Finished documenting, cleaning up, and reinstalling Windows ME on the PCs that make up my in-law's basement retro LAN.

It's quite a random selection of hardware, most of it saved from the scrap pile or from old family PCs. A couple of the machines were getting flaky and/or failing, so I had to swap out a couple of parts - a rather substandard socket 478 machine with no AGP slot had a failing capacitor, so I disposed of the board and swapped another one in, and an IBM NetVista with a P3 was starting to get unreliable.

Here's the current collection:

It's all networked by static IP via an old PureData 16 port 10 MB switch.

There's still one machine in the lot with a failing capacitor, but after some testing it seems to be working okay. It's on a decent board (GA-8IPE1000-G rev. 4.x)so I will probably eventually do a recap, but for now I don't have time.

Specs sheet is here, if anyone is interested. It doesn't have the full model numbers on all the parts, but at least now I know roughly what is in each machine. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ajk3r … dit?usp=sharing

Next job, is to reinstall the games 😵

Ghetto modded this poor piece of hardware. 😈

Some might guess what I've done.

Added a 20GB hard drive and a second CD Drive to my Pentium MMX system. The plan is all DOS games to go on the 1.2GB OS Disk, and all Win32/16 programs and data to go on the 20GB with the 2nd CD drive allowing better multitasking in Windows. I also installed EDO ICs into the sockets on the Virge/DX doubling the memory to 4MB giving it enough ram to handle most very early 3D games.

I'm actually kinda surprised the 20GB worked correctly with a 430TX based board.

Just gutted a 2003 era Emachine that I fixed up a few years back and brought it into the modernity of Windows 10. Jumping from 478 to am3 with a dual core, 4gb of ram and a basic geforce 210. Should serve pretty well as a basic web browser for years to come!

Tore open a Macintosh Plus i got from Craigslist. did some initial troubleshooting and made a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyLzCD5YUmQ

Installed an SB16 (CT2911) in my P133 system, then spent ages trying (unsuccessfully) to get the IDE interface on it working under Win98SE. Works fine under Win95. Created a separate thread for this.

Finally found the energy to set up the 4 port Black Box Servswitch Jr I found in the electronics recycling bin at work a while ago, with my retro rigs. The old setup was a patchwork consisting of a 2 channel KVM switch, an old printer switch modded for VGA/audio, a few 2 channel passive mixers, etc, threwn together and added along the way when I've gotten new stuff to connect to the shared monitor/keyboard/mouse. This is the connected stuff:

1) Main retro rig, Tualeron 1.4GHz/Abit BH6/512MB RAM/GF Ti4400/Voodoo2/AWE64/TB Santa Cruz
2) Secondary retro rig, P233MMX/Gigabyte GA-586HX/64MB RAM/S3 Trio64v2 2MB/Voodoo1/SB32
3) VGA-modded original Xbox
4) Raspberry Pi 3 with Lakka, a "DIY emulator console" OS.

1 and 2 were of course very straight forward to connect to the new KVM switch. The VGA modded Xbox was however another deal entirely. Since the Servswitch is fed by the PS/2 keyboard +5V line of any connected running computer, I had to find some other way to feed it when using the Xbox, which of course has no PS/2 port. Luckily the XBOX A/V connector got a +5V out pin. Soldered together a custom KVM cable (well, just a V cable really), and did a small mod to the Xbox AV - VGA/audio adapter box, wiring up +5V to VGA connector pin 9. The R-Pi uses the monitor's DVI port. This leaves a spare channel on the KVM switch, which of course is extremely useful when tinkering with the retro rigs 😀

Here it is in all its glory:

Since the Servswitch doesn't do audio, I also put together a 9 channel passive mixer. Just went for as many channels there were room for in the case, always nice to have a few spare ones for future use. The speakers are shared by both sound cards in retro rig 1, retro rig 2, the Xbox and the R-Pi.

The new setup is generally cleaner. Everything can be switched from the same panel. No serially connected KVM switches/mixers anymore. The snake's nest behind the monitors is severely reduced. Also, I do love that the Servswitch actually is made in the USA, a nice change from the regular China electronics 😀

The only downside so far is that the Servswitch doesn't seem to like the Steelseries 6Gv2 keyboard I've been using before. Replaced it with some cheap PS/2 keyboard I found in the stashes for now, awaiting further investigation.

luckybob wrote:

Tore open a Macintosh Plus i got from Craigslist. did some initial troubleshooting and made a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyLzCD5YUmQ

As usual LB, interesting video and as always not overproduced and honest. Looking forward to seeing your clone Model 80 and this come to life.

Kamerat wrote:

Ghetto modded this poor piece of hardware. 😈

ga-6wmm7_ghetto.jpg

Some might guess what I've done.

Front panel audio?

Kamerat wrote:

Ghetto modded this poor piece of hardware. 😈

ga-6wmm7_ghetto.jpg

Some might guess what I've done.

Computer diagnostics/BIOS repair over a Serial port?

gdjacobs wrote:

Front panel audio?

bjwil1991 wrote:

Computer diagnostics/BIOS repair over a Serial port?

No, but this might give you a hint: Signals are SERIRQ#, PCGNT# and PCREQ#. 😉

Gave my Aztech Waverider Pro 32-3D a test and made a few recordings.

(The quality is a bit crap since I don't have any proper audio recording equipment 😵 )

Kamerat wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

Front panel audio?

bjwil1991 wrote:

Computer diagnostics/BIOS repair over a Serial port?

No, but this might give you a hint: Signals are SERIRQ#, PCGNT# and PCREQ#. 😉

Aha! YMF-PCI card?

Munx wrote:

Gave my Aztech Waverider Pro 32-3D a test and made a few recordings. […]
Show full quote

Gave my Aztech Waverider Pro 32-3D a test and made a few recordings.

P_20170730_141354.jpg

(The quality is a bit crap since I don't have any proper audio recording equipment 😵 )

ff7.wma

doom 2.wma

dune2.wma

doom E1M5.wma

I have that card myself, but the FM Synthesizer volume is too quiet and the SFX/voice is erratic. I have a Sound Galaxy NX Pro that lost its potentiometer, but still functional that a friend of mine had in the early 90s (Reveal SC800 branded). Luckily, I found the same potentiometers online and purchased 2 of them (might be packs, but who knows), and I replaced 2 jacks on the sound card as well (purchased a 100 pack on eBay for a good price), and no other issues whatsoever with the card.

gdjacobs wrote:

Aha! YMF-PCI card?

Yes, or more corretly the PC/PCI signals for it. Actually tried out a Trident 4DWave-NX at first, didn't wan't to waste my YMF744 card if I connected anything wrong. I might solder a PC/PCI connector to on one of my ESS Solo-1 card's and use that instead as it got a wavetable connector

Further upgrades to the MMX Win98FE machine. CPU upgraded to 200MHZ and RAM doubled to 64MB. I plan to put my half Voodoo2 (one TMU has to be disabled making it essentially a double clocked V1) in it to round off the list. After that it should handle any game up to 1997 well.

Does anybody know where I can buy a Voodoo2 pass through cable or how to disable the second TMU globally so I don't have to write a batch file for each program and so it won't be used under DX or GL?

Tearing down a keyboard and cleaning every part in hot soapy water is really therapeutic.

SO MUCH BETTER.

Friend gave me this dead thinkpad 755cd, replaced all the leaky caps and replaced crusty hdd with a sd to ide adapter, now got it working fine.

Saw a 286 at the recycler, but decided to pass. It was a little older than I like playing with (honestly haven't touched one since I was 6 or 7) and I'm running out of space! It sounds like the will be re-selling it, so I'm sure it will find a good home.

probnot wrote:

Saw a 286 at the recycler, but decided to pass. It was a little older than I like playing with (honestly haven't touched one since I was 6 or 7) and I'm running out of space! It sounds like the will be re-selling it, so I'm sure it will find a good home.

FAIL

The correct action is to get it, and part it out to others.