yawetaG wrote on 2020-09-14, 19:38:

I missed playing SC3000, so decided to install it on my Pentium 4 system. Put the CD in the drive, closed the door, and somehow the CD shifted in the tray and got stuck between the door and the drive. The disc was slightly scratched. The game then installed fine, but apparently the disc got damaged in such a way that it fails the copy protection check when running the game as the disc heats up. Aaargh!

Hey, at least it wasn't SimCity 4. I remember buying that back in the day and the copy protection was such that it failed on whatever CD-ROM drive I had back then. Remember the flabbergasted look on the salesperson's face when I returned the game a couple hours later to tell them the copy protection was shit and I wanted my money back. 😀

today, I swapped out the I3 2100 for an I3 3220T in my Windows XP machine . Newer CPU is slightly faster (even with a lower clock) has a TDP of 35W instead of 65W and is still officially "supported" by Windows XP and Windows 10 (Ivy Bridge is the only Intel CPU platform to officially "support" both these OSes, AFAIK) .

I call this a "retro activity" since Windows XP is 19 years old and has been EOL for over 6 years .

Retro activities that I have been up to lately:
- Repaired the GUS MAX and Roland SCB-7 that came from a hardware lot that turned out to be more of a scrap lot (see the respective thread: Re: Identifying components on Gravis Ultrasound MAX Rev. 1.8 and Roland SCB-7)
- Set up the 486 that both cards now live in. It used to have a SCSI hard disk that has failed some time ago, so I went with a CF card instead, re-installed DOS 6.22 and all the drivers and now it's pretty much ready to go.
- Tested the ASUS Striker Extreme from that same lot. It was really beaten up. Bent PCB, bent PCI and PCIe slots, bent pins everywhere, one capacitor ripped off, heatsinks in bad shape. I had nothing to lose, popped in some S775 Celeron and BAM, it still works! Now I have started to restore it. If it proves to run stable and reliably, I will use it for my S775 build instead of the ASUS P5QL Pro.
- Finally did a first attempt at retrobrighting, submerging the parts in water with lots of oxi washing powder and letting everything sit outside (in a clear box) in the sun for three full days. My mileage varied - while a Sony CD-ROM front plate and a SoundBlaster Audigy2 front plate turned out pretty well, the results on the front bezel of the 486 case could have been better. I might have to increase the amount of oxi powder or add UV lights...

yawetaG wrote on 2020-09-14, 19:38:

Bah, I seem to be having some really bad luck lately. […]
Show full quote

Bah, I seem to be having some really bad luck lately.

I missed playing SC3000, so decided to install it on my Pentium 4 system. Put the CD in the drive, closed the door, and somehow the CD shifted in the tray and got stuck between the door and the drive. The disc was slightly scratched. The game then installed fine, but apparently the disc got damaged in such a way that it fails the copy protection check when running the game as the disc heats up. Aaargh!

That, or both drives in my P4 system have either really bad error correction or are failing at the same time. I'll check the cable connections to be sure and try with another game...

Maybe I should just buy the GOG version...no more disc, so should be better, right?

GOG releases sometimes still use a CD image (Carmageddon, for example, because it has CD audio tracks) which is mounted in DOSBox using 'imgmount'. So if you want to use the game on a real machine you'll have to mount the image yourself using Daemon Tools or SHSUCDHD (in DOS). So it's essentially the same as ripping the original disc and mounting it.

Did some quick testing today on a Slot 1 PIII PC/motherboard - Gigabyte GA-6BXE Rev. 2. It would have made a great gaming system, works well with a Coppermine Celeron 1.1GHz CPU on a Slotket and even supports 133MHz FSB stable as tested with a different Coppermine 133 CPU. Also supports up to 1GB RAM, currently just has 512MB installed.

Alas I can't use this setup right now as there are at least 5 bad/bulging (1 leaking) capacitors and no doubt more hiding away. The board works absolutely fine and ran through 3DMark in Windows, but I'm not going to take any chances and run it in this state permanently. My solder skills aren't great either and I don't want to risk killing a good motherboard like that, so I'll either have to learn how to solder properly or find somebody to recap it for me at some point.

PTherapist wrote on 2020-09-16, 15:25:

Did some quick testing today on a Slot 1 PIII PC/motherboard - Gigabyte GA-6BXE Rev. 2. It would have made a great gaming system, works well with a Coppermine Celeron 1.1GHz CPU on a Slotket and even supports 133MHz FSB stable as tested with a different Coppermine 133 CPU. Also supports up to 1GB RAM, currently just has 512MB installed.

Alas I can't use this setup right now as there are at least 5 bad/bulging (1 leaking) capacitors and no doubt more hiding away. The board works absolutely fine and ran through 3DMark in Windows, but I'm not going to take any chances and run it in this state permanently. My solder skills aren't great either and I don't want to risk killing a good motherboard like that, so I'll either have to learn how to solder properly or find somebody to recap it for me at some point.

All Gigabyte boards I had from this era (2 BX2000, 1 BX2000+, 2 6BXE) had failed caps as well; I have since partially recapped 3 of them, sold off two and one is now my main board for my Slot-1 1996-1998 build. They are strangely difficult boards to recap, for whatever reason the solder on these is VERY difficult to get off compared to later or earlier stuff. Regardless, they are pretty good boards and worth repairing. 6BXE in particular has 3 ISA slots IIRC which makes it particularly worthwhile..

My home-server is slowly taking form. It is not on the top of my list of to-do stuff, however I have done the PSU compartment.
For powering it on, I have chosen a Meanwell 5v 10a PSU to power that lovely OrangePI-Plus2 and an internal SATA HDD.
Yup. The OrangePI-Plus2 have a SATA connector on the board, eliminating the need for a SATA-to-USB converter.
For building the PSU compartment, I have used cardboard and lots of two-component epoxy glue, hence the extreme glossy finish.
(Once finished, the server will indeed be a true custom-build)

Did some testing today with a PC containing an ECS P6BAT-Me v. 1.1 Socket 370/Slot 1 motherboard (Via Apollo Pro chipset).

Installed the fastest CPU I currently have in my collection via a Slotket - a Celeron 1.1GHz and installed 512MB RAM. I had a HDD with Windows 2000 installed on it, cloned from another PC with a similar chipset. Graphics card is a GeForce 4 MX 440 AGP8X version, using the 43.45 drivers. Also updated to the latest available BIOS from June 2000 for proper detection of the HDD I'm using and it also correctly identified the installed CPU.

Performed some benchmarks in Windows 2000 and wow does this thing suck! Tried several versions of the Via 4-in-1 chipset drivers, as well as tweaking various BIOS settings & Windows settings etc, but this thing still peforms atrociously and 3DMark 2000 often gives out garbage results like "1" or "2" 3DMarks, whilst 2001SE works fine but shows underwhelming results.

Going to experiment some more tomorrow with different driver versions for both the VIA chipset & GeForce card, as well as testing different graphics cards. I'll see if I can improve things, or give it up and put this PC back to being a PII-era system with it's original Rage 3D Pro graphics card.

I would do a full clean install of 2000 and then try your benchmarks again. Using an install from another computer usually ends up nit working out well.

PTherapist wrote on 2020-09-17, 18:53:

Did some testing today with a PC containing an ECS P6BAT-Me v. 1.1 Socket 370/Slot 1 motherboard (Via Apollo Pro chipset).

Installed the fastest CPU I currently have in my collection via a Slotket - a Celeron 1.1GHz and installed 512MB RAM. I had a HDD with Windows 2000 installed on it, cloned from another PC with a similar chipset. Graphics card is a GeForce 4 MX 440 AGP8X version, using the 43.45 drivers. Also updated to the latest available BIOS from June 2000 for proper detection of the HDD I'm using and it also correctly identified the installed CPU.

Try the 40.72 WHQL drivers. Those gave me the best performance with an MX440, albeit under Win98SE.

I'm unfamiliar with that motherboard, but otherwise, the rest of the components should perform fairly well in games released up to 2001.

HandOfFate wrote on 2020-09-16, 10:44:

yawetaG wrote on 2020-09-14, 19:38:

Bah, I seem to be having some really bad luck lately. […]
Show full quote

Bah, I seem to be having some really bad luck lately.

I missed playing SC3000, so decided to install it on my Pentium 4 system. Put the CD in the drive, closed the door, and somehow the CD shifted in the tray and got stuck between the door and the drive. The disc was slightly scratched. The game then installed fine, but apparently the disc got damaged in such a way that it fails the copy protection check when running the game as the disc heats up. Aaargh!

That, or both drives in my P4 system have either really bad error correction or are failing at the same time. I'll check the cable connections to be sure and try with another game...

Maybe I should just buy the GOG version...no more disc, so should be better, right?

GOG releases sometimes still use a CD image (Carmageddon, for example, because it has CD audio tracks) which is mounted in DOSBox using 'imgmount'. So if you want to use the game on a real machine you'll have to mount the image yourself using Daemon Tools or SHSUCDHD (in DOS). So it's essentially the same as ripping the original disc and mounting it.

SimCity 3000 is a Windows game (95/98 etc.).

Anyway, today I spotted that all SimCity games were 75% off at GOG, so I snatched both SC3K and SC4 for a little bit more than 6 Euros. 😁

Installed SC3K (GOG version) on my XP PC...and it still crashes after about 30 minutes of play (and when restarted after about 9 minutes). So the crashes I got earlier were not CD-ROM reading error related. After some googling I discovered I have to run it in compatibility mode and possibly have to disable specific options. Sigh.

We've recently moved again, and I finally have space to get the retro stuff out of totes and storage, organized, and hopefully tested and put to use.

The storage shelves are getting pretty full, albeit not terribly well organized and not 100% retro:

I'm planning to move the retro LAN setup that's currently at my in-laws here, I've got 20 ft of wall space in the basement rec room (it's about a 26x12ft room) where all 8 machines will fit. The plan is to have the Retro LAN, my main desktop, and a retro-console corner in the rec room, which should be awesome.

That's a pretty solid collection. You won't be running out of DVD drives anytime soon.

LHN91 wrote on 2020-09-18, 01:58:

We've recently moved again, and I finally have space to get the retro stuff out of totes and storage, organized, and hopefully t […]
Show full quote

We've recently moved again, and I finally have space to get the retro stuff out of totes and storage, organized, and hopefully tested and put to use.

The storage shelves are getting pretty full, albeit not terribly well organized and not 100% retro:

IMG_20200917_214636.jpg

I'm planning to move the retro LAN setup that's currently at my in-laws here, I've got 20 ft of wall space in the basement rec room (it's about a 26x12ft room) where all 8 machines will fit. The plan is to have the Retro LAN, my main desktop, and a retro-console corner in the rec room, which should be awesome.

Interesting box on the top left corner shelf. 286?

pan069 wrote on 2020-09-18, 09:35:

LHN91 wrote on 2020-09-18, 01:58:

We've recently moved again, and I finally have space to get the retro stuff out of totes and storage, organized, and hopefully t […]
Show full quote

We've recently moved again, and I finally have space to get the retro stuff out of totes and storage, organized, and hopefully tested and put to use.

The storage shelves are getting pretty full, albeit not terribly well organized and not 100% retro:

IMG_20200917_214636.jpg

I'm planning to move the retro LAN setup that's currently at my in-laws here, I've got 20 ft of wall space in the basement rec room (it's about a 26x12ft room) where all 8 machines will fit. The plan is to have the Retro LAN, my main desktop, and a retro-console corner in the rec room, which should be awesome.

Interesting box on the top left corner shelf. 286?

It it's the one I think you're looking at, when I originally picked that box up it was a 486dx-33, with a tape drive setup in it. I never managed to get that board functional - I still have it in the hopes that one day maybe I'll fix it - but right now it's a SS7 setup. There's a turbo XT on the shelf next to the eMachines eOne though.

kolderman wrote on 2020-09-18, 02:52:

That's a pretty solid collection. You won't be running out of DVD drives anytime soon.

Most of them are IDE drives too, the SATA stack is the small stack on the shelf above.

Edit: I also could add that 90% of this stuff was either dumpster finds, or purchased for essentially scrap pricing from friendly recyclers. A couple are from family (the eOne being the main one). The matching black DVD drives largely came from a big batch of P4 towers I found and stripped for parts back when I was in university.

Continued to work today on a PC containing the ECS P6BAT-Me v. 1.1 Socket 370/Slot 1 motherboard. Tried various different things, earlier Nvidia drivers as suggested above and a clean install of Windows 2000. Nothing changed, it still performs dreadfully.

I tested 1 game today - Quake III Arena and it struggled with that - FMV & Audio stuttering and frame drops, which is funny considering I can run it perfectly on a K6-2 at less than half the speed. Seriously something wrong with this system. Also spotted latency spikes which began occurring after the Via 4-in-1 chipset drivers are installed.

I guess there's probably only 3 things left for me to try - a PCI graphics card, rolling back to an earlier BIOS and also trying a different OS. But my thinking is that this board and/or the pre-133 Via Apollo chipset is just junk.

LHN91 wrote on 2020-09-18, 01:58:

We've recently moved again, and I finally have space to get the retro stuff out of totes and storage, organized, and hopefully t […]
Show full quote

We've recently moved again, and I finally have space to get the retro stuff out of totes and storage, organized, and hopefully tested and put to use.

The storage shelves are getting pretty full, albeit not terribly well organized and not 100% retro:

IMG_20200917_214636.jpg

I'm planning to move the retro LAN setup that's currently at my in-laws here, I've got 20 ft of wall space in the basement rec room (it's about a 26x12ft room) where all 8 machines will fit. The plan is to have the Retro LAN, my main desktop, and a retro-console corner in the rec room, which should be awesome.

Many old laptops, a few PowerPC Macs, a PS2 Fat, and a turntable next to it. Nice.

PTherapist wrote on 2020-09-18, 18:46:

Continued to work today on a PC containing the ECS P6BAT-Me v. 1.1 Socket 370/Slot 1 motherboard. Tried various different things, earlier Nvidia drivers as suggested above and a clean install of Windows 2000. Nothing changed, it still performs dreadfully.

I tested 1 game today - Quake III Arena and it struggled with that - FMV & Audio stuttering and frame drops, which is funny considering I can run it perfectly on a K6-2 at less than half the speed. Seriously something wrong with this system. Also spotted latency spikes which began occurring after the Via 4-in-1 chipset drivers are installed.

I guess there's probably only 3 things left for me to try - a PCI graphics card, rolling back to an earlier BIOS and also trying a different OS. But my thinking is that this board and/or the pre-133 Via Apollo chipset is just junk.

Do you have any other graphics cards to try with it? And have you tried older/newer versions of the Via drivers? I recall other people here having really dreadful performance until they found the perfect driver. Im also wondering if for some odd reason the fact that your Geforce is a 8x card might be an issue. Can you verify that it is running in 4x or 2x speed? Just spitballing ideas.

I decided to see (or rather hear) for myself just how bad CQM really is compared to OPL3, since I have a Sound Blaster Vibra 16 CT4170 that I bought dirt cheap about 4 years ago. So I installed it in my Win98SE Tualeron Voodoo 3 Rig, disabled it in Device Manager since I only wanted it in DOS Mode, made DOS Mode files using Phil's starter pack, copied a few OPL2 & OPL3 trackers (along with their modules) over to the HDD, and proceeded to set up the whole thing. It all went with minimal trouble.
I tried it, and surprisingly it wasn't all that bad, some tunes even sounded the same! Some others sounded comically bad, and some others just slightly different. Still, I think the OPL3 sounds much better, although CQM isn't that much of an abomination either, just, different. Still better than AudioPCI's 'emulation', that's for sure. The thing is, most OPL2/3 Tunes are meant for actual OPL2/3 chips, not loose reimplementations.

I also noticed that my CRT monitor's display was a bit off, like the actual shape of the image was weird. I was kinda worried at first that it had somehow gotten damaged or magnetised beyond degaussing, but as it turns out, it just needed to be reconfigured in the OSD. It gave me some trouble, but I managed to get the image just about right.