Re: Very old IDE drives... compatibility problems?

Posted on 2016-05-26, 03:23

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If the drives are good, they should work fine. If BIOS recognises them, they at least work (and jumpers are set correctly). XP probably does several HDD checks for integrity and they most probably fail and then uses PIO mode that drastically reduces computer response.

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Re: i486DX/33 @ DX2/66 - how's that even possible?

Posted on 2016-05-25, 17:56

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I had AMD 486DX2-66 (3.45V part) that run fine at 120MHz (3x40). If I still had it, I'd also try 2x66 😉

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Re: What CPU would be perfect for Trident 8900c ?

Posted on 2016-05-25, 15:09

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

On general they are around 20-50% slower then the fastest ISA cards (depends on the model as some can be as fast as good ISA card). But work good anyhow. Even on a 286-16 there is a noticeable speed difference between 8900 and ET4000. But there are even slower cards on ISA then Trident. Back in the …

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Re: What CPU would be perfect for Trident 8900c ?

Posted on 2016-05-25, 14:55

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

286 to 386DX-40. But some also use them for XT as generally they support 8-bit bus with proper jumper configuration. You can use them as far as ISA bus is supported and use it as a CPU slowdown 😉

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Re: Joyce/Armstrad PCW 8256

Posted on 2016-05-23, 09:18

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I have one of these, but can't get it to work. No idea what's wrong. Monitor powers up, floppy led is ON. If I put any floppy in it, nothing happens 😕

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Re: Norton Commander Anniversary

Posted on 2016-05-16, 08:45

by

by kixs

in Milliways

in Milliways

Windows Commander was out even before Win95. I begun using it in 1994 in Win3.11 - shareware version 1.40. It's funny when you look back and see how subtle changes do to a program over the years. Back to Norton Commander 😉

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Re: Sent PM sits in outbox for a day

Posted on 2016-05-15, 22:19

by

by kixs

in Milliways

in Milliways

It's actually a good feature. You'll know when it gets read or not 😉

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Re: Norton Commander Anniversary

Posted on 2016-05-15, 22:17

by

by kixs

in Milliways

in Milliways

I liked PC-Tools v5 better then NC. Everything was done by the shortcut keys and you could do things faster. Newer PC-Tools (v6) was worse. When FAT32 came out, old PC-Tools didn't like it and by then switched to Windows Commander. I use it ever since. So thanks goes to NC after all 😀

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Re: Is there any benefit from playing a single core game on a OS that supports dual cpu?

Posted on 2016-05-15, 13:18

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It sure does make sense. Multitasking OS's always run something in the background so it's beneficial to have more cpus/cores. If the game will run any faster it mostly depends also on graphic driver - which were usually better on Win9x.

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Re: Good Pentium 3 Board with ISA and Tualatin Support?

Posted on 2016-05-15, 08:22

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Reading comments from 2001... People were complaining to why some new boards have ISA slot... If they only knew this would be some of the most wanted feature 15 years later 🤣 Like here (at the bottom): http://techreport.com/news/2415/abit-vh6t

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Re: 33mhz fpu on a 40mhz 386 pc

Posted on 2016-05-15, 07:53

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I also tested ceramic Intel 386DX-16MHz and it worked all the way to 40MHz :D Haven't yet found a processor/fpu that wouldn't work from 33 to 40MHz. I had some problems with 486slc-33 to run at 40MHz but only later found out it was actually a memory problem. When replaced 70ns with 60ns simms it …

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Re: Humour Thread: Outrageously priced retro gear for sale online

Posted on 2016-05-14, 22:01

by

by kixs

in Milliways

in Milliways

Could be a mistake at EUR 999,99. http://www.ebay.de/itm/like/Cyrix-5x86-586-10 … PM/391384943433

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Re: 33mhz fpu on a 40mhz 386 pc

Posted on 2016-05-14, 14:16

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've tested several 33MHz FPUs (Cyrix and IIT) on 40MHz bus and they all work fine - tested with AutoCAD.

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Re: How different is Windows 9x from NT? Are they not the same?

Posted on 2016-05-13, 17:16

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I upgraded my Pentium 166 MMX from 24MB to 64Mb just for XP! Are you sure you aren't mistaking XP for Windows 2000? Windows NT real life minimum was 32MB. For W2K it was 64MB and XP was more like 128MB. It would run on less but at what "cost".

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Re: How different is Windows 9x from NT? Are they not the same?

Posted on 2016-05-13, 16:45

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it had support for Win 3.11 (probably win32s) it wouldn't run any faster on NT.

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Re: How different is Windows 9x from NT? Are they not the same?

Posted on 2016-05-13, 06:41

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, it's like everything but the looks (I mean Win95 and NT4). Win9x era ended with Windows ME. While NT is still going on strong even with Win 10 (with all the bells and whistles). You should check the wikipedia for more explanations as there are tons of differences. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki …

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Re: SS7 board with keyboard leds flashing/blinking

Posted on 2016-05-12, 07:29

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Measured the keyboard +5V and it's actually getting +4.65V. PSU gives 5.3V. I guess something is going on with this +5V line. I'm not sure how to find out what 😒 This line is also connected to the PS/2 mouse port which reads the same 4.65V. I don't know where it goes from there 😕

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Re: SS7 board with keyboard leds flashing/blinking

Posted on 2016-05-12, 05:25

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I used PS/2 keyboard with AT(DIN) adapter. I use this almost exclusively for years now. As said before I don't have a real AT keyboard at hand (it's all packed away). I will try with real AT keyboard once I get to it. I haven't seen this kind of behaviour before and that's why I'm asking if someone …

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Re: SS7 board with keyboard leds flashing/blinking

Posted on 2016-05-11, 18:17

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Of course I won't scrap it anytime soon. But I'm not sure what can be done with it as the functional keyboard is a must in my book 😕

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Re: SS7 board with keyboard leds flashing/blinking

Posted on 2016-05-11, 17:25

by

by kixs

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

- already tried with another PS2 keyboard - no difference - thought about USB... but USB keyboard function has to be enabled in the BIOS. By default it's disabled As it looks now I'll use it for parts. I've a few Epox MVP3 boards with bad caps. I have too much untested stuff and it seems a lot of it …

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