[old-fart]

sound ok

ethernet ok

usb X

 

left to find :

 

 PCI Universal Serial Bus : win95se driver for 661FX-M7 Rev:1.2A motherboard

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done

 

ok, that was fun.

 

I also stripped the shell and replaced explorer with win95 explorer and various other bits so now I could delete ie.

 

as per : http://edition.cnn.c...html?_s=PM:TECH

 

 

One may very well ask : why?

 

Well, separating ie from win98 has always been something I wanted to do, now I could and keep everything running. Back then I took time out and when I got back into it again xp was around. 

 

Was it worth it?

 

Yes. I've learnt a number of related and unrelated things. Linux is a [bleep] of a lot better than windows for many reasons except the ongoing problem with proprietary software support but mostly there are workarounds and all I play is the very odd game of solitaire. The system tools are far better in terms of availability on a budget (0).

 

However there are various programs that don't exist in Linux like imageanalyzer for example and running old windows is easier for dummies like myself than a comparably aged linux distros.

 

What would/will I change on this box?

 

bigger hard drive. I have a few 4 gig drives which I might later partition and install a range of os's to play with. This one by now has 200 mb free space.

Anyway, I did what I set out to do not knowing if it's possible. Not exactly sure how I got the usb going. I got to a point where I just started throwing drivers at it without taking notice of which particular one fit. Better record keeping...

 

Whereto from here?

 

I'll box it as mentioned and move on to the next 'project'.

 

edit typo

Edited by old-fart, 25 May 2014 - 02:48 AM.

[old-fart]

done

 

ok, that was fun.

 

I also stripped the shell and replaced explorer with win95 explorer and various other bits so now I could delete ie.

 

as per : http://edition.cnn.c...html?_s=PM:TECH

 

 

One may very well ask : why?

 

Well, separating ie from win98 has always been something I wanted to do, now I could and keep everything running. Back then I took time out and when I got back into it again xp was around. 

 

Was it worth it?

 

Yes. I've learnt a number of related and unrelated things. Linux is a [bleep] of a lot better than windows for many reasons except the ongoing problem with proprietary software support but mostly there are workarounds and all I play is the very odd game of solitaire. The system tools are far better in terms of availability on a budget (0).

 

However there are various programs that don't exist in Linux like imageanalyzer for example and running old windows is easier for dummies like myself than a comparably aged linux distros.

 

What would/will I change on this box?

 

bigger hard drive. I have a few 4 gig drives which I might later partition and install a range of os's to play with. This one by now has 200 mb free space.

Anyway, I did what I set out to do not knowing if it's possible. Not exactly sure how I got the usb going. I got to a point where I just started throwing drivers at it without taking notice of which particular one fit. Better record keeping...

 

Whereto from here?

 

I'll box it as mentioned and move on to the next 'project'.

 

edit typo

Edited by old-fart, 25 May 2014 - 02:48 AM.

[phillpower2]

Apologies for the delay, I was called to business away from home and have not been near a computer for a couple of days   

 

You have a lot of patience and determination that`s for sure 

 

Congrats on the success that you have had with these projects   

[old-fart]

Thanks for your help.

 

I've started on the next one.

 

The first problem with this one is the cd/dvd drive.

 

It reads some disks but not others. The disks it does not read are read in other comps.

 

Before settiling on replacing the drive I wonder if cd/dvd's created using K3b somehow aren't universally detected by some drives (which I can fiddle with using other burning software and/or using different settings for the burn in K3b) I'll try that but in the meantime I wonder if this is a previously solved issue. ? I have read of similar problems but drivers are always suggested as a solution, not some generational issues that can be circumvented in other ways. Do older drives not recognise newer cd/dvd burns and do newer drives not recognise burns of old software in any situation?

 

edit add :

 

I burnt it slower (16x) and set it on mode 1 in k3b and the dvd now works in the next box.

 

Good to know.

Edited by old-fart, 25 May 2014 - 08:46 PM.

[phillpower2]

Another job well done 

 

In a belated answer to your question, both new and old optical drives can not only be temperamental with burn speeds but also with the brand of disk. 

[old-fart]

"both new and old optical drives can not only be temperamental with burn speeds but also with the brand of disk." - Yes, that's what I figured but there are always particular reasons that might apply. For example in conversation on an old style text based conversaion on a uni site, prob an archive (I should have bookmarked it), a discussion touches on getting something to run on a computer with the same board I've got which involved a concern that a particular bios was questionable regarding working with isolinux. Fortunately I appear to have not the wrong bios. Nevertheless it leads me to finding a list of available bios's. However, I think you are right to a large extent because I found that burning to a different brand the same iso worked but the disk still worked erratically which leads me to wonder if I should really replace the burner itself. Anyway, I got Helix3 working on it (as live) and am trying to figure out a way to save the hardware report. xml (which is incredibly detailed even down to power button stats, let alone precise chip makers and numbers) so I can view it on a computer that I can print it out on.

[old-fart]

a bit more :

 

The Helix3 that runs is a later version than the one I used first.

 

I installed ubuntu on the drive and through it looked at the helix3 cd and found a readme that stated that some bios's indeed have problems with isolinux and Helix provides ijn the same folder a small program to put on a floppy that when booted works around the bios and makes cd/dvd's boot. This may be applicable to this situation. Some distros may have that particular utility built in to run at boot and therefore the bios seems to not be involved while it may actually be a problem.

 

I'll keep trying to work out what's going on before resorting to the simpler way of upgrading anything.

 

It looks like I'll have to install windows in order to be able to use the floppy-drive to 'raw write' the smb.bin file to the sole floppy I have which is an old windows format, prob fat32, maybe even fat16 and not apparently recognised by ubuntu.. Interesting set of things to sort out. I do think it's doable and doable in an easier way than I'm doing now.  (just wait till I move on to my old fujitsu server and start asking about NT4 and setting scsi jumpers in order to get a 2x4 array working )

[phillpower2]

You certainly like a challenge 

 

Windows Server forum

[old-fart]

Yes I do. I suppose we all do according to whatever path we are inclined to go. Thanks for the link. I'll be using that.

 

eg : This is the sort of thing that interests me.

 

While looking to sort ouf one of the problems here I read an old forum which was about a guy trying to rework an old 286 laptop to act as a controller to a set of devices. He'd already used all ports bar the network port to connect to his phone and to his camera and to some other device/s. His problem was getting the network port to connect to a wifi device and his intent was to use all that as a tablet he could carry around to hot spots and use in the same ways as people with a modern tablet do. Many I gather rather buy the thing and use it as is. Apart from just being interested in sorting out problems like that (though nowhere near the type of discussions about machine language and coding they talked about. I'm more like the person who builds mongrel PC's and force them to do things they aren't really meant to do in a rather superficial way.) it is in fact a great way to not spend money. Which is great if you don't have much to spend. In turn I become more useful to others and so on.

[phillpower2]

Recycle and/or repair works for me 

[old-fart]

On this post I'll list, and add over time, various odd problems as I find a solution.

 

One problem which has occupied me is flashing the bios.

 

It requires a win/dos installation on the hard drive (?). Installing xpprosp3 led to a warning screen about viruses et.c. .

 

dBan-autonuke to scrub the drive didn't help.

putting in a different drive didn't help.

putting in a different CD/DVD drive didn't help.

 

It turns out all I had to do was to go into the bios and set drives to Legacy.  XP is now installing.

 

edit add :

 

bios flashed ok.

reset bios to raid/ahci... no win(XP) boot.

set bios to raid/ata  >   winboot's OK.

 

edit add 2  :

 

this box appears to be a as original gx280 which is kind of proprietary but not really. The cd/dvd needed replacing. It's a known pc model for linux installation problems. I followed others advice and tried ubuntu 8.4 which worked fine as well as the updates to current release 12.04 though the gui look is better in previous releases, however the bootmenu it creates for each release seems to permit booting to earlier installations (as well as windows of course). Having gone through this I can understand why the previous owner had given up on it but as many of these apparent problems go if one has a problem it is very likely someone has solved it. To find what I needed I had to look at a number of archived discussions dating back to 2007.

 

 

add 3 :

 

I used that box to download the drivers for the next one which is an optiplex 755. These computers are known as green in terms of power usage and depend on the setup to conform to specs in terms of power use and temperarure. Hence a dispute about replacing the recommended western digital caviar blue with a segate barracuda. I'll watch that in summer heat. Stll it's not a bad system for non game stuff. Windows and ubuntu installed fine again. A problem getting the pci serial port going in windows but it gets on the net ok so I expect that'll be fixed soon. Ubuntu (and windows) seems to like 4gig ram (win(xpprosp3 sees it as 3.2 gigs for some reason?)). It's a 'low profile card' box so if I want to put a viceo card on later (again considering temps, and the 250w psu) I'll have to get a new backing plate for the card I have in mind (512m) to make it fit. No biggie.

 

 

 

________________

Edited by old-fart, 04 June 2014 - 06:30 AM.

[old-fart]

the edit button isn't visible for some reason.

 

"I used that box to download the drivers for the next one which is an optiplex 755. These computers are known as green in terms of power usage and depend on the setup to conform to specs in terms of power use and temperarure. Hence a dispute about replacing the recommended western digital caviar blue with a segate barracuda. I'll watch that in summer heat. Stll it's not a bad system for non game stuff. Windows and ubuntu installed fine again. A problem getting the pci serial port going in windows but it gets on the net ok so I expect that'll be fixed soon. Ubuntu (and windows) seems to like 4gig ram (win(xpprosp3 sees it as 3.2 gigs for some reason?)). It's a 'low profile card' box so if I want to put a viceo card on later (again considering temps, and the 250w psu) I'll have to get a new backing plate for the card I have in mind (512m) to make it fit. No biggie.'

 

The 755 is done. Needed to swap its floppy drive. sdisk is a good floppy tool for partitioning. I think it uses fdisk with the switches enabled in a gui mode running on a freedos kernel. Anyway, a neat tool. It 'corrected' the drive and enabled a clean delete of the linux partition set up with gparted and enabled in turn a clean install of linux so now win and linux runs happily side by side. Then I reverted to the gx280 and with a fresh install on it. It seemsquite enough for theweb so I'll focus on the 755 now.

 

Q : 

 

I've got a gv r4350c 512I rev 1.2 to consider as an addon video card for the 755.

 

Apparently conflicting information concerns whether the psu (280 watts) will be sufficient.

 

- It needs only 75 watts or less so 280 should be ok.

-The psu should be 300 watts minimum.

-The psu should be 400 watts minimum.

 

Whatever it is, I'm hesitant to do any experimenting. I'm hoping the psu is sufficient because this being a thin box would mean rebuilding the box if I want to accomodate a larger psu. (it uses a purpose built psu, very neat but compact). All current parts are 'as original' so the question is whether that particular card will do ok as I plan to do some intensive image editingon the755 and use this one for the web with another as backup for while working on other boxes and with the early box as a printer server.

 

edit typos (I assume there's a time limit to the edit button as it's there for this post.)

Edited by old-fart, 06 June 2014 - 08:30 PM.

[phillpower2]

300W minimum is suggested by Gigabyte, specs here

[old-fart]

thank's for the reply.

 

I read that page and others but couldn't resolve whether my card not having printed HD on it (gv r435o*c 512I rev 1.2) means it is another in the series. In typing that it occured to me to look at some pics of it and it seems the HD is not a factor, but I can't be sure of that.  Further confusing the issue is that if you look at the manual it states minimum 400 w. If it's 300 I'm prepared to just install the card and look to ways to monitor temperature and power usage. Any thoughts?

 

*apparently that's not a 0 but an o.

[phillpower2]

AMD/Radeon have used the HD standard to identify their products for many years, very much in the same way that Nvidea have used GT which has consequently progressed to the present GTX, any chance that you can post a link to the exact card or upload a picture of it for us.

 

If the user manual states 400W it is the best guidance to follow, as you will no doubt be aware manufacturers will always state that the recommended output of the PSU is the minimum that should be used, this will often seem excessive but if you do not follow the guidance and the card fails any warranty that may be in place is deemed void.

 

You are welcome btw