In today's #retrocomputing adventure, I learned:
- Only the first PCI slot in my #COMPAQ #Presario 5184 exposes its option ROM, sometimes. At least for the NIC.
- Compiling #XTIDE will work in Linux if you get rid of the .exe extensions and replace del with rm, but you also have to remember to replace all the backslashes with slashes or the checksum perl script won't run and you'll get a 101-I/O ROM Error!
I just stumbled upon this upgrade I would have leapt at a few years back when I was building up my "new" Tandy 1000HX:
Tandy 1000 EX/HX 3-in-1 V2 Adapter --- 640K RAM + 2x Serial + Parallel + XTIDE Upgrade by Rob Krenicki
https://www.ebay.com/itm/197473626636
It looks like the creator of this device, who posted the project to GitHub, has made his last production run, sadly. Several are available still on eBay.
It doesn't look like the RAM expansion has the DMA chip, but that really doesn't much matter. What a great unit. I upgraded my own 1000HX to this spec -- but did it the Hard way (note the capital H).
https://github.com/rkrenicki/Tandy-EX-HX-3in1
#Tandy #Tandy1000 #Tandy1000HX #Tandy1000EX #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #retrogaming #XTIDE #modernretro #eBay #x86 #TRS80 #RadioShack
Crap, MFM drive is dying, Windows 1.03 won't load. Teris fortunately still did. And DOS of course. #retrocomputing
Time to test that fancy new IDE thing? #xtide
#386 #laptop repair and restore complete!
Backlight working again (cable break where it went through the hinge), keyboard ribbon repair.
A #vogons user integrated #xtide into the #bios for me (original bios has fixed parameters for 20, 40, 60 and 80Mb disks only) so now running 512mb CF card.
#floppydisk drive still works.
Dont have original psu and NiCad original battery bound to be dead so converted to usb c power - adding where was a space for a modem expansion
#retrocomputing
On the bright side, it turns out that someone in the late 90s also found the BIOS of this otherwise excellent board (MSI MS-5120) to be lacking, so they *wrote a new one*.
Version 2.3 by Rainbow Software on The Retro Web:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-ms-5120-p54c-tr2#bios
Not only does it now nearly instantly detect hard drives at boot, it also supports a bunch of other stuff including booting from CDs. On top of that, RAM throughput is nearly 33% faster!
My Pentium machine's BIOS had a pretty underwhelming hard drive detection routine. I swap drives and CF cards pretty often, and setting things up manually every time was annoying.
I thought XTIDE Universal BIOS might help. I spent most of the day getting it set up, but even at best, drive speeds with XUB were about a quarter the speed as without. Damn. I guess it was a stretch expecting that to work, but still a bummer!
(TBC)
Next installment in my V86P XT-compatible laptop tinkering is up - this time replacing the hard disk controller and drive https://knm.org.uk/blog/2024/03/upgrading-the-v86p-hdd-controller/ #retrocomputing #v86p #xt #XTIDE #8086
@paulrickards Nice. I got a 1000EX (in rough shape) off of eBay to get its RAM card to add to my 1000HX setup (which I found locally on Craigslist). I have an XTIDE and a serial card plugged in via a single ISA riser and an ISA cable. Works well.
#Tandy #Tandy1000 #PC #DOS #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #TRS80 #RAM #vintagetech #XTIDE #IDE
Got myself and 8-bit ISA IDE/CF card a while back. But of course the PSU of the intended target, a Sinclair PC200, blew a fuse and well, they have all been collecting dust ever since. sigh.
#Sinclair #PC200 #SinclairPC200 #xtide #retrocomputing
#notsoarchaic #x11 #application
#xtide (https://flaterco.com/xtide/) is an #x11 application (ports to other systems exist), written by David Flater.
XTide is a package that provides tide and current predictions in a wide variety of formats. Graphs, text listings, and calendars can be generated, or a tide clock can be provided on your desktop.
XTide can work with X-windows, plain text terminals, or the web. This is accomplished with three separate programs: the interactive interface (xtide), the non-interactive or command-line interface (tide), and the web interface (xttpd).
Harmonics data files are "restricted" to the US, due to freedom of data. Other countries with similar data (such as the United Kingdom) used to supply tidal data, but has become harder to maintain for various reasons.
Not to be used to judge whether to take your prized yacht to a nearby gala race...
#xtide will not be appearing under the x11cp due to the fact this software is actively maintained.
@ephemeris -- indeed. #sunclock (and #xtide) are on my list, as they're #x11 applications I've used a lot in the past.
#sunclock is "a fancy clock for the X Window system, providing local time a fancy clock for the X Window system, providing local time (legal time and solar time), sunrise, sunset and various geographical data through a point and click interface".
Translated -- this means it has an interface, which even after reading the manpage makes bugger all sense. ;)
I do love it though -- and it's still packaged my most Linux distros, and you can certainly still find it on the BSDs.
This application is worth exploring as it can do a lot of things I wouldn't know where to begin to highlight here.
Screenshot below. For me (in England), it's night-time, but perhaps not too long now until dawn? :)
#doom unter #FreeDos auf einem #386 genauer gesagt #Am386DXL mit 25MHz und 8MB (!) RAM
Platte: #CompactFlash mittels #XTIDE BIOS
Spielbar ist es, wenn man Details und Fenster Größe etwas kleiner macht.
Die Terratec soundkarte bleibt allerdings stumm... Auf dem PentiumII System geht es mit der selben Karte...
