Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-09-26, 19:08

by

by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Are you sure that's a 1x slot and not a built in modem slot? Many late 90s and early 2000s motherboards had built in modems, but left the analog components on a small daughter card for FCC reasons.

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Re: IBM AT clone problems

Posted on 2019-09-26, 19:03

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm assuming that when you filled both banks with 256kbit chips to make 1MB, you set the motherboard jumpers accordingly. Initially, I pulled both the AST and the BocaRAM cards and pulled all of the 1M chips from the board. I pulled both banks from the BocaRAM (18x256K chips). I inserted them into …

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Re: IBM AT clone problems

Posted on 2019-09-26, 18:57

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you tried moving the DIPs around (ie first into the last position, second into third and so on, and last into third)? Yes, just the other day. I know for sure the 256K DIPs are good, they work fine in other boards (AST Advantage 128, BocaRAM XT, DTK Turbo 640). Moving the 1M chips around …

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

Posted on 2019-09-26, 18:47

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Very interesting. I wonder if there's a way to add a discrete oscillator to the card to make it work in other machines.

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Re: Restoring an AMD 386 system, need some advice

Posted on 2019-09-26, 18:46

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Try TH99. They have a lot of jumper settings and connection points for all kinds of those cards. http://th99.infania.net

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

Posted on 2019-09-26, 03:43

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Huh, I've never been able to get my AVGA1 to work in my 286, just Pentiums. I don't own any functional desktops that are in between right now, so I'm not sure if it's a BIOS issue, but it's utterly useless in my Pentium machines because of the limited VRAM and the slow ISA bus vs PCI.

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Re: IBM AT clone problems

Posted on 2019-09-26, 03:42

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Changing the chips to one bank of 256K chips made no difference because it's a 512K configuration. Changing it to two banks of 256K chips (maximum for this chip type) is a 1MB configuration, but only 512K is seen. I can't find any other 1M chips for cheap enough to justify installing them. Putting …

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Re: IBM AT clone problems

Posted on 2019-09-25, 01:16

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Either the switch settings are wrong (seems unlikely, there are only two jumpers to set this), or one of the ICs is either partially damaged or loose. Try pressing down on each of the chips to make sure they're seated correctly. If you're feeling brave you might even try removing all of them and …

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Re: IBM AT clone problems

Posted on 2019-09-24, 22:35

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Here are pictures of the machine and it's components: The machine with it's cover on https://i.imgur.com/DFwm8vn.jpg Labeled interior showing exactly what everything is https://i.imgur.com/j95Idvo.jpg The system RAM, which is composed of 18x 511000-10 chips, which comes to 2MB plus parity https://i. …

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

Posted on 2019-09-24, 22:00

by

by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've had great luck taking the bracket off and letting it soak in a tub of white vinegar overnight. It saved a 486 motherboard whose battery completely exploded.

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Re: IBM AT clone problems

Posted on 2019-09-24, 21:55

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There was a bios set up utility called gsetup if I recall correctly. That may be worth a shot. The built in setup works perfectly fine. It correctly specifies the amount of memory. The computer does not recognize all of the installed memory. Again, and I'm going to put it in bold this time: There …

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Re: IBM AT clone problems

Posted on 2019-09-24, 18:40

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yep, I've tried this. I said in my last post. Setting the BIOS RAM size to 640K and the motherboard jumpers to 1MB, the machine recognizes 512K and says "Memory size error, run setup" It's the Award BIOS with built in setup. It's available on Minus Zero Degrees. It's in the first post, but here's …

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Re: How many Retro PCs do you have in your house?

Posted on 2019-09-24, 17:01

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In my current house? I have 2 vintage desktops and 3 vintage laptops. "PC Craft" turbo XT, using the DTK "Turbo 640" board here: https://th99.infania.net/m/C-D/30501.htm The board blew up. An RTC battery on an expansion card leaked and destroyed it. The case is nice and I have another replacement …

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Re: What PSU goes into this tower?

Posted on 2019-09-24, 16:39

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Full size AT supply. Might be hard to find one with cables long enough for everything, but they're out there for sure. Making a bracket to fit a more standard supply probably wouldn't be that hard, you might even be able to get away with just drilling some screw holes. What kind of case is this? Can …

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Re: LS-120, how it work???

Posted on 2019-09-24, 16:36

by

by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A compact flash / SD card would be so much easier than any of this. It's almost not even worth trying to track down working LS120 / ZIP cassette drives anymore. Some really late 486 motherboards support LS120 and ZIP internally, but it'd be difficult to find one. You might get away with just putting …

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Re: Restoring an AMD 386 system, need some advice

Posted on 2019-09-24, 16:30

by

by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There are different types of LED speed displays. They can be driven directly by the switch and pass it to the motherboard, or they can be driven by the motherboard's LED output.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-09-24, 16:29

by

by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There used to be a store down the road from me called "Bargain Video & Tack" Run by a sweet old lady. Video sale / rental, leather work (belts, vests, boots, you name it), and there was a computer repair shop in the back. Wonderful place. Lady, a Mrs Palmer, was in her 70s and her husband had run …

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Re: IBM AT clone problems

Posted on 2019-09-24, 16:22

by

by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm at work right now, but I'll post pictures when I get home. Yes, I have been into BIOS setup. It's Control + Alt + Escape after the floppy seek. The time and date are set correctly, the hard disk is type 14 (733 cylinders, 7 heads, 17 sectors), but I'm using an RLL controller to get 26 sectors …

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Re: IBM AT clone problems

Posted on 2019-09-23, 19:59

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just a quick edit to this, the Zenith Z445 isn't an ISA card like I thought it was. Oops. I've got a different (actually ISA) card coming in. In the meantime, I found out that the last bank of 512K on the AST Advantage was bad. Exchanging it for a different set of chips made it work correctly. I've …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-09-23, 19:44

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by FAMICOMASTER

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Amazing deal. Even replicas can go for more than that sometimes! Definitely worth it.

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