PcBytes wrote on 2023-10-19, 23:37:

Good ole C600 getting some 2k treatment 😀

Planning to get BWC's extended kernel in there so I can add Java 7 or 8.

I remember testing Oracle Java U231 and Azule Java zulu8.54.0.21-ca-jre8.0.292-win_i686 with kernelex on Windows 98 back in 2021 so should be good with BWC on 2000.

For Oracle Java IIRC Java 8 U152 is the last ver that I tested on 2000 with BWC, can't remember if I installed it or just copied over the installed files though.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-10-20, 01:46:

Modified my 1995 Pentium 133 build by swapping out the AWE64 and GUS Extreme and replacing with 1995 era-appropriate AWE32 and G […]
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Modified my 1995 Pentium 133 build by swapping out the AWE64 and GUS Extreme and replacing with 1995 era-appropriate AWE32 and GUS ACE.

Also needed to swap the motherboard in the process as the previous one would not accommodate the AWE32's length.

Pentium 133 new sound cards.jpg

Pentium 133 new sound cards 2.jpg

Yeahhhh! The #1 bit of old HW I regret not hanging on to is my GUS ACE. IMO it's the prefect way to do GUS - an addon that provides only as much GUS as you need, in handy addon form!

Sorry for the double-post but anyway, this is a biggie for me. 🥴

I recently decided to try and teach myself how to solder, with absolutely no prior experience. My first project was to rewire a DB9 serial jack, which facilitated a recent build of mine. For my second soldering thingie, I decided to swap an ATX power connector from a board that didn't need it to a board that was fitted for, but not with

So, how did things go...

So far so good-ish:

My solder job on the recipient board. I'd say I was stingy with the solder all-round, not just with the obvious pins. I'm guessing the gauge of my solder (23/0.025") is a little small for those chonky ATX connector vias. And also, I need to build some muscle memory for feeding solder consistently. 😉

A lil crooked..

Oh well, it works! It works!!

I can def say that I've leveled up with this. 😎

🤫 p.s. the donor board still works (but it's a 440EX 🤢)

DosFreak wrote on 2023-10-20, 01:57:

PcBytes wrote on 2023-10-19, 23:37:

Good ole C600 getting some 2k treatment 😀

Planning to get BWC's extended kernel in there so I can add Java 7 or 8.

I remember testing Oracle Java U231 and Azule Java zulu8.54.0.21-ca-jre8.0.292-win_i686 with kernelex on Windows 98 back in 2021 so should be good with BWC on 2000.

For Oracle Java IIRC Java 8 U152 is the last ver that I tested on 2000 with BWC, can't remember if I installed it or just copied over the installed files though.

To be honest, the version of JRE 8 doesn't really matter whether it's update 2xx or anything like that in my case.
I have one of those desktop companion apps that will send a small character on the screen (shimeji-ee) that requires Java 8 (and XP specifically, but that's where BWC's extended kernel comes into play.)
I have found a "2K SP4 Final 2011" disc that incorporates most updates + unofficial SP5, which makes my work magnitudes easier - most of the stuff BWC's kernel requires is there already.
On that same note, I wonder if one of the Beetle Ju game builds I have ( 1.8 ) does run on it, as I remember it throwing KERNEL32 errors on anything less than XP.

ubiq wrote on 2023-10-20, 03:27:

Sorry for the double-post but anyway, this is a biggie for me. 🥴 […]
Show full quote

Sorry for the double-post but anyway, this is a biggie for me. 🥴

I recently decided to try and teach myself how to solder, with absolutely no prior experience. My first project was to rewire a DB9 serial jack, which facilitated a recent build of mine. For my second soldering thingie, I decided to swap an ATX power connector from a board that didn't need it to a board that was fitted for, but not with

So, how did things go...

So far so good-ish:
IMG_6025.jpeg

My solder job on the recipient board. I'd say I was stingy with the solder all-round, not just with the obvious pins. I'm guessing the gauge of my solder (23/0.025") is a little small for those chonky ATX connector vias. And also, I need to build some muscle memory for feeding solder consistently. 😉
IMG_6026.jpeg

A lil crooked..
IMG_6028.jpeg

Oh well, it works! It works!!
IMG_6029.jpeg

I can def say that I've leveled up with this. 😎

🤫 p.s. the donor board still works (but it's a 440EX 🤢)
IMG_6030.jpeg

it could be a trick of the light, but on that Soyo motherboard the capacitor just above the CMOS battery appears to have a domed top. The one just to the left of the diagnostic card also appears to be bulging.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-10-20, 13:19:

ubiq wrote on 2023-10-20, 03:27:

Sorry for the double-post but anyway, this is a biggie for me. 🥴 […]
Show full quote

Sorry for the double-post but anyway, this is a biggie for me. 🥴

I recently decided to try and teach myself how to solder, with absolutely no prior experience. My first project was to rewire a DB9 serial jack, which facilitated a recent build of mine. For my second soldering thingie, I decided to swap an ATX power connector from a board that didn't need it to a board that was fitted for, but not with

So, how did things go...

So far so good-ish:
IMG_6025.jpeg

My solder job on the recipient board. I'd say I was stingy with the solder all-round, not just with the obvious pins. I'm guessing the gauge of my solder (23/0.025") is a little small for those chonky ATX connector vias. And also, I need to build some muscle memory for feeding solder consistently. 😉
IMG_6026.jpeg

A lil crooked..
IMG_6028.jpeg

Oh well, it works! It works!!
IMG_6029.jpeg

I can def say that I've leveled up with this. 😎

🤫 p.s. the donor board still works (but it's a 440EX 🤢)
IMG_6030.jpeg

it could be a trick of the light, but on that Soyo motherboard the capacitor just above the CMOS battery appears to have a domed top. The one just to the left of the diagnostic card also appears to be bulging.

I can confirm that they both look domed and need to be replaced.

Welp, they're both done. Took some time to work on my other portable powerhouse, a mighty Gericom Supersonic M6-T.

Left: Dell Latitude C600, running Win2k SP4 with BWC extended kernel.
Right: Gericom Supersonic M6-T, running 98SE + KernelEX 4.52.

Interesting notes:

- Dell still holds a charge - not sure how I can get the battery recelled - IIRC it's NiMH?
- Gericom is literally a powerhouse - desktop VIA chipset (694T) as well as desktop Tualatin P3 @ 1200MHz. I wish I was kidding. Mobo OEM'd by FIC btw!
- 98Plus bootscreen is actually cobbled together by me, from 3 different versions - RTM, Plus! and the Beta 2.1/Beta 3 bootscreen (hence why you see the MSIE tag)

Finally - specs on both machines:

Dell Latitude C600:
- P3 Coppermine 1GHz socket 495
- ATI Mobility M3 (aka Rage Mobility 128 I think) 8MB
- 2x256MB PC100
- 40GB Hitachi IDE HDD
- Win2k Pro SP4 w/ BWC extended kernel, USP5 and all known updates
- 1024x768 screen (unfortunately, would've loved to have the bigger 1400x1050 or the HUEG 1600x1200 screen on it but eh)

Gericom Supersonic M6-T
- P3 Tualatin 1.2GHz PGA370
- ATI Mobility M6 (aka Radeon VE/7000) 16MB
- 2x256MB PC133 (factory)
- 60GB WD IDE HDD
- Win98SE w/ KernelEX 4.52, NUSB3.6
- similar 1024x768 screen

One of my favourite boards came with crappy OST caps which weren't up to the task even brand new.

So I spent the day re-capping with nichicon polymers.

Makes it look more like a modern-ish gigabyte board haha!

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-10-20, 16:16:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-10-20, 13:19:

ubiq wrote on 2023-10-20, 03:27:

Sorry for the double-post but anyway, this is a biggie for me. 🥴 […]
Show full quote

Sorry for the double-post but anyway, this is a biggie for me. 🥴

I recently decided to try and teach myself how to solder, with absolutely no prior experience. My first project was to rewire a DB9 serial jack, which facilitated a recent build of mine. For my second soldering thingie, I decided to swap an ATX power connector from a board that didn't need it to a board that was fitted for, but not with

So, how did things go...

So far so good-ish:
IMG_6025.jpeg

My solder job on the recipient board. I'd say I was stingy with the solder all-round, not just with the obvious pins. I'm guessing the gauge of my solder (23/0.025") is a little small for those chonky ATX connector vias. And also, I need to build some muscle memory for feeding solder consistently. 😉
IMG_6026.jpeg

A lil crooked..
IMG_6028.jpeg

Oh well, it works! It works!!
IMG_6029.jpeg

I can def say that I've leveled up with this. 😎

🤫 p.s. the donor board still works (but it's a 440EX 🤢)
IMG_6030.jpeg

it could be a trick of the light, but on that Soyo motherboard the capacitor just above the CMOS battery appears to have a domed top. The one just to the left of the diagnostic card also appears to be bulging.

I can confirm that they both look domed and need to be replaced.

Yes yes, well spotted, it was a very sad motherboard that I stole that ATX connector from. 😅Point was that I didn't further ruin it with my novice soldering attempts. Anyway yeah, recapping things is my obvious next soldering adventure!

Today I've been going through some of my laptops and taking inappropriately fancy / large CF cards out of ones that only see rare usage. I realised as well that I've barely used my T2150CDT since I got it - I gave it a 720MB regular Toshiba hard drive and I hated the noise it made, so wanted to put a CF card in it but it's tough to get a CF card into the narrow space from the side.

So I decided to update my CF card adapter models to have the screw holes for older 2.5" hard drives, that allows an adapter like this to be screwed into place:

This design is pretty cool since I can leave the adapter screwed into place all the time, which is somewhat structural on this T2150CDT. The CF card has some tape on it so it can be pulled out without dismantling the laptop further than removing the clip-on plastic cover for the hard drive at the side.

Updated the toploader and mini designs so they can all make use of the older style 2.5" hard drive mount screw locations:

Time to release these on someplace like thingiverse / printables now the design is to a point I'd call finished.

PcBytes wrote on 2023-10-20, 22:01:

Left: Dell Latitude C600, running Win2k SP4 with BWC extended kernel.

Ah, 2K-tan wallpaper with ME-tan and XP-tan. 😄

PcBytes wrote on 2023-10-20, 22:01:

Gericom Supersonic M6-T - P3 Tualatin 1.2GHz PGA370 - ATI Mobility M6 (aka Radeon VE/7000) 16MB - 2x256MB PC133 (factory) - 60GB […]
Show full quote

Gericom Supersonic M6-T
- P3 Tualatin 1.2GHz PGA370
- ATI Mobility M6 (aka Radeon VE/7000) 16MB
- 2x256MB PC133 (factory)
- 60GB WD IDE HDD
- Win98SE w/ KernelEX 4.52, NUSB3.6
- similar 1024x768 screen

Geez, that's a crazy op laptop, wow nice

dormcat wrote on 2023-10-21, 03:39:

PcBytes wrote on 2023-10-20, 22:01:

Left: Dell Latitude C600, running Win2k SP4 with BWC extended kernel.

Ah, 2K-tan wallpaper with ME-tan and XP-tan. 😄

I'm slightly surprised you didn't point out the Gericom having a Kronii wallpaper 🤣

DeathRabbit679 wrote on 2023-10-21, 04:08:

PcBytes wrote on 2023-10-20, 22:01:

Gericom Supersonic M6-T - P3 Tualatin 1.2GHz PGA370 - ATI Mobility M6 (aka Radeon VE/7000) 16MB - 2x256MB PC133 (factory) - 60GB […]
Show full quote

Gericom Supersonic M6-T
- P3 Tualatin 1.2GHz PGA370
- ATI Mobility M6 (aka Radeon VE/7000) 16MB
- 2x256MB PC133 (factory)
- 60GB WD IDE HDD
- Win98SE w/ KernelEX 4.52, NUSB3.6
- similar 1024x768 screen

Geez, that's a crazy op laptop, wow nice

Thanks. I hoped I would have gotten a Latitude C610 to take its place (i830 chipset + WiFi doesn't sound so bad) though I guess the Gericom/FIC combo works better due to allowing 370 chips. I wonder if it takes a 1.4 Tualatin though.

Good morning,

I am new here. So hello @all.

Today I am reinstalling Windows 98 SE on my current retro computer. I found it a few weeks ago on my university's electronic junk. Before reinstalling the OS, I had tried running CrystalDiskMark 2.0 on the previous installation of Windows 98 SE, but I got a runtime error when I started it. Does anyone have any idea what update I need to install to fix the problem?

Greetings from germany and have a nice weekend!

I ran diagnostics on a Conner 30084E 84MB hard drive from 1992. It was basically loose inside a baby at case that got its front panel broken in multiple places during shipping, so it must have suffered a LOT of rattling and shock. To my utter shock it was in 100% working and error-free condition. This is my first Conner drive, and I am really impressed.

Hahahaha, impressive indeed. I have had nothing but trouble with Conner drives, all of the few I have had were generating new bad sectors every time I did a scan on them.

JF_Sebastian wrote on 2023-10-21, 10:31:

Good morning, […]
Show full quote

Good morning,

I am new here. So hello @all.

Today I am reinstalling Windows 98 SE on my current retro computer. I found it a few weeks ago on my university's electronic junk. Before reinstalling the OS, I had tried running CrystalDiskMark 2.0 on the previous installation of Windows 98 SE, but I got a runtime error when I started it. Does anyone have any idea what update I need to install to fix the problem?

IMG_20231021_121621_HDR.jpg

Greetings from germany and have a nice weekend!

what was the runtime error?

JF_Sebastian wrote on 2023-10-21, 10:31:

Good morning, […]
Show full quote

Good morning,

I am new here. So hello @all.

Today I am reinstalling Windows 98 SE on my current retro computer. I found it a few weeks ago on my university's electronic junk. Before reinstalling the OS, I had tried running CrystalDiskMark 2.0 on the previous installation of Windows 98 SE, but I got a runtime error when I started it. Does anyone have any idea what update I need to install to fix the problem?

IMG_20231021_121621_HDR.jpg

Greetings from germany and have a nice weekend!

Welcome to Vogons. 😀
If you want, you can update your installation with legacyupdate.net
All software libraries will be updated and missing ones will be installed. Maybe it'll run after that.

Tried and failed to get this ASUS P/I-P55TP4 to POST.

Verified voltages with a POST card, tried a couple PSUs anyway. Tried a few different (proven on other systems) CPU/RAM combos. Dumped the BIOS and flashed it with the only version I could find online. Tried it with the dead Dallas RTC in, removed, and with a Necroware replacement. Couldn't find an exact manual online, but the jumpers don't seem too terribly complicated. Resorted to trial and error... finally gave up. This one is beyond my limited abilities. 🫤

It's a little older than things I usually work on, maybe there's something obvious I'm missing?

One obvious mistake people tens to make is not to populate both simm slots of bank 0.