TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Trekkie4]

I got something pretty unusual, coming up soon. AT-styled build except it's Slot 1. A 300A (or maybe 333) Celeron to be exact, with 440LX motherboard, paired with 64mb of RAM, SiS 6326 AGP graphics, SoundBlaster 16 ISA and fax modem.

It was made that way on purpose, just to make things somewhat different. Because we always talk about SoundBlaster Audigy, Live & Aureal Vortex sound cards, 3dfx Voodoo graphics (or GeForce/Radeon counterparts) and things are always the best. Top of the line, the best possible components you can find ... well, not this time! Ironically, sourcing these "original" parts turned out to be more challenging than taking the easier route with Pentium II or even III, Rage128 or TNT2 graphics and SB live because (apparently?) no one bothered to actually keep & preserve these generic, low-end components.

Anyhow, I got most of the parts already here but I'm still missing the CPU, along with the set of case screws and few bits & pieces. And to make this even more interesting, this will be a "full" project, made from scratch - I'm not taking any shortcuts & re-purposing existing system into something else.

 

[Greenslade]

Those are great gestures and I have so much extra hardware I could surely send him something too.

Thanks for the offer anyway Shame you're not in the UK.
Multibao PATA IDE to SATA Interface Adapter Converter, Serial ATA SATA to Parallel ATA PATA/IDE Hard Drive for 3.5"/2.5" Hard Drive HDD DVD - Plug And Play
Got it working now, well it is showing up that it is a master But I have to get XP on the drive, I think I will have to do it on the other PC and keep my fingers crossed.

​

Missing screws doesn't ruin a PC tho every screw should still be used.

I have just noticed something this is my PC I got from eBay there picture is different to mine look at the drive, not the cables I untied them to add drives in there.

The beep codes are probably for "Missing Ram".

Yes, you are right there, I looked it up on the HP site 5 red beeps ram.
Do you know what Ram it takes? I have a feeling it will work. It would have to go in another case. That is if I can because it is a propirty P C

I thought I would try the DVD drive on the PC I found the other day. The red light was on I pushed the front button on the drive it works. In fact, if I could get some ram for it, I think it would work. Tried the DVD on the PC I got from eBay all good showing in bios. Took the DVD Drive out of the adapter connection on the drive, left the Adapter as it was in the DVD drive,put that in the SATA HDD all good showing in the bios as a master drive. Put XP, os in the drive, don,t know where to go from here as the XP disc want start. See photo 598.

 

[lexluthermiester]

AT-styled build except it's Slot 1.

Those were not common! Go with the Celeron 333A if you have one and give it some more RAM. 192 or 256 would be good. 384MB would be ideal!

 

[jallenlabs]

Heres some old hardware. I still own the cases. Dell XPS710 modified for atx and a CoolerMaster Stacker CSX SKull and Flames Case.

 

[Greenslade]

Can anyone help me with this
*no boot device*
You can,t boot a drive that does not have an OS on it.
I want to put the os on the only Drive I have on my PC.
How do I go about getting the OS on the only drive on the PC?

Heres some old hardware. I still own the cases. Dell XPS710 modified for atx and a CoolerMaster Stacker CSX SKull and Flames Case.View attachment 252174View attachment 252175

There very unique Along with your carpet

 

[68Olds]

I thought I would try the DVD drive on the PC I found the other day. The red light was on I pushed the front button on the drive it works. In fact, if I could get some ram for it, I think it would work. Tried the DVD on the PC I got from eBay all good showing in bios. Took the DVD Drive out of the adapter connection on the drive, left the Adapter as it was in the DVD drive,put that in the SATA HDD all good showing in the bios as a master drive. Put XP, os in the drive, don,t know where to go from here as the XP disc want start. See photo 598.

You need to get into BIOS and change the boot order to CDROM first. The WinXP install disk should be able to boot.

 

[Audioave10]

The Complete History of the Home Microprocessor - good video but its 1 hr 25mins long​

 

[Trekkie4]

Those were not common! Go with the Celeron 333A if you have one

That was the idea... The whole point behind this build is to make something unusual & quirky, and not just another brick in the wall. IF I can source 333 over 300A, I will! That being said, I gave away all my Slot-1 Celerons & the only CPU I got available is PII 350, Deschutes core which isn't what I had in mind for this particular build.

and give it some more RAM. 192 or 256 would be good. 384MB would be ideal!

Short and simple, no. If I start adding more RAM, then the next thing will be to add a better video card (I also have Rage128 available), and/or better (PCI) sound card. SB Live, for example which would wipe the floor with SB16. But that would defeat its whole purpose, the one which I already explained earlier.

Don't worry, this one won't even be running Win98. It'll have 95B or C edition, aiming for that low-end 1997 era when the Slot 1 first came out. Motherboard is Asus, model number P2L-B

 

[Splinterdog]

I have a couple of Athlon 64x2 CPUs - one a 4400+ and the other a 4800+. On an Asus M2N MX SE Plus mobo they both run very hot until the point of auto shut down, getting to 80c with no load at all.
I've tried three different heatsinks with decent paste but it makes no difference and the heatsink is firm. Scratches head...

 

[Greenslade]

You need to get into BIOS and change the boot order to CDROM first. The WinXP install disk should be able to boot.

Thanks for that, I will keep my fingers crossed that it will all work s out. I just received my Used like new PS2 Mouse and was surprised it was not in a box-like it says when you buy something Used like new. See photo. It looks like new, I just hope it works in the socket as when I first put the adapter in the PC it did not look right, well it was not.
Used - Like new: An item in perfect working condition, the packaging may bear some damage. The item fully functions, and all its essential accessories are complete.
As long as it works it will be fine. It was nearly half the price, with more reviews than any other.

 

[RyzenMaster.sys]

Finally got myself a proper 90s machine, and it's weird looking! I traded 4 sticks of PC133 ram I didn't want for a "broken" Toshiba Infinia 7130 Desktop from 1996.

The seller said he thought the motherboard was dead. After some diagnosis, the issue was simply a broken reset button that was causing the PC to turn on and off and not post. Just unplugged that for now.

Spec wise it's a 133mhz Pentium and 32mb ram atop a Socket 7 board with onboard S3 Virage 2mb GPU and Yamaha YMF701 OPL sound.

It original came with a floppy and CD-ROM drive, but a prior owner installed a DVD rw combo drive which is dated 2007. It was installed poorly since the brackets are missing, so I just double sided taped it into place so it's not rattling around. I have installed a 40gb ide drive which it suprisingly had no objections too.

Originally this machine would have had 95, and there was even a 95 install disc left in it, but I chose to install 98 SE using a CD combined and Gotek floppy emulator dangling out of the case.

Issues:
The Toshiba CD ROM drive makes bad noises and has to be manually opened. I believe the gears are stripped by the sound of it.

The added combo drive works under DOS and is how I installed 98, but 98 doesn't recognize it. Probably a driver issue. Had to jump through hoops to get 98 to find the drivers it was looking for on the disc after it installed.

 

[Splinterdog]

I have a couple of Athlon 64x2 CPUs - one a 4400+ and the other a 4800+. On an Asus M2N MX SE Plus mobo they both run very hot until the point of auto shut down, getting to 80c with no load at all.
I've tried three different heatsinks with decent paste but it makes no difference and the heatsink is firm. Scratches head...

Problem solved. I initially used some locally brewed thermal paste which clearly was useless and have now applied MX-4 with temps showing as normal around 37c.

 

[Audioave10]

I currently own about 200 floppies & diskettes with this large game collection. I have never owned a Floppy Drive of any kind.
I feel kinda dirty but I never had the Nostalgia of experience with MS DOS and games of that time period.

 

[agent_x007]

Got this few days ago, forgot to share (it is 8MB version) :

^My first Verite card . Sure, it's not OG one, but I prefer to have backwards compatibilty with some tweaks vs. waiting forever.

 

[Greenslade]

Finally got myself a proper 90s machine, and it's weird looking! I traded 4 sticks of PC133 ram I didn't want for a "broken" Toshiba Infinia 7130 Desktop from 1996.

View attachment 252245
View attachment 252246
View attachment 252241

The seller said he thought the motherboard was dead. After some diagnosis, the issue was simply a broken reset button that was causing the PC to turn on and off and not post. Just unplugged that for now.

Spec wise it's a 133mhz Pentium and 32mb ram atop a Socket 7 board with onboard S3 Virage 2mb GPU and Yamaha YMF701 OPL sound.

It original came with a floppy and CD-ROM drive, but a prior owner installed a DVD rw combo drive which is dated 2007. It was installed poorly since the brackets are missing, so I just double sided taped it into place so it's not rattling around. I have installed a 40gb ide drive which it suprisingly had no objections too.

Originally this machine would have had 95, and there was even a 95 install disc left in it, but I chose to install 98 SE using a CD combined and Gotek floppy emulator dangling out of the case.

View attachment 252243
Issues:
The Toshiba CD ROM drive makes bad noises and has to be manually opened. I believe the gears are stripped by the sound of it.

The added combo drive works under DOS and is how I installed 98, but 98 doesn't recognize it. Probably a driver issue. Had to jump through hoops to get 98 to find the drivers it was looking for on the disc after it installed.

It is an unusual little PC ,and to have the Floppy on the top.

Wish I knew Greenslade. I'd like to see you have something actually work out with your old stuff.

The PS2 Mouse is working ,but it seems to have stoped at this point for ages i don,t think it is going to get any further thats a pain, Trying again perhaps there is something up with the disc.The drive is not blinking not sire if that is the problem
It has started again and stuck at this point but it did move on from here after some time i did hope this would work.It has stopped at the same point 607 it is not going to do it.
Registers components.I will have to give this one up it is not going to move on from this point. I winder if the disc is faulty, or there is a problem with the adapter as it is not flashing does any one know if the adapter should flash or not?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Wipe that drive with DBAN and try your install again. Too many attempted installs that failed. Just a format will not fix it.

 

[Greenslade]

Wipe that drive with DBAN and try your install again. Too many attempted installs that failed. Just a format will not fix it.

Never heard of it Scotty .i will give it a try. thanks.That is to tech for me.

I currently own about 200 floppies & diskettes with this large game collection. I have never owned a Floppy Drive of any kind.
I feel kinda dirty but I never had the Nostalgia of experience with MS DOS and games of that time period.

I bought a floppy drive earyer this year and bought 40 floppy diskettes but never used it.That sounds cool ,but you have all thouse games and never used themWhat a wasteI never had a floppy drive before,My first PC was in 2005.
You should get ont of these and put them on there.

 

[RyzenMaster.sys]

I would also reccomend a Gotek floppy emulator. For the most part they are pretty simple to use, and I've never had it fail to work with a system.

I would reccomend the software here though. It's easier to use.

GOTEK Floppy Emulator

I've been using the GOTEK USB Floppy Emulator Simulator since the beginning of 2013 and they have never let me down. I haven't encountered a single glitch, bug or issue and can highly recommend them....

www.philscomputerlab.com

 

[Audioave10]

Cool...meanwhile, I keep pulling these out of the closet...GA MA785GMT-UD2H ( NB785 - SB750 )

 

[Ruru]

The LGA1155 build POSTed on first try can't post pics of the setup ATM as I'm not home, but here's what I bought for it

Got those low-profile RAM with the board so buying those heatspreadered ones weren't neccessary after all, but it doesn't hurt to have some 4GB DDR3s as spare.

3DMark didn't even recognize the GPU (GTX 660 3GB GK104, 1152 shaders and 192-bit bus so it's more like a weird GTX 760 what it comes to the GPU)

3dmark.com

www.3dmark.com

 

[Greenslade]

Cool...meanwhile, I keep pulling these out of the closet...GA MA785GMT-UD2H ( NB785 - SB750 )

There no good in the closet ,you want to use them. Along with those 200 floppy games.Wish i could find some at my local bric brak market ,i have only seem the odd floppy there

 

[RyzenMaster.sys]

Got a non sandwich gtx295 in yesterday.

It's in very rough shape. Seller shipped it in a bag, not a box,, so the rear metal is all bent. Also the entire shroud is held on with clips that have all been broken. There is evidence that someone tried to super glue this previously.

The card was supposed to be working, but in fact the B core is flakey and crashes to a black screen under any load. I got a complete refund because of this, so I might as well try and fix it up since I've got nothing to lose.

Today's objective is to tear it all apart, clean it up, bend the metal back, find a way to mount the shroud, and clean up the shroud.

Hopefully the b core I can fix, but I have minimal hope.

 

[Robert B]

Today I went from having just a couple of AXP-M CPUs to having 9.

AMD Low-power Athlon XP 2500+ AXDL2500DLV4D
AMD Mobile Athlon XP-M 2800+ AXMA2800FKT4C
AMD Mobile Athlon XP-M 2400+ AXMD2400FJQ4C
AMD Mobile Athlon XP-M 2400+ AXMD2400FVF4CE X 3pcs
AMD Mobile Athlon XP-M 2500+ AXMH2500FQQ4C

 

[Mr.Scott]

Today I went from having just a couple of AXP-M CPUs to having 9.

AMD Low-power Athlon XP 2500+ AXDL2500DLV4D
AMD Mobile Athlon XP-M 2800+ AXMA2800FKT4C
AMD Mobile Athlon XP-M 2400+ AXMD2400FJQ4C
AMD Mobile Athlon XP-M 2400+ AXMD2400FVF4CE X 3pcs
AMD Mobile Athlon XP-M 2500+ AXMH2500FQQ4C

The 2400 FV's wil OC like champs. All later dates with good steppings.

 

[Ruru]

Sucks that the card is in such a bad condition. I hope you get it working!

The 2400 FV's wil OC like champs. All later dates with good steppings.

Is it bad that I don't like AXP's these days, only Thunderbird AXIAs?