Rather critical issue regarding video drivers on an old pc

Posted on 2017-09-07, 12:55

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've got a Cyrix 686 build that I picked up for next to nothing- Its got an ATI Rage 128 card, however whenever I install drivers when it reboots it gives me a black screen and a arrow with the loading icon next to it. This is in Win98 SE- The same happens in 95.

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Testing AT PSUs

Posted on 2017-09-01, 07:12

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For a retro build of mine (AcuMOS AVGA1, i486SX 25mhz, 8mb RAM, probably an 840mb HDD if I can get my hands on one) everything seems alright however my build refuses to turn on. I believe the PSU is the culprit. The mobo and video card were sold as tested and working, so they aren't the problem. …

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Re: Windows NT Build

Posted on 2017-08-25, 15:37

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If I were you I wouldn't make a build specifically for it. Maybe dual boot it, or find some old machine made for it.

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PS/2 mice vs. Serial mice?

Posted on 2017-08-23, 11:12

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not sure whether I should use serial mice or PS/2 mice on my retro rig. The rig lacks PS/2 ports and I have a PS/2 to serial adaptor, however I'm not sure whether that works or not. I could buy a serial mouse just to be safe as well as to be period accurate (~1992-ish). What should I do?

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Am I the only one here who spams sound cards in retro builds for extra IDE slots?

Posted on 2017-08-21, 19:58

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I know it's a sin, but for me this is the only way I know of of getting more slots for things with IDE cables (Like CD drives, FDDs, HDDs, etc.)

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Re: DIDN'T buy this retro hardware today

Posted on 2017-08-20, 20:14

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

@zerker That iMac isn't the original- Its a slot-loading graphite iMac most likely from 2000 or 2001.

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Re: DIDN'T buy this retro hardware today

Posted on 2017-08-20, 14:16

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I didn't buy an AMD K6 Fujitsu Myrica tower. Why? What would I use it for? I already have a partially built custom tower for early 90s DOS games, and an Athlon build for late 90s and 2000s games. If it wasn't 55GBP, I'd have gone for it. http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~PMAAOSwR4FZiHPi/s-l1600.jpg

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Re: ACUMOS AVGA1

Posted on 2017-08-20, 08:28

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Thank you! That should work

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Re: Post your Packard Bell computers here!

Posted on 2017-08-19, 17:37

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've got a packard-bell keyboard and mouse. That's it in terms of PB stuff. Honestly I don't think PBs are really that interesting other than some of the ones that have cool cases and the unreliability of PB hardware in general.

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Re: My IBM PC 5150

Posted on 2017-08-19, 16:09

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

derSammler wrote: Can anyone recommend CGA games from the early 80s that are good, representative for their era, and that can be started from hard disk? I want to fill the 32 MB DOM with some stuff. 😎 Crysis 3 on max settings Also, how did the 5150 not collect tones of dust?

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Re: Show me your HP!

Posted on 2017-08-19, 16:06

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Am I the only one here who loves HP as a company? The fact their computers are reliable, + them keeping drivers on their website for 18 year old computers just makes them so much better than say Acer or Toshiba.

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Re: How many computers do you own?

Posted on 2017-08-19, 08:34

by

by harddrivespin

in Milliways

in Milliways

Jade Falcon wrote: Zero, yes zero. Selling everything i have to put together a really nice syatem. Ooh comrade что is this сятем you of speak? Can we of use this сятем for test nuclear? On a more serious note, surely you wouldn't need to sell *all* of your things just for one PC build?

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Re: Can't boot from CD on a Pentium III PC

Posted on 2017-08-18, 20:32

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

You could try using the CD drive on another PC and see if the other PC can boot from it. If it can't, its a CD drive problem.

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ACUMOS AVGA1

Posted on 2017-08-18, 20:23

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I've got a spare AVGA1 video card (either from '91 or '92, might be wrong) which I'll probably be using in my DOS build. Have any of you guys used an AVGA1 before? If so, how good is it for DOS gaming? Also, anyone know where to find drivers for it?

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Re: How many computers do you own?

Posted on 2017-08-18, 18:07

by

by harddrivespin

in Milliways

in Milliways

Okay, here's my (small) list that i'll update as systems come and go: - 1991 486SX PC (WIP): 486SX 25 mobo, 8mb RAM, ACUMOS AVGA1, and a random Panasonic FDD and a random CD drive from 1995 (I don't have HDD yet or 5.25" FDD). I plan to run DOS 5+Win3.11 on it. Will be for DOS and early Windows …

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2017-08-18, 13:16

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Any idea why PII's were not "normal" (I.E., in a socket) processors? Why where they on their own separate card?

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

Posted on 2017-08-18, 08:42

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Previous to finding Vogons I thought I was the only person who had several retro gaming PCs each for different periods- People said I was insane to do that and why shouldn't I just "install W98 on one PC" or "use DOSBox". Thank god i'm not the only person who does this. My era specific PCs are two I …

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Re: Video review of 2001 Dell Dimension 4300s! (Transcendental Airwaves)

Posted on 2017-08-17, 15:02

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nah, p5 wasn't a typo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P5_(microarchitecture) The Presario 2240 had a 32mb RAM and a 2.1gb hard drive so life must've been hard since back in 2008 most people had 200gb+ hard drives. If someone had ever asked you the specs back in 2007 or so and you said said there was …

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Re: Video review of 2001 Dell Dimension 4300s! (Transcendental Airwaves)

Posted on 2017-08-17, 14:33

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just curious- Specs of said p5 machines?

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Re: Video review of 2001 Dell Dimension 4300s! (Transcendental Airwaves)

Posted on 2017-08-17, 10:19

by

by harddrivespin

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So if this was better than anything you'd used prior to 2008, and the machine was made in 2001, then what were you using prior to 2008? A PC XT clone? Still, good video

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