So the death of CUA (Common User Access) in GUI’s have triggered me, and I’m seriously considering a falling back to some simpler times, with better GUIs.
Also, this article by The Register inspired me to start doing something, and to help others looking for ideas and steps on how to get things done :
I have located two motherboards, the one is an Intel AL440LX with a 266MHz PII CPU and 192Mb RAM (1x 64Mb and 1x 128Mb), and the other is a Gigabyte motherboard GA-G31M-ES2C v1.1 with an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 2Gb RAM.
Both CMOS batteries have been removed in order to prevent accidental leakage.
Yesterday I gave the Gigabyte motherboard a test drive. It works.
FreeDOS installs without any issues, and Win2000 also installs without any issues.
Unfortunately I have to use a SATA CDROM drive as this Gigabyte knows diddly squat about booting from an USB drive (using Ventoy would’ve been ideal tho). Still not a dealbreaker.
One drawback from this Gigabyte MB is that certain older DOS games runs at turbo speed, which is hilarious.
Will have to find a way to slow the DOS environments down enough for DOS games to work properly.
However, WordPerfect and SuperCalc5 works fine.
Sadly, OS/2 does not want to install on the Gigabyte motherboard. Will have to see if it is actually possible to…
So, things to do :
Obtain a graphics card for the Intel mobo (in progress)
Obtain a micro SD card reader for the IDE interface, which will allow booting from SD card (for both motherboards). Disk space is not a premium if you consider that all DOS programs (and DOS itself) requires very little storage space, a 128Gb micro SD card will do just fine. Heck, even OS/2 installs in less than 450Mb… (a work in progress)
Test the Gigabyte motherboard. Luckily the driver page from Gigabyte is still available. (Result : it is in a working condition)
Test the Intel motherboard
If both motherboards tests and works out OK, procure two cases with the required input peripherals (PS/2 preferably) for both, install and mount the motherboards
Other items will be added as time goes by. But for now, that is the main points I want to complete.
Keep in mind that back in those days the fastest CPU was 8MHz, then 16MHz, then 33/66MHz and so on…
Nowadays we have CPUs running at 2GHz (and faster), which is way beyond those old DOS programs capability to handle.
Some do have built-in delays in order to accommodate faster/slower CPU’s, but the programmers of those days did not foresee that their DOS program will be installed and run on a CPU running at far higher clock speeds than back in those days.
I googled a bit, and decided to install DOSBox, as the use of a TSR (terminate, stay resident) program may cause issues with Windows2000.
Now everything runs at a proper speed.
Should you try to run plain DOS games or applications, and these don’t work at all because the CPU is too fast for them, try installing DOSBox and run these from there.
Currently I am documenting everything for the real installation at this stage, getting all the software and assorted bits and bobs ready for the Real Thing™ so that the install will go without hiccups.
And, take a look at this - the space used by Windows2000 and all the assorted DOS programs. These days you need just a 150Gb (or bigger) partition just for Windows…
There are four caps that are swollen. I need to replace these first before attempting to power the card on. Will hop onto Discord and ask there, there’s lots of retro-enthusiast there and they will provide me with what I can do - just replace the caps or is there extra steps that I need to take.
I have decided to replace all of the capacitors, it will be a safer decision.
Of course I had a look. It did not. Phew. Just to be safe, I stored the card upside-down, so any leakage will not be on the board should the caps decide to take a walk down piddle avenue.
But I noticed the thermal transfer paste is not good. So that will need to be done as well. The plastic clips need a specific tool to remove them from the card, I have a bit of experience with that, so everything can get done without stuff breaking.
The final worry is if the PCB is a multilayered thing… we’ll cross that bridge when we come to that, it’s future me’s problem now
The heatsink holders look to be a simple plastic plug with a spring on one side (to keep the thing tensioned correctly) and an expanding ‘pyramid’ on the other. Compressing the ‘pyramid’ should allow you to get the plugs out - which I think you’ve already done.
The caps need to be the same type, capacity (however many micro/pico farads) and size. Just watch the orientation of the pins - electrolytics don’t like being soldering in ‘backwards’.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this project moves along.
I have learnt my lesson previously - will be taking good hi-res photos of the caps with orientation prior to desoldering. (Also learnt this from Usagi Electric - always, always get the orientation right before and after…) once the magic smoke’s out, it’s gone. I don’t rely on my memory anymore, it loves to play tricks on you when you least expect it.
Heatsink should be a doddle, as long as I don’t lose those springs.
Got an IDE CDROM (working) that I can use for the initial installation and testing. This CDROM will remain at the company as we may get a situation of “we need an IDE CDROM for xxxx” and you never know when… Once I got my hardware sorted, I’ll be good to go with future installs.
Somebody else have an AGP video card (S3 Virge) which is in the loop as well as a PCI sound card (or two) that he’s donating.
So, yup, there’s progress… just gonna take a while.
I’ve also got a machine with an Intel i440BX board/PII-233 combo, plus GeForce 2 video card - it runs BeOS 5 because I was interested in it. I found a version of Worms World Party for BeOS, and of course it runs Doom.
I also have a HP Vectra VL PII-400 running Win98 for late 90s 3D-accelerated game duties (think Motocross Madness and Re-Volt).
My main retrogaming rig though is a P133 with a Diamond Stealth 64 2MB. Great for Descent, Duke3D, Dungeon Keeper and the like.
