Re: PCChips M571 gets stuck during boot load screen.

Posted on 2023-12-19, 01:28

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just to see if it boots at all, create a FreeDos boot image and try that. I had the exact same issue, the motherboard would sit at Starting MS-DOS... but it loaded FreeDos perfectly fine.

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2023-12-15, 02:47

by

by zuldan

in Milliways

in Milliways

Finished the GDI campaign of C&C 2: Tiberian Sun . Some of the later missions dragged on a bit too much, especially the one where an Ion Storm is active and your map doesn't work. Hunting down the last of the cloaked units in such conditions was very tedious. The final mission was kinda interesting …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-12-15, 02:28

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

mtest001 wrote on 2023-12-14, 20:59: Today I bought a second hand CF. After failing twice to attach a 128GB SSD to my P200MMX using two different SATA->IDE adapters, I gave up and bought a CF->IDE. This CF card works perfectly with that CF->IDE adapter you have. I use it on 3 machines. Filename IDE …

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Re: DataExpert EXp8449 - Intel DX2 66 Overdrive - Poor performance

Posted on 2023-12-15, 02:23

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It’s almost like the cache is disabled I think you're right. The strange thing is L1 and L2 cache are enabled in the BIOS but 2 programs below are reporting L1 is disabled thumbnail_IMG_3915.jpg thumbnail_IMG_3913.jpg I did notice that the motherboard doesn't know what CPU is installed. So maybe it …

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Re: DataExpert EXp8449 - Intel DX2 66 Overdrive - Poor performance

Posted on 2023-12-15, 02:12

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

MikeSG wrote on 2023-12-13, 12:21: Which ever position the turbo switch is in, try the other setting (open/close) When I remove the jumper for turbo goes from 19mhz to 10mhz so turbo is 100 active.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-12-14, 10:24

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

SFX format PSUs seem pretty scarce (at least in stock at UK retailers) and the better brand ~300w ones that are around from e.g. Seasonic or BeQuiet! at around £50 seem to be very weak on the 5v rail. It seems like you have to go right up to e.g. a full modular 500w Silverstone to get a 25A rating …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-12-14, 10:12

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Any reason why you’re not using a brand new PSU? I wouldn’t trust and old PSU with expensive retro hardware. SFX format PSUs seem pretty scarce (at least in stock at UK retailers) and the better brand ~300w ones that are around from e.g. Seasonic or BeQuiet! at around £50 seem to be very weak on …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-12-14, 09:32

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If that is the infamous brown adhesive, then it would be wise to replace the whole PSU. See here for more information: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=85844 Here is a link to the Adrian's Digital Basement episode where he found a similar adhesive that had corroded parts of a circuit …

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Re: DataExpert EXp8449 - Intel DX2 66 Overdrive - Poor performance

Posted on 2023-12-13, 01:34

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Babasha wrote on 2023-12-13, 01:33: Did you try to set the turboto open position? I'm pretty sure I did. I'll try again when I get home. I also haven't tried other memory, so I'll try that too.

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DataExpert EXp8449 - Intel DX2 66 Overdrive - Poor performance

Posted on 2023-12-13, 01:24

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I managed to get a 486 motherboard running (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/dataexpert-exp8449) however it's performance is really bad. I've done some benchmarks below and Doom is almost unplayable. I've set the BIOS settings to "Optimized" and made sure the turbo button jumpers are closed. …

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Re: Network Card Boot Rom - Which EPROM to use?

Posted on 2023-12-11, 12:14

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you think this one would be ok? https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/196105569736 No that's OTP or One Time Programmable so you'd have a single shot and if you mess something you'd have to throw it away (it's essentially a UV EPROM in a plastic package and without a window it's not erasable). You need …

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Re: Network Card Boot Rom - Which EPROM to use?

Posted on 2023-12-11, 11:52

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Since you need to buy something buy an EEPROM instead, like a AT28C64B, so you won't have to worry about erasing it with UV in case you need to change something. Remember you need to run the XT-IDE configuration first on the machine and save the binary and flash that one not what you download which …

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Re: Network Card Boot Rom - Which EPROM to use?

Posted on 2023-12-11, 11:51

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank you so much for the explanation. Is there any reason why I couldn’t just leave the chip in the sun for 5 minutes to erase? The sun can erase it for sure, but usually it takes several hours to erase it completely in direct sunlight. I'm not 100% sure, but if I remember correctly it has to do …

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Re: Network Card Boot Rom - Which EPROM to use?

Posted on 2023-12-11, 11:33

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

1. How do I know which EPROM is compatible on which card? Can I just buy any 28 EPROM? I was going to grab this one https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/304988470199 2. Why do they need to be erased with UV light? Can’t I just write zero’s to the EPROM with a programmer? 1. Most NICs with a 28-pin ROM …

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Network Card Boot Rom - Which EPROM to use?

Posted on 2023-12-11, 09:55

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would like to boot from an EPROM via a network card (using XTIDE rom https://www.xtideuniversalbios.org/). All the boot rom sockets on all my network cards have have 28 pins. 1. How do I know which EPROM is compatible on which card? Can I just buy any 28 EPROM? I was going to grab this one …

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Re: 386DX board won't boot - Biostar MB-1333C/40C-CH

Posted on 2023-12-10, 22:12

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi, I've been repairing a Chips & Tech 386DX PEAK-DM board for the last few weeks-months, and not sure what else to try next. Can anybody give me any options to try? This is the board: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/biostar-mb-1333c-ch https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/biostar-mb-1333c …

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Re: Need help identifying 6x network cards found in a box

Posted on 2023-12-07, 02:58

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

looks like this is card 5 https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Viglen_Ethergen_PnP_2000A Clearer pics of each card both front and back will help me I'm struggling to read the numbers on the chips (guess I'm getting old) part numbers and fccid numbers printed on the card itself also help to ID cards …

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Need help identifying 6x network cards found in a box

Posted on 2023-12-07, 01:32

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm trying to identify these network cards to locate the DOS drivers for them but it's proving to be difficult. For example for card #6, I Googled "EN2000P3" and nothing comes up. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Network Cards2.png High res version https://1drv.ms/i/s!ArnHV3_qjaPhg6tjd_ …

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Re: Need help identifying 6x sound cards found in a box

Posted on 2023-12-07, 01:31

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Wow this community is amazing. Thank you everyone for their reply. It's really helped a lot.

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Re: Need help identifying 6x sound cards found in a box

Posted on 2023-12-07, 01:31

by

by zuldan

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Thank you for everyone’s information so far. Do any of these cards stand out for early 90’s gaming? They don’t sound like common cards, hopefully drivers won’t be a nightmare to find. For DOS gaming I recommend #2 and #6 personally. Both are stereo and SoundBlaster Pro type cards that don't need …

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