Re: Very funny answers from real exam papers (allegedly)

Posted on 2017-11-20, 18:25

by

by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

What's wrong with #3? I'm pretty sure Moses did die before he ever got to Canada. LOL I saw some pretty awful A plus hardware questions... One went something like... An expansion card has a coil inductor on it, is it A) A network adapter? b) a Modem? c) a sound card? d) a graphics adapter? The …

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

Posted on 2017-11-20, 16:24

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well you could "do everything" a normal user would want to do up until 96 or so with 8MB but 16MB is nicer in windows 3.11 or 95 if you have thoughts of putting that on. 4MB wasn't that limiting until 95ish I don't think. By the time you really needing 8MB for games the DX33 is a bit of a slug for …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2017-11-20, 16:10

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Scraphoarder wrote: First a socket 3 PICMG1.0 SBC with a 486 DX4. A weird thing with this is that it seems to have onboard Trident VGA with extra video memory sockets, but it lacks the VGA header.. SBC-490_PICMG.jpg I'd suggest it maybe used an LCD or Plasma display over the feature connector.

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Re: Pentium Or 486. Can't Decide

Posted on 2017-11-20, 02:32

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What kind of deal is this, considering it's got the board, AMD DX2-80, heatsink/fan and 4MB of RAM, for $88.89 CAD and shipping would be Canada Post, no customs crap ??? http://legacycomputersnparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?currency=CAD&cPath=1_32_49_103&products_id=470&osCsid= …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2017-11-19, 23:10

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Might be for a RAM expansion board.

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Re: Pentium Or 486. Can't Decide

Posted on 2017-11-19, 22:59

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Vlb graphics only get really bad if you're looking for something high end (which would be nice). Cirrus logic boards will do swell in ms-dos and are usually always on ebay for $25-30US. They are so common because most 486 machines came with them, cheaper systems with low end trident cardss. It's …

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Re: The Old Hard Drive Thread

Posted on 2017-11-19, 22:51

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Anyone know what it is in an old hard drive that makes a little tiny short buzz sound periodically? Like, the drive is spinning normally, but once in while there's a tiny additional buzz that's a different tone and lasts a fraction of a second. I've had lots of drives do this. Especially older WD …

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Re: ROMs on Modems??? (IDE XT?)

Posted on 2017-11-19, 17:15

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks guys, I was leaning that way but wanted a sanity check. I usually remove these flash roms and save them for other projects. Good point, though now I'm wondering what are the chances of the bits ending the right way up if I flash it in the modem, given a suitable tool, then pull it to install …

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Re: Pentium Or 486. Can't Decide

Posted on 2017-11-19, 15:14

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

-no cool ami winbios. I've seen it on a socket 7 system, 96ish, I think it was 7 and not 5, system had a Cyrix 686. However, I don't know if you can get it with a DIMM SDRAM system, and if you go to DIMM you may as well get an ATX board over an AT one for convenience in giving it a home. So, to get …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2017-11-19, 14:36

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

lolo799 wrote: What's the best to way to upgrade, downgrade or turn a computer into a x86 machine, as long as it has 2 free PCI ports? This thing, which I just bought: assist pc card.jpg Heyyyyy, I could make a decent PC out of my Pentium 60 box.... 😉

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2017-11-19, 03:38

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well it does seem to have that Deskpro compatible missing bottom corner and high VGA socket.

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ROMs on Modems??? (IDE XT?)

Posted on 2017-11-19, 03:17

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi folks, It just occurred to me, that modems have ROMs on, and were one of the first parts to regularly have a flash ROM installed due to standards being updated every few months through the mid-late 90s. But then it occurred to me, "Wait a sec, is that ROM actually on the bus???" I don't know if …

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Re: Pentium Or 486. Can't Decide

Posted on 2017-11-19, 02:37

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes on the 486 the megahertz are richer, with hints of oak and berry fruit notes.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2017-11-19, 02:31

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh wow, that's really interesting! I have a couple of i740s and neither have fans, let alone unique looking "Intel" fans. I don't recall ever hearing about an "overclocked" model of the i740, so I'm not sure why anyone would have added beefier cooling. Pretty much what I was thinking also, they put …

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Re: Old hardware you didn't take or buy... but might still want?

Posted on 2017-11-18, 22:40

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I was 5 mins staring at a crappy ALS100 soundcard and DE220 today, both ISA, seen in a thrift, angel "You've got enough crap." devil "what if you don't have enough sound or net" angel "you've got plenty" devil "it's got a ROM socket for IDE or other ROM" .... I didn't get them... yet? ... $5 each …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2017-11-18, 22:26

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I saw an old Compaq Armada laptop there a month ago for €5 but passed on it as it had no power adapter and these might be a b....ch to find (voltages like 18,5 or 19,5V). You don't have to be all that exact on voltage for most laptops. Some will even run off 12V but not charge battery. One of those …

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Re: [Identify] MHz of this coprocessor?

Posted on 2017-11-18, 20:53

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ampera wrote: You stick it into a computer and look at the BIOS info screen. That just reports the speed you set it at.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2017-11-18, 20:45

by

by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

hell there's even a Deathstar around somewhere that's still apparently all good and working Not all IBM Deskstar drives suck. AFAIK only the ones manufactured during a relatively short period around 1999-2000. The later, larger drives work entirely fine. Right, the later Hitachis were some cheap/ …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2017-11-18, 20:36

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by BitWrangler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

gdjacobs wrote: JBs with 8MB cache were always the nicest. Yah, 2 in RAID 0 will pretty much saturate an ATA-133 bus, so performance doesn't get any better for PATA machines, well apart from latency and seek time slowdowns, but the larger cache takes the sting out of that.

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Re: Glasses-Free 3D TV

Posted on 2017-11-18, 20:28

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by BitWrangler

in Milliways

in Milliways

This form of 3D has been around since at least the 1990s, I saw a demo at a big electronics show around then, remember there was a CD console there, don't remember if it was Sony's stand with the PS or Phillips stand with the CDi. Anyway, they still haven't made much progress on the main problem, …

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