IT... Computing....

[EdgyRabbid]

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

Plum I also felt old when I told my friends I grew up on it and they were like “no I grew up on 10”

[PluMGMK]

Well... I pity ye all growing up with those, when I had good old 98

[Fifo]

I also grew up with Windows 98

[Steo]

I also grew up on a mix of 95 and 98. Some of my school computers definitely would have had 95 at some point, but my first PC I had at home had 98. I'm personally glad I grew up with those OS instead of 10 or 11. I really don't see much charm in those and main Linux nowadays.

[EdgyRabbid]

I liked 8, tbh. Sure it looks like shit but like, when I look at it I get nostalgic. Which is weird to say, i don’t know why my mom updated to 8 anyway. I also remember she had this picture as the computer background for some reason:

Yes my mom was a minions mom. She still is over 15 years later! SHE WAS 24 WHEN THE FIRST MOVIE CAME OUT!

Edit: asked her about it

[Reese Riverson]

Well... I pity ye all growing up with those, when I had good old 98

What does this make me, with the fact I grew up with Windows 3.1 and then 98?


Also, I've went ahead and placed an order for one of these nice memory expansion modules for my AWE64 Gold cards.

Some interesting videos and information on this:

[PluMGMK]

Ah, SIMM slots! That's what those empty things on old ISA sound cards are! That's an awesome project, and it's interesting to know that there's a company out there doing PCBs for this sort of thing! Maybe I should look at that for a more evolved version of my minus-twelve-volt restorer (even though I'm still only on the "background" section of my blog post detailing the current version )

[Reese Riverson]

Ah, SIMM slots! That's what those empty things on old ISA sound cards are! That's an awesome project, and it's interesting to know that there's a company out there doing PCBs for this sort of thing! Maybe I should look at that for a more evolved version of my minus-twelve-volt restorer (even though I'm still only on the "background" section of my blog post detailing the current version )

One of my memory expansion boards for the AWE64 cards basically adapts the SIMM memory to the audio card.

This is a 32MB stick, btw, but the audio card only sees up to 28MB max.

Kinda amazing to just see RAM on audio cards, isn't it?

[PluMGMK]

It is indeed amazing! To think that HIMEM could only see up to 256 MiB of system RAM too, so the dedicated RAM for soundfonts could basically be an additional 10% on top of what's available for general use. That would make these basically impossible to properly virtualize with a VxD I guess

Also, forgot to mention before, but I'm a bit surprised at the lack of ESD precautions evident in those videos

[Reese Riverson]

It is indeed amazing! To think that HIMEM could only see up to 256 MiB of system RAM too, so the dedicated RAM for soundfonts could basically be an additional 10% on top of what's available for general use. That would make these basically impossible to properly virtualize with a VxD I guess

Also, forgot to mention before, but I'm a bit surprised at the lack of ESD precautions evident in those videos

That is an interesting thought, come to think of it, I know VRAM usually counts against the system memory within the limits. I wonder if the audio cards memory are even factored in the same way?


So I decided to partially disassemble my 486 media system so I can get some nice pictures and document things, while getting a look at the capacitors on the motherboard. Maybe you'll like seeing this, PluM?

System Specs:

• Acer/AOpen VI15G - 486 VLB Motherboard
• Intel 486DX4 Overdrive (DX4ODP100)
• 256k Cache (WINBOND W24257AK-15)
• 32MB RAM (I currently don't have details here... )
• S3 86C805-P 2MB VLB VGA Graphics Card
• Raytech RT-1504-A IDE/FDD/IO Controller
• Sound Blaster 16 (CT2830)
• MIDIMAN MM-401
• Syba SD-CF-IDE-DI Compact Flash to IDE Adapter with 2GB Transcend 133x Compact Flash Memory Card

[EdgyRabbid]

so today, i wanted to download bonzibuddy rewritten on my windows 11 computer because i like having a littlle buddy on my computer. I chose rewritten because it removes all the adwear and spywear. anyways downloading the EXE made my computer crash, i have no idea why. It just said my pc ran into an iusse and needed to reboot. Its been doing this at random times.. just crashing for no reason.

[Reese Riverson]

Has this been happening only since you downloaded and tried to run this?

[EdgyRabbid]

Alright, so update. Turns out it was a torgent. I didnt run it, thank GOD.. i did download it and then but it through virus total.

Its weird that they put it as "Bonziebuddy with no malware" and then torgent and email worm.

Has this been happening only since you downloaded and tried to run this?

Nope. I think it did it on its first day.

[Steo]

It's a little odd that it seems to be running into the BSOD (blue screen of death). It's a kernel panic basically, and it can be caused by numerous things. You'd have to try catch what it says when it happens.

[EdgyRabbid]

I know what it said. Something like "your comoputer has gotten a fatel error, restarting" and it says kernel error at the bottom.

[Steo]

Yeah it's generally a kernel panic, but sometimes the little text at the bottom can help you figure out what caused it. Sometimes it happens so quickly though that it's hard to catch it fully.

[EdgyRabbid]

Yeah. Would you like the specs as reference as maybe it’s those that are causing crashes?

[Steo]

You can share them if you want. It shouldn't specifically cause the crash though unless something is malfunctioning. I'd say it's more likely to be a software issue than a hardware one though, especially if the computer isn't that old. Sometimes even bad drivers can cause it.

[EdgyRabbid]

This is the specs, a photo from Costco. Yes I got a laptop from Costco.

[Steo]

Definitely better specs than mine. I got my laptop way back in 2021 though, and as mentioned, I use the PC mostly. You have a much newer GPU, and I'm gathering the CPU is better as well by a fair bit. Definitely a decent one you got there!