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Post by paulpsomiadis on Jul 5, 2007 19:32:45 GMT -5
Okay, so here was me today - I received my new "3 device SCSI" cable for my Cx486sx/387sx PC. (for future upgrades)  I removed my old "2 device" SCSI cable (the cable I have used for the last 6 months) to test out the new one...new cable works...so then I put back my old cable for the time being. Then my WD SCSI HDD was not found?!?  So I replaced the new cable and it works again...WTF?!?  Heck - I knew SCSI was peculiar at times - but changing a cable makes Windows NOT FIND your HDD...  ...d@mn peculiar?!?  Ah well, at least it still works...  |
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jul 6, 2007 16:52:44 GMT -5
If you mix "low-end" hardware with "high-end" stuff, expect troubles... MAJOR troubles. This is why SCSI stuff is so exclusive: huge boxes, huge cables, HUGE speeds... and HUGE pricetags ;D (although with the newest SAS drives, they're getting cheaper, and since SAS is compatible with SATA, the "hi-end" frontier is quickly vanishing).
Talking about troubles: two of my PCI cards on my recording box gave me troubles this week: first was the 100MBIt Netgear NIC (from dmesg: "interrupt: PCI error"): the card stopped working in the middle of a file transfer. A hard reboot fixed everything. Now yesterday was the SBLive!: sound died in the middle of a streaming video playback. A couple of hard reboots were needed... Seems that Saki was rebel this week, eh?
And for the 386: nothing was done, i may need a new PSU since i have some wiring problems with the replacement that i had installed.
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Jul 6, 2007 16:58:28 GMT -5
What kind of problems?  |
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jul 7, 2007 11:25:53 GMT -5
Since i ran out of plugs for more devices, i had to hack a old pass-thru Molex connector to add a couple of extra devices. This worked fine on my old PSU (a DVE from 1993), but it does not fit very well on this new one. Anyway, i will try to look for a PSU with more plugs. In other news: Say hello to my (possible) new Scorpio! That drive is sold out, so, for some extra bucks, i will take this SpinPoint. UPDATE: My MP0603H is on the way... and i'm broke, again ;D |
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Post by GiGaBiTe on Jul 13, 2007 4:35:06 GMT -5
AMD shutting down its own ability to fab chips is a huge mistake. If they ever got on any bad terms with their future fab partners, they can be held hostage and possibly be blackmailed. And even though that the Core 2 has more bugs than a cow in summer, I have personally had very little problems with mine. I guess only time will tell whether the CPU will have problems. Although I really don't think that anyone will ever have any major issues because just take a look at the early Pentium's, they had the FDIV and the F00F bugs and the world didn't end. I have a whole pile of those old chips and they work fine. SCSI can be problematic at times. I've had SCSI cables screw up devices on the chain and cause them to malfunction. The problem is usually that the cable interferes with the termination of the chain which is why certain devices break. I'd go and check the termination on all SCSI devices that are connected to the host adapter because that can be a problem. |
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jul 14, 2007 11:08:58 GMT -5
AMD shutting down its own ability to fab chips is a huge mistake. If they ever got on any bad terms with their future fab partners, they can be held hostage and possibly be blackmailed. And even though that the Core 2 has more bugs than a cow in summer, I have personally had very little problems with mine. I guess only time will tell whether the CPU will have problems. Although I really don't think that anyone will ever have any major issues because just take a look at the early Pentium's, they had the FDIV and the F00F bugs and the world didn't end. I have a whole pile of those old chips and they work fine. My IBM box (Asumi) has a F00Fed Pentium 133. Never had a crash with it, but Linux take measures to avoid falling in that trap. And the only problem with my Core 2 Duo laptop is the Travelstar harddrive: too silent, too tough, and TOO HOT! (up to 57°C, but usually over 50° while doing nothing). About the CPU: it's just matter of time, because some of the critical bugs can be exploited without the need of administrative/superuser permissions. What about a "killer" pendrive? We are having lots of problems with those pesky worms there (Ravmone, Brontok, AUTORUN-chinese-crap), but what about a more dangerous menace that can bring down C2 systems with just a few lines of code. Hopefully, either Intel will do a recall, or the OS authors will try to secure more their kernels. BTW: what about using the C2 flaws to fool Vista's DRM? ;D Will M$ ban Intel CPUs in the next SP? |
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oompa loompa
I AM THE GOVERNATOR 
"Git 'Er Dun!"
Posts: 1,301
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Post by oompa loompa on Jul 15, 2007 0:50:21 GMT -5
AMD shutting down its own ability to fab chips is a huge mistake. If they ever got on any bad terms with their future fab partners, they can be held hostage and possibly be blackmailed. nah, amd is letting tsmc manufacture some of their processors. tsmc is one of the world's largest wafer manufacturers because of the high yield, and low number of defects for the most modern processes. like, every single ic made today is made by tsmc, except for the big companies that have their own fabs, like ti, or intel there's gonna be no such thing as tsmc holding amd hostage to stop making their parts |
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Jul 20, 2007 16:44:53 GMT -5
Well, I've been looking through my old DOS things to add to my Cx486sx/387sx hybrid machine and... SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2 TURBO (Gametek version) ;D It works just fine on the Hybrid machine...even if it's more like... SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2 [not really very] TURBO [at all] LOL! ;D Usually I just get out my old SEGA Saturn when I want to play this...the Saturn ALWAYS had (and always will have) the best home conversions of the SF games [yeah, I know that I can just use FinalBurn Alpha on my Athlon box...LOL] Coolness!  |
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jul 20, 2007 18:47:16 GMT -5
;D Man, you made me to remember my old SSFII cart, yes, the rare 40Mbit one. It's still there, gathering dust just behind my Genesis, placed strategically aside of my TV, ready for fire at any moment And in other news... i hate semester endings: lots of projects, lots of exams, lots of phantom teachers... Someone should make an anime/manga about this! But since i was free this afternoon, i went to the lab to play with some of the "fuxored" HDs of the stash: - A JTS Champ 1.2G and a Champion 2.3G: You may know something about these couple of odd things (yes, i've mentioned them in earlier posts), but i remembered the "wipe'n'use" trick that bring back to the life to my old Momentus 42: the Champ still has nasty mechanical problems, but the Champion passed fine! Remember kids, only champions use CHAMPION hard drives ;D ;D ;D - A couple of ST33203As or something (Medalist 3.2G): Conner-flavored design (just peel the "security tape", and your HD is ruined for life! These lids have NO screws!): they REFUSE to work when not alone, and when they're alone, the problems continue: not-found sectors, sectors out of bonds... Disposable! - More SeaCrap: an ST3850A (a VERY LATE 850M Medalist from 1996!): looks like a crushed ST-157A, but with black paint: Tic-tic-scratch-dead  - A Conner CP2044PK laptop drive from 1991 (42M): the drive was found in the bottom of a box full with riser cards, with a nice bonus: an IDE-to-laptop-IDE adapter attached to it! This drive is funky: refuses to work sometimes, sometimes it's recognized but can't be read... but today, after some "work" with HDAT2, the drive is back to service! Damn slow (no DMA?! ), but at least, it works. Now, what could i do with that drive? - Another Conner (yes, it was Finnis Conner' day there), this time, an CFS850A (850M): looks like my old CP30084A, but with no paint, and a odd C-shaped metal plate. Someone ripped the Molex power connector, so we had to salvage one from a dead Maxcrap drive... but it was useless: the drive refuses to read or write anything. - A couple of early Maxtor CrystalMax drives (9102-something, 2.1G), and a "Maxtor MILLENIUM" (model number is too difficult to remember, but it's a 10G drive, and yes, it suffers from the "suicide firmware" issue): all of them marked on S.M.A.R.T as "Please, kill me now!", with MASSIVE counts of relocated sectors and UDMA CRC errors. The 10gig drive COULD be saved, but both 2.1G drives were badly damaged. Could be used as hockey pucks or Legos? - Some old WD gold: a Caviar AC21100 and a AC? (1G and 2.1G): both support S.M.A.R.T., and the 1gig Caviar was marked as "doomed" (and stopped at 450MB when wiping it), but the other one is fine. - A weird Samsung SW0433 (4.3G): also was S.M.A.R.T.-doomed, but this time was very different: all counters were set to zero! Power-on hours count = ZERO! Everything was set to ZERO, that caused the drive to be marked as "BAD, Backup and Burn", however, HDAT did not gave me any error when wiping that drive (and it still had an working Debian install). So we have here a very weird S.M.A.R.T. data corruption case in our hands... never have seen something SO bad! - If you're thinking to use HDAT2 with your (3/4)87-monster or with your legacy ST-157A's, FORGET IT! In my 386 box it takes AGES to load, and it FAILS to do any class of read/write check (and could even corrupt your drive!). And it did not detected our couple of ST-157As, despite being recognized by the BIOS (the test box this time was an P3-550). First find a 486 (at least), THEN use this litte gem to give some love to your cute drives. - My new Spinpoint MP0603H is delayed because of MercadoLibre stupidities when validating my mom's creditcard: no payment was received, so no drive will be sent... yet. My advice when using it (because when you live in Latin America, you can't trust eBay scammers and US Postal Service): don't be lazy and go to the bank to pay your new drive! You will lose half a day on a endless queue, but you can save $$$ (because you will not hit your computer with a hammer when they told you that you haven't paid yet). |
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Jul 20, 2007 23:16:34 GMT -5
SNAP! I have one of these too! (I keep all my carts in good condition)  Difference being that I have what I call my "Franken-drive" which is a heavily modded Megadrive (ver 1). It has region switches and the "pause" "1X/2X" overclock switches for boost mode! I also have a 64MBit Flashcart from TOTOTEK (yeah, I know they're expensive - but VERY worth it!) www.tototek.com/Now I can play all those hacked ROMs on my MD! ;D |
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jul 21, 2007 18:58:42 GMT -5
Here is my (read with eBay scammer accent) "L@@k, R@RE" SSFII cart:  ... and just below it,it's my SFII Special Champion Edition cart (24Mbit):  BTW: Since you have the same cart, i need some help from you: my SSFII manual is missing some pages, these are the pages 27 to 30 (the central sheet). Could you scan the pages from your manual and send them to me? I would like to check all the combos from all characters... Back to the "Real Life(tm)", i've updated my website for first time in this year (yes, i STILL have a website, unlike most people that have switched to blogs), and added a nice SVG art gallery. Check it out!. Inkscape can be fun and addictive, like a good oldskool videogame ;D That's what i get after 6 hours of learning, 2 hours of design, and one week of looking for a place to print cheap HQ labels:  Since all of the cool kids on the block have a Dell now, i had to "Pimp My Laptop(TM)" to avoid mistakes... and because i like that logo (but not that anime) I've printed enough labels (just a bit over $2 for four labels on a A4 sheet), so i may add another one to my recording box. |
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Jul 22, 2007 21:30:20 GMT -5
@tom - just noticed that the SF2 I own is infact just the SF2:SCE, the U.K. version of the one you have UNDER your SSF2 box...ah well! I guess I sold my old SSF2 cart when I got the flash cart from Tototek (you can play a hacked version with SSF2T colours using the flashcart - which looks cool). However...I can go one better than just scanning the manual! When I DID HAVE my SSF2 cart, it came with TWO manuals from the shop. This means i STILL have a spare SSF2 megadrive manual FULLY INTACT - I can post it to you if you like (FREE). ;D Let me know what you think. |
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jul 23, 2007 10:44:29 GMT -5
Cool! It will do the job Please, post it. Two manuals on the box? Seems that some kid out there received a somehow-empty SSF2 box... My carts sometime require a good deal of patience to get them working after a long time (slide-crash-slide-crash-slide-run!). Someday i will buy that Tototek flash cart: i need to test some of my BEX programs on the real thing, to see how much buggy are they in the real life But since i have some spare EEPROMs there (rescued from dead motherboards), i could even build my own flash cart, if i get too much bored. |
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Jul 23, 2007 13:39:59 GMT -5
Okay, I'll post it when I can get to the Post Office...I'll let you know... You need to invest in some 'tamper proof' screwdrivers to open your carts and clean the edge connectors with one of these : - Polishing Block buy.maplin.co.uk/Free_UK_Delivery/Polishing_Block_2109_v2.htmOh, and the Tototek cart kicks A$$! ;D ==edit== @tom - your SSFII manual is posted...just keep an eye out for a small padded envelope (approx. A5 size) |
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Post by paulpsomiadis on Jul 26, 2007 13:25:56 GMT -5
Okay I have a problem...  I like the SIMS 2 and want to go and download some of the stuff from the VERY cool : paysites.mustbedestroyed.orgThe problem is that they format their site like a HTML directory with LOTS of links to single files... ...like HUNDREDS of links! Whereas this would be okay with FTP - as you could just select them all and click the transfer button (liek from 'xbins' for example) ...in HTTP you have to DL each file separately! This is painstaking and REALLY boring!  So the question is... Does anyone know of a program that lets you view HTML pages in an FTP style view? Any help would be appreciated! ==edit== And SECONDS later he finds a solution for Firefox! www.downthemall.net/DUUUH! |
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