MRVFONE wrote on 2021-04-30, 05:00:

The Dell CP series are great dos laptops. Also the Libretto's are great for dos as well.

T.

The Latitude CP line are not all good DOS machines.
Only the CPM and CPiD, which has the Crystal CS4237B would qualify. The CPiA/CPiRs are Neomagic AC97 only, and the CPx models are ESS Maestro/Allegro based (no ESFM hardware support).

I was ONLY talking about the "CP" serires. Not CPXXX. So the M233ST etc...

MRVFONE wrote on 2021-04-30, 07:08:

I was ONLY talking about the "CP" serires. Not CPXXX. So the M233ST etc...

Those are all considered CP series machines (because, you know, they all contain CP in their names and use the same C-series bays and accessories), and technically, the CPM and the CPiDs are the same exact chassis - same motherboard, GPU, RAM type, all that. You can in fact swap MMC1 CPU modules and go from the Pentium MMX to the PII Mobile easily with the use of the TR4 BIOS and turn them from CPM to CPiD with about 5 minutes of work and 2 BIOS flashes (one to TR4 and one away from TR4). And yes, I did that many years ago and it was a practical way to buy a CPM on the cheap and then upgrade it to a Dixon-128 Celeron later for a very decent CPiD class machine.

You wouldn’t believe how many people come into Vogons asking for help on DOS audio support on CPs that turn out to be either CPiA or CPiR even though it was mentioned time and again that only the first 2 and the last machines in the CP series have full DOS audio support. It’s almost like NO ONE uses that search function before they post questions.

Guys, I ordered HP COMPAQ T5700 and WYSE Vx0 V10LE so I can check if it's SBPro compatible (I hope so) just tell me how. 😁

haker120 wrote on 2022-05-09, 12:04:

Guys, I ordered HP COMPAQ T5700 and WYSE Vx0 V10LE so I can check if it's SBPro compatible (I hope so) just tell me how. 😁

Did you manage to try the thin clients ??

Is anyone tried SBEMU yet ?

Biomecanoid wrote on 2023-05-10, 22:04:

haker120 wrote on 2022-05-09, 12:04:

Guys, I ordered HP COMPAQ T5700 and WYSE Vx0 V10LE so I can check if it's SBPro compatible (I hope so) just tell me how. 😁

Did you manage to try the thin clients ??

Well, not yet, I just got tired of thin client for Win9X. Too much of a hassle for me.

Prez wrote on 2023-05-11, 08:22:

Is anyone tried SBEMU yet ?

Yep, works with HP T5730 😀

Prez wrote on 2020-04-22, 08:29:

Please feel free to comment, or ask for modifications of this document, that i hope will be useful for people like me who were wondering what cheap computer to buy to play MS-DOS games natively with sound 😉

I've got an HP t5530 and can give you details missing from HP's spec sheet to fill out an entry for it in the "not compatible" section.

Brand: HP
Name/model: either "t5530", "t5530 64F/128R", or "HSTNC-002L-TC", depending on which half of the sticker the seller believed to be more authoritative and how they interpreted it.
CPU: 800MHz VIA Eden (Not sure whether that's a C3 or C7 part. Wikipedia doesn't distinguish.)
RAM: 128MB (shared with the GPU, resulting in 112MB listed in Win98SE)
SB Pro compatible: No (AC'97 only)
ISA port: No
PCI port: No
Bootable Media: IDE, USB (including CD/DVD drives), or Netboot
Remarks: ...but good for Win98SE (graphics comparable to GeForce 4 according to PassMark)
On internet: https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hp/t5530/

Mine was sealed new old stock if anyone has any further questions they want answered.

Here's what lspci running from Damn Small Linux sees:

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge 00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN7 […]
Show full quote

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT890 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. UniChrome Pro IGP (rev 01)

I believe the AC'97 audio is from a VT8237 because I put SBEMU on my "to try" list and I don't see VT8235 support listed for SBEMU, but I forget how I arrived at that conclusion and I haven't confirmed it yet.

EDIT: The SBEMU FreeDOS 1.3 boot disk crashed to nonresponsive text-mode garbage when I flashed it to a USB stick, booted from it, and tried to run the copy of Skunny Kart I keep on the hard drive for use in DOSBox . No clue if that's a FreeDOS thing or a "SBEMU isn't compatible enough with something in this setup to be worthwhile" thing.

EDIT 2: Yeah, it's not just FreeDOS... "Fatal exception at ... in Ring 0" when I try to use Skunny Kart and SBEMU in MS-DOS Mode.

For anyone who decides to go with it anyway as a Windows 98SE machine, you'll also want a replacement Apacer 44-pin disk-on-module off eBay since the one that comes in it is 64MB. (I'm running an 8GB DoM in it and taking advantage of how I don't notice any appreciable sluggishness from having "minimal install" games loading most of their data off ISOs over a 100Mbit network link via Windows File Sharing and DAEMON tools.)

The drivers I'm running on Windows 98SE are:

• via_rhine_ndis5_v384a.zip (NIC driver. The rest becomes much simple once you can just set Samba to allow old auth methods and load everything else you need to install from a network share.)
• Nusb36e.exe (Again, it's useful to be able to continue the install process from a USB flash drive as plan B. Also, required for the next thing on the list.)
• x360c.w98.x86.en.zip (Xbox 360 gamepad drivers. 'nuff said.)
• cn700_win9x_16-01-23-24.zip, (VIA/S3G UniChrome Family Graphics. Contains VT3314_Win9X_16-01-23-24_wIShld.zip)
• Vinyl_AudioCodec_V650a.zip (WDM-based. I'm told the VXDs impart better SoundBlaster Pro emulation to Win98's Virtual DOS Machine than the Microsoft implementation all WDM drivers were encouraged to share, but I also saw people talking about increased crashing and I didn't want to experiment to see if they just picked the wrong choice between the multiple VXD-based revisions on VIA's website when I'm primarily nostalgic about Windows 98SE and DOSBox seems to run fine on it in place of using the native virtual DOS machine.)
• via_hyperion_4in1_v456v.zip (Chipset drivers. More of an "I'm told to add these and they don't seem to hurt anything".)
• dgVoodoo1.50Beta2.zip

The VIA drivers are from VIA's own driver download portal, grabbed just this January 2024.

Note that, when using NUSB as your USB drivers, you'll get a fatal error 0E if you're using a USB keyboard or mouse and unplug while the machine is powered on. (So, if you want to KVM it, either get a switch that emulates a permanently connected set of input devices to eliminate hotplug delays rather than one that just works as a fancy switcher or use a PS/2 KVM switch.)

You'll at least need a PS/2 keyboard during the install to check "don't tell me again" and close the Windows 98SE dialog about no mouse being found so you can install the USB drivers.

Also, I'm not sure if this is specific to this device or something I just never ran into as a teenager because I had a Voodoo 3 3000 PCI, but, if Future Cop L.A.P.D. dies on startup, it's probably because you forgot to run its 3D setup utility and switch from software rendering to Direct3D. (Ignore the "Our test team has never heard of your GPU. We cannot be held responsible for what happens"-style warning.)