Re: Retro confessions. What are yours?

Posted on 2020-11-08, 21:17

by

by Moogle!

in Milliways

in Milliways

Hezus wrote on 2020-11-08, 19:24: Ok, here it comes: I don't consider anything after 2000 to be retro. Sorry guys. I consider P4 with XP to be the official cut-off, though it started a few years before that.

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Re: Retro confessions. What are yours?

Posted on 2020-11-06, 21:33

by

by Moogle!

in Milliways

in Milliways

I remember going from my Mitsumi 4X's zip-zip, zip-zip to the VRRRRRRRMMMMMMMM of the 12X and 16X. I quite like that sound, actually.

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Retro confessions. What are yours?

Posted on 2020-11-06, 15:56

by

by Moogle!

in Milliways

in Milliways

I confess that I think those Roland speakers everyone has to have are overpriced and over rated and I refuse to buy them. I also never cared for the Doom level 1 theme and think it is mildly catchy at best.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-11-03, 01:44

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Remembered something unusual I had acquired as a curiosity some time ago: a Trio3D/2X. Why should anyone care about these cards? Well, this one is a little unusual.PXL_20201102_215533447.jpg Hint: these are typically only found as AGP. Those came after the Virges, didn't they? Bought one of these: …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-11-01, 19:22

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not that I ever seem to have time to mess with this stuff, but against my better judgement, I bought this stupid thing after staring at it for ages on Ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Pentium-Motherboard-P54CS-Socket-5-ISA-PCI/224000459479 Cannot ID it. Looks like an ECS, but this particular …

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Re: My Socket 4 Motherboard. The ultimate 486 replacement?

Posted on 2020-10-17, 18:07

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I have one coming. If it has the Award as the sticker suggests, I'll dump it for you. Be careful though and make sure you backup the Phoenix. Some BIOSes are written for one board configuration, and some BIOSes may be written for another. Usually the I/O chip may be different, or possibly the …

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Re: Orpheus Soundcard: a new DOS soundcard with SPDIF/OPL3/MPU support

Posted on 2020-09-15, 13:46

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I'm curious if there were other chips available, such as leftover ESS 1868 chips, or the CM8330a (which supports SBPro/16/WSS and has SPDIF).

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Re: Orpheus Soundcard: a new DOS soundcard with SPDIF/OPL3/MPU support

Posted on 2020-09-13, 16:19

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Have you sent one of these to Phil (or anyone else) for review? I had no idea this thing even existed until I was accidentally sent an email when inquiring about a PC MIDI card.

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Re: How about a MR-BIOS ROM file repository?

Posted on 2020-08-24, 03:43

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Is there a Mr. BIOS for the Intel NX chipset? (Or whichever one is the Pentium 60/66Mhz chipset)

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Re: Trying to upgrade a board.

Posted on 2020-08-23, 06:42

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Another update, for those who might be interested. I got the IPC chips swapped, but that still didn't cure the problem, though I did notice one of the LEDS on the POST card that wasn't lighting would occasionally come on now. So I looked again, and lo and behold, there is an honest to god discrete …

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Re: Trying to upgrade a board.

Posted on 2020-08-20, 08:38

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I stuck what I believe to be a 100NS delay line in that socket, and it still won't boot at 33Mhz. While I haven't ruled that out as being the sole cause of this, given the flaky behaviour at 25Mhz with a 40NS delay line chip, I believe there is more to this issue, and I already have a new …

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Re: Trying to upgrade a board.

Posted on 2020-08-19, 23:11

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Minor update. Got the DS1000 up off the board, but I somehow managed to break three of its legs off. Got a socket down and tried a compatible chip from another board (one of those bigger, blockier types) with 40NS delay. It tries to boot with that, but it's gets stuck with 0A on the POST card. I …

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Re: Trying to upgrade a board.

Posted on 2020-08-19, 18:25

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Minor update. Got the DS1000 up off the board, but I somehow managed to break three of its legs off. Got a socket down and tried a compatible chip from another board (one of those bigger, blockier types) with 40NS delay. It tries to boot with that, but it's gets stuck with 0A on the POST card. I …

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Re: Trying to upgrade a board.

Posted on 2020-08-18, 23:23

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I believe that was the version already on my board.

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Re: Trying to upgrade a board.

Posted on 2020-08-18, 07:19

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I can at least eliminate that theory. Doesn't boot at 33Mhz with the Mr. Bios either. It also eliminates a secondary theory about the eproms being too slow.

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Re: Trying to upgrade a board.

Posted on 2020-08-18, 02:24

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm also wondering if there is a check built into the BIOS that checks the CPU speed. I doubt it, as I think only IBM did that.

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Re: Trying to upgrade a board.

Posted on 2020-08-17, 23:15

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hmm ok found this at the Archied Micronics website: http://web.archive.org/web/19970607130047/http://www.micronics.com/support/archives/486.htm#prod_025 and the manual #00025 was archived from their ftp site here: https://www.infania.net/misc/moboarchive/Micronics/manuals/00025.txt No mention of …

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Re: Trying to upgrade a board.

Posted on 2020-08-17, 18:45

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yep, 50 and 66 mhz crystals here. 80 on the other boards. Ram is 60ns. ISA bus is supposed to be fixed at8mhz and is probably 8.33, but I have not pulled out ny counter to check it. Please post a picture of your board. Being the board name is: Micronics DX25 I am guessing it was not designed to run …

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Re: Trying to upgrade a board.

Posted on 2020-08-17, 02:01

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hmm.. changing crystals on many old boards usually meant changing some jumpers to divide the ISA clock to make sure it still at 8mhz and sometimes also changing memory timing. Many old boards used the crystal to establish a base but others also used it to time many other things. Simple math: 50Mhz …

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Re: Trying to upgrade a board.

Posted on 2020-08-17, 01:46

by

by Moogle!

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You changed the CPU, but you might still be running other parts out of spec. You'd better try to get your motherboard manual to see what the jumpers do. That's what I figured, which is why Iwas looking at that time delay chip. There aren't a huge amount of jumpers, but I am still playing with it. …

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