Author Topic: New 486 pc  (Read 1976 times)

HercTNT

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #60 on: May 20, 2012, 10:23:29 PM »
yes i found an original cd. it added some stuff that i'm not sure needs to be thier. i'm also going to take on the tseng labs and replace it with the rage pro. i found dos vesa drivers for the rage and it will no doubt fix the graphics issues i have with some games. If i were not trying to make most of the kids games playable from windows i doubt i would be having any problems. I dont know how to write batch files though, or i would just make custom configs.

BlueBMW

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #61 on: May 21, 2012, 01:09:14 AM »
What about setting up a dos menu that automatically loads various games?

I can get you the exact syntax but it involves using  [menu]  but you can customize autoexec and config for each game if need be.
[Sun 23:29] <Tatsujin> we have hard off, book off, house off, sports off, baby off, clothes off, jerk off, piss off etc

HercTNT

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #62 on: May 21, 2012, 02:47:11 AM »
I appreciate the offer, but it looks like it wont be needed. qemm 97 is close to being god like. every program that did not run before now does. Every program that had to be run in dos mode, now runs in windows. Qemm also speeds up windows warm boot time, loads rom into high memory, and improves disk cache. I just spent an hour and a half testing it and could not find any problems. I also replaced the tseng labs et6000 with the rage pro. more games work due to no more conflicts with the tseng, but the rage has its own issues. I'm gonna get an s3 card and fix that problem once and for all. The super vga speed on the tseng is unreal, but in standard vga the rage and s3's are just as fast. My 486 is not quick enough to run games in Svga anyways.

Keep those ideas for good games coming. i'm enjoying setting this thing up.

BigusSchmuck

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #63 on: May 21, 2012, 05:37:10 AM »
Herc, created a for sale for all of our printers at work, did check to see if we had an old color dot matrix printer but its like completely dead so all we got are the ribbons for it. Anyway:
https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=11860.0

SNKNostalgia

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #64 on: May 21, 2012, 12:55:28 PM »
Yeah I see their site is having issues, redirecting you on the download links. Well, hit me up if you want, I have a decent archive of drivers amassed, so I might have what you need.





I found the Catalyst drivers on Cnet of all places, lol.

Do you have ATI Multimedia 8.9? I assume that is the last version I should get, unless the 9.0 versions are fine. Still, I read something about problems with 9.15, etc... Not entirely sure about all of it though. Also, I forgot what it is for, but there is also WDM 6.14.10.6240 listed.

ProfessorProfessorson

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #65 on: May 21, 2012, 03:00:48 PM »

SNKNostalgia

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #66 on: May 21, 2012, 03:24:59 PM »
Cool, got all the drivers I need. Now I have a nice project to re-install the whole computer with the most up to date drivers and see how this thing runs all the old DOS games.

BTW, I had to look it up and I am gonna assume I don't need the WDM drivers since it isn't a video capture card anyways.

ProfessorProfessorson

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #67 on: May 21, 2012, 04:27:55 PM »
No you shouldn't unless you are using a AIW. Honestly I'd say you don't even need ATI Multimedia Center, unless you plan to do more then just game on the thing.

BlueBMW

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #68 on: May 21, 2012, 04:29:37 PM »
I appreciate the offer, but it looks like it wont be needed. qemm 97 is close to being god like. every program that did not run before now does. Every program that had to be run in dos mode, now runs in windows. Qemm also speeds up windows warm boot time, loads rom into high memory, and improves disk cache. I just spent an hour and a half testing it and could not find any problems. I also replaced the tseng labs et6000 with the rage pro. more games work due to no more conflicts with the tseng, but the rage has its own issues. I'm gonna get an s3 card and fix that problem once and for all. The super vga speed on the tseng is unreal, but in standard vga the rage and s3's are just as fast. My 486 is not quick enough to run games in Svga anyways.

Keep those ideas for good games coming. i'm enjoying setting this thing up.

I found an extra Trident S3 card (or maybe two of them) when digging through some old PC stuff.  I'm out of town til Thursday, but when I get back I'll find out what models they are exactly and shoot you some pics.  I know one was 2mb for sure.... not sure on the other.  I think one was ISA and the other PCI.
[Sun 23:29] <Tatsujin> we have hard off, book off, house off, sports off, baby off, clothes off, jerk off, piss off etc

HercTNT

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #69 on: May 21, 2012, 04:47:48 PM »
Blue, that would be great. let me know what they are. I would appreciate it. here is a terrible pic of my 486 in its temporary home.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2012, 05:16:52 PM by HercTNT »

HercTNT

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #70 on: May 23, 2012, 01:14:37 AM »
Just an update, I found out my 486 will do 160mhz with almost no issues. when running in windows some drivers crash including the sound and ide drivers. if i run in dos all games work without issue.  Can this be related to not enough voltage to the cpu, or is it simply that windows does not like running on a 40mhz pci bus. Anyone that has fooled around with overclocking a 486 please chime in. Also, what are the long term ramifications for overclocking older hardware. I"m familair with the new stuff, but the old stuff i have no idea.

RegalSin

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #71 on: May 23, 2012, 03:36:35 AM »
You need the limitations of the version of windows you are using. All Windows run slow on most computers of thier release year.

Like I have my 98 running on a 2ghz proccessor, and it is lighting fast, but if I was to load something like Vista, or Seven, I am sure their would be slowdowns.

However the dos programs are very picky about hardware. They run in DOS mode, 100% of the time, but I have to enable sound, mouse drivers first. Simular to the way some PSX games request an analoug stick controller.

In windows I allways get memory errors, memory not enough, etc because windows is also using those resources up. On a 2ghz machine the DOS programs do not even see the speed, however some do see the speed, or maybe the speed is altered within the program, itself.

Windows back then was for office employees, and was resourcefull for saving white-out..... ( people who do not know a thing about computers, entering the workforce. ).

Your 486, could probably run most DOS programs, however I am sure a much later program would have problems.

The computer I had, used a list system, running windows 1-3.0 ( I forget which version. ). So when I wanted to use a dos program, I could just select from the list, at the same time I could boot into windows, and run whatever windows related program I wanted to run.

Voltage I believe, relates to hardware taking over jobs, of other hardware. Like something that, would not function like a power switch.
Try running some games in DOS, to see if any of them exibit behaviours
as with windows.

BlueBMW

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #72 on: May 23, 2012, 03:36:37 AM »
Last old computer I overclocked was a dual cpu p1 100mhz.  I overclocked them to 120... ran maybe 6 or 7 months with linux then one of the cpus died.
[Sun 23:29] <Tatsujin> we have hard off, book off, house off, sports off, baby off, clothes off, jerk off, piss off etc

HercTNT

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #73 on: May 23, 2012, 11:05:20 AM »
Yea, i know that newer cpu's are far more tolerant. it's a shame as the overclock provided with with very noticable improvements, but i just dont think its worth it. I'm gonna have to accept that there are a handful of games that i just can't run, or run in svga mode. Joe and mac for example, cant run smooth with soundblaster sound turned on. with the overclock it runs perfect. The disk on module hard drive i have seems to have no problem with the 40mhz bus neither does the rage pro video. still i'm unsure of the strain on the rest of the system. its not a new board afterall.
Regal, I am running the software that was designed for the system. Windows runs plenty fast and perfect if i dont overclock, when i do it has some issues. No offense, but unless your aware of the overclocking aspect (the nature of my previous question), your advice does not make sense.

ProfessorProfessorson

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Re: New 486 pc
« Reply #74 on: May 23, 2012, 01:44:01 PM »
Yea, i know that newer cpu's are far more tolerant. it's a shame as the overclock provided with with very noticable improvements, but i just dont think its worth it. I'm gonna have to accept that there are a handful of games that i just can't run, or run in svga mode. Joe and mac for example, cant run smooth with soundblaster sound turned on. with the overclock it runs perfect. The disk on module hard drive i have seems to have no problem with the 40mhz bus neither does the rage pro video. still i'm unsure of the strain on the rest of the system. its not a new board afterall.

This is why I don't really want to mess with the 486 stuff. Just a tad too slow to run everything I'd want to run. You can get away with running games from 92 and prior fine, but seems like stuff started to get a bit too demanding at times from 93 on up.