Wyse Z90D7 Thin client - Cheap Windows XP gaming?
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- čas přidán 26. 10. 2022
- Taking a look at a Wyse Z90D7 thin client, with an AMD G-T56N CPU and HD6230 graphics. I'm turning it into a Windows XP machine as a cheap PC for one of my kids to play with. But could this machine make a good retro Windows XP gaming machine?
Want more thin clients? Taking a look at a Wyse Cx0 here: • Wyse Cx0 C10LE Termina... - Věda a technologie
That second BSOD was because of the AHCI vs. IDE setting in the BIOS. I’ve seen it a hundred times making XP systems!
Weirdly I only got the secone one when plugged into the rear USB ports, so I'm guessing that factors into it too somehow?
@@RetroSuperhighway He isnt quite right.
The first was AHCI setting in the BIOS. The second to do with using the rear USB ports is because youre trying to slipstream drivers with nLite.
You really should learn what youre doing before you do it.
USB 3.0 will function in basic USB mode until you offer up some drivers, at which point you need all the drivers and they all need to be loaded in the correct order otherwise you will get the BSOD that you did.
Which version of Windows XP did you install to get Energy Bliss, or is it an nLite hack?
@@BladeRunner21577 Thats a good question, I don't remember exactly which version it was and I just grabbed an ISO rather than searching through my CDs for a Win XP disk. I didn't like all the extra crap it came with and then I did what I should have done to beging with and installed a standard Win XP install from an official disk. Thankfully, it's run fine ever since.
XP has no problems running just about anything. I use XP w/ SP3 on this thin client no issues. I used Snappy Driver Installer Origin to install all drivers except graphics. Fun little machine 👍
Totally agree on that! The more things I install XP on, the more aparent it becomes about what a versatile OS it is and how it is quite happy to install (and run!) on a wide selection of hardware.
Got one of these for very little, running a WIN 10 NAS with 5 attached HD through USB 3, So far so good.
Nice!
I picked up several similar machines from a school that was getting rid of them. They came with a G-T48E chip instead of the T56N, and I can confirm they make nice XP boxes. You can't do a whole lot with modern software as they are thin clients (which connect to more powerful servers that run VMs) but these do play a good chunk of games from the era if I'm correct.
Absolutely, I think if you just want to mess about with XP or play some of the less demanding games form the time, then these things are great!
IRQL 0xA typically means a device controller has a memory access issue, and typically a controller mode change or driver will be needed. this is because SP3 introduced a different driver implementation for handling polling of hardware devices for compatibility with XHCI controllers (vs XP EHCI and the later miniport version). why it's a memory message is because the driver is resident in memory (virtualized) and when it tries to access a region of hardware memory it is denied, it dies without recovery, same as if a PCI device was yanked out of the bus of a running system.
using XHCI driver slipstream for XP SP2 would probably work but it may not be offered for that controller as XHCI and VHCI are required for mapping local devices into a remote environment that isn't a direct i/o channel or specialized filter driver.
AHCI likely isn't supported for the controller under XP because the hot plug, NCQ, fast detect, et c capabilities require a more expensive IC than basic booting of a client software, windows xp embedded and windows CE had some AHCI drivers for specific controllers but the OS probably aren't as usable for you.
Thank you for the detailed reply! Thats some excelent information and it ties up with what I was getting when I was trying to install XP. I guess its all part of the fun when trying to get these older operating systems to work on newer hardware.
You talk about this CPU 'not being as fast as you'd think' based on it's design vs other CPUs of the era, but honestly, if you look at benchmarks of that G-T56N APU compared to what would have been commonly used with XP, it's actually pretty decent. If you consider that the Northwood Pentium 4's would have come out around the same time XP was released, and the Passmark score of a Pentium 4 3.6 GHz CPU is around 315, an Athlon XP 2800+ CPU (similar release date) has a score of 260, and an Athlon 64 x2 3400+, which came out much later is a 531, the G-T56N's score of 484 is actually very impressive, especially considering it's only an 18W TDP vs the Pentium 4 3.6's 115W and the Athlon XP 2800's 89W. This thin client is perfectly suited to running XP, IMHO.
I have one of these thin clients, I'm using it with Linux Mint. I used a SATA extension cable too, but with an old rotating hard drive, for messing about purposes.
I found the machine seriouly good fun and versatile when I was working on it. I think there are lots of things you could do with one of these. In fact I'm tempted to get another one for myself to have a play about with.
I wanted to thank everybody for the wonderful and informative comments here. I had previously loaded XP on a slim dell with a i5 4570cpu and an Amd r7 250 2gb video-card..no extra power needed. All the Crysis games ran beautifully. It was overkill I but could run anything on XP although I had problems with getting the 64bit version of XP working. Snappy driver found all the drivers I needed. This is going the other way...a less powerful machine but just as fun in pushing it to its limits. I plan on putting XP (mostly likely 64bit..although that might create driver issues) and running DOSBOX X on it to allow for DOS, Win 3.1, Win 98 and Win95 games. A Christmas gift for my brother. As far as I am concerned, the golden age of PC video games was the early 2000's to 2012...when multiplayer games just needed a server and a switch plus lots of LAN players. Believe it or not at one time we had 25 desktops going against each other in our home....the youth from our church and adults for that matter would come by for all-nighter LAN parties pizza and all. Goodtimes. I always knew where my children were....No steam for me.
Why would you run 64bit XP and not just run a better OS?
@@tendosingh5682Games from the early 2000's to 2012 run natively and were made for Windows XP. either 32 or 64 bit.
I've upgraded several of these thin clients namely the 5010 and 5060 models. On each one, more ram was added, and a sata ssd. But I cut the case in half and 3d printed a cap to cover the open end. I made sure to open the SSD case first and mark where to cut. :) That makes the drive fairly easy to fit. using the extension cable you have shown.
Ah, thats a good suggestion to keep half of the SSD case. I also think the PC cases themselves would lend nicely to a bit of 3D printing, especially the wide version of it.
I just took the PCB out of a Samsung SSD and plugged it in directly. The corner screw hole even almost lined up. Even though the SATA connector is probably enough to hold it, I put a dab of hot glue on that corner post.
If you can find one, I highly recommend building a system around a VIA EPIA-800 board, in a cube case for your son. The run windows 98 and just about XP, but with the advantage of good MS-DOS support. I believe if you can open MS-DOS up for tinkering a lot can be learnt.
That looks an interesting system, and not one I'm very familiar with. I've just read a couple of threads about it over on the Vogons forum. Looks like I've got another item to add to the watch-list, thanks for the heads up!
They sell them here in Bulgaria for $8 each + $4 shipping. Free shipping if you buy more than one, I wonder if I shall pick up few of them.
May I also suggest that in addition to the sata cable extension you used, you could add to it a 15Pin SATA Port to 2 15Pin SATA Splitter Cable thus allowing you to use the extra power port with the second Sata port on this unit. This could allow you to use two SSD's should you desire to do so....but then things might be getting a little tight. By the way the Pci-e x1 port if not being used for a wifi card could be used for any number of pci-e x1 devices external of the case if you use a PCIE 1X - 1X Riser Extension Card Ribbon Extender. I have been toying with installing windows XP media center edition and using one of my hauppauge digital Tv cards externally of the box to make it a media box. Lots of possibilities with this cheap box.
Thats a nice suggestion for a solution to getting power to a second SATA SSD/HDD. There are lots of places you could pick it up off the motherboard but the conectors are not SATA standard so this would be much easier. I did wonder about the PCIe X1 port and something fun to do with it. In fact I enjoyed messing about with this little PC so much that I am tempted to pick one up for myself!
Might I also suggest getting a bluetooth usb dongle or wireless keyboard combo and forgoing using a wired keyboard and mouse.. that is if the drivers are available for them.
They keyboard and mouse in the video are just the closest ones I had to hand for testing. I've got something different for when it goes to my eldest kid to use.
I saw a OEM non-standard sata power plug in there, you could probably get a cord that converts that to normal sata power, then convert that to 3-4 pin fan power. you might have to really do your research for that, but I'd believe it would be worth it.
it might be neater to use that seperated sata, then just plug the fan adapter into the one flat on the board instead.
Yep, there are 2 or 3 of those white plugs on the motherboard that supply either 5v or 12v and ground. 2mm spacing on the pins I think so very similar to a JST connector. My plan is to use one of those if I need to add power to a fan.
What is this extention called that you have conected to the moguel.
How can i get driver vga soft file for this mini pc Please help me
Which seller did you buy from? How fast is this processor as compared to Intel, which equivalent Intel version is this, and what generation?
Very well, mister hand!
I had never heard of pozidriv before! Is it common throughout the UK (guessing from accent) or all of Europe, or...? I found a picture online of a pozidriv screw head and would definitely have thought it a phillips. :) Here, when I was growing up, most screws were still flathead (terrible things) but phillips was taking over. Now we see a lot of torx as well, but I don't think I've seen a pozidriv, or I didn't recognize it.
Yeah they are very common here along with Torx screws. The Phillips are much rarer and the flat heads are thankfully even more rare. (I agree the flat heads or slot heads as I have heard them called are horrible things!) A Phillips driver will mostly work in a pozidriv screw and vice versa but the tool doesn't fully engage with the head and you risk chewing up the screw head. The Pozidrives don't slip as easy as the Phillips, so you can can get much more torque on them.
These are great for running Klipper one for a 3d printer . I have 3 of them . Got them brand new in the box for £34 each :)
As someone just staring out with 3D printing, Klipper is one those things that I keeping seeing mentioned in lots of places. Good to know it's yet another good use for these little machines.
usually, the cheap SSDs have that exact form factor. you can just rip apart the case, put a piece of tape over the standoff and it should work flawlessly with the integrated sata DOM port.
Thanks for tip! I'll take a look.
what work on XP ?
I don't know why you'd question if that Kingston SSD was genuine or not as it was only a tenner, it's only 60Gb after all. If anything you got robbed!
Dual channel ram would do that system a world of good. The CPU test on 3D Mark 2006 only hits 6fps on my Core i7-11700f with unlimited PL2 wouldn't stress the low fps from that test.
Thanks for the tip, I'll look out for another matching stick of ram and give it try, see what sort of improvement it gets.
the AMD G-T56N CPU only supports single channel memory, so adding an additional RAM won't do any better to the performance unless you need more RAM capacity
@@TechFan-di8ds That's a shame, wasn't familiar with the specific CPU here. I've never had bad things happen with more ram though, the less windows swaps the better everything runs. With XP32 might as well max it out with the 4GB with an integrated GPU taking some of the ram too.
There is a very good chance that, if you open up that ssd, there will be a tiny board inside like the one you took out of that thin client (i have a similar thin client and i've opened up a samsung evo 850 ssd 250gb and it does just have a tiny board in it, the rest of it is just empty casing to make it like a standard 2,5" drive)
Good point, I did open the drive to check, unfortunately it was just a little too long, it hits the capacitors on the motherboard, so I didn't include the footage in the video. You are correct though, different SSDs have slightly different sized boards in them so a different one may fit better.
i did that on mine and some tape round it to protect it
@@610annasinclair i did the shock horror on my SSD after i opened it...the corner hit the heatsink mounting screw...so i dremelled the corner off the SSD...i know...my mate was like nooo...i said it'd be fine there's no components in that area...it's all PCB ground copper green mask...nothing else...installed the gaming software fine...had to support it from underneath to stop it wobbling and possibly coming loose later...when i was satisfied it ran ok...i decided to add rear mounting audio jack...that was a bigger challenge...but eventually i succeeded...much better...you'd think it would be straight forward running 3 wires to the rear...that part wasn't too difficult...the trouble came with still no sound...i was puzzled for a short while...till i shorted the front audio wires while testing and it gave a burst of sound...i found best way to fix...had to cut down a 3.5mm plug to just a short stub and leave that in the front socket for rear to work...very strange wiring issue but solved...
I use mine for DOS.
What did you do for sound?
You can use DOSBox X in xp for that with support for 95 and 98 as well
I use a hp T620 plus for XP gaming, as it is supported by hp, and it has a pci express x8 port
What graphic card are you using currently planning on getting that exact model for windows xp gaming
@@Jaroartx a HD 5450 1gb, with low profile bracket, i do recommend a GT 520 or quadro 600. They are a lot faster
@@sysierius Thanks 😁
You might be able to remove the SSD from the 2.5” housing.
I took the cover off, the PCB inside was bigger than the 8Gig disk on module I removed, so instead of figuring out how to protect the bare PCB I thought it best to leave it in the housing. Good point though, some of the SSD PCBs are way smaller than the 2.5" form factor.
A Sata extender cable would allow a ssd or laptop drive to be used in while in its casing..they are about $3.00 on Ebay including shiping for a 9" cable.
I have a somewhat same class of machine for XP. More accurate, a physically small machine.
Mine is a late-2009 Mac Mini. It has a Core2Duo, GF-9400 and 4gb Ram. I went for a Mac Mini, because it can run XP and because I also wanted access to OsX Snow Leopard. And there is a optical drive in it.
Thats a nice system for XP and the optical drive is a bonus! I like these small terminal type systems, but the odd time you need an optical drive, it is more hassle to get a USB one to use. This one is big enough that they could have easily fitted a slim optical drive in it. Modding one to fit would be tricky without the cut outs in the front panel.
@@RetroSuperhighway Yup. A optical drive is extremely usefull in XP.
Have you tried Android on these? I have had a lot of fun converting these into an Android desktop/gaming mini pc. I like Remix OS, very outdated, OpenThos, and Prime OS. The Android X86 project is also great. Lets not forget the Linux variants, Recall Box, Betocera, Lakka, and so on.
Not tried Android yet, but there are so many awesome things you can do with these little boxes that I really need to get round to another video showcasing some of them. Thanks for some cool ideas to add to the list!
I'm assuming it doesn't support m.2 boot but maybe that m.2 could be used for a ssd
I don't recall seeing anything in the BIOS about that, but I think the only way to find out would be to try it.
@@RetroSuperhighway Use an sata to M.2 Converter board possibly.
The m.2 wlan ports in these devices often don't support sata or nvme. You could use it for a second NIC or a coral tpu.
It's not M.2 it's mPCIe.
做NAS比较合适
Has anyone had any luck installing Windows 98 on one of these? I have just got one with 4GB ram but even after trying himemx, patchmem, and the usual MaxPhysPage setting in SYSTEM.INI, it always hangs when booting for the first time after setup completes :( makes me wonder if it’s caused by something other than the RAM. I got it to boot into safe mode with himemx, but it wasn’t very stable :/ would love to dual boot 98SE and XP on this thing
It would be impressive to see 98 running on something like this. The original OS was Windows 7 embedded, so would the hardware be just too new? Do 98 drivers for the hardware even exist?
You might try DosBox X running in a windows xp or windows 7 OS. I have even used it in windows 10 and have been surprised by the results. Make sure you get the X version of DosBox because it is supposed to run win98 programs.
I would make a Windows PC, just to have XP Media Center Edition on it.
A silent machine like this would be perfect for XP Media Centre Edition.
@@RetroSuperhighway not unless you could install a tv turner or capture card to it, it’s only good for regular XP.
Might be able to run Crysis if you download a patch called Crysis - AMD's 3D Now! fix.
Thanks! Not a patch I had heard of, I'll check it out and see what it does.
7B achi error Ide-sata driver wrong or not supported
Thanks for the info!
@@RetroSuperhighway to quickly pass is put HDD mode to IDE/LEGACY (u will loose soome speed but works)
my first son excelled in computers at only 5yrs old i dident have to teach him anything my other youngest son who is now 18 yrs old and he teaches me stuff but he never went on the older XP stuff like i did i just fixed one but my hardrive is a sd card i had one before but this guy wanted to buy my older stuff so now i have replacement its a Athlon 64 only have one and half gig ram it run's fast with the sd card in it my oldest is 34 now and is a school teacher at high school
Yeah it's nice to give the kids something more than a touchscreen to use, and sneakily start them understanding how it works rather than just being able to use it. Although having said that, they can use a tablet far quicker than I can!
What theme is that?
Just the default XP pro theme I think.
@@RetroSuperhighway cuz it's bluer than the original
didnt try command and conquer...i am disappoint...ps have you tried windows 7 on this thing yet?
Haha, yes something like C&C RA2 would be great on this machine. I have not tried windows 7 on it as it is wrapped up ready for my eldest kid at Christmas. However these are such cheap and relatively capable machines I'm tempted to get another for myself to have more of a play around on. I'd like to try the default install of Windows 7 embedded on one.
@@RetroSuperhighway i shall go online in a bit and have a look see...my current back up tablet is awful so need something that doesnt run like a jacket spud...
I believe that a Windows 7 version was the os this shipped with originally.
Windows 7 Embedded was the original OS I think.
@@RetroSuperhighway Yup, I heard you say that.
Niiice 👍
That pc same as mine but it run windows 11 not windows xp
Nice. how does one of these handle Win 11?
@@RetroSuperhighway idk
@@blanksoul What do you mean you don't know? LOL
"Can it run Crysis?"
*clinches fists*
"No, it can't."
lol
Usb3 is not supported on Windows XP.
Technically it is. Have you seen LGR's video about him making his dream Windows XP machine?
@@ChaseMC215 Which video?
There has been out for a while a universal XP usb3 driver...I can't remember where I found it.
@@alantasman8273 Right. But it's not supported in the installer, IIRC.
@@oso2k Exactly...
actually there are plenty of better performance thin clients 4 xp with similar prices.
How about Half Life 2 and GTA san andreas?
HL2 would have to be on the absolute lowest settings possible, hardly worth it.
Cualquier computadora puedes usarla virtual con cualquer usb cualquier programa sindisco duro y navegar que nose te cierre el mu do hay cosas mejores que windows dime que haces con tu telefono nada nomas lo usas parael WhatsApp facebook you tube spotify asi tu computadora 6 con mas limitaciones que el telefono
No reason to run XP. Windows 7 home premium sp 1 along with DOS Box loaded with Win 3.1 handles everything and will have the correct chipset drivers for maximum CPU speed.
But Windows 7 isn't Windows XP, and DOSBox running Windows 3.1 certainly isn't!
Standibg up it looks like a hardcore reinvention of a Nintendo Wii
Haha, I like that description!
I thought about using an air mouse as an alternative to the Wiimote