Re: What is the OPROM slot on a NIC for?

Posted on Today, 04:05

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As for why a NIC has one; PXE. Pre-eXecution Envirionment. It's a kind of combination TCP/IP stack and boot loader, used to pull small disk images from off the network, then boot from them, to allow network boot.

---

Re: Please help me configure unknown cards

Posted on 2024-06-01, 06:51

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As for that VLB combo card... Con 1 appears to be an IDE connector. Con 2 appears to be a floppy drive header. Con 3 & 4 appear to be 9 pin serial headers. Con 5 appears to be a gameport header. Con 6 appears to be a parallel port header. LED1 appears to be the HDD activity LED. For the actual …

---

Re: Trouble with 5.25" Floppy on 386

Posted on 2024-06-01, 06:37

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Only additional I can really offer without asking questions that will likely only cause confusion-- Make sure that drive A comes after the twist, and that drive B comes before the twist. If things are still acting wonky after verifying that, THEN we can start asking the really confusing questions.

---

Re: Please help me configure unknown cards

Posted on 2024-06-01, 03:52

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

First one, Future Domain TMC-845, 8bit scsi https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-disk-floppy … evices-193.html

---

Re: Announcing a new (Ultra-2) SCSI emulator. Help me define some features!

Posted on 2024-05-31, 10:35

by

by wierd_w

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

my wishlist would be - an emulated SCSI to Ethernet adapter - an iSCSI to SCSI bridge - analog & digital outputs for CD-Audio - the emulator placed in an external rack-mountable unit, useable with multiple machines (a SCSI server if you will) I would mainly use it with 80s/90s DOS & Win9x PCs, and …

---

Re: smallest computer that can run windows XP with supported hardware (especially video card?)

Posted on 2024-05-31, 05:55

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Older NUCs with a CSM should be able to handle XP... They will also be super small. I pulled intel's support docs, and this is about the newest NUC (still real old!) That officially supports XP. https://www.ebay.com/itm/255966416754?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid= …

---

Re: Amiga - better graphics because of worse monitors?

Posted on 2024-05-31, 05:51

by

by wierd_w

in Milliways

in Milliways

Apple II(/gs) was a great big wedgie that had expansion slots. The only thing that really held commodore amiga back from a more upgradable design around Zorro-II or nubus, was corporate inertia and a lack of vision.

---

Re: Electrical interference

Posted on 2024-05-29, 15:24

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Have you checked if the data cable's ground/shield is properly connected to the earth ground? Sometimes vintage computing devices dont properly connect the ground, leading to 'floating' grounds, and unreliable ground states. (The tape cable on old TI99/4A systems have this problem, and expect the …

---

Re: Electrical interference

Posted on 2024-05-29, 14:46

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Is the outlet ground properly earthed?

---

Re: Looking for information about 5,25 aluminium cover for slot-in cd-rom drive

Posted on 2024-05-28, 17:59

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I saw a video on youtube where a Russian guy made a load of chemical waste. Oh, and plated plastic with chrome as a side-thing. The secret was to prep the plastic (scuff it up nicely, clean it well), prime and spray paint it with graphite-rich, electrically conductive spray paint. Then electro- …

---

Re: Electrical interference

Posted on 2024-05-28, 17:29

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Try adding ferrite torus to the data cables of your midi modules. https://www.amazon.com/MAG-FT-140-43-Ferrite-Toroid-Core/dp/B085PYPLZD/ref=asc_df_B085PYPLZD/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693270340071&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14351449620646433704&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint …

---

Re: Is there any third party driver that supports 3D acceleration for Windows XP?

Posted on 2024-05-28, 17:25

by

by wierd_w

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

virtualbox guest additions cd supporys xp. https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#additions-windows Get the guest additions iso for your version. Install in safemode, per the instructions! Note For the basic Direct3D acceleration to work in a Windows guest, you have to install the WDDM video …

---

Re: Daggerfall in pure dos

Posted on 2024-05-28, 17:14

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

The cleanest experience on bare metal, would come from the Bethesda hosted free download, I feel. You will need a period correct rig. (As others have pointed out, the game is INFAMOUSLY buggy. Trying to use 'the usual methods' to throttle a modern rig to those speeds, may well break it in newm …

---

Re: Booting 386 from DOM or CF card.

Posted on 2024-05-26, 17:04

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes. The card performs its own autodetection on startup with its ROM routine, assuming that ROM is properly configured, as others pointed out prior.

---

Re: GOG Daggerfall on Windows 98 PC

Posted on 2024-05-26, 16:44

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

the dosbox version contains this directive: mount D: ..\DF\DFCD -t cdrom -label Daggerfall The volume label for the burned media needs to be "Daggerfall" I experienced this issue when setting up UnityDF some time back, which is why I remembered. I just did not remember what the proper volume label …

---

Re: GOG Daggerfall on Windows 98 PC

Posted on 2024-05-26, 16:31

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Give me a bit-- I am pulling from steam again. 😀 the dosbox script that launches it, contains a directive that creates a fake cdrom out of the folder, with the volume label specified. As soon as I get it pulled again, I will tell you.

---

Re: GOG Daggerfall on Windows 98 PC

Posted on 2024-05-26, 16:25

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

If he is trying to play it on bare metal, he needs to make sure that the burned CD has the correct volume label as well.

---

Re: Pocket 386, the brother of Hand386 and Book8088, the story so far ...

Posted on 2024-05-25, 13:31

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

While it would make an i386 beg for mercy, the zram driver might be a useful thing to backport. Just dont be stupid with it trying to use zstd, and instead use lzo. Even very modest compaction would be meaningful.

---

Re: Booting 386 from DOM or CF card.

Posted on 2024-05-25, 11:59

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd hit it with ontrack disk manager with the /x option to avoid loading xbios, or something similar. (The idea is NOT to install the DDO, but to instead get the detected geometry.) I'm sorry, what? There are 2 bits of vintage software, that are 'DDO' software. (Dynamic Drive Overlay.) Before XTIDE …

---

Re: Booting 386 from DOM or CF card.

Posted on 2024-05-25, 11:39

by

by wierd_w

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd hit it with ontrack disk manager with the /x option to avoid loading xbios, or something similar. (The idea is NOT to install the DDO, but to instead get the detected geometry.) Alternatively... Pop the cf card into a windows machine, and get me the exact number of sectors it has, using the …

---