• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Need help with a “PC” I bought on eBay - Pentium 3 Socket 370

Why reinvent the wheel, get a sata 2 PCI card and a sata ssd and call it done. Be cheaper and faster then most the other options.
 
Mr Fahrenheit said:
View attachment 1267665

It’s a terrible picture but I wanted to get something to you before I hit the road.

There isn’t any real discernible branding or model information on it anywhere.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot. If there's no discernable branding or model info, I guess I can't make much out of it. Any chance the software inside hints it's used in certain system like a mass spectrometer?
 
I know there are drivers for WinXP(and 7/8/10)/Linux, but I use it with MSDOS/Win98 no issues, other then OS limitations.

EDIT: BTW , that is a Sata II card. Not going to touch that performance with a Sata to IDE converter.
 
Last edited:
Chuck(G) said:
True, but if you're using it with MSDOS, does it matter? :)
Click to expand...

In a windows environment it shines, but MSDOS games, not much. To me just feels more futureproof, were alot of sata drives back in the day, be it HDD or SSD. And most em are super cheap. Rather buy a 32GB ssd, for 10 bux, then say a 8.1gb hdd for 40.
 
twolazy said:
I know there are drivers for WinXP(and 7/8/10)/Linux, but I use it with MSDOS/Win98 no issues, other then OS limitations.

EDIT: BTW , that is a Sata II card. Not going to touch that performance with a Sata to IDE converter.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link.

Does the exact card you link work with DOS, Win95/98 without issues at all? For limitations, I expect you mean under a maximum disk size (8GB and 2GB partitions)?

Do you know if these these would work with OS/2?

I’m not all too concerned with blazing fast speed, and I have a pack of 10 of those Transcend 8GB IDE SLC industrial SSDs to use with older computers, that I picked up for $90.
 
Last edited:
humgar said:
Thanks a lot. If there's no discernable branding or model info, I guess I can't make much out of it. Any chance the software inside hints it's used in certain system like a mass spectrometer?
Click to expand...
This came with a sticker for Windows NT Workstation 4.0, but had Windows XP Pro installed on a 20GB hard disk, split in half.

The computer has a video card with SVIDEO out on it, and on the riser is a PCI video input card. There was a loop back cable from the out to the in and there was some video capture software on the drive.

Examining the contents at the time, I came to the conclusion it must have been used for some form of ultrasound imaging or something similar.

I ended up formatting the drive and reinstalling Windows xp on it because it had some administrator policies that prevented me from really configuring or using it. I couldn’t install apps and I couldn’t create new user accounts and anytime I changed anything on the system, upon reboot it somehow magically restored it to the way it was before.

It also had some weird software trying to connect to an ip address on boot into Windows XP that would have to wait 1-2 minutes to time out before I could do anything in boot/reboot. Also it would try to telnet an address on boot from a script and fail.

I hope that helps you.
 
Anent the SATA-to-IDE thing; many of my systems are slot-limited; lots of other garbage plugged in.
That being said, I do have a Compaq Deskpro ENP system with VIA SATA support slipstreamed in.

A related note for Macintosh G3 users. The Mac Performas with onboard IDE (e.g. Beige G3) will not work with any converter that I've found. The issue is that the Mac's IDE channel runs at something like 16MHz, which means that it's too slow for the lowest common speed of these converters, Ultra-ATA 33. You'll see the drive and the Mac can write to it, but reads fail miserably. I've got several different brands of these widgets and none of them works. Spinning rust or a native IDE-interface SSD seem to be the only alternative. SCSI on these boxes is also incredibly slow.
 
@Chuck(G)

I’ve found Apple’s implementation of IDE to be shoddy at best on anything prior to second generation G4. And their implementation of SATA on the G5 and early Mac Pro to vr just as bad.

I don’t really understand why Apple chose to use such depreciated standards (or in some cases invent their own methods) when industry-accepted were widely available and likely easier and cheaper.

The G5, for example, can’t use most SSDs and even struggles with a lot of more enterprise based spinning drives. I can’t get any WD Gold/enterprise drives to work on a single G5.
 
Mr Fahrenheit said:
This came with a sticker for Windows NT Workstation 4.0, but had Windows XP Pro installed on a 20GB hard disk, split in half.

The computer has a video card with SVIDEO out on it, and on the riser is a PCI video input card. There was a loop back cable from the out to the in and there was some video capture software on the drive.

Examining the contents at the time, I came to the conclusion it must have been used for some form of ultrasound imaging or something similar.

I ended up formatting the drive and reinstalling Windows xp on it because it had some administrator policies that prevented me from really configuring or using it. I couldn’t install apps and I couldn’t create new user accounts and anytime I changed anything on the system, upon reboot it somehow magically restored it to the way it was before.

It also had some weird software trying to connect to an ip address on boot into Windows XP that would have to wait 1-2 minutes to time out before I could do anything in boot/reboot. Also it would try to telnet an address on boot from a script and fail.

I hope that helps you.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. If it's from an ultrasound machine, it's unlikely I can source it used for cheap to extract the motherboard if the computer is custom built for it.
 
Chuck(G) said:
So long as the SATA card has an option BIOS ROM, yes. See: https://superuser.com/questions/167...ized-by-dos-but-xp-requires-drivers-to-see-it

On the other hand, it might be easier to use a SATA-to-IDE converter. There are some decent ones out there and not terribly expensive.
Click to expand...
I had Windows 2000 boot fine straight from a IDE(controller)->SATA(drive) converter. It doesn't matter if the soldered-on port is a SATA so it attaches right on the drive, or if the soldered-on port is a PATA that looked like a riser card on the motherboard. These are translators, which are transparent to the system itself. It doesn't add extra drive support.

Controllers cards on the other hand are at the mercy of BIOS in DOS and requires drivers in Windows because it's actually an extra controller device that give you access to more drives. The system hands over the control from BIOS to Windows during boot so you cannot just skip the drivers and expect it to fallback to BIOS (DOS/driverless). I was able to install Windows XP on this motherboard with the SSD connected to Sil3114 (SATA controller) provided I slipstreamed the Sil3114 drivers (you can hit F6 and insert a floppy with the driver as well). Hope the extra info help.
 
Mr Fahrenheit said:
and anytime I changed anything on the system, upon reboot it somehow magically restored it to the way it was before.
Click to expand...

There was a piece of software back in the day(and I'm sure its descendants still exist today) called "winlock" or something similar. I primarily encountered it in schools where it would be installed to prevent us snot-nosed little bastards from making changes to the school computers. Install Counter Strike? Its wiped on next reboot. The software was invisible from inside windows, you had to know when to hit a certain keystroke during boot up and enter a password to be able to make changes.

Mr Fahrenheit said:
Examining the contents at the time, I came to the conclusion it must have been used for some form of ultrasound imaging or something similar.
Click to expand...

^This makes sense if it came from a hospital environment. The ultrasound machine does one thing, it does that thing only, and it needs to do that thing flawlessly every single time it is turned on. Something like Winlock(or whatever its called) is a great solution in that situation as no matter what someone does to muck it up, a reboot fixes it.

A lot of people don't know this but XP/2k stuck around for a LOOOOOONG time in the medical spaces, quietly running imaging systems under the hood well into the mid 2010s. In certain niche applications, its still there, with new hardware having to be built to support it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top