This Old Mouse

One of my first builds getting back into retro computer in 2019 was a Slot 1 Pentium III. I wanted to do a Socket 370 Pentium III build for a long time and I now finally have that done. It was a long wait as I ordered a Socket 370 motherboard from a seller on eBay from the Soviet Union. I have bought several items from him and he always sells top quality stuff, so I don't mind the extra wait. The problem this time was that the shipment got held up in Poland for an extra month and a half, so when it finally arrived, I was relieved. There were 3 major versions of the Pentium III over it's lifetime, Katmai, Coppermine(T) and Tualatin. The 1.4GHz Tualatin is the one a lot of retro enthusiast go far as it is the fastest and last Pentium III. There is one caveat on doing one these builds. The Tualatin needs an updated chipset to work properly. The one I have is an Intel i815e revision B. I made sure of this when I got the motherboard.  I did something a bit different with ...

My last blog post was about my HP Vectra 286/12 and how I never owned an AT class 286 computer until then. Well one other computer type I never owned until now is Socket 8 Pentium Pro. These were terribly expensive back in the mid 90s usually in the $4000-$5000 range and those were entry level models. The Socket 8 platform was built around the Pentium Pro CPU. It was the successor to the Pentium. It has some very advanced features was definitely designed around 32-bit Operating Systems. It could run 16-bit code, but unfortunately it did so slower than the Pentium CPU at the same clock speed. Intel would correct most of that with the Pentium II that came next. I got my current system on eBay for a very reasonable $200 plus $30 shipping. The asking price for a Socket 8 motherboard and CPU alone is usually much more than that, so I was very happy with this deal. Here are the specs of the computer as I bought it: Midtower case with four 5.25" plus three 3.5" drive bays. Three exp...

I have had more computers than I can remember in the over 40 years I have been using computers. The one computer system that I never personally owned was an AT class 286. I had 3 Tandy 1000s before moving on to a Northgate 386/20 in 1990. I just skipped over an AT 286. Now I have had 286 Tandy 1000TX and 1000 TL/2 computers, but those are strictly XT class computers, with 8-bit slots and 640K of DOS memory. AT class machines have 16-bit slots and allow for more than 640K using extended memory. Getting back into retro computing, this was not high on list of wanted computers. It was only after getting most of the computer systems I wanted that I started thinking about adding a real 286 AT computer to my retro collection. I started keeping my eye on Craigslist and eBay. I didn't have to wait long before a batch of HP Vectra 286 computers went up for sale on eBay. The starting bid was $100 each. There were 3 ES/12 models and one 286/12. I did some research and found out the 286/12 was ...

I mentioned in my 486 Pentium Overdrive blog post that I had gotten a 486 motherboard that did not work out for that project. The motherboard had actually come out of an arcade machine from a company called Lazer-Tron. There was no documentation to be found, so finding jumper settings for the CPU would be a next to impossible task. I put the motherboard aside thinking I probably was not going to use it anytime soon. Time passed and I was doing some reading on Cyrix CPUs. Cyrix did not manufacture their own processors, they contracted IBM, Texas Instruments or SGS Thomas to do that. Part of the licensing for these companies was that they could produce these CPUs under their own branding. So if you see a 486 from one of these 3 companies, it's really just a Cyrix 486. That motherboard came with a SGS Thomas 486DX2-66. I had Cyrix 486DX2-80 from another project. While I could not change the jumpers for the CPU, the jumpers for FSB speed and voltage are silk screened on the motherboard...

Is it in fact legal to use old software without paying for it? In the strictest legal sense the short answer is no. This is evidenced by the fact the companies like Nintendo guard their intellectual property very closely, going after sites distributing copies of their old console games going all the way back to the original NES console. Other companies turn a blind eye to the whole matter. I don't see Microsoft going after people using a copy of MS-DOS. They are well beyond that OS and are firmly focused on Windows. Retro computing is a growing in popularity and it may prompt some companies to take a second look at their old offerings and adopt a policy like Nintendo. I really don't see that being the norm, but rather the exception.  There is a concept in Retro computing called Abandonware. This falls under turning a blind eye notion  The software may still be under copyright, but the owner of that software is not actively pursuing a legal course to protect it. The vast majori...

I wanted to build a Cyrix 5x86 system as that was one CPU I never owned. I was watching the CPU Galaxy channel on YouTube and he covered a Cyrix MediaGX build that he had done. I remember this processor and had actually worked on few systems with one many years ago. A little background is in order. The Cyrix 5x86 was a stripped-down version of their 6x86 CPU. They took about 50% of a 6x86 and got about 80% of the performance putting it into a 486 package. It was one of the fastest 486 upgrades out there. When Cyrix was purchased by National Semiconductor in 1997, they decided to focus on low power, embedded systems. The result was the MediaGX. It is a System On A Chip (SOC) containing a Cyrix 5x86 CPU core, memory controller, video controller, and a Sound Blaster 16 compatible audio controller. They were mostly used in notebooks and embedded control systems. There were not many motherboards for end users to put them in their systems. The CPU Galaxy video linked to seller on eBay sellin...

When I got back into retro computing, I had a number of computers I wanted to recreate that I had in the past. One of those was a 486 computer upgraded to a Pentium Overdrive CPU. I found a 486 computer on Craigslist for only $50. I purchased it along with the $20 Pentium 133 system I wrote about a few posts ago. Unfortunately, the motherboard had a standard 168 pin 486 CPU socket. I forgot a Pentium Overdrive CPU requires 238 pin Socket 2 or 237 pin Socket 3 motherboard and so strike one. I ended up selling that motherboard to a friend for his own 486 build. I next purchased a 486 Socket 2 motherboard from eBay. Although the Pentium Overdrive worked in this board, it performed well below what it was supposed to. I later found out the motherboard came out of an arcade machine and there was no documentation to be found anywhere on the jumper settings for the CPU and so strike two. I ended up using that motherboard in 486DX2/80 build and it is working fine for that. Finally, I did my hom...