Wanted a PDF of original MS DOS 5 manual and have an original from my Leading Tech old computer but did not want to scan it all.
The other one at Archive org is missing more than half the book, should be pages numbered to 668 but only goes to page 126 and is a bad scan...
so used some fancy finger work and got the whole book as PDF. https://archive.org/details/msdos_5_User_Guide_complete
added: is still being finalized, hope it does not get removed.....

I bought a sheet-fed scanner for this exact reason. Scanning thousands of pages of books and manuals? No thank you.

It's a lot of work to cut up books, and there is some expertise that goes along with it, but I have too much bulk. I'm fine with scanning most of this stuff and just letting the paper go.

Recieved the case badge for my 1200.
And now it is finished the way I want it. Fully recapped, brand new case, accelerator and more. I am really happy with the result and with the IndivisionAGA-MK3 it has a really sharp and crisp picture. I can simply not complain at this point. Never had I dreamt that I would be getting another 1200, after I sold my previous Amiga 1200 in the spring of 2006. But here I am in 2022 and yet again do I own a 1200. So happy....

gave this classic a clean the caps are like new probably the old study pc 🤣.
i have a pc with the trade name turtle beach on it so it'll be its new home on a non physical sblink motherboard. (no support on this card so post p2 era.)
Need the SPDIF attachment and am seeking a yamaha wavetable daughterboard that doesn't cost the planet.
I have needed a wavetable compatible soundcard for donkeys years.
I would prefer a yamaha based wavetable card but they're not around.
Its the low latency MIDI that doesn't use system ram like software canvas needs.
Anyhow couple of shots for all those turtles out there.
From a Dell machine originally.
Not the best turtle but it does sound good regardless.
Has someone got links to its best drivers?

Today I learned I can slipstream more than just SATA drivers for Windows XP...all Nforce2 drivers, Santa Cruz and Voodoo 2s.

Koolsmoky's XP Voodoo 2 driver that normally needs one card installed at a time for SLI also works with both installed already. I'm blown away.

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-05-04, 17:45:

Has someone got links to its best drivers?

See here for the latest drivers.
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/aureal-vortex-2.html

Note that the latest 2048 drivers have some bugs. Use the older version 2041. You will also lose a lot of features if you use the WDM/Windows 2000 drivers. The VXD drivers have all of the features but only work with Windows 9x.

The cheapest way to get a Yamaha XG wavetable is to add a second PCI sound card and use it exclusively for MIDI.

CNC machines at work still run Windows 2000 Professional, so i suppose i do a retro thing every day 🤣

Finished some repairs today.

Roland SC-55 Refurbishment
S3 Virge/GX Repair

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-05-05, 01:31:

See here for the latest drivers. https://www.philscomputerlab.com/aureal-vortex-2.html […]
Show full quote

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-05-04, 17:45:

Has someone got links to its best drivers?

See here for the latest drivers.
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/aureal-vortex-2.html

Note that the latest 2048 drivers have some bugs. Use the older version 2041. You will also lose a lot of features if you use the WDM/Windows 2000 drivers. The VXD drivers have all of the features but only work with Windows 9x.

The cheapest way to get a Yamaha XG wavetable is to add a second PCI sound card and use it exclusively for MIDI.

Thanks heaps I'm putting the machine together by pulling 2 apart its fun shuffling it until they're right.

Finally was able to start putting together a P4 Cedar Mill rig after the guy I bought DDR2 turned out to be an idiot, took forever to send it and when it finally arrived turned out they sent the wrong stick. Return for that is in progress and the new stick I bought from another seller arrived so I can put the thing together. But there was a surprise waiting under the MB battery:

So that can actually happen it seems.

A bit of corrosion there too that won't scrub off, any idea how long it could take before that can become a problem? I don't own a soldering iron so unless that's going to eat the motherbord, the house and me before the year ends I'd rather not rush off to get one.

Sombrero wrote on 2022-05-05, 10:42:

Finally was able to start putting together a P4 Cedar Mill rig after the guy I bought DDR2 turned out to be an idiot, took forev […]
Show full quote

Finally was able to start putting together a P4 Cedar Mill rig after the guy I bought DDR2 turned out to be an idiot, took forever to send it and when it finally arrived turned out they sent the wrong stick. Return for that is in progress and the new stick I bought from another seller arrived so I can put the thing together. But there was a surprise waiting under the MB battery:

Battery with skid marks.JPG

So that can actually happen it seems.

Corrosion.JPG

A bit of corrosion there too that won't scrub off, any idea how long it could take before that can become a problem? I don't own a soldering iron so unless that's going to eat the motherbord, the house and me before the year ends I'd rather not rush off to get one.

Don't worry about that.
Coin cell battery's are usually safe, in fact i cant recall ever seeing one leaking.
And to my eyes it doesn't even look like corrosion, more like there was a short somewhere
Which perhaps is even more alarming.

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2022-05-05, 11:22:

Don't worry about that. Coin cell battery's are usually safe, in fact i cant recall ever seeing one leaking. And to my eyes it d […]
Show full quote

Don't worry about that.
Coin cell battery's are usually safe, in fact i cant recall ever seeing one leaking.
And to my eyes it doesn't even look like corrosion, more like there was a short somewhere
Which perhaps is even more alarming.

Encouraging 😀

The seller sold it as tested and working and gave year long warranty, so there's that if it goes poof.

Finally got LT1085CT LDO voltage regulators to try on my ECS UM4980 v1.1 board and it works. Finally I can get other voltages to CPU beside 5V direct from PSU.

And now I have another issue. I put AMD 486DX2-66 on it, set jumpers correctly (checked multiple times, both against jumper pdf from ultimate retro, motherboard silkscreen and scan of the manual), but for some reason I get 486DX2 100 MHz on post if it's set to 33 MHz FSB. Regardless of if I set jumper to X2 or X3 multiplier... I get 75 MHz if I set FSB jumper to 25 MHz FSB.

So I'm currently WFTing...

Sombrero wrote on 2022-05-05, 10:42:

A bit of corrosion there too that won't scrub off, any idea how long it could take before that can become a problem? I don't own a soldering iron so unless that's going to eat the motherbord, the house and me before the year ends I'd rather not rush off to get one.

I can't see the corrosion on the motherboard from your photo.

The battery doesn't look too be like it's leaking. I would guess that some of the stainless plating was scraped off and the exposed metal oxidized and rusted a bit. Corrosion from a leaking battery is usually either white, green, and sometimes blue, but never brown; it's probably just rust.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-05-05, 15:17:

Sombrero wrote on 2022-05-05, 10:42:

A bit of corrosion there too that won't scrub off, any idea how long it could take before that can become a problem? I don't own a soldering iron so unless that's going to eat the motherbord, the house and me before the year ends I'd rather not rush off to get one.

I can't see the corrosion on the motherboard from your photo.

The battery doesn't look too be like it's leaking. I would guess that some of the stainless plating was scraped off and the exposed metal oxidized and rusted a bit. Corrosion from a leaking battery is usually either white, green, and sometimes blue, but never brown; it's probably just rust.

It's greener than what it looks on the photo, though it did get fainter after some scrubbing. But no need to swap the battery holder any time soon I take it?

Use vinegar to neutralize the acid and clean corrosion. Then go over it with isopropyl alcohol.

It's probably fine. It looks to be isolated to the leg there and won't have reached the motherboard, I suspect. As long as it's mechanically sound, it will be fine. I have a soldering iron and would still leave it alone if it were mine.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-05-05, 15:40:

Use vinegar to neutralize the acid and clean corrosion. Then go over it with isopropyl alcohol.

It's probably fine. It looks to be isolated to the leg there and won't have reached the motherboard, I suspect. As long as it's mechanically sound, it will be fine. I have a soldering iron and would still leave it alone if it were mine.

Will do, thanks!

I've got no experience with corrosion or even rust, no idea how quickly that crap can spread.

As long as you give the batter holder a cleaning your good to go. That tiny amount of corrosion would never spread far since you removed the source of the corrosion.

Solo761 wrote on 2022-05-05, 11:42:

Finally got LT1085CT LDO voltage regulators to try on my ECS UM4980 v1.1 board and it works. Finally I can get other voltages to CPU beside 5V direct from PSU.

And now I have another issue. I put AMD 486DX2-66 on it, set jumpers correctly (checked multiple times, both against jumper pdf from ultimate retro, motherboard silkscreen and scan of the manual), but for some reason I get 486DX2 100 MHz on post if it's set to 33 MHz FSB. Regardless of if I set jumper to X2 or X3 multiplier... I get 75 MHz if I set FSB jumper to 25 MHz FSB.

So I'm currently WFTing...

Welp, I WTFed it 😅. Tried 5V Intel 486DX2-66 and it worked as advertised, 66 MHz...

This CPU (A80486DX2-66 V8T) has CLKMUL on pin B13, while others have internal cache write through / write back select on this pin. DX4 CPUs have CLKMUL on R17 and X2 vs X3 jumper on motherboard is connected to R17 which doesn't to squat on this CPU .

So in the end I stuck a wire into B13 and checked all unused pins and luckily found it's pin. It's used for writeback 486 configs which motherboard supports, it's just that this CPU model seems to be orphaned... Used jumper wire and connected this pin to GND and voila, CPU booted as 66 MHz instead of 100 😁.

Also found site with pin difference by socket 3 CPU which might be interesting to some 😁

http://ps-2.kev009.com/eprmhtml/eprmx/h12203.htm

Mixed modern/retro activity. Today on my way home I stopped at a supermarket and bought an universal power brick. Currently my laptop and thin client shares their brick which is inconvenient. Turned out the brick's default plug is not an uncommon one so all its adapters work with the brick of my old lenovo laptop, the thin client powers on with it so that's a nice surprise.

Now over to the retro activity. A long time ago I bought an old Compaq laptop for which I didn't have a power brick and it didn't work with the above mentioned Lenovo one. Now I can finally boot it. A competent little thing aside of the atrocious screen. No gaming on this one. Are there any possible upgrades? Also the only option for sound is the beeper. This was the first time in my life I played Doom with beeper sound.

Back then I knew the hinge couldn't hold the screen, It was cheap so I bought it knowingly. I hoped it's just worn and can be fixed. it turns out it's completely broken. I don't know what can cause this kind of damage. Someone fell on it when it was open? There is also a little tear on the ribbon cable which gives a hint about the display error.

Well anyway, I have to find a donor hinge. Otherwise this laptop is not the worst $10 I've ever spent.