A few days ago, I was trying to get a peecee emulator to work on my Mac so that I could play an RPG on it at the same time as my girlfriend. A friend of mine came over, saw my frustration, and came back with a gift for me ... his old peecee that he had sitting in storage for the past year.
Well ... it "was" a K6II-350 with 64Mb SDRAM, 4Gb HDD. Ummm, but that didn't last long.
Tuesday, I went up to the new puter repair shop in town, just to hang-out. The owner and I have become friends since the place opened about a month ago. I told him about the little peecee that my friend gave me, and he said he could help me out a little. He gave me a K6II-500 processor! He said he has a slew of them laying around which he uses for paperweights, lol.
My girlfriend's old puter (long-since retired) was a K6-300. So I removed it's 7Gb HDD.
I had a 128Mb stick of SDRAM laying around collecting dust.
Welll ... the puter files were a total clusterf**k, so after installing the 500 CPU, the extra RAM, and the second HDD, I decided that it would be "wise" to partition and format the drives to start with a clean slate. I can be so damn stupid sometimes...
DRIVERS! What a pain in the ass! Since when is it "wise" to wipe-out four to five year old drivers? Dohhh...
Overall, I got pretty lucky finding the drivers. The mobo is an Epox EP-58MVP3C-M. The drivers for it were right there on their site. No prob. The graphics card is an ATI 3D Rage Pro AGP 2X. Again, the driver was easy to get, right on the manufacturers site. The sound card is a Soundblaster-16. Windows98SE recognized it right away and installed the drivers.
The problem is the #%@$*&% modem. It's a ModemBlaster Flash 56, model DI5600. Windows 98SE recognized it right away and installed the drivers, but no workee. It worked fine before the drive format, so I know it works (actually, it connected better than any of the other modems in the house!). I tried calling Creative's tech support, but gave up after being on hold/wait for a half hour on my dime. I also tried my Diamond SupraExpress USB modem, but it didn't work either! I called their tech support, and they couldn't get it to work either! I'm stuck.
Also, after I formatted, it doesn't recognize my second HDD. However, I haven't looked into that yet. The modem prob has had priority.
If anyone has any ideas or would like to help in any way, please feel free. I don't want to bring it up to the puter shop cuz he probably wouldn't take my money ... know what I mean?
Comments
Thx guys, but I've tried the drivers off the Creative site, stil
Thx guys, but I've tried the drivers off the Creative site, still no workee. I'm inclined to believe that the prob isn't the drivers, but perhaps something that isn't configured correctly. After posting last night, I got as far as getting it to dial my ISP's number, but got an error message to the affect that the ISP wasn't answering. I tried it several times with the same result. Yet I could plug my Mac into the same line and jack, and connect just fine.
The other thing that indicates that the problem isn't in the drivers or the modem itself is that my USB modem wouldn't connect either. Keep in mind, as I posted before ... the modem worked great before my glorious act of stupidity.
To top it all off, after having the peecee on for several hours last night, the damn thing started emitting a dual tone warning. I shut it down immediately, then waited a couple of minutes and started it back up. I went straight into the BIOS, and the CPU temp was at 146 degrees ... 5 degrees less than the warning temp, so it had obviously overheated.
With the 350 CPU, it was set at 100 X 3.5, 2.2 volts. When I put the 500 CPU in, all I did was change the multiplier to 5. There has been no overclocking, and I don't intend to do so. When I changed CPUs, I used the same little rinky-dink HS/fan that was on the 350. So, I guess I'll have to get a bigger, better HS/fan. No biggie. Unfortunately, space restraints prohibit me from being able to use a Zalman flower-style heatsink. :)
I've been lurking on this one thinking about this..... there's a
I've been lurking on this one thinking about this..... there's an itch somwhere in my brain(those can be pesky as it's usually not easy to think of sandpaper in the right area of the frontal lobe..) that tells me I know this one.
I think I came across something very similar when the drivers for the mainboard or the INF file for the chipset is not properly loaded or not loaded at all.
SOS....I think you should call me so I can check a couple of things with you.
If you remember the home phone than use that. If not email me.
Opus :D
Well, I picked-up a Power Cooling heatsink and fan today, and it
Well, I picked-up a Power Cooling heatsink and fan today, and it really rocks. It was so cool that I decided to go ahead and overclock it the teenie bit that the system will allow.
The highest the mobo will allow is 100 (FSB) times the multiplier (5.5 is the highest). So I moved the multiplier from 5 to 5.5 and boosted the CPU voltage from 2.2v to 2.8v. It booted-up without a hickup. The CPU temp is at 113 degrees, idle. No prob at all ... very nice.
However, at boot-up, the CPU is only showing as 522 (?). My guess is that's all the system will do ... it's maxed-out. Is this correct?
BUT ... my real problem is still the damn modem. I just can't get it to work right. Gary, I called the phone number I had for you and left a message on the answering machine, but I'm not sure that I reached the right number. I tried the cel phone number I had for you but it's disconnected. If you wouldn't mind helping me out with a final attempt at it, please send me an email with your phone number(s).
Like I said, this modem worked great before I formatted. So, this has to be a user problem.
Originally posted by Opus2000: ...overclocking in your brain n
Originally posted by Opus2000:
...overclocking in your brain now SOS!!!!
Opus :D
Hehehe ... yup, guilty as charged. You know how it is ... when you know that the capability is there, it's hard to resist going for more power in the tower.
It just seems odd that I can't get the 550 that I'm supposed to be able to get. It's great that I had 350 a couple of weeks ago, and have 522 now, but damnit I WANT MORE! I want that last 28 that I know is in there just waiting for me to use it.
Is there a 12 step program for overclockers yet?
I GOT IT! After lots of searching and trial and error, I got the
I GOT IT! After lots of searching and trial and error, I got the friggin modem working! Now to get all the Winblows updates and other junk. I just wish I could run OS9.2.2 on it.
Anyway, here's what I ended-up with...
AMDK6II-522 (100FSB)
Epox EP-58MVP3C-M mobo
Power Cooling heatsink/fan ($20@CompUSA)
Star 250w PS
192Mb PC100
11Gb total storage (2 HDDs)
ATI 3D Rage Pro 16Mb graphics (2X AGP)
SoundBlaster 16 ISA (CT4170)
ModemBlaster ISA (DI5600)
This old thing even has 2 USB ports! lol
The little case is pretty packed, so I'm gonna invest in round cables and a couple of case fans. The crappy little mouse is driving me nuts, so I guess I'll have to get another Microsoft Trackball Optical.
So, it looks like I'll finally get to start playing my RPG tomorrow! All this trouble just to play a game ...
Man...for 260 bucks..which included tax and shipping...I got a 1
Man...for 260 bucks..which included tax and shipping...I got a 1Ghz celeron machine with a 20GB 5400RPM drive, 52XCDROM, Floppy, Case, Mainboard with onboard LAN, AGP and sound...
added a firewire card, swapped it into the system...installed and was up and running.....
Did this all in one hour
The hell you go through SOS....lol
Congrats! Enjoy your game....
Opus
Jeez Gary ... you sure know how to throw your money away! Mine h
Jeez Gary ... you sure know how to throw your money away! Mine has only cost me $20 plus tax ... and I forgot to mention that a 15" monitor and a real nice printer were included.
Sure, it took me some time to put it all together and get it running well, but now I have a kewl little PC that I can feel proud to have ressurrected. Remember, 2 1/2 years ago the extent of my computer training was the little tutorial that Apple gives you the first time you turn on your Mac! Now I'm repairing Macs for 4 computer repair shops here in Pahrump. Scary, isn't it? Hehehe...
Can you believe that there's even a Pahrump Mac Users Group (PMU
Can you believe that there's even a Pahrump Mac Users Group (PMUG)??? I'm actually surprised that there are so many Mac users in this little city of 35,000 people. I find it equally strange that the local peecee technicians don't know squat about Macs. Basically, since the only compatibility issues on a Mac are from user add-ons, it leaves very little to go wrong. Hardware issues are mainly replacement, and software issues are only a matter of sorting out an accumulated mess or backing up the files the user wants to keep and reinstalling the OS. It's hard for me to believe that the local techs are so eager to shove-off work that's so simple, but hey, who am I to turn down easy money? LOL
Update on the peecee: The game (T4C) didn't work very well on t
Update on the peecee:
The game (T4C) didn't work very well on the puter. All of the movement was slow and jerky. It looked very dark on the old "bubble screen" 15" monitor. The old, cheapo Microslop 2 button mouse was a serious handicap. So...
I disconnected my Samsung Syncmaster monitor and my Microslop Trackball Optical from my Mac and hooked em up to my peecee with the proper peecee drivers.
Apparently, this peecee just doesn't like my Trackball. Every time I install it with the drivers then restart, Windows detects it as new hardware and insists it's a standard Microslop mouse.
With the Samsung monitor, the game doesn't appear as dark anymore (but still too dark), and the colors are funky.
Anywho, after installing the Samsung monitor, I was playing the game and got killed by a monster. When you get killed, you sort of explode into a little burst of light ... my puter froze. When I relogged, things got wierd. At startup, Winblows started recognizing and installing drivers ... a bunch of em ... improperly. Well, it took me a few hours to get it all sorted-out, but then I couldn't get the modem to work again.
So fuck it. Newegg got my business again, lol. I ordered an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 64Mb DDR (made by Sapphire, AGP 2x/4x), a Pine Optical Scroll Mouse, and an Archtek Ambient modem (Intel chipset). I ordered it at about 5:00 this morning, and was thinking that it probably wouldn't get shipped out til Tuesday due to the holiday weekend. NOPE! Newegg has a new feature that gives you the option to pay an extra $3 to ensure that they get it shipped-out the same day, provided that you order before noon. SOLD! Now, instead of it being shipped on Tuesday, I'll probably get it Tuesday!
So, I'll post again once I get it all installed and let you know how it goes.
Ummm...I would watch out for that video card and make sure it wi
Ummm...I would watch out for that video card and make sure it will work on that mobo you got...if it's a DDR model than most likely it will need a higher AGP times slot...that mobo probably only does 2x at most and that card will most likely be 4x...not sure if it's backward compatible or not...just a warning!
Opus
Thanx for watching my back, Opus. It is 2X /4X, and is recommend
Thanx for watching my back, Opus. It is 2X /4X, and is recommended for K6 processors. A lot of guys upgrade their older machines with the higher-end Radeon cards and it makes a drastic improvement. On Newegg, these Sapphire boards are totally praised in the user reviews. The only nVidia cards that support 2X AGP are in the very low range, so nVidia wasn't an option.
The modem I'm getting is a PCI hardware/software combo that uses an Intel chip. I'm tired of messing around with the Creative Lags ISA POS.
I just tracked my order and it's already in Vegas. It doesn't have estimated delivery info on it, but I doubt they'll deliver it on Sunday or Labor Day, so I imagine I'll get it on Tuesday.
Oh, and I noticed a couple of good deals on Newegg. They're selling AthlonXP 1600 CPUs for $52 with free shipping. I also saw an Aopen CDRW for $60 with free shipping.
Update... The new modem works great, no probs. The video card
Update...
The new modem works great, no probs.
The video card made a major improvement. Last night, while playing T4C, the game crashed a couple of times with a "Ddhelp" error message. I'm not sure yet, but this might have something to do with the video card. I'm looking into it this evening.
The Pine Technologies mouse that I bought from Newegg was totally screwey. I got an RMA# from them to return it. I'm not yet sure what mouse I'm going to get.
The interesting thing that I did to this peecee was as follows, copied from another RO thread...
Some of you may be interested in the cooling method that I'm currently using for my PC. My case has the old U-shaped metal cover that covers the sides and top of the puter. The temp goes up 15 degrees when I put the cover on. I was going to install case fans. Instead, I bought a $6 cleanable HVAC fiber filter from Ace Hardware, cut it to the size of the U-shaped cover, & attatched velcro to the case and filter, front and back. It looks funky, but I have no case fans drawing power off of my P/S or creating noise, I can barely hear my CPU fan (which is pretty noisy), and my temp only goes up 3 degrees with my "custom case cover" on! I'm now tempted to buy a Vantec flower heatsink, modify it to fit in this little case, and see if it can provide enough cooling to give me a completely fan-free system. With the low heat associated with P4 CPUs, this method might be a possibility, too ... ??? This could very well be a very inexpensive, simple fan-free solution for DAWs ... if you can overlook the 3/4" thick bright blue fiber where your case cover(s) used to be.
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING MAN ;)
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING MAN ;)