I've written a thread on putting old PC's on the internet, but that's about it. I've been sick on and off for about 4-5 weeks now, including a bad fight with COVID despite doing everything right.....I wish I was better and had more time for stuff as of late.

I assembled my 645DX project yesturday (it's a LianLi's case MB drawer).
Obviously some wiring is missing in the picture (sound module cable to the board, USB card's connectors, etc).
I like how the card's end and the motherboard's form factor meet.
I like how the two Voodoo 5's fans are pleasanty supplied on two fan connectors that are "sticked" together. Just like it was designed for it.
I'll change some details over time (one more Corsair RAM module, another (thicker) fan on top of the Asus full copper heatsink (preferably with a Soyo sticker if I find one).

I found the Voodoo 5 to be very picky. Had to let the screw not very tightly secured and move it for some millimetters and try many times doing this to get it to work. Other AGP cards worked easily on this board (both 3.3V and 1.5V).
Is it something common with the Voodoo 5 ?

At a guess I would think that it doesnt like the AGP slot, the Voodoo5 5500 really saw the AGP slot as a souped up PCI slot and thus didn't use much if any of the advanced AGP features and was limited to AGP 2x (Really 1x). Not even sure how its running on a more modern AGP slot but I'm guessing its a Universal slot, you might want to consider a different GPU and move that old girl back to a true AGP 2x board where it'll likely be happier.

But to answer your direct question, Yes its the Voodoo5 5500 its a picky bitch even when working correctly and is well known for having AGP issues/conflicts.

Thank you for your reply.
I built this project around the card. I even picked a board that offers separate AGP voltage and frequency setting to this end (to stick to 3.3V/66MHz settings of course).
I'll search for a PCI version then. Too bad, I really like this version with Vantec heatsinks.
Maybe the powersupply doesn't help though. It's a no-name period correct one (yes I know). I'm not even into period-correctness (I wouldn't have built a P4/V5 rig), It's just that I only had it. I'll try a modern Corsair today just in case.

If the card needs some poking in order to work the agp connector on the card could simply be a bit dirty and cause issues.

Easy to rule out and a toothbrush + some IPA is a bit cheaper than a PCI V5.

Sombrero wrote on 2022-07-17, 11:18:

If the card needs some poking in order to work the agp connector on the card could simply be a bit dirty and cause issues.

Easy to rule out and a toothbrush + some IPA is a bit cheaper than a PCI V5.

God yes, exhaust any and all options before trying to buy a PCI version.

The other possibility is the AGP slot is dirty or the contacts are tarnished, cleaning the AGP slot would also be a good idea. (Might need a can of contact cleaner for this)

I forgot to say that this V5 on a SS7 board worked directly.
And the Rage 3D usually installed in this SS7 rig worked directly on the Soyo too.
So yes they probably just don't like each other.
Cleaning contacts can't hurt though.

JustJulião wrote on 2022-07-17, 11:33:

I forgot to say that this V5 on a SS7 board worked directly. And the Rage 3D usually installed in this SS7 rig worked directly o […]
Show full quote

I forgot to say that this V5 on a SS7 board worked directly.
And the Rage 3D usually installed in this SS7 rig worked directly on the Soyo too.
So yes they probably just don't like each other.
Cleaning contacts can't hurt though.

Most Voodoo AGP cards had issues with newer AGP boards but worked fine on the older ones, the only exception to this would be the Voodoo 4 4500 which had full AGP 4x functionality, the only reason they never got 4x working on the Voodoo 5 series was due to the SLI setup not working with AGP correctly as it saw each GPU core as an independent card which obviously caused compatibility issues. Issues they never worked out before they went defunct and even the Voodoo5 6000 suffers for the same problems the 5500 does.

I have a 4500 too and that card is rock solid on a wide range of AGP boards even the newer universal AGP boards with 8x, I would use it more often but AGP compatibility is its only redeeming feature as it simply doesnt have enough horsepower to make full use of that VSA chip with its AA and 32bit rendering and is quite often beaten by the Voodoo3 3500 at same resolutions and color depth.

This must be a retro thing. Back in the day, I don't remember hearing anything about Voodoo 5 being finicky in AGP 4x boards. I personally ran mine in a Tyan AGP 4x board for years without any issues.

smtkr wrote on 2022-07-17, 15:23:

This must be a retro thing. Back in the day, I don't remember hearing anything about Voodoo 5 being finicky in AGP 4x boards. I personally ran mine in a Tyan AGP 4x board for years without any issues.

It’s a universal/8x agp thing, socket7/370/slot 1 2x/4x worked ok mostly as the v5 was built for that slot and fabs really didn’t do weird shit with voltages and speeds.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-07-15, 17:42:

Sometimes I cant help but be addicted to old cheese .. in this case its the old software variety of cheese, I saw this 12 pack f […]
Show full quote

Sometimes I cant help but be addicted to old cheese .. in this case its the old software variety of cheese, I saw this 12 pack for a tenner and thought it might make for a fun diversion for a few hours.

Discs 7 thru 9 look the best, but that Science Fiction disc looks entertaining too, I wonder what the quality of the Doom levels is going to be ...likely as good as the quality of this pack 😁

Cover.jpg
1-3.jpg
4-6.jpg
7-9.jpg
10-12.jpg

The first three discs are pretty much throw away, unless that Peter Norton disc has something interesting on it, I was thinking of how to archive these discs and I think there might be such a place where I can do this, Im sure there are others who like me just love digging through old DOS/Windows software and media.

I've kind-of missed these hardcopy software bundles. There's something to them. If nothing else, they reduce choice overload. And you never know, the selection may have been put together by someone who knew what they were doing, putting in some underappreciated titles, getting a (cheap) relicensing deal, etc.

Re. archiving: how about archive.org?

I built my overkill Windows XP and Windows 7 computer. Here are the specs:

- Asrock Fatal1ty H97 Performance
- Intel Core i7-4790K (Devil’s Canyon)
- 16GB DDR3
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
- Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium
- SK Hynix S31 512GB SSD (Windows 7)
- Generic 256GB SSD (Windows XP)
- Hitachi 1TB HDD
- LG BD-RE Drive
- LG DVD-RW Drive
- Corsair CX600 Power Supply

I wanted to go with a Broadwell Xeon for the processor, but they cost twice as much as the Devil’s Canyon processor (with about the same performance). The i7-4790K does get pretty hot, though. I might pair it with an all-in-one water cooler later this summer.

I also have a GTX 980 Ti in-waiting for this build, but I’m letting my son use it in his computer for the time being. I’ll have to make do with the GTX 960 in the meantime.
Here’s a picture. I added a little RGB for some flair. The case has an acrylic side panel (not shown).

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-07-17, 17:11:

smtkr wrote on 2022-07-17, 15:23:

This must be a retro thing. Back in the day, I don't remember hearing anything about Voodoo 5 being finicky in AGP 4x boards. I personally ran mine in a Tyan AGP 4x board for years without any issues.

It’s a universal/8x agp thing, socket7/370/slot 1 2x/4x worked ok mostly as the v5 was built for that slot and fabs really didn’t do weird shit with voltages and speeds.

Hmm. I had a Tyan Trinity 400 with a universal AGP slot. I can't remember what my friends were running theirs in. But yeah, nobody had any problems back then.

I am going to go out on a limb that this is more modern than retro.

I replaced the laser assembly in a Slim Playstation 3 that I got at Value Village for 20 CAN$ . The laser assembly came from an Insignia Blu-Ray player that I got from a Best Buy liquidation rack for 20-ish $ probably 10 years ago (player's main firmware chip corrupted itself after a few weeks, bricking the drive, or at least that's what I remember deducing from the player's serial console output).

Used an Arduino to test the cga monitor i got in a recent pickup. It works but it also means it's the 8088 machine that's faulty.

I also changed CPU on my 486 from a Cyrix DX4 to an AMD 586 DX5 133. The speedup wasnt really too noticably outside of duke nukem 3d finally running smoothly, but one benefit was that moo2, master of Orion 2, finally running stable with no crashes for me. No idea why the Cyrix cpu shouldn't be able to run it without issues, but it's fixed now and I can finally play one of my absolute favorite games on my 486 without issues.

Also got a gotek today to install, but i need a 5 to 3 inch frontplate since i want to keep the original floppy drive. I might have to 3d print one if I can't find one locally.

I think things that don't like Cyrix are instruction timing bound, as AMDs use a licensed intel core at least partially, whereas the Cyrix is a clean sheet design with different optimisations and compromises. Ergo, two instructions might take 2 cycles and 4 cycles on AMD/Intel and might take 3 cycles and 2 cycles on the Cyrix and mess up tightly optimised code.

Watched Enola Holmes and The Bob's Burgers movie with the wife while I installed some more games on the Versa M/75 and worked on cracking the Crystal CS4231 WSS system. I think I'm getting close. Found a thread on here about the Zenith Z-note with the same chip....I think I may have heard a chirp of a gun from Doom at one point.

Right now I'm using WSSXLAT.EXE from WSS 2.0 setup like this...

DEVICE=C:\WSS\EMM386.EXE 4096 RAM - because 4MB should be enough EMS for the hooks + Sierra games
DEVICE=C:\WSS\WSSXLAT.EXE sbio=220 irq=10 dma=1

SET BLASTER=a220 i10 d1 t1

Kind of working/testing/experimenthing through this thread - Trying to find drivers for a Zenith Data Systems laptop

At some point I'll try and get the Adlib emulation going with WinGroove.....might be able to run Monkey Island and some others with that with actual music on this laptop - pretty killer since it's a tri-boot setup (DOS/Win311fw/Win95). Should be okay enough to tide me over until I build a Cardbarker, that other card a guy here is working on, or somehow find a Panasonic CF-VEW211, or figure out the output pinout on my KXL-D20 Sound/SCSI Card.

You get a lot more done than I, I think you need a username upgrade to trottingnet at least 🤣

creepingnet wrote on 2022-07-20, 19:14:

Watched Enola Holmes and The Bob's Burgers movie with the wife while I installed some more games on the Versa M/75 and worked on […]
Show full quote

Watched Enola Holmes and The Bob's Burgers movie with the wife while I installed some more games on the Versa M/75 and worked on cracking the Crystal CS4231 WSS system. I think I'm getting close. Found a thread on here about the Zenith Z-note with the same chip....I think I may have heard a chirp of a gun from Doom at one point.

Right now I'm using WSSXLAT.EXE from WSS 2.0 setup like this...

DEVICE=C:\WSS\EMM386.EXE 4096 RAM - because 4MB should be enough EMS for the hooks + Sierra games
DEVICE=C:\WSS\WSSXLAT.EXE sbio=220 irq=10 dma=1

SET BLASTER=a220 i10 d1 t1

Kind of working/testing/experimenthing through this thread - Trying to find drivers for a Zenith Data Systems laptop

At some point I'll try and get the Adlib emulation going with WinGroove.....might be able to run Monkey Island and some others with that with actual music on this laptop - pretty killer since it's a tri-boot setup (DOS/Win311fw/Win95). Should be okay enough to tide me over until I build a Cardbarker, that other card a guy here is working on, or somehow find a Panasonic CF-VEW211, or figure out the output pinout on my KXL-D20 Sound/SCSI Card.

Wow, I just sold a Versa M/75 earlier this year. I think I had the sound effects working in DOOM under Win95-DOS, with the original NEC-provided Crystal drivers. Unfortunately I set it up several years ago (before I started saving drivers), so I've since lost those drivers.

Found a way to mount a 486 heatsink to a 386DX/486DLC, without any sticky substances:

Overclocked this same 386DX-25 chip to 40 mhz. It's perfectly stable with the heatsink+fan, and makes for a maxed-out 1988 build when paired with a PVGA1A video card.

Finally found a suitable motherboard for a 486DLC + VLB build. It's 386, 486, VLB and plays DOOM at max details!

I gave my daughter an old Mac Mini from around 2007/08'ish. A core2duo machine that I got for cheap. She uses it for a few educational titles and then Doom and Duke3D through Dosbox on OsX. She also want to play a really old version of Minecraft for WinXP from around 2014 or something. And yup. I had to have fun with Bootcamp yet again. However I got more fun than a bargained for. The optical drive refused to read disks.

Off with the top case.... Giant PITA.... Then out with the drive, few screws and gave the laser a bit'o IPA.

Re assemble and XP installed perfect.