Re: Very low VGA signal strength on S3 805 VLB

Posted on 2020-01-26, 16:32

by

by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

they should be diodes yes, specifically protection diodes the top three should be oriented with the anode toward ground and the cathode toward the DAC color outputs - this protects the DAC from a negative potential being applied to the color lines from an external source by allowing (conventional) …

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Re: Very low VGA signal strength on S3 805 VLB

Posted on 2020-01-26, 15:51

by

by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I'd still replace them as you should get continuity in one direction and nothing in the opposite direction. with a standard continuity test diodes will not show continuity in either direction, that is normal the continuity test fails in the forward direction due to the intrinsic voltage drop …

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Re: PC speaker connector with 3 with connected pins. How to use?

Posted on 2020-01-26, 15:50

by

by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

derSammler wrote on 2020-01-26, 10:58: maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-01-25, 18:23: pretty sure that's wrong - speaker data is referenced to positive voltage so he would need 1 and 4 If speaker data is positive voltage, why would he need that and +5V? someone clearly doesn't understand what the phrase …

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Re: PC speaker connector with 3 with connected pins. How to use?

Posted on 2020-01-25, 18:23

by

by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

derSammler wrote on 2020-01-25, 18:15: You need 1 and 3. pretty sure that's wrong - speaker data is referenced to positive voltage so he would need 1 and 4

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Re: About Voodoo 2 pass through cable

Posted on 2020-01-25, 00:58

by

by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

If you want to switch externally, I heartily recommend the Extron VSW 2VGA A. Connect the 2d card to input 1 and the voodoo to input 2 and it will automatically switch just as seamlessly as the 3dfx factory passthrough. Quality is impeccable (Extron is professional tier equipment) and these things …

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Re: A few thoughts on life, the universe and everything

Posted on 2020-01-24, 19:06

by

by maxtherabbit

in Milliways

in Milliways

It's becoming obsolete to call it a 'mid life crisis'. We are on a brink of series of scientific medical revolutions that will increase human life duration to 150-200 years. So you're free to plan at least 100 years ahead. I personally will make a hidden stash of retro hardware to dig out in 2100! …

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Re: Getting the most memory out of a 286: which memory manager?

Posted on 2020-01-24, 14:26

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by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

...the vast overwhelming majority of ISA EMS/XMS cards do not support mapping physical memory into the UMA They don't, but the 64KB EMS Page Frame itself is memory, which can provide 64KB of UMB as long as there no one else is using true EMS then. I don't think it is possible for QRAM or any 286 …

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Re: Voodoo2 Cards / AGP Card - Graphics output questions

Posted on 2020-01-24, 14:20

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by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

RacoonRider wrote on 2020-01-24, 03:35: The video quality loss should be comparable to just using a longer cable. it's worse - the switching stuff in the voodoo is bandwidth limited

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Re: Getting the most memory out of a 286: which memory manager?

Posted on 2020-01-24, 03:16

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by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

PC-DOS 7 runs a treat on a 286 - and it uses less conventional than any other version of PC-DOS when paired with a 286+ system I'm not familiar with your Everex memory card's layout, but the vast overwhelming majority of ISA EMS/XMS cards do not support mapping physical memory into the UMA

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Re: Can the PAS16's SCSI interface run multiple hard drives

Posted on 2020-01-23, 17:19

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by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

It can, but it will be much slower than a dedicated ISA SCSI card

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Re: System shows directory contents of the previous floppy / disk with the DIR command

Posted on 2020-01-23, 16:43

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by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

SimonV wrote on 2020-01-23, 15:03: I looked at DRIVPARM but I am not sure what to enter in my config.sys Copy code to clipboard 1 DRIVPARM=/d:0 /f:7

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Re: About Voodoo 2 pass through cable

Posted on 2020-01-23, 14:33

by

by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

https://www.amazon.com/C2G-50235-Select-Exten … /dp/B00CJRRY9M/

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Re: System shows directory contents of the previous floppy / disk with the DIR command

Posted on 2020-01-23, 14:30

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by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

you need to use DRIVPARM to inform DOS that your floppy drive does not support the "disk changed" line what type of drive is it (1.44MB, 1.2MB, etc)?

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Re: Connecting old machines to the internet: dispelling the superstition

Posted on 2020-01-23, 14:24

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by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

That may have been a targeted attack, though, rather than something likely to affect a casual user. Also, the network may not have been the initial attack vector. That's the thing - edge cases where OS exploits could be used to compromise a vintage PC on the internet (especially one behind any run …

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Re: Simmconn AWE64 Adapter

Posted on 2020-01-23, 03:35

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by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Looks like the PAL is required for refresh so there's no bypassing it. I'm wondering if I maybe got a Gold version by mistake, according to the user manual on the original website my symptoms would be consistent with that. I have a gold I can test it in tomorrow

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Re: 486 motherboard BIOTEQ (Biostar) MB 1433/50AEA-P

Posted on 2020-01-23, 01:47

by

by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Give it a thorough cleaning and I bet it works

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Re: Getting the most memory out of a 286: which memory manager?

Posted on 2020-01-23, 01:46

by

by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Your other option would be to switch to PC-DOS 7. It uses less conventional by a few kB and loads a larger quantity of the kernel into the high memory area IIRC

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Re: Simmconn AWE64 Adapter

Posted on 2020-01-23, 01:18

by

by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Does the card have any memory detected without SIMMCONN connected to it? I've got an AWE64 Gold with a similar problem - I put it away in storage for a few years and when I tested it again, it only detects 0KB RAM instead of 4096KB. It still detects 0KB with the SIMMCONN connected no matter what …

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Re: Getting the most memory out of a 286: which memory manager?

Posted on 2020-01-23, 00:15

by

by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

if your goal is to free up more conventional you pretty much only have the option of adding physical memory in to the UMA or hoping your motherboard chipset has shadow RAM functionality that can be repurposed to create UMBs if you have a genuine IBM 5170, there's no shadow RAM to play with so you'd …

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Re: Simmconn AWE64 Adapter

Posted on 2020-01-23, 00:08

by

by maxtherabbit

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I've now tried like 10 different SIMMs of varying sizes and chip counts with all reporting 0kB in awe CP. Either something is wrong with my card or the SIMMCONN, but I went back and double checked all connections on the PCB and all is good there. Only thing I can think of is the PAL - would it be …

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