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

Posted on 2018-04-19, 10:33

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Received the Serial cable I ordered and set about trying XTIDE's Virtual Serial drive feature on my XT build. Seems like an easy way to add extra storage to a system, though obviously not exactly the fastest in performance. I was able to communicate at 57.6K baud rate, it didn't like 115.2K. Aside …

---

Re: If you had $5.000 dollars to buy retro hardware, what would you buy?

Posted on 2018-04-19, 10:04

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For starters I'd go for - IBM 5160 IBM PCjr IBM PS/2 As well as those I'd probably try to get hold of 1 of the Tandy computers, probably have to import that. Would also build a higher end 486 with VLB. For fun I'd probably want at least 1 each of the following too: Sun Sparc Workstation (any) DEC …

---

Re: Currently, what is your main flagship project?

Posted on 2018-04-15, 14:17

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My main project at the moment would probably be working on my XT build. Just experimenting and seeing what I can push out of a 4.77MHz CPU with only 256KB RAM. With regards to gaming from that era, the XT would never be my favourite system as its not really cut out for it, but nevertheless I enjoy …

---

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

Posted on 2018-04-14, 23:42

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bought a new soldering iron kit and set to work resoldering 2 loose capacitors on my SiS 6326 4MB PCI Graphics Card. Worked well and the card is functioning happily... it's still a crap card, but I'm glad it's working. :lol: Also ran OmniDisk on 1 of my systems to try and determine the format of a …

---

Re: JATON JXM-10MHZ-V3, XT motherboard

Posted on 2018-04-13, 22:02

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

PTherapist , many thanks!! What kind of chipset (main IC) on your board? Could you make a photo of your board, if it is possible? It's posted a couple of posts back: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=51610&start=20#p587180 Mine isn't working anymore. I thought at first it may have been …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-04-13, 08:06

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Managed to get hold of a DELL Optiplex 486 motherboard quite cheaply on eBay, which surprised me actually! https://i.imgur.com/ymRqw6j.jpg Picture is from the trader on eBay, so is about the best quality I currently have until I actually receive it. The motherboard in my DELL has a non-working PC …

---

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

Posted on 2018-04-12, 22:02

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Setup a dual boot config on my 486, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation & Windows 95. I'd forgotten so much about NT, particularly the fact that 95 with FAT32 confuses the poor thing. :lol: I had to follow a guide online to setup NT's bootloader manually, to boot between the 2 systems. Neither OS can see …

---

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

Posted on 2018-04-11, 19:51

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Which PC did you use to program the chip? I'm planning on getting a USB version of the EEPROM programmer on eBay sometime. Also, is the 32K EEPROM a 256Kb (32K x 8 ) that has a 70ns Access time? Something like this: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/microchip-technology/AT27C256R-70PU/ …

---

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

Posted on 2018-04-11, 14:41

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Huh. Guessing you used an EEPROM programmer and the appropriate sized chip for the XTIDE Universal BIOS? I'd like to do that sometime for my 486, but, I might test the BIOS upgrade I found online and see what happens. I also never used a boot ROM on an Ethernet card as those required programming …

---

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

Posted on 2018-04-11, 09:55

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Configured & installed XTIDE Universal BIOS onto a 3Com 3C509B Ethernet Card on my 486. This enabled it to properly recognise the installed 2.5GB IDE Hard Drive, without needing DDO software. Not having to rely on DDO means I can now install Windows NT 4 on this thing, as NT's bootloader doesn't …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-04-11, 09:33

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Managed to get hold of a DELL Optiplex 486 motherboard quite cheaply on eBay, which surprised me actually! https://i.imgur.com/ymRqw6j.jpg Picture is from the trader on eBay, so is about the best quality I currently have until I actually receive it. The motherboard in my DELL has a non-working PC …

---

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

Posted on 2018-04-09, 22:02

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Programmed 2 EEPROM chips with the Turbo XT BIOS for use on my XT build. Works fine, though not sure what else it really offers me aside from a faster POST memory count. :lol: I received a UV EPROM Eraser today and set about erasing several 512K EPROM chips ready for use. I now have plenty of spare …

---

Re: JATON JXM-10MHZ-V3, XT motherboard

Posted on 2018-04-09, 19:55

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Apologies for bringing up an old topic, but today I dumped the BIOS from my Jaton JXM-Jet 88-V2 motherboard that I mentioned here previously. Seems the BIOS on mine is a slightly later revision to the one posted by i386 (jt8.rom) and mine is dated 12/01/88 (1st December). I've zipped it up and …

---

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

Posted on 2018-04-05, 13:28

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tweaked my XT build some more. Altered config.sys & autoexec.bat to free up some RAM. Managed to claw back 13KB of wasted RAM (high buffers, lastdrive & keyb.com). Makes all the difference when you only have 256K total. Also transferred over IBM E Editor to use instead of Edlin (I hate that thing) …

---

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

Posted on 2018-04-04, 12:48

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Are there 8 bit 3C509B card? Or does the 16 bit work in an XT? They're 16-bit cards, they work fine in an 8-bit slot. In my case, I simply used the 3C5X9CFG utility to disable PnP mode and manually set IRQ etc. Works great with the packet driver compiled for 8088, available here: http://www.vcfed. …

---

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

Posted on 2018-04-04, 12:41

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally got my 3Com 3C509B network card working on my XT build. My problem was that the packet driver would enable the card and it would light up on the switch etc, but mTCP could not access it. I couldn't run the 3C5X9CFG config utility on this PC as it won't work with only 256KB RAM. So I had to …

---

Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2018-04-04, 09:55

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Surpringly it wasn't horrible to use, it booted up in a reasonable amount of time despite the fact that I still had an mp3 playing in the background. Nobody would call this snappy, but you could get some stuff done on this. I note you were playing an MP3 on this, how are the speakers holding up? I …

---

Re: What Stupid Thing Have You Done Recently with Your Retro Gaming Machine?

Posted on 2018-04-04, 09:37

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I was thinking about getting one myself, but, the one thing that upsets me is that the IDE connections don't show which pin is pin 1 (on the DoM itself, that is) and the IDE ribbon cables show which one is pin 1 (red/pink color coding). I made my Packard Bell lock up on me once when I reversed the …

---

Re: What Stupid Thing Have You Done Recently with Your Retro Gaming Machine?

Posted on 2018-04-03, 09:42

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not recent, but probably 1 of the stupidest things I did - I have 2 identical ePoS Tualatin Celeron systems and I was setting up 1 as a retro gaming system, whilst the other had a damaged case. I was experimenting with different Sound & Graphics cards when all of a sudden the machine began refusing …

---

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

Posted on 2018-03-31, 14:46

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Had some misadventures with my XT build today. Decided to try upgrading the BIOS by programming some spare EEPROMS with the later 1986 BIOS images. It sort of worked, but my 5160 motherboard, being a 64-256K board, doesn't seem to like the 2nd (U19) ROM chip being 32KB like the first. It boots, but …

---