Re: Flying Dutchmen, White Whales, the ghost HW that eludes you, lost & found.

Posted on 2021-05-21, 03:50

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hahhaa ! Lost a box of tested modems (ISA and external) recently but found my old Copy-II-Pc card when looking for them. Does that count as lost and found ?

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Re: Biostar MB-8433UUD-A and 39SF010A - boot issue (hang during Updating ESCD)

Posted on 2021-05-21, 03:34

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks Max ! Next time I play with mine will try a bunch of diff ram, maybe is a ram issue. The KA31 uses standard pc100/133 DIMMS but maybe I was using some incompatible dimms.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-05-21, 01:37

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bought a never opened box of Express Publisher v3.0 for DOS, includes the full manual and 3.5" HD disks that read perfectly in Winimage (will up images to archive org this weekend) for a few dollars at a local thrift store. Nothing else good lately except some ammo for my 1950's rifles and pistols …

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Re: Trying to understand 30pin simm memory modules capacity, please join if you can help.

Posted on 2021-05-21, 01:05

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can anyone list the chips on a 3-chip stick that doesn't work, when a 9-chip stick does? It should be possible to dig up datasheets and simply check what the row address length is. Unless for some reason the refresh uses less bits then addressing, but why? And more importantly how would that even …

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Re: So embarrassing..what's the default bios password for this PC Chips Cheetah 486 board v1.7 motherboard?

Posted on 2021-05-21, 01:00

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Did you already try to search for a Award BIOS for this chipset? E.g. this one http://www.amoretro.de/tag/ali-m1487m1489 I made some progress with your AMI-Bios and found a tool to decompress it: AMIBIOS header (dated 10/10/94) found at 00000h Great work ! Which BIOS app did you use to decompress …

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Re: Fixing floppy drives ?

Posted on 2021-05-21, 00:47

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

First thing I'd do is clean the heads. Yes ! While cleaning heads: use a little ISO alc on a Q-Tip/cotton swap and touch up the rails, stepper screw and all places that are lubricated where you see old grease, then apply a slight amount of new light weight white grease with a tooth pick to those …

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Re: Biostar MB-8433UUD-A and 39SF010A - boot issue (hang during Updating ESCD)

Posted on 2021-05-21, 00:28

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Unfortunately I have a board that does similar (FIC KA31) and halts on "updating ESCD..." and not been able to diagnose it yet. Curious if you have a speaker hooked up ? Mine gives a constant beep sound (more like a whine ;p) about one second after the updating ESCD.

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Re: MEDIA VISION FUSION CD16. Anyone has one?

Posted on 2021-05-19, 02:34

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Great ! I have the card but got it decades ago and not as a kit, still works just fine.

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Re: PS/2 Ports Dead (Again, Different MB)

Posted on 2021-05-19, 01:28

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think someone stated that the capacitor is shorting the +5v to ground, but IMO it's more likely that either Clock or Data are affected (shorted or pulled to GND or +5V, or even between themselves). Of course, there's no guarantee that your problem is caused by C151, and if you decide to remove it …

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Re: Trying to understand 30pin simm memory modules capacity, please join if you can help.

Posted on 2021-05-18, 04:20

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can anyone list the chips on a 3-chip stick that doesn't work, when a 9-chip stick does? It should be possible to dig up datasheets and simply check what the row address length is. Unless for some reason the refresh uses less bits then addressing, but why? And more importantly how would that even …

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Re: PS/2 Ports Dead (Again, Different MB)

Posted on 2021-05-18, 04:05

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My guess is that your mouse is the issue. When the P2B-F came out there were no Optical mice (they were first released a few years later), it could be drawing to much current if it is a newer Optical mouse and slowly ruining the port. Have you tried a basic "non-Optical" PS/2 mouse on the P2B-F ? I …

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Re: a: b: d: drives Vectra QS/16S

Posted on 2021-05-18, 03:38

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The cable has twist at end for 3.5" drive. Can you comment on DS, drive select jumpers for 5.25" drive. If it's b: drive but first on ribbon cable, I have it selected in bios as drive 2 and setup as 5.25" 1.2mb drive, do I set ds jumper as drive 1 or drive 2? Snufkin gave a good post about of …

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Re: So embarrassing..what's the default bios password for this PC Chips Cheetah 486 board v1.7 motherboard?

Posted on 2021-05-18, 02:03

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

With the message "cmos error press F1 or delete" the password should be deleted. Maybe the password is saved on some sort of nonvolatile SRAM, like on notebooks. You could also try to dump the bios using an EPROM programmer and check it with a hex editor. Agree ! The M918 was also sold by Amptron …

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Re: So embarrassing..what's the default bios password for this PC Chips Cheetah 486 board v1.7 motherboard?

Posted on 2021-05-18, 00:44

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hmm that is odd. If the battery fails and CMOS is lost how are you supposed to get into the BIOS...stupid BIOS 🤣

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Re: Trying to understand 30pin simm memory modules capacity, please join if you can help.

Posted on 2021-05-17, 23:47

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Deunan, for all I comprehend about the issues with the memory modules... It tends to be a refresh issue. Indeed. x4 chips (used on 3-chip SIMMs) typically need one more address bit for RAS-only refresh than x1 chips. x1 chips often ignore the highest address bit for RAS-only refresh, so boards not …

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Re: a: b: d: drives Vectra QS/16S

Posted on 2021-05-17, 23:32

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is the cable a straight cable or does it have a twist at the end ? With twist cables both floppy drives are set as ID1 (DS2) in jumpers, the drive after the twist is A: drive. If straight cable one floppy should be ID0 (DS1) and the other to ID1 (DS2), ID0 is A: drive. I can barely read the jumpers …

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Re: What do I need to make this external tape drive work?

Posted on 2021-05-17, 23:07

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I used a Adaptec 2940 for my old Tape drive, had to set the bus speed/transfer rate to 5Mb or 10Mb (which ever was lowest on the card) for it's device ID# in the SCSI BIOS for best operation, still do that on older slow SCSI cdroms too.....

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Re: Trying to understand 30pin simm memory modules capacity, please join if you can help.

Posted on 2021-05-17, 01:12

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

🤣 I am still a bit OCD with SIMMS and keep the gold plated 30pin sets separate from the tin plated even if have exact same chips on them 😀

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Re: Trying to understand 30pin simm memory modules capacity, please join if you can help.

Posted on 2021-05-16, 23:54

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Agree LuckyBob ! some may not work in some older boards due to it's chip type/density. All the 9 chip should be okay... just rambling ;p

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Re: Have a Zenith 386 16Mhz Desktop computer and want to see if...

Posted on 2021-05-16, 23:47

by

by Horun

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

But here's the main problem - will the rest of the mobo be able to keep up. And I wouldn't bet on it I'm afraid... but you can try a lower overclock first, say install 38 or 40 MHz generator (the CPU clock is half of that). Agree !! Because the CPU crystal (32Mhz) is on the CPU card you might be …

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