I believe the NT kernel always ran headless if no video card is installed.. If the BIOS complains about no VGA you can just set it to halt on no errors and it will proceed to boot. I'm pretty sure this was done since prehistoric times 😀

Trying to understand why Slimjet 38 (the last Win7-compatible version) does not run on my Thinkpad X32 with a fully updated 32-bit Windows 7. It starts and closes without showing the main window. Currently using Pale Moon 34 here, but its web-compatibility wasn't as good last I checked.

dr_st wrote on 2026-08-07, 06:37:

No way! What surprises me is that Windows actually works without a display adapter. What is the ATITool Utility?

That's the driver ATI Tools uses (overclocking etc.). But currently no card is inside.

appiah4 wrote on 2026-08-07, 07:57:

I believe the NT kernel always ran headless if no video card is installed.. If the BIOS complains about no VGA you can just set it to halt on no errors and it will proceed to boot. I'm pretty sure this was done since prehistoric times 😀

I've had that plan many times and done the "no error halt" change a couple of times, but all my previous boards I tested with it for whatever reason refused to boot. So this is my first time where it worked out.

Today, I tried out a new fan on the old heatsink of a GeForce 256 DDR. The whole thing booted once more!

However, MadOnion isn't happy with the drivers (says the ones I have don't support DirectX 7) and there are horizontal brightness/darkness bands consistent with voltage droop in the analog stage. I am 99% sure voltage droop banding only shows on static content. More importantly, I need to find more complete drivers so that I can stress test the VRAM...

Edit: Works with Detonator version 12.41, 05/16/2001. Completed benchmarks with no artefacts.

Edit2: The fan isn't a bad fit, but I do need to source the right sized screws.

Finally got to test the INA226 on my A7N8X with my 12V and the SMBus connector of the A7N8X.

I'm pretty happy with the first iteration of it - it reads the current and voltage nicely and I'll check this weekend if / what calibration is necessary. Then I'll go ahead with the software part of it.

But here it is, a A7N8X that can report it's CPU (incl. VRM) power consumption:

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-08-07, 20:30:

Finally got to test the INA226 on my A7N8X with my 12V and the SMBus connector of the A7N8X.

I'm pretty happy with the first iteration of it - it reads the current and voltage nicely and I'll check this weekend if / what calibration is necessary. Then I'll go ahead with the software part of it.

But here it is, a A7N8X that can report it's CPU (incl. VRM) power consumption:

Very impressive mate! I might have to do that 12v mod to my A7N8X.

I'm looking up the specs and info for Asus P5A-B on TRW. Seems as though I'd need a USB/MIR board for using PS/2 mice.

My only other option would be using serial. Does anyone have a USB/MIR breakout board, or knowledge of the pinouts?

This week, I installed OS/2 Warp 3.0 into its natural habitat, an IBM Thinkpad T41 (retrofitted with a T42 motherboard). As one of the last laptop lines IBM shipped under its branding, IBM actually provided a fair amount of OS/2 support for hardware even in the early 2000s. I managed to get Warp 3 (my personal favorite version of OS/2) installed with functional disk I/O, audio (sound FX only, typical for PCI sound devices), high resolution / high color graphics (4:3 aspect only), gigabit networking, USB 1.1/2.0, and Cardbus slots (plug and play supported). IBM supplied these drivers originally for OS/2 Warp 4.0 and later, but they seem to work just fine in version 3.0.

I didn’t bother with any of the other laptop-type functions for power management and the special function keys since I’m using it in desktop replacement mode. Drivers for that stuff would also likely work, but I don’t have a working battery for my Thinkpad and I doubt I’ll every use it as a mobile again.

Still, I’m always up for a challenge when it comes to retro computing. That’s all part of the fun!

I spent the last couple of days (not straight) trying to get HD Audio bitstreaming working on my Windows XP rig. Conclusion: wild goose chase. Best I could do was Dolby Digital 5.1. Come to think of it, I didn't even try DTS Digital Surround, but no matter. I watch mostly blu-rays and those have DTS-HD Master Audio or TrueHD/Atmos. But I learned a lot of stuff along the way, so that's a win in my book!

Working on setting up a test setup for agp 1x-4x cards as well as a couple different Linux Live USB sticks for testing different eras of cards... So I don't have to bother with Windows and different drivers.

Settled on a KT333 motherboard.

Live Linux USBs will be

Knoppix 3.4 for the older stuff

Slax KillBill 5.1.8 (has wine built in) for not as old stuff

It took quite a bit of doing to find the Slax KillBill. Had to download it via the way back machine.

This is all so I can fully test video cards I don't need before I stick them up for sale (not here of course)

I really, really, really need to clear out a lot of hardware.

I am planning on also posting more stuff in the giveaway thread here very soon.

cyclone3d wrote on Yesterday, 02:15:

Working on setting up a test setup for agp 1x-4x cards as well as a couple different Linux Live USB sticks for testing different […]
Show full quote

Working on setting up a test setup for agp 1x-4x cards as well as a couple different Linux Live USB sticks for testing different eras of cards... So I don't have to bother with Windows and different drivers.

Settled on a KT333 motherboard.

Live Linux USBs will be

Knoppix 3.4 for the older stuff

Slax KillBill 5.1.8 (has wine built in) for not as old stuff

It took quite a bit of doing to find the Slax KillBill. Had to download it via the way back machine.

This is all so I can fully test video cards I don't need before I stick them up for sale (not here of course)

I really, really, really need to clear out a lot of hardware.

I am planning on also posting more stuff in the giveaway thread here very soon.

Nice setup idea 😀 beats running several installs of Windows XP / 98 to test all varieties of cards & drivers. On my P4 testing setup I've got something like 3x cloned Windows XP installs for testing ATI and Nvidia cards, even then it means constantly reinstalling drivers.

Today I've been trying to get a TMC PAT48AV 1.40 motherboard back to functioning and realised how little documentation there is for it - in the end I even had to pull off the bottom 2 30-pin memory slots to get at all the traces that the NICD battery damaged. The most serious one was I think the power good line was broken and -12v was gone. Both now fixed and the board should look close to stock when it's done. I hope it works but the testing is happening tomorrow.

Since I didn't get it with a CPU and it's a 486 mainboard I thought I'd double check the jumpers first and it took some time since the documentation is quite incomplete for this board, the jumper positions are a bit inconsistent and the silkscreening is tiny and frequently broken up by vias. Spent a little while in libreoffice draw marking up all the jumper positions, I think it turned out pretty well:

I'm trying to get to working condition my ibm ps2 model 50.
So far I got disk drive eventually working... metal bars were just stuck and heads wouldn't move freely, after numerous lubrication attempts they seem to slide, for now.
This is my first "working" mca machine so next confusion was what reference disk should I use since the board has processor upgrade installed.
After sorting that out I started chasing adf files for the expansion card, that's where I'm now.
I found "easily" files for Kingston memory expansion and 3com ethernet card, but can't find files for hp scanner card.
Cards fcc id: cmc76z88490
I think it's hp 88490-66501 mca scanner adapter
Of course I don't have the specific scanner for the card, and I'm not going to ever use the card, but I would like to store card inside machine.
Probably I'm not going to find the file and end up storing the card to one of my boxes and never see it again.

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-08-08, 03:19:

I'm looking up the specs and info for Asus P5A-B on TRW. Seems as though I'd need a USB/MIR board for using PS/2 mice.

My only other option would be using serial. Does anyone have a USB/MIR breakout board, or knowledge of the pinouts?

My Asus TXP4 also used one of those but I found it much simpler to wire up a standard PS/2 and USB backplate because of the difficulty of finding that proprietary part. I just checked the manual for your board and it has the pinout.

cyclone3d wrote on Yesterday, 02:15:

Working on setting up a test setup for agp 1x-4x cards as well as a couple different Linux Live USB sticks for testing different […]
Show full quote

Working on setting up a test setup for agp 1x-4x cards as well as a couple different Linux Live USB sticks for testing different eras of cards... So I don't have to bother with Windows and different drivers.

Settled on a KT333 motherboard.

Live Linux USBs will be

Knoppix 3.4 for the older stuff

Slax KillBill 5.1.8 (has wine built in) for not as old stuff

It took quite a bit of doing to find the Slax KillBill. Had to download it via the way back machine.

This is all so I can fully test video cards I don't need before I stick them up for sale (not here of course)

I really, really, really need to clear out a lot of hardware.

I am planning on also posting more stuff in the giveaway thread here very soon.

I love KT333, it is the ultimate universal AGP motherboard IMO. Unfortunately, I can not find one. I used an MSI KT3 for half a decade back in the day, but apparently that chipset was fairly short lived? A lot of KT400s around, but KT333s seem to be gone. Could possibly be due to cap plague as well.

Anyway, I did manage to find a KM266 and I am using that with an AthlonXP 2200+ as my Turbo Voodoo 3 PC 😀

Found drivers for hp card from ardents site.
System wouldn't boot from hardrive so bootet with boot disk. Files were somewhat accessible, I usually wipe without looking drives i get, but this time I wanted to see if there is some rare drivers or programs inside. Couldn't find anything interesting, it has used backpack software to access external hardrive with windows installation.
I think I don't wipe the drive yet, it's on its last legs so there is no point making fresh install on that drive. I'll have to figure out modern solution if I'm going to use the machine. I think there is mca version of the xt-ide card.

Repo Man11 wrote on Yesterday, 06:33:

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-08-08, 03:19:

I'm looking up the specs and info for Asus P5A-B on TRW. Seems as though I'd need a USB/MIR board for using PS/2 mice.

My only other option would be using serial. Does anyone have a USB/MIR breakout board, or knowledge of the pinouts?

My Asus TXP4 also used one of those but I found it much simpler to wire up a standard PS/2 and USB backplate because of the difficulty of finding that proprietary part. I just checked the manual for your board and it has the pinout.

I do have the proprietary board, but it's missing the ps/2 and IR components and the rest of the pins for the connector. Just my luck.

Yesterday, I picked up this Radeon 9000 Pro All-in-Wonder for free locally. (Outlink to Imgur album)

These days you gotta take whatever you can get for AGP as it's hard to justify the modern day asking prices for even low end cards. This one had its fan replaced with one that doesn't fit onto the board's connector, so I'll have to see about hacking in another compatible fan or splicing the connector. Not sure if the fan not plugged in, the GPU itself, or Radeon driver 5.13 under Windows 2000 is causing certain graphics not to display properly. Oh, if y'all have a preferred series of drivers for R200 and Kelvin (under either 9x or NT5) then do let me know.

RetroLizard wrote on Yesterday, 13:24:

Repo Man11 wrote on Yesterday, 06:33:

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-08-08, 03:19:

I'm looking up the specs and info for Asus P5A-B on TRW. Seems as though I'd need a USB/MIR board for using PS/2 mice.

My only other option would be using serial. Does anyone have a USB/MIR breakout board, or knowledge of the pinouts?

My Asus TXP4 also used one of those but I found it much simpler to wire up a standard PS/2 and USB backplate because of the difficulty of finding that proprietary part. I just checked the manual for your board and it has the pinout.

I do have the proprietary board, but it's missing the ps/2 and IR components and the rest of the pins for the connector. Just my luck.

Yeah I have got two of those around somewhere, only the USB on.

Thread on those things with files to recreate... Asus USB/MIR reverse engineering

BitWrangler wrote on Yesterday, 13:46:

RetroLizard wrote on Yesterday, 13:24:

Repo Man11 wrote on Yesterday, 06:33:

My Asus TXP4 also used one of those but I found it much simpler to wire up a standard PS/2 and USB backplate because of the difficulty of finding that proprietary part. I just checked the manual for your board and it has the pinout.

I do have the proprietary board, but it's missing the ps/2 and IR components and the rest of the pins for the connector. Just my luck.

Yeah I have got two of those around somewhere, only the USB on.

Thread on those things with files to recreate... Asus USB/MIR reverse engineering

I did find one on eBay that I'm going to try getting.

appiah4 wrote on Yesterday, 06:35:

cyclone3d wrote on Yesterday, 02:15:

Working on setting up a test setup for agp 1x-4x cards as well as a couple different Linux Live USB sticks for testing different […]
Show full quote

Working on setting up a test setup for agp 1x-4x cards as well as a couple different Linux Live USB sticks for testing different eras of cards... So I don't have to bother with Windows and different drivers.

Settled on a KT333 motherboard.

Live Linux USBs will be

Knoppix 3.4 for the older stuff

Slax KillBill 5.1.8 (has wine built in) for not as old stuff

It took quite a bit of doing to find the Slax KillBill. Had to download it via the way back machine.

This is all so I can fully test video cards I don't need before I stick them up for sale (not here of course)

I really, really, really need to clear out a lot of hardware.

I am planning on also posting more stuff in the giveaway thread here very soon.

I love KT333, it is the ultimate universal AGP motherboard IMO. Unfortunately, I can not find one. I used an MSI KT3 for half a decade back in the day, but apparently that chipset was fairly short lived? A lot of KT400s around, but KT333s seem to be gone. Could possibly be due to cap plague as well.

Anyway, I did manage to find a KM266 and I am using that with an AthlonXP 2200+ as my Turbo Voodoo 3 PC 😀

I found an asus a7v333 board a few months back. yes, it’s a very universal board, especially if you can get an athlon xp-m cpu for it. it’s worked with every agp card that I’ve thrown at it from early rage cards through a 6800gt and clocks from 500 to 2000 mhz via the bios. and the caps are solid. Maybe a fan on the heat sink is a good idea though.

But back in the day, a 400mhz front side bus seemed much more important than compatibility with crusty old cards.