-=> CHARLES ANGELICH wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

 WC> On the upside I've found the 40X CD-ROM is operational and
 WC> I've set it up on IDE 1 so it's not slaved to IDE 0
 WC> limiting the speed of my new drive when I obtain it. Looks
 WC> like by tomorrow sometime I should be able to slap the
 WC> Sound card in and have precisely the same operability that
 WC> I had before. My Old Creative CD-ROM was 2X.

Well almost, Sound plays waves and otherwise behaves itself
but the order on the audio plugs between the SoundBlater
and Turtle beach cables don't match.
SB               blank, white, black, red 
Turtle Beach     white, blank, black, red
Both connectors are labeled audio on the respective
CD-ROM drives and aside from the wiring order being 
wrong the plugs don't match.
The SoundBlaster card had a proprietary interface
to the CD-ROM but now my new 40X sits on IDE 1 master
with the hard drive on IDE 0.
I've very tempted to cut the plug with pigtail off the 
PCI sound card and solder it onto the Sounblaster
cable correcting the order regarding where the blank 
pin is but matching white, black and red.
What do you think?

 CA> I've mixed feelings about those numbers quoted for CD rom drive
 CA> speeds. They aren't 'real' numbers but some sort of derived
 CA> number or average access rate or possibly maximum. I don't pay
 CA> much attention to them.

 It's fast, way fast but than I'm used to a 2X and this bugger
 is a 40X, I'm impressed.

 CA> Some websites are just fubar'd beyond belief. I viewed the
 CA> source HTML for www.juge.com and it's apparently generated by a
 CA> program of some sort (the HTML is quite laughable) and won't
 CA> display anything but the title/logo when using Opera v3.62. :-\

Try Tom's Hardware site with Basic Linux LINKS, it's useless.

 CA> I'm not aware of an I/O card that can increase hard drive
 CA> transfer rates. It seems dependent on the bus speed and size of
 CA> the cache on the controller. I am told anything above 2meg
 CA> cache on a hard drive controller is overkill though.

I do not believe this older on board IDE interface supports
Ultra 133 and that's what's going in here.
Fortunately hard drives are largely backwards compatable
but I will lose speed.
 
 WC> 8.1. Only secured the CD with one screw so I can move it
 WC> forward when I go out Monday to purchase a new CMOS battery.

 CA> Roy uses small wooden wedges you can push in and pull them out.
 CA> No screwdriver required. ;-)

I want a heavy ground to chassis thus one screw.

 WC> Come March it's a definate I'll have a new 60 gig drive in
 WC> this very machine. Another neato thing is this machine's
 WC> BIOS has a CD-boot option

 CA> I guess that will help with Linux 'distros' when you lose it
 CA> and become a linux freak that must reinstall each week and try
 CA> every distro you can get your hands on. ;-)

 I've got the Dillo browser binary already on hand here :-)
 I'll snag the source next as I'll have room for a complete
 
Slackware 8.1 install as well as many others.
I also ran across some information 
where there's now a utility that allows one to boot Linux
well above the previous 1,024 cylinder limit :-)

 WC> however what's not so good is I've not been able to find a
 WC> driver for the ATI video card for Win 3.1 as there doesn't
 WC> appear to be one :-( So I've actually less graphics
 WC> capability than when it was on the 486.

 CA> I have ATI video here and, to be honest, can't recall if there
 CA> are any for W31 or not? I am using the W31 generic driver at
 CA> 800x600x256 and it's not that bad really. 
 
I cannot get to that as it looks like the old video driver
from the 486 overwrote the file to set resolution :-(
I may have to reinstall Windows over Windows 
with the keep settings option. Correct me if I'm wrong
but weren't you able to set resolution in control panel?
Set Res from the old 486 video driver sits there now.
BTW ever seen invalid command.com - command com not found
when trying to exit Windows? Been happening every time
I try to close Windows ever since I swapped the drive
into the pentium. Another reason to install over the old
Windows perhaps?

 CA> I have one of the
 CA> oldest ATI vid cards, the 1024, which predates the 'wonder'
 CA> series. There are places you can look depending what model ATI
 CA> you have.

264VT-A4 here and search does not reveal a Win 3.1 driver.

 WC> In Linux should I get X-Win running in March on the new
 WC> drive I'll install a complete Linux 8.1 Sad too is the fact
 WC> the PCI software modem doesn't have a DOS or Win 3.1 driver
 WC> but it DOES have a Linux driver :-)

 CA> If it was an ISA soft-modem (I assume you mean Rockwell) it
 CA> would have both DOS and W31 drivers.
 PCI and no 3.1 or DOS support. I've already telneted
 into the site. OTOH all the nifty Win 95 - 98 answering
 machine, voice software IS there. Had it here before the crash
 but will snag again. Perhaps Win 95 will install from this
 new CD-ROM drive but it balked on the old one as it's supposed
 just go into certain machines.

 WC> Only one thing remains of the original Packard Bell in this
 WC> "Dempsy Dumpster" PC and that's the SoundBlaster sound card
 WC> that I shall hookup to the CD-ROM tomorrow. This machine
 WC> has room for three hard drives in addition to the CD-ROM
 WC> bay. Basic Linux correctly ID'ed the 40X CD-ROM. This
 WC> machine should successfully deal with MP3's

 CA> Ah, then you can critique my MP3 files. :-)

 Well the crash lost my MP3 playyer as well.
 Need to snag that again as well as that "Wreck of the Edmund
 Fitzgerald" MP3.
 Getting the video resolution on Windows up and Sound off the CD-ROM
 take priority over that stuff.
 
 CA> Two of the recordings I maintain at my website were selected by
 CA> the US Library of Congress to be preserved as "...collections
 CA> of sound recordings that are culturally, historically, or
 CA> aesthetically significant..." in their first 50 selections. Not
 CA> MY own personal versions but the same selections. I am very
 CA> happy that they agree with two of my choices.

 Kool.

 CA> One is a recording of "Who's on First" by Abbott and Costello
 CA> and the other is Scott Joplin's piano rolls (I have "Maple Leaf
 CA> Rag" at my music page). :-)

When I get a chance but right now I've hardware priorities
to be dealt with first.
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