Re: Building a 486 with modern parts (ATX case, ATX PSU, CF card, GOTEK FDD, New buttons)

Posted on 2015-09-08, 01:55

by

by smeezekitty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

philscomputerlab wrote: smeezekitty wrote: Awesome case. But seriously, what's up with the 8MB of RAM? That's barely enough to run Windows 95 It's running MS-DOS 6.22. Even so, CF cards makes it easy to switch OSes so it would make sense to build the hardware for such. More RAM never hurts, even in …

---

Re: Dumb things you've done (or have seen someone else do) on a computer

Posted on 2015-09-08, 00:53

by

by smeezekitty

in Milliways

in Milliways

Can kill != will definitely kill. Obviously mains shocks should be avoided. But deaths from getting zapped with the socket are realistically rare. How often do you see electrocutions in the news?

---

Re: Rechargeable drum battery

Posted on 2015-09-07, 20:49

by

by smeezekitty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

4.5V is a pretty typical rating for the external battery connector. If you can get a 3xAA or 3xAAA holder it would work well. Just make sure to place it away from the board in case it leaks

---

Re: Building a 486 with modern parts (ATX case, ATX PSU, CF card, GOTEK FDD, New buttons)

Posted on 2015-09-07, 20:48

by

by smeezekitty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Awesome case. But seriously, what's up with the 8MB of RAM? That's barely enough to run Windows 95

---

Re: PCI gfx card capable of running at 3.57MHz on PCI bus

Posted on 2015-09-07, 18:51

by

by smeezekitty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm affraid of ISA graphic cards and as I look there: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=41662 ...the nice Tseng ET4000AX gfx card is kinda overpriced today: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fruhe-original- ... 43e186be2a But the major problem is this - how do you know, that at the 7.14MHz FSB setting it will work at all …

---

Re: AT power supply strange noise, not booting

Posted on 2015-09-07, 18:49

by

by smeezekitty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi, I have this second at power supply that always ran until now. I tested some motherboard that maybe don't run but I don't know how now the supply when powered don't run the fan and make some strange popping noise like hot oil... I tried on different mobo and same thing and it don't even boot the …

---

Re: Dumb things you've done (or have seen someone else do) on a computer

Posted on 2015-09-07, 17:57

by

by smeezekitty

in Milliways

in Milliways

I remembered a silly happening. I was replacing a user's computer, and they told me I didn't need to back up their files because they'd already moved them to their network drive. The swap went fine, their laptop was almost immediately reimaged to be given to somebody else. A week goes by, and they …

---

Re: Motherboard / PCB with battery acid

Posted on 2015-09-06, 20:48

by

by smeezekitty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

386SX wrote: I've seen that on other positions on the mainboard there're others with 103 onto it (so 0,01uf ?) but the voltage? The capacitor a small like 3/4mm. The voltage isn't that critical. There is no higher than 12V on the board anywhere so a 16V cap would be enough

---

Re: Dumb things you've done (or have seen someone else do) on a computer

Posted on 2015-09-06, 06:59

by

by smeezekitty

in Milliways

in Milliways

brostenen wrote: We are running 230 to 240 volts in Denmark. Those extra volt for stability. Not deadly, yet still unpleasant to touch when insta […] Show full quote We are running 230 to 240 volts in Denmark. Those extra volt for stability. Not deadly, yet still unpleasant to touch when installing …

---

Re: Dumb things you've done (or have seen someone else do) on a computer

Posted on 2015-09-03, 08:28

by

by smeezekitty

in Milliways

in Milliways

A GTX560 has a TDP of 150 watts. It might work but the PSU wouldn't be happy when the card was under high graphical load.

---

Re: Dumb things you've done (or have seen someone else do) on a computer

Posted on 2015-09-03, 03:37

by

by smeezekitty

in Milliways

in Milliways

[*]Anything that can be plugged backwards I've probably done it at least once, with the exception of Socket 3 CPUs (knocks on wood). AT power connectors, non-keyed IDE/floppy cables, port brackets, you name it. I've wired AT power switches in "instant dead short across the mains" configuration too. …

---

Re: System Shock might be available to buy soon!

Posted on 2015-09-02, 21:57

by

by smeezekitty

in Milliways

in Milliways

SystemShock may have been good in it's day, but the graphics are just way behind now.

---

Re: More thoughts on digital copyright laws

Posted on 2015-09-02, 21:57

by

by smeezekitty

in Milliways

in Milliways

I do agree though, that digital rights are really messed up, and copyright exists for far too long per item. I'd personally love it if copyright only persisted for ten years, or even just twenty-five (and not the seventy-five and counting years that Disney have pushed it up to now). I would prefer …

---

Re: Dumb things you've done (or have seen someone else do) on a computer

Posted on 2015-09-02, 18:09

by

by smeezekitty

in Milliways

in Milliways

But what was that smell? It became a chemical stench seconds later when I knew it was the CPU that was getting fried :o Switched it off and of course I wanted to know what the problem was. Well, after a short inspection apparently the problem was that I had forgotten to use any TIM (I had installed …

---

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2015-09-01, 21:41

by

by smeezekitty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My ten year old daughter got up to some retro activity today. She used Windows 3.1 for the first time. And she took the opportunity to mock me: I was inspired by the article on /. today about Win 95 being the most influential OS and that if you were to put one of today's 15 year olds in front of it …

---

Re: S3 Virge DX 4MB vs Matrox Mystique 4MB

Posted on 2015-09-01, 21:38

by

by smeezekitty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's a well known fact that the ViRGE has marginal image quality. I found it highly dependent on the Windows drivers too. In Windows 98, I found it the most blurry with the stock drivers but decent in 95 and 2000 for some reason.That said, the Mystique is a pretty shitty chip for 3D. I have both and …

---

Re: Upgrading a windows 95 desktop

Posted on 2015-08-26, 05:02

by

by smeezekitty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You will greatly benefit from more RAM. 8 MB is a huge bottleneck in 95. 16MB is usable. 32-64 is the sweet spot.

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2015-08-04, 08:27

by

by smeezekitty

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BTW, one question: Why would you underclock the pentium 166 cpu to 75mhz? I understand that DOS games are said to be more stable on a system with around 16MB ram installed, but isn't there dos games out there like Doom that would benefit from your pentium at 166mhz? Doom really wouldn't care one …

---

Re: Any of you on Windows 10?

Posted on 2015-08-03, 22:17

by

by smeezekitty

in Milliways

in Milliways

I still can't get over how quickly it boots up. My iPad dreams of this kinda startup speed. :happy: I don't get the big appeal of startup time. Do you really start up your machine that often? Usually twice a day. I know the 5 seconds that I save over Win7 doesn't sound like much, but it's that " …

---

Re: Any of you on Windows 10?

Posted on 2015-08-03, 01:54

by

by smeezekitty

in Milliways

in Milliways

The concern with Windows updates is they are known to push microcode/UEFI/BIOS updates and break stuff. Not all updates are helpful -- especially when they are designed to disable features. Remember the FTDI counterfeit chip debacle?

---