A serial connection and laplink is an easy way to move files from another machine to this one. Or if you use cf, then just pop it out and put files on the card on a modern machine via some sort of USB adapter. Even if you use a DOM or ide HDD, I suppose you could readily pop off the case, unplug it and connect that to a modern machine via an ide USB cable for use with old ide HDDs on modern systems, to say nothing about burning CDs and moving stuff over via CD. Since you probably also have pci slots on your motherboard, they sell cheap pci cards with USB ports on them that can be configured in win 95 or 98 to recognize USB thumb drives as external storage. One of my PCs right now uses a 2gb DOM and the USB ports via pci on win 98 basically allow me to extend that out to 100+GB via a small thumb drive that I can easily ferry between my modern PC and the old PC.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-02-12, 21:17:

For a 1995-era system, maybe. For a 1997-era system (which is what OP is now going for), there are better options.

Ah, I missed that OP switched to PMMX. The nVidia is great, if your motherboard supports it. For some reason I haven't been able to find a Socket 7 motherboard that works with my nVidia cards.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2025-02-12, 22:55:

For some reason I haven't been able to find a Socket 7 motherboard that works with my nVidia cards.

What sort of issues are you having with nVidia cards and Socket 7 mbs?

Sounds like it could be ALi Aladdin V vs TNT2 issues. Could you specificy exactly which boards and cards?

I've only ever seen AGP issues with So7 and nVidia, and those were usually fixable with correct chipset drivers.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-02-12, 23:11:

keenmaster486 wrote on 2025-02-12, 22:55:

For some reason I haven't been able to find a Socket 7 motherboard that works with my nVidia cards.

What sort of issues are you having with nVidia cards and Socket 7 mbs?

Just that all of my S7 motherboards seem to be incompatible with them somehow, refusing to boot and beeping (all parts involved verified working in other machines and with other cards). I never really thought it was because they were nVidias, though, just that it had something to do with them being too new. I haven't looked too far into it.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2025-02-13, 03:19:

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-02-12, 23:11:

keenmaster486 wrote on 2025-02-12, 22:55:

For some reason I haven't been able to find a Socket 7 motherboard that works with my nVidia cards.

What sort of issues are you having with nVidia cards and Socket 7 mbs?

Just that all of my S7 motherboards seem to be incompatible with them somehow, refusing to boot and beeping (all parts involved verified working in other machines and with other cards). I never really thought it was because they were nVidias, though, just that it had something to do with them being too new. I haven't looked too far into it.

Are they PCI only mobos? It's a known issue, even PCI Nvidia cards rely on motherboard chipsets that know how to handle agp instructions, early/mid socket 7 mobos use chipsets predate agp and cant handle the instructions.

*Some* cards work, I found a Taiwanese MX 440. I figure it's because Taiwan was poorer and there was more incentive to extend the lifespan of older hardware.

Gennadios wrote on 2025-02-13, 03:44:

Are they PCI only mobos? It's a known issue, even PCI Nvidia cards rely on motherboard chipsets that know how to handle agp instructions, early/mid socket 7 mobos use chipsets predate agp and cant handle the instructions.

*Some* cards work, I found a Taiwanese MX 440. I figure it's because Taiwan was poorer and there was more incentive to extend the lifespan of older hardware.

Ah yes, that would be the issue. I don't think I have any PCI+AGP S7 motherboards.

I have seen issues with later nVidia PCI cards (e.g. GeForce FX series) not working with older motherboards. Riva 128 PCI cards seem to work fine.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-02-13, 03:56:

I have seen issues with later nVidia PCI cards (e.g. GeForce FX series) not working with older motherboards. Riva 128 PCI cards seem to work fine.

Correct, the issue extends through the nvidia line from TNT2 onward.

As a bit of extra trivia, theres a modern board called the ITX-Llama that's running into the same issues, it technically has an AGP slot but in practice it's more of an overclocked PCI and post-Riva Nvidia cards absolutely refuse to run on it. Nvidia requires the full implementation of AGP, there's no half-assing it.

Hi again everyone, resurrecting this thread a bit as I'm almost done acquiring all the parts and have one last question. The system part list is now almost fully complete and looks like this:

MOBO: Asus P/I-P55T2P4 Rev 3.10 Socket 7 board
CPU: Pentium MMX 233 Mhz
GPU: nVidia Riva 128
SOUND: Yamaha Audician 32 Plus w/OPL3-SAx
RAM: 64 MB EDO RAM - can be reduced to 32 MB if compatibility becomes an issue
HDD: Patriot Burst Elite 120GB SSD w/StarTech IDE to SATA adapter
DRIVE1: Phillips PCA408CD CD-ROM Drive - new old stock
DRIVE2: Samsung SFD-321B Floppy Drive - new old stock
PSU: Corsair CX450M ATX w/AT adapter
OS: Windows 95 - physical OEM copy

So, one LAST little issue, the mouse. The desk I will be setting this up at, already has a Windows XP and a WIP Win98 PC setup via KVM switch. They both share the same CRT monitor and PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse. I am intending to add this new Win95 PC to that same KVM switch. The issue is, whilst my board DOES have a PS/2 mouse header, I can not for the life of me find a correct breakout bracket for it.

SO, I have a plan B for this, but due to my lack of experience and knowledge around Serial, I wanted to check with you all. Because I DID find Serial Breakouts that I could connect to the Serial COM headers on the motherboard, I was thinking of just getting those and then connecting my PS/2 mouse via a PS/2 to Serial adapter to the Serial port connected to the Serial header of the motherboard.

Question is simple, can I expect this to work out of the box? Like, plug and play? Or can I at least expect to be able to MAKE it work with a little keyboard-only setup? Thanks!

furyanwolf wrote on 2025-02-28, 15:31:

Hi again everyone, resurrecting this thread a bit as I'm almost done acquiring all the parts and have one last question. The sys […]
Show full quote

Hi again everyone, resurrecting this thread a bit as I'm almost done acquiring all the parts and have one last question. The system part list is now almost fully complete and looks like this:

MOBO: Asus P/I-P55T2P4 Rev 3.10 Socket 7 board
CPU: Pentium MMX 233 Mhz
GPU: nVidia Riva 128
SOUND: Yamaha Audician 32 Plus w/OPL3-SAx
RAM: 64 MB EDO RAM - can be reduced to 32 MB if compatibility becomes an issue
HDD: Patriot Burst Elite 120GB SSD w/StarTech IDE to SATA adapter
DRIVE1: Phillips PCA408CD CD-ROM Drive - new old stock
DRIVE2: Samsung SFD-321B Floppy Drive - new old stock
PSU: Corsair CX450M ATX w/AT adapter
OS: Windows 95 - physical OEM copy

So, one LAST little issue, the mouse. The desk I will be setting this up at, already has a Windows XP and a WIP Win98 PC setup via KVM switch. They both share the same CRT monitor and PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse. I am intending to add this new Win95 PC to that same KVM switch. The issue is, whilst my board DOES have a PS/2 mouse header, I can not for the life of me find a correct breakout bracket for it.

SO, I have a plan B for this, but due to my lack of experience and knowledge around Serial, I wanted to check with you all. Because I DID find Serial Breakouts that I could connect to the Serial COM headers on the motherboard, I was thinking of just getting those and then connecting my PS/2 mouse via a PS/2 to Serial adapter to the Serial port connected to the Serial header of the motherboard.

Question is simple, can I expect this to work out of the box? Like, plug and play? Or can I at least expect to be able to MAKE it work with a little keyboard-only setup? Thanks!

Just get a generic PS/2 mini-din header. If you look on the side you'll see metal. There's a plastic clip you need to lift and the wire will slide right out. You can then re-key it to match whatever you need.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/391942848851

Here's your motherboard manual
https://archive.org/details/manuallib-id-2539155/page/19/

Here's the standard port pinout.
https://pinoutguide.com/InputCables/PS2Mouse_pinout.shtml

SScorpio wrote on 2025-02-28, 20:12:

Just get a generic PS/2 mini-din header.

Yea I really wanted to, that exact one in fact but I can't get it shipped to UK via eBay >.< Tried ordering straight from sellers website where it costs like $4 us but the shipping to UK is almost $80 so like ... F.

Unfortunately, no such brackets are available for sale in the UK except like 2 I saw used with a 1x4 pin configuration so I'd still need a 2x4 pinout. Basically, the easy option, just doesn't exist and now that I've done more research and understood that I in fact can NOT do the simple PS/2 to Serial I imagined, my only real options are:
- Build my own PS/2 Breakout port from scratch
- Get a Serial mouse >.<

furyanwolf wrote on 2025-02-28, 22:00:

Yea I really wanted to, that exact one in fact but I can't get it shipped to UK via eBay >.< Tried ordering straight from seller […]
Show full quote

Yea I really wanted to, that exact one in fact but I can't get it shipped to UK via eBay >.< Tried ordering straight from sellers website where it costs like $4 us but the shipping to UK is almost $80 so like ... F.

Unfortunately, no such brackets are available for sale in the UK except like 2 I saw used with a 1x4 pin configuration so I'd still need a 2x4 pinout. Basically, the easy option, just doesn't exist and now that I've done more research and understood that I in fact can NOT do the simple PS/2 to Serial I imagined, my only real options are:
- Build my own PS/2 Breakout port from scratch
- Get a Serial mouse >.<

It's just a 2x4 way dupont connector, those exist on UK eBay.

Or just go the jank route. Get the mini din that has the 1x4 or 1x5 connector. Rewrite the three wires that are next to each other, and just leave the the last wire floating and plug it in.

Rewiring is very easy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-InoAbkNVdQ

Get the serial mouse. Trust me, you do not want to have to try to make a PS/2 mouse work on a serial port.