Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-01-29, 18:44:

- Tested 2 IDE to CF adapters on my 486. One of the adapters (Delock, bought locally) works fine and is detected by the BIOS. The other adapter (cheap Aliexpress) works on a more modern computer but the 486 doesn’t auto-detect the disk (with the same CF card)

Try that on non working CF adapter:
posting.php?mode=quote&f=46&p=1230150
Re: "Fixed" 386sx motherboard works but not with 16-bit VGA card
Its not defective, just fully ATA compliant. 486 was pre ATA standard and using that on ISA bus screws up a lot of things fron not working drive to screen corruption.

I recently started running local ads where I offer to come pick up people's "80's and 90's" era computers or parts, for free, no matter the condition to keep them from going to the landfill.

I attempt to clean/repair what I can, strip suspected good components off what I can't fix to use as spare parts, and properly recycle the leftovers.

Got a cool offer today...

I have a variety of old Mac/Apples and IBM/CLONES ... and a great many 3.5 Disks and OS's I am willing to put your way.

I just have to wait for the guy to gather it all up as they seem to be scattered around his parents home. Will be interesting to see if it pans out.

Wish me luck! 😀

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-01-29, 18:44:

Is it an Asus K7M?

Its an ABit AB-VT6X4

The PS/2 is now on OS/2 2.11. It's somewhat more manageable now, and even has working sound after installing the Multimedia addon, but I'm finding myself a bit disappointed that I no longer have a pure DOS environment that I could potentially use for games. Part of me wants to redo everything with two partitions to allow for gaming, while another part of me thinks that it's all a bit too troublesome for something that will require $130+ for an actually useful sound card that can properly play some games.

BetaC wrote on 2024-01-30, 06:15:

The PS/2 is now on OS/2 2.11. It's somewhat more manageable now, and even has working sound after installing the Multimedia addon, but I'm finding myself a bit disappointed that I no longer have a pure DOS environment that I could potentially use for games. Part of me wants to redo everything with two partitions to allow for gaming, while another part of me thinks that it's all a bit too troublesome for something that will require $130+ for an actually useful sound card that can properly play some games.

Why not do a DOS/OS2 dual boot with Warp 3?

After years i'm redoing the electrical work and cooling system in my 9800 XXL pc, i took the occasion to add a hole for a frontal intake fan and also to make the system look cooler i went for an ATI color look but instead of white and red i went for red and gray.

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-01-30, 00:01:

Try that on non working CF adapter: posting.php?mode=quote&f=46&p=1230150 Re: "Fixed" 386sx motherboard works but not with 16-bi […]
Show full quote

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-01-29, 18:44:

- Tested 2 IDE to CF adapters on my 486. One of the adapters (Delock, bought locally) works fine and is detected by the BIOS. The other adapter (cheap Aliexpress) works on a more modern computer but the 486 doesn’t auto-detect the disk (with the same CF card)

Try that on non working CF adapter:
posting.php?mode=quote&f=46&p=1230150
Re: "Fixed" 386sx motherboard works but not with 16-bit VGA card
Its not defective, just fully ATA compliant. 486 was pre ATA standard and using that on ISA bus screws up a lot of things fron not working drive to screen corruption.

Thanks for the info, I read trough a couple of forum posts and it's more clear now! On my particular system i ended up using an IDE to SATA converter in the end, more in-depth tests will be for another time.

Today I spent literally 6h "wasting" my time installing Windows on my Nexgen Nx586 system. I was at a point where I could start the Windows 95 or 98SE setup and it would then freeze at the very beginning of the installation process. I tried about everything possible...changing HDDs (native IDE, SATA with adapter, SATA SSD with adapter, CF...), every possible BIOS option that could vaguely be related to an issue like this etc etc...

It turns our that the whole time, the problem was the Matrox Mystique I used...just 10 minutes ago I switched to an ATI 3D Rage Pro (seen a hint on that on a vogons post) and if fu***ng WORKS now. Windows 98SE is being installed.

Sometimes I really hate old hardware quirks.

And now I really need a Nx586 with FPU...

appiah4 wrote on 2024-01-30, 08:06:

BetaC wrote on 2024-01-30, 06:15:

The PS/2 is now on OS/2 2.11. It's somewhat more manageable now, and even has working sound after installing the Multimedia addon, but I'm finding myself a bit disappointed that I no longer have a pure DOS environment that I could potentially use for games. Part of me wants to redo everything with two partitions to allow for gaming, while another part of me thinks that it's all a bit too troublesome for something that will require $130+ for an actually useful sound card that can properly play some games.

Why not do a DOS/OS2 dual boot with Warp 3?

I've chosen to go with a 3 partition setup with W95/DOS 6.22+Win3.1/OS2 2.11. Given how specific the machine is, I wanted to go with something close to what it would have shipped with, for once.

StriderTR wrote on 2024-01-30, 03:48:

I recently started running local ads where I offer to come pick up people's "80's and 90's" era computers or parts, for free, no […]
Show full quote

I recently started running local ads where I offer to come pick up people's "80's and 90's" era computers or parts, for free, no matter the condition to keep them from going to the landfill.

I attempt to clean/repair what I can, strip suspected good components off what I can't fix to use as spare parts, and properly recycle the leftovers.

Got a cool offer today...

I have a variety of old Mac/Apples and IBM/CLONES ... and a great many 3.5 Disks and OS's I am willing to put your way.

I just have to wait for the guy to gather it all up as they seem to be scattered around his parents home. Will be interesting to see if it pans out.

Wish me luck! 😀

That's a genius move, well thought!

And good luck on the haul 😁

Got myself recently yet another motherboard. I deliberately went for one with leaking battery corrosion. Wanted to experience cleanup process. Also this one is from quality maker QDI and it supports 3v CPUs even with "undocumented" 3x and 4x multipliers. Cleanup went rather smoothly. White vinegar did the trick mostly however while it removed "Green Stuff" from contacts I can clearly see metal discoloration with last ISA slot . Not sure how reliable contact it will make. So now I probably need to replace this one along with broken casing one next to it.

All in all another MB rescued.
It does have rather old BIOS. Not going to fool around with UV light erasing approach. If I'm getting this correctly then I can use compatible empty eprom chip. I can flash it with my recently purchased T48 universal programmer. I just need to figure out replacement eprom specs. Another first for me...

The IBM is done, for now at least.

It's successfully booting Windows 95, complete with sound coming through the ultimedia speaker on the front panel, OS/2 2.11, and even has a completely non-setup DOS 6.22 partition for when I eventually have a need for a very slow 486 and want to much around with trying to spend way too much on sound blaster compatibility. That and figuring out why the SCSI drivers from IBM don't like seeing the IBM CD Drive. Now back to my regularly scheduled farting around inside way too many upgraded macintoshes and my Clone.

wait... DONE? that's a thing?

luckybob wrote on 2024-01-31, 23:13:

wait... DONE? that's a thing?

Done with an asterisk. It's never truly done, just no longer a focus 🤣.

BetaC wrote on 2024-01-31, 23:00:

The IBM is done, for now at least.
IMG_2936.jpg
It's successfully booting Windows 95, complete with sound coming through the ultimedia speaker on the front panel, OS/2 2.11, and even has a completely non-setup DOS 6.22 partition for when I eventually have a need for a very slow 486 and want to much around with trying to spend way too much on sound blaster compatibility. That and figuring out why the SCSI drivers from IBM don't like seeing the IBM CD Drive. Now back to my regularly scheduled farting around inside way too many upgraded macintoshes and my Clone.

That is a lovely looking machine! Well done. 😀

I attempted a repair of a Voodoo 2 12mb card a few years back - missing capacitor and a bunch of broken legs on a TMU. Really happy with the solder work, but I thought I broke it during the repair because even though it would detect, the drivers and games would crash immediately. I stashed them as a souvenir and thought that maybe one day in the future I'd be a better repairman and fix.

I decided to finally pull it out of the box after seeing a few videos of repairs, using the mojo.exe voodoo diagnostic tool. I got the mojo tool running and it was reporting 2 TMUs, FBI, 4mb frame buffer, 8mb memory. For laughs I installed some drivers, rebooted, nothing was crashing. Loaded up the a game and the damn thing worked. Testing it in about 5 games, I couldnt see any fault. Hell yeah, my first Voodoo 2! Great success. Although a little funny that it's been fixed for 3 years and I didn't know until I tested it in a different machine... 🤣

I'm going to put it in my P2 400 / asus p2b / tnt 16mb rig for that authentic 1998 experience.

luckybob wrote on 2024-01-31, 23:13:

wait... DONE? that's a thing?

Yah, considering PS/2 machines complete with the MCA cards, drives, planar and CPU they arrived with is the path to sanity 🤣 🤣 🤣

H3nrik V! wrote on 2024-01-31, 05:09:

StriderTR wrote on 2024-01-30, 03:48:

I recently started running local ads where I offer to come pick up people's "80's and 90's" era computers or parts, for free, no […]
Show full quote

I recently started running local ads where I offer to come pick up people's "80's and 90's" era computers or parts, for free, no matter the condition to keep them from going to the landfill.

I attempt to clean/repair what I can, strip suspected good components off what I can't fix to use as spare parts, and properly recycle the leftovers.

Got a cool offer today...

I have a variety of old Mac/Apples and IBM/CLONES ... and a great many 3.5 Disks and OS's I am willing to put your way.

I just have to wait for the guy to gather it all up as they seem to be scattered around his parents home. Will be interesting to see if it pans out.

Wish me luck! 😀

That's a genius move, well thought!

And good luck on the haul 😁

Thanks!

So far, I think they've managed to find an IBM 5150, 5170, with at least one monitor, and what looks like a couple iMacs and Power Macs from the late 1998-2000'ish.

Going to be fun taring into them and getting what I can up and running again. Will keep me busy for a while. 😀

Having 10k RPM fun with a Raptor and a Cheetah. Gosh, that sounds funny!

To be exact - I'm downloading off HD Sentinel to check up on how well do the 10Ks will fare speed wise.
One is an WD Raptor 74GB over a SATA2IDE adapter I originally bought for an Xbox (which ultimately fell through as the adapter was slow on the Xbox but fast on the dual Coppers).
The other is a SCSI 68pin Seagate Cheetah ST336607LW

I am doing retro web development, reminding the struggling days with the browser wars (Netscape vs IE). Yes, I am a masochist.

But doing it now with all the knowledge I acquired in 25 years is absolutely much more easier now. I am developing a simple page with three column layout, header and footer (no tables) and it works awesomely well. So well that when I was testing on Windows 95 Internet Explorer, I thought it was IE 5.0 till I checked the version... the page still displays great even on IE 4.0 !

As for Netscape 4.x... forget it Netscape 4.x at that moment was snubbing CSS in favor of their own standard (JSSS). They later regretted it and went to the use the CSS standards from NN6 onwards.

Page displays great with old CSS style code even on RetroZilla and modern browsers. Next challenge is to make it responsive so it can work on smartphones as well.