Help! Noob STILL Building a Parallel Port ROM HackStation . . .

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

. . . still way too much on my plate, but things have come together much better than last year's suddenly picture-free thread:

HELP! Noob Building a Parallel Port ROM HackStation . . .

Thanks to a heads up from snake88usa, I picked up a pile of goodies to split with him and managed to snag a Dell Dimension 4100 PIII(?)box with a Win98 SE COA/Serial Number stuck to its removable side panel for $4.00! It's the same case as the Dell DimensionXPS D333 '95 box we ruled out as too slow for '98, IIRC . . . or maybe I just couldn't stomach having a Dell Box under the Bench?

Whatever, this one looks better with its swoopy front air intake vent and a smoochy face Quadra FDD slot. Between the two cases, I've got one with all the internal appointments complete. It had a '98 workable install on the HDD, so I took that out and tried to install my "New Machine" 98 SE Install Set and was told I needed to buy the upgrade version. FEH!

Luckily I'd snagged Hiren's Boot CD when I started the project. Dunno how it works, but the thing booted into MiniXP off the CD and used a freeware overwriting utility to nuke the pestiferous '95 install on the C Drive. < evil >

I've now got a clean, new machine install of Win98 SE using the COA from the side panel instead of the one I bought on an install manual last year. Last night I had it running off the main KVM setup, but the USB (hub?) driver was borked today, go figure. Somewhere I've got a '98 compatible USB2 card stashed away to fix that at some point.

Here's where the help comes in: I'm running '98 in 640x480x4bit on a 1600x1200 LCD and Diplodocus (its name henceforth for various reasons) sits next to the desk underneath a 22" ViewSonic QXVGA/2k CRT Display. So the resolution is badly in need a major overhaul. I never ran '98 in 640x480x4bit back in the day and I'm certainly not about to start doing so now!

I've rummaged through the boxen and there's a Voodoo3 3000 AGP card in there now outputting the same damn res. I've found legacy '98 drivers for it, but no references anywhere to it throwing anything but high frame rates of that same damn 640x480 res at a screen, albeit at higher bit depths. Anybody know if these high end gamer cards supported high resolutions/bit depths as well?

I've got '98 drivers for the ATI Rage Pro 128, but will I need to reverse-flash a Mac Card to run the friggin' thing in a PC if the Voodoo3 doesn't work out?

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[Trash80toHP_Mini]

FOUND IT! it'll do QXGA on the ViewSonic! http://computergraphicscards.translinka.com/3dfx-voodoo3-3000-agp-graphics-accelerator-review.html

 

[SuperToaster]

yes the 4100 has a Pentium III in it

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I think I may need to knock the resolution back down a bit . . .

. . . Win98 at 1920x1440x32bit is just . . . sick!

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

Even XP is horrendous above 1024x768, IMO.

 

[SuperToaster]

When I had this computer I used it with Windows 2000 from what I can remember is it worked rather nicely

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

With Win7 at "only" 1600x1200 on the main LCD sitting next to it with the same 20" diagonal as the display area of the big CRT, 98 was being downright RUDE to the younker!

I've tamed Diplodocus down to the Main Display's native 1600x1200 on the KVM Switch and it's not bad flippin' back and forth. IIRC I was doing 1024x768 on the 17" Trinitron in the rug rats room, so this is about the same size . . . with just gobs and gobs more pixels!

Once I find the USB Drivers for this sauropod's MoBo, all will be good. Worst case scenario will be that I have to dig into the original HDD's install to harvest it from there.

We're getting somewhere, dunno where exactly, but being on time about it would be just . . . unthinkable.

Haven't had the airbrush out in years! It's becoming a real temptation to sand off the Dell markings and do that saurian paint job on this turd, cool as this box is becoming, . . .

. . . a turd by any other name . . . <evil>

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[IPalindromeI]

My Rage Pro can do 1680x1050 on X.org, so I'm not surprised a Rage 128 can do 1600x1200. I never liked 98 though, even when I used it back in the day. Was too unstable.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yeah, I've pretty much been running the Rage 128 Pro from the DA in the QS at 1600x1200 for the past couple of years because the GeForce4 MX has the wrong connector. Somehow I wound up with more than one of the rage cards, I'm glad I didn't need to Flash it. Sending a Mac VidCard over to the Dark Side seems particularly evil . . . but somehow I managed not to do it anyway. < evil >

The Voodoo3 is working out quite nicely. When Corel Draw was introduced, it trumped Illustrator's feature set just before the release of Windows 3.0. I built a 386SX/CoPro system to run it in between so I didn't have to deal with Windows 286. I had to make do with standard VGA after having been working in Illustrator on a B&W TPD for years, it was painful, but at least it was in color.

Building the best clone I could afford to run an unreleased OS from new parts at the time was fun. Spending time with the rugger converting a 386 Clone to an AMD Socket 7(?) rig for Debian & '98 was great fun! A better VidCard and 17" Sony Trinitron was far better than that first VGA run at a Windows Box. Getting Debian to work with my SCSI Card to run the scanner wasn't, so I gave up on that project.

Finding parts in the cardboard boxen from curbed Windows Boxen was even more fun in the first thread. I couldn't bring myself to use the Dell Dimension P2/95 at the time, that was out of the question. Zero cost was the goal and led to what I thought was a great thread and more fun than ever. When I had a chance to snag this Dimension P3 with '98 COA on the door I got over the Dell Box thing in a hurry.

I jumped at the chance to pay $5 for it, but neither of us had change for the extra Twenty I'd brought along, so he was going to give it to me for free along with the $40 worth of Mac swag. I realized I might have the five in my money clip, but came up a dollar short. I'd already spent real money (maybe $25) on a couple of eBay snags for a legit Win98 install at that point anyway. We transferred the $4 worth of "lunch money" with a laugh and I felt better than I would have if the project had stayed "Zero Cost."

Win, win for Win98! ;D

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[CC_333]

I have a Dell Dimension 4100 with a mostly-matching Dell CRT monitor from a junked Optiplex D333 (yours is a Dimension, right?), and it's okay. I've never really used it though, mostly because I don't want it. I tried to sell it when it was barely worth something (mostly before XP's support was dropped, as it seemed to run that quite well, despite being limited by it's RAM ceiling of 512 MB), but now I think it's probably quite worthless, so I won't even bother.

That being said, I might as well use it, as it's probably in need of some maintenance by now anyway. The question is, what for?

c

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Arcade Pack! ;D

Yep, Dimension 4100 all right. Dare I say so, it's got a cool lookin' inverted "7" air intake cowling with a Quadra's smoochy lips FDD slot just above. It's growin' on me a bit. The Ryoba sliced the sponsons off the sides of the bottom plate so it nestles up in a much narrower slot between the Main workstation desk and the wall. That pulled the edge of the 32" HDTV on the half rack on the other side about another 2" this side of the swinging closet door.

It's a win all around. Dunno how much memory is it it actually, but I've likely got enough laying around to max it out if I ever found a reason to do so.

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