Deksor wrote on 2020-05-20, 19:44:

@cyclone3d […]
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@cyclone3d

My goodness !! Will you scan that book as well ?

For the disks, make sure you write protect them before you image the disks, sometimes windows loves to write stuff in disks it shouldn't write which makes the images less authentical (if someone else have these disks and want to make sure they're totally untouched, a hash of yours could come handy, but only if their content is totally untouched).

Before imaging the disks, open their window to make sure there's nothing funny going on inside. I've had disks that had circular marks and that killed floppy disk drives from times to times, these are really annoying 🙁
Hopefully they'll be fine !

Not sure I want to scan a brand new book or even open it for that matter... the binding being pristine and all and I don't have a special scanning setup that would allow me to scan books without messing up the binding although I do want to make one at some point.

There is already a text PDF .doc version of the manual available. If there really needs to be a scan of the book, I would probably buy a used book as those aren't too hard to find.
Edit... just looked at the text version and the person who converted it left out at least 2 chapters... guess I will be getting the used copy of that book to scan as well.

mpe wrote on 2020-05-16, 17:28:

Dell 5V -> 3.3V interposer for Socket 2 + brand new Intel DX4 CPU […]
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Dell 5V -> 3.3V interposer for Socket 2
+ brand new Intel DX4 CPU

That reminded me of something I had years ago. All I remember is that it was an AMD K6 400MHz CPU I believe, but it had a couple circuit boards that it interfaced with then went into a regular Pentium 1 Motherboard, and the computer could recognize the CPU. My Computer Tech class in High School, when they were showing off the class to perspective students, they gave each student an old Gateway computer that had been donated to take apart and play with. I saw one that said 400MHz on a Pentium 1 and grabbed it wondering WTF that was about. I Think it was similar to this:

Socket 7 PowerLeap PL-K6-III (ultimate upgrade)

boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-20, 21:22:

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-05-20, 17:21:

Ok... so here is what all the "secrecy" was about. Was not cheap at all .. in fact I may be insane for paying as much as I did b […]
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Ok... so here is what all the "secrecy" was about. Was not cheap at all .. in fact I may be insane for paying as much as I did but I just had to get it for posterity's sake and pretty sure I would never see it pop up again and we need the files on those disks as a community since most of them were nowhere to be found.

Behold - The Developer Kit for Sound Blaster Series (original version):
box.jpg
contents.jpg

Now I just have to wait for it to get here and hope that the disks are still good. This was an unused kit so I am feeling pretty good about it.

I used to have the 2nd edition of this kit but sold it. Unfortunately, I didn't make copies of the manuals, but I do have a copy of the disk. I'll try to upload it a little later.

IMG_9513.PNG

Very cool. I wonder if the disk copy is the same as the downloadable copy.

In any case, here is the scanned v2 hardware programming reference that I downloaded elsewhere:

And here is the v2 kit that was downloadable from Creative.. it includes 3 different .doc format manuals:

Once I get everything, I'll make a separate thread that has everything in the first post since the other threads are not very organized but have some good info in them.

Katmai500 wrote on 2020-05-19, 19:03:

Bige4u wrote on 2020-05-15, 22:48:

Been lQQking for one of these "special" units for a good while...

Nvidia 256 DDR 32mb VGA/DVI

Ooooooh very nice! DVI is really nice to have on older cards. Is it an OEM card with any part numbers on the back?

Not sure about it being OEM, best i can do for the back side picture if you looking for anything in paticular.

I am currently building a P133 DOS gaming machine (as mentioned earlier).

My internal HD arrived today along with some cables I needed, so I was able to get everything connected enough just to test.
- Motherboard, RAM, graphics card, AT power supply, floppy drive, monitor, and HD are all working OK!
- AWE32 doesn't seem to work, might need to try a different driver...

One thing that concerned me was my monitor was popping like crazy when I first turned it on. I left it on for 30 mins or so and it seems to be fine now (I hadn't powered it for several years...)

I also ordered a GOTEK floppy emulator and have bid on an AWE64, as one of the main reasons I am building this machine is to hook up my Roland synths for gaming, and I am concerned about the hanging note MIDI bug in SB16 through AWE32 cards.

Does the AWE32 have the CT1747 chip, CQM, or YM-262M? If CT1747, level 2 bug, which is an extremely rare occurrence and if CQM and/or YM-262M, bugs all the way.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-05-20, 17:21:

...
Behold - The Developer Kit for Sound Blaster Series (original version):
Now I just have to wait for it to get here and hope that the disks are still good. This was an unused kit so I am feeling pretty good about it.

Nice 😁 , kryoflux seems to be a good preservation tool.
But I'm a complete noob when it comes to that.

Bancho wrote on 2020-05-16, 11:15:

Finally...! Managed to pick up a Asrock 939Dual-Sata2 Motherboard. The one i picked up works but has horrid caps so will be repl […]
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Finally...! Managed to pick up a Asrock 939Dual-Sata2 Motherboard. The one i picked up works but has horrid caps so will be replacing those. Really looking forward to doing a build around this board. Also this will be used to test and bench Video Cards I have/receive.

It is surprisingly stable once you replace the caps. This is still in my main desktop tower for primary use. I had the AM2 card in it for a few months, but it, for whatever reason, stopped working, even after cap replacement. Note that DDR400 won't be stable on this computer. Best it can do is DDR333 with low latencies. Also curious is that, while the FX-60 is unlocked, it won't run at 2.8 GHz on my system. The BIOS says it is at 2.8 GHz, but it is not. It will run at 2.6 GHz or 3.0 GHz, but 3 GHz isn't stable. If you want to run it at 2.81 GHz, you need to run async, set CPU freq = 215 and PIIe freq = 100. Hope this gives you a good head start on optimisation.

feipoa wrote on 2020-05-21, 10:20:

Bancho wrote on 2020-05-16, 11:15:

Finally...! Managed to pick up a Asrock 939Dual-Sata2 Motherboard. The one i picked up works but has horrid caps so will be repl […]
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Finally...! Managed to pick up a Asrock 939Dual-Sata2 Motherboard. The one i picked up works but has horrid caps so will be replacing those. Really looking forward to doing a build around this board. Also this will be used to test and bench Video Cards I have/receive.

It is surprisingly stable once you replace the caps. This is still in my main desktop tower for primary use. I had the AM2 card in it for a few months, but it, for whatever reason, stopped working, even after cap replacement. Note that DDR400 won't be stable on this computer. Best it can do is DDR333 with low latencies. Also curious is that, while the FX-60 is unlocked, it won't run at 2.8 GHz on my system. The BIOS says it is at 2.8 GHz, but it is not. It will run at 2.6 GHz or 3.0 GHz, but 3 GHz isn't stable. If you want to run it at 2.81 GHz, you need to run async, set CPU freq = 215 and PIIe freq = 100. Hope this gives you a good head start on optimisation.

I'm going to use this with a X2 4400+ Toledo. It wouldn't post with it at first, but after i updated to the latest BIOS of Asrock website it now posts. I wonder if i can overclock it a bit. I think the Toledo was quite a good clocker.

I've read about ram, more about its not good at 1T command rate.. although it works on 1.05 board (which is the one i have). I have a number of Corsair DDR modules (XMS3200 & XMS3500LL). I'll see how i get on. Thanks for the pointer though.

I'm thinking about replacing the caps with Panasonic FC caps unless someone can recommend a better brand?

I've just got RAP-10. It sounds amazing so far.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-05-21, 08:13:

Does the AWE32 have the CT1747 chip, CQM, or YM-262M? If CT1747, level 2 bug, which is an extremely rare occurrence and if CQM and/or YM-262M, bugs all the way.

Thanks for replying and the info! I'll have to check on that next time I open up my PC.

It turns out it's an AWE32 Value (PNP), so I was using the wrong driver haha.

-----

Anyway, everything is now working 100%, including my Flightstick Pro!

I'm very happy with this system! Enabling/disabling the CPU and external caches allows me to slow it down to 486 and 386 speed, so Wing Commander runs perfectly fine with both caches disabled. Thanks to PhilsComputerLab for that hint!!

Two minor gripes:

- I'm honestly not 100% happy with the FM synth quality of the AWE32... it's not bad, just different from what I remember. On the other hand, the Ultima V unofficial music patch supports AWE wavetable synth, and it sounds pretty good indeed. Having said that, once I get my Roland synths up and running I won't be too concerned about either haha.
- Not happy with the speaker placement, I'd really like to get these up to ear level; however, I simply don't have the room for it. Otherwise, the speakers sound just fine.

daikatana_ wrote on 2020-05-21, 14:28:

I've just got RAP-10. It sounds amazing so far.

Cool!

Ever since tinkering with the DOS sound setup applications for games in the late 90s and seeing mention of that card I've wanted to get my hands on one. I remember choosing the "Roland RAP-10" option and getting better music most of the time and having zero understanding as to why! 😀

Looking back, the reason I remember certain options sounding different on my PC at the time (integrated Ensoniq\SB Audio PCI originally) was that if I selected "sound blaster" music I'd get the horrid FM emulation, and if I selected anything Roland\MPU-401 compatible I'd get the software synth which sounded much better. Only took me 17 years to finally understand why.

Compaq ProLiant 1500 CPU board. The SX962 installed just for the beauty shot (came with a regular P120)

+ some coverage of 1992 bus format war

mpe wrote on 2020-05-21, 19:03:

+ some coverage of 1992 bus format war […]
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+ some coverage of 1992 bus format war

Love the:

Fastest PCs on the Planet:
66-MHz 486DX2s

😎

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2020-05-21, 15:17:

Cool! […]
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daikatana_ wrote on 2020-05-21, 14:28:

I've just got RAP-10. It sounds amazing so far.

Cool!

Ever since tinkering with the DOS sound setup applications for games in the late 90s and seeing mention of that card I've wanted to get my hands on one. I remember choosing the "Roland RAP-10" option and getting better music most of the time and having zero understanding as to why! 😀

Looking back, the reason I remember certain options sounding different on my PC at the time (integrated Ensoniq\SB Audio PCI originally) was that if I selected "sound blaster" music I'd get the horrid FM emulation, and if I selected anything Roland\MPU-401 compatible I'd get the software synth which sounded much better. Only took me 17 years to finally understand why.

Exactly. I never knew, what MPU-401 means, I found out much later. For now, one card is home, two more to go (SCC-1 and LAPC-I) 😀

I got a Abit bw7 and a EVGA 680i today but both of them will not post. 🙁

What socket is the BW7? Looks like Socket 478. I have a homeless ABit IC7-G that's probably the board that succeeded this one. It's very picky about RAM density, it reads my Kingston HyperX DDR400 1GB modules as 512MB each.

With my EVGA 680i if the bios battery goes dead the board won't boot. I'd recommend checking the bios battery on it

I got this beauty in off eBay, an AST Premium Exec 386SX/20 from early 1992. I'm genuinely amazed it works at all, though I cannot get into setup no matter how many times I press CTRL+ALT+ESC.

Purchased:
Compact Flash-IDE adapter with 4GB card.

Background:
Disaster struck!

While installing Windows for Workgroups 3.11, the installer kept having trouble finding the C: drive. I was able to retry a few times and get Windows installed, but the hard drive started acting very erratically, sometimes taking 30+ seconds just to list a directory in DOS. I wondered if something was maybe wrong with the Windows installation, so I deleted Windows and cleared the autoexec.bat/config.sys files, and then reinstalled DOS. Still no good. Went in and reconnected the IDE cable and power cable, but it only got worse; the BIOS could only detect the HD once every 3-4 times I tried.

This morning I went and checked and one of the pins on the IDE connector on the HD had fallen into the connector. I tried gently pulling it back out, but it snapped! I could probably solder it back to together, but I actually would rather not deal with HDs anymore haha.