RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-05-02, 10:04:

Tested a "crappy" Mendocino CPU I had laying around for some time.
Turns out, it's not as worthless as I thought. It's the king of the Mendocinos. 8x66MHz.
Is it a good overclocker or why pay people up to 20 bucks for this?

It might be the fastest some 440LX boards will take, stuck into a slotket. (Depending on whether there were beta bioses or hacks to take coppermine celerons or not)

However, ppl with a 440BX would be looking for a 366, because they are all multiplier locked, so PII-eater high bus speeds of 100 plus exceed the capabilities of the core/process on higher multipliers. You might be able to run this one at 75 Mhz, but unless it's a golden ticket 83Mhz is unlikely. They don't look so great at 66 compared to a PII because of the lower cache capacity, but because it's full speed cache, synchronous with the core, where the PII is not, those are off core at various dividers, when the bus speeds are increased it catches up with the PIIs.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-05-02, 11:40:

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-05-02, 10:04:

Tested a "crappy" Mendocino CPU I had laying around for some time.
Turns out, it's not as worthless as I thought. It's the king of the Mendocinos. 8x66MHz.
Is it a good overclocker or why pay people up to 20 bucks for this?

It might be the fastest some 440LX boards will take, stuck into a slotket. (Depending on whether there were beta bioses or hacks to take coppermine celerons or not)

However, ppl with a 440BX would be looking for a 366, because they are all multiplier locked, so PII-eater high bus speeds of 100 plus exceed the capabilities of the core/process on higher multipliers. You might be able to run this one at 75 Mhz, but unless it's a golden ticket 83Mhz is unlikely. They don't look so great at 66 compared to a PII because of the lower cache capacity, but because it's full speed cache, synchronous with the core, where the PII is not, those are off core at various dividers, when the bus speeds are increased it catches up with the PIIs.

It's also an especially helpful chip for early PPGA-only s370 boards as it's the fastest Mendocino officially available for such boards.
I'm unsure about adapters for to add Coppermine CPUs to these boards but usually this won't help much as most of the s370 PPGA-only boards are LX ones (an early Coppermine could be worth it for a BX board, but an adapter and perhaps some BIOS update would probably be needed).

Finally finished uploading the Soundtrack to Transport Tycoon which was recorded off the Miditech Pianobox USB GM Module. I really enjoyed listening to each track while recording. TTD has an absolutely awesome soundtrack! I'm interested in peoples thoughts on this module. There doesn't appear to be many recordings of this device so next on my list is Doom 2 and Rise Of The Triad.

Here is the Playlist for Transport Tycoon

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8qJAX … TuBJ1kEWP7yr8qj

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-04-29, 03:25:

Look at this real interesting hole though, the eZ80! 🤣

eZ80 is kind of the opposite of the Z280. They did a great job of extending the address space this time but didn't bother trying to extend the instruction set in other ways. Too bad there is no PLCC or DIP version.

Anyway I just had a terrible idea... Changing memory banks with the Z280 MMU takes more instructions than I would like, but I could always add my own bank switching logic outside the chip which would just take a single OUT instruction. *menacing laughter*

Wanted a PDF of original MS DOS 5 manual and have an original from my Leading Tech old computer but did not want to scan it all.
The other one at Archive org is missing more than half the book, should be pages numbered to 668 but only goes to page 126 and is a bad scan...
so used some fancy finger work and got the whole book as PDF. https://archive.org/details/msdos_5_User_Guide_complete
added: is still being finalized, hope it does not get removed.....

I bought a sheet-fed scanner for this exact reason. Scanning thousands of pages of books and manuals? No thank you.

It's a lot of work to cut up books, and there is some expertise that goes along with it, but I have too much bulk. I'm fine with scanning most of this stuff and just letting the paper go.

Recieved the case badge for my 1200.
And now it is finished the way I want it. Fully recapped, brand new case, accelerator and more. I am really happy with the result and with the IndivisionAGA-MK3 it has a really sharp and crisp picture. I can simply not complain at this point. Never had I dreamt that I would be getting another 1200, after I sold my previous Amiga 1200 in the spring of 2006. But here I am in 2022 and yet again do I own a 1200. So happy....

gave this classic a clean the caps are like new probably the old study pc 🤣.
i have a pc with the trade name turtle beach on it so it'll be its new home on a non physical sblink motherboard. (no support on this card so post p2 era.)
Need the SPDIF attachment and am seeking a yamaha wavetable daughterboard that doesn't cost the planet.
I have needed a wavetable compatible soundcard for donkeys years.
I would prefer a yamaha based wavetable card but they're not around.
Its the low latency MIDI that doesn't use system ram like software canvas needs.
Anyhow couple of shots for all those turtles out there.
From a Dell machine originally.
Not the best turtle but it does sound good regardless.
Has someone got links to its best drivers?

Today I learned I can slipstream more than just SATA drivers for Windows XP...all Nforce2 drivers, Santa Cruz and Voodoo 2s.

Koolsmoky's XP Voodoo 2 driver that normally needs one card installed at a time for SLI also works with both installed already. I'm blown away.

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-05-04, 17:45:

Has someone got links to its best drivers?

See here for the latest drivers.
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/aureal-vortex-2.html

Note that the latest 2048 drivers have some bugs. Use the older version 2041. You will also lose a lot of features if you use the WDM/Windows 2000 drivers. The VXD drivers have all of the features but only work with Windows 9x.

The cheapest way to get a Yamaha XG wavetable is to add a second PCI sound card and use it exclusively for MIDI.

CNC machines at work still run Windows 2000 Professional, so i suppose i do a retro thing every day 🤣

Finished some repairs today.

Roland SC-55 Refurbishment
S3 Virge/GX Repair

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-05-05, 01:31:

See here for the latest drivers. https://www.philscomputerlab.com/aureal-vortex-2.html […]
Show full quote

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-05-04, 17:45:

Has someone got links to its best drivers?

See here for the latest drivers.
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/aureal-vortex-2.html

Note that the latest 2048 drivers have some bugs. Use the older version 2041. You will also lose a lot of features if you use the WDM/Windows 2000 drivers. The VXD drivers have all of the features but only work with Windows 9x.

The cheapest way to get a Yamaha XG wavetable is to add a second PCI sound card and use it exclusively for MIDI.

Thanks heaps I'm putting the machine together by pulling 2 apart its fun shuffling it until they're right.

Finally was able to start putting together a P4 Cedar Mill rig after the guy I bought DDR2 turned out to be an idiot, took forever to send it and when it finally arrived turned out they sent the wrong stick. Return for that is in progress and the new stick I bought from another seller arrived so I can put the thing together. But there was a surprise waiting under the MB battery:

So that can actually happen it seems.

A bit of corrosion there too that won't scrub off, any idea how long it could take before that can become a problem? I don't own a soldering iron so unless that's going to eat the motherbord, the house and me before the year ends I'd rather not rush off to get one.

Sombrero wrote on 2022-05-05, 10:42:

Finally was able to start putting together a P4 Cedar Mill rig after the guy I bought DDR2 turned out to be an idiot, took forev […]
Show full quote

Finally was able to start putting together a P4 Cedar Mill rig after the guy I bought DDR2 turned out to be an idiot, took forever to send it and when it finally arrived turned out they sent the wrong stick. Return for that is in progress and the new stick I bought from another seller arrived so I can put the thing together. But there was a surprise waiting under the MB battery:

Battery with skid marks.JPG

So that can actually happen it seems.

Corrosion.JPG

A bit of corrosion there too that won't scrub off, any idea how long it could take before that can become a problem? I don't own a soldering iron so unless that's going to eat the motherbord, the house and me before the year ends I'd rather not rush off to get one.

Don't worry about that.
Coin cell battery's are usually safe, in fact i cant recall ever seeing one leaking.
And to my eyes it doesn't even look like corrosion, more like there was a short somewhere
Which perhaps is even more alarming.

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2022-05-05, 11:22:

Don't worry about that. Coin cell battery's are usually safe, in fact i cant recall ever seeing one leaking. And to my eyes it d […]
Show full quote

Don't worry about that.
Coin cell battery's are usually safe, in fact i cant recall ever seeing one leaking.
And to my eyes it doesn't even look like corrosion, more like there was a short somewhere
Which perhaps is even more alarming.

Encouraging 😀

The seller sold it as tested and working and gave year long warranty, so there's that if it goes poof.

Finally got LT1085CT LDO voltage regulators to try on my ECS UM4980 v1.1 board and it works. Finally I can get other voltages to CPU beside 5V direct from PSU.

And now I have another issue. I put AMD 486DX2-66 on it, set jumpers correctly (checked multiple times, both against jumper pdf from ultimate retro, motherboard silkscreen and scan of the manual), but for some reason I get 486DX2 100 MHz on post if it's set to 33 MHz FSB. Regardless of if I set jumper to X2 or X3 multiplier... I get 75 MHz if I set FSB jumper to 25 MHz FSB.

So I'm currently WFTing...

Sombrero wrote on 2022-05-05, 10:42:

A bit of corrosion there too that won't scrub off, any idea how long it could take before that can become a problem? I don't own a soldering iron so unless that's going to eat the motherbord, the house and me before the year ends I'd rather not rush off to get one.

I can't see the corrosion on the motherboard from your photo.

The battery doesn't look too be like it's leaking. I would guess that some of the stainless plating was scraped off and the exposed metal oxidized and rusted a bit. Corrosion from a leaking battery is usually either white, green, and sometimes blue, but never brown; it's probably just rust.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-05-05, 15:17:

Sombrero wrote on 2022-05-05, 10:42:

A bit of corrosion there too that won't scrub off, any idea how long it could take before that can become a problem? I don't own a soldering iron so unless that's going to eat the motherbord, the house and me before the year ends I'd rather not rush off to get one.

I can't see the corrosion on the motherboard from your photo.

The battery doesn't look too be like it's leaking. I would guess that some of the stainless plating was scraped off and the exposed metal oxidized and rusted a bit. Corrosion from a leaking battery is usually either white, green, and sometimes blue, but never brown; it's probably just rust.

It's greener than what it looks on the photo, though it did get fainter after some scrubbing. But no need to swap the battery holder any time soon I take it?

Use vinegar to neutralize the acid and clean corrosion. Then go over it with isopropyl alcohol.

It's probably fine. It looks to be isolated to the leg there and won't have reached the motherboard, I suspect. As long as it's mechanically sound, it will be fine. I have a soldering iron and would still leave it alone if it were mine.