Re: PCI ssd adapter?

Posted on 2025-01-07, 20:03

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There are also relatively cheap 44pin IDE native SSDs available now. Here is an example I found from a quick ebay search. There are probably better deals out there. https://www.ebay.com/itm/256678784499

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Re: Non-x86 Systems: They are pulling me back in, do you guys also hear the call?

Posted on 2024-11-24, 14:35

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My intrest in non-x86 was mostly concentrated on UNIX variants and workstations. I still have a NeXTStation Turbo. Along with entirely too many Sun and SGI machines. I was concentrating on bringing as many back up as possible. Unfortunately I haven't had the drive to keep going. One of my r5k Indys …

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Re: Don't rely on Google AI for repair advice

Posted on 2024-11-20, 02:15

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

One would hope everyone already knows by now not to trust anything that comes from an "AI" algorithm. Reminders of how bad they still are is important.

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Re: Kingston Turbochip 133 (Am5x86). How to change the multiplier?

Posted on 2024-11-08, 20:04

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm fairly certain Kingston intentionally chose WT mode for maximum compatibility. Many early 486 boards had DMA memory corruption bugs with WB enabled. I'm fairly certain any multiplier mod would require soldering. There are no jumpers that I recall on my Kingston turbochip.

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Re: Slot 1 motherboard died just as my project was coming to completion

Posted on 2024-11-01, 19:15

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The burning smell was likely a shorted tantalum. That is where I would concentrate on first. Unlikely. Tantalums almost never burn out without leaving a (serious) mark on the board. The most common failure mode for tantalum capacitors is to fail shorted. They don't always burn up. Sometimes a fuse …

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Re: Slot 1 motherboard died just as my project was coming to completion

Posted on 2024-11-01, 02:55

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The burning smell was likely a shorted tantalum. That is where I would concentrate on first.

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Re: Repairing a M48T86PC1 RTC chip

Posted on 2024-10-28, 23:00

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm surprised that you didn't come across the sun nvram faq in your research. https://www.sun3arc.org/FAQ/sun-nvram-hostid.faq.phtml

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Re: Winamp's source code is now open

Posted on 2024-10-16, 21:10

by

by akimmet

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Considering the license debacle, winamp source code won't be coming back without a major re-write. I don't see that likely to happen.

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Re: CD-Rom Brand Recommendations For Win98

Posted on 2024-10-15, 00:18

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have been using IDE DVD drives successfully in place of an IDE CD drive. So far I haven't run into any problems with reading CDs, but DVDs won't read if the operating system doesn't have support. Windows 98 has rudimentary DVD-ROM support.

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Re: MS-4132G, a nice 486 motherboard crippled by an awful BIOS... and a solution!

Posted on 2024-10-09, 22:59

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

From my tests, performance differences outside of benchmarks was similar. A75A being the only version that was noticeably slower. Advanced power management is broken in A75A, always disable it to prevent crashes. ISA bus speed is also locked to 7.159Mhz, despite there being a setting to change it. …

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Re: MS-4132G, una bonita placa base 486 lisiada por un horrible BIOS... y una solución.

Posted on 2024-10-09, 18:31

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you say that the A75N version does not fix the dirty label then I will use the ASUS BIOS, thank you very much for everything! The dirty tag bit is a trade off. To oversimplify, enabling the dirty bit sacrifices half of the total cachable memory for an increase in efficiency. It is nice to have, …

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Re: MS-4132G, a nice 486 motherboard crippled by an awful BIOS... and a solution!

Posted on 2024-10-09, 03:48

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Here are some links to various BIOS dumps that I have verified to work on my MS-4132G motherboard. The fixed A75B retains the 1993 AMI color BIOS core. Hard drive size will be limited to 504Mb. A75N is the later AMI WinBIOS core. This version supports up to 2 8.4Gb hard drives. Hasn't been patched …

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Re: MS-4132G, a nice 486 motherboard crippled by an awful BIOS... and a solution!

Posted on 2024-10-08, 22:53

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So far there has been no evidence of a Phoenix BIOS actually existing for this board. It may be incorrect information collected from stason or th99. When I get home, I'll provide links to the BIOS dumps in question, and I'll upload A75N. A75N as far as I can tell is the latest official BIOS for this …

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Re: MS-4132G, a nice 486 motherboard crippled by an awful BIOS... and a solution!

Posted on 2024-10-08, 22:45

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The TL866 programmer has been discontinued, replaced by the T48. The T48 is currently the best choice that I'm aware of. Buying from Xgecu directly is recommended, that way you can avoid counterfeits. While the fixed version of A75B exists, I still reccomend the ASUS BIOS. Specifically the L2 cache …

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Re: MS-4132G, a nice 486 motherboard crippled by an awful BIOS... and a solution!

Posted on 2024-10-08, 20:04

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you have an EEPROM programmer, I highly recommend upgrading to the ASUS BIOS. The stock BIOS is that broken. This board also has some memory configuration jumpers that need to be set correctly. You will have problems if they are wrong. I'll try to post some more info when I get time.

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Re: IBM PS/2 Model 30 Restoration (8086 version)

Posted on 2024-10-04, 22:38

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't see any surface mount electrolytic capacitors on the Toshiba drive in question. It may just work as is after some cleaning.

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Re: IBM PS/2 Model 30 Restoration (8086 version)

Posted on 2024-10-04, 22:32

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You might want to look into my post at https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=78462 regarding bad capacitors in those drives. Very informative, I was unaware that anyone had put any effort into reverse engineering the motor drive PCB. I'm not a huge fan of blind capacitor replacement. Unless it's a …

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Re: IBM PS/2 Model 30 Restoration (8086 version)

Posted on 2024-10-04, 16:38

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The early miniature surface mount capacitors used for PS/2 floppy drives and hard drives are well known to fail. Unrestored working examples are exceptionally rare. Like you noticed, these capacitors rarely exhibit signs of physical leakage. It is almost certain they are bad anyway.

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Re: IBM PS/2 Model 30 Restoration (8086 version)

Posted on 2024-10-04, 01:58

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can use a high density PS/2 floppy drive on a model 30. The drive will still operate as a double density drive. The system's controller just won't be able to read high density floppies, even though the drive is capable. I never replaced the battery in my model 30, it still had a sufficient …

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Re: Childhood deficiencies

Posted on 2024-10-04, 00:29

by

by akimmet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The top spec parts for a certain platform always would retain its value longer than the lower spec stuff. However in this case, I just suspect delusional Ebay pricing.

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