Here are the components I pulled out of the Gateway! I do have a future plan for the ones we don't use today, we'll talk about that here in a minute!
Zip 100 drive is in the slot. Now I just need to find some screws. Luckily I have a few 🤣
And I did pop out two slot covers. I labeled them for future safekeeping and ease of pairing with this PC!
With all devices installed, I powered up and went into BIOS. OOPS, for the second time today, I have a jumper issue. I took out the CD-ROM drive and jumpered it to be the slave device. That took care of it. Also, my boot manager detects the two hard drives and Zip 100 drive!
The sound card that I pulled out of the Gateway is a CT5806, a Sound Blaster 128 PCI Digital. I like this card because it works in DOS... and that is why I am keeping it for now! The drivers for that are here: easymamecab.mameworld.info/html/snddosdr.…
And the final card I pulled out is this FutureTel PrimeView NS 320 MPEG capture card. I had three or four of these at one point! I was able to locate drivers for it and use it in the past! I documented it in an old video of mine.
I need to see if I can find the system requirements for the MPEG card! The web page for this card is on the Wayback Machine, which is where I found the drivers too! Wonder if it will work in my Pentium Pro. Anyway, thx for following along as always!
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Okay, let's look at one more retro item today: this ISA to USB interface card with an M-Systems Disk On Chip module! Can we use this little device to boot a computer? Absolutely! We'll test this out on the Pacman PC. Time for a 🧵
First, where did I get this, and what does it do? I picked this up from AliExpress, and this device basically lets you access USB drives from DOS systems. And it does support boot ROMs like the M-Systems Disk on Chip. We'll be using that today.
Let's look at some of the settings. We have a jumper to change the I/O address. Another jumper specifies 16 bit or 8 bit system. And the jumper in the middle? It's a mystery. The back of the board has some writing in Chinese that basically says "this end faces PC rear"
Recently I picked up this SMC network card, that supports network boot via a boot ROM. I spent some time with it, and we had some misadventures together. But it did give me a chance to test out my new POST card too. How could all of this be related? Time for a 🧵
First of all, let's take some time to admire the property sticker on the back! This card was allegedly property of America Online at some point 🤣
Okay, so I got this SMC Ethercard Elite 8216T (say that five times fast) installed in my Pentium 233 MMX. I was able to pull up the boot ROM configuration page, but savings settings would freeze. That would be a bit of a metaphor for this card...
Hooray, my PS/2 Model 70 386 is fixed! No more issues with the system freezing on powerup when a Microsoft mouse is plugged in. How did I fix it? Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here!
In case you missed it, I recently got a device to display BIOS diagnostic codes on powerup, and we learned that the system was getting stuck when it was testing the keyboard controller:
My parallel port POST test card arrived today! Let's test out my IBM PS/2 Model 70 386 to see if we can figure out why it is not powering up when certain types of mice are plugged into it! Time for a quick 🧵
First, a little about the tester card. It's an AliExpress special. That said, it did get here pretty fast. I'm impressed!
Alright, first off, let's try this card out without a mouse plugged in. Looks like the system boots, and we land on code 0x6E. I found this awesome reference manual called The BIOS Companion, and it has this code listed as "Reset page register; boot up system". That tracks!
Okay, you all voted, and for NOW, we're going to put this NEC MultiSpin 6X SCSI CD-ROM into my Pentium 233 system. This drive is REALLY cool! Let's talk about it briefly in a 🧵 here!
First of all, if this ends up being permanent, I won't be too sad. The Philips drive that was in the system is starting to look a little ratty 😅. Granted, for form over function, it is an 8X drive, so TECHNICALLY this is a downgrade!
Also, before I get too far into this, in case you missed it, I picked up this drive earlier today at a vintage computer sale that was happening a town or two over! I did grab all of the caddies you see here that go with the drive as well!
Looks like someone about 20 minutes away from me is selling a massive Macintosh/PC collection. I think I might go have a look, just for fun of course! Some pics. 1/4