Tech Support. Wish me luck, guys.

Posted on 2020-03-06, 01:46

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Iogear once made* a very nifty 8-port rack-mountable KVM switch with support for cascading (and selecting downstream ports through the keyboard), analog VGA, PS/2 keyboard and mouse, and -- this one's the killer feature -- automatic protocol conversion to serial for the mouse port .... with an …

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Re: Dual Boot MS-DOS and Win98SE on SEPARATE DRIVES???

Posted on 2020-03-06, 01:04

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I actually started looking for a pre-made IDE cable with a switch to select which HDD on that cable boots up (both drives will be set to cable select). There's bunch of tutorials on how to do it online, but I was hoping to find one pre-made. This way I can have a little switch (the front of my case …

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Re: Prepping procedure for Win98SE Install (after failing 20+ times...)

Posted on 2020-03-06, 00:37

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

WinWorld's images have always been fine for me. I have downloaded a ton of them, because my copies of Windows are all still in their sealed boxes, and it's my plan to save that 1990s air in case of a virus outbreak in my town. My Pentium II runs Windows 98 First Edition because I felt like trolling …

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Re: My thought on integrated video chipsets

Posted on 2020-03-06, 00:15

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Intel Graphics have been a meme since the year 2000. We used Intel Integrated Graphics and we knew how crappy they were, that was why it was the butt of every joke when it came to graphics. Expecting integrated graphics to run games is like expecting a Honda Civic to win Le Mans. I have always …

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Re: IDE optical drive - how to get digital cd audio out (in pure DOS)?

Posted on 2020-03-05, 23:56

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Depends on what you mean by "digital audio". Digital read-out? No, that requires Windows 98 or later and compatible drivers/hardware. If you're talking about reading digital audio from the disc via the IDE interface (aka, ripping) then no, it doesn't require 98. There are DOS ripping tools. However …

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Re: First haul: 486DX4 100MHz + MMX 200MHz! Questions about what I have.

Posted on 2020-03-05, 23:45

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Trident boards are never going to be anyone's favorite, but they'll do. Run what you've got and replace what doesn't work for you when it becomes obvious that a particular component is holding you back. In the meantime, just enjoy it. Regarding your video mode problems, are you 100% certain you …

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Re: Burned PSU diagnostics/where is the faulty component?

Posted on 2020-03-05, 23:34

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You may just have to run it for a while. My whole retro fleet is pretty recent, having only gotten back into this not quite a couple years ago. Almost all of the stuff I have now is re-purchased used from eBay, with a couple select local pickup items. Many of the cases and PSUs have "a smell" of …

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Re: Anybody recognize this VLB controller?

Posted on 2020-03-05, 23:29

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hey, neat! Thanks! I was just thinking about this old post when that exact controller decided to stop working a couple days ago. ;-) I haven't totally thrown in the towel -- I need to test it on a different motherboard and maybe replace all its tantalum caps. (Still a little young for tantalum …

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Re: Micro ATX 486 - what's the degree of interest?

Posted on 2020-03-05, 23:22

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Am I understanding right, that you're hoping to contract someone else to do the design if you can stir up enough interest? Because (I don't mean this to be offensive), you don't sound like you're very confident with the hardware design aspect. I'm going to throw my 2c in, which agrees with other …

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Re: Replacement AT Case turbo display

Posted on 2020-03-04, 22:35

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also true. Is your PC >99MHz? If not, a standard 2-digit module, some resistors, and (as mentioned above) proto board could get you back up to speed. (heh)

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Re: Burned PSU diagnostics/where is the faulty component?

Posted on 2020-03-04, 22:32

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bear in mind, those trafos have lacquer-coated copper wire, often sealed in tape. If water gets in to the tape after a brief washing, it should be able to get back out easily enough. If it's in there good, well.... it's coated wire. It has to be, otherwise, it would just be a spool of short-circuit. …

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Re: Computer freezes when accessing hard drive

Posted on 2020-03-04, 22:29

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good plan. Never hurts to get a second opinion from a different motherboard. Could just be that board does not like that drive.

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Re: IBM PS/1 max restore?

Posted on 2020-03-04, 21:50

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What is the best solution to clean this yellowed plastics with ? It’s just the CDROM that has yellowed. Have you done anything about this yet? I have been tinkering with my retrobrighting setup, and working on restoring a new-to-me AST Advantage! 824 mini tower. Here's my process: 1) It is amazing …

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Re: PSU Power Supply, will it work on Pentium 1/2...

Posted on 2020-03-04, 21:03

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Great. :-) Be patient, ask for help if you're unsure, and always give it time to discharge before popping the lid. Unless it's very poorly designed, or damaged in some critical way, after half an hour unplugged it's long been totally harmless. But it's never a bad idea to get a multimeter and test …

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Re: Advice on making a stable VLB build

Posted on 2020-03-04, 20:59

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

LOL ... so my 486DX2 just decided to stop booting the other day. It would finish the memory count, then the cursor would stay on the last digit and blink at me forever. No floppy seek or anything else. Hung solid. If I was quick enough on the draw, I could hit DEL and get into setup. I finally …

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Re: Burned PSU diagnostics/where is the faulty component?

Posted on 2020-03-04, 20:54

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Same. Most AT supplies I get have seen a few years of service, so I decap them, bathe them and scrub them with a toothbrush under running water, dry for a day or maybe two (it's very dry here), then re-cap, re-assemble, test with a dummy load, and back into service it goes.

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Re: Replacement AT Case turbo display

Posted on 2020-03-04, 20:49

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh, OK. So yeah -- chances are it wasn't reverse polarity, but you were effectively bypassing the current limiting resistor. LEDs, as diodes, are essentially a short circuit once the voltage is high enough to overcome their forward voltage. On a green LED, I think that's 2.1V from memory (I should …

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Re: PSU Power Supply, will it work on Pentium 1/2...

Posted on 2020-03-03, 21:47

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

IMO, if you're going to commit to old hardware, you should probably resign to learning a little about electronics. You don't have to go EE level, but basic troubleshooting and repair skills *certainly* help. A good way to start is, as said above, open that puppy up and see what happened to it. Don't …

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Re: Dead Mach64 and frozen AWE32

Posted on 2020-03-03, 21:38

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Who knows. Could be the bus controller chip got fried -- wouldn't necessarily be visible damage. It's always possible to start swapping components from a donor board, but 1) you need a donor board with functional parts, but that has otherwise failed for some reason (otherwise, why not just use the …

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Re: Replacement AT Case turbo display

Posted on 2020-03-03, 21:32

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's probably not the LED module. In general, LEDs don't have an issue with being connected in reverse. The 'D' stands for diode, after all, which is a one-way component. They're used to protect downstream components from reverse-polarity faults, rectify AC to DC, and other things of that nature. ( …

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