Probably because of the chipset issue with Windows 98SE. I had USB 2.0 work on a KM266Pro-MLV (DFI) board that has a buggy AGP bus when I enable the fast write and set the size higher than 32MB. Every other board I have (Shuttle AV18V31, FIC K8M-800M, and PCChips M871G v1.5) works with USB 1.1 and 2.0 in Windows 98SE without issues. Like I said, it's a hit and miss with certain chipsets that are used on the USB ports for Windows 98SE that can cause the crashes to occur whereas Windows XP would work regardless. I had a USB 2.0 card that would cause a bit of issues, but, I finally fixed it by installing the correct drivers and the chipset drivers for the motherboard.

Owning a EEPROM programmer is pretty cool. It becomes easier just to use that then actually find and use the proper BIOS updater on the computer.

With this, I have used a BIOS auto-patcher to improve my old Epox KP-6LA motherboard. It is an old Intel LX based motherboard.

With the patched BIOS, I can:
a) Install a 250gb hard drive and have it detected properly as the maximum 136gb hard drive, rather than 8gb or crashing.
b) I can slot in a Coppermine 550mhz CPU and while it doesn't run at 133mhz FSB, it detects it without crashing and runs it a 366mhz no problems. Maybe not the best idea, but cool none the less.

Today I used a modern machine with a PCI Express IDE card to image/recover the data from a failing Conner CP2124 120MB hard drive. The platters/read heads are ok but the arm sticks in the park position and the only way to free it up is to open the lid and nudge it out of the park position. Obviously this isn't a long-term solution or practical. The next challenge is to persuade the laptop to work with something else.

canthearu wrote:

Owning a EEPROM programmer is pretty cool. It becomes easier just to use that then actually find and use the proper BIOS updater […]
Show full quote

Owning a EEPROM programmer is pretty cool. It becomes easier just to use that then actually find and use the proper BIOS updater on the computer.

With this, I have used a BIOS auto-patcher to improve my old Epox KP-6LA motherboard. It is an old Intel LX based motherboard.

With the patched BIOS, I can:
a) Install a 250gb hard drive and have it detected properly as the maximum 136gb hard drive, rather than 8gb or crashing.
b) I can slot in a Coppermine 550mhz CPU and while it doesn't run at 133mhz FSB, it detects it without crashing and runs it a 366mhz no problems. Maybe not the best idea, but cool none the less.

I'm looking at doing this, see my post above. Can you point me in the right direction or post links to what you've been using and any guides?

Thanks 😀

mikeyp wrote:

I'm looking at doing this, see my post above. Can you point me in the right direction or post links to what you've been using and any guides?

Thanks 😀

http://www.rom.by/book/BIOS_Patcher

This is for the award bios. You may need different versions for different BIOSes. If bootup of the modified BIOS crashes, hold '-' on the keypad as you power on to disable the patched overlays and boot the unmodified BIOS.

Edit: If you want to apply the patches on a modern machine for flashing using an EEPROM programmer, use DOSBOX to run the patcher.

retardware wrote:

Jed118 wrote:

What more do you need? Sometimes, you just gotta try it and see what happens. 😉

A few days ago I was looking for a good thermal conductive adhesive, after I found out that my old tube of General Electric special silicone had gotten hard.
So I was interested in hard facts, and investigated about the products commonly used nowadays. (Decided to use Sekisui 5760)

Ah, well that, yeah that's not an intended application. Please let me know about your findings, I have thought of using JB weld for just such an application.

canthearu wrote:

http://www.rom.by/book/BIOS_Patcher

This is for the award bios. You may need different versions for different BIOSes. If bootup of the modified BIOS crashes, hold '-' on the keypad as you power on to disable the patched overlays and boot the unmodified BIOS.

Edit: If you want to apply the patches on a modern machine for flashing using an EEPROM programmer, use DOSBOX to run the patcher.

Thank you! I'll look into this over the next couple of days.

My thread is here Old Toshiba notebook - limited HDD replacement options? and my bios is here Re: Toshiba T5200 mods and upgrades but I figure IanB either hasn't noticed it or is busy. 😢

From what Ian and others have said in that thread, it looks like it is an award bios. I'd rather do it myself, so thank you for getting back to me!

I have a TL866A programmer but programming the board externally could be challenge as the bios chip is soldered in. See this example (not my board)

mikeyp wrote:

Thank you! I'll look into this over the next couple of days. […]
Show full quote

Thank you! I'll look into this over the next couple of days.

My thread is here Old Toshiba notebook - limited HDD replacement options? and my bios is here Re: Toshiba T5200 mods and upgrades but I figure IanB either hasn't noticed it or is busy. 😢

From what Ian and others have said in that thread, it looks like it is an award bios. I'd rather do it myself, so thank you for getting back to me!

I have a TL866A programmer but programming the board externally could be challenge as the bios chip is soldered in. See this example (not my board)

No offense, though, I'm wondering why you want a 386 laptop so bad? There's lots of later Toshibas that should give you far less trouble.

henryVK wrote:

No offense, though, I'm wondering why you want a 386 laptop so bad? There's lots of later Toshibas that should give you far less trouble.

None taken. There are many possible reasons. Take your pick:

• It's what I've got that worked, mostly works now and have most chance of getting working.
• I like the challenge of getting these things working.
• If I can contribute some knowledge that isn't documented and will help others in future, I will.
• I have a 486 laptop which is much more challenging to get going as it has a motherboard fault. Not sure I'm up to tackling that one yet or if it can even be fixed.
• I have a working PII PC and a PIII laptop so won't need anything else newer.
• I love the retro factor.
• Friends think it's cool.
• It's great for trolling at meetings when I'm taking notes.
• I'm a technological masochist.

Haha I've taken notes on a Compaq 4/25 LTE last year 😉

mikeyp wrote:

It's great for trolling at meetings when I'm taking notes.

You press keys, and the letters appear on the screen... what more could you want!

keenmaster486 wrote:

mikeyp wrote:

It's great for trolling at meetings when I'm taking notes.

You press keys, and the letters appear on the screen... what more could you want!

It really irks them when they realise the only way to get the resulting document off is to save it to a floppy disk. There's no networking or pcmcia on this thing, just serial, parallel and an optional modem I don't have.

Walk into your boss's office with a floppy disk... "hey boss, I just finished the report you requested. Saved as a Wordstar doc for your convenience"

Stripped and cleaned a Compaq DVD ROM (Samsung SD-612) from 2000 - tray was sticking & noisy, reads were erratic and it was generally grimy inside & out. Now cleaned, lubed and working a treat - it's still not the quietest unit but Samsungs never were.

keenmaster486 wrote:

Walk into your boss's office with a floppy disk... "hey boss, I just finished the report you requested. Saved as a Wordstar doc for your convenience"

It's rather funny but the opposite happened to me. When I joined the company in 2012, they had a very old Pentium 1 running DOS for the accounting program. Do you know how they got stuff off that PC? They didn't. The database was too large for a floppy and you couldn't export data. EVERYTHING they did in that accounting program stayed on that PC except for the occasional print out. I was utterly shocked - this was a 16 year old PC that used an old LPT printer.

The boss refused to change this - I warned her how dangerous it was to have so much vital data saved on a 15 year old hard drive with NO backups. I manually removed the drive, hooked it up in my old IDE Icebox and got a copy of the program (CUBIC DOS). I then used DOSBOX to emulate Cubic on a modern PC, use DOSBOX to print to a file and then opened that file using a compatible font to get a similar print result. Still, boss wouldn't budge.

Then the printer died. "Why can't we buy a new LPT printer?" "Because they stopped selling them since the early 2000's!" "But how will we print now!" *facepalms* Luckily her son joined the company shortly after and he immediately upgraded to Winbooks, the Windows equivalent of CUBIC.

red_avatar wrote:

It's rather funny but the opposite happened to me. When I joined the company in 2012, they had a very old Pentium 1 running DOS […]
Show full quote

keenmaster486 wrote:

Walk into your boss's office with a floppy disk... "hey boss, I just finished the report you requested. Saved as a Wordstar doc for your convenience"

It's rather funny but the opposite happened to me. When I joined the company in 2012, they had a very old Pentium 1 running DOS for the accounting program. Do you know how they got stuff off that PC? They didn't. The database was too large for a floppy and you couldn't export data. EVERYTHING they did in that accounting program stayed on that PC except for the occasional print out. I was utterly shocked - this was a 16 year old PC that used an old LPT printer.

The boss refused to change this - I warned her how dangerous it was to have so much vital data saved on a 15 year old hard drive with NO backups. I manually removed the drive, hooked it up in my old IDE Icebox and got a copy of the program (CUBIC DOS). I then used DOSBOX to emulate Cubic on a modern PC, use DOSBOX to print to a file and then opened that file using a compatible font to get a similar print result. Still, boss wouldn't budge.

Then the printer died. "Why can't we buy a new LPT printer?" "Because they stopped selling them since the early 2000's!" "But how will we print now!" *facepalms* Luckily her son joined the company shortly after and he immediately upgraded to Winbooks, the Windows equivalent of CUBIC.

That's terrifying... and yet so amusing. 🤣

Thanks for sharing.

Tried retrobrite nonsense using peroxide creme from the salon supply store. I don't think it came out half bad; a little streaking but additional treatments lessen it so I figure a couple more could eliminate them if I felt inclined. GN+ next to a GX110 for color comparison, it used to be more yellowed than the 110.

This was my makeshift, non-permanent cooling solution for my Voodoo3 1000. a small heatsink with a 40mm fan affixed with aviation wire lacing twine. It worked well and got me a nice safe clock speed of 156 MHz.

Today I started the permanent solution. I used thermal epoxy to put a larger heatsink and paired it with a 70mm fan. I am not going to raise the clock speed anymore because I am certain that the speed is limited by the SGRAM on this card. I took an advanced composites course this winter and one of the projects was to make a clipboard out of carbon fiber. I took that clipboard and made a shroud. I'm not done with this project, but like how it is turning out so far.

Drilled a hole in a blank I/O plate I got from ebay. I cleaned it up as best as I could, but it looked ugly. A little Plasti Dip I had laying around makes it look much better.

Interesting cooling mod.

mikeyp wrote:

None taken. There are many possible reasons. Take your pick: […]
Show full quote

henryVK wrote:

No offense, though, I'm wondering why you want a 386 laptop so bad? There's lots of later Toshibas that should give you far less trouble.

None taken. There are many possible reasons. Take your pick:

• It's what I've got that worked, mostly works now and have most chance of getting working.
• I like the challenge of getting these things working.
• If I can contribute some knowledge that isn't documented and will help others in future, I will.
• I have a 486 laptop which is much more challenging to get going as it has a motherboard fault. Not sure I'm up to tackling that one yet or if it can even be fixed.
• I have a working PII PC and a PIII laptop so won't need anything else newer.
• I love the retro factor.
• Friends think it's cool.
• It's great for trolling at meetings when I'm taking notes.
• I'm a technological masochist.

Thanks for your answer! I'm glad you're getting such a kick out of this and, for what it's wort, it's always good to document things online for others. I had a great working Highscreen branded 386 laptop that was my uncle's, way back in the early 90's. Stupidly, I gave it away and have regretted it ever sinde.