Today I tested some old SDR SDRAM on my MSI MS6147 VER:1.1. It was my first 90's hardware back in 2014. I was so excited with it, being also my first fully functioning 10+ year old PC, when it was in a Packard Bell Pulsar400. It was along with three others that ranged from 2000 to 2003. I have long since thrown away the case, because it was in terrible condition. It was also one of my first successful board repairs in 2018. I was so anxious to test it back then, that I made plenty of other mistakes (connecting the floppy cable backwards, not jumpering the HDD properly, and thinking I blew it because I hadn't noticed those mistakes 😁) I noticed them later, and after fixing them, everything worked just fine. What a day. I sure have learned a lot since then 🤣
Anyway, back to the present, the RAM sticks were just fine. I also noticed it had pads for an SB-Link header, and I soldered one in right away (it's a good thing I 'scrap' motherboards that are useless, like some 845GV crap, seriously, avoid GV chipsets if you can). Can't wait to test it. I also made a second SB-Link cable.

Retro activity: went thru all my old DOS and Windows books, found a bunch from DOS 2.1 thru 6.22 plus many Window 3, 3.11 and WFW books.

Today I ran out of space on my Pentium MMX machine. It seems the 4GB of the CF card I used with it were not enough for DOS+Win98. So, I looked for (and found!) my xbox's original 10GB hard drive. It has been stored a long time (like 5-6 years) since it was replaced by a 320GB SATA drive. But the HDD was locked so I had to open the xbox, boot it again with its old HDD, unlock the drive, and then reassemble the xbox. Then, I took a full image of the HDD because...one can never be sure if it will be needed. I'm currently, taking an image of the 4GB CF card I use on the Pentium MMX. Since it's already late here, tomorrow I'll write the 4GB image on the 10GB HDD and grow the win98 partition (the DOS one is OK so far, plenty of free disk space).

Edit: it surprised me that the HDD image was taken at about 30MB/s, but the CF card could only manage 3MB/s (both using the same PC, writing the images to the same SATA HDD, connected to the same PCI PATA card). I thought CF cards were way faster reading, but whatever.

[EDIT] To quote Phil in 2014:

Mau1wurf1977 wrote on 2014-07-12, 14:33:

The idea is that you can post anything and everything that you did that has something to do with retro computers. This way people don't need to open new threads when they just want to tell people about what they are doing and not really asking for any help.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program - talking about retro computer activities. 😀

Unlocked.

I tried installing 98 on a FX 8320 and an Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0.

I failed horribly.

mastergamma12 wrote on 2020-06-19, 06:50:

I tried installing 98 on a FX 8320 and an Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0.

I failed horribly.

What got you? Lack of chipset support?

appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-19, 06:52:

mastergamma12 wrote on 2020-06-19, 06:50:

I tried installing 98 on a FX 8320 and an Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0.

I failed horribly.

What got you? Lack of chipset support?

Installing the unofficial nvidia driver for a 7600 GS.

It worked fine under an Nforce 610i based board, but on this 990FX board, black screen after driver install.

Could try a Quadro FX 1300 or an ATi X600 down the road.

@Stiletto: thank you for clearing all of the BS that was on here. You're awesome.

As for retro activity, I attempted to repair the TI Extensa-Scholar ESS3/Acer Extensa E610CDT keyboard and it decided to not work at all (rubber contact pads on the domes were disintegrated and beyond repairs) and the floppy drive was not accepting any diskette I threw in there (always said drive not ready with a diskette inserted, attempted repairs, and no dice). Currently looking hi and lo for both a working floppy drive and keyboard since I really need to do an OS refresh on the system and I'm too lazy to install the HDD into another computer to do the refresh of the OS as once I install the HDD, it'll reinstall every driver and ask for a CD since sometimes the CD drive won't get detected in Windows until the drivers for the IDE controller are installed unless I run the CD drivers in config.sys and autoexec.bat for DOS, which has hiccups sometimes.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-06-19, 06:56:

@Stiletto: thank you for clearing all of the BS that was on here. You're awesome.

Thanks, glad some people here like me! 😁

What retro activity I got up to today: moderating VOGONS posts like I have done off and on since 2002. 😜
To be fair to Qbix and DosFreak: They've got more duration at that job than me, I took, oh, at least five-seven years off?

(That BS is all here - for now at least. 🙄)

Thanks Stiletto. 😀

It's good to have a topic back on its tracks.

Retro activity : Tried to compile a WPF launcher for .NET Framework 4 (the last version to be compatible with Windows XP)

x86 .NET Framework without async/await, and only the very first version of the TPL API (no Task.WhenAny for you !).

In this age of .NET Core 3.1 (and .NET 5 in the near future), this sure feels very retro for a .NET programmer.

Alas, it had too much .NET 4.5 dependencies...

Also WPF was released in 2006, and since then UWP, WinUI, Xamarin Forms, Web apps, and now .NET MAUI all tried to kill it.

Sure it was ported to .NET Core 3.X in 2019 by Microsoft, but the good ol' Windows Forms is in the same boat. And I use WinForms since the Windows 98 days.

To use that technology nowadays could be considered quite retro indeed. After all, it's still DirectX 9 under the hood.

aha2940 wrote on 2020-06-19, 03:56:

Today I ran out of space on my Pentium MMX machine. It seems the 4GB of the CF card I used with it were not enough for DOS+Win98. So, I looked for (and found!) my xbox's original 10GB hard drive. It has been stored a long time (like 5-6 years) since it was replaced by a 320GB SATA drive. But the HDD was locked so I had to open the xbox, boot it again with its old HDD, unlock the drive, and then reassemble the xbox. Then, I took a full image of the HDD because...one can never be sure if it will be needed. I'm currently, taking an image of the 4GB CF card I use on the Pentium MMX. Since it's already late here, tomorrow I'll write the 4GB image on the 10GB HDD and grow the win98 partition (the DOS one is OK so far, plenty of free disk space).

Edit: it surprised me that the HDD image was taken at about 30MB/s, but the CF card could only manage 3MB/s (both using the same PC, writing the images to the same SATA HDD, connected to the same PCI PATA card). I thought CF cards were way faster reading, but whatever.

Well, I just wrote the 4GB image to the 10GB hard drive and that went well, however after installing the 10GB, the MMX machine's BIOS only sees it as a 4GB one. Is 4GB a common limit on HDD sizes for BIOSes? it uses an Award v4.51PG BIOS. I'm looking for options to make it see the whole drive, any ideas guys?

got one of my industrial boards set up and running now that I finally got a CPU for it... went browsing through the BIOS as the manual wasn't very detailed in that regard, did not find any settings regarding the ISA and DMA (for the ISA)... doesn't make me very hopeful for future soundcard trials, but then again, went into this fully expecting them not to work in the first place x3 so I can't really be disappointed.

Moved my 8088/XT build and reconnected it all up for testing. Tested out the keyboard, joystick & ran a few games from the MFM HDD. All still working great, in fact I think the keyboard is working better now since I've moved it. I'm pretty sure last time I used the system, the keyboard was a touch over sensitive on some keys and a little under sensitive on others, but now it's working perfectly - I'm not complaining. 🤣

So I also took the opportunity to finally test it out with my Gotek with FlashFloppy firmware. I was expecting to have to alter some settings in the cfg file, but nope it just worked as soon as I plugged it in and I was using it to load some PC Booters and play a few games.

Also was able to properly test how well this build works on a Vestel-made Toshiba 32" LCD TV, via CGA Composite output. Aside from the occasional sync failure causing horizontal distortion (easily resolved), it works pretty well though not 100% ideal as text can be hard to read on some games that use Palette 0. I'd tested it out on this TV briefly in the past so I knew it worked, but hadn't really tried playing a variety of different games using it.

After a 2 year respite I jumped back on my W95c/ P3-667@500/ Abit BH6/ QDI Legend-8mb(Rendition)/ Voodoo2-12mb/ Montego2 build and resumed installing a testing a host of games 1995-2001, for the last week or so. About 2/3 of the 80gb HD is filled with games including a comprensive digital image and patch library of almost everything currently installed. A few more things to try, including controller setups. Got it all backed up 1:1 on a second identical internal HD. The only fly in the ointment is the inability to boot from CD with this particular Abit board. For that I have a boot manager startup utility to try out but I need to source fresh floppies to experiment. I use Acronis 8 to image C: at regular intervals (no data on C:\ just OS and vanilla apps) and will rely on the Acronis recovery CD if I get borked - so need to get that functioning before I consider the project done. Overal little Win95 is snappy!

While looking for some manuals stumbled on this Catalog from Walnut Creek CDROM from late 1995. Maybe someone will find it interesting.
http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/ … r%20Catalog.pdf

Stiletto wrote on 2020-06-19, 06:12:

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program - talking about retro computer activities. 😀

Unlocked.

Thanks and Sorry if I got carried away yesterday, was not my intent.

As per my "addictions", I went through Dark Forces and Jedi Knight yesterday and today respectively. I did Dark Forces on my Pentium II setup, using my original disk despite having the DeHacker, and I just used my Steam copy of JK this time. I'm probably the only person on steam with over 60 hours in Jedi Knight.

It's always good to play the game with high LOD mods and modern resolutions, even if it's hilarious looking when played the way it was "meant" to be on my Voodoo 3. And, before anyone asks why I say addictions, I play through these two games in full every few weeks, and thanks to Limited Run Games, have purchased them both three separate times.

ragefury32 wrote on 2020-06-15, 03:46:

Been a busy last week - finally figured out DDMA on the Igel Winterminal-J (Winnet IV). It turns out that deactivating delayed […]
Show full quote

Been a busy last week - finally figured out DDMA on the Igel Winterminal-J (Winnet IV). It turns out that deactivating delayed PCI operations disables DDMA on the southbridge. I also stripped down the thin client to its bare minimums to do a what-do-ya-know on the hardware.

CA4408F7-9FC7-44CD-BAAD-78133A38D806.jpeg

And what do ya know, going through the motherboard manual there were an issue on a hard coded setting accessing the M-Systems DiskOnChip module (which was removed...it was supposed to emulate a custom ROM by implementing a 64k sliding window to its own address space via an upper memory block) I had to set it so it does not overlap access space with the D000 address needed by ESS to implement its DDMA. Once the DOC address was changed on the jumpers and DDMA turned on, SFX worked perfectly. The Solo-1 embedded onboard works fine now. Had to make sure that the embedded Solo is enabled via the jumper, and the Realtek RTL8139 is disabled. On the right side of the ESS1938S there is a 4 pin connector labeled MIT1...my guess is...Mitsumi CD audio interface? I’ll need to do a continuity test with the 2 side pins and pins 37 and 38 on the ES1938S itself (37 and 38 are Aux-A left and right, respectively,

82D96874-A9E2-41A0-9EAF-68622480AE93.jpeg

The next one is to look at the PSU details - looks clean, the caps are all in decent condition...rather important as it is passively cooled (the fan grate does not contain a fan).

47F2FBFE-895D-4789-A295-0831696D3348.jpeg

The 2x256MB 16 chip “low density” RAM (the same kind used in Intel 440 machines) arrived and was successfully recognized. This does make it easier to load ISOs into RAM and map them into virtual

C6F741A6-A3E4-449C-AD14-19EBA896B72B.jpeg

drives in DOS. Not sure if I can toss a 512MB unit in there to get 768...I might have a unit I can borrow from my Cobalt Qube 3 Pro (that machine has 2x512 MB).

Next up, the K6-2+ Embedded variant has been ordered, and I am hoping for more options for downclocking the machine.

As for other accessories, I went for a few multimedia device enhancements - A cheap-ish 3dfx Voodoo 2, and a dual output equipped Appian Gemini (which is based on an S3 Savage4 MX with 16MB of VRAM). Also picked up a BTC ESS Audiodrive ES1868F ISA PnP audio card - this might come in handy should I need a joystick/media port. It has an IDE interface, which can be useful...

Then of course, now it’s time to figure out how to install an optical drive - the Winnet-J only has a single IDE44 interface. I was thinking of using an IDE44 primary/secondary cable (used in Amigas), then figure out how to recycle an old laptop drive - this would mean looking for an IDE44 to slimline optical drive interface, or failing that, something that can go between IDE44 to IDE40, and then use an IDE40 drive - the Berg FDC power connector will need to be recrimped to a Molex connector. The ideal would be to have the SD-to-IDE device on primary, the optical drive on secondary, Solo-1 as the “good enough” audio, and either 3dfx or S3 Savage as the better GPU for Win98, and then for DOS, either retain the Solo-1 or use the ES1868F.

Okay, so some updates on the Igel-J. The Voodoo 2 arrived and has been tested. it’s a Taiwanese Implementation with 12Mb of VRAM. Bottom line is - it works well in both Windows (Quake 2) and DOS (Tomb Raider 3dfx Demo).

As you can see here, the passthrough cable was unplugged so it’s definitely Glide in the house. Some work will need to be done with a Dremel on the metal frame as some of the corners might snag on the card, but as of now, It’s being tested with a PCI slot extender (I also need to do some thermal testing). Unreal Tournament is inexplicably slow on the hardware, but I suspect it might be issues with certain PCI options that needs to be tuned.

The BTC ESS 1869F works just fine out of the box on the ISA slot, and best of all, worked without reconfiguration. The quality on the ESFM was decent and comparable to the OPL3 on my Yamaha YMF724. This can be swapped out whenever I need some extra audio *ooomph* or if I need to use the onboard joystick/midi port.

The big disappointment (well, puzzlement) is on the Appian Gemini (which is a dual monitor S3 SavageMX based card). It looks like either there is something funky with its default video BIOS since its colors are very...trippy. For example, the Star Wars crawl text from TIE fighter looks like this:

And during the TIE fighter flyover near the imperial palace, it looked like someone in Coruscant were taking mescaline...

And oh my, during Emperor Palpatine’s throne speech, someone decided to hold a rave...

Well, it doesn’t look like it’s an issue with the PCI extender. Directly connecting the card to the slot produced the same results. However, once the machine boots into Windows and the driver initializes the card, the video goes back to normal. Testing it on another machine also does not produce the same results.

Still waiting for the K6-2+ to show up at my residence. Any minute now...

Long shot :
Try toggling PCI/VGA Palette Snoop in BIOS .

Finished Duke Nukem 3D. For real this time 🤣

Recapped and played a MT-32. It sounds a lot clearer and sharper. I put two higher voltage rated caps at input filter C40, C41 and somehow the voltage regulating MOSFET on the right wall gets hot at the first power up. After some minutes of playing, it cools down to a slightly warm temp. I suppose it's time to replace the MOSFET with a resilient, modern component.

Other than that, it looks to be back in its old place.