Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-03-12, 03:21

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Got an hour to mess with it, went through a box of RAM, none of the nice matched sets would work of course, nor any 8MB module, some showed 4MB. Anyway, the very dregs of the box provided two 4MB modules that worked, one had IBM chips but module was made in Italy, so probably some IBM/Olivetti …

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Re: Retro LCD monitor repair

Posted on 2023-03-12, 00:35

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Being an older monitor, I was wondering how bright it was supposed to get, 300cd/m^2 apparently, which ain't all that bright by modern standards. Also I notice it has an illumination sensor to modulate brightness, which if using in dim lighting might not get you full brightness. See if you can see a …

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Re: Fan restoration on early 2000's graphics cards

Posted on 2023-03-11, 20:44

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I have recently been discovering the merits of a flood and soak method, that is when fans seem too tight that a drop of oil won't get them moving, just load them up and leave them sitting for a while, let it soak in. Often the original lube has gone very gummy with age and heat, needs a while to …

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Re: Old netbook as a DOS gaming powerhouse

Posted on 2023-03-11, 18:46

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Many atom netbooks use P4 chipsets or close cousins so checking for workarounds and utils to deal with P4 hardware may be helpful. What I found with using netbooks for DOSbox a lot a couple of years back (Mainly for ultra portability when I was out of town kicking my heels somewhere) was that they …

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Re: Creative cr-563b in external enclosure?

Posted on 2023-03-11, 18:31

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You probably just need a D connector on a bracket with a 40pin ribbon wired into it, and power to floppy or hdd connector... keep the ribbon as short as you can though to avoid problems. Tie all the ribbon grounds to ground though even if you run out of 1:1 connections on the D.

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-03-11, 17:02

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

@BitWrangler That's how it goes often. You plan for a productive and enjoyable retro computing session. Few minutes later - a "disaster" upon a "disaster". At least you came through. Ok, so you have now a working 3x33 MHz BL3. Great. Do you have control over wait states in the BIOS ? I think …

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Re: Retro LCD monitor repair

Posted on 2023-03-11, 15:58

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Popular monitors had LED retrofit kits available a while back, but not sure if that's ongoing or just was a period when they were a year or two out of warranty.

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Re: Voodoo 3 3500 TV AGP or Asus V8200 Deluxe geforce 3?

Posted on 2023-03-11, 15:50

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Oh, and this is with the assumption that both cards are already in the OP's possession. If this is not the case, then definitively avoid the Voodoo 3. The current prices of 3DFX cards are too insane to waste money on that. Gf3s are a struggle to find and pay a reasonable price for too now. The "I …

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Re: percentage of old PCs and components that are saved?

Posted on 2023-03-11, 15:42

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by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

Yup software really plays a part, back in the 90s I got a small haul of Apple II stuff, the web was just getting going, and they were very yesterdays news, couldn't find much info, getting software seemed not to be possible unless you were in a large metro with an Apple II club that was still just …

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Re: Creative cr-563b in external enclosure?

Posted on 2023-03-11, 05:14

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It possibly came with a matsushita single speed drive in at first and got upgraded to 2x.

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Re: percentage of old PCs and components that are saved?

Posted on 2023-03-11, 01:06

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

Yah the dotcom boom did them no favors, overleveraged buyers/users of them and overconfident suppliers of them. The big names with fingers in multiple pies clung on, but it killed everyone else. High prices are the symptom not the disease, like temperature rising when you've got an infection, it's …

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

Posted on 2023-03-10, 21:07

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today was a day of busts. Tried buying Republic Commando, early release with manual. Turns out it's already sold, the seller just forgot to take down the listing. But I'm getting a full refund. I also grew unsure about the vintage market game seller guy. Checked the address I should go see the …

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Re: Can somebody tell me how the clock generator circuit works

Posted on 2023-03-10, 20:52

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I got an idea if you really really really wanna know it's putting out a clock... Got anything like this around? https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=3310 I just came across an old one of mine when I was looking for something, or an old RadioShack patrolman or something, analog tuning, don't …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-03-10, 18:28

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hah, I just dug one of those out at the end of Jan Re: Flying Dutchmen, White Whales, the ghost HW that eludes you, lost & found. but mine is missing a BIOS .. and I'm always short of EEPROMs so don't know when it will get one. I am not sure if I have a PCI SiS 6326, but if I do I will see what …

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Re: Voodoo 3 3500 TV AGP or Asus V8200 Deluxe geforce 3?

Posted on 2023-03-10, 18:09

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

That one time I tried video out on a Voodoo 3, it was better than Rage cards, but still kinda "muddy", the GF3 I had did very well with video out, as good as you'd expect to be possible. Voodoo I think has the advantage that it's video out is full time, you can see post screen etc, and use it in …

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Re: Building a new Socket 7 MMX MS-DOS / Windows 95 All-in-one system

Posted on 2023-03-10, 17:57

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

That's quite different. If it were one of mine I'd feel compelled to name it after Jake Tucker in Family Guy 🤣

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

Posted on 2023-03-10, 17:52

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Elite 4/75cx has been disassembled. What happens if I remove one VRAM chip, will it boot with only 256kB video memory? One way to find out. DSC_3051.JPG TBH I don't think that is gonna achieve anything. If it's the low chip you pull it won't be looking high for it's basic RAM, if it's the high …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-03-10, 17:43

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Seeing stuff cheap is my weakness, even at the grocery store, donuts 50% off, that means they're half the calories right? Current most tempting thing is a PC Chips weird old pentium board, can't actually get a firm ID from Ultimate Retro, that is sitting in a town some ways away, that some of my …

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

Posted on 2023-03-10, 15:49

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Elite 4/75cx has been disassembled. What happens if I remove one VRAM chip, will it boot with only 256kB video memory? One way to find out. DSC_3051.JPG TBH I don't think that is gonna achieve anything. If it's the low chip you pull it won't be looking high for it's basic RAM, if it's the high …

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Re: percentage of old PCs and components that are saved?

Posted on 2023-03-10, 15:20

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

CPUs aren't really the problem, on top of being fairly durable up to the 2000s, and several being in existence per motherboard in the first place, they're most likely to be saved if everything else is scrapped. There are however challenges in getting FPGA to emulate core logic AND get to to connect …

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