Tried to get this http://www.hyakushiki.net/misc/vegavga.jpg to display something on a VGA monitor without using BIOS. (With BIOS disabled, that is.) Partly for the sake of making my 286 drive two monitors at once as per this thread How to get a secondary monochrome monitor working in DOS and how to connect it to a modern display? but mainly because I wanted to use this card in my homebrew Z280 board. Though whether 286 or Z280, all I can get is a blank screen with one color of my choosing. The secrets of initializing this card are too arcane for me to discover, even after dumping all the register settings for several screen modes and tracing an INT 0x10 call through the BIOS code. But here is a BIOS listing with some comments that might not all be wrong 😀

Spent some time trying to test/troubleshoot this cursed multi-boot P4 build.

I'm reaching a point where I think this system is a lost cause.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-03-11, 11:39:

Trying to come up with a slightly uncommon P4 based 98 build. […]
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Trying to come up with a slightly uncommon P4 based 98 build.

Any suggestions for what GPU should I go with? Quite literally ANYTHING goes - AGP or PCI-E.

So far, these are the parts I've come up with, short of a GPU:

- ASRock P4Dual-915GL
- P4 2.8GHz (Northwood)
-2x256MB DDR400
-120GB SATA HDD (set to compatibility mode)
-Aureal Vortex 2

Hmm, now me, I would consider a DUAL boot Win98 + WinXP build for this mobo.
With an AGP GF 4xxx card for win98 and.... PCIE, not sure which one, for the WinXP part (GTX 2xx card ? FX5xxx/GTX 79xx)

PcBytes wrote on 2024-03-11, 11:39:

Trying to come up with a slightly uncommon P4 based 98 build. […]
Show full quote

Trying to come up with a slightly uncommon P4 based 98 build.

Any suggestions for what GPU should I go with? Quite literally ANYTHING goes - AGP or PCI-E.

So far, these are the parts I've come up with, short of a GPU:

- ASRock P4Dual-915GL
- P4 2.8GHz (Northwood)
-2x256MB DDR400
-120GB SATA HDD (set to compatibility mode)
-Aureal Vortex 2

You could try a MEDION Radeon 9600 TX (an Oem overclocked 9500 Pro) . I don't see it mentioned on here often.

You could also try to find a regular Radeon 9500 to softmod into a 9700.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-03-11, 23:19:

Spent some time trying to test/troubleshoot this cursed multi-boot P4 build.

I'm reaching a point where I think this system is a lost cause.

It sure does look pretty with all the gold and brown/tan PCB. What's the main trouble with it? Must be something crazy considering all the other projects you've had success with, haha

Cosmic wrote on 2024-03-12, 00:23:

It sure does look pretty with all the gold and brown/tan PCB. What's the main trouble with it? Must be something crazy considering all the other projects you've had success with, haha

Heh, I guess I was due for a non-successful build at some point. 😁

The intent of this build was a multi-OS / multi-sound card build. I managed to get DOS and a couple Win98 installs working.

But then I ran into a weird incompatibility with the Audigy 2 ZS under Win 2000 and Win XP. With EAX reverb enabled, I get a high pitched digital interference noise. It's directly tied to the EAX reverb, because if I adjust the EAX reverb volume, the noise increases or decrease in volume as well.

The weird thing is seems entirely specific to the Audigy 2 ZS + this ASUS P4S533-E motherboard + Win 2000 or XP.

With a different motherboard the noise doesn't appear. And under Windows 98, while there is a faint noise, it's inaudible at normal listening volumes.

This one has me stumped.

I had something like that with a badly shielded CDROM audio cable sometime, near as I could figure out, it was picking up high frequency, non-audible noise, but when certain effects played on the sound card, there were higher harmonics of that, making beat frequencies in the audible range with the high frequency off the CDROM audio cable.

Spent a bunch of the evening getting Quake 3 SMP support working. I noticed in this old thread that while someone offered to, nobody ever posted a Voodoo 3 score. So, I swapped mine out for a GeForce 3 Ti 200, which got it to at least display the id logo before crashing. Downgrading the drivers and a clean install of Quake 3 got me the rest of the way.

So, with SMP finally working it boosted my timedemo score from 109 FPS to whopping 116 FPS. Awww yeah, worth it!! 😎

I've got a GeForce 2MX 400 and a GeForce4 MX 400 that I'll try out as well at some point.

Measured performance of the mmx system. Works as 285(95*3) and 292(83*3.5) at 3.3V but not 300((.
200mmx -> 280 (112*2.5) (core 3.0v, io 3.45v) on mvp3, riva tnt1, 3dmark 2000 469pts -> 698pts (+48%)

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2024-03-11, 10:26:

Well over the past several months I've sold almost my entire GPU collection, my entire retro laptop collection, most of my actual software (after making ISO images of everything to put on my NAS), and I'm currently selling off/disposing of alot of loose misc hardware (random low-end junk tier motherboards, broken motherboards, random BS decoder and networking cards).

that's a real downsize! no regrets yet?

it makes sense for space reasons.

it's possible to make do with a few machines and some spares

not many of us truly purge after acquiring too much though

I completed my backport of modern Eclipse JDT's null analysis feature to Eclipse 3.5.2, the last release for Windows 98.

Java null analysis feature from modern Eclipse IDE backported to version 3.5.2 for Windows 98

bestemor wrote on 2024-03-11, 23:35:

Hmm, now me, I would consider a DUAL boot Win98 + WinXP build for this mobo.
With an AGP GF 4xxx card for win98 and.... PCIE, not sure which one, for the WinXP part (GTX 2xx card ? FX5xxx/GTX 79xx)

XP wise I can go as high as possible - even a HD7970 will work. (tested R9 280x which is same card, POSTs fine.)

It doesn't allow for two GPUs unfortunately, as far as I know.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-03-12, 02:06:

I had something like that with a badly shielded CDROM audio cable sometime, near as I could figure out, it was picking up high frequency, non-audible noise, but when certain effects played on the sound card, there were higher harmonics of that, making beat frequencies in the audible range with the high frequency off the CDROM audio cable.

Oh, how I wished it had been something like that.

Even after disconnecting everything extraneous the noise persisted. My gut feeling is that it's partially a driver or other software issue since it only manifested at loud volumes under Windows XP and 2000.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-03-10, 01:16:

douglar wrote on 2024-03-10, 01:03:

I replaced 13 capacitors on this board […]
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I replaced 13 capacitors on this board

Photo Mar 09 2024, 6 58 17 PM.jpg

Tried to power it up and got a high speed fan, no beeps, no post codes, no nothing. I stared at it for 10 minutes and started to think about what components I wanted to salvage before sending it to e-waste I saw that that I forgot to hook up the 4 pin CPU power cable. I'm used to benching 486 computers, so this made me laugh

Photo Mar 09 2024, 6 56 58 PM.jpg

I had one of those! My boss had me come over and look at his malfunctioning computer, and it had failing caps. I was able to find a very similar ECS motherboard to fix his machine, and I then recapped that motherboard. I was put off by the OEM BIOS, but I found a modded BIOS that worked well (and allowed you to use a better CPU), and built a computer that I gave to my cousin. Here's the forum that has the BIOS just in case you're interested: https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=207

Here is a direct link to my experience with that board and the modified BIOS: https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/showthread.ph … =85715#pid85715

Cool stuff. There's a lot to take in there. Any chance you can post a link to the binary file you used? I keep ending up with dead links.

I finally got Vista installed on the E-masher today. My first couple attempts were thwarted by head scratching install failures before things could even get going. "No usable hard drive" "Bad scripted license key" I was starting to think that my soldering was bad or that I left a screw in the case. Turns out that the old recovery partition on the HD was considered by both Vista and Windows 7 to be haunted, accursed, and profane. I did a "clean" from inside diskpart it all started working.

douglar wrote on 2024-03-12, 17:26:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-03-10, 01:16:

douglar wrote on 2024-03-10, 01:03:

I replaced 13 capacitors on this board […]
Show full quote

I replaced 13 capacitors on this board

Photo Mar 09 2024, 6 58 17 PM.jpg

Tried to power it up and got a high speed fan, no beeps, no post codes, no nothing. I stared at it for 10 minutes and started to think about what components I wanted to salvage before sending it to e-waste I saw that that I forgot to hook up the 4 pin CPU power cable. I'm used to benching 486 computers, so this made me laugh

Photo Mar 09 2024, 6 56 58 PM.jpg

I had one of those! My boss had me come over and look at his malfunctioning computer, and it had failing caps. I was able to find a very similar ECS motherboard to fix his machine, and I then recapped that motherboard. I was put off by the OEM BIOS, but I found a modded BIOS that worked well (and allowed you to use a better CPU), and built a computer that I gave to my cousin. Here's the forum that has the BIOS just in case you're interested: https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=207

Here is a direct link to my experience with that board and the modified BIOS: https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/showthread.ph … =85715#pid85715

Cool stuff. There's a lot to take in there. Any chance you can post a link to the binary file you used? I keep ending up with dead links.

I finally got Vista installed on the E-masher today. My first couple attempts were thwarted by head scratching install failures before things could even get going. "No usable hard drive" "Bad scripted license key" I was starting to think that my soldering was bad or that I left a screw in the case. Turns out that the old recovery partition on the HD was considered by both Vista and Windows 7 to be haunted, accursed, and profane. I did a "clean" from inside diskpart it all started working.

I just checked, and this page still has a live link to the BIOS image: https://www.bios-mods.com/reviews/unlocked-mo … d-retail-bbios/

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-03-12, 18:45:

I just checked, and this page still has a live link to the BIOS image: https://www.bios-mods.com/reviews/unlocked-mo … d-retail-bbios/

I think I've got the "Nettle 3" because my board says v2.2 and is a "GM"

On the bios-mods page, it says:

HP Nettle3 Support (NOTE: ABIT BIOS DOES NOT WORK FOR THIS MODEL. PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING UPDATED BIOS: here)

and "here" takes me to https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/showthread.ph … tid=210&page=10

And I'm having trouble with the links on that page

Edit: Never mind, I found it, thanks for your help

I discovered today that Logitech G15 v2 keyboard is working fine with Asus P3B-F MB on DOS/Win98 box. I did not use Legacy USB DOS support back in days so it feels weird...
But then I was even more surprised when Win98 found automatically drivers and backlight turned on. Well sort of - drivers were extracted from SP3.CAB...

Now I need to search for Win98 compatible tools capable using LCD screen. If not native then perhaps KernelEx can help me out...

vutt wrote on 2024-03-12, 21:13:

I discovered today that Logitech G15 v2 keyboard is working fine with Asus P3B-F MB on DOS/Win98 box. I did not use Legacy USB DOS support back in days so it feels weird...
But then I was even more surprised when Win98 found automatically drivers and backlight turned on. Well sort of - drivers were extracted from SP3.CAB...

Now I need to search for Win98 compatible tools capable using LCD screen. If not native then perhaps KernelEx can help me out...

Oh wow, had one of those keyboards back in the day. That brings back some memories. 😀

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-03-12, 21:14:

vutt wrote on 2024-03-12, 21:13:

I discovered today that Logitech G15 v2 keyboard is working fine with Asus P3B-F MB on DOS/Win98 box. I did not use Legacy USB DOS support back in days so it feels weird...
But then I was even more surprised when Win98 found automatically drivers and backlight turned on. Well sort of - drivers were extracted from SP3.CAB...
Now I need to search for Win98 compatible tools capable using LCD screen. If not native then perhaps KernelEx can help me out...

Oh wow, had one of those keyboards back in the day. That brings back some memories. 😀

I actually used mine since 2007/8 till 2022 as my daily driver before switching to Logitech MX Mechanical Mini. Amazing engineering from Logitech I have to admit. So it's sentimental. I'm happy that it's life will be even more extended now.

Started attempt number 2 at a multi-boot Pentium 4.

This one I'm planning around a DFI ITOX G7S620-N motherboard. It's LGA775 board, so can support faster processors than the previous S478 Asus board. It also has a couple ISA slots for native DOS sound card support.

This evening did a test Windows XP install with the Audigy 2 ZS and confirmed it works perfectly.

Next will be testing Windows 98 and seeing how that goes...