Re: P200MMX dumpster find to my version of the ultimate DOS computer! pics and stats!

Posted on 2012-02-25, 19:45

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

That P200 has a VX Chipset. If that motherboard supports a 2.2v Vcore and a 5.5x Multiplyer, you might be able to toss in a K6-2 366 (or an underclocked 400/450 chip@366), and give that machine a performance boost that will partly make using the V2-SLI worthwhile. I'm not gonna say "Voodoo1 is …

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Re: Athlon's disappointing performance

Posted on 2012-02-23, 21:00

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Inexplicably, the ECS K7S5A and SiS 735 have a fanboy crowd. Watch out. ;) Here's the other FIC board with wasted space. The AZ11. It looks like you could make your own micro ATX board with a bit of sawing. Yeah, it's hard to imagine why there wouldn't be K7S5A fans out there, the SiS 735 was a …

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Re: Sad state of affairs

Posted on 2012-02-23, 20:19

by

by maddmaxstar

in Milliways

in Milliways

At the end, after much deliberation, reading some newer benchmarks showing BD in a better light against SB, a reminder from my better half that AMD is the reason I got into this hobby in the first place I gotta say I agree with that. I'm not gonna be so fanboy as to say "OMG, AMD iz teh better than …

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Re: Athlon's disappointing performance

Posted on 2012-02-23, 17:40

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

SD11 is definitely a sparse board: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7013/6699055635_8540b4f33c_z.jpg As for the Asus K7M, I recall hearing numerous bad things about the board back then. At the time I was doing research for building my Slot A system in early 2000, numerous sites were recommending …

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Re: Athlon's disappointing performance

Posted on 2012-02-22, 21:14

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The early Athlon motherboard hardware had a pre production feel to it. Little refinement, bugs, high sensitivity to power supply output, AGP instability, etc. There are a few boards with huge areas of unused, unnecessary PCB (very sloppy work). AMD 750 was AMD's contribution there because that …

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Re: Athlon's disappointing performance

Posted on 2012-02-22, 07:19

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think the Cache Architecture, and not just Cache speeds were more efficient on the PIII Chips compared to the Athlon, and SuperPi makes extensive use of Cache. The difference is even greater when you're comparing a Slot A Athlon (except for TBird) to a Coppermine Slot 1 chip due to the Intel Part …

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Re: iMac G3: how to find out firmware version?

Posted on 2012-02-22, 07:06

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by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If the machine is running OS X, go into the System Profiler by going to the Apple menu>About this Mac>More Info> and check the Boot ROM version on the Hardware tab. If it's a Tray loading iMac G3, chances are it's got the most up to date firmware (1.2) as I think it was required to run OS X. My …

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Re: A Sad Macintosh Plus 1MB.

Posted on 2012-02-22, 05:02

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by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Checking over the board, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of Capacitors. There were about 3 small ones on the logic board, none of them appear to be doing anything bad. The Analog/Power board appears to be good as well, has numerous large capacitors, but nothing slimy, bulging, out of …

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Re: A Sad Macintosh Plus 1MB.

Posted on 2012-02-22, 04:20

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by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'll check over the logic board again, though I didn't see any bulging/leaky caps. I cleaned the contacts on the RAM as well. If someone doesn't have a Dishwasher, any other suggestions for cleaning?

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Re: Barrel style CMOS battery question

Posted on 2012-02-22, 04:13

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by maddmaxstar

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

True, but the Alkaline batteries and Macintosh PRAM batteries were Non-rechargable. And the 3.6 Mac batteries are lithium aren't they? I wouldn't want to use anything like that when the motherboard is forcing recharging current back through the battery. My interest with using 3xAA NiCd batteries is …

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A Sad Macintosh Plus 1MB.

Posted on 2012-02-22, 04:07

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've got an original 1986 Macintosh Plus, beige case, 800k floppy drive, keyboard and mouse, as well as a HyperDrive 20mb SCSI External HDD from General Computer. I got the computer about 5 years ago when I pulled it from recycle pile in the store I used to work at in Calgary, AB. When I got it, it …

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Re: Barrel style CMOS battery question

Posted on 2012-02-21, 02:37

by

by maddmaxstar

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

NiMH would be very dangerous to do that with - they are tempermental on how they are charged. not nearly as bad as lithium types though! NiCD would be perfect but remember they can leak like the originals, too. True, but NiCd AA's would be much easier to work with and replace, and you can get cheap …

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Re: Issues with an AWE32?

Posted on 2012-02-20, 05:40

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by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks to AdamP, those Mixerset files worked! And thanks for including the extra sound bank files too. :) I did have a a AUXDRV.DRV dated to (I think) 1994, that would have gone with SB16SET. Updating that file in C:\SB16\DRV\ to the one provided worked using Mixerset 2.12. As for the Sound banks, …

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Re: Issues with an AWE32?

Posted on 2012-02-19, 20:16

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

OK, so I found a copy of Mixerset, from an old Vogon's thread located here: http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=19092 Judging by the context if the thread, I think the files came from a Goldfinch upgrade card. AWEUTIL 1.36 works fine, but MIXERSET v2.18 refuses to load, stating: MIX0002: Incorrect …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2012-02-19, 18:59

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think I only paid 7$ for the Dallas, came from a US address but looks like it's originally from a Chinese dealer. The date code seems to be 9125, so looks like this thing is over 20yrs old... however it seems to be working OK. I'm not out much if it doesn't last long. I only have 1 PS/2 (I thought …

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Re: Issues with an AWE32?

Posted on 2012-02-19, 18:46

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That may be it. Judging by the dates of the chips (28th week of 95) this card was one of the last Non-PnP AWE32's, so it may not like earlier drivers. It could also explain why I'm getting so many stuck notes in MT32 emulation mode if it's loading older sound banks. Now I just need to find a copy of …

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Re: Issues with an AWE32?

Posted on 2012-02-19, 15:35

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ok, so I set it up so the CTMMSYS and CTSB16 are REM'd out in Config.sys, and set DIAGNOSE /S to run in Autoexec.bat before SB16SET /P /Q. It's still coming up with the Low Level Driver error message. When running, the SB16SET identifies itself as v2.00. Given that I needed a newer version of …

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Re: Issues with an AWE32?

Posted on 2012-02-19, 05:47

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Running SB16SET returns the error "MIX0014: Low level driver error". I figured that was because I REM'd out the CTMMSYS.SYS and CTSB16.SYS in the Config.sys file. It appeared to load fine before I took them out. I'm gonna try tinkering.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2012-02-19, 05:25

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I scored another big haul of compy parts over the last week. I picked up a couple shifts, work was slow and I took the opportunity to do a little rummaging in the scrap heap. Plus a couple things I bought on eBay finally came. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7063/6900351837_7deb11dffc_b.jpg I found: …

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Re: Issues with an AWE32?

Posted on 2012-02-19, 03:39

by

by maddmaxstar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I got the AWE32 working. I did a bit of research on the issue and found references to folks using a newer version of AWEUTIL. The install software I was using provided AWEUTIL 1.00, and Creative released an updated 1.20 version later on (Maybe for the PnP cards, I'm speculating). So I downloaded and …

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