Re: Old hard disks lifetime?

Posted on 2020-08-11, 10:07

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also feel like drive overlay or not using the full disk is, um cheating? So have a physical drive as the primary but mostly only has Dos/Win3x on it so can can be relatively small drive. I get authentic sounds during boot and disk speed isn't really that important. I then have the largest supported …

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Re: The Creeping Network (Creepingnet's) Retro PC Build Logs, Restorations, & Repairs

Posted on 2020-08-11, 09:38

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Thats a lot of work for a "just a couple of laptops " I think most of us would have given up on them long ago. Can tell NEC Versa's are where your interest is. glad your able to keep them alive And that AT&T dock is awesome!

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Re: Hardware failure.

Posted on 2020-08-11, 09:11

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This year I've lost My very first PC, suspect the original Dallas RTC has given up after 25 years as it didn't like been unplugged for extended periods of time. Prolient 1600, Suspect caps as wouldn't always powe on on at first button press for while now. ML350 G5, failed VRM (of course it's the one …

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Re: How much RAM do you need ?

Posted on 2020-08-11, 08:45

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Multitasking slightly complicates things IMHO. When these were daily drivers you probably had a few programs open, and some that weren't very efficient (realplayer is first that comes to mind even though that's not really a 486 or below thing) These days on the same hardware we probably don't …

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Re: Why does some don't adapt newer storage types into their older systems every 10 years?

Posted on 2020-08-11, 08:27

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How often do you replace your fridge? boiler, etc? they have gotten more efficient over the years as well? As mentioned above, and everything in life it all comes down to cost/benefit and don't forget to include the rollout time, hassle of supporting 2 different systems during the migration, …

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Re: Will WinXP *run* on a 486?

Posted on 2020-08-07, 13:37

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I'd say its the challenge to get the newest possible copy of windows running. Not to actually use it. like how some like the challenge of upgrading windows 1 or whatever to 10, Can't image anything worse to actually use but can understand the appeal of the challenge alone then simply format the …

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Re: Windows XP Updates?

Posted on 2020-08-07, 13:31

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Is there a limit to how many updates will be automatically downloaded by XP? If it downloads everything at the same time I might have to do it now that everything's still available and make my own slipstreamed version. It would be annoying if it doesn't download everything at once. It would mean …

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Re: Will WinXP *run* on a 486?

Posted on 2020-08-07, 10:57

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Was going to say latest but not so sure on greatest? But as you seem happy enough with its speed I guess it's true. is this the IBM in your sig? Ran NT4 on a DX2/66 with 64MB Ram towards end of it's life back in the day. Took an age to start but once booted it mad for a good basic office/internet PC …

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Re: Windows XP Updates?

Posted on 2020-08-07, 10:47

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Think we have a bit of confusion. https://www.ecomputerz.com/images/microsoft-windows-xp-updates-automatic-updates-options.jpg If you select Automatic, Download updates for me or Notify It'll still work fine. However the Windows update website link method has been broken for years now. Personally I …

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Re: My kind of retro PC

Posted on 2020-08-07, 10:30

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by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I'd call it a full reto PC. Looks to be good build although I've no interest in reto computer speakers, another bit of hardware I'll happily use a better modern replacement 😀

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Re: Compaq Evo N400c - Upgradability and more questions

Posted on 2020-08-05, 15:06

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My first IT job was given a N600, thant thing got carted around everywhere had all 3 of the multbay options (Floppy/HDD/DVD) and never let me down. Loved that thing :) Your's have the Wifi or bluetooth module that fits on top "multiport"? Always thought that was a very tidy way for an expansion slot …

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Re: 486 cache & CPU upgrade questions

Posted on 2020-08-04, 16:40

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

ahhh ok yeh bit slow but I get ya now. I agree 256k is fine, but more is always better in my book 😉

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Re: FIC SD11 bad flash. Suggestions?

Posted on 2020-08-04, 16:37

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

No problem doing it, would need to get a chip and extractor tool first. Plus the whole UK to US shipping. piatd may be closer he's got the same M/B Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today But yeh if I'm your best option I've no problem getting the bits and posting it over

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Re: 486 cache & CPU upgrade questions

Posted on 2020-08-04, 16:20

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Because your narrow sockets can only take DIP28 chips which have a maximum of 15 address pins. So the biggest chip you can use is 32kx8. And that produces 256kB when you use 8 of them. There are narrow DIP32 chips (64kx8 or 128kx8) but you don't have sockets for these... What about this? looks like …

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Re: 486 cache & CPU upgrade questions

Posted on 2020-08-04, 13:01

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can you explain why the narrow chips would be limited to 256kb? I'm assuming its some kind of addressing limit and finding 256x1 like waterbeesje mentioned wouldn't help? (not that I can, best I find so far is is 256K 32Kx8) Few years away from having the tools/space/time to create my own adapters …

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Re: Kids destroying computer hardware

Posted on 2020-08-04, 11:10

by

by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Depends entirely on the kid's personality. 100% plus the parent. He does respect my no a lot more then his mothers, she also doesn't let him do as much (she's a worrier) so even if she did let him into the garage doubt she would let him touch anything anyway lol Youngest is 8 months he's no trouble …

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Re: 486 dx2 - pc build ideas/help/recommendations

Posted on 2020-08-04, 10:40

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good catch! Going off this table https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALi_Corporation#80X86_Chipsets and that you have M1445 south bridge and PCI think its a safe bet its the M1439 M/B which doesn't take EDO Sadly TC514400ASJ-70 looks to be FPM so were still no better off though. As your open to basically …

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Re: FIC SD11 bad flash. Suggestions?

Posted on 2020-08-04, 09:54

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've got the same m/b so let me know if you need anything. Although my knowledge starts and stops at flashing bios's with official ones supplied by the manufacture. (and luckily never had to recover from one)

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Re: Anyone ever see an Aquanta XR/6 (12-way Pentium Pro)?

Posted on 2020-08-04, 09:49

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Very interesting! from a quick read of the Tech Brief 1 linked above it looks like the HAL somewhat emulates a cluster to get around the CPU limit. I guess that would be the sensible way to go with the amount of RAM and CPU's been talked about here far surpassing typical servers of the time . but …

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Re: early Pentium 4 build with Rambus DRAM, Kyro 2 graphics & Win 98SE

Posted on 2020-08-04, 09:27

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Nice, still want a rambus pc in my collection. Seems crazy to want a build based solely on the ram type but still want one. Having the Kyro seems like a good excuse to also keep the build around 😀

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