Re: Most compatible early 00's AGP cards for a Windows 98 build with a picky motherboard

Posted on 2020-10-11, 05:03

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Early Via AGP compatibility was definitely flaky. My Via 133a and 133t socket370 boards are guaranteed to crash with some early AGP cards like Trident 9850 or Number 9 Revolution 3D. The same cards work ok on Intel chipsets. For the OP, definitely try installing the Via 4 in 1 driver. And maybe …

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Re: Building a windows 98 PC. Would like to hear your thoughts.

Posted on 2020-10-09, 19:42

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd reconsider the USB2 card. I had one in my P2 400 retro rig, and noticed that it ate up about 10-20 percent performance. If transferring files often, might want to get a network card instead, and set up a shared folder. If not, then wait for the occasional transfer to complete with onboard USB1 …

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Re: Windows 98 PC Build - Better overall compatibility

Posted on 2020-10-09, 04:56

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

From my experience Geforce cards aren't all they're cracked up to be. Several of my GF4ti locked up in NFS Porsche and Half Life when AA & AF is enabled. Some Geforce only show a black screen in Blood 2. And get ready to laugh/cry if you run Midtown Madness with any Geforce (I tried GF1 - GF7). So …

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Re: Retro Hardware Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-10-09, 03:59

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How about when someone on a site posts: AT Computer Motherboard 8 ISA Slots for sale. Condition:“Tested & Working” And this is the picture.... Hmmm sure that should work just fine w/o the BIOS chip and KBC but what do I know ;p That reminds me of sellers who post "tested working" graphic cards ( …

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Re: Tualatin 1.4Ghz 512k not booting on MSI 815EPT Pro

Posted on 2020-09-29, 02:32

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a MSI 815ept pro V5, and that board had trouble starting up, until I figured out that it's caused by tight spacing around the ATX power connector. Some power supplies have a tab on the connector that's too wide, and on this board the tab can apply sideways pressure on the inductor right next …

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Re: Oops! I'll be a data recovery expert soon

Posted on 2020-09-25, 19:28

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good luck. What recovery software are you using? I once formatted an SD card in camera, and forgot that I didn't copy all the images from it first. Recovery software found a bunch of thumbnail files, but not much useful data.

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Re: What is it with overpriced LGA1155 gear

Posted on 2020-09-25, 05:02

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The way I see it, your typical gamer will have moved on a while ago to Ryzen, Skylake, or similar modern hardware. And the mass market users who are not gamers are likely happily using laptops, or some modern desktop for things like video editing and such. But the 1155 platform would be of interest …

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Re: Games that justify building a Windows XP PC

Posted on 2020-09-25, 04:18

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It also depends what games have problems running on your main rig. I personally still use Windows 7 as my primary OS, and general compatibility with XP era games is pretty good. But if you jumped on the Windows 10 bandwagon, you will probably have to deal with more hacks to get those games working, …

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What is it with overpriced LGA1155 gear

Posted on 2020-09-24, 23:33

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I noticed that for the last few years, LGA1155 boards have continued to be in demand, and even a mediocre H67 board quickly sells for $60 or more. Did everyone suddenly start building XP retro rigs? It's almost comical watching this stuff sell like hotcakes, so what gives?

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Re: Can anyone recommend a low cost PSU from Amazon that would work well with retro hardware?

Posted on 2020-09-23, 14:00

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Most of that 105W in your build will be on 3.3 and 5V rails (pretty much only HDD, fans,CDs, floppies and maybe VGA card to a point will use 12V) . Add a disk controller card, an extra sound card or 2 and a NIC, all 3.3V/ 5V devices, and you are getting awefully close to a typical 110W/120W 3.3v/5v …

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Re: Can anyone recommend a low cost PSU from Amazon that would work well with retro hardware?

Posted on 2020-09-23, 07:42

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think the worries about the 5V line are overrated. Take a look at how much power a retro system draws from the wall. As an example, I tested an old Dell from 2001, having P4 1.6 Willamette + 1GB Rambus mem + GF3 + SB Live + HDD, and the whole system drew about 131 watts from the outlet, under load …

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Re: S3 Savage 4 Questions

Posted on 2020-09-20, 20:41

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

What driver are you using? I have two No9 Savage4 extreme cards and no problems up to 1280x1024 resolution :) I tried several drivers like 8008, 8226, 8228 - all with the same result. I think the card just has buggy compatibility with LCD monitors. Even when I try the card in XP, using the built in …

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Re: Games that justify building a Windows XP PC

Posted on 2020-09-19, 21:00

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That star wars game i have mentioned several times above. Also hd5xxxx series have a nasty bug exposed by some games where complex textures show banding or lack gradient detail. I used to care about that, until I realized that the texture banding only happens in synthetic AF tests. Never seen the …

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Re: S3 Savage 4 Questions

Posted on 2020-09-19, 14:31

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I tried a DVI to D-Sub adapter and the image fills the whole screen as it should, when launching A.O.E and Diablo that way. Strange. I have the same card Number 9 Savage4, and when connected with a DVI cable the maximum resolution I can get is 800x600. Had to use a VGA Dsub adapter to use higher …

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Re: Games that justify building a Windows XP PC

Posted on 2020-09-19, 04:15

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The 5870 is the same era as gtx5xx, but less backwards compatible. But a gtx560 is so cheap on ebay, it'll cost about as much as a nice lunch. Any example of gtx5xx being more compatible? I remember people complained about Fermi cards dropping the option for negative LOD bias clamp, which is useful …

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Re: Best Socket A or 478 Chipset for Windows 98 Compatibility

Posted on 2020-09-14, 21:34

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-09-14, 20:28: What about using NUSB? I am using NUSB. It works, but the USB ports only function at USB 1.1 speeds. The USB 2.0 device is listed separately in Device Manager, and I had no luck trying to get it working under Windows 98.

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Re: Drivers doing stuff on their own and other horror stories

Posted on 2020-09-14, 19:57

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My Diamond MX300 sound card had the same issue - modifying autoexec.bat to add DOS driver initialization, even though I selected to not install DOS support when installing the driver. Really annoying, and happened every boot. Luckily there are modded drivers to prevent this. But another way to …

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Re: Best Socket A or 478 Chipset for Windows 98 Compatibility

Posted on 2020-09-14, 19:16

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

About the socket 478 SIS 651 board - I have the Aopen MX46 that works no problem in Win98. But the installed USB driver actually disables the onboard USB 2.0 controller in Win98, and looks like it's intentional, pobably because the chipset doesn't support USB 2.0 in Win98. So it's USB 1.1 only. If …

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Re: Is it safe to use a low noise adapter on a gpu fan from a geforce 4 ti 4200, long term?

Posted on 2020-09-11, 20:27

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Was the fan loud from high rpm? Or does it make a racket because the bearings are all worn out? With old used fans, I usually peel back the sticker on the back of the fan and put a few drops of oil in the bearing. That usually solves the noise problem. These fans are not silent, but when working …

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Re: Why do card manufacturers use each other's model numbers?

Posted on 2020-09-11, 16:40

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

At least they are generations apart, and the model number tells exactly what card it is. It could be worse - the card name would be "3D Blaster Annihilator" or "Viper Monster Stealth Velocity Prophet 3000" and then you try to figure out what the model actully is.

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