Re: I got a Dell 486 - my ultimate 486 build log!

Posted on 2019-09-08, 19:11

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Some work done: Replaced malfunctioning 3.5-inch floppy drive; disconnected 5.25-inch drive for now because it has a mechanical issue (makes a horrible noise upon startup and won't stop) and I don't have a 5.25-inch disks to test it with Replaced RAM with two 16 MB SIMMS for a total of 32 MB, seemed …

---

Re: I got a Dell 486 - my ultimate 486 build log!

Posted on 2019-09-08, 17:08

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

JonathonWyble wrote: You're correct! I've never had a situation with an optical disc like this one. I just asked a little question about what the OP was doing with his disc tray. Your day will come. Better stock up on paper clips.

---

Re: I got a Dell 486 - my ultimate 486 build log!

Posted on 2019-09-07, 23:52

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

A paperclip? How would something like that help with burning a disc? I didn't know that was something people can do... Clearly you've never gotten a CD stuck in a drive before. I reseated the cable on the CD drive and now it spins up the disk and attempts to read it, but it cannot read; just sits …

---

Re: What do you drive?

Posted on 2019-09-06, 16:22

by

by keenmaster486

in Milliways

in Milliways

2000 Subaru Outback. Peak Subaru! This thing rocks. Low mileage for a 2000 and in great condition. If I take care of it I bet it will last me a long time. Even better, there are NO COMPUTERS in the dash! When I step on the gas, there is a physical link between the pedal and the throttle! Nice.

---

Re: HWiNFO support of vintage hardware

Posted on 2019-09-06, 05:26

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I love HWINFO - when it works. HWINFO32/64 I have never had any issues with, even when it gives me various mysterious warnings. HWINFO for DOS is always a pain in the neck. I rarely am able to get it to run without issues, for the following reasons: (this is based on testing over many years on many …

---

Re: Can watch 1080 on Pentium III?

Posted on 2019-09-06, 05:21

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You'll need the hardware video decoding but I predict that IF you get the video to decode without stressing the CPU, you will only just barely be able to play 1080p video. If the CPU has to do the decoding then you have no chance. If you use an easily decodable format like MPEG-2 then you might be …

---

Re: Vintage amps: my experience so far

Posted on 2019-09-05, 19:16

by

by keenmaster486

in Milliways

in Milliways

My newest setup is a Yamaha R-500 paired with my Polk TSi100s, a Pioneer turntable with AudioTechnica cartridge, and a Behringer DAC hooked up to my main PC -- plus a Sound Blaster 16 in my new Dell 486 that I'm playing around with. Sounds nice and crisp.

---

Re: Programming the VGA chip in C/C++ for 16 bit DOS - help writing my own routines

Posted on 2019-09-05, 01:44

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Update: I reworked my test code in C. Link to repository: https://github.com/keenmaster486/BEEP6 It is working now! Sets the video mode and can draw some lines. I can move forward with this, although I still wish I could do it in C++ instead.

---

Re: Programming the VGA chip in C/C++ for 16 bit DOS - help writing my own routines

Posted on 2019-09-04, 22:16

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Status update: I think I figured out what was wrong with the library. I had old object files from a previous build attempt. After removing those, it rebuilds with no warnings. my test; (-ecc for c calling convection, ms for small model) "wcl -2 -ms -ecc test.c xlib06\XLIB06l.lib" CODE THIS works. …

---

Re: Programming the VGA chip in C/C++ for 16 bit DOS - help writing my own routines

Posted on 2019-09-04, 18:24

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I used the xlib lib file in your beep github, when I linked it, your doing far memory calls but its doing small memory model returns. stack is being screwed up. I debugged it and I can see the returns doing "ret" and not "retf" inside xlib06l.lib OK, so what I need to do is figure out why XLib is …

---

Re: Dos Menus

Posted on 2019-09-04, 16:45

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I used DOSSHELL a long time ago, but I since dispensed with menus because of the memory footprint.

---

Re: Programming the VGA chip in C/C++ for 16 bit DOS - help writing my own routines

Posted on 2019-09-04, 16:23

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

1. Provide the smallest possible "complete" code example that is not working. Here you go: #include #include "./XLIB06/XLIB_ALL.H" #pragma aux x_processor "_!" #pragma aux x_set_mode "_!" using namespace std; int main () { //this works (function gets called and returns what it should): cout<

---

Re: Programming the VGA chip in C/C++ for 16 bit DOS - help writing my own routines

Posted on 2019-09-04, 16:15

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

From your initial post I was under the impression that you wanted to write your own VGA graphics routines but from the latest few posts I get the impression that you don't mind using a library? Is that correct? The ultimate goal is still to write my own stuff, but if I can get XLib to work and do …

---

Re: Programming the VGA chip in C/C++ for 16 bit DOS - help writing my own routines

Posted on 2019-09-04, 03:55

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

check out x2ftp there is a tonne of stuff. Thanks! Update: I seem to have fixed it by changing the pragma to #pragma aux "_!" This did work, but I cannot set the video mode. It simply returns -1 (X_MODE_INVALID) every time I call it. I'm calling it in the exact same way it's being called in the …

---

Re: Programming the VGA chip in C/C++ for 16 bit DOS - help writing my own routines

Posted on 2019-09-03, 23:54

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Update: I seem to have fixed it by changing the pragma to Copy code to clipboard 1 #pragma aux "_!"

---

Re: Programming the VGA chip in C/C++ for 16 bit DOS - help writing my own routines

Posted on 2019-09-03, 23:09

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you'd like a C library however, there is the old XLIB, a mode-X library with extensive references, so even if you can't use it directly in Open Watcom (I wouldn't know) it should be quite helpful. There was a later one for Pascal which had some bugfixes iirc, but for C that's what I know of. …

---

Re: I got a Dell 486 - my ultimate 486 build log!

Posted on 2019-09-03, 18:21

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

A lot of those early CD drives have SMD electrolytic capacitors in them that start leaking with age. That could very well be your problem here. I'll look into that! The video card is a VLB S3 86C805, built into the motherboard. I suspect it has hardly any RAM, though. It will do a max of 1024x768 …

---

Re: The most RAM I have ever had in a computer

Posted on 2019-09-03, 18:19

by

by keenmaster486

in Milliways

in Milliways

Try my old prime number sieve program. It can use that much RAM and more. It can also use more CPU cores than any computer has.. except for maybe some of the super computers. Even then, the current theoretical limit of threads is (2^32)-1.. and that is only because I used a 32-bit unsigned integer …

---

Re: I got a Dell 486 - my ultimate 486 build log!

Posted on 2019-09-03, 06:19

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I am attempting to get the CD drive working. So far after having loaded the drivers successfully, it will not spin up the disk. I will be checking cables tomorrow.

---

Re: I got a Dell 486 - my ultimate 486 build log!

Posted on 2019-08-31, 17:54

by

by keenmaster486

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

A valiant attempt 12.JPG Keen didn't make it =( (these screenshots were brought to you by the B, A, and T keys on my keyboard) 13.JPG Some MSD stats! 14.JPG 15.JPG As I suspected, the machine is indeed a 486 DX2/66. Specs currently: Intel 486DX2/66 (cache? Not sure) 16 MB of RAM (may replace. I was …

---