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

Posted on 2020-07-02, 00:14

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tried to use a specific set of textures in the Windows 95 3D Maze screen saver, but it's not accepting any bitmaps of any bit depth, of any resolution I try. No errors, just any files selected don't take, and the defaults remain in place. Not trying to make A8 sprites or anything yet. Very odd, …

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

Posted on 2020-06-29, 21:38

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

People wanting $100 for an Atari XE GS light gun, and many times more for the bare computer, no keyboard, no joystick, no power supply... If I were rich, I think I would just buy some of these things, then visit the people at their homes, and slap them with what I bought until they stopped …

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-06-25, 15:42

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Man, I just hate how much the world changed in 30 years. The creators of Street rod actually required owners to make a copy of their disks to preserve the originals in good condition. I can't even rip a DVD legally now with all the DRM protections in place. Yar har, fiddle dee dee, I'll do as I …

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Re: What is your weirdest troubleshooting experience when dealing with retro computers/hardware?

Posted on 2020-06-25, 15:37

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ha, that sounds familiar! A friend of mine wanted to repair his €1000+ high-end SACD player from Sony, he ordered a rather expensive laser assembly and it didn't work. He got another one and it didn't work either. He junked the whole lot (including the player itself) and a couple of days later …

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Re: What is your weirdest troubleshooting experience when dealing with retro computers/hardware?

Posted on 2020-06-25, 10:28

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

When I briefly worked at a janky computer repair shop in the early 2000s, I was tasked to sort out someone's gaming rig that wouldn't boot. Nothing visibly wrong with it, but the motherboard was screaming that the processor was missing. Well it's clearly under the heat sink, so let's look at it. I …

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Re: Dell Optiplex GX1 only posts after replugging power cable

Posted on 2020-06-24, 06:25

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Could be a cap issue. I have an Asus P4S800 board that hangs when I try to power it up, and I can't try again unless I disconnect the power and reconnect it. I'm not looking forward to recapping it, because my motivation has been bottomed out for a long, long time.

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Re: Modem usage

Posted on 2020-06-22, 05:33

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can make a phone line simulator (at least the voltage delivery part) rather cheaply, but I lost interest in this about twenty years ago after finding that specific modems were required to play ball using this method with a Dreamcast.

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-06-20, 19:41

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I really can't fault 99% of postal workers seeing as how chronically overworked and underpaid they are. I wouldn't forgive such a gross lack of work ethic. If your job is horrible, get out of it any way you can, but at least don't screw people over for jollies. I mean, I did a decade in a call …

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-06-18, 07:56

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Darker notice, often times computer parts have absurdly high prices to ward off curious buyers. There was (and may still be) an issue with groups selling smallish hard drives for kings' ransoms. Not because of the hardware, but because of the heinous material that is on them. If you sell back and …

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What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-06-18, 07:51

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Still gathering obscure information for a tips page that all of twelve people on the planet could make use of. No, not those twelve people. I think they use personal Linux installations.

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What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-06-18, 07:51

by

by Mister Xiado

in Milliways

in Milliways

Oh come now, China will surely cook up Kung Flu 2: Electric Boogaloo, and you won't have to worry about mass species extinction due to drastic changes in ocean surface temperatures and inland aridity arising from this. But seriously, China, Pakistan, and India dump more garbage into the land, sea, …

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Re: When do you throw in the towel on an old piece of hw?

Posted on 2020-06-17, 19:19

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I throw in the towel when: The parts to repair the item cannot be sourced, identified, or cost more than a whole replacement. I put the towel in storage when: I feel too horrible to do anything but drink water and sleep. Repairs will take hours, and I don't absolutely need the item. The repairs …

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Re: Worth Getting a 286 or 386 DX 40 or just using a K6-III?

Posted on 2020-06-16, 12:21

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would consider anything before a 486 to be a nuisance if you don't have some nostalgic attachment to the era. There are so many things 286 and 386 systems cannot do, that you'll find yourself wishing you had just gone for a 486 or a Pentium system. My oldest operational (as in, boot it up, get …

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Re: Floppy and HD disk metal frame in AT case?

Posted on 2020-06-15, 00:59

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'll have to take some scrap steel plate and cut and bend it to form the drive mounts my HP Vectra 486 uses, since they don't exist anywhere on the Internet, even on dead PC part/reseller sites that haven't been updated since 1998, but are still online because the server costs and domain …

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-06-11, 23:17

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I saw it ! Sells an item for way too much on a local auction site or a flea market (places with few to no waranties if something go bad) because "I saw it selling at that price on the internet". Some even sell that item in a lesser condition than the one on ebay (boxed game -> loose game, mint …

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Re: How to know which hard drive limit my BIOS has?

Posted on 2020-06-11, 23:05

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My Hewlett Packard Vectra 486 66/XM D2933A Intel 486DX2 66 (overdrive) 32MB 60 PIN SIMM RAM (4x8MB) BIOS: W.04.03 HP VECTRA PC SoundBlaster Vibra16 CT4170 Trident 7120? Linksys LNE2000T ISA Ethernet NIC supported a 1GB HDD without issue, and didn't balk at a 2GB CompactFlash card. I have a Pentium …

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-06-10, 03:20

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS SHIP? Sellers provide a low price for their items, or a low starting bid for their auctions, but charge the generally accepted value of the item as the shipping cost (in the same country). $2.99 for a 36" VGA cable, $9.99 for shipping. $45 for a Pentium 4 motherboard, $70 for …

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

Posted on 2020-06-09, 09:41

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, not every game is timeless, no matter how good it may be. Super Metroid, Sonic 3 & Knuckles (combination is mandatory), and Super Mario Brothers 3 are a few that I would consider timeless, despite their age. As far as doing anything, I'm gathering tips for Windows 95 that apparently are too …

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

Posted on 2020-06-08, 22:24

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by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In my experience, the even the people who liked Tomb Raider when it was new were more wowed by the game being a fully realized 3D game with good performance. The nagging bits about it were the interminably long levels, and the moderately clunky controls (which admittedly kept people from …

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Re: Slot1 mobo not detecting IDE disks

Posted on 2020-06-08, 22:04

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A lesson in risk management: If the best thing that can happen is that I can use an 80GB HDD in my first computer, and the worst thing that can happen is the BIOS gets fried, and the system becomes utterly unusable due to the rarity of the board, I would be better off leaving well enough alone.

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