Cool. I'm curious if that Cyrix processor is running at 40 or 33 MHz. Hence the 33MHz crystal.
And there is another Dallas. A good journey indeed. Have fun. 😀

PD2JK wrote on 2024-01-09, 09:52:

Cool. I'm curious if that Cyrix processor is running at 40 or 33 MHz. Hence the 33MHz crystal.
And there is another Dallas. A good journey indeed. Have fun. 😀

Hopefully that Dallas was socketed and I do not need to de-solder it. I was surprise for me that it still alive.
The post screen didn't show the CPU speed, but I think that it runs accordingly to the oscillator with 33 MHz. Meanwhile I will update it with the 486 overdrive, so the crystal will fit.

The Olivetti CGA is cool and rare but might give you more complications finding the cfg than the Opti Board and the Adaptec SCSI.
The Opti based EISA boards share a pretty generic cfg-file so allmost any opti EISA motherboard file will work.

Susanin79 wrote on 2024-01-09, 09:36:

Bought this nice early 486 EISA kit for my 486 build. Have never works with the EISA so it will be a good journey 😀
Seller has no any EISA config files, there will be another task how to configure all this stuff. At least it can boot.
Based on my research it looks identical to this board: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/digicom-digis-486e

Do love old EISA kit 😀

Not sure on the motherboard ECU / config files (will have a dig around later) but the Adaptec ones should be easy enough and the Olivetti EVC-1 files can be found here - http://66.113.161.23/~mR_Slug/EISA/!OLI1011.CFG/

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2024-01-09, 14:10:

Do love old EISA kit 😀

Not sure on the motherboard ECU / config files (will have a dig around later) but the Adaptec ones should be easy enough and the Olivetti EVC-1 files can be found here - http://66.113.161.23/~mR_Slug/EISA/!OLI1011.CFG/

Yes, I have already found this nice site yesterday, unfortunately there is no config for my board, but I hope that one of the existing for the OPTI board will fit. This one looks more promising for me. http://66.113.161.23/~mR_Slug/EISA/!OPT0000.C … 15/!OPT0000.CFG I suppose I can modify jumper numbers manually in config.
Will check this evening.

Yesterday I've got my first ever retro laptop. It is the Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo-EL 6800:

Spec-wise it is not special really, but it's in great shape for it's age. Hard drive was not formatted by previous owner (of course...), and from file dates it looks like Windows was never reinstalled on it. Dates range from 2003 up to 2013. There were some games installed on it at some point, I've found directories of Carmageddon TDR 2000, The Settlers IV and Worms World Party. Battery is dead obviously. Now I'll have to restore it to factory defaults.

Specs:
- Intel Celeron 2.0GHz
- 256 MB DDR
- 20 GB hard drive
- Integrated SiS Real256 graphics

Got it for only 15$ shipped.

DW12 wrote on 2024-01-09, 19:37:

Yesterday I've got my first ever retro laptop. It is the Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo-EL 6800: IMG_20240109_195834_HDR.jpg IMG_20240109 […]
Show full quote

Yesterday I've got my first ever retro laptop. It is the Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo-EL 6800:
IMG_20240109_195834_HDR.jpg
IMG_20240109_194253_HDR.jpg
Spec-wise it is not special really, but it's in great shape for it's age. Hard drive was not formatted by previous owner (of course...), and from file dates it looks like Windows was never reinstalled on it. Dates range from 2003 up to 2013. There were some games installed on it at some point, I've found directories of Carmageddon TDR 2000, The Settlers IV and Worms World Party. Battery is dead obviously. Now I'll have to restore it to factory defaults.

Specs:
- Intel Celeron 2.0GHz
- 256 MB DDR
- 20 GB hard drive
- Integrated SiS Real256 graphics

Got it for only 15$ shipped.

it does look good and that spec is fine for all kinds of early 2000's things, except anything to graphically intensive

the price though, that's really good! 😀

DW12 wrote on 2024-01-09, 19:37:

Yesterday I've got my first ever retro laptop. It is the Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo-EL 6800: IMG_20240109_195834_HDR.jpg IMG_20240109 […]
Show full quote

Yesterday I've got my first ever retro laptop. It is the Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo-EL 6800:
IMG_20240109_195834_HDR.jpg
IMG_20240109_194253_HDR.jpg
Spec-wise it is not special really, but it's in great shape for it's age. Hard drive was not formatted by previous owner (of course...), and from file dates it looks like Windows was never reinstalled on it. Dates range from 2003 up to 2013. There were some games installed on it at some point, I've found directories of Carmageddon TDR 2000, The Settlers IV and Worms World Party. Battery is dead obviously. Now I'll have to restore it to factory defaults.

Specs:
- Intel Celeron 2.0GHz
- 256 MB DDR
- 20 GB hard drive
- Integrated SiS Real256 graphics

Got it for only 15$ shipped.

Be sure to remove it replace the CMOS battery. Lots of laptops from this era use NiMH batteries which can leak and destroy your laptop.

If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

CMOS NiMH button cells are leaking inside of laptops

Replacing the NiMH CMOS battery in my Toshiba laptop

I believe the brand is Media Magic. It has a Yamaha OPL chip which is nice.

This one came in the mail today.
I found it whilst trawling our local Graigslist. The seller was selling AGP cards for 10 euros each. Pictures only, no description.
I spotted this one amongst them ❤️

For a grand total of €14.65 I am now the proud owner of a Diamond Viper II Z200; in other words an S3 Savage2000 😍

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-01-10, 11:31:

Be sure to remove it replace the CMOS battery. Lots of laptops from this era use NiMH batteries which can leak and destroy your […]
Show full quote

DW12 wrote on 2024-01-09, 19:37:

Yesterday I've got my first ever retro laptop. It is the Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo-EL 6800: IMG_20240109_195834_HDR.jpg IMG_20240109 […]
Show full quote

Yesterday I've got my first ever retro laptop. It is the Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo-EL 6800:
IMG_20240109_195834_HDR.jpg
IMG_20240109_194253_HDR.jpg
Spec-wise it is not special really, but it's in great shape for it's age. Hard drive was not formatted by previous owner (of course...), and from file dates it looks like Windows was never reinstalled on it. Dates range from 2003 up to 2013. There were some games installed on it at some point, I've found directories of Carmageddon TDR 2000, The Settlers IV and Worms World Party. Battery is dead obviously. Now I'll have to restore it to factory defaults.

Specs:
- Intel Celeron 2.0GHz
- 256 MB DDR
- 20 GB hard drive
- Integrated SiS Real256 graphics

Got it for only 15$ shipped.

Be sure to remove it replace the CMOS battery. Lots of laptops from this era use NiMH batteries which can leak and destroy your laptop.

If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

CMOS NiMH button cells are leaking inside of laptops

Replacing the NiMH CMOS battery in my Toshiba laptop

It has a ML1220 rechargeable battery, looks ok but I'll replace it anyway.

Also I removed the HDD and checked it on my main PC with CrystalDiskInfo - only 752 power on count and 1737 power on hours!
Btw previous owner had Google Earth Pro installed on it with his home marked on the map... people really do not care about their privacy when selling old PCs.

Gabriel-LG wrote on 2024-01-10, 20:19:

This one came in the mail today. I found it whilst trawling our local Graigslist. The seller was selling AGP cards for 10 euros […]
Show full quote

This one came in the mail today.
I found it whilst trawling our local Graigslist. The seller was selling AGP cards for 10 euros each. Pictures only, no description.
I spotted this one amongst them ❤️
IMG_20240110_210411968(1).jpg
For a grand total of €14.65 I am now the proud owner of a Diamond Viper II Z200; in other words an S3 Savage2000 😍

Good luck with that card, one of the worst GPUs ever produced by S3/Diamond and one of the big ones that bankrupted them and sent them to the grave, pretty sure they never released working drivers for that card, all the ones ive found are broken in some form or another. Even Unreal Tournament has issue with this card, a number of effects either dont work or have graphical issues, still its pretty cool seeing S3TC/Metal working nicely on correct hardware. When hunting down drivers for the Z200 try to avoid the latest ones with S3TL (Essentially Hybrid Software T&L written by S3, its terrible) as they have significant issues with games that use T&L.

A great novelty card for messing around with S3TC/ S3 Metal but not a card I would ever use in a build, another fun card is the Diamond Stealth III S540 which is a Savage 4 Pro GPU and fares a bit better with drivers being the older of the two.

Got this (NOS) SCSI controller in the mail today, an Adaptec AHA-1542CP.

I think it's a popular choice here at Vogons. Will it matter it terms of speed/stability to use the floppy connector of this card, or from a Winbond I/O card? (Need serial/parallel as well)

Bought this untested 3Com EtherLink EISA network card for my 486 EISA build.
Didn't test it yet, just found strange message when I tried to configure it, it said that I placed it to non-eisa slot. Will try to figure out what is happened later, tried to reinstall it to few other slots, but got the same message.

Susanin79 wrote on 2024-01-11, 08:03:

Bought this untested 3Com EtherLink EISA network card for my 486 EISA build.
Didn't test it yet, just found strange message when I tried to configure it, it said that I placed it to non-eisa slot. Will try to figure out what is happened later, tried to reinstall it to few other slots, but got the same message.

You could try to clean the contacts with some alcohol/isopropyl. Are all contacts in good condition?

PD2JK wrote on 2024-01-11, 08:57:

You could try to clean the contacts with some alcohol/isopropyl. Are all contacts in good condition?

Yes, I did a bath for the motherboard and all cards to make a good pictures as there are no any stored in the WEB. Will use deoxid when they will dry. Hope this will help.

Susanin79 wrote on 2024-01-11, 09:09:

PD2JK wrote on 2024-01-11, 08:57:

You could try to clean the contacts with some alcohol/isopropyl. Are all contacts in good condition?

Yes, I did a bath for the motherboard and all cards to make a good pictures as there are no any stored in the WEB. Will use deoxid when they will dry. Hope this will help.

My guess would be that because you're not using the correct config file for the digicom mainboard that the 3Com nic can't properly identify any of the 8 available EISA slots. Do the EVC-1 or the SCSI cards work OK?

EDIT: did check on the old digicom archive but any EISA stuff is long gone from there 🙁

EISA sounds really complicated. I watched a video from LGR on MCA and it looked equally confusing. Both PnP ISA and PCI "just work". What's up with these other two slots? Is VLB this difficult?

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2024-01-11, 09:37:

My guess would be that because you're not using the correct config file for the digicom mainboard that the 3Com nic can't properly identify any of the 8 available EISA slots. Do the EVC-1 or the SCSI cards work OK?

EDIT: did check on the old digicom archive but any EISA stuff is long gone from there 🙁

Just noticed that inside the config file that slots I'm trying to use not marked as a busmaster slot, SCSI cards works well at the same time. Will fix this and try again.

1  SLOT(6)=EISA
2                LENGTH=341
3                BUSMASTER=YES
4        SLOT(7)=ISA8
5                LENGTH=341
6                BUSMASTER=NO
7        SLOT(8)=ISA8
8                LENGTH=341
9                BUSMASTER=NO

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-01-11, 10:00:

EISA sounds really complicated. I watched a video from LGR on MCA and it looked equally confusing. Both PnP ISA and PCI "just work". What's up with these other two slots? Is VLB this difficult?

VLB is technically PCI well an early version of the 32bit PCI bus so its not any more difficult to configure than ISA or PCI is.

EISA and MCA were .. oddities at trying to extend/expand the ISA bus and well they kinda went full Sys Admin on the both of them, its why the were not widely adopted even though both were 32bits and had advantages over ISA.

Neither bus was bad but they were both far more expensive and complicated to setup than the consumer space wanted.