IT... Computing....

[Reese Riverson]

Sometimes what may be obvious to us, isn't the case for everyone. It's often worse when people try taking advantage of the elderly, or even those who don't know better.

You'd think that there'd be a good lesson to teach in school so kids can learn to be safer online when it comes to things as simple as this, since education on what to look out for can go a long way.

But sometimes, like at work, I often have to remind people that they need to look carefully at the email they're receiving. One of our vendors had their emails spoofed and fake emails with a somewhat similar domain kept being sent out with files that I kept ignoring. I'd often contact them to let them know that's going on so they can warn their clients.

[EdgyRabbid]

Yeah.

Though in my school, they did computer classes but ended them in 2014. They should bring those back, because kids need to learn internert safety. Also classes for old people would be fantastic.

[PluMGMK]

Interesting! I would have thought that it would be slow on older hardware! Could you try running the program with the /s switch? This will make it sweep the wait time from 0 to 2000 and retrigger the exception each time, and usually takes quite a bit longer (and is fun to watch! :3)

Well, I didn't get around to getting thing moved around to do a capture setup, but I did go ahead and run this with the /s switch for ya!
20251019_143037.jpg

Great! Did you enjoy watching the colours flash up?

random exe files from this email

Remember that thanks to Windows' dumbed-down default settings, the ".exe" may not appear for most people, so it didn't look like an exe file. Ridiculous, I know...

[EdgyRabbid]

I mean… windows 11 looks like a virus

[Reese Riverson]

Great! Did you enjoy watching the colours flash up?

Of course I did! Who doesn't love a bit of color flashing?



Once the replacement for my DALLAS RTC chip comes in, I'm going to try this out on my 486 rig with PCI.

[Steo]

Hopefully all goes well replacing that RTC chip!

When I get my power adapters I will also try to see if I can run it on that old small laptop for the sake of it.

[Reese Riverson]

Given how PluM was surprised how quick it ran on my Pentium rig, I'm honestly curious to how fast it'd perform on a 486DX4 processor as well.

But yeah, I don't remember if that DALLAS RTC chip is soldered on that board specifically or socketed in, since some of the ones I've had were socketed in. I suppose either way, it'll be good to document a bit of this on my website. It's content.



I did begin a draft for the repair for my Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold audio card, so I'd have the shoutout and thanks to keropi at Vogons.org, and the Orpheus II project. Especially since they verified the capacitor values for me. I just need to get a list put together for my order still, so it's not just me paying shipping on two tiny capacitors.

[PluMGMK]

In the mid-2000s, I got an old computer from my primary school, with a Pentium MMX, and I installed Windows 3.1, BootMagic and Windows 98 on it, which made me really happy at the time. (Cause I was already nostalgic for my experiences with Win98 in the early 2000s )

Then later I got too smart for my own good, and tried to upgrade it with an AMD K6-II (or III?), without realizing that the voltage levels on the motherboard were too high So it worked, for a while, and then died. I think I did eventually (like over a year later?) realize my error and put the Pentium MMX back to make it work again, but it soon died again (capacitor plague?). The whole lot got thrown out at some point in the early 2010s.

Seeing the fun you guys are having with genuine retro systems, I really regret not making a better effort to preserve it

[Reese Riverson]

You know, something like that makes me wonder if you could have repaired it, especially if something was wrong with the voltage regulator on the board. If it still booted and ran fine otherwise, it could have been a reasonable fix... obviously too late now, but it's certainly a thought.

But with that in mind, would you attempt to re-build a retro machine from at least the Pentium era? It doesn't seem like it's too crazy to get into price wise, unlike some of the 486 era components I've seen.

[PluMGMK]

Well the voltage issue was simply that the rated Vcore for a K6-III is lower than was available on the board, even with the lowest jumper settings, simply because the board was a generation older. (I guess due to the shift from 0.35 to 0.25 μm) I really just didn't know what I was doing, I just assumed that all Socket 7 chips were interchangeable!

As for starting again – the issue is more about space than money. Where would I put another big tower, and what keyboard/mouse/monitor would I connect to it?

[dr_st]

Seeing the fun you guys are having with genuine retro systems, I really regret not making a better effort to preserve it

I didn't keep my original Pentium system either; also got rid of an ESS688 Audiodrive with it, which I regret more than the system, as that sound card is considered quite nice in some circles.

I did keep my second retro system, which is the longest system in my possession still working. It's from early year 2000, and it originally came with a K6-II @475MHz and a Voodoo 3000. I think these are the only original parts left in the system. The motherboard has been replaced from AOpen AX59 Pro to a DFI K6XV3+/66 (back when you could still find these boards at reasonable prices). There possibly was another board in the middle which I don't remember. Hard drive has been upgraded at some point to an 80GB IBM, which is still there, amazingly. I've went through a couple of SB16 and AWE64 cards, finally settling on a Yamaha Audician 32 Plus (real OPL3) with a Dreamblaster S1 General MIDI daughterboard.

Now I feel that the motherboard once again is dying. It works OK in DOS, but Windows 98SE tends to lock up a lot. It could be drivers, too, but honestly - I haven't had much time with that system, so debugging hasn't gotten anywhere. No longer having desktop space for it, it's been unplugged at my parents' house for the last year or so.

Well the voltage issue was simply that the rated Vcore for a K6-III is lower than was available on the board, even with the lowest jumper settings, simply because the board was a generation older.

Ah, yes. Early Socket 7 boards are not truly compatible with K6-2/K6-III. Sometimes you can find a combination of multiplier and voltage settings that works, but not always. Super Socket 7 boards officially support these chips, but you still need to find the correct settings using the jumpers. Once I figured how that works, I "overclocked" my 475MHz chip to 500MHz by simply adjusting the jumpers. It ran perfectly stable. I tried pushing it to 550MHz and it was no longer stable. At that point I saw that the board had no voltage settings between 2.4V and 2.8V, and with 2.8V obviously being too high for the chip, I dropped further overclocking attempts.

[Reese Riverson]

The Windows 98SE machine I was using during my early RaymanPC days was an AMD K6-III 450MHz based system. I never was sure of the brand, since when I got the chassis, the front cover to the case was missing.

Speaking of computer cases, I am so excited for this, I can't wait to get my hands on one!

[Steo]

The Windows 98SE machine I was using during my early RaymanPC days was an AMD K6-III 450MHz based system. I never was sure of the brand, since when I got the chassis, the front cover to the case was missing.

I'm still wondering if my first PC also had this CPU. I know it was a Packard Bell and it said "451MHz" when I checked system on it. It had Windows 98 on it also at the time, and 64MB RAM.

[EdgyRabbid]

my first pc was a windows 7 computer back in 2013, and it was updated to 8 so my childhood operating system was fucking windows 8!

[Steo]

Forgot to post this last night, but here's an updated version, which prints some output before the FPU exception hits (or is supposed to hit anyway!)

I got some tips for adapters in order to make all those generic 5.5mm x 2.1mm barrel jack adapters actually prove useful. So I managed to run this myself on that old ASUS EeePC.

CPU: Intel Celeron M 900MHz
RAM: 512MB

Running it normally without the /s switch was instant, just like Reese's case:

Running it with the /s switch, it took about 11 seconds to complete:

Not sure if this proves useful to you, but I thought I'd give it a try since I could finally get a power adapter to fit this, and I think that's the oldest PC / Laptop I own.

[Μaster]

Indeed, I too find this an excellent opportunity to test this application as well. Blimey it was fast!

Mastré ZXK 498 Turbo

[PluMGMK]

my childhood operating system was fucking windows 8!

Maybe this should go in my collection too, as a reminder of how old we're all getting

Forgot to post this last night, but here's an updated version, which prints some output before the FPU exception hits (or is supposed to hit anyway!)

I got some tips for adapters in order to make all those generic 5.5mm x 2.1mm barrel jack adapters actually prove useful. So I managed to run this myself on that old ASUS EeePC.

CPU: Intel Celeron M 900MHz
RAM: 512MB

Running it normally without the /s switch was instant, just like Reese's case:

fpuchk1.jpg

Running it with the /s switch, it took about 11 seconds to complete:

fpuchk2.jpg

Not sure if this proves useful to you, but I thought I'd give it a try since I could finally get a power adapter to fit this, and I think that's the oldest PC / Laptop I own.

That's great, it's nice to see it working properly on so many machines!

The reason the countup should be slow is that it's actually reading from VRAM to increment the counter (it was easier than programming an in-memory counter and reprinting every count). On my machine it's definitely not instant (it is only a few seconds though). It sounds like reading from VRAM has actually gotten slower with newer hardware generations, despite the improvements in data transfer speeds between the CPU and GPU

[Reese Riverson]

The reason the countup should be slow is that it's actually reading from VRAM to increment the counter (it was easier than programming an in-memory counter and reprinting every count). On my machine it's definitely not instant (it is only a few seconds though). It sounds like reading from VRAM has actually gotten slower with newer hardware generations, despite the improvements in data transfer speeds between the CPU and GPU

A few seconds without running the /s switch?

I can always re-run mine with the /s switch and time it, if you'd like. Maybe even dig out my childhood Acer and run it off a slightly slower Pentium as well.


On a side note, it looks like my DALLAS RTC replacement chips are coming in Friday, so I can finally get to testing the 486 PCI board with your application.

[PluMGMK]

Well, maybe half a second. I can see it counting, but really quickly

[Fifo]

Indeed, I too find this an excellent opportunity to test this application as well. Blimey it was fast!
MasterPlumTest.jpg

Hahaha, nice!