OrangePC 660 installation attempt

[patatas]

Fitted in a G4 Power Mac (Quicksilver) on a 20Gb macOS 9.2.2 partition, downloaded s/w 3.4.2 from http://www.vintagemacworld.com/omweb/HowToUpgrade34.html

and installed...next step to configure and install win95.

 

[Themk]

Seeing that AMD K6-2 CPU, it reminds me of my first ever computer... That CPU looks identical to mine, however yours is running at 450MHz, mine is at 366MHz. BTW, very cool card! It's kinda weird to see a whole PC motherboard (including graphics) on a PCI card though LOL. I wonder what would happen if I installed that into my modern PC.

I noticed you said time to configure windows 95. I had REALLY good luck on my K6-2 with Windows 2000 (as well as 98SE, but no, not windows 9x for me ever again). You need more RAM for 2000 though. Since the card supports NT4, you probably should be able to get Win2K going!

P.S. When I say my first ever computer, I don't mean the one I first used, I mean the first one that was mine, and only mine  }

 

[patatas]

..a dumb question...Would the OrangePC card start without onboard RAM??

 

[Unknown_K]

I don't see any built in RAM so I have to say NO.

 

[Gorgonops]

Wow, it has a Riva 128 video chip onboard. That's a surprisingly non-sucky chip for a PC-on-a-Card.

And, yeah, it's can't share main RAM, so if it doesn't have any soldered on you need some SIMMs.

 

[rsolberg]

It might be a typo, but I thought it was worth noting that board needs DIMMs, not SIMMs. Common 3.3v 168-pin PC100 (or PC133) SDRAM is what you'll need. Make sure it's explicitly PC100 or 133 since EDO and FPM RAM also came in a similar looking but mechanically incompatible 168-pin DIMM, and earlier SDRAM DIMMs may be 66MHz but there wasn't a standard nomenclature until PC100. This means if it's SDRAM and doesn't say PC100/PC133, there's a good chance it's too slow. The RAM doesn't need to be installed in matched pairs, nor is performance enhanced or diminished by doing so. According to the documentation I found, the board supports up to 256MiB of RAM. I'd say your best bet is two 128MiB modules.

 

[patatas]

@rsolberg you reference that PC133 speed is supported...I only found references to PC100....

 

[AlpineRaven]

you do need RAM for it... The 620 and PcFx cards DIMM slot allows any: 16, 32, 64 or 128 MB Macintosh G3 compatible, 3.3 volt, unbuffered, 64-bit-wide,168 pin, 100 MHz / 10ns SDRAM. Maximum DIMM height is one inch. Other words its PC100 (also PC133) 168pin RAM.

You could run windows 2000 on it easily enough.

Cheers

AP

 

[markyb86]

133 is backwards compatible to 100 and 66 mhz IIRC. Just not the other way around.

 

[Unknown_K]

pc133 depends on density, older controllers can't deal with DIMMs over 256MB. Real early ones could only do EDO DIMMs.

 

[Gorgonops]

It might be a typo, but I thought it was worth noting that board needs DIMMs, not SIMMs.

Not so much a typo as laziness; since it's a socket 7-based CPU on it I just assumed it was probably SIMMs as that's more common on that generation of hardware. Now that I've bothered digesting that it's actually a "Super Socket 7" platform with 100mhz bus support well, yeah, PC-100's what you want. As Unknown_K mentions compatibility with PC-133 *may* be a little spotty depending on what density chips the board supports and how picky it might be about the timings stored in the DIMM's configuration EEPROMs. But, yes, in principle it's backwards compatible.

You could run windows 2000 on it easily enough.

Are there 2000 drivers for the board? It sort of looks like it tops out at 9x and NT 4.0. (That's the major bummer of those OrangePC cards, the need to have specific platform drivers that prevents them from running most 32 bit OSes other than a few versions of Windows.)

One limitation I recall offhand is I'm pretty sure there was never a 3D/OpenGL driver for Windows 2000 and above for the Riva 128 video chip, so if you wanted to use the card for retro gaming that would be a bummer.

 

[patatas]

Got memory installed....

Connected Mac monitor to MAC

Connected PC monitor to OrangePC

Mac boots to OS9.2

PC screen nothing.....

ideas?

 

[EvilCapitalist]

Is the screen connected to the OrangePC card showing that it has a signal of some sort and is just blank, or is it saying there's no signal at all?

 

[patatas]

Blank screen...and monitor goes into power save...as if no signal

 

[Unknown_K]

Got memory installed....

Connected Mac monitor to MAC

Connected PC monitor to OrangePC

Mac boots to OS9.2

PC screen nothing.....

ideas?

did you launch the app?

 

[patatas]

...looking for Easy Install for Win98....[found] here http://pccardfaq.com

Downloaded the dmg. made CD via DiskUtility (OSX 10.13)......OSX reads CD but OS9.04 says uninitialized disk

 

[patatas]

I have successfully burnt the "Easy Install CD" v3.1.1 on CD and installed the software. It created the relevant OrangePCI folder on my system drive.

I proceed to run the OrangePCI app for the first time and I get the following error "OrangePC found. This application does not support the board found"

I trust I needed to upgrade from 3.1.1 to 3.4 in order for the 660 to be supported.

Downloaded the OrangePC.dmg from the same location which was a 3.3 version....once installation finished I run the expander and once completed I proceed with the Virtual PC configuration.

now moving on....