Re: How do those RS232 numeric keypads work?

Posted on 2022-04-20, 16:57

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Did it have a driver disk in the box? If not, I'm wondering if it worked with a specific laptop or something that had BIOS support. That was a frequent trick in the 90s. Parallel port that's also your external floppy interface etc.

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Re: Abit KT7A (KT133A/VIA686B), Athlon XP Mobile 2500+

Posted on 2022-04-20, 14:09

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Look what I've got today! Two v1.2 KT7A-RAIDs. Going to test these on weekend... with Geforces. ;) Edit: first one on testbench, geforce 6800gt gives blue screen for nv4_disp.dll like my previous KT7A when playing FlaOut2. And PS/2 keyboard port is dead. Lights blink on keyboard when turning on but …

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

Posted on 2022-04-19, 22:18

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

We could use one of those robot readers to make podcasts of the first thousand pages of popular Vogon threads 🤣

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

Posted on 2022-04-19, 21:37

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Somehow changed the vibe from Amiga to Atari

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Re: Microsoft Serial Compatible Mouse only works in PS/2 mode

Posted on 2022-04-19, 17:56

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not sure it applies to these, but a thing to be aware of is some multi mode mice need to have a button held down at power up to switch modes.

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Re: CPU Detection Help?

Posted on 2022-04-19, 14:32

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Multipliers recognised by 95% of the P133 production run are just 1.5 and 2x.. you can set 2.5x 3x or 3.5x on the board, but it's still gonna run at 2x or 1.5x unless you got a board that notices and complains. I only left 5% hanging as a maybe on claims that later P133 cores culled from P200 …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-04-18, 22:35

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A few days ago I bought Sony Trinitron PVM 2130QM. ... Has SCART input Yay, now you need a CGA machine lol but no speakers. Nice flat top for standing a boombox on top of though :D ... That was my favorite arrangement back in teh day, in through the aux, or if it didn't have one, cassette adapter ( …

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Re: Old laptop with a long battery life competition

Posted on 2022-04-18, 17:26

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There's some 386 thru pentium class machines that have a low-ish nicad/nimh voltage, such that you can find a USB charging lithium pack of 2 to 4 times the original capacity and just hook 5V up to the original battery terminals. edit: should note that best you're gonna have much availability in is …

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

Posted on 2022-04-18, 16:15

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Gah 3 weeks and I haven't managed any retro endeavors at all, not even simple stuff. The first week was all interruptions and randomness, then I went in zombie mode and could barely think and was exhausted, either it was the start of the pollen affecting me, or I maybe got BA2, but apart from brain …

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Re: PC crashing in BIOS help?

Posted on 2022-04-18, 15:59

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got a vague memory that this plagued some folks back in the day, but don't recall cause or solution. Maybe searching some longlived forums like Anandtech or overclockers might find some clues.

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Re: Bought these (retro) software/OS today

Posted on 2022-04-18, 15:07

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

The X server is licensed from Age Logic (based on XoftWare v1.7 according to the Novell support database and implements X11R4) and is surprisingly nice - not really anything missing when compared to modern X servers for windows. I figured it probably wouldn't cope with a modern desktop environment …

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

Posted on 2022-04-16, 19:36

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have tried finding that out too, I get directed to the shop Goodwill auction site, but in Ontario it seems only the London store participates and only does pickup no shipping. The occasional one gets through here when it's donated direct to the store, not through any of their other collection …

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Re: SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod

Posted on 2022-04-15, 15:38

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My guess is that with resistor not re-installed to other pad, the behavior may vary across motherboards or configurations. It's one of those belt and braces things, where if both are in place, no problem, but if one half, the braces supplier say goes "well I don't have to do very good here, it will …

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Re: RetroNAS - open source server software for your retro machines

Posted on 2022-04-15, 04:11

by

by BitWrangler

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Probably nothing can be a bigger screwup though than when I had a Linux machine, Win95, Amiga OS 3.0 and DOS 6.22 with some extender all writing to one volume hosted on 95.... I don't recall exactly what happened as this was a quarter century+ ago but it seemed like it was either early and buggy …

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Re: 486 board with no FDD connector

Posted on 2022-04-15, 04:04

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd probably do something like stick a floppy/SCSI card in there... since a third IDE interface is not gonna be that useful (Typically can't set tertiary address on "normal" i/o cards, and even if you can, a lot of programs ignore it's existence.) .... mind you, I've probably got half a dozen weird …

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Re: BIOS image collection - requests, discussion etc

Posted on 2022-04-15, 01:43

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's a 28 pin chip on the board, think that's a 512Mbit chip max.

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Re: Market value for popular or rare classic computer hardware

Posted on 2022-04-14, 17:16

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

I don't get it, how do you feel like your computer is powerful if it doesn't sound like a jet turbine 🤣

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-04-14, 15:01

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Snarfed a retro GPS, Mio N177 at the thrift, hoping to get this kind of shenanigans going... https://ripitapart.com/tag/miopocket/ ... hoping to have more luck figuring out input devices on this one than that dude had on his magellan. Good news everyone... i) it boots ii) the Samsung ARM SOC in …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-04-14, 14:40

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, that 'someone' is called 'customer'. Everybody who buys the cheaper/noname/chinese rip-off should take a long look in the mirror when searching for that 'someone'. It's the same story all the time: people buy cheap and then they complain that everything goes south. (Of course, I'm also one of …

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Re: I have 600+ motherboard manuals from mid to late 90s, anything useful?

Posted on 2022-04-14, 14:16

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Awesome, thanks much again. There was a few things I was curious about but didn't wanna twist your arm. If you find any other old media, things I think people would appreciate are ASPI drivers, there's a number of interfaces and drives that aren't supported well by drivers that "survived" onto …

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