386 box supertunning

[Tom Maneiro]

Update time! Lots of new stuff at the workbench, but first, time for the torture tests:

Here is a very lame and pointless test: trying to install XP on a 386. A XP SP2 CD just popped up on the workbench, so let's check what Micro$ucks says about Marika...

The autorun app looks funny without the correct background:


Trying to run the "Compatibility check" test:

...FAIL! "Not enough HD space"


It seems that M$ copies a bunch of garbage to the HD prior to running the compatibility check
Before the installer: about 100MB

Just after the "not enough space" messagebox: less than 45MB!


386 + bloatware = NO NO
However, this is not done... Once i manage to plug a bigger drive there, there will be a second try


Now, on to the second part: the loot section! ;D

A cybercafe near home tossed some old boxes to the trash (YES, THE TRASH! Those rich guys don't waste their money repairing or selling their old stuff...), and since we live in a "green world", let's recycle:

Lot #1:

- Three Socket 370 CPUs: one Celeron 466 (from a HP Pavillion box) and two PIII 750s. All of them are OK, although i had to clean lots of dry thermal paste. Talking about being lucky, eh?
- Two Intel NICs (one from that HP box, the other is an stock Intel PRO/100M). Both are in good shape, ready for crunching packets. The PRO/100M is based on a 82550EY chipset, that does TCP checksumming (allowing the host to save a shitload of time on heavy network loads, specially for OLD PCs), unfortunately Linux drivers don't support that neat feature
- A SoundBlaster PCI (AKA Ensoniq AudioPCI) - untested but should be OK
- A rare piece of history: a Creative DXR2 DVD decompressor card. Yes, you needed one of these back in 1997 when video cards were crap and PCs weren't powerful enough to decode your expensive video discs... Obviously, i have no way (and no need) to test this card without their propietary drivers and cables.
- A Slot1 PIII 550 with a HUGE heatsink - untested
- A Ambient (AKA Cirrus Logic) winmodem - Winmodems are not modems, so back to the trash

Lot #2:

- Two PIII motherboards: one from Intel and other from that HP box. Sadly, i have no ATX PSU on the workbench, so they were not tested.

Not pictured:
- An el-cheapo(tm) Socket 7/370 fancooler (also from that HP crap box) - untested

Full lot:



Time for the BIG update: my 250 GB drive is now here, in my hands! Directly from Newegg, my brand-new Hitachi Deskstar 7K500, ready for being installed into Saki ;D

The unboxing experience begins here:




For now, i have it plugged to a USB adapter, for testing purposes (since i'm at my home right now, not at my base). But for tomorrow....

TSDX Films presents: "LBA-48 or not-LBA-48: The Saki Files"

Will the 250 GB drive work there? Or it will be limited to be another lame 137GB drive? We will see that tomorrow... Get ready for that show

[RANT]
Don't buy on Newegg:
- They don't accept non-US credit cards (this is why my drive was very, very delayed)
- No international shipping, so you must provide an US address for shipping.
- Prices are OK, but shipping and taxes sucks (remember, this is US of A. Blame Republicans and Democrats)
- I purchased a P7K500, but they sent a 7K500 (the older model), made in February 2008. No big deal (a drive is a drive, and it's an Hitachi drive), but i clearly wanted the newer model.
[/RANT]


And for end this, some random flicks from the workbench:

- My Lanpro 100MB Ethernet switch, made in Earth (box says "Manufacturing place of this product is unknown")


- Cable madness part 1: Marika ports:


- Cable madness part 2: Saki ports:

(That USB bracket is new: it was from a old MSI P4 motherboard. After some rewiring, it works nicely on my M535/8 board... although i need to permanently fix that USB power trace that i fried a looong time ago. The "temporary" fix is just a piece of cable that sometimes come loose, and USB ports stop working....)

- Cable madness parts 3 and 4: Kids, don't do this at home!


Yes, it's a nightmare to clean the dust from those cables. Touch one in the wrong spot, and bad things WILL happen

- Good anime is always loaded on those combo Toshita-Crapsung drives:

I wish that those discs were original... Sadly, i ilve in Latin America, so this is only another impossible dream

- Want a screw? We never lose'em here. You can find screws everywere, right when you need them:


As a random closing note: 5.25" floppy drives do indeed work on Wintendo XP. However, M$ didn't provided an updated icon for these, so instead they use the old Win2K/Me icon. Do those drives work on Vista? Legacy-free my pants ;D

[bullis1]

Nice update. Some good loot was found. I've been thinking of finding a DVD decoder card for my computer but so far no luck.

I recently was at a thrift shop and there were tons of external SCSI and parallel port optical drives. In retrospect I should have picked one or two up just to play with but my parport is already loaded enough.

I also learned about an MMC->floppy disk adaptor. Ever feel like transferring 2GB at the speed of a floppy? No? Well at least it's convenient!

[Syniphas]

Nice stuff you guys got there. Sadly all I got currently is a broken-hinged 486 laptop and a 486 motherboard with 2 possibly working processors and a PSU.

I'm looking for parts (fan, processor, hd...), but I never tend to find them here (I live in Brazil). I'm not asking for anything, but if there's anything you're looking forward to throwing away or you're sure you're not going to use it anymore, contact me first.

[Tom Maneiro]

Good news: the Deskstar worked with Saki... after some pain

- the i430VX chipset DOES LBA-48... Nice
- Solution for the 32-GB jumper issue: Don't use it, and set the drive type as "NONE" on the BIOS SETUP. Anyway, Linux don't care what the BIOS have to say, because the IDE controller will NEVER lie
- This drive REQUIRES a 80-wire IDE cable. Otherwise, bad things will happen...
- I deleted (accidentally) lots of important stuff from my old 40-gig drive... and it was an EXT3 drive. Solution? UNMOUNT THAT DRIVE QUICKLY! Then use ext3grep. I recovered up to the last bit of my important stuff (mostly anime RAWs and some university stuff). Never EVER migrate data between drives at 11 PM

[paulpsomiadis]

Nice to hear that your new drive worked mate!

...shame about the accidental delete.

I had a WORSE accident recently with my 60GB backup USB HDD.

I was modding the external enclosure and accidentally crossed the 12V and 5V wires.

ZAP! one toasted drive.

Thankfully my uncle had a backup of "most" of the stuff...but I reckon I probably still lost about 8GB of "new" downloads...

AHA! and a Creative DXR-2...

I have one of them, but I found the pinout for the AV port.

Then I de-soldered the AV port and re-soldered a network port onto the spot the AV port used to be - then created my own custom cable.

There is a custom (free) player that uses custom drivers which lets it work fine in XP.

[GiGaBiTe]

You can't install Windows XP on anything less than a Pentium 60 (It may also work on the crippled Pentiums made into 486 overdrives; the 63 and 83 MHz ones) due to the 486 and under missing two processor instructions. One of them is "CPUID" and the other is "CH8MBXGR" or something along those lines.

Windows 2000 is the highest version of Windows that will work on a 386 and 486, although it will be painfully slow. My 486/133 can barely run it at adequate speeds, mostly because PIO-4 on the IDE controller is crippling the CPU during file transfers.

I put a small SCSI drive in with a SCSI controller and it sped things up from taking a load off the CPU and it could do simple tasks, but browsing those flash and video sites murdered it.

[David]

Merry christmas and a happy new year to everybody on the forums.

You've done a fair bit of stuff to that 386, the oldest system i've got is a 486DX2/66, I killed my celeron 1300 this morning. It was a tA1 core, POSTed at 1.82GHz on 1.65 volts, but would not do anything else, the motherboard doesn't even POST anymore. It ran unstably at 1.73GHz, and ran fine at 1.6GHz, but I wanted more... killing the M/B, an Aopen Ax34-U, It served me well.

I've got a p133 and I screwed up all the the text in the BIOS. It now has an award bowel mover instead of an award BIOS 4.51PG.

[Tom Maneiro]

Welcome back to the thread, and enjoy this 2009 update, with the latest experiments from teh workbench in the last three months of 2008


* Saki vs the 250gig'r:

- Just testing...


dd_rescue is not only useful to recover drives from fuxxored drives, it can also be used to do benchmarks and diagnose faulty LBA-48 controllers

Actual status: Working fine, 67GB of 250GB used
Next experiment: Linux Kernel 2.6.28, stock.

* Another keyboard that bites the dust:

The original, 1993-vintage keyboard of my 386 just died. Well, only the PS/2 plug of it This thing is easy but annoying to take apart, plus it has a solid building... This one is membrane-based:


(yes, i had to clean 15+ years of Resident Shit(tm)...)

Driver chip: stock Intel 8048, from early '93:


Trying to change the cable yielded no results: my spare PS/2 keyboard cable also had a broken plug



For now, we will have to survive with this: a foldable keyboard ;D


Actual status: Waiting for a new PS/2 plug. Repair this keyboard is a MUST!


* Recycle OR DIE: Those Puerto Ordaz residents do seem to be very rich: A capacitor inside your soundcard dies? Throw the entire PC to the trash and get a new one!

I found this gem in a random trash spot:


A 17" noname CRT monitor... Someone also dropped sand and hot beer over it, so it's unsafe to plug... for now.

Actual status: A roommate here will fix it... but we need to get some solder first


* PROJECT Spica status:
- Aborted projects: Bem Project (Humanoid Monster Bem 2006 remake, aborted because of no RAWs online, and i will NOT spend $570+S&H in the R2 DVD box set. Two episodes per DVD!? WTF they were thinking?)

- Active projects: Project Holic (yes, another CLAMP "magic girl" series)
Audio stage:


Video stage: all QC'ing is done in my private "pirate TV channel", fueled by VLC



Actual status: 10/24 eps completed


* The stash, final 2008 inventory:

- Lots and LOTS of cables, PC speakers, LEDs, a CNR modem (another fancy word to call a "winmodem"), a keyboard PCB, a 486 motherboard in the test bench with some RAM sticks (most of them bad or incompatible), and a couple of old CDMA cellphones: a Nokia 6185! (no battery, can't send SMS) and a Compal 2500c (rotten battery, BREW-infested!)


- Precious copper... I will be rich someday with all those cables


- CDMA rulz, Qualcomm sux:

(yes, that permanent marker is a Sharpie-branded one)

- There was an age in my early PC hacking days when i had to cry for get a loaned IDE cable... Now i even have SCSI spares!

(again, yes, that Slot 1 cart is a PIII-550, untested)

- Fans, cellphone chargers, other AC adapters, Royal Mail envelopes... and even MORE CABLES!


- 5.25" floppy sleeves, pencils, flex printed cables, some random prizes from sliced bread bags, and you guessed it, MORE CABLES, HELL YES, CABLES!!!1!ONE!!


- A cheap, brand spankin' new DVD burner for the workbench: a Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200A, waiting to be flashed with a proper RPC-1 firmware... under Linux (yes, i have both items!)


- These will be for sale soon in your nearest MercadoLibre (sorry, no eBay for these): 4/8M 72-pin SIMMs, and vintage CPUs (from a 286-12 to a Pentium III-750, including a R@RE, L@@k, socket-4 Pentium)




Actual status: pieces for sale. Anyone willing to recycle plastic/copper?


* Stupid shots:

Win98 on a Centrino Duo? Surely, it CAN be done


Why NMIs on XP can suck:


Random GFX corruption on my ORIGINAL NBA JAM cart on my stock, 98% unmodded Genesis Model 1


Rotten ROMs? Bad Genesis VRAM? What the hell? Either that, or Kega Fusion's emulation is flawed, because this game has none of these GFX errors on the emulator...

My NBA JAM records:

('CGI' is my very first record, almost all games but one played with Orlando Magic. 'BAT' is my perfect, 100% legit, 33-0 winning streak I use it to unlock Juice Mode whenever i need a fast gameplay)


* Unpictured stuff:

- Cellphone hacking: I finally found a donor CDMA RAZR for installing a Java firmware into it. The experiment worked flawlessly... but one week later, i messed up with the AKEY (a security key needed for authentication on CDMA networks)... and the phone no longer works for voice, SMS and data. Ah, well, at least it worked

- Marika, the 386 box: I haven't powered up it this year... I should do it this week....

- Windows 7 torture testing: PIII-750 + 128MB of RAM + shit PCCHIPS M748 mobo + Windows 7 Public Beta = xTremo Torture Testing? (pat.pend). Coming Real Soon....

And this is the end of this beefy update. Stay tuned, and drive with care

[paulpsomiadis]

@tom - is that the 286 at the top in what looks like a CO-Pro socket?

Nice specs on that new writer bud! ;D

www.sony-optiarc.eu/en/exhibits/half-height-drives/ad-7200a

[david]

@tom- About the 486 board, both of my 486's are very fussy with what RAM they take, they both have 16 megs, and it is a pain to try and use any other RAM of larger sizes with them, they both handle 64 megs, but they don't like most of my EDO ram.

About the processors, is that an AMD Am486 or 5x86 under the 286

[Tom Maneiro]

@david: Yes, it's an Am486DX2-50. It's my only working 486 in all of my stash (i also have a Am486DX4-100, but it has broken pins).

Back to the vintage experiments: Let's try something more 386-age-friendly: IRC. Yes, that old-skool IRC For starters, mIRC still exists, and STILL WORKS ON Win95! (Winsock2 may be required, though)

Installing mIRC on a 386 surprisingly works. The installer does not crashes or asplodes on my 'SX:



mIRC UI is the clear example of why useful apps are not bloated. Very litte trashing! (if any)


Connecting to a network... the choosen one was Rizon:


Joining a channel:


Testing... from another PC (my nick on the 386 was "dilworks") - sorry for the poor quality pics, but my best cameraphone was working as a modem... again, so i had to use one of my backup Motorolas


Result: Yes, you can chat on a 1993-vintage 386, using 2009-vintage software and 3G mobile internet Greets to the mIRC author by making a lightweight IRC client that does not suck, and can run on grandma's PC


Bonus shots!
(sponsored by Motorola, the hacker's choice for cellphones)

A journey to the center of Saki, das MMX-router


Parts description, starting from the PSU, clockwise:

- The 1991 "Perfect"-brand 225W PSU. Not factory-certified for 24/7, but it works
- Toshita-Crapsung TS-H492A DVD/CDRW combo (RPC-1 flashed). May be replaced with another cheapo Optiarc drive in the future...
- Chinon 3.5" floppy drive... only for emergencies.
- Samsung HDs: on top, the SV4012H (40gig, Spinpoint V40, work drive), and on bottom a SV0842A (Voyager 10/11, 8 gig, boot/OS drive). 5400 RPM drives are not so bad these days...
- PCCHIPS chipset heatsink from a M810 motherboard. PCCHIPS sucks, but some motherboards don't... die... EVER!
- Below the mess of switch/LED/power wires, a OEM Intel Socket-370 fancooler over a underclocked P233-MMX. Quite extreme for a MMX... until you remember that living in Puerto Ordaz means only one thing: HEAT... lots of it.
- Just below the PCI cards, it's a spankin' new Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 (HDT725025VLAT80) - one of the last IDE drives ever made... This is the only part that i have ever purchased for this box.
- The PCI cards, from top to bottom:
* SiS 6326 videocard (8MB, only 4MB usable on Linux due to driver issues). High-rez consoles totally rulz! ;D
* SoundBlaster Live! (CT4760, the earliest model ever released), with a heatsink over the chip, due to overheating problems
* 2x AMD PCnet32 netcards (original IBM AS/400 parts )
- Over the cards, a dual USB port bracket, from a MSI P4 motherboard. Had to rewire the connectors, but they do work nicely there
- Parallel and serial ports... the serial port does not work, for some bizarro reason.

End of this update! See ya next month!

[oompa loompa]

i remember when you started this thread, you had nothing, just a few motherboards and dead hard drives . but wow, you've certainly built up your stash after all these years

what i would do is buy a heat gun/embrossing gun and desolder all that stuff off . you could probably make yourself a nice minicomputer . or using a blow torch on those pdips works too

[Tom Maneiro]

That's the good thing about being a university student: you're free to gather free trash

When i started, back in 2004, what i had? Nothing useful... a couple of cheap floppies and a analog cellphone (YES, ANALOG). That was all... Then i got that "dead" 386... and everything started there. First a bunch of dead motherboards, then a crappy CD-ROM drive... then a 486... more HDs... more parts... that Pentium MMX, and the rest is boring story.

Now i have done quite a bunch of interesing stuff:

- Extreme 386 supertunning
- Extreme MMX-box supertunning
- Misc crazy experiments with old PC parts
- Revival of dead boxes
- Anime scene
- Cellphone flashing/hacking
- ...and some oldskool programming too

This is my last semester at the university, so this stage of my life may be reaching it's end... or not? Who knows ;D Now i need a truck to pack all this stash when i need to move from that dorm... but that's for another thread

[oompa loompa]

haha, the country of Venezuela should give you recognition for "recycling" all that junk PC stuff , or else it would all be in a landfill leaking out lead and pvc's into people's drinking water or something

I use to have some pretty rare stuff before, but you know what? I just desoldered all that crap up haha . I dunno, I love throwing stuff away . I finally trashed a couple of Apple II's just recently .

You have 486 motherboards, some old 74xx logic chips, and a soldering iron? You could always build yourself a SRAM cart for your genesis using the cache SRAM from 486 computers

[Syniphas]

I'm trying to get two beaten up Amiga 600's I bought at Mercado Livre up and running. One doesn't turn on, the other one has a broken keyboard (and none of the three keyboards i have work), I wonder where I can find a spare A600 keyboard...

Before the keyboard stopped working, just the ESC - HELP row wasn't working (sucks, Pinball Fantasies needs you to press F# for each table), and I did some quite interesting stuff, such as writing my own serial cable transfer program in AMOS and FreeBasic, built a null-modem cable out of an old computer parallel port and a broken sega genesis controller's cable and wrote about 11 floppies worth of games (Lotus Turbo Challenge ftw). Too bad now I have this urge to play it and the damn keyboard just won't work...