The other day I came across a µATX Socket 370 board that I received some time ago and put into storage, the AOpen MX3L.
It has AGP, 3x PCI, 1x ISA, and an onboard ESS Solo 1 audio chip that seems to have good DOS compatibility. But unfortunately it uses the crippled 440LX chipset, so it's 66MHz FSB Celerons only. Plus, it doesn't even support the higher clocked Celerons like the 700MHz chip that I have in my collection, but maxes out at 533 MHz. At least it supports some overclocking by raising the FSB to 75 or 83 MHz.

However, I put in a Rage 128, NIC and a 500 MHz Celeron chip (that runs happily at 75 MHz FSB, ~ 568 MHz) and now I am going to do something that I haven't done in many many years: Install Windows ME. Let's see how long it takes until I regret it... 😉 I didn't even have the CDs any more, but Winworldpc came to the rescue. I remember that my brother used to run it on his (Celeron-based) system in 2001 and was quite happy with it, but personally I never got past installing it, cursing a whole lot and then switching over to Win2k.

Edit: Much to my surprise, everything just worked out of the box. Win ME had drivers for the Intel chipset, the Rage 128, the ESS Solo-1 and the RTL8139 - there was not a single unknown device in the Windows device manager right after the installation. Of course I will update some of the drivers to the latest versions, but this was impressive. When I plugged in the Ethernet cable, moving the card a little bit in its PCI slot, the system immediately BSOD'ed, so everything seems to be okay 😄
Check out the Win ME page at Winworldpc, the screenshots say it all 😉

Got a Packard Bell mouse in the whitening bath. Responded well at first, now seems to not want to improve. So it probably won't. And although there's not much downside to "ruining" this mouse, it may get "ruined" before it gets good.

It's poorly made anyhow. The buttons are part of the main top shell - connected on either side with little plastic tabs. Not making this up. The actual flexing piece is below that, for some reason. So the tabs for the left button are cracked. How long can such a mouse last? Well, if I don't actually ever use it...

Started building a 4-ISA slot Tualatin system during a particularly boring conf call. For once everthing just worked once I hooked it up, so it POSTs. This evening rest of system will get added, things like SATA controller+SSD for Win98 and a 512MB CF for DOS. If that all works, there will be Voodoo2s, Gb NICs and several sound cards 😉

dionb wrote on 2020-08-20, 14:59:

Started building a 4-ISA slot Tualatin system during a particularly boring conf call. For once everthing just worked once I hooked it up, so it POSTs. This evening rest of system will get added, things like SATA controller+SSD for Win98 and a 512MB CF for DOS. If that all works, there will be Voodoo2s, Gb NICs and several sound cards 😉

4 ISA slots on a Tualatin motherboard? What kind of a motherboard is that? AGP Card, 2 Voodoo 2s, SATA Controller - aren't you out of PCI slots already?

Picked up a Dell E771P monitor in great condition for £10 via a Facebook selling group. I've been a member of various groups for several years now and never found anything worth picking up at a reasonable price before. It'll make a nice replacement for my 21"Dell Trinitron which is just a little bit too big.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-08-20, 20:36:

dionb wrote on 2020-08-20, 14:59:

Started building a 4-ISA slot Tualatin system during a particularly boring conf call. For once everthing just worked once I hooked it up, so it POSTs. This evening rest of system will get added, things like SATA controller+SSD for Win98 and a 512MB CF for DOS. If that all works, there will be Voodoo2s, Gb NICs and several sound cards 😉

4 ISA slots on a Tualatin motherboard? What kind of a motherboard is that? AGP Card, 2 Voodoo 2s, SATA Controller - aren't you out of PCI slots already?

My guess is slot 1 with Tualatin adapter or maybe industrial

Pardon the definitely not-retro visual on screen (most of my retro things are packed, and was testing with the laptop I had available), but I just received an HP P910 19" monitor from a family member. Needs a clean up, but seems to work fairly well.

Not sure what tube is in it - it's a flat-style screen, and supports some pretty solid resolution options:
640 x 480 / 150 Hz
800 x 600 / 150 Hz
1024 x 768 / 130 Hz
1280 x 1024 / 99 Hz
1600 x 1200 / 85 Hz

Photo below is the screen running at 1600x1200 / 85hz. It's maybe a little bit soft, but certainly not bad, I think:

HP P910 should be a Trinitron tube 😀 enjoy
1600x1200 is probably pushing it a bit considering the 0,25mm pitch on 18" visible area, hence the softness, you'd probably be better off going for a lower resolution and higher refresh rate.

LHN91 wrote on 2020-08-21, 01:11:

Pardon the definitely not-retro visual on screen (most of my retro things are packed, and was testing with the laptop I had available), but I just received an HP P910 19" monitor from a family member. Needs a clean up, but seems to work fairly well.

Not sure what tube is in it - it's a flat-style screen, and supports some pretty solid resolution options:

Nice ! Yes, The manual says it is a Trinitron tube.

LHN91 wrote on 2020-08-21, 01:11:

Pardon the definitely not-retro visual on screen (most of my retro things are packed, and was testing with the laptop I had avai […]
Show full quote

Pardon the definitely not-retro visual on screen (most of my retro things are packed, and was testing with the laptop I had available), but I just received an HP P910 19" monitor from a family member. Needs a clean up, but seems to work fairly well.

Not sure what tube is in it - it's a flat-style screen, and supports some pretty solid resolution options:
640 x 480 / 150 Hz
800 x 600 / 150 Hz
1024 x 768 / 130 Hz
1280 x 1024 / 99 Hz
1600 x 1200 / 85 Hz

Photo below is the screen running at 1600x1200 / 85hz. It's maybe a little bit soft, but certainly not bad, I think:
IMG_20200820_202646.jpg

That's really nice.
I used to have a Sony 21" Flat FD Trinitron CRT Monitor that I ran at 1600x1200/75Hz . I really liked it. When the caps popped I chose to switch to a wider 1920x1200 LCD rather than fix the Sony. As nice as the color accuracy was on that Sony, I did get tired of lugging the heavy behemoth around when I moved.

Well that's good to hear, probably the first decent CRT I've had in a long time - the thing is an absolute beast size-wise, and my retro things are packed because we're finally moving to a house where I should have space to maybe set this thing up and make decent use of it.

I finally managed to get a hold of the generic beige box case my original childhood PC had back in the day, kitted out with my 'el cheapo' ECS build and GF2

Nothing that spectacularly special, but it holds a bit of nostalgia for me personally

Today, I finally got the Dallas clock chip replaced. It was a pain in the butt getting the old one out. Literally, I was sitting on a metal chair in my 90 degree garage for over two hours de-soldering it. I don't have the best soldering iron and I only have de-solder wick. But I got it out, put in a socket and put the new chip in. Everything just works now! Note the date on those chips. The old one: week 7 of 1995. The new one week 10 of 2020. If the new one lasts as long as the old one(it died in 2018), it will probably out live me.

Swapped the 66MHz clock crystal with the new 80MHz clock crystal for my LB386DX board so that I can install the 40MHz Cyrix Cx486DLC-40GP CPU and Cyrix FasMath 8D387-40GP FPU on it since the M326 V5.2 board is having a bit of issues at the moment.

LHN91 wrote on 2020-08-21, 01:11:

Pardon the definitely not-retro visual on screen (most of my retro things are packed, and was testing with the laptop I had avai […]
Show full quote

Pardon the definitely not-retro visual on screen (most of my retro things are packed, and was testing with the laptop I had available), but I just received an HP P910 19" monitor from a family member. Needs a clean up, but seems to work fairly well.

Not sure what tube is in it - it's a flat-style screen, and supports some pretty solid resolution options:
640 x 480 / 150 Hz
800 x 600 / 150 Hz
1024 x 768 / 130 Hz
1280 x 1024 / 99 Hz
1600 x 1200 / 85 Hz

Photo below is the screen running at 1600x1200 / 85hz. It's maybe a little bit soft, but certainly not bad, I think:
IMG_20200820_202646.jpg

You should be able to see the "Trinitron lines" when the manual says Trinitron. Wow, I remember my first 17" Trinitron monitor .. THAT was awesome!

Regarding image being "soft" - hook it up to a Millenium II or G400, then you'll have super crisp image! 😀

darry wrote on 2020-08-20, 22:28:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-08-20, 20:36:

[...]

4 ISA slots on a Tualatin motherboard? What kind of a motherboard is that? AGP Card, 2 Voodoo 2s, SATA Controller - aren't you out of PCI slots already?

My guess is slot 1 with Tualatin adapter or maybe industrial

Industrial. PICMG board with Via PLE133 chipset. No AGP unfortunately, just a Trident Cyberblade, so that Voodoo is actually the main 3D unit. My backplane has 4x ISA and 4x PCI 😀

dionb wrote on 2020-08-21, 20:15:

darry wrote on 2020-08-20, 22:28:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-08-20, 20:36:

[...]

4 ISA slots on a Tualatin motherboard? What kind of a motherboard is that? AGP Card, 2 Voodoo 2s, SATA Controller - aren't you out of PCI slots already?

My guess is slot 1 with Tualatin adapter or maybe industrial

Industrial. PICMG board with Via PLE133 chipset. No AGP unfortunately, just a Trident Cyberblade, so that Voodoo is actually the main 3D unit. My backplane has 4x ISA and 4x PCI 😀

Interesting build, would certainly like to see..

Received compaq deskpro 386s partial computer. This has the goodies reason I bought it whole. One wrong floppy drive for deskpro M so transferred drive into M which becomes dual 3.5" floppy drive. 😀
Another reason wanting that partial computer was: 2x 4MB 80ns daughter boards which will go with Deskpro 386/25e motherboard which will go in place of the 386sx-16 motherboard.

Will ask in other topic about the configuration compaq did to kit out the Deskpro 386s with 3.5" floppy drive.

Very happy.

Cheers,

While not technicaly computer related, I bought one of those 8bitdo wireless MegaDrive controllers and have seriously been digging it.Minimal input lag, great pad, has optional side buttons. Cord free. Totally has rejuvenated my interest in MD gaming.

Makes me really wish there was something like it for the PC gameport. Nothing better then sitting back, cable free with a comfortable pad. (Unlike you, Gravis Gamepad!)

It's the little things 😀

I've mostly been messing around with that Docking Station for the last week. Will probably put more details into my build thread, but basically I got both NEC Versa (40EC and M/75) running off of it with SoundBlaster and Ethernet.....still got a lot of work to do. Put in a SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 and a SMC 8416 EtherCard EZ. Trouble free in DOS but Windows is making me want to drop back to FreeDOS on those again....after all, they did make a P/75 version of the same exact laptop (Pentium 75, it was the last version ot use the cases the 486s used)....and the dock connector matches the 4000 series so that may be an option as well (I have a couple I have my eyes on ATM). I also upgraded to Links 2.21 and downloaded a 375MB file using the M/75 - took it about an hour it looks like over wired ethernet. Kind of insane a 486 can do that when you think about it....then there was WinRar unzipping that thing (!!!)..... this is like an old IDI Diesel F-250 pickup of laptop computers......you just hammer on it and hammer on it and it still gets you through - it might not be fast, it might not be "sensible"....but it will get you there.

May have found a few suitable touch panels to try on the M/75 on E-bay, one is only $33, but I have two that are over $100 that I'm handling like I did the M/75 and the docking station - just putting a watch on it on e-bay, and then waiting for the price to drop (or for it to dissappear). Also going to bump up the RAM (40MB), and get it a proper Floppy Drive....speaking of, having a real struggle with the Dock CD-ROM in Windows 98 SE and Windows For Workgroups.....works great under DOS but hangs/locks up in Windows for some reason. It's an early NEC CR-560 IDE drive.....go figure. I'm guessing a conflict with the IDE controller on the Laptop possibly.

Also made the wife laugh mocking the Guardian while playing Ultima VII on the M75. "Avatar....know that this here monkey man in the sky will tell you to go fight an evil corrupt politician disguised as Batlin in the local church whose carrying out ritualistic killings befitting of a Ghost Concert"....or somesuch....it was in the moment....