Re: Motherboard issue short circuit

Posted on 2022-02-10, 19:47

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Useful info would be the motherboard make and model and the BIOS maker and version. Personally, I'd want to check the 74F00 is okay, grounding the +5 on floating or low inputs shouldn't do much to it, but if inputs were high and from a larger current source, I'd worry that it might have had …

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Re: Thinking of acquiring a pair of studio monitors - what else is required to use them as PC speakers?

Posted on 2022-02-10, 18:39

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Not good if you are trying to enjoy the actual music and not the quality of the audio mastering. It's like watching a movie 2 feet from your TV and looking for compression artifacts. Be serious now.... the kind of ppl that do that, these days own 8K TV at least, so they're sitting there with a …

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Re: Any interest in a SDL-less "abstract" port?

Posted on 2022-02-10, 18:29

by

by BitWrangler

in DOSBox Development

in DOSBox Development

*makes minor encouraging noises to see where this goes* Now something I could blow into a "useless" PXE network boot ROM would be innnnnteresting. The beauty/curse of SDL is not having to deal with hardware direct though, where modern GPU implementations may have dropped mode support for a lot of …

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Re: post up pics of your "computing area"

Posted on 2022-02-10, 18:15

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Plus 80s synthpop on blast..... just me?

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2022-02-10, 17:51

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

Living through that time though, it felt like storage space tech was lagging quite a bit behind software bloat. Unless you had megabucks to throw at it. In about '95, average Joe would be able to stretch for a 540MB drive but still you'd only be able to have 10 recent games or recent applications on …

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Re: The World's Fastest 486

Posted on 2022-02-10, 15:47

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nobody likes 180 though, it doesn't sound like a real speed, how about we rename it to "166+ Turbo"

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Re: ram tester

Posted on 2022-02-09, 23:28

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I saw one super cheap in the noughties, when "everywhere" thought we were so done with SIMM and SIPP RAM, they wanted $120 for it.... but it was a huge industrial pedestal unit, floor standing, not sure if you could cut them down to just a benchtop wedge or not.

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Re: ram tester

Posted on 2022-02-09, 23:00

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Think you're out of luck for a new one https://www.innoventions.com/ so keep an eye on evilbay etc, they were probably quite expensive. PC Stats review with an idea of the pricing https://www.pcstats.com/articles/1174/index.html The used price might be holding or increasing since they are unobtanium …

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

Posted on 2022-02-09, 22:23

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Well, let's try the Usual Suspects ;-) ... check PnP OS is enabled in CMOS Setup so board can allocate resources correctly... if that doesn't help, try a power unplugged and battery out, and short it's terminals, CMOS reset to clear the ACPI tables like you bleached them, and see if that improves …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-02-09, 22:16

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It won't build a very flexible system for sure, if you wanted something that's strictly only a Win98 or WinME machine, it might do. The letters in the model name say what a particular version has installed, an LMRT should have everything, L is for Lan, M for modem, annnd, I'm blanking on what R and …

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Re: X10, '80s smart home tech, Radio Shack Plug'n'power etceteraaaa....

Posted on 2022-02-09, 22:03

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

Our province just started teasing the idea of super low overnight electricity rates. Which make sense because instantaneous market rate goes negative between midnight and six AM quite often (Aaargh, we've got more electricity than anyone is using, if you feed in now it will cost you!) and is …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-02-09, 21:23

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

"Dual" can lead to misconceptions, it's either/or. Seems like one of the PC Chips M766 variants https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/motherboards/6334 edit: Oh the version is there to the right of the keyboard connector, but I can't make it out on that photo.

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Re: X10, '80s smart home tech, Radio Shack Plug'n'power etceteraaaa....

Posted on 2022-02-09, 17:44

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

Right, no point and drool interfaces for the masses.

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Re: ega cga vga

Posted on 2022-02-09, 16:35

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Derp... and living both sides of the pond, you'd think I'd remember that. Possibly my brain got broke for that when NTSC mode on my A1200 worked fine on my 1084s and Hitachi Monitor-TV ... meaning maybe it does NTSC frame timing but PAL color encoding and led me astray.

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Re: X10, '80s smart home tech, Radio Shack Plug'n'power etceteraaaa....

Posted on 2022-02-09, 16:06

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

I am wondering if I want to use the light controllers to control *gasp* lights.... and use an oldschool* voice recognition and control system to parody alexa... I'm thinking of Elvira (Mistress of the Dark) to work the lights. Elvira turn lights on... etc... then maybe if you say Elvira, play music, …

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Re: Waveblaster Adaptor for IDE-HDD Swap Frames

Posted on 2022-02-09, 15:45

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Yes you may. However, trying to look up a good picture, I notice that a more common term for the device these days is "Hard drive mobile rack" for 3.5 to 5.25 inch drive bays. All the pictures I'm seeing are terrible, only show assembled unit, only found this tiny one (attached) to show people... So …

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Re: ega cga vga

Posted on 2022-02-09, 15:17

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I've run VGA to a 1084S in the past using a CL5428/9 card and Tomi Engdahl's vgatotv hookups and drivers. Worked pretty well for DOS games but DOS text was pretty squirmy, but readable. Also tried windows output from a Geforce 3 ViVo card to an older composite only one (1071?) but although games etc …

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Re: Waveblaster Adaptor for IDE-HDD Swap Frames

Posted on 2022-02-09, 14:10

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Ditto... when I first saw it posted it took several reads through to realise what it did, so Ima mansplain it for others in case different phrasing helps ... To make wavetable cards swappable, you convert a removable hard drive caddy with this board, to take a wavetable card. Then you hook it up …

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Re: Relocating to a new country: tips and tricks for international freight of vintage hardware

Posted on 2022-02-09, 13:42

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

An example... https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_PH/baggage/extra-baggage-charges/pay-cash-or-by-credit-card.html see if you look at zone 4 and see $65 per kilogram that's scary, but that's for kilograms over and above the regular luggage weight of 23kg... in the table below you see a piece of up …

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Re: Relocating to a new country: tips and tricks for international freight of vintage hardware

Posted on 2022-02-09, 13:31

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

When I did it many years back, it turned out cheaper to check everything in as excess baggage. Difference back then was something like $50 a large moving box as excess baggage and $80 for cheapest surface mail. (Three months ship time) ... The specialist freight and baggage forwarders had rates/fees …

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