Did some more testing for the Gigabyte 486 board and it works, but it refuses to retain the BIOS settings, including the date and time with the new RTC Dallas chip I have installed (the one that will allow a new battery to be installed and I think it has to do with the size of said battery).

Getting further here with the board, which is better than before.

The Jetway, on the other hand, needs new capacitors and/or a reflow on the solder joints due to corrosion, however, I got a code C8FF on the POST card, but it went back to ---- on the card (indicates the corrosion on the contact pins for the caps are causing the issues).

Ported some code for .NET Framework 2.0 (because it's compatible with Windows 98. At least if you install the ANSI version made for it).

Turbo XT clone build. Installed XTIDE ROM (27C64) to "ROM BASIC" and that seems to work fine with random 16-bit I/O controller. It boots DOS 6.22 just for testing.

There is no support for HD floppy drives. Just wondering could I just burn XTIDE + HD-Floppy BIOS to single 27C128 ROM ?
EDIT: I answer to myself: You you can! Just joined XTIDE+Floppy ROMs and voila...

fool wrote on 2021-02-21, 16:15:

Turbo XT clone build. Installed XTIDE ROM (27C64) to "ROM BASIC" and that seems to work fine with random 16-bit I/O controller. It boots DOS 6.22 just for testing.

There is no support for HD floppy drives. Just wondering could I just burn XTIDE + HD-Floppy BIOS to single 27C128 ROM ?
EDIT: I answer to myself: You you can! Just joined XTIDE+Floppy ROMs and voila...

That's interesting, I didn't think any 16-bit I/O controllers would work with IDE in an 8-Bit ISA slot. Usually only Floppy works.

Planning on doing the same thing with a Compaq Portable 1 that has the 2x 360KB drives so I can use the Epson SD-800 as the HD drive and the other 360KB for making 360KB diskettes, but it'll be a chore to install a smaller FDD in the system since they used the full length drives up until the late XT early 286 (AT) class systems.

Also, where can I find the HD floppy BIOS at?

More testing of 980ti w/ Acer XB271HU and Dell U2410 monitorsin Windows XP 32bit with scaling and workarounds for issues as well as game compatibility testing with XP 32bit and Vista 64bit

Among other things verified newer versions of GTA V broke Vista support (v1.41 works) and Epic version of Borderlands 2 doesn't work on XP while the Steam version does. Games frequently updated seem to be breaking their original OS compatibility more and more, sometimes it's the client, sometimes it's the game and sometimes both.
Also noticed games I assumed would work on Vista don't since they require Windows 7 so never assume.

Doomsday 2.0.3 latest that works on Vista
Gzdoom 4-4-2 works on Vista
Daggerfall Unity requires Windows 7
T2Fix 1.27d requires Vista

Ever since I rebuilt my childhood setup - almost two years ago - around PC Chips 560 mainboard with Pentium 166MHz, I had issues with serial ports. Whenever I connected anything to COM1 or COM2 (mice, mostly) the system freaked out, booting into Windows "retard" mode, however the connected devices always worked. Today I finally found the culprit, and it turned out it was power related fault which I caused. I had connected a CPU fan to the onboard fan header in "7V mod" fashion to reduce noise (where fan gnd wire is connected to +5v pin). I kept thinking about it recently, and how it allegedly stressed the PSU, as I remembered to have read around the internet. So removing it, and going back to normal connection and resistor based rpm reducer, I noticed that the issue with COM port disappeared - great! I hope no long term damage was done though, as they are, in fact, THE mainboard and THE CPU from my childhood...

I wonder what your experience is with "7V fan mod"?

Today I made a playlist for "MAMEdev" (MAME development team members) which consists of all presentations given by MAMEdev members at conferences and conventions from 2008 to 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMof4t … sX3FlGq_KT7WCeg

This was added to the MAME team's "new-ish" official YouTube channel (it's technically a 4 year old channel, although it has been an idle and empty channel for all of that time):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-ynwwJKlNQipcym48qPI3A

To go along with the new "Dragging MAME Into the 21st Century" presentation we uploaded last week, Vas Crabb ("cuavas") presentation at FOSDEM (Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting) '21.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UlIWLnIzY8

I got a Ti 486SXL in pga 132, AT LAST. This is the opportunity to see how it perfoms in comparison to its pga 132 counterparts.

PTherapist wrote on 2021-02-21, 18:53:

fool wrote on 2021-02-21, 16:15:

Turbo XT clone build. Installed XTIDE ROM (27C64) to "ROM BASIC" and that seems to work fine with random 16-bit I/O controller. It boots DOS 6.22 just for testing.

There is no support for HD floppy drives. Just wondering could I just burn XTIDE + HD-Floppy BIOS to single 27C128 ROM ?
EDIT: I answer to myself: You you can! Just joined XTIDE+Floppy ROMs and voila...

That's interesting, I didn't think any 16-bit I/O controllers would work with IDE in an 8-Bit ISA slot. Usually only Floppy works.

The magic needed is 8bit IDE option in XTIDE build what forces IDE controller to 8bit mode. It needs support from drive, AFAIK only CF-cards and microdrives do. I tried couple of modern HDD - no detection.

fool wrote on 2021-02-22, 15:36:

The magic needed is 8bit IDE option in XTIDE build what forces IDE controller to 8bit mode. It needs support from drive, AFAIK only CF-cards and microdrives do. I tried couple of modern HDD - no detection.

Ah, that is interesting. I never tried a CF card with 8-Bit mode on XTIDE, I'll have to give that a go on my IBM XT & Turbo XT boards. I have about 3 generic I/O controllers so maybe I'll get lucky and one of those will work.

Today's retro activity for me - properly fitting a Gotek into my Atari STE. I ordered a 3D printed mounting bracket from eBay, which arrived today. Looks much neater now and sturdier too.

I was missing most of the floppy screws and the bottom right screw was the incorrect type so I had to improvise with a slightly shorter screw and screw it in from above. Works just fine, it'll suffice:

The original Floppy Drive, which is fully working, goes into storage for now. Much cleaner & neater to mount this in the case, considering the previous owner had already cut the plastic (I assume to replace the Floppy drive at some point).

Careful, put an Atari this close to an Amiga and you'll have a war going on...

Found a recapper for my Amiga1200. Going to have it recapped with organic polymer caps, for minimum leakage in the future.

Also...
Fixed the mouse that came with the Amiga1200. I had to change one switch, then I was able to get working by having the other switch soaked in IPA. Cleaned the PCB with IPA and the ball plus rollers and sensors in IPA as well. The plastic shell was also cleaned in IPA. It is a responsive and heavy mouse, now working like new.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-02-22, 18:43:

Careful, put an Atari this close to an Amiga and you'll have a war going on...

The 1200 eats ST's for breakfast.... 500/600 is a totally different situation. (It is much the same as the Falcon eats Amiga500/600 for breakfast)

One longest lived switches I use to replace standard junk micro-switches in my favourite mouse is omron maker. Easily obtained from ebay, mouser (place your large order of components to cover the shipping and minimum order cost). And other electronic suppliers should have these.

Cheers,

xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-02-22, 18:43:

Careful, put an Atari this close to an Amiga and you'll have a war going on...

Haha, yeah.

Though in the case of a war, I wouldn't want to be on the poor STE's side when faced with an Amiga 1200. I'm not a big fan of crushing defeats. 🤣

brostenen wrote on 2021-02-22, 22:21:

xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-02-22, 18:43:

Careful, put an Atari this close to an Amiga and you'll have a war going on...

The 1200 eats ST's for breakfast.... 500/600 is a totally different situation. (It is much the same as the Falcon eats Amiga500/600 for breakfast)

OK, here we go again ... who'll bring the popcorn?

CMB75 wrote on 2021-02-23, 12:17:

brostenen wrote on 2021-02-22, 22:21:

xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-02-22, 18:43:

Careful, put an Atari this close to an Amiga and you'll have a war going on...

The 1200 eats ST's for breakfast.... 500/600 is a totally different situation. (It is much the same as the Falcon eats Amiga500/600 for breakfast)

OK, here we go again ... who'll bring the popcorn?

Uhmm... What? Look at the spec's for AtariST, Amiga1200, Amiga500/600 and Atari Falcon.
This is no fight/war or anything, it is just facts, that the Amiga1200 is way more powerfull than an AtariST.

If I may use a different platform as an example, then the Pentium eats 486 for breakfast.
In the case of AtariST versus Amiga500/600, then it is more equal. Each win on their own turf.
Overall productivity, ST one point. Overall gaming, Amiga one point.

Cleaned my Radeon X850 XT