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

Posted on 2020-09-26, 05:25

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Been testing and wiping a large box full of hard drives lately, originally bought as untested. Most drives are straightforward. Secure erase all data and free sectors. Should be simple. Then I found a couple of drives with efi partitions. One for Windows (100MB), one for Mac (200MB). They can't …

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Re: Games that justify building a Windows XP PC

Posted on 2020-09-25, 13:26

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is there any reason to run XP over Windows 2000 at all? Why suffer the XP memory hog when you can just go 2000+SP4? It's possible that some late-era (2008 and above) WinXP games, programs and drivers expect SP3. I have no concrete examples of this, just going from memory, so I could be wrong. For …

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Re: What is the purpose of "Restart into MS-DOS mode" for you ?

Posted on 2020-09-25, 06:39

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Got some drivers you want to run with DOS games? Those don't work, even in "boot to DOS" mode, they all tell you to not run this within Windows. If you're referring to Creative's CTCU/CTCM, there are official drivers which were specifically made to work under the "Restart in MS-DOS mode" option of …

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Re: Voodoo 3 3000 AGP under performing?

Posted on 2020-09-25, 06:29

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I'm getting slightly more than that on my Celeron 466 + Vooodo3 2000 build, but with lower CPU marks. You might also want to check this out: 3dmark99 MegaThread

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Re: DDMA and PCPCI for Low IQ Individuals (Me included)

Posted on 2020-09-24, 10:53

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

kodi wrote on 2019-11-17, 15:29: * Unclear: cost-reduced versions of 440BX like 440ZX I have an Abit ZM6 motherboard which is based on the 440ZX chipset. It supports DDMA and has a SB-Link connector as well. Both DDMA and SB-Link (tested separately) worked fine with my Yamaha YMF724F-V sound card.

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Re: What is your dream build.

Posted on 2020-09-23, 13:08

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I did mess with that briefly on my P3 system although that machine isnt really playing anything with midi. I hadnt considered it for the mmx as I would have expected it to cause use a bit of CPU? Granted, I never tried that card on anything below a Celeron 433. But considering that it came out …

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Re: What is your dream build.

Posted on 2020-09-23, 11:53

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The only thing I really would like to add but dont want to pay the money they go for is some form of wavetable midi.. That's a very nice MMX system. If you want a cheap wavetable solution, you could always add a PCI sound card and use that to play DOS games under Win9x. For example, the Yamaha …

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Re: What is your dream build.

Posted on 2020-09-23, 05:35

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My dream build would be a dedicated DOS 6.22 + Win 3.11 rig, with high end components. It's very unlikely that I'll get my hands on all of these, but here goes: Intel Pentium MMX 233 MHz Gigabyte GA-5AX REV 5.2 32 MB SDRAM CF to IDE adapter with an industrial grade CF card Teac 4x CD-ROM Drive Sony …

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Re: My set of rules for perfection

Posted on 2020-09-22, 11:34

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

- have fun with your stuff! Probably the most important rule. :) I would also add: play the favorite games from your childhood on your retro rigs. Fire up some Duke3D on that Pentium 133. Use your Voodoo3 to bring out the best visuals in Diablo2 and Unreal Tournament. Just don't let your rig sit …

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Re: Sound Blaster Pro: Why is it the game standard?

Posted on 2020-09-22, 10:47

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Games started supporting the SB16 as soon as it came out, in the sense that you could select it as a valid option in setup. Whether they were able to fully utilize its capabilities is another matter entirely. Like you said, 16-bit sound samples take more space, and games were shipping on floppy …

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Re: My set of rules for perfection

Posted on 2020-09-21, 16:00

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I do play a lot of FPS games, but have never used anything more advanced than stereo with them, I just got used to it. Maybe that's why I'm not better at playing, haha. Perhaps I'll try EAX, since I think the SB live I have on my WinME build has support for it. For Win9x gaming, I find A3D to …

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Re: My set of rules for perfection

Posted on 2020-09-21, 15:03

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Stereo is fine for me, I do not need x.1 surround, EAX or anything like that. It's nice if I have it, but will not cry over it. Integrated audio would be perfect for me on all boards if it wasn't for lack of gameport on many of them. The importance of EAX, A3D and positional audio in general …

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Re: Can't get music out of ESS Audiodrive ES1868

Posted on 2020-09-21, 10:47

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Camtheman wrote on 2020-09-19, 14:19: Using the drivers that came with Windows 98 for it. That won't work. You need VxD drivers if you want FM synth music in DOS games running under Win98 on that card. Download the file 185xw95.zip from Phil's website and install the drivers manually through Device …

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Re: My set of rules for perfection

Posted on 2020-09-21, 09:32

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Look into slowdown utilities. If your CPU and motherboard are supported, SetMul and Throttle can do wonders for speed sensitive games Thats cheating in my rule book. How so? You could always turn off L1 and L2 caches in the BIOS, using SetMul just makes it easier. And some motherboard/CPU …

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Re: My set of rules for perfection

Posted on 2020-09-21, 07:06

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I get your point, but in my experience they don't get dirty that quick (at least those I have) and the lack of precision isn't a big issue when you play with point and click and that the max res is 640x480 ^^ I think the importance of mouse precision depends on the type of game. I play a lot of FPS …

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Re: Noisy AWE64 recoding from any input (line in, EMU8000 MIDI, etc)

Posted on 2020-09-21, 06:50

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I did the Doom distortion test in https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=525304#p525304 on my CT4500 using line-out and running the DOS version of Doom (GOG release) under Windows 98 SE . I did not hear anything resembling the clipping/clicks in the MP3 that was present in that thread . I made sure …

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Re: My set of rules for perfection

Posted on 2020-09-21, 06:44

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I like pre-pentium era machines even though I never had one at the time (I wasn't even born yet). I can replace lack of usb with networking and I have enough serial mice to not be bothered by the lack of ps2 port at all. The main thing that bothers me about the lack of PS2 ports is not being able …

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Re: My set of rules for perfection

Posted on 2020-09-21, 00:17

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My Golden Rule? - Don't go below Socket7, to much a PITA. - Don't try and find the perfect ISA sound card, doesn't exist. - Don't accept emulation as a proper replacement for real hardware. - 90s was the best. Strongly agree on all these points. I can understand someone building a 386/486 if they …

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Re: Noisy AWE64 recoding from any input (line in, EMU8000 MIDI, etc)

Posted on 2020-09-20, 16:50

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Thank you, I have heard of that issue. I will test it with the CT4500 for now and try to remember to test the CT4520 for it too . I'm curious if the CT4500 and the AWE64 Gold also have this bug, since their PCB layout is quite different from my CT4520 . Does this issue only occur when the card is …

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Re: Noisy AWE64 recoding from any input (line in, EMU8000 MIDI, etc)

Posted on 2020-09-20, 15:50

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Curiosity got the best of me, so I ordered a supposedly NOS (large batch being sold) CT4520 . Piece of advice, check your CT4520 for the Vibra distortion bug . Doom offers an easy way to test it. Mine has it, and it manifests whenever the in-game volume for digital audio is above 50%. This is very …

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