Re: Trying to get ISA sound cards working, need some advice (which game(s) support Sound Blaster Pro?)

Posted on 2019-10-04, 13:06

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks! Is your card a true SB, or just compatible? That guide says to use CTCM.EXE for configuring fully PnP cards (which mine is), but obviously I don't have that executable as it's not a real SB card.

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Trying to get ISA sound cards working, need some advice (which game(s) support Sound Blaster Pro?)

Posted on 2019-10-04, 10:54

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just received an order of two ISA sound cards the other day (second-hand, ofc), and I have a trouble setting them up. I'm starting to think I'm doing something wrong. I'm using The Secret Of Monkey Island for testing, and when I run it with "monkey a" command, I get no sound out of the card's line/ …

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Re: Arduino-based PS/2 to serial mouse adapter

Posted on 2019-10-03, 21:01

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh well. You need to crank your soldering iron up to 350 C to easily de-solder this stuff, and install the biggest tip you've got if you iron has interchangeable tips. I wonder why the author of this project chose to use a quad NAND chip to just implement a single invertor. There are other open …

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Re: Check out this Fan-Art on this Radeon (weird/hilarious)

Posted on 2019-10-03, 16:06

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yep. But I'm pretty sure X1xx cards came in PCI-E variants as well, and in fact it was AGP's very last echo and PCI-E was well established as mainstream by then.

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Re: Check out this Fan-Art on this Radeon (weird/hilarious)

Posted on 2019-10-03, 15:58

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I remember Radeon cards habitually featuring art that was outstandingly odd. Nice find here! P. S. Discussing Radeon X1XXX series cards in the retro hardware section really makes me feel old 😀

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Re: Arduino-based PS/2 to serial mouse adapter

Posted on 2019-10-03, 15:51

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm also about to order a KVM switch. And yeah, I though of using the COM header as well, the DB-9 connector is just extra unnecessary stuff to pay for and then waste time soldering, Dupont wires to the internal pin header FTW. But you took my idea a step further, good thinking! I have an Arduino …

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Arduino-based PS/2 to serial mouse adapter

Posted on 2019-10-03, 14:18

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Has anyone tried this project, any comments / knowledge to share? https://github.com/Lameguy64/ps2serial I'm looking for a way to get a mouse working as I already have two systems with no PS/2 ports. While a simple passive PS/2 to DIN adapter solves the keyboard problem, mouse is not as simple and …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-03, 08:42

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally got sound cards for my 386 and Pentium MMX 166 builds. I've never worked with sound cards on old PCs, but I assume I'm heading into a world of hurt with driver setup, PnP / IRQ setup and such 😀 Filename IMG_20191003_112808.jpg File size 1.14 MiB Views 1354 views Filename IMG_20191003_112852 …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-01, 16:44

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

meljor wrote: MMX runs fine with 3,3v. Just use a good cooler to make sure it will not get too hot. Thanks. Do I understand correctly that the purpose of the two jumpers in the VRM socket is to directly bridge Vin pins (3.3) to Vout?

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-01, 16:09

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I bought this questionable system I've asked about some 5 days ago. Pentium MMX 166 and a mobo, you guys said it probably won't work as it's lacking a VRM that MMX needs, but seller claims it does work. Here are new photos, what do you think? Should it work? Is it safe to re-seat the CPU and just …

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Re: CPU benchmark project (1995 - 2001)

Posted on 2019-09-30, 21:19

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Wow, awesome work, thanks for sharing the link, and huge thanks to whoever has actually accomplished all this. I love that it has the history overview, not just tables and numbers.

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Re: What's the cheapest way to get a MIDI output for a 386 PC (ISA / VLB)?

Posted on 2019-09-30, 06:05

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

maxtherabbit wrote: Tangentially related: is there a list of games somewhere that use the default instruments of the MT-32? Maybe this? https://www.mobygames.com/attribute/sheet/att … ibuteId,35/p,2/

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Re: What's the cheapest way to get a MIDI output for a 386 PC (ISA / VLB)?

Posted on 2019-09-29, 20:21

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

While I'm waiting for a response from the ES1869F seller, I found a T2 Labs Wavetable128 card. It seems to be decently common, but I found zero info on whether or not it supports MPU-401 / SoftMPU. Could you please confirm it doesn't? Otherwise I'd grab it, the price is low.

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Re: How do you clean pc parts so they are looking new again ?

Posted on 2019-09-29, 19:09

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

dorkbert wrote: ultrasonic cleaner with isopropyl alcohol I've heard quartz resonators may break from ultrasonic cleaning, any comments on this?

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Re: How many Retro PCs do you have in your house?

Posted on 2019-09-29, 15:51

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm curious, do you guys do something with your retro machines at least from time to time? Or are you just collecting them for the sake of it? I've got my first a month ago, and now the third is in shipping. This is escalating quickly!

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Re: What's the cheapest way to get a MIDI output for a 386 PC (ISA / VLB)?

Posted on 2019-09-29, 15:22

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh! I thought no jumpers = no manual configuration, good to know. Thanks! So now it's time to ask the seller if it's working or not 😀

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Re: What's the cheapest way to get a MIDI output for a 386 PC (ISA / VLB)?

Posted on 2019-09-29, 14:49

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is this ES1869F a good card? The datasheet for the ES1869F IC itself claims MPU-401 support, but I'm not sure if the header on the back is for IRQ configuration or if it's a PnP card (which, if I understand correctly, is undesirable because it doesn't work reliably?). Or is not for jumpers at all …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-09-28, 08:54

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So it is a regular Pentium and the board is fine for such, but I won't be able to install an MMX without that missing 5V VRM? Is it hard to procure nowadays? Is it specific to this board, or universal?

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-09-28, 08:39

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hmm, I'm a complete newcomer to these systems, thanks for pointing it out as I had no idea VRM may be detachable. Yes, it's sold as working, the seller has POST screenshots in his listing and in a private message he did explicitly say all I need is a power supply, a hard drive and a graphics adapter …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-09-28, 08:14

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by VioletGiraffe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pentium MMX 166 Mhz in a Socket 7 mobo with a fan, 32 MB RAM and some cache daughterboard. It's on sale for $7.5 + shipping (around $10 total). I haven't ordered it yet, but I find it very hard to resist. Is it a good purchase? https://apollo-ireland.akamaized.net/v1/files/0tg1ee1j3l05-UA/image;s= …

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