What retro things have you done today?

Soldato
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I posted it on vogons and the closest anyone could guess was an appian rendition II (I had also concluded the same). If I try it in other machines they beep for VGA error. That daughterboard is meant to give it VGA support. Its way too complicated for me to figure out and apparently will only work with the right drivers too... Will make a nice door stop :D
Might chuck it on ebay 99p start, possibly someone might want it.
 
Associate
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I posted it on vogons and the closest anyone could guess was an appian rendition II (I had also concluded the same). If I try it in other machines they beep for VGA error. That daughterboard is meant to give it VGA support. Its way too complicated for me to figure out and apparently will only work with the right drivers too... Will make a nice door stop :D
Might chuck it on ebay 99p start, possibly someone might want it.

Can you put a link to the auction as I'd be interesting in bidding on the graphics card.
 
Soldato
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I am not sure if we are allowed to post our own auctions onto here mate but my username is the same as this forum. I intend to list quite a bit of my surplus parts tonight and take advantage of the £1 max fees this weekend!
 
Man of Honour
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Motivated by LGR's latest video, I've spent today so far looking at what's needed to safely consolize a 2 slot MVS. Need a PSU, controls, maybe an OSSC, possibly an update to the Unibios that's installed and most importantly, a case to put it all in.
 
Soldato
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Another forum member tracked down my gumtree page after I mentioned a sale and we organised a trade.

geforce 3ti 200 will sit very nicely in my P3 win98 system which I will now call "finished". P3 750mhz - 512mb ram - gf3 ti200 - Audigy 2 - Windows 98se. (I may try and get my 1ghz p3 working with the slocket to make a better match for the gpu but no rush for this.)
The soundcard will likely go onto my 486 sx 50 machine. Still need to do bits to this one. Have got a 2xAA battery holder to solder on for the CMOS and would also like to get a DX2 in there as the SX does chug a bit for win95.(I prefer not to use plain dos)
The motherboard and cpu(also not pictured is some ram) are interesting and now offer me a choice for my "main" retro project.(early pentium system between 100-200mhz). I had hoped to get the case for this stripped down and sanded but had a car break down this week and my evenings have been wasted on that.
 
Soldato
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So installed the mx4000 this evening and the driver sort of worked but kept throwing up it was missing certain files during installation and at every startup which I guess is the tray tools? When installing I am getting asked to insert "Nvidia installer cd4" as it was a extractable package was a bit confusing. Long story short it's at a point where it it works until I open the start menu at which point the machine hard locks, can do anything else I want though, ctrl panel etc :(. Radeon back in, system still works fine.

Thinking I might be at a point where I need to do a fresh 95 install, I am still on the installation that was on the rig when i was given it. Don't have the licence key annoyingly so going to need to buy one I guess but I think that is what it needs
 
Soldato
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Today has started well. My next dumb project has started - an AMD A350 1.6GHz dual core with 6310 graphics APU thing for XP gaming. Just waiting for an ITX case to arrive (after this project my main XP PC will go ITX).

xotoz1jh.jpg

It's also got a proper PCI-E 2.0 16x (@4x) slot so I can try it out with a reasonable graphics card.

I also got my 50mm fan for my P3 650MHz after I included my last good fan with my Athlon kit I sold. Cheeky upgrade from the 450MHz P3 passive CPU that was in my Slot 1 PC before. I am planning on using a Noctua "slowy downy" cable I've got to make it silent (hopefully)

wfh8wcPh.jpg
 
Soldato
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This evening I fit the 1ghz p3 from the 370 oem system into my slot 1 system to replace the 750 using the sloket. The 750 was a 100mhz fsb cpu and the 1ghz a 133mhz fsb.

I swapped the FSB over to 133 and oddly the PC now beeps just before post and when post is done. It detects the cpu speed as :00EB Mhz and hangs before the mem is tested.
I put the multi down to 7 and the speed still says :00EB but it does now run. I need to install cpu-z or something to see what is actually going on. I thought these cpus had locked multis anyway? Odd that it made it post.

I did think I broke a trace on the slocket while fiddling but it seems ok.

I ran a couple of before and after 3dmark 99s (Should really move on to 2000 now but my previous benchmark data is from 1999 and I like to compare.


p3 750mhz gf2 mx 400 32mb 5059 11129
p3 750mhz gf3 ti 200 64mb 5602 11243

p3 1ghz gf3 ti 200 64mb 6870 15275

3dmark score and then cpu score.

Clearly the new cpu is working and giving a good boost but the double beep at post and :00EB mhz behaviour is odd. Perhaps I need a bios update?
 
Soldato
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I.T Lab clear-out happening at work and I appear to have inherited a HP DC7700 desktop, non tower system and there is also an older box they just found that I have first dibs on too once its been cleared :)
 
Soldato
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Flashed the bios on my P3 and now it recognises the cpu speed and instantly passes the memory count (the old count used to take about 30seconds to count 512mb)
Quite happy with that result
 
Man of Honour
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Nice. :D

Shame the parallel port version was very slow. I went SCSI. Still not fast, but better. ;) Squirrel SCSI card in the Amiga 1200 and it worked surprisingly well. One disc with Workbench, one with minimal workbench with quite a few games installed. Just a lot of cables.

Later on, switched to the 2gb Jaz drive and then, even sillier, the 70gb REV drive. Was still working last time I checked. Lives in the storage unit at the moment with a lot of my gear. :(
 
Associate
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Bought a slot 1 motherboard off eBay recently which arrived today, came with a P3 450Mhz and 256MB ram included for just over 30 quid plus postage (so around £36 total). I already have a setup I can use for Win98 stuff so to be honest I don't _really_ need it, but the reason I went for it is because it's a MSI 6168 with integrated 3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 graphics, so it was too interesting to pass up.

Two small problems though - looking it over this evening reveals one cap is starting to bulge and needs replacement (not something I've ever had to do myself so not sure how to proceed with this really... did work experience with soldering in a repair shop around 1998 but that was it!). The other issue is that it's from an OEM system (Packard Bell?) and they've used a different pinout for the front panel buttons/leds, and it has no labelling whatsoever! Struggling to find any info on the pinout at all.

So err... this may be a longer term project than I'd planned on. I will clean everything up and store it safely for now I guess whilst I have a think. Already in two minds about whether it was a sensible purchase after all! :s
 
Soldato
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Not sure if it is considered retro or if it's too early. But I have been looking into PSVita's! Still a big chunk of change for my liking

Vitas are interesting because it's a great bit of hardware, but unless you're into indie games (or you're going to hack it), the Vita's library is quite lacking... until you release you can play PSP games on a better screen, longer battery life, two frickin' analogue sticks. I use mine which I got in 2012 (and still works perfectly) to play PSP games most of the time I've bought from the PS store. However, a PSP will be cheaper, UMDs are cheaper, and at somepoint the servers will get turned off or whatever for the Vita..

Bought a slot 1 motherboard off eBay recently...

...The other issue is that it's from an OEM system (Packard Bell?) and they've used a different pinout for the front panel buttons/leds, and it has no labelling whatsoever! Struggling to find any info on the pinout at all.

The front panel header being different isn't the end of the world - I can't think of much harm you could do by shorting them in pairs to see which one is power, which is reset...
 
Soldato
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Bought a slot 1 motherboard off eBay recently which arrived today, came with a P3 450Mhz and 256MB ram included for just over 30 quid plus postage (so around £36 total). I already have a setup I can use for Win98 stuff so to be honest I don't _really_ need it, but the reason I went for it is because it's a MSI 6168 with integrated 3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 graphics, so it was too interesting to pass up.

Two small problems though - looking it over this evening reveals one cap is starting to bulge and needs replacement (not something I've ever had to do myself so not sure how to proceed with this really... did work experience with soldering in a repair shop around 1998 but that was it!). The other issue is that it's from an OEM system (Packard Bell?) and they've used a different pinout for the front panel buttons/leds, and it has no labelling whatsoever! Struggling to find any info on the pinout at all.

So err... this may be a longer term project than I'd planned on. I will clean everything up and store it safely for now I guess whilst I have a think. Already in two minds about whether it was a sensible purchase after all! :s
Those caps are fairly easy to replace. You have held a soldering iron before so you will be fine!

Arent those boards pretty valuable? on the 3dfx page I have seen people getting very excited over an integrated 3dfx motherboard. Unless there are others..?
 
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