Re: 468 PCI/ISA motherboard vs Floppy drive

Posted on 2022-04-27, 09:47

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It seems that this board is damaged. I don't know what else to conclude. I haven't managed to get on board IDE controller to work no matter what. I tried 512 MB CF card, which should be within capabilities, and even 425 MB WD HDD from 1994, both are not recognized when connected to either of on …

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Re: Ultimate Retro board submissions thread: suggest board edits and/or add new boards here

Posted on 2022-04-25, 19:32

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

QDI MP4-pP4U885G https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/motherboards/5538 Bios: Manufacturer: Phoenix POST String: UMC 8880 PCI/ISA Ver.2.1 Dec. 9, 94 Core: 4.04 Version: v2.1 QDI MP4-P4U885P3 v2.1 BIOS.rar Read from EPROM from my QDI MP4-P4U885P3. There is v2.3 in downloads section but that one didn't …

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Re: 468 PCI/ISA motherboard vs Floppy drive

Posted on 2022-04-25, 19:13

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you're using a multi-I/O card, do you disable IDE on the card with correct jumper settings? If not, that could be your conflict... Anyway, standalone floppy controllers exist, but are probably a lot older and might not support HD (or even 3.5"...) floppies. What I prefer to use in these …

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468 PCI/ISA motherboard vs Floppy drive

Posted on 2022-04-25, 09:08

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I finally got to building a 486... I plan to use AMD 486DX4-100 so I went with QDI MP4-P4U885G motherboard because that one has selectable VRM. The other one I have, ECS UM4980 , doesn't have VRM on board (plus it's v1.x, image on ultimate retro is of v2.1 and has VRM header, mine only has spot for …

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Re: Adding RJ45 connector to old ISA network card(s)

Posted on 2022-04-25, 06:33

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

While digging I grabbed a copy of all of Nationals documentation for the chip - everything needed to build a brand new card (or I guess understand how an existing card works) should now be archived here: https://ftp.zx.net.nz/pub/doc/NationalSemiconductor/DP83905/. AN-875.pdf describes the …

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Re: Adding RJ45 connector to old ISA network card(s)

Posted on 2022-04-25, 06:29

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That was just an example. I can imagine, Croatia is a much smaller domestic market for these things. Sometimes we Germans forget that we're not the USA, but neither are we a small country. Shipping costs, in my experience with domestic shipping, many people are just stupid and/or lazy with choosing …

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Re: Adding RJ45 connector to old ISA network card(s)

Posted on 2022-04-22, 06:42

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Version of my card that comes with RJ45 uses 20F001N filter, these are available on sites like aliexpress. I just need to confirm SMD component values. Capacitors are probably standard 0.1 uF ceramics, for resistors I'll need to either find datasheet to see what are recommended values or find high …

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Re: 486 PC will not power on

Posted on 2022-04-22, 05:59

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it stopped at 0A 08 it means last code it got was 0A, on Phoenix bios that should be "0A Initialize CPU register." so maybe that means that it's CPU problem after all? That is if it still shows that after short 😬

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Re: Cheap desoldering solution

Posted on 2022-04-22, 05:52

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have one pictured, it's a bit better than regular solder iron + spring loaded solder sucker in a sense that solder iron is not in the way. But I used it only few times because tip wares out quickly. After 2-3 hours of use (not all at once, during these few times) it looks like someone took a bite …

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Re: Adding RJ45 connector to old ISA network card(s)

Posted on 2022-04-21, 20:25

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been checking ebay for ISA RJ45 cards for month and a bit but I either miss them or it's currently not the season for them 🤣. And one has to be careful not to buy ISDN adapter 😁. Cheapest one I found was this one for 23€ I bought today. btw. that's with shipping, it's 15€ without shipping. …

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Re: Adding RJ45 connector to old ISA network card(s)

Posted on 2022-04-21, 12:40

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Your card looks almost as mine, but yes that chip is different, Valor has 20 pins and my card has 16 pin slot and SMD components around it are a bit different. So far I've found this fd7ca9aac6f04e8fbf02acec7ae98b40.jpg This looks to be the same card, but fully populated. It has 20F001N instead of …

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Adding RJ45 connector to old ISA network card(s)

Posted on 2022-04-21, 08:45

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi everyone. Did someone try this before? I got cheap ISA network card with BNC connectors. It was 4-5€, mainly to put XTIDE one it to buff supported HDDs a bit. It's seems it has some older BIOS format that CBROM doesn't recognize and this card was cheaper than dedicated XTIDE card so... 😬 The card …

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Re: 486 PC will not power on

Posted on 2022-04-21, 07:45

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How sure are you that CPU is actually OK? Additionally when I test new motherboard I first power it on without anything connected. Just to wires into CPU socket to pins that are Vcc and GND to see what it actually sends to CPU. Just to be on the safe side... Also, did you plug diagnostics card into …

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Re: HSF for a Socket 3 that only has offset tabs

Posted on 2022-04-21, 06:57

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by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you have 3D printer and a bit of patience for 3D modeling you could make plastic clip that uses these offset tabs. I did similar thing with Pentium cooler, retainer clip on cooler broke in half so I modeled and 3D printer plastic one. Surprisingly it works fine :D. Made a "hole" in the middle for …

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Re: Voodoo on HP T5710

Posted on 2022-04-19, 07:16

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

No, that's PCI-Express extender, T5710 has PCI connector. Similar answer for Voodoo Banshee or Voodoo 3, only PCI variants could work, AGP won't. Plus there's potential problem with power supply. Original brick may be insufficient for higher power graphics cards.

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Re: 486 board with no FDD connector

Posted on 2022-04-15, 05:48

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It seems that it's not rare for 486 PCI boards to be like this. Same story with QDI MP4-P4U885P3 that I have. When I first got it I thought great, it has IDE so I don't have to mess with I/O cards. And then I tried to plug in floppy 🤣

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Re: Opinions on Gotek floppy emulators?

Posted on 2022-04-14, 12:08

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by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it works via hd44780 controller (that's the brain of most of these 16x2 LCDs) then it should work. There are also green and amber 16x2 LCDs which also look about on par with the times. Especially amber ones :). *EDIT* Yup, it says "It can replace the standard HD44780 based liquid crystal display …

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Re: Opinions on Gotek floppy emulators?

Posted on 2022-04-14, 08:55

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In my opinion 0.91" OLED screen is a must. Numerical only is pain in the butt with 10 images, let alone more 😬. Only downside is that letters are smallish so it's better if case is somewhere at head level, and not i.e. tower case below the desk 😁. If you have 3D printer you can even print 5.25" …

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Re: Abit AB-PW4 (486 motherboard) component info

Posted on 2022-04-04, 19:36

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks, that seems the safest bet. Silkscreen under RTC says DS1287/DS146818A, although it had M5818 installed. DS1287 ones don't seem to require external oscilator, but M5818 it had does. Although I can't follow the trace at the moment from OSC pins on RTC to oscillator. We'll see when I finish …

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Abit AB-PW4 (486 motherboard) component info

Posted on 2022-04-04, 08:33

by

by Solo761

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi all, recently I got Abit AB-PW4 motherboard. Unfortunately it had pesky Varta barrel battery that leaked so I'm cleaning that up. On it I have one transistor and crystal oscillator that look to be a bit dinged up, they might still work, but I'd rather replace them then worry about it. Problem is …

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