My retro activity today was to install a WINE wrapper on my mac to run Steam games for Windows (I know Steam can run on macOS, just some games I've already bought there can't) and as a great test, I installed Counter-Strike 1.6 (2000).

Imagine my happiness and nostalgia wave when I saw the game running flawlessly. I haven't played CS for like 15 years. I'll have a lot of catch up to do, in order to be fit again in this game...

On my game library, I could also try out rFactor 2, GTR Evolution, RACE 07 and Counter-strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO for macOS runs extremely slow. Thanks to Wineskin Winery, I can run a smoother version for Windows now).

What next?

pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-04-30, 01:02:

Get another X-clamp for the GPU and 4 standoffs and 4 little black screws from junked xbox 360. I implore you!! […]
Show full quote

Get another X-clamp for the GPU and 4 standoffs and 4 little black screws from junked xbox 360. I implore you!!

I knew these mods was bad even worse with PS4 using washers as well,

I received a modded Xbox 360 same way like yours, for parts to fix other, but the board sagged releasing tension with time and when undo those screws, did not get any spring back of the board itself means both CPU and GPU did not experience pressure against heatsinks! Board relaxed with time. This mod is not a long term fix.

X-clamps can be bent very slightly more. They work very well than the mods! The original thermal compound is worse than thermal compound paste that comes out of tube.

Thanks for the suggestions, but it was working this way for many, many years for the previous owner. I don't see any reason to do greater modifications to it. Also, I used thermal glue instead of paste, so nothing will come loose by itself and pressure by the heatsinks is no longer needed, either. All temperatures stay below 57°C all the time under full load. Note that this Xbox 360 is modded and I have full control over fan speed (set to 70% instead of 'auto').

I wonder how you can recommend keep using these crappy x-clamps at all, as removing them is the most common suggestion ever since the first Xbox 360 units started to die back then, and it still is today. It's even featured on ifixit.com: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Xbox+360+Red+Rin … th+Fix+Kit/3550

"Long term" is rather wasted for these systems anyway, as this is modern electronics which won't last 20+ years. Nothing using lead-free solder will, let alone stupid stuff like decryption keys stored in flash memory inside the CPU...

'twas a sunny morning today, so I decided to give the 286 a peroxide treatment until the clouds rolled in, I should give it another try soon

darry wrote on 2020-04-28, 23:30:

Disruptor wrote on 2020-04-28, 18:35:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-04-28, 16:53:

The CL-GD5429 is the better card.

The CL-GD5429 places its LFB (linear frame buffer) just below 64 MB.
So you have to use less than 64 MB RAM in this machine.

I thought ISA cards were limited to the first addressable 16MB . Are you referring to VLB version ?

Indeed. I'm referring to the VLB version.
Perhaps it is not a problem of CL-GD5429 itself, but the implementation on my graphics card with this chip.

This isn't worth it's own thread so this is my retro activity f or the day. What do you think this old thing is (taken from Busted - Year 3000 music video. Yes, you did just dredge up the memory that this band existed from the bottom of the bottom of the depths of your repressed memories; you're welcome). Who knew time travelling devices ran on molex power!

Almoststew1990 wrote on 2020-04-30, 19:38:

What do you think this old thing is (taken from Busted - Year 3000 music video. Yes, you did just dredge up the memory that this band existed from the bottom of the bottom of the depths of your repressed memories; you're welcome). Who knew time travelling devices ran on molex power!

Looks like the top of an old paper shredder the props dept. have been screwing with 😀

assasincz wrote on 2020-04-29, 20:27:

After ~25yrs since I last player it, I fired up World Class Leaderboard on my finished 286 build and spent some jolly good time!

"Absolutely marvellous (chirp, chirp - ribbid)"

I've finally found out why none of my three mismatched Voodoo II's would work reliably in SLI mode regardless of the combination: It's the FastVoodoo drivers.

They claim to support mismatched SLI out of the box, but I only got that working one time for some dubious reason. In all other cases my screen just turned itself off and that was it.

I now installed coolsmoky's drivers from 3dfxzone.it. They have the same behaviour by default (screen turns off, nothing to see), but when I set the registry key SSTV2_MISMATCHED_SLI=1 they work reliably with every game I have.

This is awesome. I'll stay far away from FastVoodoo now and use the reference drivers with coolsmoky's patched glide.dll files now.

(And I really thought I'd have to buy a fourth Voodoo II. Thank god I don't.)

schmatzler wrote on 2020-04-30, 20:29:

This is awesome. I'll stay far away from FastVoodoo now and use the reference drivers with coolsmoky's patched glide.dll files now.

Glad you got it all working but I don't remember having any issues with mismatched Voodoos and the FastVoodoo drivers, maybe I got lucky.

badmojo wrote on 2020-04-30, 21:27:

Glad you got it all working but I don't remember having any issues with mismatched Voodoos and the FastVoodoo drivers, maybe I got lucky.

Maybe I just have the weirdest combination of cards, motherboard and other hardware that makes Fastvoodoo fail. I don't know. But I'm happy it works now. 😀

FastVoodoo overclocks your Voodoo II's memory to 95MHz without telling you. Enable the overclocking panel and dial back to 90MHz to see if it makes a difference. It prevented my setup from working...

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Cyrix200+ wrote on 2020-04-30, 22:24:

Enable the overclocking panel and dial back to 90MHz to see if it makes a difference. It prevented my setup from working...

Nope, that's not it either. FastVoodoo just doesn't want to work on my system. 😜

I also checked if it doesn't like the Audigy in my system, tried all of the PCI slots...and nope.
Doesn't matter anymore, it works with different drivers now. 😀

schmatzler wrote on 2020-04-30, 20:29:

I've finally found out why none of my three mismatched Voodoo II's would work reliably in SLI mode regardless of the combination […]
Show full quote

I've finally found out why none of my three mismatched Voodoo II's would work reliably in SLI mode regardless of the combination: It's the FastVoodoo drivers.

They claim to support mismatched SLI out of the box, but I only got that working one time for some dubious reason. In all other cases my screen just turned itself off and that was it.

I now installed coolsmoky's drivers from 3dfxzone.it. They have the same behaviour by default (screen turns off, nothing to see), but when I set the registry key SSTV2_MISMATCHED_SLI=1 they work reliably with every game I have.

This is awesome. I'll stay far away from FastVoodoo now and use the reference drivers with coolsmoky's patched glide.dll files now.

(And I really thought I'd have to buy a fourth Voodoo II. Thank god I don't.)

Interesting but personally FV drivers worked with all combinations of mismatched Voodoo cards for me..

Finished Duke 3D atomic for the first time I think. Boy the stadium level is easier once you realize you can jump onto the ledge!

Cleaned these two PAS cards I got in a scrap lot long ago. De top one is missing the bracket and had a damaged Line In connector. Ordered 10 replacements for $0.99 on an auction site.

Had some time today to check a few Slot 1 and Socket 370 CPUs that I thought were dead... a Pentium II 400, a Pentium III 650, a Coppermine Pentium III on an ASUS S370-DL Slotket and a Celeron 1.4GHz on a Powerleap PL-iP3/T.
I tested them all on a Chaintech 6SSA2 mainboard that I had lying around and had not been used in years. First I tried the Pentium III on the adapter, which was the one I suspected still worked. After a minor issue with the graphics card and RAM, the system booted, albeit with the wrong bus speed. This was easily changed in the BIOS though. Suspect number 1, a 1.0GHz P3, was working!
After that, I tried the 650MHz P3. That booted right away, even though the bus speed was off again.
Then the 400MHz P2. What do you know? Also worked!
With a 100% score so far, I thought I'd also give the CPU on the Powerleap adapter a try. I was certain that would not work, as I tried it several times before. I removed the cooler from the CPU first and then the cartridge frame from the adapter. There was no visible damage. I removed and reseated the jumpers and set the jumper for a 66MHz bus speed (although the CPU is for 100MHz). Cleaned the contacts of the edge connector and put the cooler back on. I did not yet reattach the cartridge frame, but put in the CPU slot on the mainboard, using a bit of support to keep the CPU from tipping under the weight of the Alpha PEP66T cooler. And guess what? This one also worked! The system reported a CPU speed of 924MHz, which was correct (14*66). Changing the jumper on the Powerleap adapter did not make a difference in clock speed, but changing the FSB in the BIOS to 100MHz made the system work at the correct speed.
All in all, not bad for a bunch of CPUs that were all suspect! A few of them may find a way into my retro systems at some point.

I have a few SECC2 processors that did not boot on initial testing, this reminds me to go back and check them out sometime..

I opened up a broken Iomega Ditto 5Gb tape, found a break, dismantled the innards, rewound everything and put it back together, recovering 20 year old data without a single file lost.

Yeah, editing the vid of that now 😉

X-clamp does work very well. What does them in is meltable thermal compound is applied too much during manufacture of xboxes and PS4 consoles and when this settles to certain thickess, squeezing out excess when hot enough but to a point APU couldn't melt all of it so compound stayed cold and hard, in-compressible, around the APU's package periphery holding up the heatsink like mortar while thermal compound starts to decompose and form air voids between heatsink and APU's die, also thermal decomposed (thermal compound discoloured) . Results APU slightly running too hot for long time.

The motherboard stays FLAT on the bottom pressed metal preformed chassis but center of this heatsink and studs are machined in a way is correct will not warp the board, where middle of X-clamp presses against will press APU against heatsink's. Works very well. PS4 is done same way, supported by many locations keeps board flat and has spring bar with two or four screws (early) and does not suffer same way. Again PS4 had same melt-able thermal compound best replaced with thermal compound in a grease form.

Original thermal compound comes in hard form thick pad *pre-applied* to heatsink that get melted out to proper thickness but problem is way too much! People throught this got dried out, not in this case! I see this often on notebooks also.

Best way is replace the original melt-able thermal compound and use high performance thermal compound in a grease form in thin layer applied to APU or CPU or silicon die surface only before re-assembling heatsink.

Cheers,

I installed Windows ME on one of my PCs just because I had never used it, I jumped from Win98SE to Windows XP directly. After installing it and installing the drivers mostly without issue, the machine completely froze when installing the USB 2.0 drivers. Sigh. Funny enough, Win98SE does the same on this board (Intel D845) but Windows XP works perfect, so I don't think the hardware has any issue, it's all about Win98/ME USB support.

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-01, 09:16:

Finished Duke 3D atomic for the first time I think. Boy the stadium level is easier once you realize you can jump onto the ledge!

Duke 3D atomic ends when you kill the Queen at the end of the 4th episode, the stadium is the end of the 3rd episode, or the original Duke3D 1.3d. Anyway, cool that you made it, it's a fine game.