Subj : RE: My new* 486 (*=old)
To   : Ben Collver
From : Mike Dippel
Date : Fri Feb 10 2023 12:54:32

On 2/10/2023 11:05 AM, Ben Collver wrote to xbit:

->   Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
->   By: xbit to All on Fri Feb 10 2023 06:25:16
-> 
->  XB> Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what you're
->  XB> doing with it if so.
-> 
-> Aloha up there!  I am writing from Grants Pass.
-> 
-> My first PC was an IBM 5150 with two full-height 5.25" drives and no internal
-> disk and it ran DOS 3.x.  I no longer have that system.
-> 
-> Recently i inherited an IBM PC 330 6577-79T, which has a Pentium processor,
-> 200MHz clock, 66MHz bus.  It has 32mb EDO memory, 1mb video memory, 4gb IDE
-> disk, 3.5" floppy drive, 52x CD-ROM drive dated 2002, PCI sound card, PCI
-> modem, and free ISA slots.  It has a parallel port, a serial port, two 1.5MB/s
-> USB ports, and an "infrared" port.  According to the spec sheet it cannot boot
-> from CD but the BIOS has the CD-ROM in the boot order.  The S3 Trio64V+ video
-> controller with 1MB memory can go up to 1024x768x256 colors or 1280x1024x16
-> colors.
-> 
-> The system has Windows ME.  It boots to a BSOD even in safe mode.  I cannot get
-> it to boot from the CD-ROM and i don't currently have a way to write floppy
-> disks nor IDE disks.  So i am effectively locked out of the system.
-> 
-> My thought is to acquire a USB floppy drive and write a memtest86 boot floppy. 
-> I'd test the memory first.  Then i would write a BasLinux floppy to test the
-> hard disk.  If the hardware tests OK then i would install FreeDOS.  My initial
-> use would be recovering data from old floppies of mine that i recently
-> discovered.  Then it would be for DOS gaming.
-> 
-> I have a model M keyboard that would be a good fit for this system.
-> 
-> Last year i used DJGPP to compile current versions of Angband and NetHack for
-> DOS.  I have a Pentium-3 era system for testing, but it would be nice to have
-> an older system to help keep it real.  Though not real mode.
-> 
-> A friend of mine is into ZZT.  Archive.org has a trove of ZZT content including
-> a diskmag titled "Hacker's Guide to ZZT."  Thought i might check that out.
-> 
-> -Ben

My wife's laptop ran Windows 10 but it took forever to boot, and forget about programs 
loading in a timely manner.  She had to load Zoom 15 minutes before the start of a 
meeting.

I loaded Chrome OS into it, and now it's a screamer.

Mike Dippel
 
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