MattRocks wrote on 2026-03-31, 18:58:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-03-31, 18:25:

I honestly haven't seen Windows Me running on a PC since I worked at a repair shop in the early 2000s. I will have to install it […]
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giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-31, 15:50:

I was also able to get this going. As I suspected, taking out the USB card and PC speaker allowed it to boot up just fine. Everything works, including HDD and CD-ROM. 40MB RAM. Windows ME installed, but it's pretty bare. What interests me is it's slow as all hell, now this reminds me of the ME experience I had on my first family PC.

I honestly haven't seen Windows Me running on a PC since I worked at a repair shop in the early 2000s. I will have to install it sometime to remind myself of what it was like. I remember, at the time, actually liking setting up WinMe systems because they had so many more drivers pre-installed compared to Windows 98\SE. We had nifty "shop CDs" (complete with custom interface and disc labels, 🤣) that contained as many of the drivers, runtimes and other things that we needed to set up most computers... but Me systems tended to not need much at all to work.

It's funny how different things were then. Now, the idea of just using whatever old drivers the OS came with (because Windows update didn't automatically update drivers like in later versions) seems weird. Back then, it was like "Hey, these drivers actually work and don't cause a BSOD, potentially requiring an OS reinstall! Use them and then DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!"

... also, 40MB on WinME sounds excruciating! My Gateway with Win98 (first edition) and a PII 400 came with 64MB in early 1999. My brother was running a Pentium 200 MMX with 96MB of EDO back then too. Can't imagine having so little to run Me.

IIRC, WinME was also a lot better at automagically solving IRQ conflicts.

ME is in every way a better OS for 9x games if:

* You don't need to run DOS programs
* Your running a 500+MHZ CPU w/ 128MB+ RAM

Also supports USB Mass Storage devices out of the box.

RetroAddict wrote on 2026-04-02, 19:42:

I was given something a while back which I've only recently got around to testing due to having no nostalgic attachment to Pentium 4 setups at all. Apparently the CPU is quite rare as I can't find any sold listings anywhere to know what I should put it up for if I decide to get rid! I've run xp on it, and with a Sapphire X1950 Pro it was producing some great performance in the 3Dmark Suite and Quake 3! It's a Pentium 4 socket 478 Extreme Edition at 3.4Ghz, the board I believe to be a very average at best, P4i65G.

Also purchased an aopen HX08 complete with fairly average internals, need to work out what to build in that one! 😀

That's the absolute pinnacle of socket 478. I've had that on my search list for ages, but prices tend to be outrageous. Congrats on that one!

Still missing my HX08 too. It was an absolute beauty. Got an HQ08 from a friend, albeit missing one side panel unfortunately.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2026-04-02, 23:11:

MattRocks wrote on 2026-04-02, 13:15:

Are your video drivers enabling BitBlt? […]
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giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-31, 15:50:

What interests me is it's slow as all hell, now this reminds me of the ME experience I had on my first family PC.

Are your video drivers enabling BitBlt?

I just booted the Savage2000 in its original box and no drivers had been installed so WinXP was rendering the entire desktop on the CPU, combing that in RAM, then copying the frames to VRAM. The whole system was terrible unresponsive. WinME might behave similarly with standard VGA driver.

Rather than download and copy driver files over USB, I dropped in a GeForce2Ti that WinXP automatically recognises and the whole system turned snappy.

The Savage2000 is a terrible card. The TnL engine only works somewhat correctly under S3 MeTaL, and its slower than a TNT2 Ultra in a lot of games despite being pitched as a GeForce DDR/Radeon DDR competitor. Generally buggy drivers, and underwhelming performance in DX6 titles as well.

Some of your points are moot because TNT2 Ultra is often faster than early GeForce/Radeon cards in DX6 titles.

But none of that matters because it's a Savage2000!

When it came to sales, FPS is all that mattered and gamers switched off visual effects to maximise FPS. Texture compression was a paper tickbox, not a runtime comparison. I remember GeForce owners saying of their own cards "I can't imagine anything looking better," without having enough modesty to actually compare side-by-side. Attached screenshot is from the academic paper linked.
http://sv-journal.org/2014-1/06/en/index.php?lang=en

Due to low sales, actually comparing side-by-side was near impossible because almost nobody had a Savage2000.

RetroAddict wrote on 2026-04-02, 22:43:

MattRocks wrote on 2026-04-02, 20:27:

RetroAddict wrote on 2026-04-02, 19:42:

Also purchased an aopen HX08 complete with fairly average internals, need to work out what to build in that one! 😀

Oh man, what a coincidence - where did you find that?

On the old bookface marketplace! The case and innards, plus a monitor and a generic keyboard and mouse cost me very little. I had the smaller aopen case back in 2000 but it’s so rare to see anything like that for sale down here I couldn’t resist! I have the seller of your mystery box favourited too 😂

Ah, I don't browse bookface. AOpen cases were very popular ~2000, as were weird public spectacles.

I got these two MX 460 today. I was missing them in my collection and they seemed worth collecting as MX flagship.

The green one is standard MEDION MS-8863, but the red one is a bit odd though. It also seems to be a MEDION card, but the PCB is red, and TV-In function is at the rear I/O, along with TV-out and VGA.

The red one also has a version marking (ver. 210). Now I can't really tell if this is also a MEDION or regular MSI edition... my guess is something in-between. But the one I bought seems to be only one out there. Did anyone encounter such MX460 here by chance?

MattRocks wrote on 2026-04-03, 06:49:

RetroAddict wrote on 2026-04-02, 22:43:

MattRocks wrote on 2026-04-02, 20:27:

Oh man, what a coincidence - where did you find that?

On the old bookface marketplace! The case and innards, plus a monitor and a generic keyboard and mouse cost me very little. I had the smaller aopen case back in 2000 but it’s so rare to see anything like that for sale down here I couldn’t resist! I have the seller of your mystery box favourited too 😂

Ah, I don't browse bookface. AOpen cases were very popular ~2000, as were weird public spectacles.

The second one looks like a pretty bad attempt at Canadian ATI fan build.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2026-04-03, 05:39:

RetroAddict wrote on 2026-04-02, 19:42:

I was given something a while back which I've only recently got around to testing due to having no nostalgic attachment to Pentium 4 setups at all. Apparently the CPU is quite rare as I can't find any sold listings anywhere to know what I should put it up for if I decide to get rid! I've run xp on it, and with a Sapphire X1950 Pro it was producing some great performance in the 3Dmark Suite and Quake 3! It's a Pentium 4 socket 478 Extreme Edition at 3.4Ghz, the board I believe to be a very average at best, P4i65G.

Also purchased an aopen HX08 complete with fairly average internals, need to work out what to build in that one! 😀

That's the absolute pinnacle of socket 478. I've had that on my search list for ages, but prices tend to be outrageous. Congrats on that one!

Still missing my HX08 too. It was an absolute beauty. Got an HQ08 from a friend, albeit missing one side panel unfortunately.

I’ve not seen one listed anywhere to know the value of it, figured I may list on eBay as auction and whatever it goes for it goes for. Perhaps it’ll fund a voodoo card for my socket 7 machine or my p3 build.

Just been given this old tank with box! I really need to invest in some more ide to sd adapters though!

RetroAddict wrote on 2026-04-03, 10:44:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2026-04-03, 05:39:

RetroAddict wrote on 2026-04-02, 19:42:

I was given something a while back which I've only recently got around to testing due to having no nostalgic attachment to Pentium 4 setups at all. Apparently the CPU is quite rare as I can't find any sold listings anywhere to know what I should put it up for if I decide to get rid! I've run xp on it, and with a Sapphire X1950 Pro it was producing some great performance in the 3Dmark Suite and Quake 3! It's a Pentium 4 socket 478 Extreme Edition at 3.4Ghz, the board I believe to be a very average at best, P4i65G.

Also purchased an aopen HX08 complete with fairly average internals, need to work out what to build in that one! 😀

That's the absolute pinnacle of socket 478. I've had that on my search list for ages, but prices tend to be outrageous. Congrats on that one!

Still missing my HX08 too. It was an absolute beauty. Got an HQ08 from a friend, albeit missing one side panel unfortunately.

I’ve not seen one listed anywhere to know the value of it, figured I may list on eBay as auction and whatever it goes for it goes for. Perhaps it’ll fund a voodoo card for my socket 7 machine or my p3 build.

Just been given this old tank with box! I really need to invest in some more ide to sd adapters though!

By my experience, MEDIONs from that era were realy high quality built, and heavy... I have one P4 platform from them, but witout the front panel media thingy... whish I could get my hands on one though.

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-03, 10:51:

RetroAddict wrote on 2026-04-03, 10:44:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2026-04-03, 05:39:

That's the absolute pinnacle of socket 478. I've had that on my search list for ages, but prices tend to be outrageous. Congrats on that one!

Still missing my HX08 too. It was an absolute beauty. Got an HQ08 from a friend, albeit missing one side panel unfortunately.

I’ve not seen one listed anywhere to know the value of it, figured I may list on eBay as auction and whatever it goes for it goes for. Perhaps it’ll fund a voodoo card for my socket 7 machine or my p3 build.

Just been given this old tank with box! I really need to invest in some more ide to sd adapters though!

By my experience, MEDIONs from that era were realy high quality built, and heavy... I have one P4 platform from them, but witout the front panel media thingy... whish I could get my hands on one though.

It's very heavy for what it is for sure! Wish I had the restore media for it because it still has all of someone elses files and business things on there. 1) I don't want to see their private things and 2) it's so bogged down with browser addons and other nastyware that it needs wiping!

Susanin79 wrote on 2024-09-02, 21:33:

Greetings,
Recently bought this nice late 486 motherboard with PCI and VLB cards support ...

Dear Hungarian fellow 😀,

Is there any chance you still have this (PCI450-A) motherboard and would sell it to me? (Or you know who you have sold it to?)
This is an old post, but I would like to try my chances.

I am looking for this a board to add it into my working PC (AMD & ATi) historical collection.
PC No.5 @ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ara32t4rV … nU/edit?tab=t.0
This board (could be) is the only V.I.P board I found to be based on ALi chipset and also support a voltage regulator for 3V CPUs.
Thanks!

With Kind Regards,
Attila

Some usb adapters and the cheapest possible graphic card for a PowerMac 6100.

pete8475 wrote on 2024-11-10, 04:28:

Ordered a couple of things on ebay today. Sellers pics.
PCPartner BXBS3-C930 (AT 440ZX socket 370)
Pentium 3 1GHZ (100MHZ FSB)

Just picked up the same board, 🤣. i am waiting for it to show up and i'll use P3 800MHz that i already have.

I found this at a value village. This image isnt mine but its the exact one. It has the midi interface cable and the disks are still sealed. Might come in handy if I ever find an sound canvas

Got a Thinkpad X41 Tablet. The display and digitizer are in perfect condition, but there are three rusted screws I need to drill out and the baseplate is rubberized and turns into goo.

Not a big problem, but a small challenge. Can't wait to make some paintings with Paint Tool Sai (the pen has pressure sensitivity, so it's more than capable).

Law212 wrote on 2026-04-08, 15:51:

I found this at a value village. This image isnt mine but its the exact one. It has the midi interface cable and the disks are s […]
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I found this at a value village. This image isnt mine but its the exact one. It has the midi interface cable and the disks are still sealed. Might come in handy if I ever find an sound canvas

I believe I have functionally very similar ”hub” from Gravis, and it is indeed handy when using joysticks and extrnal midi equipment. Gravis Midi Adaptor has two joystick, a midi in, out and thru ports and it all plugs into the sound card MPU-401/joystick port.

One Radeon 9700 to complement my Radeon 9700 Pro. Not yet fully tested but it is displaying the POST screen.

One thing I don't like is BGA memory - it fails more than older packaging, and it's a lot harder to replace when it fails.

Give that card a decent airflow and you should be good. The lower clocked BGAs are less prone to failure in my experience on 9700s and 9800s

schmatzler wrote on 2026-04-08, 23:38:

Got a Thinkpad X41 Tablet. The display and digitizer are in perfect condition, but there are three rusted screws I need to drill out and the baseplate is rubberized and turns into goo.

Not a big problem, but a small challenge. Can't wait to make some paintings with Paint Tool Sai (the pen has pressure sensitivity, so it's more than capable).

The attachment x41t.jpg is no longer available

I drew a lot of art on this type of machines, in SAI no less ~

I have a X61t that I want to find 1400x1050 screen for, so that I can retire my Toshiba Tecra M4 for good...

I have got a CM-300 to replace my Dream Blaster. Am quite happy with the beige box, using phones output. It's quite loud, the drums are punchy. Have tried Westwood games, and they sound perfect. It could be the "honeymoon" effect, but some games have changed how they sound for the better - e.g. SSFII sounds much less terrible with General MIDI option selected.

I am also playing around with MT-32 compatibility mode, and that also is quite nice.

Couldn't get anything out of Gods, sadly, but Kyrandia 1 sounds awesome. I have also tried Monkey Island 2 into part and it sounded pretty good, drums showing particularly well during the credits part. Yet to try Inherit the Earth, and see if using SCMODE instead of DreamBlaster package for mode switching could bring, say, explosion sound to Kyrandia intro.

EDIT:
It came as a bit of a surprise for me that one needs at least a somewhat decent MIDI port on the sound card to have any luck with the device.
For example, I could not use my CM8738 with stock drivers nor Opti-924 on the other machine to drive it, and that's for "GM" games.
Using CM8738 with VSBCMI "just works" for more recent games, but MPU-401 UART mode emulation is so thin, older games that expect an MT-32 do not work (e.g. Gods would abandon MPU-401 initialization, hence my observation above).
On the other hand, YMF744 worked exceptionally well - I got music in Gods, Midwinter II and Subwars 2050, all set to MT-32 music in their configuration.
Had no luck with CSMODE.EXE with either of the cards, SOFTMPU or not...

MattRocks wrote on 2026-04-02, 11:22:

After my happy discovery of a Savage2000 in a mystery box that I'll be keeping, I bought another mystery box with no expectations at all.

It can contain no rare surprise and I bought it for the case... because someone in my family "lost" the side panels of my original AOpen HX-08.

Now I'll have to wait and see if there's a surprise reason to not transplant my original K6-2 into this: Caps not blown? No missing RAM? No noisy CPU fan? No other excuse to not swap the motherboards? ...

Just a follow-up on my investigation into these mystery boxes. I must stress the two mystery boxes are from different sellers.

First seller was a guy who allowed me to collect from his house - it was a one off, and he threw in extras that he didn't want. I got lucky on the rare graphics card, but I'm a bit of graphics card nut so knew it was going to be something unusual.

The second seller is a business - the case of the second arrived already opened and closed. On one hand the seller of the mystery boxes claims they never open the cases, leaving us to infer it cannot be their fault the AGP cards are consistently missing. The seller provided listing photos showing the case cleanly shut. Yet, what arrived is a case that had clearly been opened (and painfully closed again) leaving me no doubt the case is busted.

Literally. Busted.

What was inside? QDI with shot capacitors - I think it's a VIA ProSavageDDR KM266 for AthlonXP. The CPU cooler looks new with no dust. The 300W Mercury PSU might be suitable for my i430TX. The case is suitable for my AliV5, albeit more dented than it was in the seller photos. There's a ... there isn't much. It's an ATX case.