crazii wrote on 2021-12-09, 16:27:

Get another ymf724 that is said have a wavetable ROM on it: Yamaha waveforce WF-192XG. This piece is manufactured by Yamaha I guess.
Just wonder how the wavetable works, through mpu401? does it need drivers or it only works in windows? I use ymf 724 driver and the SB & FM both works in DOS, but mpu401 doesn't.

DSC_0302.JPG

Wavetable is "hardware assisted" and only works in Windows. Theoretically is might be possible to make it work in DOS, but a TSR that loads the samples into system RAM and initializes the synth part would be needed.

Paid more than I wanted to for this Tandy 2500XL, it's just a very standard 286 but I wanted a 286, so I guess I can live with it. I plan to give it some upgrade love, though (faster CPU, more RAM, CF card hard disk, and an Adlib clone sound card).

EvieSigma wrote on 2021-12-10, 01:08:

Paid more than I wanted to for this Tandy 2500XL, it's just a very standard 286 but I wanted a 286, so I guess I can live with it. I plan to give it some upgrade love, though (faster CPU, more RAM, CF card hard disk, and an Adlib clone sound card).

PXL_20211210_004610280.jpg

PXL_20211210_005556052.jpg

Looks like someone has kindly socketed the Dallas RTC, makes it pretty simple to replace it.

Very clean machine, just needs a quick dusting, I like the riser setup too.

TrashPanda wrote on 2021-12-10, 02:22:

EvieSigma wrote on 2021-12-10, 01:08:

Paid more than I wanted to for this Tandy 2500XL, it's just a very standard 286 but I wanted a 286, so I guess I can live with it. I plan to give it some upgrade love, though (faster CPU, more RAM, CF card hard disk, and an Adlib clone sound card).

PXL_20211210_004610280.jpg

PXL_20211210_005556052.jpg

Looks like someone has kindly socketed the Dallas RTC, makes it pretty simple to replace it.

Very clean machine, just needs a quick dusting, I like the riser setup too.

Unfortunately I think it needs more than that, as upon powering it up I was greeted with a BLAST of fishy capacitor smell from the power supply. Gross!

It still works though, somehow...

EvieSigma wrote on 2021-12-10, 02:36:

TrashPanda wrote on 2021-12-10, 02:22:

EvieSigma wrote on 2021-12-10, 01:08:

Paid more than I wanted to for this Tandy 2500XL, it's just a very standard 286 but I wanted a 286, so I guess I can live with it. I plan to give it some upgrade love, though (faster CPU, more RAM, CF card hard disk, and an Adlib clone sound card).

PXL_20211210_004610280.jpg

PXL_20211210_005556052.jpg

Looks like someone has kindly socketed the Dallas RTC, makes it pretty simple to replace it.

Very clean machine, just needs a quick dusting, I like the riser setup too.

Unfortunately I think it needs more than that, as upon powering it up I was greeted with a BLAST of fishy capacitor smell from the power supply. Gross!

It still works though, somehow...

Hmm sounds like the PSU needs some capacitive love. It doesnt surprise me that it still works 🤣, I never did kill my old IBM 286 and It got a ton of abuse and AT PSU testing fuckery when it was my test rig.

EvieSigma wrote on 2021-12-10, 01:08:

Paid more than I wanted to for this Tandy 2500XL, it's just a very standard 286 but I wanted a 286, so I guess I can live with it. I plan to give it some upgrade love, though (faster CPU, more RAM, CF card hard disk, and an Adlib clone sound card).

PXL_20211210_004610280.jpg

PXL_20211210_005556052.jpg

Can you do that to Tandys or does the clockchip swap mess up timing on the whole board? Though I must admit, I don't find 286es get my blood warmed up until they're 16+Mhz... 10Mhz just feels completely in the fast turbo XT overlap, 12 on the edge of it, 16 woohoo, now we got powahhhh!!!

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-12-10, 04:20:

EvieSigma wrote on 2021-12-10, 01:08:

Paid more than I wanted to for this Tandy 2500XL, it's just a very standard 286 but I wanted a 286, so I guess I can live with it. I plan to give it some upgrade love, though (faster CPU, more RAM, CF card hard disk, and an Adlib clone sound card).

PXL_20211210_004610280.jpg

PXL_20211210_005556052.jpg

Can you do that to Tandys or does the clockchip swap mess up timing on the whole board? Though I must admit, I don't find 286es get my blood warmed up until they're 16+Mhz... 10Mhz just feels completely in the fast turbo XT overlap, 12 on the edge of it, 16 woohoo, now we got powahhhh!!!

Mmmm 16Mhz much speed more power great processing !! and then it falls over because some archaic dos executable is expecting 10Mhz and 16Mhz is just too much.

Making programs rely on system timers for in program timing is bad mmmmkay

Might have scored a Gericom 1st Supersonic M6-T laptop, waiting on the seller to provide me tracking details.

Just by looking at its specs, it seems to be a total powerhouse.

Desktop Tualatin 1.2GHz, VIA 694T (yes, it sports a full blown 694T, apparently) chipset, 32MB Radeon Mobility M6 (which I think is equal to a Mobility 7000 I think?), 30GB HDD, combo CDRW drive.

Should make a nice replacement for my old Armada E500, which unfortunately started to show some qujte noticeable signs of LCD delamination. Wanted something that is also P3 and the Gericom looks more lively than the ol' Armada. Hope its speakers sound just as great.

Bought this little chip NOS, but alas, my 82440FX motherboard could not POST once I installed it; all I got is just a black screen 😑 Any idea how I can get it running?

I am using a PCPartner MB600n that comes with a standard Intel 82440FX chipset. I have used all possible host clock, multiplier, and bus clock settings on the jumpers. The only setting that I haven't touched is the CPU voltage as it is currently set to "Auto Mode". As I understand this chip comes with its own voltage regulator so there is no point for me to even change the CPU voltage jumper. 😮‍💨

PC@LIVE wrote on 2021-12-09, 21:17:

Ordered days ago this creative sound card, I don't know the model it says ES1371 on the chip, it will arrive in the next few days and I should install it on the Siemens D1107 (i440BX) repaired days ago.
That card has no integrated audio or lan, I have already put a pci lan, for audio if I want I could put an isa card but I prefer to use them for older PCs, also because the MB has five PCI slots.
As cpu on siemens I have a PII 350, a Siemens 128MB ram, a 4MB Trident AGP 2X video card.

It's actually a great budget card, decent for a PCI sound card and cheap. DOS compatibility is fine, as long as you're using general MIDI, which it's great at, it emulates SB16 for sound effects. SB16 music though, is terrible, but somewhat entertaining. You can get .ecw wavesets from 2mb, 4mb and 8mb. 2mb is actually in my opinion the best to use, this is coming from using this card exclusively for Doom 1/2 and Duke3d, while 4mb and 8mb sounds a little too filtered for my taste.

Works fine in W98 DOS and pure DOS.

Drivers can be a pain as there's a lot available, some will just not work, others will just BSOD, I got my drivers here - Ensoniq / Creative AudioPCI - I use the Creative audioPCI type.

amang wrote on 2021-12-10, 08:39:

Bought this little chip NOS, but alas, my 82440FX motherboard could not POST once I installed it; all I got is just a black scre […]
Show full quote

Bought this little chip NOS, but alas, my 82440FX motherboard could not POST once I installed it; all I got is just a black screen 😑 Any idea how I can get it running?

I am using a PCPartner MB600n that comes with a standard Intel 82440FX chipset. I have used all possible host clock, multiplier, and bus clock settings on the jumpers. The only setting that I haven't touched is the CPU voltage as it is currently set to "Auto Mode". As I understand this chip comes with its own voltage regulator so there is no point for me to even change the CPU voltage jumper. 😮‍💨

It's a drop in replacement and should work without any tinkering. I had a few over the years but eventually sold them off. Not much improvement over P-Pro 200 1M @233.

kixs wrote on 2021-12-10, 09:41:

It's a drop in replacement and should work without any tinkering.

That's what I thought, it should be like a PnP chip on my socket 8 board, but it seems that some motherboards can be a bit finicky to work with.

kixs wrote on 2021-12-10, 09:41:

I had a few over the years but eventually sold them off. Not much improvement over P-Pro 200 1M @233.

Wow! Really? I thought with the extra MMX instruction sets they would improve, at least, the performance for 16-bit applications. In your case, could that have anything to do with the 1MB L2 cache that somehow compensates the lack of performance on 16-bit area? Does the 1MB L2 cache make any difference compared to, say, 256k only?

amang wrote on 2021-12-10, 08:39:

Bought this little chip NOS, but alas, my 82440FX motherboard could not POST once I installed it; all I got is just a black scre […]
Show full quote

Bought this little chip NOS, but alas, my 82440FX motherboard could not POST once I installed it; all I got is just a black screen 😑 Any idea how I can get it running?

I am using a PCPartner MB600n that comes with a standard Intel 82440FX chipset. I have used all possible host clock, multiplier, and bus clock settings on the jumpers. The only setting that I haven't touched is the CPU voltage as it is currently set to "Auto Mode". As I understand this chip comes with its own voltage regulator so there is no point for me to even change the CPU voltage jumper. 😮‍💨

Try with 2 sticks or ram, set voltage and multiplier as for a 200mhz cpu.
Works on a board I have.

Nexxen wrote on 2021-12-10, 10:19:

Try with 2 sticks or ram, set voltage and multiplier as for a 200mhz cpu.
Works on a board I have.

Hmm... I can give it a try. What voltage should I set? 3.3v??

amang wrote on 2021-12-10, 10:31:

Nexxen wrote on 2021-12-10, 10:19:

Try with 2 sticks or ram, set voltage and multiplier as for a 200mhz cpu.
Works on a board I have.

Hmm... I can give it a try. What voltage should I set? 3.3v??

66 mhz x3
3.3V

Works for me.

Edit: I was thinking that maybe the VRM needs 3.3V, as Auto option needs to detect the cpu and fails doing so? but if overridden works ok? - just throwing it there to verify, maybe someone knows exactly 😀

BIOS needs to support it since it is some Pentium II core inside. Have two boards and one overdrive but cannot test them since it is lacking its stock cooler. Still need to find some replacement or another way for cooling before testing. I doubt that it will work on any of them since both BIOS versions are from 1996 and the overdrives first appeared in 1997 as far as I know.

On my menu today:

Mainly bought it because of the CPU (P60 Sx835), which is in excellent condition optically and will replace the same one but with very scratched surface in my collection.

Some days ago these bundles arrived:
The first one unfortunately missing all the connection cables for the AIW 9600Pro making it pretty useless. At least it wasn't that expensive. Didn't test any of it yet.

Highlight of the second one may be the Gigabyte board with 1 GB of RAM.

Got this

sellers picture

EPoX EP-8RDA+Pro w/ AMD Athlon 3200+ Unlocked Barton, also comes with 1.5gb of DDR400 and a PCI Radeon 7500. IIRC the Unlocked Barton 3200+ was pretty dang rare back in the day and not many made it to retail.

Seller had it listed fairly cheap and I have fond memories of my old XP2800+ system and playing countless hours of Oblivion and Morrowind on it.

Should be a great system to test AGP cards on and play more Oblivion, not on that 7500 PCI tho, a 6800 GT I have should fit the bill !

ChrisK wrote on 2021-12-10, 14:19:

BIOS needs to support it since it is some Pentium II core inside. Have two boards and one overdrive but cannot test them since i […]
Show full quote

BIOS needs to support it since it is some Pentium II core inside. Have two boards and one overdrive but cannot test them since it is lacking its stock cooler. Still need to find some replacement or another way for cooling before testing. I doubt that it will work on any of them since both BIOS versions are from 1996 and the overdrives first appeared in 1997 as far as I know.

On my menu today:
IMG_20211210_142237_.jpg
IMG_20211210_142245.jpg
Mainly bought it because of the CPU (P60 Sx835), which is in excellent condition optically and will replace the same one but with very scratched surface in my collection.

Some days ago these bundles arrived:
The first one unfortunately missing all the connection cables for the AIW 9600Pro making it pretty useless. At least it wasn't that expensive. Didn't test any of it yet.

IMG_20211210_142445.jpg
IMG_20211210_142541.jpg

Highlight of the second one may be the Gigabyte board with 1 GB of RAM.
IMG_20211210_142943.jpg

That last Image with the Gigabyte board .. is that a Geforce 256 next to it missing a fan ?

ChrisK wrote on 2021-12-10, 14:19:

The first one unfortunately missing all the connection cables for the AIW 9600Pro making it pretty useless. At least it wasn't that expensive. Didn't test any of it yet.

I am also in that situation, and found the cables fetch more than a 9800Pro .. wonderful.

When I get round to it, I am going to go the route of stuffing jumper wires in the socket and then casting a plug shell around it with hot glue or epoxy and then breaking out at least a single VGA port by trial and error. The only cable pinout online for them is for the version with DVI, maybe that offers clues, maybe it doesn't.

I have seen one for sale on an almost local marketplace, too far to drive, and not sure if seller will ship, which might have the cable with it, and I have been wondering if it's worth the bother/expense to get hold of it just to have the cable to test and get pinout from.

edit: oh wait is yours the DVI version?? Not sure, there were 3 versions of 9600AIW

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-12-10, 14:54:

I am also in that situation, and found the cables fetch more than a 9800Pro .. wonderful. […]
Show full quote

ChrisK wrote on 2021-12-10, 14:19:

The first one unfortunately missing all the connection cables for the AIW 9600Pro making it pretty useless. At least it wasn't that expensive. Didn't test any of it yet.

I am also in that situation, and found the cables fetch more than a 9800Pro .. wonderful.

When I get round to it, I am going to go the route of stuffing jumper wires in the socket and then casting a plug shell around it with hot glue or epoxy and then breaking out at least a single VGA port by trial and error. The only cable pinout online for them is for the version with DVI, maybe that offers clues, maybe it doesn't.

I have seen one for sale on an almost local marketplace, too far to drive, and not sure if seller will ship, which might have the cable with it, and I have been wondering if it's worth the bother/expense to get hold of it just to have the cable to test and get pinout from.

edit: oh wait is yours the DVI version?? Not sure, there were 3 versions of 9600AIW

Im guessing this is a similar setup to the Voodoo3 3500 TV versions with the ugly blue breakout cable ? IIRC the port looks very similar to a DVI port too but is slightly longer.

I remember that the breakout cables for that GPU also go for far more than the 3500 TV GPU itself, must be all the copper in them 😁