Re: 486 motherboard L2 cache misconfigured on purpose?

Posted on 2022-07-23, 08:07

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Now that's interesting. This might be from when people started to realize about take cache chips, so they decided to put on smaller (cheaper) cache chips instead of the full blown stuff. So with the standard 8MB ram you wouldn't notice the difference any way, as it is all covered by cache. The …

---

Re: What is your most hated/feard task in building a (retro)PC?

Posted on 2022-07-23, 07:54

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hate: property form factor that does not fit anything else. Like those dreadful HP or Compaq mini computers. Fear: could be two of them - detaching a socket A or 370 cooler that's mounted way too tight with a silly clamp that needs a flat screwdriver and too much force. Sliding off means damage for …

---

Re: Transfer files to and from an old pc with no USB

Posted on 2022-07-19, 20:31

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If nothing works, the still is the good old laplink cable or null modem 😀 Jou just need a serial or parallel port and the right cable (or fix your own cable) and interlink/intersvr programs from PC-DOS 5.02 / MS-DOS 6 or higher. They also work on Windows 9x DOS mode 😀

---

Re: Company names with abbreviations

Posted on 2022-07-19, 18:21

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

DEC: Digital Equipment Company HP: Hewlett Packard AMD: Advanced Micro Devices ATI: Array Technology Incorporated

---

Re: [Advice needed] I'm reaching my collection goal and currently considering stopping. What is your goal ?

Posted on 2022-07-18, 14:32

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Same here, just a few years older and I've got about 25 main systems and another 30 in storage. I've of my goals was to get a system from about every generation, like 286, 386, 486, Pentium... Then sub generations like dx2, dx4, 5x86... And my mancave is a little over filled now. I made a little …

---

Re: "Fake 486 Processor?" thread continuation (not fake)

Posted on 2022-07-18, 11:52

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If the CPU had a fine dx4-100 test, but was badges to 75 by Intel in first place, there should be no harm indeed. If it's actually tested to be a 75 but now cuts it at 100, there might be a small risk for a possible instability under certain circumstances. I wouldn't bother. In general, lots of …

---

Re: "Fake 486 Processor?" thread continuation (not fake)

Posted on 2022-07-17, 18:07

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Funny thought... What if this is actually a rebranded AMD? Could also be a rebranded dx4-75 that cuts it at 100 but didn't at the Intel fab. Or one that is actually a 100 tested in the fab but was downrated by Intel to 75 to meet portable demands. Our it was already a 100 but markings were worn out …

---

Re: Pentium MMX 166 or faster?

Posted on 2022-07-16, 08:32

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As said: Just go with the 166 and you're fine :) Some lame, cheap but very compatible S3 trio/virge graphics and 32MB ram and you're all set :) Voodoo could be a nice addition, but they're expensive. Not a must have for DOS. Also, if your w98 game won't run on this system, your p3 will take over …

---

Re: Old 286 PC HDD issue

Posted on 2022-07-13, 19:09

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just to be sure. Did you test the hard drives in another pc? Did you test the controller in another pc? Could you hook up the drives to a 486 or Pentium class computer to see what CHS info they autodetect on the HDD? Maybe they detect something unexpected which you could copy to the 286 settings.

---

Re: How to enter Bios on 286

Posted on 2022-07-12, 11:14

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some bioses meet a piece of (DOS) software to enter the bios. My Unitron 286 machine works that way.

---

Re: What games will run on an IBM PS/2 Model 30 5830 (8086)?

Posted on 2022-07-07, 15:57

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My favourites on my model 30 8086: Prince of Persia (beautiful music, real mcga!) Street rod Digger Jumpjet Grand Prix racing PC man SIM city Space Invaders So it's totally suitable for some nice gaming, hours and hours and hours long! Yet it isn't pure VGA. For that you'd want a 386/486 any way to …

---

Re: What old hardware you own is yet not found a better modern equivalent ?

Posted on 2022-07-06, 07:18

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just any 5,25" mfm hard disk will be far better than anything running 5400 or 7200 or 10k rpm. Indeed, they are far less reliable and terribly slow, but the sweet low noise it makes just won't ever annoy. About any high hissing HDD annoys within minutes. Especially those Maxtors that sound like a …

---

Re: How important is having a turbo button?

Posted on 2022-07-03, 19:15

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Next step is to find a nice lil 286 computer at 12-16MHz :p Personally I think the turbo button is overrated. It sure works to slow down the system pretty well and you might get to 286 speed grade. You can also loosen ram timings, disable cache L1 and L2 seperately, lower the fsb and find yourself …

---

Re: Modern ATX cases for older AT motherboards?

Posted on 2022-06-27, 18:40

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Basically you still can put an old AT board into the newest ATX case. Putting up drives is also less needed if you want to walk the CF route 😀

---

Re: 486DX2 SX955 and compatibility problem

Posted on 2022-06-24, 18:49

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've got three SX955 CPUs, all working fine. Doesn't matter which board I plug them onto, they just work. If the board dues not support our is not set for WB the CPU just runs, identified as DX2 and runs in WT mode without any died difference. When WB is enabled (P24D) it's actually a little faster …

---

Re: DOS 6.22 on 486 crashes after any command?

Posted on 2022-06-21, 17:31

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some thoughts. Since you have 8 and 32MB I suspect you're using 72 pin ram. Are you sure you're using fastpage and not Edo? Lots of 486s have trouble with Edo. Could you set the timings to their slowest? Our at least fail-safe settings? You say you disabled external cache. How about internal? Just …

---

Re: Computers in disguise, do you know any?

Posted on 2022-06-19, 11:59

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

At work we had a Kyocera Mita plotter, when it finally deceased it was taken apart. From it's remains I harvested an AMD Duron with unknown brand mobo, ram an Seagate HDD. It ran some linux/Unix os.

---

Re: Octek Fox II 286 Invalid Switch Memory Failure

Posted on 2022-06-10, 11:05

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You may also check if the ram had a parity chip and if parity is set in bios.

---

Re: Measure PSU voltages directly on motherboard?

Posted on 2022-06-07, 17:18

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

(...) Could it be that the PSU is producing voltages that are too high/low? That could be. You only know when you measure. Some thing I do to measure when plugged in, is turn the system on and gently press the pin heads from the multimeter into the connector from above, next to the cable. This way …

---

Re: Compaq Prolinea 5120E (i think)

Posted on 2022-05-31, 14:19

by

by waterbeesje

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The video chip looks like a GD5436 or 5438 (not exactly sure which one) with 1MB ram. Highly vesa compatible and provide fair Windows acceleration. With a Pentium 120 you surely don't need anything more. If you'd like to have higher resolution in Windows you may want to upgrade video ram, but DOS …

---