Re: Strange graphical corrpution in Windows 98 SE setup

Posted on 2019-01-28, 19:52

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

What happens if you wiggle the VGA cable on the card side when those artifacts are onscreen? Do the artifacts jump around, change shape, or disappear? Do they get worse? Maybe it's some cold solder joints on one of the ICs or the VGA output connector that get (dis)connected whenever the card PCB is …

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Re: Small SCSI drive not working with DOS FDISK

Posted on 2019-01-27, 23:39

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Are you sure you have the correct model number? The 8425S is a 20MB drive. There's a stepper motor on there instead of a voice coil actuator, right?

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Re: Sandisk 1.8 inch zif ssd

Posted on 2019-01-27, 22:10

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

From various photos, I can see that the connector on the SSD side has a black-coloured "latch" that needs to be "closed" (flipped down) in order to lock the ribbon cable in place, and possibly also for it to make electrical contact. Probably there is a similar latch present on the adapter side. …

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Re: Strange graphical corrpution in Windows 98 SE setup

Posted on 2019-01-27, 22:00

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

If it only does that artifacting during the setup, it's probably just some quirk of the setup software and nothing to worry about. I don't think a card with bad video memory ICs (whether or not that's what's the matter with your card) would necessarily pose a hazard to the rest of the system in the …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-01-25, 22:16

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by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Motherboard from the Ukraine finally arrived but one problem... IMG_20190124_173921.jpg No VLB slots?! The one in the pictures clearly had them, so this'll be interesting to sort out. Mine also has no VLB slots. And no BIOS chip. Oh neat, I was watching the listing for the FIC for a while but …

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Re: Oak Technology video card stuck with 16 colors :((

Posted on 2019-01-25, 05:20

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

^This. That's a positively ancient card, not at all suited for PCs that can run (or even crawl) Windows 95. Windows 1.0, maybe...

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Re: This is my Socket 754 Build

Posted on 2019-01-22, 21:54

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

... I stuck to the X1950PRO regardless, as it is the fastest native AGP card there is ... ...Except it isn't. I can even see, in your photo, the usual pink thermal pad atop the bridge chip. :p Nice system; looks like you've even got a period-correct NEC optical drive for it too. (Is it the ND-3540A …

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Re: 10 year cpu challenge

Posted on 2019-01-21, 21:03

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can somebody explain me what the rationale behind this topic is? I can write down what I used to have and now have, but I don’t see the point. It’s probably going to make some of you jealous while some might not be impressed at all. I saw it as just a fun "let's see how our old CPUs compare to our …

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Re: PicoATX power supply for retro build

Posted on 2019-01-21, 04:43

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You don't have an HDD and are using a laptop-class CPU, so I'd bet even the 80w one would be enough. A bigger problem might be the cables being too short and/or too few for whatever "around 5 case case" is. EDIT: yeah, you might need to plug in some Molex splitters for those five fans.

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Re: Asus tx-97-e question

Posted on 2019-01-20, 19:50

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Going to be hard to find a PCI video card with DVI but that maintains good DOS and old motherboard compatibility, I'm afraid. DVI support started to become commonplace only after this era. It's one reason why most of us keep around old LCDs or even CRTs with VGA-in for our old machines.

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Re: 10 year cpu challenge

Posted on 2019-01-19, 19:13

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

2009: Pentium Dual-Core E2160 (not OC'd). 2019: Core i5-2520M . Yes, I decided sometime during those ten years to switch to laptops as main PCs. EDIT: now that I remember, I had a stint during Summer of 2009 using a netbook (Eee PC 900HA) with Atom N270 inside as my main PC; however by the end of …

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Re: 80GB hard drive on Pentium motherboard

Posted on 2019-01-18, 21:46

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It always confuses me when people pair old computer systems with -then- gigantic numbers of storage capacity. 80GB..! ... It bugs me a little when I see it, too (mostly a similar sort of "that's not period-correct!!!" OCD kicking in), but the reason is usually because such ~80GB drives are much …

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Re: RANT alert: should "computer" magazines mainly talk about REFRIGERATORS?

Posted on 2019-01-18, 18:54

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by SW-SSG

in Milliways

in Milliways

Maybe you meant "personal computers", because the "computer" you speak of is merely only one type of computer. Those tiny ARM CPUs that run tablets/IoT devices/smart-fridges/etc are no different in their basic function (solve mathematical equations accurately at high speed; e.g. "compute" stuff) …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-01-17, 04:27

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

ZyMOS Poach VGA/EGA - pretty neat! Never seen a card of this brand before. It seems it's some sort of Trident Clone. Yeah, apparently it's a rebadge of the Trident 8800CS, maybe only the third or fourth VGA product out of that company. Btw you may want to cover up the window on that upper ROM ASAP, …

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Re: Is a 16x CD-ROM considered too loud for game play?

Posted on 2019-01-16, 22:07

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

lost77 wrote: Some cd-rom drives used a beam splitter to read faster than the spinning speed. ... Pretty sure it was only those notoriously unreliable Kenwood TrueX "72x" drives that used that technique...

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Re: Is a 16x CD-ROM considered too loud for game play?

Posted on 2019-01-16, 18:59

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Loudness is pretty subjective, yes. You could just wear noise-cancelling earphones and even a 52x ODD probably wouldn't be horrible. I'd personally stick to 24x and down, though. Someone else mentioned discs shattering at high speeds, but >32x drives from the early 2000s also take longer to spin up …

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2019-01-15, 20:46

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

So... is it worth to change the caps or better just through the whole board out? I am quite handy with a soldering iron. Change the caps. These old Asrock Combo Socket Boards, like the one you have, are quite interesting and hard to find. Agree, would attempt to fix if possible; these old ASRocks …

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Re: Asus tx-97-e question

Posted on 2019-01-15, 20:35

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The TX97-E is a Baby AT board, so you have the larger 5-pin DIN port for keyboard, and the PS/2 port is for a mouse. Gotta plug a 5-pin DIN (often called "AT") keyboard in, or use a PS/2-to-DIN adapter like the one pictured to attach a PS/2 keyboard. computer_adt_21079__72480.1431606751.1200.1200. …

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Re: Show us your unicorn! Let’s see the one you wish you’d kept

Posted on 2019-01-15, 19:05

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Looks like people haven't been talking solely about cases, so... By chance I found one of these NEC DSE1700A 1.7GB IDE HDDs about ~15 years ago. Was the only NEC drive I'd ever seen to date, but it went out with a bunch of other stuff as part of one of my purges a few years later. Even when they …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-01-14, 20:16

by

by SW-SSG

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thermalwrong wrote: The new old stock 486 motherboards from Ukraine arrived today :D Oh neat, I was watching the listing for the FIC for a while but ultimately decided against it. Nice to see that it was the real deal...

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