Re: Which Build do I go with. 486 Vs Pentium 1? Decisions...

Posted on 2019-03-26, 18:48

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My 2 cents: play the long game. The 486 is likely to be more rewarding, precisely because it will take more effort. However as you point out, buying all required bits at inflated auction-site prices is expensive. But... >90% of old stuff never hits those sites. Most gets dumped at recycling centers …

---

Re: socket 7 passive heatsink cooling info

Posted on 2019-03-26, 09:25

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's all a matter of heat dissipation. A P133 generates 11.2W of heat, which - in thermal terms - is peanuts. By comparison, a Pentium II 266 Klamath (which you frequently see passively cooled) is 38.2W. So it's not even near the limits. Basically you just have two prerequesites: 1) the CPU needs to …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-03-25, 23:00

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

To show you what else was in the box for 20€...all looking OK and not visible on sellers photo. No basis for a negative rating or return...: DSC_8253.JPG VLB Ark1000 VLB Combo VGA / IDE? VLB Diamond Stealth 64 Jazz 16 DSC_8254.JPG 2x TSENG ET4000 Chips PCI VGA - didnt know they made such modern …

---

Re: What are my 486 upgrade options?

Posted on 2019-03-24, 23:41

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Depends on what you want to do with it. The PODP's FPU is vastly more powerful than the DX4's, but apart from Quake nothing much that would run on a system like this uses it. Probably the PODP would be slightly faster, but only if the motherboard supports L1 write-back cache. There is another option …

---

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

Posted on 2019-03-24, 23:17

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I hate optical media... Spent a frustrating afternoon trying to find at least one writer that would burn me an ISO. Eventually managed to do so reliably on a LiteOn 52x32x52x - at least. if I set speed to 8x. Of course, the ISO in question turned out not to work either, so now I need a new one and …

---

Re: Any interesting graphic card in this photo?

Posted on 2019-03-24, 13:22

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In that case I'd go for the weird little one and ignore the rest unless you're specifically looking for one (as the price is very reasonable in any event).

---

Re: 486 boot problem

Posted on 2019-03-23, 15:33

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You're using a 3V CPU and have jumpered it for 3V, that means that the VRM on the board (primarily that MOSFET just to the left of the CPU socket) is regulating the voltage down from 5V to 3V, which with a primitive linear design like this generates a lot of heat. If it's the rear of the MOSFET, …

---

Re: 486 boot problem

Posted on 2019-03-23, 12:49

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, then run down the whole list and see if they're set correctly.

---

Re: 486 boot problem

Posted on 2019-03-23, 12:14

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

OK, then it's time to check the jumpers. Your latest pic is good, but not necessarily good enough for that. What I can see: JP21-22-23 are for system clock. A DX2-80 needs 40MHz here. That should be 2-3 1-2 1-2, but it looks like all three are on 2-3 2-3 2-3, which is not a documented setting. In …

---

Re: 486 boot problem

Posted on 2019-03-23, 12:06

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Right, think I got it: Forcom 419 http://www.uncreativelabs.de/th99/m/E-H/32076.htm Could you check whether the jumper numbers correspond?

---

Re: 486 boot problem

Posted on 2019-03-23, 11:55

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

-No, it's just Q1: MIC29502BT Q3: LT1085CT - 3.3 Hmmph. Any chance of a better pic of the whole board then? If you lay it flat on a table with good lighting (not from straight above but a bit to the side), you can usually do pretty well, even with a smartphone camera. At 1600x1200 or so we should …

---

Re: 486 boot problem

Posted on 2019-03-23, 11:37

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

All right, buckle up. - Am486 DX2-80 3 volt https://imgur.com/a/PDywK8T I believe I see the name of the board silkscreened, but can't make it out. Look on the PCB between the 4th and 5th ISA slot from top. There's a rectangular box with two lines of text/code. I suspect that the top one is the …

---

Re: Any interesting graphic card in this photo?

Posted on 2019-03-23, 11:16

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Depends what you call 'interesting'. In any event this is a shitty seller's photo, which doesn't make life easier. Agreed that the second from right on the bottom row is the most out of the ordinary. It only has a single DE15 connector, so that daughter-board is probably purely for RAM expansion. I …

---

Re: 486 boot problem

Posted on 2019-03-23, 10:59

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

"Green" is almost certainly not the manufacturer of your motherboard, but a label that indicates that it does some sort of power saving or other. So unfortunately you're not telling us anything other than that there's an Am486DX2 at some or other speed in there... Back in the days of the 486, you …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-03-21, 21:40

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] Not to mention that plastic gets brittle as rotten paper,, one wrong move and crack you can bring out the MEK Yep. Having fun with my SparcStation in that regard. Just lost two DSIMM eject handles, they just crumbled under my fingers. Good reason to be messing with them though - this arrived …

---

Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2019-03-21, 17:30

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Had I already said I love my colleagues? https://tweakers.net/ext/f/JTYzJX1pziBySDSAtf8uzQXc/full.jpg A while back someone was chucking out old server room crap. I got a Cherry MY G81-1800, but a colleague got something that sounded like an MX G80-1800 with blues in custom metal case. Yesterday I …

---

Re: Good place to get computer cases at.

Posted on 2019-03-21, 07:42

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That probably depends on where you are located and how old the cases are you are looking for. I get most of mine from adverts on a local Craigslist equivalent for big unsorted lots of "old computer stuff".

---

Re: 8Bit ISA WIFI Card - Project - Brainstorm

Posted on 2019-03-19, 12:54

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ooh, looks interesting. Agreed that the ESP32 looks good. I have exactly zero experience with messing around with this sort of microcontrollers, but want to change that. On the other hand I've been involved with WiFi engineering for the better part of a decade now (with CWNP certificates to show for …

---

Re: Tick tock

Posted on 2019-03-18, 18:55

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A gentleman in France is already selling single-PCB DS12887-replacements with similar concept on a popular auction site. I bought one to test and am pretty happy with it.

---

Re: vl/i-486sv2gx4 : how to check and update bios?

Posted on 2019-03-18, 15:36

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Check: look at POST, at the least there should be a string along the bottom of the screen. Usually also a version message at the top. If this flashes past too fast to read, press Pause/Break. Flash: depends whether it's an EPROM or an EEPROM. If it's an EEPROM (unlikely given age) you can flash it …

---