: RAM advice for PIII Coppermine "EBX" board

Posted on 2021-02-25, 22:10

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You could try to netboot it. http://kentie.net/article/pxe98/index.htm Tualatin support would depend on the bios, vrm wise a board that supports coppermine should be ok, but your bios might or might not refuse.

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Re: Pentium CPU issue

Posted on 2021-02-25, 17:32

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Let me also ask... I've never had a computer with the turbo button. Does it actually do anything? it says 188, and when i press it is says 88. I dont think i noticed any difference when it was pressed. To add to the post above, the turbo display is set to show one of two fixed speeds (set with …

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Re: Dual socket 7 build

Posted on 2021-02-25, 10:03

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Updates. Got it working as a network share. Initial network speed tests are in 3megs/sec at 80% cpus usage with usb 3.0 gigabit nic 4.5 megs a second 70% cpus usage with 10/100 pci nic These results are kinda weird. Obviously neither neither the network, the cpus or the pci/usb are saturated. I …

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Re: Dual socket 7 build

Posted on 2021-02-25, 08:13

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Updates. Got it working as a network share. Initial network speed tests are in 3megs/sec at 80% cpus usage with usb 3.0 gigabit nic 4.5 megs a second 70% cpus usage with 10/100 pci nic These results are kinda weird. Obviously neither neither the network, the cpus or the pci/usb are saturated. I …

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Re: Fan/cooler advice in an old case and socket 775 cpu?

Posted on 2021-02-25, 07:59

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Those Zalman coolers are good but I run a Noctua Noctua NH-U12F on my 775 c2d and it's even better. Afaik lack of TRIM support won't decrease SSD lifetime, but speed. I use a SSD on a Win98 machine and I've kept part of it empty to help mitigate that, and I don't worry about it that much because the …

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Re: Are there other S3 Trio64 V2 Drivers Available?

Posted on 2021-02-24, 13:43

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Also, the driver Win98 comes with is newer, being from 1999, is there any way I could extract that and use it under Win95? I've transplanted Ati Rage Pro WinME drivers to Win98, it was a matter of figuring out in which .cab file on the cd the files were, and then extracting the relevant .inf/vxd/ …

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Re: Keyboard Suggestion?

Posted on 2021-02-23, 19:16

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's the one. I'll test for nkro when I get home. The lights can be turned off however I've also had them turn on again after restarting the computer. The build quality of the board itself is good, however my return key has slightly crooked text printed on. Also there are at least two versions, …

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Re: Keyboard Suggestion?

Posted on 2021-02-23, 19:12

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sun Type 5 boards are things of absolute beauty, but awfully squishy to type on, with an alarming tendency to lose keycaps all over the place. Still, I treasure mine and am still looking for the matching optical mouse (for less than the price of a second mortgage). I sold my Type 5 boards and my …

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Re: Looking for a reference design schematic for a rare chip

Posted on 2021-02-23, 19:09

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you looked into existing boards that do the same thing? These devices exist and aren't as special as you seem to think they are. One of them might be using the same chip, maybe someone that owns one could provide you with more info. https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=73866&p=852664 …

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Re: Keyboard Suggestion?

Posted on 2021-02-23, 11:53

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you tried the Action gaming keyboard? N-key rollover and ~25 eur. For anything but typing long texts I prefer it to my Unicomp, which, apart from the sublime key feel, is a shoddily constructed overpriced POS. Are you referring to this? Is the board actually N-key rollover? It only says "Anti …

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Re: Primary Master or Secondary Master as boot hdd.

Posted on 2021-02-23, 11:50

by

by Oetker

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I believe that in theory primary/secondary IDE should be independent controllers, but who knows what might be going on with your setup. Unless you 1. managed to get a hd to boot without overlay software on the secondary channel and 2. managed to get the overlay software to work on the primary …

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