Re: Finding a Gateway OEM BIOS for Intel MS440GX

Posted on 2015-05-11, 12:45

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The headers might have been overloaded by somebody. There's probably some tiny 3pin transistors near each header, they might be burned out. It can happen when somebody has a bad fan and ends up trying it in both headers.

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Re: Biostar M6VBE - VIA Apollo Pro

Posted on 2015-05-11, 02:01

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Seems to be a US1261CM - fixed voltage, 1.5 and 2.5V :( I'm done with this board for now, it just isn't flexible enough for my taste. Thanks for your help though! I think that's the wrong device - those 1.5v and 2.5v outputs aren't for Vcore. The regulator for Vcore should be a smaller chip with a …

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Re: Biostar M6VBE - VIA Apollo Pro

Posted on 2015-05-10, 10:51

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What is the part number of the VRM chip? You might be able to find a datasheet for it which would indicate whether it supports Coppermine voltages. That doesn't tell you if the BIOS will support them though.

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Re: Finding a Gateway OEM BIOS for Intel MS440GX

Posted on 2015-05-10, 03:57

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you tried using archive.org? If you're able to come up with any links to the old support pages or a URL to the BIOS file itself, then archive.org might have an archived copy. I've sometimes been able to retrieve old files that way. Unfortunately I think it might be difficult to find anybody …

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Re: Dell Dimension XPS T600 Issues

Posted on 2015-05-10, 03:51

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Glad you got it going. Just to add a little extra info - the Dell GX150 uses a standard ATX supply, I have one so I'm certain of this. It is definitely not interchangeable with the one from your Slot-1 XPS (as I guess is already apparent). But if you ever need a different PSU for the GX150 - you can …

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Re: It's 2015 and internet retailers still don't know how to ship a hard drive

Posted on 2015-05-10, 03:25

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

Used to be that when you bought an "OEM" drive, it still came in a proper box from the manufacturer, it just lacked the fancy box, software, and any installation brackets the more expensive retail versions came with. Online retailers got a bright idea to buy drives in bulk packages and split them …

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It's 2015 and internet retailers still don't know how to ship a hard drive

Posted on 2015-05-10, 01:58

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

I just received a 3TB drive from Amazon. It was laying in the corner of a box with air pillows on top. I suppose at the time of packing, the drive might have been in the middle of the pillows. Things move. It won't stay there, it will end up in the bottom. Especially when they aren't even packed …

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Re: Any Buckling Springs Fans on Vogons?

Posted on 2015-05-10, 01:24

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A big problem with mechanical keyboards (old ones) is the space bar. Even if the sound level and feel is really nice, I get annoyed if the space bar is crappy. Funny you mention it, the spacebar is what broke on the first Wang keyboard I had. I always assumed my dog had stepped on it when I left it …

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Re: Any Buckling Springs Fans on Vogons?

Posted on 2015-05-10, 01:18

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How loud are the Alps switches compared to the Buckling Springs? I tried clicking both types just now, and I would say mine are maybe 50-75% as loud, and a bit lower in tone. But if you're actually typing on them furiously I'm not sure if there's much noticeable difference in volume. They're still …

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Re: Gateway2000 Reference Material, Drivers, Guides, Etc

Posted on 2015-05-08, 04:35

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

I have 3 Gateway 2000 branded motherboards, all actually Intel boards. No complete systems, original software, or Gateway cases though, just bare boards. I used a Socket-7 Gateway board for my last DOS machine, it was as simple and reliable as can be. One of them is an early Pentium Pro board with …

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Re: Any Buckling Springs Fans on Vogons?

Posted on 2015-05-08, 01:32

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Through a couple of stupid errors, I managed to cause damage to both of the Model M keyboards that I have. On the first, an earlier model, I broke the escape key when it fell from a high place. Much later, some keys at the lower left stopped working for whatever reason. The second one, a later model …

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Re: Foreshadowing the value of P4 hardware

Posted on 2015-05-06, 06:32

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

When I think of P4, I primarily think of it's days in competition with the K7 AthlonXP, not the Athlon64. K8 was a very different chip and seems to represent the dawn of a different era to me, though I realize it did overlap with the late P4s. So if we're talking Prescott vs K8, yeah the K8 is …

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Re: Thermal compound for retro CPUs

Posted on 2015-05-06, 05:11

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I wish that chart had copper anti-seize on it. You also want a thermal paste that is easy to remove/clean... I never tested/trusted cheap thermal paste because of some socket A/370 cpu coolers from computers/MB's I bought years ago... That was a complete pain in the ass to remove their cpu cooler …

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Re: Deteriorating game collection - how to preserve it?

Posted on 2015-05-04, 05:32

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

On the cdfreaks/myce forum, I have read that heat and humidity are major contributors to disc decay, so they should be kept in as cool and dry a place as is feasible. Perfection isn't practical, but just do the best you can. It's also been suggested that if spindles are used they should be laid on …

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Re: Thermal compound for retro CPUs

Posted on 2015-05-04, 04:32

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I had a Radio Shack branded tube which I assume was the same stuff as that "Archer" tube. I remember it costing 99 cents for the tube around 99/2000 or so (edit: it's *still* 99cents? Wow). Prior to that time I never used thermal compound at all - I didn't even know it existed. I used that tube so …

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Re: oops -- 200mmx made into 166?

Posted on 2015-04-29, 07:55

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

today's bonus trivia This P133 is an SY022. Word is(was?) many SY022 have disabled BF1, which is multipliers 2.5 and 3.0. A theory is the disabled chips may be the ones imprinted "i133" on the back, whereas "iPP" are good. This one's an "iPP", and is running 2.5x66.6. It wouldn't boot with 3.0x66 …

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2015-04-26, 07:49

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Quite a transitional board there. I can't say I've ever seen a desktop board with PCI, PCI-X, Express, and dual Express16 slots before. Whoever bought that would have to be pretty indecisive about what cards they were going to have.

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Re: Any Thinkpad fans identify this model?

Posted on 2015-04-26, 07:34

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My brother had a T23 many years ago. I thought it was a great laptop, though I do remember him getting a BSOD from that S3 Savage video driver once. I don't know what provoked it but it wasn't an everyday thing. My sister had an A22 and I've had an A20 since 2001. The latter were both ATI based. I …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2015-04-25, 23:20

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

oerk wrote: Started to learn how to use a SoundBlaster card from QBasic, because I always wanted to know this since I started programming in the mid-90s. I guess I'll be spending more time with BASIC from now on. From BASIC? I had no idea that was possible. Impressive.

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Re: Gamestop To Begin Trading in Retro Consoles and Games

Posted on 2015-04-23, 05:33

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

I used to like Funcoland/etc back when they had massive quantities of NES and Genesis games for sale. It was almost heaven. That was a long time ago. The last Genesis game I saw in a modern Gamestop was some sports title for 49 cents. It was all they had left. I made a few shopping trips for N64 …

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