Re: What DOS game are you playing right now?

Posted on 2009-12-04, 11:55

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by retro games 100

in Milliways

in Milliways

Recently, I completed Champions of Krynn and imported my victorious party (of blatant cheaters) into its sequel "Death knights of Krynn". After completing that, my party of merry cheaters got imported in to the final part of the trilogy called "Dark queen of Krynn". Well, something odd has happened. …

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Re: Cyrix Cx486 DX40

Posted on 2009-12-04, 09:41

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

🙁 😢

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Re: Cyrix Cx486 DX40

Posted on 2009-12-04, 09:27

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh dear! :sad: :depressed: I already bought it. However, this photo shows the 2 fake cache chips "soldered out" on the PCB, which means they are not trying to use fake chips. Maybe that cache stick to the left will work OK? Nevertheless, it's another poor purchase decision by me. Agh! PC Chips …

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Cyrix Cx486 DX40

Posted on 2009-12-04, 08:19

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just spotted this on ebay, and decided to get it because it looks really interesting. I don't know what it is, exactly. That cache chip to the left of the Cyrix CPU looks interesting. Other stuff that looks interesting: PCB says V3.4B/F Socket 3 UMC 8886BF 1 VLB slot Button battery Next to VLB …

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Re: Intel-built 486/Pentium/PPro/PII motherboard guide

Posted on 2009-12-04, 08:03

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I noticed in swaaye's list of pentium 1 mobos, the last one is called lone tree, LT430tx. I spotted one on ebay, and bought it. It turns out to be from a Viglen PC, a company which was later bought by Amstrad. It's interesting that the P200MMX has only a heatsink and no fan. Also, the heatsink next …

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Re: Minor problem with MSI FX5950

Posted on 2009-12-04, 07:40

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh no! :oops: So, it looks like I need to try either a GF3 or GF4. Which one is best? Do any exist without a fan, and also provide a sharp image, not blurry? (I seem to recall a discussion about an early GF card that had a blurry general image quality.) BTW, I just realised I have some TNT cards, …

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Re: Minor problem with MSI FX5950

Posted on 2009-12-03, 20:30

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The "infinite treasure hold" is beginning to burst at the seams! The earliest nVidia card I have is a Geforce MX 440 AGP x8 card (VGA/DVI), which is passively cooled. I appreciate that it's about a "middle of the range" series 4 card. I don't mind that it's not the fastest series 4 card. I quite …

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Re: Minor problem with MSI FX5950

Posted on 2009-12-03, 18:48

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Davros, yes I am but I'm now having second thoughts about the 59xx series. This "fried" one, and the one I tested before it (a Gigabyte 5950) both make "funny hissing noises", which makes me just want to use my silent 128-bit fx5200 instead! This hissing sound seems to be something to do with the …

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Re: Minor problem with MSI FX5950

Posted on 2009-12-03, 11:43

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Edit: Major problem. I am not joking - the card caught fire. The flame was about 1 inch square, and lasted for about 2 seconds. See photo, top right - it's right next to the "bad" capacitor. BTW, the mobo/PSU seems to have survived!

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Minor problem with MSI FX5950

Posted on 2009-12-03, 11:05

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am testing an MSI Geforce FX5950 AGP graphics card, alongside my "new" Enermax Noisemaker :wink: PSU. The seller's photo for the 5950 didn't fire me up with too much confidence regarding it's working status. And it was sent to me in a padded bag. The cap closest to the power socket was not flat. …

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Re: Two dead "retro rocket" mobos?

Posted on 2009-11-25, 21:08

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Wow, now that's a proper retro PSU! :happy: It even has -5V! I did a quick browse online, and found an online retailer called megacomponents.com selling them. The thing is, they seem to have a London, UK "contact us" address, and I put one of these items in the shopping basket, and the cost …

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Re: Can you have 2 power supplies for 1 computer?

Posted on 2009-11-25, 18:25

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

5u3 wrote: 😳 Now I see why CPU manufacturers hide their cores beneath metal plates on newer processors... I'm surprised this works at all! So am I. But I just retested it, inside a Kinetiz KT133A based board. Surprisingly, it works fine - at "top speed": 2000mhz / 133fsb.

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Re: Can you have 2 power supplies for 1 computer?

Posted on 2009-11-25, 16:46

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Remembers me of this website :D http://www.dau-alarm.de/g_cpu4.html :lol: Bushwack, I've copied-and-pasted one of the photos from the above website. Do you remember I described one of my "smoked" CPUs as having "black goo" in the corner of the die. It was a bit like this photo, although not nearly …

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Re: Can you have 2 power supplies for 1 computer?

Posted on 2009-11-25, 15:54

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sorry the photo's not very good. Here are the 2 CPUs. The bottom one in rather shocking condition is actually the one that "works". Hehe!

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Re: Can you have 2 power supplies for 1 computer?

Posted on 2009-11-25, 15:48

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am not sure, power is your problem. These old second hand cpus have sometimes been overclocked and overvolted by too much and for too long. Does the die show cracks in the corner? It's difficult to say - generally speaking, it looks in rather poor condition. You know the die has a kind of light …

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Re: Can you have 2 power supplies for 1 computer?

Posted on 2009-11-25, 15:44

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I tried that calculator out a few days ago. It's very interesting. I vaguely remember in the dim and distant past buying the $2 "Pro" version, but I've no idea if or where my "purchase key" is. Anyway, using the "lite" version I put in a very basic configuration that had no HDD, no CD, and basic …

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Re: Can you have 2 power supplies for 1 computer?

Posted on 2009-11-25, 12:45

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ideally, I would like to buy a PSU from about 5 years ago, but which is "new old stock". An Antec or Enermax - one of the greats, with excellent 3.3 & 5 volt rails. I had a quick browse online at new and modern PSUs and found this one - http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1710.html It has 40A …

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Re: Can you have 2 power supplies for 1 computer?

Posted on 2009-11-24, 21:38

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You have tried a few different XP 2400+ ? Amazing! I removed my current 2400+ CPU, and replaced it with a back up 2400+, and that completely fixed the problem! This replacement CPU is running at "top speed": 2000mhz @133fsb, and the Radeon is happy with it, running at 4x AGP with no corruption on …

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Re: Can you have 2 power supplies for 1 computer?

Posted on 2009-11-24, 15:24

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd like to say a big 5 amperage thank you to prophase_j, who correctly advised me (on more than one occasion) that the primary problem was a lack of power. Now that I've got 2 PSUs feeding power to the Abit board (I'm on the 1.3 revision ATM, but this also applies to the 1.2 board), the mobo + CPU …

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Re: mouse not working with my KVM and OS/2 WARP 4

Posted on 2009-11-24, 07:22

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by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

bushwack wrote: Oh wow, I didn't realize WARP 3 would come on 21 floppies, and that's not including the BonusPak... 😵 🤣 And there's an image of a CD-ROM on the box!

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