oeuvre wrote:

dat AT101W, new in box.

Love that keyboard 🤣, bought mine for a dollar from off a local shop 😎

Spent the last part of the evening pushing this 486 to it's limit to see what it can handle. I'm quite impressed with the results thus far....

- Looks like I MAY be able to tweak QuartzAudioMaster to work with this machine using the Buffers settings, just need to look back at how to do it
- Quake runs surprisingly well under Windows 95
- Doom Collection stuff runs great, can't use the installer though because it tries to install DirectX 8.0, which I don't really need to run Doom95 anyway
- Putting Postal on here

Odd thing is the performance of a 486 DX4-100 seems strangely better than I remember it, either that IBM PC-330 I used a ton years ago was slower than this thing I cobbled together in some other way (Motherboard possibly), but It does take quite a lot of so-called "torture" really well, even under high loads or when stability is going awry, I've only crashed it once, and that''s surprising using a non-updated Windows 95 installation and running so much software at once and so many huge (100+MB) File transfers at once.

I plan to post some videos of this thing in action o nce the L2 cache is in and installed. I'm also working out a way to do "Let's Plays" with this thing complete with facecam and have a unique twist of starting my "campaigns" with the computer from POST to show it's an actual 486 DX running the game and not some emulator - also applicable to my Tandy and my 286 as well.

***NOTE:*** Don't comment about the mess in the background.

I have scored a Packard Bell Pack-Mate 28 Plus, as well as the keyboard and mouse for $17USD a couple of weeks ago, and I did some upgrades, installations, and repairs along the way:

Memory was upgraded to SIMM-72 (disabled internal RAM), but the memory isn't working right and I have the other memory handy since it was previously installed by the original owner
48x CD-ROM Drive is installed
FDD upgraded from 3.5" to dual FDD
Tape drive is in place of the original FDD
External CMOS battery is installed (repair)
Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro is installed
Music Quest MPU401 clone card is installed
Roland MT-32 is hooked up to the MPU401 card
Gravis Analog Pro is installed
HDD was wiped and formatted, then installed MS-DOS 6 and upgraded to 6.22
iLive 2.1 Channel speakers with Bluetooth
IBM ThinkPad is used for making soundtracks from games using the Roland MT-32
Used my NEC MultiSync LCD1530V temporarily, but I'm now using my IBM 2115 CRT Monitor with the cable that was used in the NEC Monitor due to newer cables being shittier with less shielding, causing my CRT screen to turn pink, but no issues any longer.

Specs
Intel i486SX2-50
Packard Bell PB450M+ motherboard
Cirrus Logic VLB Integrated SVGA (upgradeable to 2MB vRAM)
Epson SD-800 Dual FDD
Mitsumi 48x CD-ROM Drive
Seagate 428.1MB HDD (was 210MB)
3Com EtherLink III ISA 10BaseT ethernet (installed by previous owner)
16MB SIMM-72 RAM (planning to use the other memory that was installed in the system)
Conner Tape Drive (max capacity 350MB compressed)
Packard Bell Keyboard and mouse
Gravis Analog Pro
Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro (SB Pro, Speech Thing, and Sound Source capable with a genuine Yamaha YMF262M OPL3 Chipset
Music Quest MPU401 clone card (made by keropi)
IBM 2115 CRT Monitor
Roland MT-32
iLive 2.1 Channel speakers with Bluetooth
Memorex Telex 1201 Dot Matrix Printer (needs ribbon and paper)
Lo-tech Tandy Compatible Sound Card

I have some pictures down below

I designed and 3D-printed a custom filler plate for using an AT motherboard in a nice HP proprietary ATX style tower case I had laying around.

It's printed in a metallic colored plastic and actually worked out really nice!

FesterBlatz wrote:

I designed and 3D-printed a custom filler plate for using an AT motherboard in a nice HP proprietary ATX style tower case I had […]
Show full quote

I designed and 3D-printed a custom filler plate for using an AT motherboard in a nice HP proprietary ATX style tower case I had laying around.

It's printed in a metallic colored plastic and actually worked out really nice!

IMG_1581.JPG

Capture.PNG

IMG_1580.JPG

While that does look totally awesome.. I thought part of back plates being metallic was to give ground connection to the keyboard plug/connector.. or am I wrong on that?

Built a Pentium II Time Machine or abomination to some 🤣

kithylin wrote:

While that does look totally awesome.. I thought part of back plates being metallic was to give ground connection to the keyboard plug/connector.. or am I wrong on that?

Electrically, the KB socket is sufficiently grounded through the motherboard. I'm sure having a proper steel filler panel would help cut down on any potential RFI, unfortunately AT ATX filler plates have become rarer than hen's teeth. So in my mind it's at least better than the big gaping hole most people would be forced leave there... 😀

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Built a Pentium II Time Machine or abomination to some :lol: […]
Show full quote

Built a Pentium II Time Machine or abomination to some 🤣

Video or it didn't happen!

Today i came across some neat little system at local electronic scrap yard,hard bargain with the seller and got it for 7.5$.

I found it interesting formfactor after i saw whats inside.

So for the start it was dirty as ass,had no ram no hdd and dead cmos battery ofc,seller said it has dead psu.

On case was marks:

"did not see hdd"
"burnt"
"decommissioned"

Inside,on psu was a bold cross and the words "burnt"

Seems someone really did not liked it and wanted get rid of it asap 🤣

Inside was:
Tualeron 1100,Asus TUSC mobo,hfs,psu,floppy and asus cd drive

Aye googling says this system calls "ASUS Terminator Tualatin"

Anyway i cleared all shits away in and out,threw in pair sticks of sdram,upgraded cpu up to 1400 Tualeron,put in 80gb hdd,an audigy with front panel and installed *temporary* XP Sp3

Got an Asus barebone with the TUSC myself, nice little system with the SiS 630ET chipset. The onboard SiS 7018 sound "card" are actually MS DOS compatible, I even modified the initializer so the Wavetable part can be used in pure DOS. The OPL3 emulation of the "card" are hilarious BTW. 😜

I've been recreating my first PC the last days. 😀

gdjacobs wrote:

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Built a Pentium II Time Machine or abomination to some :lol: […]
Show full quote

Built a Pentium II Time Machine or abomination to some 🤣

Video or it didn't happen!

It happened! Really good video, too.

Tested my SCSI zip-100 drive for the first time ever, since I found it in a dumpster around 2012/13.
It is working flawless, and is the first time ever, that I have seen ZIP drives working in real life.

Then I changed the capacitor on my ET6000. Some of the yellow chips had loose pins, that had
come off the pads, so I had to see if I could fix that too. I fear it did not go so well, as the card
is giving picture, though it is reporting 2mb when booting. Have to look into that in the future.

Then I tested the GF3-ti200-128mb card that I bought this month. Working flawless without
any issues. Clear nice picture, and it can do demo mode and benchmark in 3D-mark99.
The fan was loud as made bad noises, so I peeled the label off, and gave it some oil.
Had it running for a while, and the bad noises went away. Gave it some new cooling paste.

486 is finally finished as of yesterday, got the 128kx8 chips in, 512K on first boot, probably the smoothest part of these final upgrades to this thing. Which means next I can focus on the PURGE more. Just trying to decide weather someone would prefer the Gateway 2000 as a stock "of the period" socket 7 system or if they'd prefer it hopped up with all the PCI insanity including a SoundBlaster Live 5.1 value with the LiveDrive 5.25" bay module + all the other fancy stuff. But I'll deal with that more when I'm done with some other stuff. Also have the same decisions to make about the Dell Dimension 4600 P4 system, esp since I have all the original documents and other crap that came with it.

Next 2 things I'm doing to my vintage machines are VERY simple - V20 and 8087 in the Tandy, which I'm doing this summer, and the 286 is getting it's 2MB RAMpAT card back - whenever I feel like pulling it out and doing that (probably also in the summer).

The 486 with the 512K Cache seems even more faster and stable, ran Quake, comfy now, and I got QuartzAudiomaster Freeware to work with it - which requires a Pentium 90 or better (HEHEHEHEHE) - will do some more test recordings with it and see how well a VLB 486 with adjusted buffer settings can handle it, though control response is not immediate, might try some other Win9x recording apps as well and see how they do - or tinker a bit with a lightweight DAW for Linux - just for giggles. I'm mainly doing this just so I can honestly claim I recorded _____ on a 486 DX4 🤣

Installing the cache chips was pretty simple once I got past bending the pre-bends a little more so they fit the sockets, just something to note about installing brand new DIPs on an older motherboard, and only had to change one jumper.

bjwil1991 wrote:

***NOTE:*** Don't comment about the mess in the background. […]
Show full quote

***NOTE:*** Don't comment about the mess in the background.

I have scored a Packard Bell Pack-Mate 28 Plus, as well as the keyboard and mouse for $17USD a couple of weeks ago, and I did some upgrades, installations, and repairs along the way:

Memory was upgraded to SIMM-72 (disabled internal RAM), but the memory isn't working right and I have the other memory handy since it was previously installed by the original owner
48x CD-ROM Drive is installed
FDD upgraded from 3.5" to dual FDD
Tape drive is in place of the original FDD
External CMOS battery is installed (repair)
Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro is installed
Music Quest MPU401 clone card is installed
Roland MT-32 is hooked up to the MPU401 card
Gravis Analog Pro is installed
HDD was wiped and formatted, then installed MS-DOS 6 and upgraded to 6.22
iLive 2.1 Channel speakers with Bluetooth
IBM ThinkPad is used for making soundtracks from games using the Roland MT-32
Used my NEC MultiSync LCD1530V temporarily, but I'm now using my IBM 2115 CRT Monitor with the cable that was used in the NEC Monitor due to newer cables being shittier with less shielding, causing my CRT screen to turn pink, but no issues any longer.

Specs
Intel i486SX2-50
Packard Bell PB450M+ motherboard
Cirrus Logic VLB Integrated SVGA (upgradeable to 2MB vRAM)
Epson SD-800 Dual FDD
Mitsumi 48x CD-ROM Drive
Seagate 428.1MB HDD (was 210MB)
3Com EtherLink III ISA 10BaseT ethernet (installed by previous owner)
16MB SIMM-72 RAM (planning to use the other memory that was installed in the system)
Conner Tape Drive (max capacity 350MB compressed)
Packard Bell Keyboard and mouse
Gravis Analog Pro
Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro (SB Pro, Speech Thing, and Sound Source capable with a genuine Yamaha YMF262M OPL3 Chipset
Music Quest MPU401 clone card (made by keropi)
IBM 2115 CRT Monitor
Roland MT-32
iLive 2.1 Channel speakers with Bluetooth
Memorex Telex 1201 Dot Matrix Printer (needs ribbon and paper)
Soon: Lo-tech Tandy Compatible Sound Card

I have some pictures down below

Love Packard Bell's dude! Good to see someone else giving one a little love. 😁

I have like 12 (got one more and another monitor after I took this photo) now I think and hopefully that number will keep going up. 🤣

That's a lot of PB.

@king_Corduroy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63UlBsdElsY

I have made a video about the Lo-Tech Tandy Compatible Sound Card (I'm too lazy to crank the volume on my speakers)

Lo-Tech Tandy Compatible Sound Card Demo

The noise in the foreground is the hard drive (old Seagate 428.1MB HDD). I'm planning on upgrading the HDD to an SSD (IDE version), aka, the Disk On Module. Also, here's a picture of my video game station, as well as TV watching, and watching movies using either the TV (and PVM) speaker(s), or the stereo:

Question: is it normal for my Packard Bell to get to POST 10 seconds later than normal with an external clock battery hooked up? And should I solder in a battery holster onto the board where the BR1225 (soldered) battery was at?

I had a productive weekend testing/cleaning/repairing some of the parts I bought more then a week ago. So far I have working:
Motherboards:
- Asus P5A-B rev 1.05
- Soyo 020D2 486 ISA motherboard with 256k cache - Removed barrel battery and cleaned it well
- FIC VIA486HC-HD motherboard with 128kb cache - Changed Bios chip out and works again!
- QD-U486DX motherboard with 256kb cache - Removed barrel battery and cleaned it well.
- PCChips M912i (better known as Amptron DX-6900 V1.7) with 256kb of cache, mobo look great for it's age.
- Unknown 386DX-40 motherboard with ISA slots and 128kb cache - removed barrel battery, still some more cleaning to do but works great.

Graphic Cards:
- Riva TNT (Viper V550) AGP
- Ati Rage 128 AGP
- 2x Trident TVGA9000B ISA 512kb
- Trident TVGA8900 ISA 1024kb
- S3 801 ISA card with 1024kb
- Genoa systems Tseng ET4000AX ISA card with 1024kb
- Unknown Tseng ET4000AX ISA card with 1024kb

Other:
- Sunnyvale I/O card based on a Goldstar Prime 2C chipset (it also has LCS-6624G Rev.W5 on it) which was horrible since no site has the good layout of the jumperblocks like this version 😵
- 16x 1mb FPM sims, all 70ns
- 3x intel 486DX-33
- 1x intel Pentium 100mhz SY007
- 1x intel 486DX2-50
- 4x 4mb FPM sims, 70ns
-1x 128mb SD-ram

Tested but still broken:
- 1x Trident 9000i isa 1024kb - 8x error beeps and no image as well. Tried changing jumpers to no avail. Suspect the Bios chip is bad
- 1x Soyo 025P2 ISA/VLB motherboard with 256kb cache. Removed the barrel battery and the bit of corrosion on the board. Board doesn't give a single beep, cpu and cache heat up after a while and that's it. Under the BIOS chip I found another chip which seems to smoke lightly when power is applied to the board.... 😠 . I actually wanted this board to work since it is such a simple VLB board. Now I will have to use another board outside the Amptron/PCChips for the early VLB cards I have.
- 4x floppy drive, all dead. 3x only spinning motor and no movement of the heads anymore. 1x everything works still can't read any floppy I feed it. 😠 . Will clean the heads and hopefully this helps, otherwise all normal spare drives are dead. The combo 5.25"/3.5" does still work like a charm 😀

I also started sorting some of the cards and cpu's etc I got in my big haul and sofar I identified:
- Fire GL1 32MB AGP card
- S3 Virge card with 4mb AGP
- 2x Voodoo3 3000 AGP
- Terratec Promedia (hard to read, alot of dirt on the card) with daughterboard ISA
- Asus V6800 DDR 32/64M TVR AGP, I guess this is a Geforce 256 with 64mb DDR and tv out
- 3x Intel Pentium 100mhz
- AMD 486DX-66 3v
- Cyrix Cx487s (never saw this one before, need to find a Cx486s to test it)
- 8x 286 from 6mhz till 12mhz so far
- 1x 386 33mhz
- 1x 387

Alot more to sort out but atleast I made a start.

Nvm1 wrote:

- Cyrix Cx487s (never saw this one before, need to find a Cx486s to test it)

Does it have a 486 socket on top of it? I wonder if it works with i486sx...

lazibayer wrote:

Nvm1 wrote:

- Cyrix Cx487s (never saw this one before, need to find a Cx486s to test it)

Does it have a 486 socket on top of it? I wonder if it works with i486sx...

Yes it has, the Cx487s is in the middle of this socket.. 😀