Re: Windows 3.11 on a 386SX

Posted on 2020-03-03, 21:22

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

All true, however I think some of those same factors hurt gaming on Win 3.x. For example, early graphics adapters ran those higher-resolution VGA and Super VGA modes, but were terribly slow doing it. So, any games that hoped to work in that environment had to tolerate very low graphics performance. …

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Re: Latest IDE CDROM Drive that supports CD-Rs

Posted on 2020-03-03, 01:03

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What he said. ^^ Probably either your USB drive's heads are mis-aligned, or your 486's are. There's no format difference between them. Windows of any version will write the disk in FAT12 format. That's the standard for floppies, and has been since the days of yore. The only concern you need to have …

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Re: How to Turn my Pentium III Classic Gaming PC Into a *Quiet* Classic Gaming PC?

Posted on 2020-03-03, 00:59

by

by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can use sites like frozencpu.com to browse fans by dimensions, then look at their speed/noise ratings. Alternatively, for PSUs and case fans, I use a Qualtek 80mm fan from Digikey. <-- They have a very good parametric search engine that can help you narrow down options. If you've never used …

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Re: Replacement AT Case turbo display

Posted on 2020-03-03, 00:56

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In short, no. They were custom jobs for the case manufacturer. *IF* you find a module available on eBay that happens to be designed for the same case, or at least the same manufacturer (if they standardized their mounts and display dimensions), then you might get lucky. Two different manufacturers …

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Old early 90s laptop ad - anyone remember this?

Posted on 2020-03-02, 21:31

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been looking for an old ad that I used to see in the magazines I had access to around the 386 / early 486 era. I would've been reading PC World, a little bit of PC Computing, and Computer Shopper (back when it weighed a brick). The ad had two laptops side-by-side with MS Paint open to show the …

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Re: How to Turn my Pentium III Classic Gaming PC Into a *Quiet* Classic Gaming PC?

Posted on 2020-03-02, 21:21

by

by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I will often (carefully!) stop a fan with my finger to see how much effect it has on the noise signature. It doesn't have to be the loudest to be the largest contributor. Pitch and tone matter. If you can put your HDD to sleep, you can easily judge its contribution too. My technique for quieting old …

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Re: Advice on making a stable VLB build

Posted on 2020-03-02, 20:58

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sheesh... overclocking and overvolting a 486 CPU with two VLB cards running at 50MHz? I bet you swim right after eating, don't you? 🤣

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Re: A tale of two PSUs

Posted on 2020-03-02, 20:39

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I agree with you, but I think the point is that there's a common correlation between using discrete diodes and manufacturers that build junk PSUs. All of the brands of PSUs I use, that I trust my retro PCs' lives with, use a single bridge rectifier component. *SOME* of the garbage PSUs that I've …

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Re: Latest IDE CDROM Drive that supports CD-Rs

Posted on 2020-03-02, 20:24

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As the other thread stated in detail, CD-R support is a trial-and-error process. They do look like a pressed CD, for the most part, but the reflectivity is different so the laser pickup needs to be able to adjust its power and/or sensitivity to effectively read the disc. Older drives were statically …

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Re: Disk on Module (DOM) Preference

Posted on 2020-03-02, 20:17

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just ordered an SD to IDE (40p) adapter from eBay. The only one anyone seems to stock. It will go in my VIA Epia M build with Linux, so relatively late IDE host and current OS. Not a great tell-tale for compatibility, but if it doesn't work on that box, it isn't likely to work anywhere. (Which would …

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Re: Matrox G450 MMS : good card ?

Posted on 2020-03-02, 20:02

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Pretty sure I paid more than that just to get the breakout cable for my 550.

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Re: UNISYS CWD5001

Posted on 2020-03-02, 20:00

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

akosela wrote on 2020-03-01, 12:09: I happen to own one. Does anyone know what this second button does. First one is power on/off. And the second is turbo maybe? It's a reset button, isn't it?

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Re: What is your oldest working Brand name computer ? - ( Challenge ).

Posted on 2020-03-02, 19:59

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

This one, of course. IBM 5150. The more I build out my collection, and connect everything together with KVMs, scalers, HDMI swiches and matrices, etc. etc., the more I appreciate when someone has the discipline to just set up one single, fully complete, period-correct, desktop system. I think I'm …

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Re: DOS 6.22 vs DOS7.0 compatibility difference

Posted on 2020-03-02, 19:51

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

And strictly speaking, there is no MS-DOS 7.0 or 7.1. It's the DOS mode of Windows 95, not MS-DOS 7. Just like Windows 7 is not Windows NT 6.1. Eh, I'm not sure that "strictly speaking" this is true at all. For one thing, Microsoft was working on the next version of MS-DOS after 6.x, per an …

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Re: Mixed mode CD image in .IMG format?

Posted on 2020-03-02, 19:35

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by SirNickity

in Milliways

in Milliways

You've got some work ahead of you. Not everyone out there knows what they're doing ripping discs, so I agree with the above sentiment: If you can get hold of the original disc easily enough, then rip it yourself so at least if it isn't done correctly, you can just do it again until it is. If it's …

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Re: Mounting mixed-mode CD images for DOS games?

Posted on 2020-02-29, 02:07

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've just found out about the CS4232, as it's on an OEM system motherboard that I got. From what (little) I have seen so far, I think it has wavetable support, so it might have a wave engine capable of playing multiple streams.

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Re: DOS 7.1 With Large Hard Drives

Posted on 2020-02-29, 01:58

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've never looked into cracks since I always had the legal copy of it. Now, I guess I'm just a little wary of sorting out the useful tools and the stuff I really don't want to run on my computer. I would love to ask for advice here, because if I'm going to be treated like a criminal with software I …

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Re: CD Drive Won't Spin Up Disc - How to Repair?

Posted on 2020-02-29, 01:50

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

FWIW, I've never looked at a CD drive and not been able to see the laser. For DVDs it's BRIGHT red, but the IR lasers tend to be at least a tiny bit in the visual spectrum as well. Just be careful gaping at it, because there is (hopefully) a lot of light you don't see, too.

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Re: Strange floppy drive issue with a 386 m/b

Posted on 2020-02-29, 01:45

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Could be marginal bus timings or who knows what. I had a VLB build that, until I figured out the right card order, would sometimes boot, sometimes wouldn't. That's the thing about digital. It works or it doesn't, and unless you can see the waveforms on a scope or something, it seems kind of random. …

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Re: What is your favorite Vintage ISA/PCI test motherboard ?

Posted on 2020-02-29, 01:09

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by SirNickity

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a bunch of spare boards that I use for testing, from a soldered-on 386SX to PCIe. Most of them get requisitioned for testing RAM, since you kinda need the target platform to do it right, or at all. For ISA cards, it's usually the HM386-SX board because it's small and has a friendly layout. …

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