Re: The Soundblaster DSP project

Posted on 2024-04-04, 00:57

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah Duke2 is very prone to crashing when the first sound effect plays even with some of the original firmwares, seems to work fine on CT1746 based cards but giving issues on CT1747 or newer cards. Yeah Duke 2 was a no-go for me with a stock SB16 Value CT2770. The specific card is dead and gone so …

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Re: The Soundblaster DSP project

Posted on 2024-04-01, 16:11

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

First off, thanks to everyone who worked on this fantastic fix. Discovering this thread meant me happily buying cheap SB16s again. I have two tests I do with them which seems to be DSP dependent. Not sure how good this is but it works for me. First is load Hocus Pocus and let the first level song …

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

Posted on 2024-03-22, 14:07

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I bought a spare Sega Mega Drive recently for the purposes of region modding it, as I didn't want to butcher my childhood original console. So today I set about performing the mod using 2 switches. The hardest part was soldering the switches. I made 1 small wiring mistake on the right hand switch …

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2024-03-20, 14:05

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Had a Celebris GL 5133 a few pages back in this thread: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=1228227#p1228227 Wow I had no idea they were that expensive! A really unusual buy in Ireland for 1995 that's for sure (especially because tech cost a lot more there even today) so I'm wondering was it …

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

Posted on 2024-03-20, 13:41

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I once encountered a CRT running at 40Hz in the wild. Even glancing in that general direction felt like daggers in my eyes. I always carried a little tool on a floppy disk or a USB drive to adjust the refresh rate to the maximum around that time, until everything finally matured to LCD. This wasn't …

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

Posted on 2024-03-19, 18:32

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I only know the music from FM synthesis as well. It sounds fantastic and doesn't need General MIDI to stand out. I always played it from within some variation of Windows. Maybe the experience is different for those who played the DOS version on whatever sound card they had at the time. We had the …

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2024-03-19, 16:39

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

@https://www.vogons.org/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=50642 You seem to like DEC computers! I've only encountered one in the wild before (actually my college may have had some old ones waiting to be recycled but I can't really remember). I found a DEC Celebris GL 5133 in a skip probably around …

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

Posted on 2024-03-19, 15:57

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

luckybob wrote on 2024-03-19, 08:58: The CIV II music lives rent free in my head. It's neighbors with SimCity 2000 and Escape Velocity. Sim City 2000 with FM sound regularly goes in and out of my head for no explainable reason. I've no idea why. Recently heard it from a wave table card and it seems …

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

Posted on 2024-03-19, 15:55

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi all, Finally got a fully working external SCSI CD-ROM setup. I had a 12x CyberDrive in an external enclosure (no idea if that's the actual brand name but it reports itself as that and the label is equally vague). It struggles with CD-Rs sometimes (excessive spin down/spin up) and even with a new …

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Re: DELL 433/L - Downgrade Failure

Posted on 2024-03-19, 14:02

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The oldest CPU I've ever seen fail (on its own and not from outside forces like power surges etc or excessive heat from negligence) was a Pentium 166. It simply got less and less stable yet never overheated. Glad it's going to be a cheap fix for you!

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Re: DELL 433/L - Downgrade Failure

Posted on 2024-03-18, 14:53

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

CPUs are both 5V and 33MHz FSB. Well I went the opposite direction to you! I have this motherboard and went from 33MHz SX to a DX4 and then an AM5x86. In order of least expensive and labour intensive fixes that I'd suggest: *Are the CPU pins ok? I would suggest making sure the CPU is aligned …

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Re: VLB SCSI Woes (potentially damaged?)- Dell 486 w/ AHA-2842VL

Posted on 2024-03-18, 13:19

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I wish I took a photo of the packaging before I opened it. It would have been sufficient for something smaller like say a PCI NIC but it definitely wasn't enough for something as long and thin as a VLB card. Way too much opportunity to flex if mishandled by the postal system. Between the potential …

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Re: VLB SCSI Woes (potentially damaged?)- Dell 486 w/ AHA-2842VL

Posted on 2024-03-17, 22:15

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ok so I tried re-flowing the solder on the pins of the PLCC chips as well as replacing the missing capacitor C22. Agreed that there was so obvious visual damage. In fairness, it wasn't delivered in a box but more a reinforced padded envelope with pieces of cardboard hugging the card. I was sort of …

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Re: VLB SCSI Woes (potentially damaged?)- Dell 486 w/ AHA-2840VL

Posted on 2024-03-17, 21:08

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

CoffeeOne wrote on 2024-03-17, 20:44: Second minor comment, why you wrote in the heading AHA-2840VL, it is clearly a 2842VL, just look on the sticker on the Bios. I just looked at the silk screening on the card and never actually looked at the BIOS chip!

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Re: VLB SCSI Woes (potentially damaged?)- Dell 486 w/ AHA-2840VL

Posted on 2024-03-17, 21:04

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The primary suspect chip regarding your problem is U22, which is used to send the second byte of a 32-bit-word to the computer (either the CPU or memory). You might want to closely inspect the soldering of that chip, especially the connections in the corners: Pin 1 is used to enable the chip …

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Re: VLB SCSI Woes (potentially damaged?)- Dell 486 w/ AHA-2840VL

Posted on 2024-03-17, 19:32

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What do you mean by "moving it from one system to another"? This thread reads like you have just one VLB machine, the Dell Optiplex 486. If you have another system: Does the card show the same symptoms in the other system? I have three of these Optiplex motherboards and their accompanying risers …

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Re: VLB SCSI Woes (potentially damaged?)- Dell 486 w/ AHA-2840VL

Posted on 2024-03-17, 17:46

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks everyone for the replies. There were a lot of things mentioned here that I didn't consider. Very interesting about every fourth character being corrupt. I hadn't noticed the pattern. So I've tried a lot more today. *I swapped the RAM out with some regular non-parity RAM. All known tested and …

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Re: VLB SCSI Woes (potentially damaged?)- Dell 486 w/ AHA-2840VL

Posted on 2024-03-17, 01:26

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Further info that I forgot: This card doesn't have a WB cache compatibility jumper (J5 is unpopulated and not hard jumpered) I'm using an ATX PSU with an adapter. There's no -5V rail but nothing else in the computer seems to care and presumably I wouldn't have gotten this far if it was needed? I re- …

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VLB SCSI Woes (potentially damaged?)- Dell 486 w/ AHA-2842VL

Posted on 2024-03-17, 00:51

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hello there, I've got a Dell Optiplex 486 desktop and I'm dipping my feet in the VLB waters . Spoiler: it hasn't gone well! 486 was a generation we skipped as a family so I'm going for broke trying everything exclusive to that generation in the name of science. Anyway, machine specs are: CPU: Am5x86 …

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Re: Dell 486 help

Posted on 2023-12-17, 18:36

by

by b_riera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I haven't tried that as I don't have one but it's documented by Dell that it works in these machines. I remember seeing it in the release notes for the latest BIOS update (A13/A17 depending on board revision) that they added POD support. You'll probably have to update the BIOS first to ensure it …

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