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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2014-06-19, 22:26

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Picked up a half dozen ISA sound cards over the past week for a song. Here are some of the more interesting examples: http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j349/boxpressed/P1100795.jpg http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j349/boxpressed/P1100793.jpg http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j349/boxpressed/ …

AOpen Aw32 Pro = Acer Magic S23A ?

Posted on 2014-06-19, 22:09

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I was hoping that someone knows whether these two are the exact same sound card. The card I have has "Magic S23A Board" markings on it. Yet, it is recognized in Windows as an Aw32 Pro. The reason I ask is that the drivers that Win98SE wants to load for the card keep crashing the system upon startup, …

Re: Fastest PCI 3D card ever made

Posted on 2014-06-18, 03:18

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What would be the best PCI card under the following conditions: * Will use Win98SE and DOS * Games like Quake 2, Duke 3D * CPU range from Slot 1 PII 333 through PIII 700 Coppermine * Only have a 200W PS Thanks!

Re: Do-it-yourself PSU for Optiplex GXPro

Posted on 2014-06-17, 04:28

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I took some photos of the section from my copy of the book (sorry, the book is too thick to scan well). It's readable, though. Not sure why the second page isn't rotated. Hope it helps. http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j349/boxpressed/P1100779.jpg http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j349/ …

Re: Do-it-yourself PSU for Optiplex GXPro

Posted on 2014-06-17, 00:19

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Mueller mentions trying this mod in the 14h ed of Upgrading and Repairing PCs. I'll try to post later after ai reread it.

Re: Need Help Selecting an AT Power Supply

Posted on 2014-06-16, 23:57

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I picked up one of these recently (ATX 20 PIN to AT P8/P9 Converter with -5V & On/Off Switch & Dummy Load) to use with a non -5V capable ATX PSU - seems to do the trick quite well! Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions, but this solution may work the best for me. I have a new ATX PS without …

Any Dell Optiplex GX1 Owners?

Posted on 2014-06-16, 23:51

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In another thread we have been discussing an interesting feature of the Dell Optiplex GX1: you can activate a "Compatibility" mode from DOS on the fly that slows down your computer. You use Ctrl-Alt-\ or Ctrl-Alt-#. I've tried it on my GX1, and it works. I believe that the key combo disables the …

Need Help Selecting an AT Power Supply

Posted on 2014-06-16, 15:16

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently received a mixed lot of 386 and 486 motherboards (pics to come in another thread) that I'd like to test and run through their paces. However, I have neither an AT case nor an AT power supply. I figured that I could still test with a power supply only. I was a little surprised that you can …

Re: Nerdly Pleasures - My Vintage Computer/Gaming Blog

Posted on 2014-06-16, 03:09

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I'm surprised that your blog hasn't been referenced before now. It's a great resource, and I've learned a lot from it. Keep up the excellent work!

GUS Sound Settings in Doom 2 / Blood Setup

Posted on 2014-06-15, 20:47

in DOS

in DOS

I've successfully installed my old GUS ACE and was wondering what sound settings I should use in the setup program for games such as Doom 2 and Blood. In Doom 2, I have only one option: Number of Sound FX to mix (1-8) In Blood, I have two options: Number of Voices (4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32) …

Re: Is a Pentium II Too Fast for a DOS Rig?

Posted on 2014-06-15, 19:14

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My Optiplex BIOS doesn't have an option for turning off the cache, so I think that this "Compatibility" mode is the same thing. I'm curious whether a faster GX1 with a PIII would run the Compatibility mode at the same speed, or if it would be faster, more like a 386. My guess is the latter, but some …

Re: Is a Pentium II Too Fast for a DOS Rig?

Posted on 2014-06-15, 02:21

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

OK, I ran Topbench for the first time. Pretty cool program. Here are the results: Normal Mode: 337 (P2-333 /66 MHz FSB) "Compatibility" Mode: 38 (Comparable to a 286-16) I'm pretty happy with that. That opens up a whole range of mid-1980s games.

Re: Is a Pentium II Too Fast for a DOS Rig?

Posted on 2014-06-15, 01:38

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think that the Optiplex wasn't playing well with the IDE-to-CF adapter + Hitachi Microdrive, hence the corrupted vmm32.vxd. Right now I'm reinstalling Win98SE on the original 6GB drive (turned out not to be fried after all -- the floppy drive was). Once I'm up and running, I'm going to load …

Re: Is a Pentium II Too Fast for a DOS Rig?

Posted on 2014-06-14, 23:37

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ctrl Alt / However, my vmm32.vxd just got borked upon bootup today. Don't think it is related, but I'll have to reinstall before I can do more testing.

Re: Is a Pentium II Too Fast for a DOS Rig?

Posted on 2014-06-14, 18:35

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, it comes with a riser board. There are 3 ISA slots and 3 PCI slots, although one slot is shared, I think. I think it is just enough: SB Pro GUS Voodoo 2 SLI S3 Virge PCI

Re: Is a Pentium II Too Fast for a DOS Rig?

Posted on 2014-06-14, 07:01

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You may be in luck because the GX1 has a special key combination that slows the CPU speed (or maybe disables cache) on the fly. <\> or <#> (See below). It works! Well, kind of. The slowdown is quite dramatic. I would guess that the processor is getting slowed down to a 386 level or maybe even lower …

Re: Is a Pentium II Too Fast for a DOS Rig?

Posted on 2014-06-14, 03:35

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Define "DOS Games" :) For early DOS games I would rather go with a Pentium. Yeah, kind of broad I know. I was thinking about later DOS games after 1992 or so that followed Wolf 3D. I'd rather use a 486DX2-66 or early Pentium too, but I want to know if any popular games from this era had speed …

Re: Is a Pentium II Too Fast for a DOS Rig?

Posted on 2014-06-14, 03:24

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Wow, that's very cool. Thanks for the tip. That's why Vogons is so great. I'll load Jazz and Gods (two problem games) later and report back. Is there a good DOS program that can report system speed?

Is a Pentium II Too Fast for a DOS Rig?

Posted on 2014-06-13, 21:38

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In order to keep this hobby from getting out of hand, I want to build only two rigs, a fast Win98SE rig and a DOS rig. Ideally, I would like to have a 486DX2/66 powering my DOS rig, but I'm still sourcing the parts for it. Yesterday, I picked up a Dell Optiplex GX1 from a local surplus sale. There …

Re: Tell your story. What made you sign up to Vogons?

Posted on 2014-06-13, 15:07

in Milliways

in Milliways

I've been a regular on the AtariAge forums for a few years now, and the community at Vogons is similar to it in the best ways: mature, helpful, knowledgeable. I'm surprised that it's taken me this long to join Vogons given that PC gaming really defined gaming for me from about 1983 on. I started …

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