Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2015-09-05, 10:33

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've seen the 8514 Ultra with dual MCA/ISA buses before. I think most (or all) of them were like that. Pretty cool that it's even paired with a matching VGA Wonder. What's the VGA Wonder 2? Is that a Plus or XL model? Basically the 8514/Ultra card is a stand alone graphics accelerator. You still …

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Re: Texas Instruments 486SXL2-50 or TX486DLC/E-40GA

Posted on 2015-09-04, 12:21

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't know why exactly, but clock doubling in 386 systems doesn't seem to accomplish much. Based on my experiences, I'd rather have the SXL-40.

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Re: running a pIII cpu/mobo for windows 3.1?

Posted on 2015-09-04, 04:38

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

i never had a k6 chip ever in my life... Don't worry, you didn't miss out. The K6 was worth skipping (looked good on paper though). In hindsight I should have just upgraded my 486 to 20mb, and gotten a better graphics adapter until prices of PII fell in 99. I still regret missing out on the …

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Re: DMA Problem

Posted on 2015-09-03, 13:04

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some motherboard BIOSes let you set the DMA clock rate higher than the standard 5MHz. You might want to check to see if you have this option and what the driver it set at.

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Re: running a pIII cpu/mobo for windows 3.1?

Posted on 2015-09-03, 12:43

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think most Windows 3.11 software works pretty well on a 486. However, some of the more advanced software will definitely benefit from having a Pentium. I think a K6-200 was the fastest system I ran Windows 3.11 on (In 1997 it was still my main "OS"). I never bothered to run it on anything faster …

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Re: DMA Problem

Posted on 2015-09-03, 01:17

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

While this board does not have a discrete 82C206 DMA controller, it does have a VIA chipset. I have not used VIA's 486 offerings, but I did have DMA problems on their Pentium products.

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Re: VL/EISA Pentium (turbocharged)

Posted on 2015-09-03, 00:15

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Sadly no. It seems to be an Acer BIOS. Yes, I checked the BIOS in a hex editor, and it does indeed appear to be an Acer homebrew, not something licensed from another company like AMI, Award or Phoenix.

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Re: What Piece of PC Hardware Have You Owned Longest

Posted on 2015-09-02, 14:44

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by Anonymous Coward

in Milliways

in Milliways

Surprisingly I still have most of the guts from my original 486, including the PKM 0031y mainboard (with original cache and RAM), ATi Graphics Ultra, SB 2.0, PTI-217 multi I/O and maxiswitch keyboard. I sold the case when I moved, I tossed the original Maxtor 7213AT drive (still working), and my …

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Re: DMA Problem

Posted on 2015-09-02, 14:34

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is it a pre 1992 486 motherboard? There was a time in the early 90s when many 386 and 486 systems shipped with faulty DMA controllers. If yours is socketted, it may be replacable. Though, I thought it was related more to high DMA.

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Re: VL/EISA Pentium (turbocharged)

Posted on 2015-09-02, 08:06

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Correction with the P166 classic. I made a booboo. It was being undervolted and the multiplier was set wrong. At 2.5X and 3.5V it works the same as the Pentium MMX chips....no L2 cache. I tried 133MHz too, no difference. I have a feeling that the BIOS is detecting the CPU type and automatically …

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Re: VL/EISA Pentium (turbocharged)

Posted on 2015-09-02, 05:33

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I think testing the classic Pentium at 133MHz is a good idea. I didn't think of that. Infact, come to think of it I think I accidentally the multiplier set at 3X too. I do not have an original K6, any Cyrix socket7 chips, winchip or rise. I don't really have any interest in running them on this …

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Re: VL/EISA Pentium (turbocharged)

Posted on 2015-09-01, 16:31

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Bad news. I finally physically got ahold of my Powerleap PL 54C/MMX. It does not appear to function properly on the J3 motherboard with any CPU I tried. With a P166 classic, it posts but crashes before boot. With a P200MMX, it functions but L2 cache is automatically disabled by the BIOS. My …

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Re: 2x CD-ROM drive for a 486?

Posted on 2015-08-29, 15:37

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

2X ATAPI drives are rare, but apparently a few examples do exist. If I were you I'd go SCSI.

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Re: help identify mini 386 board/ PC lead extentions

Posted on 2015-08-28, 11:49

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I doubt you will find a manual for your board. It doesn't really matter anyway, since you said there are very few jumpers. Small footprint 386 boards like yours are often unidentifiable. I've had several. What would be more useful is to see if you can find the manual for the MX chipset. You should …

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Re: help identify mini 386 board/ PC lead extentions

Posted on 2015-08-28, 02:55

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you know how much DRAM your system is capable of caching?

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Re: Suntac 286P

Posted on 2015-08-27, 15:27

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Matching the FPU to your 286 motherboard is actually not so simple. In the original IBM AT, the FPU would normally run at 2/3 the CPU speed. Many of the early clone 286 motherboards were also 2/3, but some of them were 1/2. Some have jumpers that let you change the divider, and some have empty …

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Re: help identify mini 386 board/ PC lead extentions

Posted on 2015-08-27, 09:45

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It would be interesting to confirm if your board reports 128kb on post, because the MX chipset is only supposed to have 8kb integrated. The 386 speedsys thread confirms this: http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=33059 So either you have a special variant of the MX chipset, or your BIOS is …

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Re: help identify mini 386 board/ PC lead extentions

Posted on 2015-08-27, 06:18

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice 386 CPU. Looks like a pretty old one since it lacks the white logo. I guess you should take care of it since it's not all scratched up yet...and it's a 33MHz model too. Are you sure your chipset has 128kb cache integrated? I thought it was only 8kb.

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Re: building old 386/486 systems.. AT form factor vs ATX

Posted on 2015-08-25, 01:36

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The best PC motherboard in 1993 would probably be something EISA based with VLB slots, like a Tyan S1437, AMI Enterprise, Nice SuperEISA etc. Pentium 60/66 systems were available in 1993, but in general the platforms were pretty horrible. Pentiums didn't get good boards until 1994.

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Re: NEC 486 Chipset

Posted on 2015-08-24, 12:23

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Speaking of fake NEC products...have you ever heard of this?: (from cracked.com) "In 2004, NEC got word that some counterfeit computer products with their logo on them were coming out of China. Big surprise, right? But when they had someone investigate it further, instead of a single rogue factory …

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