Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-14, 20:22

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Memtested four DDR sticks, each of them 1 GB in size. I'm happy to say they all worked, so I left two of them in the Barton machine I ran the tests on, thus upgrading it from 1.5 gigs to 2 gigs of RAM. Also, finally finished testing all the AGP graphics cards I have. They are all working on at least …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-08-14, 07:14

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Let me add "maybe I might want to use it one day" Hey! This is a perfectly valid line of thought! --- As for me, I bought three PCI graphics card over the weekend from auctions. Probably paid too much for at least one of 'em. Damn competitive streak got the better of me again. Still waiting for …

---

Re: HWiNFO for DOS resurrected !

Posted on 2023-08-11, 10:16

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For the invalid ATAPI device, what drive details does it show in that case? Is there some other mismatch in the info? IIRC it showed the details of the optical drive twice; they were correct from what I could tell. I didn't notice any other mismatches, and the "double ATAPI" thing happens fairly …

---

Re: HWiNFO for DOS resurrected !

Posted on 2023-08-11, 09:06

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hiya! Thanks for the tool, it's cool playing with it. I have enclosed reports on the two computers I currently have set up that are able to run plain DOS, should you still be looking for them. I also included a HWiNFO32 report from one of the two that also has Windows 98 SE installed. Of the …

---

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-10, 19:16

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today was a "low energy day" -- all I managed to do was switch the PSU on my Barton machine to a better-suited one, i.e. the one I put in there gives more juice on the 3.3 and 5 volt rails than the previous one. (Neither one is a retro PSU; in fact, I think the Seasonic unit I put in there might …

---

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-09, 16:13

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today I've been benchmarking some AGP cards again. This is starting to feel like work. 😡 Well, after I'm finished with the Rage 128 GL that's currently doing them 3DMarks I'll have, at the very least, tried every card I have on at least one computer. Some cards I will have to test on another …

---

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-08, 19:21

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ran some AGP graphics card benchmarks. Was surprised by how much of a difference it makes whether the card's memory bus is 64 bits or 128 bits wide; I thought the effect was exaggerated in discussions I've seen previously. Also, in light the numbers I'm witnessing, I'm slowly beginning to realize …

---

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-07, 13:25

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

appiah4 wrote on 2023-08-07, 11:57: Bonus Question: Where do you put your feet 🤣 What, you don't use the smaller cases as footrests..?

---

Re: How to learn about hardware

Posted on 2023-08-06, 20:31

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I learned DOS and Windows 3.1 as a youngster from... books ! I find the same books still useful, though obviously I can't recommend anything unless you happen to know Finnish 😏 Anyway, check not only your local auctions but your libraries too -- chances are they'll have something stashed in some …

---

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-06, 19:12

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Reinstalled Win 98 SE on the P3-733 yet again, this time for the sake of finally trying those much praised VXD drivers for the SB Live! instead of the WDM ones off the CD... And it was worth the hassle, I'd say, as finally I can hear the Win 98 startup sound without choppiness! Also this finally got …

---

Re: Collection rationale

Posted on 2023-08-05, 10:20

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You want a crappy laptop? Get yourself a Fujitsu-Siemens. I swear that company had some sort of deep hatred towards the very idea of providing adequate cooling for their machines. That reminds me, I should probably try to do something with the near-dead Amilo I have stashed in the closet. Perhaps it …

---

Re: Collection rationale

Posted on 2023-08-05, 01:07

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Then a lot of 21st century Acer built machines (Including eMachine and Gateway) that have "turned up" here for cheap are holding up well, dunno if this is just a survivorship bias thing though. This I find a bit curious, as I've always considered Acer to be... well, total crap, both design-wise and …

---

Re: Collection rationale

Posted on 2023-08-04, 12:07

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What was the topic again? Anyway, I just picked up yet another PS/2 keyboard. Can never have too many spares, right? (Help me it's become a sickness)

---

Re: IBM APTIVA MASTER RACE!

Posted on 2023-08-04, 11:09

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Re: the PSU, check the power connectors on your mobo first – at least the older Aptivas employed a custom solution making it difficult (or, at least, not straightforward) to swap the PSU. It's been discussed in this thread I think, and if not, then at the very least on some thread on Vogons.

---

Re: IBM APTIVA MASTER RACE!

Posted on 2023-08-02, 15:17

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Good to hear you got it working – I feel my IDE-SATA adapters are also a bit suspect, but they serve for now. (Though I'm glad to hear the SD adapters are a valid option – I have been considering them myself.) The only other thing I can comment on are the IDE cables: in my systems , it hasn't …

---

Re: IBM APTIVA MASTER RACE!

Posted on 2023-08-01, 23:17

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Try to disable everything in the power options. Both my Win 98 SE computers just froze completely if left unattended before I forbade Windows from ever powering down the display and hard drives; they don't anymore. (I, too, am using generic Chinese SATA-IDE adapters.) Though now that I think of it, …

---

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-01, 18:09

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

oh2ftu wrote on 2023-08-01, 18:00: Got my CUSL2+933 cumine p3 today. Supposed to be broken. Hope you get it working. 😎 Br, Seller

---

Re: Athlon motheboard recommendations

Posted on 2023-07-31, 19:21

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As for what to stay away from - if you plan on dual booting win98, stay away from nforce boards in general. I've managed to get win98 up and running on an Asrock K7NF2, but no luck with my Abit AN7, or NF7, or my Asus A7N8X - they either fail to boot completely (Abit AN7) or become unstable (NF7, …

---

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-07-31, 19:08

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finished installing and patching Windows 98 SE on the "circa 2003 PC" I've been putting together from all sorts of cheap (and free) crap I've been picking up here and there during the last few months. Was sad to learn that I won't be getting the sound to work in DOS mode ever, thanks to the nForce2 …

---

Re: Collection rationale

Posted on 2023-07-31, 18:57

by

by amigopi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Part hoarders of the world, unite and take over... Just today got a package in the mail containing three SB Live! cards and three AGP graphics cards... But what was I supposed to do, they were auctioned for next to nothing and there was literally NO competition for any of them at all! 😳

---