Redid the AV connections of my home office after acquiring a HDMI capture card (Magewell Pro Capture HDMI) so that I can do AV captures of any of the systems that are currently connected:

Green = VGA, PS/2
Red = RGB Scart
Brown = Component
Yellow = HDMI
Purple = Analogue audio
Grey = MIDI

Everything except my main workstation now ultimately outputs over HDMI (either combined video + audio, or just video with analogue audio routed back seperately), and splits to both the display and to the capture card - I can either have systems displayed via the monitor HDMI input, or switch to my workstation and use the capture card for windowed playback.

Ultimately I'll be putting some videos and audio/MIDI comparisons from the actual hardware on my website.

Installed SciTech Display Doctor on the Versa M/75 - v5.03a I believe. Have never used VBE on any of my machines before and apparently I've been missing out a ton (all the Versa Laptops + my 486 desktop all use VESA compliant display cards/circuitry). So, before work, I'm going to start downloading and installing VBE on all four Versa and get the files for my 486 DX4-100 desktop as well. There were some programs that ran alright without it but run almost perfectly with it. I got this initially so I could test out HX DOS Extender (eventually I want to put them all on FreeDOS if possible). Did this over lunch yesterday, got home, then felt sick.....so I slept most of the afternoon and night and got up to take it for a spin around midnignt....here's everything that changed with VBE....

- Windows screens come up a lot faster, 3.11 For Workgroups and 95 (that machine triple boots into DOS/3.11/95 OSR 2.5).
- Postal Raw & Uncut runs MUCH better, it ran so bad I deleted the shortcut. I'm thinking Running With Scissors intended for this to be used with it if you were running the minimum hardware (486 DX2-66, 16MB of RAM)
- Diablo also sped up though some weird graphical wobbling occurs because of how it handles the screen
- Retro City Rampage runs at full speed in DOS, the Windows 3.1 beta also improved to be almost inline with the DOS version take a frame or two
- 16-bit Console Emulators now run much faster, fast enough to play comfortably (but slow enough to notice speed loss) ZSNES and Genecyst might be getting used more, ZSNES ran at 800x600 at the same speed it did at 320x200 before
- Speed improvement in Theme Hospital when my hospitals get really busy and I have a lot of crap on screen....

So I'm thinking this is now a standard part of my builds. Did find one flaw, it causes Links to go nuts in graphical mode, so I'm only using it in Windows and in dedicated gaming modes anyway where RAM is freed.

Played around with WSSXLAT again, no dice for the M/75 in DOS, just have to rely on games with a driver built in for DOS stuff until that PCMCIA Sound card comes out (or I find another one). Started upgrading Links, turns out Links is still updating their DOS Binaries for that browser, were up to 2.22 now as of this March.

I wrapped up my Gateway 2000 Sleeper project last night. With the exception of one key component, it’s ready for day-to-day use. This low-profile case made in 1993 now houses:

- B560 Mini-ITX Motherboard
- Intel Core i7-11700 Processor
- 32GB of DDR4-3200 RAM
- 1TB NVMe SSD
- 3TB HDD
- 24x DVD-RW Drive
- 3.5” USB3/HD Audio Front Panel
- Corsair CV650 Power Supply

I provisioned space and power for a discrete graphics card (either a RTX 3060 or 3060 Ti), but I’m having a bit of trouble sourcing one right now. The Xe graphics aren’t terrible, but I won’t be playing triple-A games on this computer anytime soon.

I love having it on my desk, though. Feels like the old days (just not as noisy).

megatron-uk wrote on 2021-04-08, 08:36:

Redid the AV connections of my home office after acquiring a HDMI capture card (Magewell Pro Capture HDMI) so that I can do AV captures of any of the systems that are currently connected:

AV Logical Connections - 2021.png

Dang, this is really impressive. Very extensive and flexible setup, love it.

I count 5 "hoops" that the output from the RGB-computers go through to reach the monitor. 😀
Personally I would add a CRT or two to the mix, but I see the appeal of having everything routed to one monitor. Oh, and with all that audio stuff, maybe some nice(r) speakers?

I'd be curious to hear how the Magewell card plays with Linux, if that's something you're planning. If I recall correctly, Linux is mentioned in the specs, but I've never heard of anyone trying it.

Been setting up a humble and unconventional Super Socket 7 build comprised of:

LuckyTech P5MVP3 w/ RevD BIOS (128GB limit patched)
AMD K6-2 500MHz
384MB PC133 RAM
40GB WD400BB HDD split-partitioned - 20GB for Windows and 20GB for Games
Geforce FX5200 128MB (ASUS V9520)
Soundblaster Live 5.1 CT4830 (this was a gift that came with the board, along with a SATA LG DVD-RW drive - the latter is beyond my understanding why my friend sent it, but whatever, it never hurts to have one.)
450W "Delux" SFX PSU (not the best but it can easily power older systems just fine)
temporary Lite-On IDE DVD-RW for DOS booting (I don't have working floppies so CDs are my only option)

Right now I'm preparing the drive for easy setup - using a Sweex IDE HDD enclosure, I'm copying a Win98SE disk over on the HDD, so I can use it to install the OS, and preparing folders of the drivers - VIA 4in1, SB Live 5.1, nVidia 81.98 FWare. Also loading some retro games like Oddworld, Frogger, NFS 5 P2000, NFS II SE, Tank Racer and hopefully a lot more.

Crawled into my main PC HP Z220 for dusting (will be 10 years next year). Also dismounted dusty heatsink, disassembled for better job of cleaned out built up dust and replaced old heatsink paste. Done, video card does not need cleaning since is in passive mode.

Cheers,

Today I dedicated myself to restoring an interrupted track on a MotherBoard M.ATX 462, I found after switching on that it is a PCChips M810LR, this abbreviation must not be misleading it has no Intel chipset, the chipset is a T- Bird aka SiS730, and the socket is therefore an SKT 462 (A).
As you will see from the image I have fixed the track by welding a wire, the result is not really great aesthetically (quite questionable), but from checks carried out before switching on it is working.
Starting the motherboard without a drive and more, I notice that by moving the RAM bank from the second bank to the first, the MotherBoard starts up, while not before (in addition to emitting various beeps), at this point I begin to see if with a second bank (i.e. with the 2 banks full) increases the amount detected by the BIOS, in fact it is so and therefore I replace the 128MB bank I had used for the test and put another 256MB one, in total now I have 512MB of RAM (- i 16MB for integrated VGA).

My WInXP-era hardware - a mere few systems, mainly socket 478 (i.e. Pentium 4) - has, over the past year, been rapidly degrading and dying. Systems which worked last time they were run 1-2 years back, have mostly developed serious faults or intolerances. Recaps may help some (as we all know, that was Bad Cap Era) but ultimately a lot of it has been poorly looked-after and stored, and time constraints mean that I will likely never have the time to bring it back, on top of the interminable days already spent simply finding out what does-or-doesn't work.

Ironically, my socket 7 era stuff just keeps soldiering on, decade-after-decade! No complaints here - that's my preferred retro PC era.

Anyway, my point being that after 3 failures due to various fatal hardware issues, I finally struck upon a working combination of P4 components from my stash, and again have an early XP system to play with. I'll try to leave the damn thing built this time, so that I can avoid this rigmarole next time I get the XP-gaming urge....

And the secondary point : it puts me in mind of the concept : "all original retro hardware will be dead one day, and recreations will be all we have". Which we will all eventually have to come to terms with as, through time, eras of hardware gradually but inevitably iterate their way out of continued operation*.

*excerpt from "Eulogy For Robots". Which doesn't exist, but if it did, then this sentence should be in it, right??

yourepicfailure wrote on 2021-03-26, 05:19:

Repaired a T4400C power supply board. Unit powered up, and I get a nice whopping 20 minutes off the battery. Also swapped the dr […]
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Repaired a T4400C power supply board. Unit powered up, and I get a nice whopping 20 minutes off the battery.
Also swapped the drive with a 340mb microdrive and it worked well.
t4400c.jpg
For 3 days.
Then the LCD started acting funny so I looked in there too.
Turns out some SMD electrolytics blew out on the "brain" board. Now waiting for replacements to arrive from mouser to go replace those too.
leboard.jpg
notbad.jpg

Luckily didn't get very far onto the actual panel, so shouldn't be too bad of a job.

Hey, I just got a Toshiba with a bad PSU as well! 😀

Mine's a T1950CT, which was reported as shutting off when you tried to turn it on, unless you left it for a few hours. It didn't work at all for me and I didn't wait to find out.

Sure enough inside it, one of the capacitors (the 16v 1000uf Elna cap) had leaked onto the board:

The two other big caps also smelled fishy when heated so they got replaced too. Cleaned the board up thoroughly with IPA:

I was lucky and had each one of these in the same capacitance, voltage & temperature rating. I only replaced those three though, the rest tested okay, were fairly small and had weird values, so I didn't want to wait for replacements.

Maybe I should make a thread about it, I made a note of the capacitors for anyone else having trouble with Toshibas of this vintage. My T4900CT will probably need the same thing done soon.

I was interested to see what the caps looked like on the display since the capacitors look like that on your one. I think this T1950CT is quite low hours actual usage since it's not yellowed, the HD still works, almost all plastics intact and the CCFL is pretty bright. Maybe it will happen in future though. Since my T4900CT clearly had a lot of usage in its day with its yellowed plastics, I Should really check the TFT in there too.
The capacitors look like they're okay for now:

Check out the size of the panel, 8.4" viewable area and all that board around it. While I was in there, fixed up the hinge plastics where two screw posts had snapped off, added some thermoplastic to keep it all in place:

Oh yeah, and I replaced the belt on the floppy drive since I don't want to go back into the laptop again - replacing those Citizen W1D laptop drive belts is the worst! The drive sounds kind of janky now, but it reads disks okay.

Currently upgrading LInks and putting UniVBE on all my laptops. So happy with the results on the M/75 all the others are getting it too. Waiting for my next Aironet card to come in as well. That one is going in the VErsa I'm building up for the wife (V/50). I'm doing FreeDOS with Access Menu, and experimenting with Network On/Off for when I SPECIFICALLY am using programs on that one. Basically making a user-friendly DOS system that only has what's needed loaded when needed.

Also, based on events in the "New PCMCIA Sound Card" thread I decided to take it upon myself to start learning more about the PCMCIA, ISA, and look into maybe building a very simple adlib card for laptops. I've built guitar pedals before so there's no reason I should not be able to - with lots of internet help, figure this out. My goal would be something like Sergey's Adlib card, but in a PCMCIA card, but either redirects the sound to the internal speaker of the laptop, or sends the output to a speaker inside the card itself (flat piezo element). I'm not going to say much more about it until I actually start messing with it more than just drawing diagrams and reading though. If it's good maybe I'll expand into fancier designs. Right now I'm kind of kicking myself for not starting sooner, I'm oddly grasping things more easily than I expected to.

Replaced a SB AWE64 Value with this SB16 (CT2910) :

A real OPL2 and OPL3 and no background noise. It's also the sound card I had back when I was a kid.

Also, nothing to do once installed :
- No more weird / not-so-good MIDI music, because it's not a clone.
- No noise
- No driver to install (well OK I had to use the non-plug and play wizard and it asked for drivers, but I only had to point it to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM once)
- No TSR / diagnose needed at startup / in DOSSTART.BAT. Also Windows98SE boots so much faster ! It was so bad before that I was tempted to 'upgrade' to Windows ME... Not anymore !
- Works out of the box with anything : Cybermage, Doom 2, MechWarrior 2, Dune, Dune 2, UFO : Enemy Unknown, Lands of Lore : The Throne of Chaos, Windows 98SE, Windows XP, ...

What's not to love !! 😁

stoof wrote on 2021-04-08, 17:22:

Dang, this is really impressive. Very extensive and flexible setup, love it. […]
Show full quote

megatron-uk wrote on 2021-04-08, 08:36:

Redid the AV connections of my home office after acquiring a HDMI capture card (Magewell Pro Capture HDMI) so that I can do AV captures of any of the systems that are currently connected:

AV Logical Connections - 2021.png

Dang, this is really impressive. Very extensive and flexible setup, love it.

I count 5 "hoops" that the output from the RGB-computers go through to reach the monitor. 😀
Personally I would add a CRT or two to the mix, but I see the appeal of having everything routed to one monitor. Oh, and with all that audio stuff, maybe some nice(r) speakers?

I'd be curious to hear how the Magewell card plays with Linux, if that's something you're planning. If I recall correctly, Linux is mentioned in the specs, but I've never heard of anyone trying it.

I use the Magewell card exclusively with Linux - it has a very lightweight driver that compiles with a huge range of kernels (all the way back to the 2.6.x series, IIRC), so it's far easier than, say the Blackmagic stuff, Epiphan or the ubiquitous Datapath Vision card which is otherwise recommended highly - the driver for that would not even compile on my Mint 20.x system. Anything which is only supported on specific kernel versions or (even worse) specific kernel versions on specific distributions make those cards non-starters for me.

So far I've done captures with my X68000 (which goes via the OSSC) and Dreamcast (native HDMI out via Pound HDMI convertor cable). It copes really well with both of them; resolution changes do flash up the "unsupported signal" for perhaps 0.5-1 sec, so I'm not sure it would cope with something like an Amiga or similar running a game where the display is changed after so many scanlines.

I'm playing with OBS at the moment, and the Magewell card integrates quite nicely, as it appears to the system as another V4L source.

One thing I haven't tried at the moment is HDMI digital audio capture, as I'm just doing analogue capture right now. In theory, the modern stuff should just squirt the AC3 encoded audio over the HDMI connection and it should be captured digitally by the Magewell card.

The one downside for me is that being a V4L source... when I now start up a Zoom or Teams chat with others at work, my Magewell "No signal" screen is now the default video source, rather than my webcam! 😁

Tested out the Asus EISA/VL 486 Motherboard which arrived today. Happy to report its powers on and posts and recognises the ram I installed. The Dallas is dead but thankfully it is socketed. Now to start to collect parts to do a build around this. I have a VLB Cirrus GD5429 which I think I will user for the graphics.

Although a Tseng or a Ark card would be nice

I bricked my retro build by testing a bios cmos utility...
First i used it to make a backup of the cmos settings, which seemingly went well.
Then i used it to reset the cmos as a test, this indeed reset the bios to its corrupted setting state and i chose to load the default settings.
Apparently i should not have done that on my ASUS A8V, because when i rebooted into my DOS partition to restore the changes the files did not read correctly and it showed everything as empty for some reason.
No big deal right? I just manually reconfigure the BIOS settings for the harddrive or boot it from a USB stick or at worst just do everything fresh.
Wrong! USB Overcurrent protection kicked in and now completely locked me out of the entire system. I have no idea why this happened, it should not be an actual USB current issue since it also happens with nothing plugged in and did not ever happen prior to the CMOS reset. Neither did a previous automatic reset trigger this.

So now i am completely locked out of the this build because it refuses to POST, so going into the BIOS settings to for example temporarily turn the USB controller off is not an option.
Its midnight here so its to late to get the tools to open the machine up and do a CMOS reset or get it to boot if i disconnect the front panel USB which i had not hooked up when i originally configured the system, hopefully once i can do this tomorrow it will revive this great PC and restore the cmos backup i had made. Otherwise i am going to have to order a new motherboard...

henk717 wrote on 2021-04-10, 23:16:

I bricked my retro build by testing a bios cmos utility... First i used it to make a backup of the cmos settings, which seemingl […]
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I bricked my retro build by testing a bios cmos utility...
First i used it to make a backup of the cmos settings, which seemingly went well.
Then i used it to reset the cmos as a test, this indeed reset the bios to its corrupted setting state and i chose to load the default settings.
Apparently i should not have done that on my ASUS A8V, because when i rebooted into my DOS partition to restore the changes the files did not read correctly and it showed everything as empty for some reason.
No big deal right? I just manually reconfigure the BIOS settings for the harddrive or boot it from a USB stick or at worst just do everything fresh.
Wrong! USB Overcurrent protection kicked in and now completely locked me out of the entire system. I have no idea why this happened, it should not be an actual USB current issue since it also happens with nothing plugged in and did not ever happen prior to the CMOS reset. Neither did a previous automatic reset trigger this.

So now i am completely locked out of the this build because it refuses to POST, so going into the BIOS settings to for example temporarily turn the USB controller off is not an option.
Its midnight here so its to late to get the tools to open the machine up and do a CMOS reset or get it to boot if i disconnect the front panel USB which i had not hooked up when i originally configured the system, hopefully once i can do this tomorrow it will revive this great PC and restore the cmos backup i had made. Otherwise i am going to have to order a new motherboard...

Or re-program the eeprom/eprom/cmos chip!
A USB programmer saved several boards from going to waste.

Reprogramming the chip seems to be more expensive than the board but i did find a place that would ship a brand new chip programmed with a bios of choice.

I still think it will be salvagable with a cmos reset, i had this board error out on me in the past resetting itself. I am not sure if i had the front panel hooked up but i certainly manually corrected the settings that day while this time i kept the defaults.

I am also a bit of research further, even in the bugged state you indeed get 1 (buggy) boot if you reset the cmos and choose to boot with defaults. This would be enough to flash a bios from floppy. Ny floppy's are terribly unreliable so ill settle with my floppy that can trigger a cd boot and a freshly burned disk if i end up having to go this route.

The reason this is relevant is that bios 2.19 and lower do not have this check and any bugs associated with it (i manually verified this with a tool to mod amibiosses which allowed me to dump the warning string which is present after 219) Its apparently a common thing with the board where ram timings, front panels with the 5th pin unused (which i have) or just corrupt cmos settings can trigger this. So i will definately downgrade the bios to get rid of this bug forever.

So right now my war plan is to first disconnect the front usb since i originally had no proper pinout for this so i only connected it recently and ill then see if it allows me in. If it does i can perform either a cmos restore with the utility or a bios downgrade. If it doesn't ill have to reset the cmos and immediately dive in the settings trying to configure the board properly again so i can then perform the downgrade. If that fails ill try the floppy + boot cd method (already prepared the iso). And if that fails ill order a new bios chip for $10 and request them to put 2.19 on it.

Iv got 16gb of amd ddr2 800mhz ram coming soon. Have a Nvidia chipset Gigabyte am3/2+ motherboard with 4 ram slots and a phenom ii 1055t Im gunna try em out with.

I modified my Gotek floppy emulator with an SD slot that attaches to a SD-to-IDE device and 3D printed a new bezel. I used the beigest paint I had, but it wasn't beige enough. I also replaced the 52x cd-rom with a much, much quieter Apple branded DVD drive.

Neat.

I've been having a play with Speedsys and managed to get my overall memory throughput up from ~80MB/s to around 111MB/s. It seems stable, it'll run three iterations of 3DMark 99 time after time. Oh, and I've also been playing Quake 2. It's runs perfectly but I had to record a 1 second silent .wav file and use the Quake PAK tool to replace the 'Computer updated!' sound that plays EVERY 3 seconds and was extremely annoying😃.