Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-03-13, 18:36

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Case is kinda awesome, like you've got the front of a spaceship crashing through your wall or something. Looks kinda like it was for HTPC market. The PSU, I'd have to judge it on weight. The wire thickness doesn't look too bad though. If it was a real light one it would go in the "PSUs to use if …

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Re: Flying Dutchmen, White Whales, the ghost HW that eludes you, lost & found.

Posted on 2023-03-13, 18:26

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Most of the things turning up "by surprise" I notice, are in boxes that I thought something else completely was in. Or, incompletely labelled boxes, like 3/4 full of what I thought it had, and surprise, bonus extras. I wish I had thought to take photos years ago though, even with the crappy cameras …

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

Posted on 2023-03-13, 17:43

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Back in early noughts I had a K6-2-400 overclocked to 450 with a Voodoo 3, on a 430TX motherboard in an old tightly laid out AT case, and I would tend to get problems with that in 30C ambient temperatures. I tried having a blower in the 5.25 bay, but I guess that was too close to PSU and just went …

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Re: Is there a way to log a game's conventional memory usage under DOS?

Posted on 2023-03-13, 16:42

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

If it will run, even if badly under a Win 3.x session, then maybe windows tools will tell you

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Re: Market value for popular or rare classic computer hardware

Posted on 2023-03-13, 14:28

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

Check out the earliest version that archive.org has of IBM's support page sometime, from 1997, there's no support info there, they direct you to their presences on Compuserve, AOL, Prodigy, dial in PCBBS (Which later ftp file section versions of have been archived) or faxback service... that was " …

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Re: Where can I find older AT Cases?

Posted on 2023-03-13, 14:19

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's something I would probably grab if I came across it. Maybe give it a sheet ductwork metal cover if nothing else. The fiddly part with cases is the motherboard tray and slot bracket spacing/relationship, if you can get something or anything in which that exists, partial cases, test frames, …

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

Posted on 2023-03-13, 01:16

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

oh you didn't get the memo, we're all defecting to haiku OS in 2025 🤣

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Re: Any reusability for Logitech Bus Mouse or

Posted on 2023-03-12, 23:35

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Check all your MS serial mice, there was one that can take an adapter and work on a bus mouse card. Hand scanners seemed to use a very similar plug and not very highly populated card and in some instances the roller on the scanner seemed to take over the Y axis of the mouse. So I am not sure how …

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Re: 486 board with UMC 8881E/8886B: The winner is: EDO without L2 (terms and conditions apply)

Posted on 2023-03-12, 23:29

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for sharing your results... hmmm maybe I can stop looking for the M912 cache module now lol (I own one, just not sure where it is) ... good timing too, been feeling an "ultimate 486" bash of my own coming on while I know where 1 of my m912s, BEK V439, Asus 486sv2gx4 and a POD and Cyrix 5x86 …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-03-12, 16:44

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Yah I've done that a few times over the years, skipped basics and gone hunting for a more sophisticated problem when it was something stupid. @BitWrangler It is surprising there is so much trouble with RAM. Usually these boards take 4x4Mb for maximum of 16Mb, but troubles with 4Mb sticks is …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-03-12, 14:41

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

January, "Last purchase of the Chinese year" March "Last purchase of the fiscal year" early April "Last purchase of the Hindu year" August "Last purchase of the Hebrew year" .... lol [hr] Oh I picked up a little black box yesterday, some coax and RCA connectors on it, showing you how to hook it up …

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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

by

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

by

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

by

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

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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

by

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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