TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Canned Noodles]

Open the door. What's in there? The cables all seem to come from there.

View attachment 293616

My Packard Bell was a 286 that I bought in the late 80's. Sadly, I think all of it is now gone. Didn't save anything when I went to a 486 system.

USB, audio, and good ol' firewire.

 

[lexluthermiester]

1. MC power
2. MC IN
3.Ground
4.R.RET
5.R.OUT
6.L.OUT
7,L.RET
8 Ground

1. Microphone Power
2. Microphone input
3. Electrical ground
4. Right channel return signal
5. Right channel output
6. Left channel output
7. Left channel return signal
8. Electrical ground
As @68Olds stated, those are pinouts for a front panel motherboard/soundcard connector.

Hell, I still have a Packard Bell from 1995. It's a tower and still running Windows 3.11 for work groups.

Jeez, makes me want to fire it up.

PackardBell got a very bad rapp BITD, but in reality, they made very reasonable quality machines. The problem was that they weren't as easily upgraded as a custom rig, which is still true today.

And the HDD drive that came in the case is in good health 100% according to Crystal Disc infoAlbeit Just 160gb.

For Win98 or XP, that's a good amount of space.

 

[stinger608]

the HDD drive that came in the case is in good health 100% according to Crystal Disc infoAlbeit Just 160gb.

For Win98 or XP, that's a good amount of space.

Which, for Win98 is a huge amount of storage.

Hell, I ran Win98 with a ton of games on a 2.1 gig drive.

Figured I'd never need a larger drive.

 

[Ruru]

Did some testing yesterday with my PCIe cards. Test system: 2500K @ 4.6GHz, 24GB DDR-1600, Win10 Pro. 6700 XT results are from my main setup just as a bonus.

Also 7800 GT scored way lower in 3DMark03 than it should, probably just too old card for Win10?

 

[Greenslade]

Which, for Win98 is a huge amount of storage.

Hell, I ran Win98 with a ton of games on a 2.1 gig drive.

Figured I'd never need a larger drive.

That was back was back in the dark ages.I had a clear out today and chucked out two Dell PC,s one insporon 580 and opteplex 3010 both working took out the Ram and Cpu our of them.I had all ready taken the hard drives out.I don,t want any OEM PC,s.I hope someone took them before the rubbish people took them. I have more than enough ram now.

 

[Ruru]

I had 2x 40GB drives back in 2005 and practically I had all my games installed + my mp3 folder. Good ol' times when games didn't take more than just a gigabyte or few at maximum.

 

[Greenslade]

Did some testing yesterday with my PCIe cards. Test system: 2500K @ 4.6GHz, 24GB DDR-1600, Win10 Pro. 6700 XT results are from my main setup just as a bonus.

View attachment 293668

Also 7800 GT scored way lower in 3DMark03 than it should, probably just too old card for Win10?

I am surprised it even works with Windows 10. I have just taken a PSU. out of a case and the screw has Gone in the PSU I want be able to use it with the screw moving about in there. I can,t see how to get the case open to get it out

Which, for Win98 is a huge amount of storage.

Hell, I ran Win98 with a ton of games on a 2.1 gig drive.

Figured I'd never need a larger drive.

Which, for Win98 is a huge amount of storage.

Hell, I ran Win98 with a ton of games on a 2.1 gig drive.

Figured I'd never need a larger drive.

Having said all that my T5 Samsung is only 95% and yet the HDD is a lot older.And the T5 has been only 95%for some time

 

[Canned Noodles]

On the topic of slotted-CPU motherboards, I picked up this windows 95/98-era PC a year and a half ago. I can’t get it to work and it has remained largely untouched by me for a while, so getting it to work would be nice.
The motherboard is an AOpen AX6BC with BIOS version 2.20. The CPU is a 600MHz Katmai Pentium III with a 100MHz bus speed and the video card is an Nvidia Vanta LT.
The primary issue I am encountering is that it doesn’t display any video, whether it’s with the Vanta or any PCI video card. I tested a couple of PCI cards with LEDs that indicate the card is receiving power, and I can therefore conclude that each PCI slot does get power. None of the motherboard’s capacitors are bulging or vented. I tried installing memory, but that made no difference. Does anyone have suggestions on how to troubleshoot this system?

HUGE UPDATE! Tonight, I put in the PII 350MHz from a family member's old PC.... AND IT POSTED
Everything seems to be in working condition now, except for the original PIII . Any suggestions on whether I should install windows 98SE or XP? 98SE would be more period-correct, but I think XP would be better for benchmark results that are more comparable to other systems.

 

[droid-I]

Also 7800 GT scored way lower in 3DMark03 than it should, probably just too old card for Win10?

I guess also that 1080p is a bit limiting with only 256MB vRAM.
Seeing specs,

Recommended Gaming Resolutions:​

• 640x480
• 1280x720
• 1366x768

Likely 1024x768 or 720p might bring a few more fps in TR. I forgot about 1280x1024.

Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT review: Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT

Nvidia's GeForce 7800 GT is the newest 3D card release in the company's next-generation 7800 series of 3D cards. It's not cheap at $450, although it gives gamers a more approachable entry point to advanced rendering effects and powerful graphics processing than does the $600 GeForce 7800 GTX.

www.cnet.com

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT Specs

NVIDIA G70, 400 MHz, 20 Pixel Shaders, 7 Vertex Shaders, 20 TMUs, 16 ROPs, 256 MB GDDR3, 500 MHz, 256 bit

www.techpowerup.com

 

[lexluthermiester]

Any suggestions on whether I should install windows 98SE or XP? 98SE would be more period-correct

Win ME. Despite the bad reputation, it really is the best 9X kernel OS. Needs some tweaking after install, but it's golden after that.

 

[MaxiPro800]

Also agree on ME. Had it on quite a few machines and unless you had bad caps or were using improper drivers, it was just as golden as 98SE.

 

[Canned Noodles]

Win ME. Despite the bad reputation, it really is the best 9X kernel OS. Needs some tweaking after install, but it's golden after that.

Also agree on ME. Had it on quite a few machines and unless you had bad caps or were using improper drivers, it was just as golden as 98SE.

Thanks for the suggestions - ME never even crossed my mind. @lexluthermiester what sort of tweaks need to be made?

 

[lexluthermiester]

@lexluthermiester what sort of tweaks need to be made?

Not many. You need to disable System Restore as it is a huge resource hog and is responsible for most of WinME's problems and instabilities. That's the big one and if it's the only thing you do, you will have an excellent experience with ME thereafter. The standard set the swap to a static file size tweak is another QOL tweak that helps ME's performance and stability. Setting it to 2047MB is ideal for WinME. It's a Set-and-forget thing, but requires a good size HDD/SSD, 20GB+. If you only have a 10GBish drive, then set the swap for 1024MB and call it good. There are a few network tweaks that also help, especially the dialup stuff. Completely removing those is a good thing since you'll never use or need them these days. Here's a few link to those tweaks.

Disabling System Restore | Trellix

Review the Trellix Software Royalty-Free License before downloading Trellix free tools

www.trellix.com

Windows ME is first in the list. Also disable "new file sharing and locking semantics" shown in that screenshot.
Don't EVER re-enable them!

Adjust the Network Configuration for Windows95/98/ME

Shown here, remove everything dialup related. You'll never need them. Next, remove anything IPX/SPX. It's a very old network protocol that is not needed unless you intend to network a bunch of 9X based systems for certain games. Finally, remove anything NetBEUI related. You'll never need them.

Follow those points and your Windows ME experience will be great and very stable!

 

[Canned Noodles]

Not many. You need to disable System Restore as it is a huge resource hog and is responsible for most of WinME's problems and instabilities. That's the big one and if it's the only thing you do, you will have an excellent experience with ME thereafter. The standard set the swap to a static file size tweak is another QOL tweak that helps ME's performance and stability. Setting it to 2047MB is ideal for WinME. It's a Set-and-forget thing, but requires a good size HDD/SSD, 20GB+. If you only have a 10GBish drive, then set the swap for 1024MB and call it good. There are a few network tweaks that also help, especially the dialup stuff. Completely removing those is a good thing since you'll never use or need them these days. Here's a few link to those tweaks.

Disabling System Restore | Trellix

Review the Trellix Software Royalty-Free License before downloading Trellix free tools

www.trellix.com

Windows ME is first in the list. Also disable "new file sharing and locking semantics" shown in that screenshot.
Don't EVER re-enable them!

Adjust the Network Configuration for Windows95/98/ME

Shown here, remove everything dialup related. You'll never need them. Next, remove anything IPX/SPX. It's a very old network protocol that is not needed unless you intend to network a bunch of 9X based systems for certain games. Finally, remove anything NetBEUI related. You'll never need them.

Follow those points and your Windows ME experience will be great and very stable!

Thanks alot for this info! I followed your instructions after it finished installing, and so far it's working beautifully.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Thanks alot for this info! I followed your instructions after it finished installing, and so far it's working beautifully.

Glad I could be of help! I don't know if you've said it, but if you have 1GB of RAM for that system, it would make for a very smooth performance experience. While it is known that WinME itself will only use the first 512MB, it and programs can address upto 2048MB memory pages, and will use the upper 512MB for programs. Minimum though, get 512MB of RAM. You'll thank yourself later!

 

[stinger608]

Win ME. Despite the bad reputation, it really is the best 9X kernel OS. Needs some tweaking after install, but it's golden after that.

Also agree on ME. Had it on quite a few machines and unless you had bad caps or were using improper drivers, it was just as golden as 98SE.

Jeez, I think you both were smoking your breakfast!!!!!

I always thought that ME was one of the biggest POS's that Microsoft ever came out with!

 

[lexluthermiester]

I always thought that ME was one of the biggest POS's that Microsoft ever came out with!

Nope! WinME, when properly configured, is the best of the 9X Windows OSes.

 

[stinger608]

Well, we both have opinions, that's for sure.

Don't try to start an argument over this.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Don't try to start an argument over this.

There's no argument to start. It's all good.

 

[MaxiPro800]

Just dismantled a Medion from the car boot sale yesterday.

Specs:

-MSI MS-6747 mobo (which I think was derived from the retail 865GM2)
-Geforce FX5600XT 128MB (dunno why I expected it to me a GF4 MX460, lmao)
-originally had 2x256MB Siemens DDR400
-P4 HT 2.8GHz (Northwood HT core)
-Fortron FSP250-60MDN-120
-160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ATA133 HDD
-Pioneer DVR-106DB burner + Ultima DHM-G48 reader
-(not pictured) Creatix SAA7134 TV-Tuner/Modem combo card and Agere 802.11b WLAN card

What I'll probably do:
- bump the RAM to highest possible amount
- replace the 5600 with something else (thinking of either 9600 Pro or X1300 Pro)
- try and see if I can cram a 98 and XP dualboot in there.

 

[droid-I]

Looks clean. What is it with the blue PCI slot, support for some dedicated card?

 

[MaxiPro800]

Looks clean. What is it with the blue PCI slot, support for some dedicated card?

According to what I found on the internet, it's a "special" slot for the PCI TV Tuner - the thing is, I do have the card, but anything else works in there just as fine. Probably Medion had some sort of card order and hence why they wanted one of the slots to be blue.

I actually have the whole machine, down to every last bit, except the case - I had to trash it for two reasons - it was way too tight-fit, even for a microATX case, as well as it had missing ornaments on the front panel.

I do have a Linkworld case to reuse to rebuild it, maybe sans the front panel output thingy since that thing uses a proprietary mounting format that I couldn't fit anywhere.

 

[Greenslade]

Open the door. What's in there? The cables all seem to come from there.

View attachment 293616

My Packard Bell was a 286 that I bought in the late 80's. Sadly, I think all of it is now gone. Didn't save anything when I went to a 486 system.

They do,USB and Audeo i wish i could get the front cover off and straighten the mesh out ,it is not a push front cover.

USB, audio, and good ol' firewire.
View attachment 293637

I got the same on mine ,so the other one is firewire ,i wondered what it was. Does anyone know what this connector is 1449?,Putting a newer PSU in an older case do you have the fan facing inside the case ?iWhat it means is the switch is the other way round and the label on the PSU will be on the inside of the case.

 

[GreiverBlade]

did i see Win ME? .... i concure on Win ME, as it did win me ... (yeah bad pun ... actually no ... not that bad )

my math professor in secondary did gift me a copy of ME, so, sentimental value added (i did tweak it quite a lot hehe ... )

 

[Greenslade]

did i see Win ME? .... i concure on Win ME, as it did win me ... (yeah bad pun ... actually no ... not that bad )

my math professor in secondary did gift me a copy of ME, so, sentimental value added (i did tweak it quite a lot hehe ... )

Do you know that conecter

did i see Win ME? .... i concure on Win ME, as it did win me ... (yeah bad pun ... actually no ... not that bad )

my math professor in secondary did gift me a copy of ME, so, sentimental value added (i did tweak it quite a lot hehe ... )

did i see Win ME? .... i concure on Win ME, as it did win me ... (yeah bad pun ... actually no ... not that bad )

my math professor in secondary did gift me a copy of ME, so, sentimental value added (i did tweak it quite a lot hehe ... )

I bought this motherboard some weeks ago but i can,t find the manual on the web fot it PC CHIPS M 870 VER 2.even on there web site it is not mentiond. Can any one help