TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[debs3759]

Reading the confiig sys and autoexec.bat files
Noticed you load autoexec.bat first so it calls Config.sys


that seems ass about face ( long time since i played with dos hardware).

I used to load config sys first then autoexec.bat

config.sys always loads first. "GOTO %CONFIG%" goes to the appropriate menu section in autoexec.bat, as set by config.sys.

 

[Trekkie4]

config.sys always loads first. "GOTO %CONFIG%" goes to the appropriate menu section in autoexec.bat, as set by config.sys.

True. I was experimenting with multi-choices boot mode, having several different modes to choose from. But really, now that I think about it, this isn't going to be anything else other than a retro gaming system. Meaning I obviously won't be using it for DOS programs, text editing or similar, it's designed ONLY for DOS & Win 3.11 gaming so I decided to revert everything back, to a default layout. However, (as I previously explained), I got configs mixed up & copied the wrong one.

GOTO %CONFIG% was referring to choices menu, depending on which one was selected.

 

[Athlonite]

@Trekkie4 when I used to use DOS 6.22 and Win 3.11 I found a great little dos program called Quickmenu III fantastic little setup for dos games that pretty much did away with all the dos commands to play a game it can create custom Autoexec.bat and Config.sys file for each game aswell

 

[dorsetknob]

config.sys always loads first. "GOTO %CONFIG%" goes to the appropriate menu section in autoexec.bat, as set by config.sys.

as i said its a long time that i played with dos
I used to load config.sys
then Menu Bat ( which had the choices i needed to run programs and you could make them run with the appropriate Autoexec commands.)
Remember having lots of fun designing Menu's for dos
done them for other people as well
Including Press /select ( number ) for HELP ( with my phone number and terms for helping ie Beer/weed/other substances depending on friend).

 

[dieselcat18]

Just some old/older stuff, nothing special, which I have more of. I was running this board from '08 at time of this build untill last year, with various upgrades along the way, when I sold it off. Never had a problem with it, built like a tank and ran great for the entire time I had it.
Can post more pics of older hardware if this is the place for this kind of thing.

 

[Trekkie4]

I'd love to hear your personal input guys, what do you think? Is 32MB of RAM overkill for 5x86 machine running Win95B? What was the RAM "standard" for late '96, anyway?

 

[biffzinker]

In 1995 the standard amount of RAM from OEM's was 8 MB double 1994's 4 MB. Is that right? 8MB at $400 per 4 MB?
http://www.relativelyinteresting.com/comparing-todays-computers-to-1995s/

At that time I was using a PowerComputing PowerBase 240 originally it only came with 16MB, and 1.2 - 2.0 GB HDD.

https://everymac.com/systems/powercc/powerbase/powerbase240.html

Before the PowerBase it was the Macintosh Performa 577. At the time it was advertised as upgrade-able to the PowerPC 601.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_performa/specs/mac_performa_577.html

 

[Red_Machine]

In 1995 the standard amount of RAM from OEM's was 8 MB double 1994's 4 MB. Is that right? 8MB at $400 per 4 MB?

Considering that the average home PC back then cost around $2-5000, that's not unrealistic that they'd have $400 RAM sticks in them.

 

[biffzinker]

Apparently SDRAM 168-pin DIMMS in late 96 started to replace 72-pin SIMMS. That PowerBase in 96 I posted above had SDRAM DIMM slots, two if I remember right.

 

[stinger608]

if this is the place for this kind of thing.

Well of course this is the place for "this kind of thing." We always enjoy pics!!!!!!!!

Yep, I think 32 mb of ram for a system of that era and running Win95 is kind of overkill @Trekkie4 . I would think that running 8 to 16 is plenty bro.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yep, I think 32 mb of ram for a system of that era and running Win95 is kind of overkill

Not at all. 8MB was considered bare minimum, 12MB or 16MB was standard and 24MB or 32MB was higher end. 48MB and 64MB was power-user territory and 96MB to 128MB+ was overkill unless you needed it. With Win98 64MB became standard for smooth operations and 256MB became the upper range. Win98 Second Edition bumped that up again and 128MB became standard and 512MB was the upper range. With XP, the bare minimum was 256MB and 1GB became the upper range and so on..

 

[Trekkie4]

Well of course this is the place for "this kind of thing." We always enjoy pics!!!!!!!!

Yep, I think 32 mb of ram for a system of that era and running Win95 is kind of overkill @Trekkie4 . I would think that running 8 to 16 is plenty bro.

Not sure I would agree on this one... Yes, 32MB is overkill for 5x86 system (16 would be ideal in my opinion, but I'll get to this later), but 8 is way, way below the standard. Keep in mind, this isn't "4x86" series. Yes, they are technically the same, based on the same architecture & platform, but 486 came out in 1993? (correct me if I'm wrong), where 5x86, at least Am5x86 by AMD came out in November 1995. Come to think of it, 5x86 introduced after the first batch of Pentiums already came out from Intel. As for the Socket 3 motherboard I'm using, it actually has a copyright logo on the BIOS chip (which I recently removed), and it clearly says "96".

And yes, just as I was about to point out the same, @lexluthermiester's post came though lol. We are talking Pentium era here, NOT "x86" one. So yes, 32MB might be slightly over the top, but there's no way this system could ever handle Win95 & all the games from '96 with only just 8MB of RAM.

Speaking of '96, let's make it official. Remember that other ESS card which just didn't want to install but worked fine in DOS? At this point I honestly don't know which one of the two caused the problem(s), sound card itself OR the motherboard, but I replaced it for genuine Sound Blaster, model Vibra 16 XV.


However, this fix didn't resolve the OTHER problem, of random crashing & auto-detecting hardware. In fact, I came to a point where I couldn't complete Win95 installation because the system would just throw random errors at me. Now, here's the bizarre part - don't know which of the following things did the trick, but apparently after swapping out the single 16MB, 72-pin RAM module for 2x 16MB ones (therefore 32MB), switching off disk caching feature in BIOS, and re-formatting the hard drive to FAT16 partition(s), everything finally calmed down ... for now! I even went crazy & added Win95 Plus!, I've made sure that it's chronologically correct and turns out that it is! It was introduced just after the initial W95 version, which makes this one heck of a W95 build, from 1996. With low-end CPU, but it's compensating with everything else to the point where I can play Duke3D, Shadow Warrior and similar!

And this here is my "x86" family ... minus that other 5x86 which I restored couple of years ago From left to right, 1 - Intel 4x86 DX2 (66MHz), genuine VLB motherboard 2 - Intel 4x86 DX4 (100MHz), newer PC Chips Socket3 mobo with PCI/ISA 3 - Amd 5x86 (133MHz), newer Lucky GoldStar Socket 3 board with PCI/ISA

 

[BiggieShady]

8MB was considered bare minimum

Many users still used 4 MB and that was more than enough in '93 with win3.11... with Win95 8MB became the norm on paper as recommended spec, but in practice 8MB was indeed bare minimum for usable system under win95

 

[dorsetknob]

I always put in as much as i could afford or had lying around same applys today both for retro builds or the current build

 

[lexluthermiester]

but I replaced it for genuine Sound Blaster, model Vibra 16 XV.

Excellent card BTW. Always found them to be solid as a rock.

 

[Trekkie4]

Excellent card BTW. Always found them to be solid as a rock.

Right, thanks! TBH, I was looking for a free solution, I remember people having dozens of ISA cards scattered all over the place, but apparently that's no longer the case. So a quick search revealed this Vibra 16 for $4,90 which is a fair price for what it's worth.

I might still source something better, I was told about a certain AWE64 (Value edition, not the Gold one) one of the guys from another forum offered it to me for free, which was a generous offer by the way. So we shall see, but even if AWE64 doesn't work out, I'm quite happy with Vibra 16 which pretty much doubles as AWE32, at least software-vise. Some of the games (Shadow Warrior, for example) even detected Vibra 16 as AWE32

 

[Bungz]

Been looking for a 8K3A for years, then find two at once along with some Nforce buddies.

Need work but all post which is a good start!

 

[Ruru]

If it's any help, my 440BX board currently has 512MB in it.

I had 512MB (2x 128 + 256) also back in the day with my old Asus P2B.

@Bungz Daaaamn the caps! Here in Finland we called EpoX as "Epoks!" since "poks" is like "boom" in Finnish.

 

[debs3759]

Just bought this 286-12 system. Working condition is unknown, the seller found it outside in the rain. It will be my first 16-bit system. Only cost £20 shipped from a popular auction site. Sellers photos.

I look forward to testing (and fixing if needed) it, and testing my CPUID code on it.

 

[Trekkie4]

Just bought this 286-12 system. Working condition is unknown, the seller found it outside in the rain. It will be my first 16-bit system. Only cost £20 shipped from a popular auction site. Sellers photos.

I look forward to testing (and fixing if needed) it, and testing my CPUID code on it.

These things are usually bulletproof & otherwise indestructible so I wouldn't be surprised if it actually boots up OK! Someone was just telling me couple of days ago how they had (somewhat) older AM2 mobo, CPU & PSU stored inside the box for couple of years & when they powered it on (for the 1st time since the system was taken apart), everything went up in smoke due to failing caps.

On the other hand, I'm just playing Duke 3D on a 22yr old machine that's been out of service for AT least 15-ish years, if not more! I mean sure - it had its own share of problems & some issues had to be addressed one way or another, but you get the point. These older systems were built like tanks!

 

[Fouquin]

Apparently SDRAM 168-pin DIMMS in late 96 started to replace 72-pin SIMMS. That PowerBase in 96 I posted above had SDRAM DIMM slots, two if I remember right.

168-pin gold lead DIMMS popped up in 1995; the first generation P6 based HP Vectra XU 6 (Nov./Dec. 1995) has 168-pin slots but only supports EDO. 72-pin SIMM really only stuck around through '96/'97 in servers and in some cases as a legacy option along side 168-pin.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Need work but all post which is a good start!

Those caps need replacing, but don't just replace the bulging ones, replace them all to be safe.

 

[Bungz]

Those caps need replacing, but don't just replace the bulging ones, replace them all to be safe.

The boards will be fully recapped

 

[Trekkie4]

Just messing around with software & testing 5x86 system in the process... Had two more crashes during the testing phase, same ones as before but this time around they seem to be triggered by something specific - 1st one occurred as I was trying to set up DOS game "Aladdin", but for some reason the game had a lot of problems with the sound. So while I was trying to force the game into working, it simply rebooted the entire system. 2nd problem occurred as I was scanning the 5.25" floppy disk for bad sectors. No particular reason, I just wanted to make sure that it (still) works. Which it does, but again - this caused the system to crash for whatever the reason is. *shrug* I've been thinking about this & realized that it could be due to PSU - it's just barely working. I even had a situation where I plugged something else into the extension cord (along with 5x86 testing rig) and it crashed the system due to a voltage drop. Sooo yeah, quite possible if you ask me!

Anyhow, enjoy!


Shake it baby, wanna dance? (you don't see THIS in modern games, do you?!)


Who wants some Wang?


Let me in ... I'm here to watch Madame's outrageous orations.


Just couple of Win95 games worth pointing out, among dozens of other DOS titles ... Discworld II & Broken Sword. Both of which are working just fine, although they seem to be slowing down during the cutscenes.


Now here's something you no longer see every day ... those interactive encyclopedias & board games, which are loaded with multimedia content! Movies, sounds, texts, color, they got everything!


And of course, it's being powered by QuickTime...


Just like this Edison's interactive encyclopedia. Again, loads of interactive content, speech & movies, all waiting to be seen & heard


And AGAIN, QuickTime - this time I only had to upgrade from the previous version, above.


The Cybwar Mission Thunder Gun, "BLAST ENEMY FIGHTERS IN THIS ACTION PACKED ADVENTURE GAME"

 

[Athlonite]

Oh no the dreaded Quicktime plurk