Windows 3.11 PC

Retro6

Retro6

Retro6

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I'm currently looking for something suitable for a Windows 3.11 PC to play even older games some DOS games like Sim City 2000 won't work if the RAM is to high like in my Windows 98 machines I have 256MB RAM Sim City wont play along with some others. Its not the only reason why I want a Windows 3.11 machine tho.

Its unlikely that I'm going to find a 486 computer in this day and age for a cheap price but I am more likely to find a low spec Pentium II 200MHz 233 MHz or something and I have got my eye on a couple.

First question what is the most RAM I could have that would be suitable for most games in Windows 3.11? I was thinking maybe 16MB Ram or 24MB?
 
I have some good news. I found a 486 computer for 35 quid. This will be my Windows 3.11 machine hopefully. I have a few questions about Windows 3.11. The last time I used Windows 3.11 was in 1995 to play Lemmings and use MS Paint in my teachers office back when I was a kid. Sometimes used the word processor. I don't really know much about Windows 3.11 but I'm a fan of Risc OS and Windows 3.11 looks a bit like that. Here are my questions:

1. Will MS Office 95 work in Windows 3.11?
2. What Office software was most commonly used on Windows 3.11 up to 1994?
3. Do PS/2 mice work in Windows 3.11?
 
Windows 3.11 is within the minimum specs for Office 95, PS/2 was the main way of connecting mice on that era of machines.

A lot of people tended to use MS Works (yuck) back then for office software.

EDIT: RISC OS in many ways is a far superior OS.
 
Retro6 said:
First question what is the most RAM I could have that would be suitable for most games in Windows 3.11? I was thinking maybe 16MB Ram or 24MB?
Click to expand...

As you've already said in one of your many other threads:
Windows 3.1 machines commonly had between 4MB and 8MB of RAM
Click to expand...
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/ram-amounts-in-retro-pc-builds.18940195/

4-8MB will be fine, and arguably other than as a curiosity I'm not sure what 3.11 offers you over 95/98 in terms of compatibility. You'd arguably be better just running a pure DOS machine, for whatever games don't work under 95/98.
 
The 486 I bought has 32MB RAM hopefully that shouldn't be to much for Windows 3.11 otherwise I may have to find a 16MB or maybe 2X 8MB sticks. I'll have to see... 32MB should be ok.

I remember having an old AST machine with a 120MHz processor that I got given from an office back in 2000 and that was running Windows 95 with 8MB Ram and that was painfully slow, mind you the hard drive was loaded with all kinds of stuff. I did try up the Ram to 16MB but the machine wouldn't turn on when other Ram was tried so it remained with 8 MB ram until I traded it in to get money off a used Pentium 133MHz with 16MB Ram all for 25 pounds. Those were the days.
 
My 486 arrived today. Its very clean inside there were a few lose screws rattling inside of it but all looks good. I was a bit worried when I heard bits rattling about inside but it turned out just to be a couple screws. I'll have another look later to see where those screws might have come from, not to bothered about it at this point in time. CMOS battery is dead as expected. I'll replace the CMOS battery. I need to get a DIN to PS/2 adapter to plug in a keyboard. The DIN keyboard I do have doesn't work. I did try a PS/2 keyboard in the mouse port but no joy. It posts with press F1 or delete to enter Bios so thats as far as I can go for now until I get a adapter plug for the keyboard. Its got two networking cards in the back I'm going to remove those and put a sound blaster card in there. I'm going to order the DIN adapter and then hopefully I'll be up and running on 3.11

I could try repairing the DIN keyboard that I tried but I have a feeling that the problem going to be one of the chips.

Update: I've just got myself a CRT for a tenner to go with it. I will be picking it up on Wednesday hopefully.

I've just ordered the DIN connector for the ps2 keyboard. I will replace the CMOS battery and I may even be able to use the original 1 GB hard drive that came with the machine. If it formats in MS-DOS 6.22 then that is good enough for me that the hard drive is ok. Next Will be the CD ROM Device driver "probably wont need it at this point" but I'll install it anyway so its there if I need it. Then I will install Windows 3.11 from 6 floppy disks.

I'm looking forward to doing the Windows 3.11 install using floppies. I'm actually quite excited about it.

I wont have any audio for the time being because there is no sound card. I'm going to see what sound cards I have first but I'm thinking of using the Sound Blaster. I'm not looking for top notch audio just as long as I have some kinda sound then I am happy.

VGA graphics. I'm going to use the onboard Graphics although without drivers I'm not sure what kinda color display to expect or resolution?

There is a 256 color display file online for 3.11 but that's for virtual box rubbish and might not work on a real machine Is there a 256 color patch/fix file for 3.11 that will work on a real machine?
 
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Update on the 3.11 project... I'm still waiting for my DIN adapter, I'm hoping that will arrive today or sometime soon. I'm really itching to get this 486 up and running. I also bagged myself a nice retro DIN AT keyboard for a tenner a couple days ago. I'm hoping to get that this week.

I am pretty excited about it all. Once I get my DIN adapter I will be able to try out my 486 and if all is good then I'll wipe the hard drive and instill MS DOS.6.22 and then Windows 3.11
 
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Update 2: I finally got my AT to PS/2 adapter so now I can use a keyboard on the 486. The 486 had FreeDOS installed so I had a good look through the hard drive to see if there were any old games or interesting bits of software that were worth backing up but there wasn't anything so ran fdisk with MS-DOS deleted partitions and created a new one then formatted drive C: setup MS-DOS 6.22 amazingly the old 2 GB hard drive is in good working order.

I ran into problems with getting Windows 3.11 on floppy disk. I expected something to go wrong because with these things they take time and patience. I downloaded Windows 3.11 which comes in 6 floppy images but the problem is each image file is slightly to big to fit on a 1.44mb floppy disk. I guess everything is made for virtual box these days. That has thrown a spinner in the works for the time being until I can think of something else. I may have to buy a copy but that could be a long wait until a copy is for sale for a reasonable price. Oh well I will do some googling and see if there are any other Windows 3.11 floppy images.

Edit. I resolved the problem. The problem was Linux, for some reason it was reading it wrong. I copied the files to the Windows 98 PC and did everything on that copied the 3.11 files to the floppies and then installed Windows 3.11 to my 486.

The Windows 3.11 installation was just magical. I was on the edge of my seat a bit because disk 4 failed so I had to make another disk 4 prying that it would let me continue with the setup. After making another disk 4 the setup continued. Next I will find an MS office suit for it and install some sound.
 
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