RandomStranger wrote on 2022-05-24, 14:46:

Thanks!

With NFS5a.dll it's all fixed. Even the frame rate to 65 fps, not ideal for benchmarking, but it's alright. At least it works with a decent frame rate.

You're welcome 😁 Glad I could help.

Played my copy of Planetfall I just picked up on my Tandy 1000. Can tell this games gonna be amazing! Now waiting on new blank disks to arrive so I can back it up and be able to save.

Been playing with a rough ABIT NF7-S2 (the non fun version).
After the usual thorough clean (smokers board, yuck) and recap (most caps were fine, but a few smaller ones were really bad).
I dropped in a Barton 2600+, the 166x11.5 version.
And accidentally booted it at 200MHz fsb.
And to my surprise the chip runs rock stable at 2300MHz, it didn't even need a millivolt extra to do it.
Temperatures also barely reach 40 degrees.
I had no idea the last Socket A CPU's were this o'c friendly, or maybe i got a really good chip =)

Have been playing around a bit with the map editor for Zod Engine, a remake of Z. I didn't get very far, mostly just trying out stuff and options while figuring out how it all works and also figuring out what I want the map(s) to be like.

Just swapped out the very noisy Samsung 2GB HDD from my IBM PC330 for a 2GB CF card. Unfortunately all my other IDE drives are under 1GB or 17GB or higher and it doesn't seem to like them.

Weird though - the HDD activity LED no longer works???

As i just got the Infinity Multipro-9000 machine fully cleaned up and working, i took out the next "disaster" from the cellar. This time a known brand machine. 😀

If i remember correctly, many years ago, when i got it, the PSU did start, but nothing came out from the machine itself - was completely dead.
Wish me luck on bringing this machine to life! 😀

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2022-05-24, 22:03:

Been playing with a rough ABIT NF7-S2 (the non fun version). After the usual thorough clean (smokers board, yuck) and recap (mos […]
Show full quote

Been playing with a rough ABIT NF7-S2 (the non fun version).
After the usual thorough clean (smokers board, yuck) and recap (most caps were fine, but a few smaller ones were really bad).
I dropped in a Barton 2600+, the 166x11.5 version.
And accidentally booted it at 200MHz fsb.
And to my surprise the chip runs rock stable at 2300MHz, it didn't even need a millivolt extra to do it.
Temperatures also barely reach 40 degrees.
I had no idea the last Socket A CPU's were this o'c friendly, or maybe i got a really good chip =)

I suspect everything from 2500+ onwards was OC friendly. I have a 2800 that I might put back into my MSI K7N2-Delta ILSR machine, though not before case swapping it first. (I want to use its actual case for my BE6-II.

Onto the CPU - I have several 2500s (including...a green one, for whatever reason, it's 400FSB as well) and a 2800, both CPUs have gone rather well to 3200 speeds over three different mobos - an ASUS A7N8X-E Dlx, an Epox 8RDA6 Plus and the aforementioned MSI K7N2. The last one's build (K7N2 Delta-ILSR) needs some more finishing touches (especially PSU wise...) but otherwise I'm confident it will OC rather well.

GigAHerZ wrote on 2022-05-25, 14:18:

As i just got the Infinity Multipro-9000 machine fully cleaned up and working, i took out the next "disaster" from the cellar. This time a known brand machine. 😀

If i remember correctly, many years ago, when i got it, the PSU did start, but nothing came out from the machine itself - was completely dead.
Wish me luck on bringing this machine to life! 😀

a challenge! looks plausible for card to ide and some other 'modernisation' to bring the 486 glory

Today I fitted a newly purchased 8MB Fast RAM expansion to my Amiga 1200.

The one I previously had was causing all kinds of issues due to a poor design not making decent contact with the edge connector on the motherboard. I literally used to have to reseat the card several times and bend down slightly, followed by never ever moving the computer. This obviously had to go! 🤣

The new one pictured slotted straight in and without issue.

Whilst I was working on the computer, I took a look at a software issue that was causing WHDLoad to crash to a black screen after loading a couple of different games. The only change I'd made recently was adding the cover images to Tiny Launcher and sure enough with those removed no more crashes. So I think I'll just leave the cover art off for now, it was only a gimmick anyway.

A nice stable Amiga 1200 finally. This RAM expansion should tide me over until hopefully the PiStorm32 gets released at some point in the future.

Testing the new parts i did acquire, as for me is important to see if i got new stuff or scrap..

PTherapist wrote on 2022-05-26, 15:48:

Today I fitted a newly purchased 8MB Fast RAM expansion to my Amiga 1200. […]
Show full quote

Today I fitted a newly purchased 8MB Fast RAM expansion to my Amiga 1200.

amiga-ram.jpeg

The one I previously had was causing all kinds of issues due to a poor design not making decent contact with the edge connector on the motherboard. I literally used to have to reseat the card several times and bend down slightly, followed by never ever moving the computer. This obviously had to go! 🤣

The new one pictured slotted straight in and without issue.

Whilst I was working on the computer, I took a look at a software issue that was causing WHDLoad to crash to a black screen after loading a couple of different games. The only change I'd made recently was adding the cover images to Tiny Launcher and sure enough with those removed no more crashes. So I think I'll just leave the cover art off for now, it was only a gimmick anyway.

A nice stable Amiga 1200 finally. This RAM expansion should tide me over until hopefully the PiStorm32 gets released at some point in the future.

Nice!! Was it hard to find? Seems like parts like that might be super rare.

Had this little number arrive today a Jaton NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 400, nothing super amazing about it other than its a PCI version of the MX400. Going to pull the Zida Tomato board out of storage and run some benchmarks on this to see how it stacks up against a AGP MX400, I'm almost positive that the PCI bus wont hamper it much at all .. if anything the motherboard will be the limiting factor here as the Zida Tomato board is limited to PCI only. Might also test to see if anything changes if I put this PCI card into the AGP board with the 100mhz bus.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-05-27, 03:34:

I'm almost positive that the PCI bus wont hamper it much at all

From my own tests I found that it depends very much on the game. Some show little difference and some like Quake 3 (and any game using that engine) are very bandwidth hungry and will suffer a big penalty.

PTherapist wrote on 2022-05-26, 15:48:

This RAM expansion should tide me over until hopefully the PiStorm32 gets released at some point in the future.

I've a basic A1200 and that's what I've been waiting for too - but I can't see much development of late? I know there are cheap TF030 or even TF060 but the thought of an upgradable, updatable board in an Amiga sound like a lot of fun. I'm currently using an old Apollo LC accelerator max 8MB RAM - it was 25Mhz, but I recently clock chipped it to 33Mhz and it's a good stable board.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-05-27, 03:34:

Had this little number arrive today a Jaton NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 400, nothing super amazing about it other than its a PCI version of the MX400. Going to pull the Zida Tomato board out of storage and run some benchmarks on this to see how it stacks up against a AGP MX400, I'm almost positive that the PCI bus wont hamper it much at all .. if anything the motherboard will be the limiting factor here as the Zida Tomato board is limited to PCI only. Might also test to see if anything changes if I put this PCI card into the AGP board with the 100mhz bus.

s-l1600 (6).jpg

I have a similar card and the PCI bus destroys performance. It was a really bad fit for my Socket 7 systems.

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-05-26, 22:42:

PTherapist wrote on 2022-05-26, 15:48:

Today I fitted a newly purchased 8MB Fast RAM expansion to my Amiga 1200. […]
Show full quote

Today I fitted a newly purchased 8MB Fast RAM expansion to my Amiga 1200.

amiga-ram.jpeg

The one I previously had was causing all kinds of issues due to a poor design not making decent contact with the edge connector on the motherboard. I literally used to have to reseat the card several times and bend down slightly, followed by never ever moving the computer. This obviously had to go! 🤣

The new one pictured slotted straight in and without issue.

Whilst I was working on the computer, I took a look at a software issue that was causing WHDLoad to crash to a black screen after loading a couple of different games. The only change I'd made recently was adding the cover images to Tiny Launcher and sure enough with those removed no more crashes. So I think I'll just leave the cover art off for now, it was only a gimmick anyway.

A nice stable Amiga 1200 finally. This RAM expansion should tide me over until hopefully the PiStorm32 gets released at some point in the future.

Nice!! Was it hard to find? Seems like parts like that might be super rare.

Regular Fast RAM expansions like this are quite common and easy to find, there are loads of different ones available. They're not as sought after, as most people want the more expensive accelerators instead for CPU upgrades & IDE performance boosts etc.

Just have to avoid some of the cheaper hobbyist RAM expansions, as it's a gamble and they can often have poor connectors which wear down quickly and do not make sufficient contact with the edge connector on the motherboard, which was the issue I had with the card I've just replaced.

Nothing for weeks, now.
I need to do some recapping for my mental health! 😀

Byrd wrote on 2022-05-27, 05:09:

PTherapist wrote on 2022-05-26, 15:48:

This RAM expansion should tide me over until hopefully the PiStorm32 gets released at some point in the future.

I've a basic A1200 and that's what I've been waiting for too - but I can't see much development of late? I know there are cheap TF030 or even TF060 but the thought of an upgradable, updatable board in an Amiga sound like a lot of fun. I'm currently using an old Apollo LC accelerator max 8MB RAM - it was 25Mhz, but I recently clock chipped it to 33Mhz and it's a good stable board.

Yeah it has been worryingly slow for a while, there seemed to be lots of development last year but not so much this year.

Worst case scenario, if it's still not out by the end of next year I'll probably have to consider something like the Terrible Fire myself too.

Today's retro activity - disassembling a recently purchased Super Famicom completely and giving it a thorough clean. It was pretty filthy on the outside, but only some mild dust bunnies on the inside.

It's yellowed a bit, but otherwise it looks pretty good. I might try just putting it out in the sun for a few hours each day, when we next get some sunlight here. It takes a lot longer to see results, but it helped a little to brighten both my VIC-20 and Dreamcast.

Tested the IBM PS/2 Model 25 and the head broke off of the original floppy drive when I was attempting to clean it (I was careful).

Last night, I cleaned the Kawai ACR-20 out and it smells better, but the silicone buttons need a deep musty removal and some of the plastic has a faint smell. Also tested it and it's working. Had to put the mounting plates back on the right spot since the unit would glitch out.