CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-03-22, 20:49:

I got few ram sticks for my IBM PS/2 model 35sx project and decided to try them out. One 4MB wasn't apparently of correct type, it didn't pass the check correctly and with setup diskette it at one point thought it was 8MB, but one 8MB and one 4MB worked without a hitch so I now have 14MB, 2MB shy of the maximum. 14MB is completely overkill already, so no harm done.

But damn that memory check at the power on now takes time. It was slow with 4MB, but now it is ridicilously slow: it takes about 1 minute before that bad boy gets to even thinking about booting 🤣

Haha, with a 20Mhz 386 you might get a more noticeable performance increase by removing some RAM so it starts up faster. 🤣

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-03-22, 20:49:

I got few ram sticks for my IBM PS/2 model 35sx project and decided to try them out. One 4MB wasn't apparently of correct type, it didn't pass the check correctly and with setup diskette it at one point thought it was 8MB, but one 8MB and one 4MB worked without a hitch so I now have 14MB, 2MB shy of the maximum. 14MB is completely overkill already, so no harm done.

But damn that memory check at the power on now takes time. It was slow with 4MB, but now it is ridicilously slow: it takes about 1 minute before that bad boy gets to even thinking about booting 🤣

Got the same problem on a 386DX/25. But I can press the ESC key to cancel the memory test during power on and it will boot directly to DOS. Maybe it works for you too?

Ever accidentally leave an AMIBIOS on slow memory count, tick tick tick, arrrgh ESC, bzzzp, done. Yah recent IBM genetics board I'm dealing with is being a choosy beggar for memory, and also needs esc hitting by the time you're on the 2nd boot of the day and ran out of patience.

Still digging for stupid little bits. Earlier found three 3.5 floppy fronts, tried them against first 3 faceless horror floppy drives that were around, and not one of them fit any, you'd think some probability math would help you out sometimes, seemed like a birthday problem kinda deal where ONE would match. Still got a couple of drives to try them on though. Then got into a box of drives that needed re packing because the box is saggy/deformed. Found stuff I completely forgot I had, like a Zip 100 drive, Wang SCSI tape drive, External modem, and a nice solid front 5.25 faced 720kb 3.5" floppy drive, though that don't show up too well. Then in the vaguely aware I had them category is the big chungus 3.5 IDE drives, making a Quantum Prodrive 40AT sammich between 2 LXT213AT Maxtors. Now those are the height of a "half height" 5.25 bay, and I've heard them called "full height" for 3.5 but I always thought it was 2/3 height, and "normal" 3.5s were actually half height... whatevs my brevs... thing is you're gonna need a hella lot of 3.5 bays in your full tower to get all of them in it.

Ah, and we get to "fairly sure I had" the hoard of type 17 goodness, CP3044s and ST351s. I think I need to keep the CP3044s spare for my Sharp PC-4600 beastie, which is making odd HDD noises these days, especially when I forced it to play CGA Wolfenstein, which was maybe a little too much excitement for the old girl. I have an eye on the 351s because I've got one of those ST-05x IDE controller boards that was commonly part of a hardcard, so I'm plotting making a couple of rails and replicating a hard card setup with a 351 to stick in my 5155 Portable PC.... at some point... when I've sorted out it's squiffy monitor. Less exciting and unpictured were some 130MB connor and seagate and 450 I wrote bad blocks on, which maybe ain't in the best state if it works... might torture it with spinrite to see what happens... make an excess data overflow drive for non LBA systems maybe.

I've Installed a Canopus Pure3D Voodoo1 into a Tualatin system with which I can lower the CPU speed from 1.26GHz to 633MHz. All higher clocked Pentium III's were still too fast at 66MHz FSB, and the card would lock up at game initialization. For no reason, other than I don't want to use them, I am avoiding software slowdown utilities. Anyway, I'm trying to cover all the games I play from 1993-ish to 2002-ish with this system. Battle Arena Toshinden is one of the prerequisites. The Pure3D runs fine at 62MHz (it has fans mounted and an external fan blowing across all of the slots), so Battle Arena Toshinden is getting 60fps.

Yoghoo wrote on 2023-03-22, 21:51:

Got the same problem on a 386DX/25. But I can press the ESC key to cancel the memory test during power on and it will boot directly to DOS. Maybe it works for you too?

This didn’t even cross to my mind! I definitely test this out next time I’m fiddling with the machine. If it can’t be skipped, well, it is what it is. I guess you just need to give these oldies the time they need. We all get slow with age 🤣

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-22, 21:27:

Haha, with a 20Mhz 386 you might get a more noticeable performance increase by removing some RAM so it starts up faster. 🤣

I think you have a valid point there 🤣

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-22, 23:02:

Ever accidentally leave an AMIBIOS on slow memory count, tick tick tick, arrrgh ESC, bzzzp, done. Yah recent IBM genetics board I'm dealing with is being a choosy beggar for memory, and also needs esc hitting by the time you're on the 2nd boot of the day and ran out of patience.

These PS/2s need parity memory, but of course completely standard FPM won’t do. And 60ns memory won’t work. Many regular 36-bit parity FPM and 60ns sticks can be modified to work on these. However, my sticks are proper 70ns PS/2 memory with IBM FRU, but with that one stick system went totally bonkers: on memory check it didn’t read it correctly and in setup it claimed that I have more than 16MB installed when I had actually 4+4+8.

It may be that it just doesn’t like the combination for some reason or something. I didn’t even test that non-functioning RAM if it works only by itself, because after I found out that it caused the problem, there is no way I can get more than 14MB installed with the combination of the sticks I have. Best case scenario would’ve been that 4+4+8. Now I just replaced that one 4MB stick with one 2MB that came with the system and called it a day.

These old IBMs apparently can cause all sorts of shenanigans, starting from the non-functioning proprietary floppy drives, which I fixed first so at least the setup disk can be used to make changes to the system and boot up the machine after CMOS battery runs out…

Dug out a neat combo from my good ole' stash'o parts. K8N, A64 3000+ Newcastle, a heavily upgraded Raidmax RX-500, a 80GB Samsung HD082GJ as well as a 3D Prophet 9700 Pro.

Should make for a nice build. After so much nForce 4 Ultra and nF4 SLi/939 action, it's about time I return to the AGP classics for a bit with the nF3 250/754 combo.

Yoghoo wrote on 2023-03-22, 21:51:

Got the same problem on a 386DX/25. But I can press the ESC key to cancel the memory test during power on and it will boot directly to DOS. Maybe it works for you too?

Nope. IBM seems to really want to make that check no matter how much I smash the keyboard.

It is actually a nice feature when you really think about it:

1. Push power button
2. Go make coffee
3. Pour coffee in mug and return to desk
4. ????
5. PROFIT!!!

I also did some stuff with it: I installed 387SX math co-processor. It was one of “first times” in my life, I’ve never before installed math co-processor before. It was hardly something overwhelmingly awesome, but first time is always a first time 🤣

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-20, 22:15:

Here is an example of the info card I attach. The information is different depending on ISA/PCI/AGP and sound/video/etc. I try to include as much information as possible. All of my CPUs are sorted and labeled as well.

20230320_181411.jpg

But isn't that info reduntant? When the bag is transparent it's clearly visible what's inside... For the graphic adapters it may be a bit more reasonable (as it's not always that obvious especially due to coolers like you pointed out) but info that the sound card has a game port or microphone input (when like 99% of them have them and if not - it's obvious just by looking at the card) - I would say it's a waste of work/time (although I may have a twisted perspective here with like 2000 items in my possesion, half of which I have catalogued). Even if the bag/box wouldn't be transparrent generic ID (or catalogue number, call number) + external catalogue (either paper one or digital database) is way more convenient.

Personally I prefer labeling stuff with as minimalistic labels as possible ie. MB001 (motherboard 001), SC085 (sound card 085) and so on, with just an info if it's OK (and when tested) or if it's Not Tested (which is necessary when testing/re-testing stuff so I don't have to dig in the database), so the label looks like:

SC085
NT

or

MB023
OK 1/23

Rest of the info I store in the database on my smartphone (custom freeform db made with the mementodb app also outputting google spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BdUHw … dit?usp=sharing )

It's waaaay more convenient this way because I don't have to prepare all these complex labels with redundant info (simple marker does the job well), and I simply query the database to obtain necessary info if I for example need to compare some GeForce cards with 64MB of DDR memory.

But well... over 21 years of work in the library IT field does that to your brain (I mean it teaches you how to organize and label things optimally) 😁

PS: Great book about how to perfect your organizing skills is this: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/913 highly recommended for anybody, not just people working in GLAM field!!!

It's not redundant. Creative cards, for example. I want to know which one has a Yamaha OPL3 chip and a DSP without the hanging note bug. It's easy if I read the label. Otherwise I would need to remove the cards from their bags and examine that chips on each one individually.

The bags are translucent, but not enough to clearly or easily read the labels on the chips. It also make sorting them a lot easier.

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2023-03-08, 00:39:

Bit the bullet a few years ago and got me a battery powered one (opolar brand). Looks like this: […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-07, 23:23:

Does it seem to anyone else that air dusters are super crappy the last 5 years? I swear I used to get five 2 second blasts out of any can that still had liquid slosh, then only have to leave it 5 or 10 mins before it was good to do the same again. Now it seems I get pip pip and spitting frost, half hour recovery time, can't blow anything unless you get super accurate first time nozzle placement. Tempted to get one of those powered cup warmer sleeves to keep one in, but they get all capital letters about not heating it or it will take your face off or some shizzle.

Bit the bullet a few years ago and got me a battery powered one (opolar brand).
Looks like this:

Not as powerful as the canned variant ofc, and it obviously cannot spray freezing air.
But its powerful enough, and the battery seems to last forever.
Easily 30 minutes constant running.
No more short bursts, this puppy goes forever =)

pentiumspeed wrote on 2023-03-08, 01:18:

Hurricane brand is wonderful tool to have and we use two of these at work daily for years.

https://canlessair.com/product/x3-hurricane-c … system-260-mph/

Cheers,

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-08, 19:13:

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-08, 19:09:

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-08, 03:40:

I've been using a two speed electric leaf blower for the past 15 years and it works great. I just keep it on it low setting and it get my computer's clean.

For those who don't know, only ever use the blow feature of a vacuum cleaner when near the inside of computer electronics. I read something about static electricity when you use the sucking action.

That being said, I do vaccum the front panels, expansion bays, and fan exhaust areas of computer cases without disassembling them and haven't had any problems.

I do the same with the crevice tool to my front vents if dog hair get built up but that's all. For regular cleaning I use my blower.

I found this at a thrift on the weekend, Coleman brand inflator, tried it in store and it blows hard enough to dimple skin so no weakling. Not sure if it's good old Coleman, or new cheaped out Coleman. ~150W motor, runs off the wall, can feel some torque kick when you switch it on. Warnings not to run it more than 15mins continuous but don't think that will be a problem. Might try finding a nozzle between those two sizes, small one restricts it too much, bigger one is too wide open. Think I'll make a clip/clamp to hold a regular vac hose as a "target" near where what I am dusting is, and aim towards it, hoping it catches most of it. Not sure if I'm gonna want to make this more fancy yet, clamp on a handle somehow, maybe a button trigger. Anyway, seemed powerful enough to give it a try, and wasn't expensive.

Meanwhile I just had to attack that packed dust that prompted the discussion with a bristle brush, air wasn't shifting it.

Fixed an rather classic "ISO" 500PP unit. Rated for 420W but I'd say it's more close to around 380W.

Today I uploaded a video on my Dell 466i and rambled on about it while getting confused by windows 3.11 as I went straight from DOS to windows 95 back in the day.
https://youtu.be/RiKLiMbqu0o

LewisRaz wrote on 2023-03-24, 18:28:

Today I uploaded a video on my Dell 466i and rambled on about it while getting confused by windows 3.11 as I went straight from DOS to windows 95 back in the day.
https://youtu.be/RiKLiMbqu0o

Ive always viewed 3.1 as more of a DOS program masquerading as an OS than an actual OS.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2023-03-24, 18:53:

LewisRaz wrote on 2023-03-24, 18:28:

Today I uploaded a video on my Dell 466i and rambled on about it while getting confused by windows 3.11 as I went straight from DOS to windows 95 back in the day.
https://youtu.be/RiKLiMbqu0o

Ive always viewed 3.1 as more of a DOS program masquerading as an OS than an actual OS.

The only reason to ever have used 3.x was for word processing.

Windows 3.X is an actual OS. Kernel API, user space API, cooperative multitasking, ...

It ain't DOS.

Whatever it is, its not intuitive for someone who has not used it before! 😁

xcomcmdr wrote on 2023-03-24, 22:14:

Windows 3.X is an actual OS. Kernel API, user space API, cooperative multitasking, ...

It ain't DOS.

It aint an OS either, its a GUI extension for DOS.

Windows NT would be the first true Windows OS not requiring MS-DOS to provide the base interface to the hardware.

And yes I will die on this hill.