comteck123 wrote on 2023-07-30, 13:02:

Got the perfect 98SE setup on 86Box, and still trying to find some games for my 98se vm on vmware

What system did you emulate?

As part of my 'vintage' gaming machine endeavoring, I installed Interstate '76 w/Nitro Pack (GoG version, but without using the installer) onto a Windows x64 build. I had no trouble getting video working properly (courtesy of dgVoodoo), and audio effects worked, but the music just would not play. I tried manually adding some registry keys, and then I tried an actual GoG install, tried winmmm (and updated to win32.dll), K-Lite Pack, various shortcut compatibility modes, AIO patch, A3D live patch (which just made the sound effects choppy), but the results were the same. The only thing I haven't tried is going to be the suggestion someone mentions after reading this post.

As a last resort, I thought since the MP3 files aren't working, maybe audio from the CD will work. With the CD image mounted, problem solved. Delightful!

I finally got around to recapping the Soyo Dragon I bought last fall. I was holding my breath when I powered it on, because it had so many bad capacitors that I was afraid to even see if it would POST as it was. But the operation was a success! Now to build a system with it.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-07-31, 00:38:

I finally got around to recapping the Soyo Dragon I bought last fall. I was holding my breath when I powered it on, because it had so many bad capacitors that I was afraid to even see if it would POST as it was. But the operation was a success! Now to build a system with it.

Best looking PCB of that era in my opinion.

No actual activity. But I looked up something that made me pretty happy. These old MSI pcie video cards have driver support back.to win2k. I'm contemplating the (re)purchase of a lga 771 serverboard. One was my first such build, and at the time took for granted it ran win2k. I can't think of a faster, more powerful and versatile platform to run 16/32 bit apps natively. While win2k/XP may not jive well with sata drives (XP 64 bit should, no? I have to believe 2003 will), I could always use a sata to pata adapter so I can make use of modern media. No, it may not run dos, even from an optical drive, but you can't have everything (but it does boot 2k ... I don't think I tried that, but it was more then 5 years ago.

And don't have to bother with old pci cards. The board has a bunch of different slots, pcie, pcix, pci and another variant (pci 64 bit??). It's got it all.

I moved my Pentium III system to a different case, downgrading from a GF4 Ti 4200 to a GF3 in the process, making it a completely 2001 period correct build.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-07-30, 19:32:

comteck123 wrote on 2023-07-30, 13:02:

Got the perfect 98SE setup on 86Box, and still trying to find some games for my 98se vm on vmware

What system did you emulate?

ASUS P55T2P4 with a 200mhz Pentium MMX
Voodoo2 with a Trio64V+
SB128/ES1371 with awe64 Gold
32gb hdd
32x cd-rom

Works fine in demanding games like Unreal and Half-Life, although I prefer vmware for that.

chris2021 wrote on 2023-07-31, 03:05:

No actual activity. But I looked up something that made me pretty happy. These old MSI pcie video cards have driver support back.to win2k. I'm contemplating the (re)purchase of a lga 771 serverboard. One was my first such build, and at the time took for granted it ran win2k. I can't think of a faster, more powerful and versatile platform to run 16/32 bit apps natively. While win2k/XP may not jive well with sata drives (XP 64 bit should, no? I have to believe 2003 will), I could always use a sata to pata adapter so I can make use of modern media. No, it may not run dos, even from an optical drive, but you can't have everything (but it does boot 2k ... I don't think I tried that, but it was more then 5 years ago.

And don't have to bother with old pci cards. The board has a bunch of different slots, pcie, pcix, pci and another variant (pci 64 bit??). It's got it all.

nVidia cards up to the GTX 480 have native Win2k support. After the 8800 Ultra you have to download the WinXP driver but it will see and install the driver in Win2k.

Ive got Win2k running on a dual LGA771 and it runs like a dream (dual X5365) I guess it should also run the Harpertown 5400 Series CPUs too, I just havent bothered as I missed a couple of Gernerations and went from Clovertown to Gulftown so no Harpertown CPUs to try...

LGA 771 and the 5000X chipset (and others of the same generation) are the last chipsets that support Win2k without modifications to the kernel. However Win2k uses per socket licencing not per CPU as WinXP does.
Win2k Pro will see the first core of each logical processor only. And the drivers load sequentially too, so its quite some time to boot up while it loads the drivers for each processor one after the other.
XP did bring some nice improvements that I would like it Win2k.

No problem running PATA 133, SATA 150 & 3Gbit, SCSI Ultra2 Wide Ultra3 and Ultra320, SAS 3 and 6Gbit. Not got a faster SAS controller on a PCI-X controller to try it out.

Im trying to figure out the pin outs on my psu to stick a decent video card in mine.

I might sacrifice a GTX 260 as a try it n see.

ODwilly wrote on 2023-07-31, 01:01:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-07-31, 00:38:

I finally got around to recapping the Soyo Dragon I bought last fall. I was holding my breath when I powered it on, because it had so many bad capacitors that I was afraid to even see if it would POST as it was. But the operation was a success! Now to build a system with it.

Best looking PCB of that era in my opinion.

It was worth the effort IMO, but I've just now discovered that they are picky about CPUs. I have a number of Socket A CPUs that I thought would work in this board, but it doesn't support Throughbreds. The Palomino core XP2000 I have won't post in this board - it ought to work, but this was the first time I've tried it, so it may be a bad CPU. The only CPU I have on hand that will work is the Duron.

Edit: After testing in another motherboard, it appears that the 2000+ Palomino is dead and the 2000+ Tbred is fine, which confirms that this motherboard will not work with Thoroughbred CPUs. Heavy sigh.

Finished installing and patching Windows 98 SE on the "circa 2003 PC" I've been putting together from all sorts of cheap (and free) crap I've been picking up here and there during the last few months. Was sad to learn that I won't be getting the sound to work in DOS mode ever, thanks to the nForce2 chipset on the mobo. Next up on the agenda: installing Windows XP alongside 98SE.

I have also come to realize that I enjoy the tinkering more than I do actually using these old computers. For example, I must have installed Duke Nukem 3D (which, of course, is pretty much the best game ever) at least half a dozen times this year alone on various computers, yet I hardly ever play more than E1L1. 😄

That Soyo board is gorgeous

Well, I *finally* got the funky adapter for the power port on the beat-up Ecomstation Ebox (SiS550 x86). It's a Kycon KPPX-3P, by the way. There are short adapter cables that adapt to a standard 5.5mm DC barrel. Check your voltages before plugging in, the voltage is listed below for reference in case someone finds one.

Thanks, Pixel lack of Macro capability for the blur!

First one works, the hard drive even works. Running a customized Linux that said it's been 47,558 days since it was checked (press X). Older Ubuntu, probably 2010 or so, haven't had time to try to get past the password (checked online for the info, none yet).

Interesting the BIOS has a LOT of support for configuring the ISA bus. I don't know to what extent you can access that bus, it may be that there's a header somewhere on the board (or pins) that you could adapt to an ISA bus. Or an ISA/PCI bus, since everything defaults to PCI. There's a whole page and a half of DMA options. There are cutouts for 2 com ports on the back, if there are pads or pins for that...

Or ISA/PCI/AGP if the graphics options mean anything.

Runs quite warm, may adjust the cooling (and/or replace paste if any), or, especially if I can expand the bus, design and print a new case for it, maybe use a CPU heatsink from by File Box Of Heatsinks And Coolers. Oh, and the Hitachi 4Gb microdrive I've had waiting for testing works! So that's good.

I actually have some newer versions from the same company that use something like a Dollar Store Raspberry Pi (or a Bugatti Arduino, not sure), I plan to mess with those after I clear my desk a little more. It's getting ridiculous. I won't even really work on the Ebox much until after I clear about 100 items out of her online, eBay, out of the trunk behind the shopping mall, whatever.

It's really hard to organize people in person here now. There's an Amiga club, an Apple club that only seems to do iphones and tablets, and a bunch of dissociated collectors who clump in small groups. Everyone just sits at home and stares at the internet like... like... like me.

Well, I'm supposed to be doing other things. I pulled one apart and took some pics (below), will add some notes.

Pulling one of the (soldered) pins on the CR2354 battery seems to reset the password. Cumbersome but I should replace them anyway. Actually I activated the unconnected reset jumper inside as well, but I think it was the battery that did it. One has not powered up so far, one still has a BIOS password, one has a flaky drive. By default they read an inserted CF as primary, so I can override with a CF card or Microdrive.

The burned-looking spots look like very old flux AFAICT, including the IDE port. I don't actually know the specs yet, I haven't found a way to decode the model number and the company used different ones. I really need to get a programmer, but I'm sure I can back up the BIOS in software. There's no heatsink paste, there are weak spring mounts with plastic pins to hold the lid, which is an aluminum cooler, on. The two rows of holes on the lower left are the COM ports, so those could be wired. Yes the power lights on the upper right are crooked, don't know why. 128Mb RAM, should be good for DOS, Win31, lower-end Win98, and maybe some other vintage OSes though who knows.

Don't yet know what the (three) chip pads on the bottom are, I'd guess external video chipset and VRAM (VRAM often has multiple different contact patterns for different chip packages, but it could be something else entirely). The long vertical pair of contacts on the upper right are a (or two) PCI interface(s). No sign of an ISA lane, BUT sometimes ISA is accessed through PCI, the ISA slots could be virtual. I don't have very detailed technical specs. I was kind of hoping one of the jumpers or pad sections would be labeled "ISA" or something. I dunno. Also, I don't know why the IDE cable isn't a ribbon cable, I mean, this way is probably more flexible.

I kind of felt like I had to try to power them all up since I finally got the power socket adapter.

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2023-07-31, 11:25:

Ive got Win2k running on a dual LGA771 and it runs like a dream (dual X5365) I guess it should also run the Harpertown 5400 Seri […]
Show full quote

Ive got Win2k running on a dual LGA771 and it runs like a dream (dual X5365) I guess it should also run the Harpertown 5400 Series CPUs too, I just havent bothered as I missed a couple of Gernerations and went from Clovertown to Gulftown so no Harpertown CPUs to try...

LGA 771 and the 5000X chipset (and others of the same generation) are the last chipsets that support Win2k without modifications to the kernel. However Win2k uses per socket licencing not per CPU as WinXP does.
Win2k Pro will see the first core of each logical processor only. And the drivers load sequentially too, so its quite some time to boot up while it loads the drivers for each processor one after the other.
XP did bring some nice improvements that I would like it Win2k.

No problem running PATA 133, SATA 150 & 3Gbit, SCSI Ultra2 Wide Ultra3 and Ultra320, SAS 3 and 6Gbit. Not got a faster SAS controller on a PCI-X controller to try it out.

Im trying to figure out the pin outs on my psu to stick a decent video card in mine.

I might sacrifice a GTX 260 as a try it n see.

This is all great info. What motherboard are you using? I'm torn between an Intel and Supermicro board. I may wind up getting both. Juat learned today the SM board has a floppy connector. The Intel no, I could almost swear anyway. Not that either would boot dos. I could almost swear again.

I started playing with old cds that were otherwise unuseable. A jolly old time. I almost wanted to kick myself for selling it. A magnificent platform for 2k. And please don't bum me out anymore with talk of multi core cpus being neglected 😀. You can't have everything.

As I memtioned the Intel S5000 boards have maybe 2 drivers for 2008. The SM board no afaik. Oh well. And yes my build had 5450s. And the biggest most delicious aluminum heatsink slabs you've ever. 5460 and 70s would also run, but you need copper for.those. thing is I never really finalized the build. That generation of board uses hot hot ram. I had to leave my case.open and point a deskfan at it. If I didn't it wouldn't boot!!! The "big" fan worked real well. I had plans to put individual fans on everything. Never got around to it.

Merovign wrote on 2023-08-01, 03:47:

Don't yet know what the (three) chip pads on the bottom are, I'd guess external video chipset and VRAM (VRAM often has multiple different contact patterns for different chip packages, but it could be something else entirely).

footprints are too small for any kind of ram, my guess is this space is for additional IO chip providing those two serial ports labelled COM1 COM2. SIS chip itself doesnt have serial ports 😮 imho major oversight when designing something for embedded markets
http://datasheets.chipdb.org/SiS%20550/presentation.pdf
http://datasheets.chipdb.org/SiS%20550/55x_technical.pdf
https://theretroweb.com/chipsets/430

Merovign wrote on 2023-08-01, 03:47:

The long vertical pair of contacts on the upper right are a (or two) PCI interface(s).

J18 footprint is meant for miniPCI slot, like in old routers and laptops, can be converted to full size PCI

Merovign wrote on 2023-08-01, 03:47:

No sign of an ISA lane

there is LPC instead

old auction:
https://archiwum.allegro.pl/oferta/mikrokompu … 9743026881.html
~$11 and didnt sell in 2020

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-08-01, 04:49:

footprints are too small for any kind of ram, my guess is this space is for additional IO chip providing those two serial ports labelled COM1 COM2. SIS chip itself doesnt have serial ports 😮 imho major oversight when designing something for embedded markets

Seems so. I have yet to find a photo of the bottom side of the motherboard other than my own, so I don't know what one with serial ports installed looks like.

Merovign wrote on 2023-08-01, 03:47:

No sign of an ISA lane

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-08-01, 04:49:

there is LPC instead […]
Show full quote

there is LPC instead

old auction:
https://archiwum.allegro.pl/oferta/mikrokompu … 9743026881.html
~$11 and didnt sell in 2020

That's the same board in the same configuration, so I imagine it would have exactly the same capabilities since it has the same missing chips.

--

The other, newer version I mentioned with the mystery board may be a A9 Cortex dev board, but I can find virtually no relevant information based on its board marking and model number. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the absolute trash search engines have become since they adopted LLMs to try to push people into advertisers' sites, if you're not shopping at a big retailer, they seem to have lost the ability to find a large portion of the things I used to find regularly years ago.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-07-31, 18:24:

ODwilly wrote on 2023-07-31, 01:01:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-07-31, 00:38:

I finally got around to recapping the Soyo Dragon I bought last fall. I was holding my breath when I powered it on, because it had so many bad capacitors that I was afraid to even see if it would POST as it was. But the operation was a success! Now to build a system with it.

Best looking PCB of that era in my opinion.

It was worth the effort IMO, but I've just now discovered that they are picky about CPUs. I have a number of Socket A CPUs that I thought would work in this board, but it doesn't support Throughbreds. The Palomino core XP2000 I have won't post in this board - it ought to work, but this was the first time I've tried it, so it may be a bad CPU. The only CPU I have on hand that will work is the Duron.

Edit: After testing in another motherboard, it appears that the 2000+ Palomino is dead and the 2000+ Tbred is fine, which confirms that this motherboard will not work with Thoroughbred CPUs. Heavy sigh.

I'm curious because my P4S Dragon looks close enough to your board that it wasn't until I saw the VIA chips I realized it was 462, does the C-Media chip cause cursor stuttering if you use a PS2 mouse with it? On my board the PS2 mouse port shares an IRq with the onboard audio. Disabling the integrated audio fixes it. Not a big issue now days, but was mildly annoying when I was using a PS2 mouse years ago.

Haven't got a "retro" activity today but a somewhat old one -

Had to disassemble and clean a PS4 console. I got this 2nd hand a couple of years back and never got around to cleaning it until today and holy hell was it horrible inside!

There was caked on brown and white debris everywhere, it took me nearly 20 minutes alone just working on cleaning the fan blades. Definitely one of the most disgusting devices I've had to clean so far, I literally have no idea where the previous owner had this stored.

Got it all cleaned and looking respectable enough, still needs some minor cosmetic cleaning on the outside plastic. Also applied some new thermal paste before reassembling it all. It's running a lot quieter now!

ODwilly wrote on 2023-08-01, 07:26:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-07-31, 18:24:

ODwilly wrote on 2023-07-31, 01:01:

Best looking PCB of that era in my opinion.

It was worth the effort IMO, but I've just now discovered that they are picky about CPUs. I have a number of Socket A CPUs that I thought would work in this board, but it doesn't support Throughbreds. The Palomino core XP2000 I have won't post in this board - it ought to work, but this was the first time I've tried it, so it may be a bad CPU. The only CPU I have on hand that will work is the Duron.

Edit: After testing in another motherboard, it appears that the 2000+ Palomino is dead and the 2000+ Tbred is fine, which confirms that this motherboard will not work with Thoroughbred CPUs. Heavy sigh.

I'm curious because my P4S Dragon looks close enough to your board that it wasn't until I saw the VIA chips I realized it was 462, does the C-Media chip cause cursor stuttering if you use a PS2 mouse with it? On my board the PS2 mouse port shares an IRq with the onboard audio. Disabling the integrated audio fixes it. Not a big issue now days, but was mildly annoying when I was using a PS2 mouse years ago.

I've not yet built a system with this board; I can't get excited about doing so with only a 700 MHz Morgan Duron, so I'm now shopping for a Palomino 2100+. When I do set it up, I'll try and see. Was OS were you using when this happened?

Got my CUSL2+933 cumine p3 today. Supposed to be broken.
Dips were set, as well as JEN to enable softmenu.
Disable softmenu, set dips to 466 and off we go.
It was quite picky regarding ram, I had to find some double sided stuff.
The softmenu started working after bios update (1009->1014).
Something hankypanky going on with the usb-headers/usbpwr -jumpers.