Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2015-09-23, 18:43

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just won these "untested" CPUs They look good from this side... no picture of the pins... I kind of expect I have to do some work... SX-25_K62-450_DX2-66_P100.JPG As long as the DX2-66 works Im reasonably happy, I need to find one that will do 96 MHz :cool:. I kind of want the P100 to work aswell …

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Re: Dead P200 Machine?

Posted on 2015-09-23, 16:12

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh, sorry to double-tap my own thread, but I did want to ask about the inability to get into "System Setup" on this box. My impression was that an unseated component shouldn't prevent me from getting into the BIOS and that the component in question simply wouldn't show up in system settings rather …

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Re: ISA/VLB/PCI/AGP-best design/quality PCB

Posted on 2015-09-23, 15:15

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not the Radeon 9xxx, they look well built and they are but they still often fail. I would look at Fire GL or Quado cards when it comes to AGP, they are mostly the same as the gaming cards but with more conservative clock speeds. ELSA Gloria III Quadro2 Pro (Geforce 2) gets my vote! I think it will …

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Re: Dead P200 Machine?

Posted on 2015-09-23, 13:27

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Test to reseat the memory and the IDE cables, also check that all expansion cards are fully inserted in the expansion slots. Things like this can happen when you move systems around.

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

Posted on 2015-09-22, 19:35

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Im messing with my new ISA only 486 system :) The HOT-403 with all 8 slots filled with memory is no speed demon thats for sure but the system should be fast enough for any game released 1990 - 1993 :) I started out with the DX33 that came with the board and I plan to test it again as I have bought a …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2015-09-21, 20:20

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sometimes eBay has nice surprises. BTW: why not use a am486DX2-80? The 5V ones are pretty rare and my Intel DX2-66 works perfectly at 80 MHz. Overclocking can never™ damage a CPU as long as its not running too hot but overvolting a 3.3V chip at 5V probably could, at least with some bad luck and …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2015-09-21, 19:40

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I got some new 486 gear :) My plan is to replace the stuff I threw away during the dark years when I thought old computers were useless :P I wanted a PCI 486 system to mimic my last 486 system (DX2-80) I used during 1995, I bought the same board as I used back then, the Asus PVI-486SP3. I also …

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Re: PC doesn't want to read more than 640 KB RAM when booting

Posted on 2015-09-21, 15:58

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It might be something as silly as its only 1meg of ram....I know a few of my 386 boards will only count up to 640K, not counting the rest, if there's only 1MB of ram installed. If there are only four 256K modules installed, then that would be the 1megabyte, but only counting up to the 640K. I've …

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Re: AWE32 GM vs. GM Daughtercards

Posted on 2015-09-20, 20:05

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

When it comes to the MT-32 emulation I think some instruments sounds "wrong" with the AWE32 and MT32 emulation activated. My DreamWave board with the MT32 patch set loaded actually sounds very much like the real thing to my ears at least. True, the AWE32's default instrument sample set is not the …

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Re: AWE32 GM vs. GM Daughtercards

Posted on 2015-09-20, 19:25

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Curious, why do you say that the AWE32's MT-32 emulation isn't very good? Did you load AWEUTIL with the /EM:MT32 parameter before playing your MT-32 game? Bear in mind, the AWE32 (like many other "MT-32 emulated" sound cards), do not support sysex messages and, games that utilses this will not …

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Re: AWE32 GM vs. GM Daughtercards

Posted on 2015-09-20, 19:16

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just tried renaming finegm.sbk to synthgm.sbk and using AWEUTIL /em:gm to load it in DOS. GM music didn't work with Duke 3D or Descent 2 in DOS. Works when launching from Windows, however. It dosnt work with all games as I understand it but it does work when playing MIDI files with gsplay for …

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Re: AWE32 GM vs. GM Daughtercards

Posted on 2015-09-20, 18:07

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I like modules and lots of cables. I switch the MPU-401 cable to the PC I am using and I am good to go. With PCBs you need to remove and install from system to system. Using MIFs in all PCs removes that requirement. This daughter board will hardly fit on any other card so it stays on the AudioWave …

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Re: AWE32 GM vs. GM Daughtercards

Posted on 2015-09-20, 17:30

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think the AWE32 is underrated. Its true that the AWE32s default soundbank isnt that impressive but with the 2MB "finegm" soundbank you can load in DOS it sounds really good, arguably better than the Dream wavetable chips when playing General MIDI stuff. Many games have music written for the AWE32 …

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Re: AWE32 GM vs. GM Daughtercards

Posted on 2015-09-20, 16:58

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think the AWE32 is underrated. Its true that the AWE32s default soundbank isnt that impressive but with the 2MB "finegm" soundbank you can load in DOS it sounds really good, arguably better than the Dream wavetable chips when playing General MIDI stuff. Many games have music written for the AWE32 …

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

Posted on 2015-09-19, 21:18

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The only GIFs I had on floppy disk in the 90s were pornographic... Thanks for sharing? I found it pretty funny. I got two lots of floppies recently for free (it was either that or going to the dump), and in both lots, at least 5 or 6 floppies contained retro porn. Either gifs, or DOS programs from …

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

Posted on 2015-09-19, 19:59

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Im testing memory modules I have bought on Ebay and similar sites, both old 72pin FPM/EDO modules and DDR2 modules. This is the saddest thing I have seen this week. Dude, it's Saturday! (To be fair, I have also been there) Between 1999 and 2004 I used to spend on average about $100 - $150 every …

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

Posted on 2015-09-19, 14:19

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Im testing memory modules I have bought on Ebay and similar sites, both old 72pin FPM/EDO modules and DDR2 modules. I have so far not found a single non working EDO or FPM module out of 50+ modules but quite a few dead DDR2 modules.

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Re: Yet another Dallas/Odin RTC mod thread.

Posted on 2015-09-17, 20:35

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice looking mod, except the cable shoes, but you already explained why. Great guide, thanks! Thanks :) This is perhaps good to add. I noticed that the RTC chip needs to be dried after beeing wet grinded, if its desoldered or socketed just put it in the oven at 70C for half an hour before soldering …

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Yet another Dallas/Odin RTC mod thread.

Posted on 2015-09-17, 19:24

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There are many guides on the net for this, I thought I would share how I did it. This version of the mod is easier done if your RTC is mounted in a socket or if you desolder it but it can be done with the RTC still soldered to the board with some masking. The nice thing about this verion of the mod …

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Re: LCD monitor VGA compatibility database

Posted on 2015-09-16, 18:58

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently found a place that sells tested "old" LCD monitors for 20kr = 2 euro each :). They have alot of brands in all sizes up to 20" but only 4:3 models with D-sub only input. Become their best friend, and convince them to include xjas's testing suite in their testing, tested only with a kick- …

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