Re: Socket 7 board won’t post

Posted on 2018-05-29, 17:50

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You've reseated the BIOS chip. Have you tried re-flashing it (on a different board or EEPROM flasher if you have one)? As for re-capping, how do the caps look? Asus tended to use better caps than most around 1998 when this board was made, but that's no guarantee of course.

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Re: Getting rid of tobacco smell.

Posted on 2018-05-29, 17:00

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently chucked a case I really liked but was otherwise incurably smelly (and sticky in hard-to-reach areas with brown tar) into the dishwasher. Was half expecting the steel to have rusted and the plastic melted, but it turned out great. Wouldn't try that with the case of my MT-32 though, let …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-05-29, 10:13

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I used to own an PC/AT clone with a Hercules card, but my monitor was a 12.1" black/white.. monochrome? We used to call green/amber monitors monochrome and the black/white ones Hercules. To this day I don't know how off our terminology was. Were they true black/white, or rather greyscale? Either …

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Re: Which Version of Award Flash?

Posted on 2018-05-29, 08:21

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You should check out UniFlash http://www.rainbow-software.org/uniflash It supposedly has better success rate for most older-ish boards. I have used it on my AMI BIOS board. YMMV with later boards; particularly Asus did some odd stuff in how BIOS gets written >1998 - simply could not get it to work …

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Re: Which 430hx board to choose...

Posted on 2018-05-27, 23:37

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Both tag ram sockets filled on the GA-586HX and the RTC sorted? Then that's your board 😀

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

Posted on 2018-05-27, 22:57

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] and I remember someone blithering on about the "heavy metal supports inside Trinitrons" Well you are able to play Fade to Black on it, I suppose that counts as 'support' ;) Apart from some serious clearing up here (basically piling all my individually unsaleable modems, ISDN adapters, RTL8139 …

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Re: Which 430hx board to choose...

Posted on 2018-05-27, 13:04

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In that case it depends on the revision of the GA-586HX. If that's a late-version board with split voltage support and socket for second TagRAM, it's the one to go for. On the other hand, if it's an early one with no split voltage support and no cache or Tag onboard and just an COAST stick for cache …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-05-27, 10:29

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

gdjacobs wrote: You're going CCW, pal! Some people start posting obscenities when they've had a tad too much to drink, apparently I just lose my orientation 😉

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-05-27, 01:10

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Two beautiful young ladies dropped by to drink some rose gin in the park this evening. One of them picked up some stuff for me earlier: https://tweakers.net/ext/f/HuIKP7ZYxBsH4pWdSIl2Ir9R/full.png Edit: Anti- clockwise starting top left: Tyan Trinity 400 (ATX Via ApolloPro133A with Slot1, So370 FC- …

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Re: Compact Flytech 386.

Posted on 2018-05-26, 13:02

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Download & run uniflash 1.40. Choose save to file (or something like that). Upload that file. Now that tickles my fancy! I actually have this weird passion for compact / SFF computers. That motherboard looks like a prehistoric mini ITX board. Nope, it's a very minimal but - by the looks of it - …

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Re: IBM PS/2 not updating contents of the floppy

Posted on 2018-05-25, 22:48

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you checked the FDD cable? The disk change signal is at one side, and maybe that wire is damaged. In my case: definitely not the cause. Have tried three different cables with same result on the PS/1 motherboard but all three working normally on any other system. Of course it could be a damaged …

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Re: IBM PS/2 not updating contents of the floppy

Posted on 2018-05-25, 20:34

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Are you sure it's in the drive? I've built a system around an IBM PS/1 motherboard with absolutely no original components other than that board and the CPU. Yet I experience the same, even with a Gotek instead of a regular floppy drive. That suggests it's in the BIOS or something...

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Re: Sound cards for 486DX4-100 system?

Posted on 2018-05-25, 13:11

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

badmojo wrote: Hard way is a multi card set up that aims for the stars - SB Pro, WSS, real OPL3, bug free wave table header, great software, sound fonts, daughterboards. But that way madness lies 😈 Hey, you forgot Ultrasound and Covox 😁

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Re: Upgrading the DAC in VGA

Posted on 2018-05-25, 11:02

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Back in the ISA days, VGA BIOSs were pretty simple affairs. It might be worth looking if you can find the BIOS of another ET4000AX-based card with SC11487CN and try that. No guarantees, but better than nothing if you can't find that 5600H BIOS.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-05-25, 00:43

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] I have three p5a-b boards and four p5a, all revisions. Tried two k6-3+ cpu's and two k6-2+. Getting any of these combinations with working cache above 630mhz i had zero luck. I also have the Gigabyte late revision (5.2), it is not better in any way as far as i know. Didn't even clock any …

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Re: Found a pretty motherboard, can we get it working?

Posted on 2018-05-24, 21:54

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Try SIMMs first, this thing should accept pretty much any pair of 72p you stick in there. Also, early SDRAM controllers didn't like big chips. I have no idea of the specs of the controller in a MediaGX, but if it's similar to an i430VX or Via VPX it can only handle very low density chips, so no …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-05-24, 18:17

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Serpent Rider wrote: Pretty BF6 with nice cooler That's an odd one actually: it's BE6-II (Highpoint RAID) with BF6 marking for some reason. Also it's revision 2.0 board with UDMA100 RAID. And that in a BX133 box...

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Re: Early Socket 7 Upgrade Path

Posted on 2018-05-23, 22:10

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There are even some Evergreen/Powerleap upgrade socket/CPU combinations that could go further, up to a K6-2 400 (6x 66MHz) - but they make the MMX overdrive look common, so unless you are very lucky (or have excessively deep pockets) you can forget that.

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Re: Upgrading the DAC in VGA

Posted on 2018-05-23, 19:27

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The DAC is socketed, so it should be easy enough to try if you can find the correct chip. You might need a different BIOS too, which is technically simple (if you have spare EEPROMs to flash) but could be exceedingly hard to find...

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Re: Mini ATX motherboards for old PC?

Posted on 2018-05-23, 11:13

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Why is that important? If you want to use the board for building a PC, just use RAM modules that are supported. If you want a board for testing RAM, why care about form factor, CPU etc..? I'm looking for a board for testing purposes, to basically be able to test anything P2/P3, so CPU, RAM, VGA, …

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