Re: Benefits of building a 386 computer ?

Posted on 2019-01-07, 19:24

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There are many interesting 486 CPUs. There are 486 CPUs faster than pentiums for example AMD 5x86 - but those will require good motherboards to run. Generally - a rule of thumb is to stay away from boring as hell intel stuff and you will find that every platform has it's unique feel.

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Re: 386sx vs 386dx ?

Posted on 2019-01-07, 18:10

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What are the benefits of a 386sx-40 vs, 386dx-40 ? Besides the obvious that the DX has a math-co processor This is one of those misconceptions that will never die. As people have pointed out before, the difference is not FPU-related. SX means S ingle word e x ternal, or having a 16-bit data bus; DX …

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Re: MAT286 problems / won't start / Gate A20 error - please help with diagnosis

Posted on 2019-01-07, 10:03

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That is awesome. Did you end up trying the original keyboard controller in the replacement socket? In case it was a bad solder connection vs a bad chip? Edit: now it is running, can you do a checkit 3.0 score on it, want to compare with how mine runs. Yes, I tried original KBC in the socket and it …

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Re: MAT286 problems / won't start / Gate A20 error - please help with diagnosis

Posted on 2019-01-06, 20:55

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I fixed it. I desoldered the KBC (which wasn't that easy - I had to use the pump and braid several times on each row of pins), I soldered a new DIP40 socket, installed the KBC from another HT12 motherboard (pretty much dead one). And voila! :D https://youtu.be/w33fLORxsWg Behold my sloppy …

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Re: MAT286 problems / won't start / Gate A20 error - please help with diagnosis

Posted on 2018-12-28, 23:51

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I bought some proper soldering (or rather - de-soldering) supplies... I'm going to desolder the KBC and solder a DIP40 socket in it's place. Same with the HM6818P chip next to it.

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Re: Modern power supply with a retro pc.

Posted on 2018-12-28, 14:50

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nobody knows how much wattage one cable can handle exactly? I could take it down to one hard drive, one optical drive, floppy drive and fx 5950 ultra until I get adapters and leave one of the hard drives and one optical drive disconnected until then. https://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm W = A …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-12-27, 22:58

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Overpriced and I had to pay customs which made it even more pricey, still I had very similar motherboard in my first PC as I wanted this one badly.

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Headland HT12A vs HT101A/102?

Posted on 2018-12-27, 15:52

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does anybody know what is the difference between those two 286 chipsets? Advantages/disadvantages of one over the other and so on... I see a lot of mainboards with HT12/A and less with HT101A/102 duo. I guess HT12/A is more recent as it's integrated in a single chip? Motherboard with the HT101/102 …

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Re: Electronics repair area basics ?

Posted on 2018-12-26, 23:14

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Multimeters - almost everything from UNI-T is very decent for the price. I work in the scientific institute and this brand was recommended to me by tech guys as being very precise even for the scientific purposes. I have UT61E and it's the best multimeter I used so far, although I recommend …

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Re: MAT286 problems / won't start / Gate A20 error - please help with diagnosis

Posted on 2018-12-24, 23:35

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have hot air rework station and I guess I can remove the controller and install socket for new controller instead. Sourcing the proper KBC is other thing though… I have two mobos (286 OCTEK FOX II with AMI KBC) and some other 386 mobo with JetKey KBC. Still I'm not sure if it's required for the …

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Re: MAT286 problems / won't start / Gate A20 error - please help with diagnosis

Posted on 2018-12-24, 12:05

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you have any way to verify that your keyboard works? Yeah, I have pleny other motherboards and computers I use it with on a daily basis. Is this what you have? http://www.btc.com.tw/pdf/5140.pd https://deskthority.net/wiki/BTC_51_series I don't see an AT/PS2 switch anywhere, so I'm not sure what …

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Re: MAT286 problems / won't start / Gate A20 error - please help with diagnosis

Posted on 2018-12-24, 00:03

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I know this will sound weird but use a different keyboard the a20 gate handler chip is in the keyboard (you could also try changing fast a20 gate in the bios) edit: didnt read the last post Well I can't change anything in the BIOS because it never shows the setup prompt nor the keyboard is working. …

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Re: Suntac 80286 Mainboards

Posted on 2018-12-24, 00:00

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Beautiful collection. Thanks for sharing. I have one Suntac based mobo as well. Still works like charm. I don't quite remember how I got it, but it was many years ago. In fact it's my only working 286 mobo right now, because it seems I have bad luck buying them - last one I bought had minor battery …

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Re: MAT286 problems / won't start / Gate A20 error - please help with diagnosis

Posted on 2018-12-23, 22:50

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I inspected the motherboard carefully and I don't see ANY mechanical dammage, not a single scratch. Soldering points are all shiny too. When I bought it few months ago it already had the blue barrel of cancer removed so it never had any chemical dammage as well. There is just a light dust, but …

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Re: MAT286 problems / won't start / Gate A20 error - please help with diagnosis

Posted on 2018-12-23, 21:15

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the replies. I will check this out.

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MAT286 problems / won't start / Gate A20 error - please help with diagnosis

Posted on 2018-12-23, 02:28

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some time ago, I bought this MAT286 Rev.D motherboard. It has 286 16MHz Siemens CPU and HT12/A chipset. https://imgur.com/a/fIJPSyL https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/U/UNIDENTIFIED-286-MAT-286.html Problems: it won't start at all most of the time, shows only 04 POST code on this cheapo …

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Re: Bought this AWE64 Gold thing...

Posted on 2018-08-30, 10:20

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Yeah, I refered to CD Audio connector. For DOS games I have a bunch of other Creative cards - AWE32, three AWE64s Value, SB16 Value and MT-32. Sadly none of them is 100% Legacy ISA, still SB16 works fine in my 286. I've always been curious about the "Gold" edition I know It has 4MB of memory …

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Bought this AWE64 Gold thing...

Posted on 2018-08-30, 00:50

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

So I bought this AWE64 Gold card for very reasonable price at local auctions (paid ~35 USD in Polish money) - only the card, no manuals, box etc unfortunatelly… Guy sold it as unknown/not working condition, but it works perfectly fine in my junky 486 and passes all the tests without problems… It is …

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Re: Broken Creative Labs 3D Blaster Voodoo2 - deal or ripoff?

Posted on 2018-08-30, 00:44

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've repaired conditions very similar to this. I just use a needle point tip for my soldering iron and thin solder. I used a scalpel to straighten the pins. A greater concern might be if someone left this cared powered up with pins shorting out. Possible damage to the internals of the chip? I …

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Re: What brand / computer company used this logo?

Posted on 2018-08-29, 11:49

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by HanJammer

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

https://www.trademarkia.com/kt-technology-74459175.html

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