Making Future Domain TMC-850MEX SCSI controller bootable

Posted on 2024-01-03, 21:27

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

EDIT: SUCCESSFULLY MADE THE CONTROLLER BOOTABLE, FILES NEEDED AND HOWTO INSTRUCTIONS AVAILABLE HERE: http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=2142&menustate=59,55 [hr] ORIGINAL POST: So I have an XT without usable fixed storage media and I have a Future Domain TMX-850MEX 8b ISA SCSI …

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Re: Guess the hack purpose...

Posted on 2024-01-03, 15:13

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Motherboard with onboard NIC that requires a proprietary - unobtainium - riser. Hacking this disposable NIC to act as said riser.

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Re: What soundcard(s) should I get for this specific purpose?

Posted on 2023-12-29, 11:52

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

[...] The hanging not bug isnt an issue anymore. All creative cards with a seperate dsp chip (ct1741) can be fixed to not have it. All you need is a socketed dsp and a replacement plcc44 eeprom. Given quite a few SB16/AWE cards for not have socketed CT1741, I'd say it very much is still an issue.to …

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Re: What soundcard(s) should I get for this specific purpose?

Posted on 2023-12-28, 17:03

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The best Single-Card solution for late DOS is the MK8330, with its C-Media 8330 giving the holy grail of full SB16 compatibility and truly bug-free MIDI, and digital output, 1:1 OPL3 clone and WSS to boot. Keropi and Marmes' design also gives top notch quality and no noise Might be a bit expensive …

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Re: Ct4170 - There is sound but no midi music?

Posted on 2023-12-28, 12:30

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

You could - but note what has already been said about MIDI issues on the CT4170. It's one of the least buggy SB16 variants on that front, but does suffer from MIDI slowdowns/pauses when high quality digital audio is being played at the same time as MIDI music. One of the games most mentioned where …

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Re: STPC Elite mouse and keyboard implementation

Posted on 2023-12-27, 18:59

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You say the board doesn't have an ISA bus, but that sure looks like a PC/104 connector on the right on the last image. PC/104 is basically ISA in a different form factor. So you probably do have ISA.

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Re: Ct4170 - There is sound but no midi music?

Posted on 2023-12-27, 11:02

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

You could - but note what has already been said about MIDI issues on the CT4170. It's one of the least buggy SB16 variants on that front, but does suffer from MIDI slowdowns/pauses when high quality digital audio is being played at the same time as MIDI music. One of the games most mentioned where …

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Re: 2D Acceleration - first chipsets

Posted on 2023-12-26, 15:22

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Understood, thank you. Reading through this thread, it seems that even the FPU had to be explicitly supported by software to be utilized? Yes. Basically DOS doesn't do any kind of abstraction of this kind of functionality. All you have is what BIOS offers you, which is I/O related, not any kind of …

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Re: MS-6168 freeze during partition

Posted on 2023-12-26, 14:39

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I run my Intel X25E 32GB SSD off a Promise SATA150TX2+ controller on my MS-6168. No problems - but I also run Win2k on it, so NTFS, which means basically a totally different setup. As usual when having issues like this I couldn't immediately figure out, I would personally try a different OS to …

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Re: Smallest full atx mobo case that has bays for floppy and DC drives

Posted on 2023-12-25, 19:47

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

But what is "smallest" for you? x-axis only? y-axis only? z-axis only? Smallest front surface area (x times y) Smallest volume? (x times y times z) Are you being vague on purpose?

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Re: Smallest full atx mobo case that has bays for floppy and DC drives

Posted on 2023-12-25, 11:54

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have that cooler master. It is flimsy and has no drive bays. It has magnetic covers and filters that are always snagging and falling off. It’s very delicate https://www.nix.ru/autocatalog/cases_inwin/Miditower-INWIN-A500-ATX-350W-24-plus-4pin_45167.html#pid=2241 Isn’t bad, but was hoping for …

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Re: Suggestions for Amps/Preamps for SC-55

Posted on 2023-12-24, 15:10

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Indeed. SC-55 outputs line level so you can/should treat it like anything else at line level. Mine goes into a mixer shared with other MIDI modules and the vintage PCs that talk to them and outputs to a set of active studio monitor loudspeakers (and had an extra output I lead to the line-in on my …

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Re: Smallest full atx mobo case that has bays for floppy and DC drives

Posted on 2023-12-24, 10:58

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Smallest in which dimension? There were a lot of cases that put the PSU next to the motherboard instead of above/below it. That gives you a lot less height, but inevitably the cases got a lot wider. Also there can be limitations on CPU cooler height. Things like this: https://www.nix.ru/autocatalog/ …

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Re: Analog Devices Soundport vs Crystal

Posted on 2023-12-23, 13:08

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Go with the Crystal chip, it has better sound and much better compatibility with both DOS and Windows. Not so sure. You're probably referring to primary controller chips (AD1816 vs CS423x), where the AD1816 is downright awful. However OP is referring to a card with "MAD16" i.e. OPTi 929 which …

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Re: Does the Cyrix Cx486DX-50 actually exist?

Posted on 2023-12-21, 06:53

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] I have had many troubles to make it work correctly. Sometimes the mouse didn't work, or i have troubles with the video card, i put Windows 3.1, and Dos 6.22 and an adapter from MicroSD to Ide as a harddisk. The interesting question: were these CPU-specific or just regular issues with 50MHz …

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Re: New Dos/Win98/WinXp ( a bit extreme )

Posted on 2023-12-20, 11:00

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I once got Windows XP running on a PODP83, it worked fine with DOS (although limiting RAM from the 256MB installed was a pain). Couldn't get a PCIe GPU connected to it though :P Seriously: I second mothergoose729. What you want is doable as a challenge, but the compromises involved will make the …

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Re: PC1066 RAM on VC820

Posted on 2023-12-19, 19:18

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Memory speeds are like roadsigns: they indicate the maximum speed something is rated safe at. Exceed that speed and you might crash. Go slower and... unlike on the road where the person behind you might start flashing his lights at you, nothing untoward happens, it just runs at the speed you run it …

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Re: Do you have a backup motherboard for your build.

Posted on 2023-12-19, 08:11

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sort of. It took me four attempts to get an MSI MS-6168 V2 board (i440BX with Voodoo3 onboard) that would reliably run a Tualatin and do so at 133MHz FSB. I still have the best of the rest too, but if anything happens to the primary, I'll have to drop the clock.

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Re: Totem TM-P2EXAT strange behavior

Posted on 2023-12-19, 08:00

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You say it doesn't boot on ATX power. Does it work correctly when powered with an AT PSU? In that case, is the ATX PSU known good?

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Re: PC with IBM 5x86C - to buy or not to buy?

Posted on 2023-12-18, 08:36

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The CPU was designed by Cyrix but not made by them. They were a fabless developer, with most CPUs in this era being manufactured by SGS-Thomsob or indeed IBM. The deal included rights for the fab owners to sell CPUs under their own brand, so that IBM 5x86 is definitely made by IBM. Apart from that …

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