Re: Any specific AGP cards I should keep (lower end) ?
Posted on 2018-11-25, 13:07
I sacrificed an S3 Trio3D ... I wanted the backplate for a serial port. I don't think it is much loss there 😀
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2018-11-25, 09:42
yawetaG wrote: Those will be IDE CD-ROM support, not for hard disks, and certainly not for booting off whatever is connected to it. Very true. Although, It might work with hard drives in combination with XT-IDE to provide BIOS support for the I/O ports it uses.
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2018-11-25, 00:20
I picked up a couple of Pentium Class computers yesterday, was mainly interested in the AT case that one of them was in, but got a couple of working pentiums too. After all the tribulations with the CT2860 I posted earlier, I got the following ISA cards CT2810.jpg First of all, a much better SB16, …
Re: How stable is your Windows 98?
Posted on 2018-11-24, 23:52
KCompRoom2000 wrote: RaverX wrote: Also avoid SB Live. Should I just replace my SB Live with an SB Audigy 2 now? 😦 Nah, I never had any real problems with the SB-Live either on windows 98. Don't mix SB Live and VIA 686A/B chips though, seems to be a bad combo.
Re: How stable is your Windows 98?
Posted on 2018-11-24, 23:51
Worst (again, from my experience) seems to be PIII on VIA chipsets, tested on a lot of motherboards, I would always get blue screens, freezes, etc and after a while the entire system would become unusable. . Hmmm, I didn't really have any issues with this as long as I wasn't trying to use AGP 4x. …
Re: How stable is your Windows 98?
Posted on 2018-11-24, 12:14
Windows 98SE itself was stable enough, but for an OS of its complexity, the lack of failsafes to stop misbehaving code or hardware screwing things up (let alone clueless users making things worse) was definitely a very weak point of the OS. It is easy to criticize the direction microsoft went with …
Re: Needed help with a Pentium 3 motherboard
Posted on 2018-11-23, 11:51
I don't recommend learning how to solder on these mult-layer motherboards with huge ground planes. It will drive you nutty and you will ruin stuff. Best to learn at least the basics of soldering on simpler boards first, then spend time fighting the motherboards solder pads.
Re: How stable is your Windows 98?
Posted on 2018-11-23, 11:18
Frankly, windows 98 is pretty poor in respect to stability. More than a few times, I have rendered a Windows 98 install completely borked through software/hardware installation. Although, the OP should run some hardware tests to see if his hardware is operating correctly (memory and graphics stress …
Re: AT Hardware in ATX Case: Show Me Your Power/Turbo Switch Mods
Posted on 2018-11-21, 10:23
My solution for the power switch is to just use an ATX power supply with a power switch. Eventually I plan to work out a better solution, along with making turbo switches.
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2018-11-17, 07:48
IMG_2710.jpg My next repair project Socket A motherboard - Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard. A nice Athlon/Athlon XP motherboard with built in SB emulation via the VIA chipset. I have done a quick recap of the problem capacitors. Replaced 3 of the 3300uF caps with 1500uF OS-CON polymer capacitors …
Re: Motherboard chipsets that support D-DMA
Posted on 2018-11-17, 02:18
Everyone should note that while these chipsets support DDMA, it doesn't automatically mean that motherboards that have these chipsets will be able to use it properly. I have an ABIT SL-30T motherboard that stubbornly refuses to enable legacy access on any sound card that I have tested (Yamaha YMF724 …
Re: ESS 1688F sound card
Posted on 2018-11-16, 09:44
I would say ESS sound card output is reasonable, especially after turning off/bypassing the internal amplifiers. Not fantastic like SB live/audigy, AWE64, aureal vortex cards, or the GUS cards (never seen a GUS card though), but not really all that awful. I have used much worse soundcards than my …
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2018-11-15, 13:47
IMG_2710.jpg My next repair project Socket A motherboard - Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard. A nice Athlon/Athlon XP motherboard with built in SB emulation via the VIA chipset. Current Status: Boots, but isn't particularly stable. Has 7 bad capacitors. To be replaced 5 x Choyo capacitors, XG series, …
Re: ESS 1688F sound card
Posted on 2018-11-15, 12:31
Remember to move the jumpers from speaker output to line output. Quality will normally jump quite noticeably as long as you use an external amplifier.
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2018-11-14, 14:07
IMG_2702.JPG In happier sound card news, I received this little gem today. A diamond multimedia sonic impact S90. Based on a cheaper respin of the original aureal vortex 1 chip, the AU8820 is still pretty good. This example offers very nice line output quality and good DOS compatibility. …
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2018-11-14, 13:37
what is your goal and your config, in witch want you use? do you want to build an authentic computer from a specified year? or just it should work in a faster computer? many isa boards has some problem with faster computers. My goal is to build good computers to play these older games on, and that …
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2018-11-14, 13:01
try with the ct22x0 series... they are much better. but i prefer the sbpro2 for the older games. the pas16 is also better than the ct17x0, if you want a well supported and better quality sound card from those years (92-93). the vibra-s is a very noisy card, more noisy, than the first sb16. As much …
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2018-11-14, 12:34
IMG_2701.JPG I received the above sound card yesterday. What a terrible mistake buying this was, thankfully i didn't pay much. While it does have an OPL3, it is hobbled by the rest of the card that makes me think that they simply didn't care what it sounded like at all. Terrible noise floor, bad …
Re: Using SSD on XP SP2 system
Posted on 2018-11-09, 23:53
SSDs work fine with Windowx XP. There is no TRIM, but the disadvantages due to this are a bit overblown. If you are worried, secure wipe the drive and leave the final 10-20% un-partitoned. This will help garbage collection. Any worries about reduced life are really not that important, because the …
Re: Trying desperately to buy a NEC usb-card, but failing miserably
Posted on 2018-11-06, 22:12
Hmmm, I ordered a couple of the USB 2.0 cards off ebay like the picture in the OP, and they certainly do seem to be NEC cards when they turn up. They work properly and do use NEC drivers.
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