|
Post by Tom Maneiro on May 27, 2007 22:41:41 GMT -5
Hmmm... an IBM-PS/2... I used these in the high school way back in 1999 (!). LogoWriter, BannerMania, Harvard Graphics... and DOS 5.0! Monochrome graphics? as far as i can remember, our units had basic 16-color VGA graphics... 640*480*16 on an highly blurry screen. That's oldskool! (and a major annoyance for my eyes) Nice background
|
|
|
Post by evildragon on May 27, 2007 23:22:19 GMT -5
Hmmm... an IBM-PS/2... I used these in the high school way back in 1999 (!). LogoWriter, BannerMania, Harvard Graphics... and DOS 5.0! Monochrome graphics? as far as i can remember, our units had basic 16-color VGA graphics... 640*480*16 on an highly blurry screen. That's oldskool! (and a major annoyance for my eyes) Nice background heh, you know what the background is? mine was from 1987.. it is maxed out with DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.0 (the highest that supports Real Mode).. right now i got 256 shades of grey in every video mode.. though, there is some interfearence on the screen, so i may need a filter cap on the "Y" line..
|
|
|
Post by paulpsomiadis on May 28, 2007 11:23:37 GMT -5
Nice one evildragon - that's some REALLY classic PC stuff! ;D I see that on your main PC (left monitor) you seem to be running KDE...[or at least one of the Linux GUI variants] AWESOME retro!
|
|
|
Post by evildragon on May 28, 2007 11:26:15 GMT -5
Nice one evildragon - that's some REALLY classic PC stuff! ;D I see that on your main PC (left monitor) you seem to be running KDE...[or at least one of the Linux GUI variants] AWESOME retro! actually, the computer on the left is running Mac OS X it's a PowerPC Mac.. the computer on the right is running DOS 6.22, with Windows 3.0 on it, the last Windows version to support Real Mode (8086).. the computer on my right is also my Yamaha YMxxxx series learning system.. it has a YM3812 in it, and I just today got it playing the music to Streets of Rage.. (had to convert the GYM file to CMF format)
|
|
|
Post by evildragon on May 28, 2007 15:55:15 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Tom Maneiro on May 29, 2007 9:53:40 GMT -5
Time for some news... 386 box:- The 30-pin SIMMs that i've located this week were tested... unfortunately, these were more 1MB sticks... Oh, well, more replacements to the parts bin - The "Meltdown Firefox" experiment is in progress. Windows updates have been applied, unfortunately the box choked when i've tried to run the Firefox installer, because LZMA compression is way too much for a 386 (hell, it's too much heavy for anything under 500MHz!). Next attempt will be performed with an uncompressed FF installer... let's hope that it works. - The math coprocessor really helps with .CAB extraction (before the coprocessor, it was a pain to install a file from Window setup CABinets). However, it does not speed up ZIP extraction at all, and it's useless for LZMA (7zip), becauses it requires LOTS of RAM and uses a lot of complex data structures, something that is almost useless for FPUs PROJECT Spica:- Twin Spica rips are DONE! Yesterday i've recorded EP1, the one and only episode that i haven't saw complete... Due to an odd sequence of events, this rip was almost impossible: * The rip was scheduled for the afternoon broadcast, but the recording box suddenly crashed due to unknown reasons...
* I came back to home yesterday earlier than expected, only to find a box that froze when creating device nodes (those magic files on *nix that allow you to blow your HD by just doing "cat /dev/urandom >>/dev/hda" on a root shell). The SoundBlaster Live! REFUSED to work, i had to remove it, fiddle with the PCI slots and cards, and by 21:00, the system was up and working again. PCCHIPS strikes again!
* Rip was performed at 21:30 with no issues, edit process started at 22:10. Just two errors to fix, but these will not require rerips A long checking process will start... AGAIN! And, with not enough raws for work (unlike with Pita-Ten), it will be a long and boring process... Misc:- Shoppin' day! Back from the junkyard, i got: * Two AT cases with PSUs * An unknown PCCHIPS M5xx board with a relabeled "TXPRO" chipset (looks like an ALi or VIA chipset). Unfortunately, the fancooler catches are broken, so no fancooler can be attached here, so it will be a board for "underclocking" experiments only (or for CPUs with attached fans)... Got it with a P133 with lots and lots of thermal goo. * An Soyo ATX board, slot 1 PII/III, VIA chipset, bad caps. Useless. * Yet another Trident TGUI9440 videocard. This one had SIPP memory chips made in 1991! (the video IC was made in 1996, so this is really odd...) * Motorola SM56PCI winmodem. Useless, but there are Linux drivers for it somewhere. I had one of these: 100% crap. * Assorted cables and connectors for the parts bin... * BenQ 56X CD drive (real speed: nowhere near from 56X). Needs cleanup, but it's working fine. BTW: these drives are available with MediaTek and VOS (VIA) chipsets... * Another dead HD for the collection: a Samsung VG34323A (Voyager 3): does not spin, but the motor driver IC just overheats Expect more photos later...
|
|
|
Post by evildragon on May 29, 2007 10:11:01 GMT -5
if you need any help on that stuff, let me know.. i got experience with old computers.. im also a certified computer tech (and i specialize in both software and hardware).. also, if you need any hardware, let me know, im trying to sell away my old stuff.. got some VESA Local Bus cards, ISA, and some PCI cards.. Better get them before I desolder their components just let me know what you're looking for, and i'll look in my inventory, take a picture, and test...
|
|
|
Post by paulpsomiadis on May 30, 2007 10:42:08 GMT -5
Did some more "torture testing" on my 486/387 Hybrid system before tidying it away again... TOMB RAIDER on 486!!! And IT WORKS! ;D ...like a slide show! Also the title screen ans GFX for the setup program background are F***ED UP due to lack of GFX modes support (or maybe lack of GFX RAM or both...) And the FMV's are just 'black screen'...ah well!
|
|
|
Post by jlf65 on May 31, 2007 17:58:48 GMT -5
16 meg and 32 meg simms (30-pin) was very very hard to obtain in the days when the 486 came out, and is still probably hard to get today. i think the largest amount of memory a -normal- 386 could be upgraded to is 16 megs, since 16 megs was already over kill for a 386 (but for a 486, was a pretty nice system =D). i plan to rewrite the bios for this small 386 pc motherboard for fun, later, so that i could use "devster dos" =P On the contrary! They were EASY to find... just damned expensive. My boss paid $1100 for his 32MB SIMM. ;D He had no trouble finding it, and it shipped immediately. You just had to have the money...
|
|
|
Post by Tom Maneiro on May 31, 2007 18:39:15 GMT -5
Everything is easy to find when you have a "Ton-o-money" ;D That's why i hate computers sometimes: in December, i had to pay $1500 for my new Dell Core 2 Duo laptop. Now, THE SAME LAPTOP with DOUBLE RAM and a slighty faster Core 2 CPU costs only $1200! (maybe even less, this is the Dell Anniversary month, so figure it)... And i was not an "early adopter"... because Core 2 Duos on laptops were widely available in December, 1 gig of RAM is almost "baseline" on any kind of system, DVD burners are obsolete with that BD/HDDVD stuff, and the Radeon X1400 was almost tagged for "budget" systems. Maybe the 160 gig Hitachi Travelstar HD with that "wonderful" perpendicular storage stuff? I can't understand... My collection of Socket 7 motherboards costed hundreds of $$$ way back in 199x. Now, you can find those boards for free in your nearest trash can Talkin' about motherboards... PHOTOS! (and yes, i want a new camera phone!) - TXpro PC82C439TX => ALi M1535. This "unknown" board resulted to be a PCCHIPS M560, with USB, UDMA33, and up to 384MB of RAM using PC66 DIMMs and 64M SIMMs. This one don't have the stupid limitations of my ol' i430VX board about 64MB DIMMs (only 8x8 64M chips!). Good for Linux slave boxes ;D Did i mentioned that i need a Dallas DS12887 or equivalent for it? This is another of those rare pieces of hardware that everybody rushed to scavenge, and there are a LOT of dead Socket 7 boards in the lab without that IC... - Hall of... shame? The first two motherboards are that M560 and a Soyo ATX model with VIA chipset and bad caps. Behind the Soyo, there is a M810 (the red one), and some old IBM/Acer/Epson motherboards. Ignore that blue "M", those cellphone carriers are everywhere! - 1M SIMMs made in... BRAZIL!? They're sane and in full service now inside my 386, for testing purposes. MELTDOWN FIREFOX!(for some odd reason, the DS1287 battery of my 386 box is still working... That's good, because i've discovered that Acer soldered the module to the motherboard!!!) - Installing Winsox updates (pun intended) Attempt #2, uncompressed installer: - The installer boots fine... - ... but crashes before copying any file Next attempt will be done with a FULLY UNCOMPRESSED Firefox install (i.e. 100% manual setup!) Back to the Socket 7 junkyard...
- Two spare AT cases with PSUs, and a BenQ (Acer) 656A 56X CD drive. This used to be "dead" (according with their former owner), but for me, it works fine... The proof: It can playback the latest M.O.V.E CD with no skips! (unfortunately, no CD player in this world will do miracles with that 50% of the tracks that are plain crap). And yes, it can load Linux, so i have another spare CD drive for experiments... This one has a VIA Optical Solution (VOS) chipset (a "licensed" Mediatek clone). - Remember those weird CD drives from the lab? Here is the SB16 needed for use them. The first "IDE-like" connector is a Matsushita (Panasonic) interface. The other pin header is a standard IDE port. - Say "sayonara" to Misha, and welcome Asumi: the first "test episode" of Twin Spica is done... now i need the remaining episodes: - Briefly after pasting that Vista label, the recording box experienced a severe crash, requiring a major surgery to bring it back to life... So, DONT... DO... IT! - Linux can be fun sometimes: a quick visit to "/etc/issue" and... ;D And for close this week' session, another horror, and this time is SATA!!! And "it came from China!!!"
|
|
|
Post by evildragon on Jun 1, 2007 2:57:09 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Tom Maneiro on Jun 1, 2007 7:36:59 GMT -5
I was talking about the Dallas DS12887 RTC module (the one used for keep time and, maybe, CMOS settings), not the 387 FPU. I already got one... just read the entire thread to find the funny story of how i got it ;D
I've heard that 12887s are expensive... is that true?
|
|
|
Post by evildragon on Jun 1, 2007 8:38:03 GMT -5
i need to find myself a real time clock module.. for my computer, it's an 8-bit ISA card called the "Calender Card"..
|
|
|
Post by paulpsomiadis on Jun 1, 2007 11:56:28 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by evildragon on Jun 1, 2007 13:01:09 GMT -5
oh jeez, they get expensive.. (i don't even have a job! lol)
um, i'll have to hold off i guess, until either someone who has one is willing to do a trade with me, or they get even cheaper..
|
|