Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2025-09-21, 10:11:

Is there a sftware version of this thread? Because I regularly buy old pc software (games yes) on flea markets.

Bought these (retro) software/OS today

We love pictures too.

I didn't buy it today, but yesterday I received an Audigy SE that I ordered from eBay for $16 US shipped. It's an otherwise unremarkable card that will play a key role in my i7-9700k Vanilla Windows 2000 retro rocket.

For some reason, Windows 2000 doesn't properly enumerate PCIE-to-PCI bridges in this build including the one for the PCI slot on my Z370 motherboard. I have to resort to a Startech PCIE-to-PCI adapter to use sound cards with EAX 4.0 support (and the adapter only works with Windows 2000 in one particular slot). Full height sound cards don't fit quite right in my case when using the adapter, so I wanted a low-profile sound card that could support EAX 4.0.

My X-Fi Gamer would have been a great candidate because it has hardware EAX 5.0 support, but I discovered that the only Windows 2000 drivers compatible with the X-Fi only support OpenAL (not EAX). That was quite a disappointment. Low-profile brackets for the X-Fi are also difficult to obtain.

That left me with the Audigy SE as one last option. I can honestly report that the Windows XP applications and driver version 512 for the Audigy SE install properly on Windows 2000 (which I downloaded from Vogon's driver library). Driver version 512 only provides EAX 3.0 support. I next installed driver version 608 meant for Windows XP manually because the setup program requires Windows XP. Driver version 608 does support EAX 4.0, which I successfully tested in Doom 3.

I know that the Audigy SE only handles EAX in software, but I seriously can't hear any difference. I would worry about CPU utilization on other builds, yet the Rightmark Sound benchmark only reports a max CPU utilization of a bit over 2.5% on my i7-9700k. I think I can live with that given I now have a much cleaner build in the case.

I also ordered a low-profile bracket from China for $14 US shipped. I guess that brings my total cost for the card up to $30 US.

If anyone knows of a PCIE soundcard that supports EAX 4.0 and compatible with Windows 2000, I'd love to hear about it. I've got a fair size collection of sound cards now thanks to my search for Windows 2000 support.

There's a pretty good chance you can just copy the driver from xp.
If necessary install xp to see what inf it needs.

More than likely, it will simply be pci.inf and all the required files will be listed in there.

The jump from 2k to xp wasn't that big, so it had a fair chance of working.

myne wrote on 2025-09-21, 18:06:

There's a pretty good chance you can just copy the driver from xp. If necessary install xp to see what inf it needs. […]
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There's a pretty good chance you can just copy the driver from xp.
If necessary install xp to see what inf it needs.

More than likely, it will simply be pci.inf and all the required files will be listed in there.

The jump from 2k to xp wasn't that big, so it had a fair chance of working.

True. In the Audigy SE case, the file is P17.INF. I read the INF file from driver version 608, and it lists Windows 2000 and Windows XP in the header. I don't often read too much into the headers though because I think a number of manufacturers used the same base INF file over an over with each release yet they often didn't remove out of sate information in the header.

Regardless, I was happy to see (or actually, hear) that the newer driver meant for Windows XP did in fact function properly in Windows 2000 when installed via the Device Manager. That isn't always the case.

myne wrote on 2025-09-21, 18:06:

There's a pretty good chance you can just copy the driver from xp. If necessary install xp to see what inf it needs. […]
Show full quote

There's a pretty good chance you can just copy the driver from xp.
If necessary install xp to see what inf it needs.

More than likely, it will simply be pci.inf and all the required files will be listed in there.

The jump from 2k to xp wasn't that big, so it had a fair chance of working.

Or were you talking about the PCIE bridge issue? In my case, I think it's a combination of using the MPS HAL in Windows 2000 and the motherboard's BIOS not fully listing resources in MPS mode. I really wish a new ACPI driver existed for Windows 2000 like the one developed for Windows XP. I've been tracking progress on other forums, but it doesn't seem like anyone has gotten one to work consistently with Windows 2000. ACPI would probably allow Windows 2000 to enumerate the bridges properly (Windows XP does on the same motherboard) and then I could use my Audigy 2 ZS.

"ALL MOTHERBOARDS ONE DOLLAR" Now, THAT is an offer I can't pass up! They will all be broken this time, perhaps? I made my choices:

ASUS A8N32-SLI - Unknown CPU, Zalman cooler.

ASUS A8N-SLI PREMIUM - Unknown CPU, solid copper cooler.

ASUS M2N-E SLI - Unknown CPU, stock cooler

ASUS K8V-X SE - Unknown CPU, solid copper thermaltake cooler

ABIT AB-IS7 - Unknown CPU, stock cooler

MSI 845 Ultra-C v1 (MS-6566)

ECS K7S5A - Unknown CPU, stock cooler

SOYO SY-K7V Dragon PLUS

FIC SD11

ABIT AB-BE6-II

I'll be cleaning, inspecting, and possibly testing a few of these today.

Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-09-21, 19:08:

"ALL MOTHERBOARDS ONE DOLLAR" Now, THAT is an offer I can't pass up! They will all be broken this time, perhaps? I made my choic […]
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"ALL MOTHERBOARDS ONE DOLLAR" Now, THAT is an offer I can't pass up! They will all be broken this time, perhaps? I made my choices:

The attachment 20250921_133505.jpg is no longer available

ASUS A8N32-SLI - Unknown CPU, Zalman cooler.

ASUS A8N-SLI PREMIUM - Unknown CPU, solid copper cooler.

ASUS M2N-E SLI - Unknown CPU, stock cooler

The attachment 20250921_134006.jpg is no longer available

ASUS K8V-X SE - Unknown CPU, solid copper thermaltake cooler

ABIT AB-IS7 - Unknown CPU, stock cooler

MSI 845 Ultra-C v1 (MS-6566)

The attachment 20250921_134131.jpg is no longer available

ECS K7S5A - Unknown CPU, stock cooler

SOYO SY-K7V Dragon PLUS

FIC SD11

ABIT AB-BE6-II

The attachment 20250921_134818.jpg is no longer available

I'll be cleaning, inspecting, and possibly testing a few of these today.

AWESOME!

The coolers alone make this a steal of a deal, regardless of whether anything else works.

I went for a slight road trip to give my new trucklet a run, ended up at a thrift where I got an Intel sandybridge board, a DP67DE not sure that's a retro piece or not yet. Came with a GT620 on it. I guess I shouldn't complain, it could have been another HD5430.

I seem to be getting a weird number of Intel brand boards stack up, IDK if it's all the local folks bought, or whether it's a survivorship bias thing.

Spotted something else. If you are in search of a Sun Microsystems Ultra 5 pizzabox system unit with keyboard and mouse, they've got one at the Welland Ontario Value Village, or did at 1:30pm today. It's in the behind the counter area and price tag looked like $125. Didn't see it close. Seemed to have floppy and CD drives. Those ones I think take PC standard peripherals so shouldn't bee too hard to put a HDD and NIC in if you need to.

fosterwj03 wrote on 2025-09-21, 18:46:

Or were you talking about the PCIE bridge issue? In my case, I think it's a combination of using the MPS HAL in Windows 2000 and the motherboard's BIOS not fully listing resources in MPS mode. I really wish a new ACPI driver existed for Windows 2000 like the one developed for Windows XP. I've been tracking progress on other forums, but it doesn't seem like anyone has gotten one to work consistently with Windows 2000. ACPI would probably allow Windows 2000 to enumerate the bridges properly (Windows XP does on the same motherboard) and then I could use my Audigy 2 ZS.

There is a patched XP ACPI for 2000 here on this discord - discord.gg/HD4fTkrhQZ

as part of the dev-test ISOs. Automatic CPU throttling is broken though, so you need a 3rd party tool to not have your CPU run at full power all the time.

Duffman wrote on 2025-09-22, 02:35:

fosterwj03 wrote on 2025-09-21, 18:46:

Or were you talking about the PCIE bridge issue? In my case, I think it's a combination of using the MPS HAL in Windows 2000 and the motherboard's BIOS not fully listing resources in MPS mode. I really wish a new ACPI driver existed for Windows 2000 like the one developed for Windows XP. I've been tracking progress on other forums, but it doesn't seem like anyone has gotten one to work consistently with Windows 2000. ACPI would probably allow Windows 2000 to enumerate the bridges properly (Windows XP does on the same motherboard) and then I could use my Audigy 2 ZS.

There is a patched XP ACPI for 2000 here on this discord - discord.gg/HD4fTkrhQZ

as part of the dev-test ISOs. Automatic CPU throttling is broken though, so you need a 3rd party tool to not have your CPU run at full power all the time.

Thanks! I don't have a Discord account, but this might make it worth getting one.

Trident 4DWAVE-DX

Picked up a bundle with an NEC ND-3500A DVD-Burner and random assorted of cables.

Abit BX133-RAID

I had one before, bought defective and severely damaged. The traces to the IDE/PATA connectors can easily get a scratch or even being cut when one doesn't carefully handle this board. It is repairable, but the traces are too thin and placed too close to each other. Here is my lack of soldering skills coming in once more.

Duffman wrote on 2025-09-22, 02:35:

fosterwj03 wrote on 2025-09-21, 18:46:

Or were you talking about the PCIE bridge issue? In my case, I think it's a combination of using the MPS HAL in Windows 2000 and the motherboard's BIOS not fully listing resources in MPS mode. I really wish a new ACPI driver existed for Windows 2000 like the one developed for Windows XP. I've been tracking progress on other forums, but it doesn't seem like anyone has gotten one to work consistently with Windows 2000. ACPI would probably allow Windows 2000 to enumerate the bridges properly (Windows XP does on the same motherboard) and then I could use my Audigy 2 ZS.

There is a patched XP ACPI for 2000 here on this discord - discord.gg/HD4fTkrhQZ

as part of the dev-test ISOs. Automatic CPU throttling is broken though, so you need a 3rd party tool to not have your CPU run at full power all the time.

Holy smokes! It works! The ACPI driver from December 2024 boots into Windows 2000 on my Z370 motherboard and it allows Windows to enumerate all of the PCIE bridges. And now my real Audigy works in the board's lone PCI slot.

You're right about the throttling. The first CPU core seems to vacillate between 800 MHz and 4.6 GHz, but that core seems to maintain 4.6 GHz under load. I'll have to do some benchmarks to see if that impacts performance much.

I wonder why the folks on Discord haven't cross-posted this new driver to the MSFN forums?

I might be a filthy liar, might not have a GT 620, might be a 520, label not clearly printed, it's on a P1310 board, which might mean if it is a 620 it's still a 520, or worse.... or is it better? IDK, if it was full 620 it would have Fermi core and 96 of them, but if it's 520 based it's Fermi 2.0, but only got 48...

Also I dyslexed up the number or something for the AMD comparo was meaning HD5350 or HD6350... but at the low end of expectations this one will only be a hair above the "full power" 6450. .. I was hoping it was gonna get past my HD4670 at least. Apart from my K620, IDK why all my slot power PCIes all seem to cluster around that performance point of good enough for Sims and GTA3, maybe CS:GO but not a lot else. Though most of these I do not acquire by sober deliberation, they just kind of turn up with other things. I think the only time I bought one singly was when I paid a buck for a HD6450 when I didn't have any mid PCIe at all.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-09-19, 22:12:

BetaC wrote on 2025-09-17, 19:27:

I continue to add "that's strange" things to my collection, and today it's yet another odd 486...

The attachment IMG_5418.jpg is no longer available

...an effective 486 on Socket 5. Yeah. A first generation IDT Win Chip 200. I'll probably never use it seriously, but I'm happy to have it regardless.

Does it have correct multiplier mapping to select x3 on socket 5? Iirc Socket 5 only did 1.5 and 2?

[Edit] doesn't look so https://www.pchardwarelinks.com/cpuspeed.htm

Yeah, It's pretty milquetoast.

Bought this arcade machine (without cabinet) made by Quantum 3D https://hydro-thunder.fandom.com/wiki/Quantum … _Quicksilver_II

Inside enclosure is Intel bx440-II board with Celeron 333 and just this Obsidian 2 PCI Voodoo2 without any 2D card (?), on HDD found strange
some sort of embedded system ( no gui, no windows folder, 3 partitions FAT, just game exe and some sort of save games or something like that).
Game won't boot, just hangs and nothing happens.

Obsidian Voodoo was tested and I can't make it work in 3D applications whatever drivers used (tried win98 and winxp) .
Will play with it few days. Maybe is some sort of incompatibility with motherboard I'm using... will try another one (P1 or P2).

Motherboard from the cabinet still is not tested.

Retroplayer wrote on 2025-09-21, 09:21:

Yes. The one with Windows CE. […]
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Yes. The one with Windows CE.

266mhz K62
32mb of RAM
16MB flash
Compactflash card slot (bootable)
Terrible 800x600 LCD display
Modem (no ethernet built in)
4 USB ports. No legacy ports

Information out there about modding is a bit sparse now after 25 years, so I am probably going to have to figure out a bunch on my own now.

I am also not really sure what I want to do with it. Way back then, I wanted to turn it into a nice little system for running graphic adventure games. But I ended up with a Virgin Webplayer instead for that purpose.

Reason for buying: Bit of nostalgia and the form factor is just cool IMO.

Check the links at the bottom of https://oldcomputer.info/terminal/clipper/index.htm

So I wanted cheap MIDI for the AST Adventure 575 I picked up. This is what the eBay gods have bestowed upon me. $26 USD shipped for a well regarded MIDI device.

Seems to be a slightly modernized Ensoniq VIVO-90 with no external ports. But that's fine, the AST 575 has an integrated ESS AudioDrive I can just loop this thing into the line-in of (or failing all else directly highjack its 3.5mm jack with a bodge wire). Its a Gateway OEM card from a Gateway Destination2000 according to the seller.

Does anybody know what the pin outs are for this? I am assuming that IDE-ish connector up top contains all the missing audio jacks. I'm hoping the lone connector on the top left is the optical drive audio connector.

to3cutter wrote on 2025-09-23, 07:43:

Bought this arcade machine (without cabinet) made by Quantum 3D https://hydro-thunder.fandom.com/wiki/Quantum … _Quicksilver_II […]
Show full quote

Bought this arcade machine (without cabinet) made by Quantum 3D https://hydro-thunder.fandom.com/wiki/Quantum … _Quicksilver_II

Inside enclosure is Intel bx440-II board with Celeron 333 and just this Obsidian 2 PCI Voodoo2 without any 2D card (?), on HDD found strange
some sort of embedded system ( no gui, no windows folder, 3 partitions FAT, just game exe and some sort of save games or something like that).
Game won't boot, just hangs and nothing happens.

Obsidian Voodoo was tested and I can't make it work in 3D applications whatever drivers used (tried win98 and winxp) .
Will play with it few days. Maybe is some sort of incompatibility with motherboard I'm using... will try another one (P1 or P2).

Motherboard from the cabinet still is not tested.

If its a HydroThunder unit it should be running an embedded version of Windows 9x, and the hardware is strictly commodity x86 hardware with no special programming beyond the OS.

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … 0bx-2-seattle-2

That should be the motherboard it has. These things were notorious for cooking every component of the machine though, so the fact the GPU has seemingly failed wouldn't exactly be a mind blowing revelation.

A metal box, inside a wooden box with a giant CRT, subject to all the additional vibration a sitdown arcade machine experiences. I can't really think of a more demanding environment for a PC to live in.