SCB-55 Roland daughterboard - what's on those floppy disks?

Posted on 2009-05-23, 17:28

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

When I got a SCB-55 DB card, I threw away the floppy disks thinking I wouldn't need them. All I want is to stick the thing on a sound card, and listen to DOS game music. Why keep the disks, I thought. Well, I'm curious now I've thrown away the disks. What's on them? Just software for musicians? …

---

Analog Devices Media Sound 2000 SB ISA sound card

Posted on 2009-05-23, 17:26

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Someone has one for sale with a daughter board (which he says has a Sony AT bus for connecting hard drives). The seller also says the sound card is general midi and Roland GS compatible. Will I be able to listen to funky music in old DOS games using the general midi sound card music option, like you …

---

Re: 486 mobo won't boot up

Posted on 2009-05-22, 05:37

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You took your time, I came to that conclusion ages ago :D :lol: One reason I appear to be so stupid, is that I didn't get involved in any of this stuff until about a year ago. Incidentally, that reminds me, I find mobo manuals difficult to understand - specifically the chapter on the BIOS. I turn …

---

CPUs seem to be as tough as old boots

Posted on 2009-05-22, 05:25

by

by retro games 100

in Milliways

in Milliways

I bought 4 AMD DX4-100 CPUs from a Chinese ebay seller. When they arrived, I threw them away because 90% of the pins on all 4 CPUs were bent. When I say "threw them away", I put them out with the rubbish, so they were still on hand. I searched for their replacements on ebay, and found them much too …

---

Re: 486 mobo won't boot up

Posted on 2009-05-21, 17:58

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I decided not to reinstall windows 98, but instead to go back to the Intel 486 DX2-66 cpu. With L2 cache enabled, and L1 cache set to writeback, all is OK. I don't know why, but it works. One other thing I noticed - Magic Carpet didn't like the AMD DX4 cpu. Hexen also crashed about 30 seconds …

---

Re: 486 mobo won't boot up

Posted on 2009-05-21, 16:43

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Maybe the cache error manifests itself in a different way now that the CPU timing has changed... try to start Win98 without cache. I tried setting level 2 cache to disabled, and level 1 cache to write thru (not write back), but windows 98 has become very unstable. I think it may require …

---

Re: 486 mobo won't boot up

Posted on 2009-05-21, 15:18

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Solved! I changed the Intel 486 dx2-66 cpu for an AMD 486 dx4-100 cpu. That seemed to solve the L2 cache problem. Strange. Buggy mobo BIOS perhaps? I ran speedsys, just for a laugh. Also, Doom plays fast. Finally, now I've changed the CPU, windows 98 crashes badly when it tries to display the …

---

Re: How can you troubleshoot mobo cache memory?

Posted on 2009-05-21, 06:02

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sorry, sockets!! That's a good idea - to try 128k of cache, but there's a problem. Written on the mobo, is a helpful cache configuration table. It tells me that in order to use 128k cache, I need to change the tag ram chip. For 256k cache, the tag chip I have inserted seems to be the same as the …

---

Re: How can you troubleshoot mobo cache memory?

Posted on 2009-05-20, 19:20

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Davros wrote: I remember years ago there was a scandal about boards being sold with fake cache chips I think that was a 486 board made by the infamous PC Chips company.

---

How can you troubleshoot mobo cache memory?

Posted on 2009-05-20, 17:47

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If I set my 486 mobo's cache memory to "enabled", it hangs during POST. Because of this problem, I need to investigate if any of its cache chips are defective. The mobo's cache chips are as follows - 9 chips in total. 1 chip is in the TAG slot, the other 8 are in the cache memory slots. All 9 chips …

---

Re: 486 mobo won't boot up

Posted on 2009-05-20, 16:17

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've found the specific problem. If I set "external cache" to disabled, the mobo functions OK and boots up from a HDD. If I set "external cache" to enabled, then the mobo hangs during its POST operations, and cannot boot from a HDD. (The mobo gets to the point where it should mention "updating ESCD" …

---

Re: 486 mobo won't boot up

Posted on 2009-05-20, 15:40

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I went a bit "mad", and inside the BIOS, set everything I could see to "disabled" - which was my way of setting the BIOS to "fail safe" mode. It now boots up OK. I have no idea why. Obviously one (or more) edited BIOS settings (set to disabled) have "done the trick", but it will take some more …

---

486 mobo won't boot up

Posted on 2009-05-20, 14:32

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Testing a MB-8433UUD 486 mobo, with Award BIOS. During POST, the screen displays the familiar HDD/FDD/serial/parallel etc etc information, but the HDD doesn't boot up. My BIOS POST card shows the number 11 00. Presumably I need to look up the Award BIOS error code of 11. So I do that, and it says - …

---

Re: VLB IDE controller - it can't 'see' the HDD

Posted on 2009-05-19, 14:29

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Solved! I got the VLB IO card to work. One of the ISA contacts on the card had some crud on it. I scrapped it off with my finger. I reinserted the card, it works, HDD boots up OK. 😀

---

Re: VLB IDE controller - it can't 'see' the HDD

Posted on 2009-05-19, 13:38

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think the jumpers are OK. I've even got the printed leaflet for it! But I still can't get the HDD to boot. I removed the VLB controller card, and tried two different PCI "100 speed" IDE cards. Neither worked. So I dug out an old ISA multi IO card, and that boots up a very old HDD OK. Oh well. : …

---

Re: VLB IDE controller - it can't 'see' the HDD

Posted on 2009-05-18, 17:53

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There is no error message. The BIOS "POST screen" says C drive: no disk. The BIOS is unable to automatically detect the HDD - it finds nothing. If I enter the HDD's details manually (ie, cylinders, heads, sectors), then the mobo hangs as it attempts to find the HDD. Finally, the HDD does spin up OK. …

---

VLB IDE controller - it can't 'see' the HDD

Posted on 2009-05-18, 17:33

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Strange as it may seem, I have never tested a VLB IDE controller with a HDD. I've got the following hardware - 486 PCI/VLB/ISA mobo (Gigabyte GA486IM) VLB IDE controller (QD6580W/787/777) Old working HDD (under 1 GB) + old working 40 pin cable The VLB controller is currently inserted in to VESA slot …

---

Re: I need a simple soft power On/Off switch

Posted on 2009-05-18, 13:10

by

by retro games 100

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As always, thanks a lot people - I appreciate everyone's assistance. 😀

---

Re: D3D 8 + Geforce 4 = texture problem

Posted on 2009-05-17, 12:07

by

by retro games 100

in Windows

in Windows

Thanks! The 45.23 Detonator drivers fixed the problem. 😀

---

D3D 8 + Geforce 4 = texture problem

Posted on 2009-05-17, 09:28

by

by retro games 100

in Windows

in Windows

Graphics card - Geforce MX 440 AGP. Games - "No one lives forever" and "Aliens vs Predator 2" (both directX 8 games from Monolith) Problem - Textures on things that move are displayed white. I think I'm using all the correct software - latest directX for windows 98, latest forceware drivers for …

---