Bought a Seagate ST-296N for much cheaper than they usually go for... Only for it to arrive completely trashed.

First signs of troubles came up when I powered the drive up (horrible screaching noise), so I popped the cover up and sure enough, the uppermost platter's heads got sheared off the actuator arm!

When I received the package, the box was torn apart, and the drive wrapped in a thick layer of bubble wrap... I suppose that had to play a part.

Oh well, I mainly wanted one of these for the noise... Interestingly, even though it has two missing heads it seems to be still passing the seek test, maybe this drive isn't quite ready to call it quits?

In my head those things are indestructible enough that whatever airplane or truck was carrying it when it got bounced around bad enough to do that, is now a write off.

Jccwu wrote on 2024-03-31, 16:55:

Expanded the production of fastening strips. Check it out. […]
Show full quote

Expanded the production of fastening strips. Check it out.

1. ESS 3 socket or Creative Vibra
2. Gravis Ultrasound PnP
3. Voodoo 4 -5 (L-series)
4. Voodoo 2 STB System
5. Voodoo 1-2 Diamond
6. SB Creative 16-32-64
7. AWE64 Gold
8. Creative SB 16 - pro
9. ESS Gold 16
10. ESS Edison
11. Voodoo Rush
12. ESS 4 socket
13. PicoGUS
14. Adlib New
15. Tekram DC-680
16. Voodoo 3 STB System
17. Diamond Monster MX300
18. Tekram DC-690
19. Voodoo Banshee Diamond
20. Gravis Ultrasound Classic, MAX 1.8

I need a slot metal for my ISA usb card xd

Jccwu wrote on 2024-03-31, 16:55:

Expanded the production of fastening strips. Check it out. […]
Show full quote

Expanded the production of fastening strips. Check it out.

1. ESS 3 socket or Creative Vibra
2. Gravis Ultrasound PnP
3. Voodoo 4 -5 (L-series)
4. Voodoo 2 STB System
5. Voodoo 1-2 Diamond
6. SB Creative 16-32-64
7. AWE64 Gold
8. Creative SB 16 - pro
9. ESS Gold 16
10. ESS Edison
11. Voodoo Rush
12. ESS 4 socket
13. PicoGUS
14. Adlib New
15. Tekram DC-680
16. Voodoo 3 STB System
17. Diamond Monster MX300
18. Tekram DC-690
19. Voodoo Banshee Diamond
20. Gravis Ultrasound Classic, MAX 1.8

Looks pretty good! It seems that the PicoGUS bracket is for v1, not the v2? Are you selling these on a Tindie store or something?

You know what would be amazing? If you could manage to reproduce a bracket for the Snark Barker (Sound Blaster 1.0). It would really complete that project.

https://github.com/schlae/snark-barker

It says that the KiCad files have detailed descriptions on the dimensions:

https://github.com/schlae/snark-barker?tab=re … sa-card-bracket

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-03-31, 18:50:

In my head those things are indestructible enough that whatever airplane or truck was carrying it when it got bounced around bad enough to do that, is now a write off.

That's what I thought too initially, but I guess I wound up being one of the 0.00001% in the "shit happens" camp. To be fair, the drive was sold as untested..

At least I got a faceplate (a bit banged up, but not too bad) and a spare PCB, so there's that. Just for shits and giggles I'm going to try and remove the crashed head holders and see if the drive will somehow work.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-03-31, 11:57:

holy heck, even that much is great to see, I spent 2 hours searching and nada, thanks ! […]
Show full quote

holy heck, even that much is great to see, I spent 2 hours searching and nada, thanks !

Looks like it supports a mouse, I wonder if its a normal serial connector of if it uses the PS2 port type on the card. (Bus mouse IIRC)

s-l1600.jpg

Are there any other drivers for it in the STB archive ? like DOS and VGA utils ?

that 9-pin din is the same thats used on the megadrive 2, it be interesting if you can find a pinout for it, seems they dont all follow a standard.

Vynix wrote on 2024-03-31, 22:34:

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-03-31, 18:50:

In my head those things are indestructible enough that whatever airplane or truck was carrying it when it got bounced around bad enough to do that, is now a write off.

That's what I thought too initially, but I guess I wound up being one of the 0.00001% in the "shit happens" camp. To be fair, the drive was sold as untested..

At least I got a faceplate (a bit banged up, but not too bad) and a spare PCB, so there's that. Just for shits and giggles I'm going to try and remove the crashed head holders and see if the drive will somehow work.

Some years ago, you could maybe have found the MFM or maybe ESDI version cheap because nobody wanted them. I am guessing that that is probably no longer the case. Some decades back I had a seagate 3.5" 20 or 30MB AT IDE drive which had got massive surface deterioration, and found a SCSI one for next to nothing, so I swapped the electronics and had a functioning IDE drive. They seemed more mix and match like that at lower densities, since the 2000s you can't really do that as there's a calibration ROM on each PCB to tune it to the small variations of it's disk pack/heads.

vetz wrote on 2024-03-31, 16:54:

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2024-03-31, 13:54:

Sadly no :) , that's your lot as far as the STB archive goes, though I did find an old bbs listing of what was available back in […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-03-31, 11:57:

Are there any other drivers for it in the STB archive ? like DOS and VGA utils ?

Sadly no 😀 , that's your lot as far as the STB archive goes, though I did find an old bbs listing of what was available back in the day (maybe worth further searches by filename, or perhaps someone has them hiding in personal archives!). Datasheet for the 450 is still up at https://www.dosdays.co.uk/media/c_and_t/82C45 … roller_1993.pdf

450DOC.ZIP 47987 06-01-92 QuickVGA DRIVERS DOCUMENTATION
450DISK1.ZIP STORED OFF-LINE QuickVGA DRIVERS DISK 1
450DISK2.ZIP 447969 09-24-92 QuickVGA DRIVERS DISK 2

Either get all of the above for QuickVGA disks, OR...
get one or more of the following which is the SAME DRIVERS
as found in the DISK version above!

450ACAD.ZIP 136987 06-01-92 QuickVGA AutoCAD 9, 10, and 11 ADI drvs
450CDKEY.ZIP 12163 06-01-92 QuickVGA CADKey drvs
450CDVNC.ZIP 18236 06-01-92 QuickVGA CADvance drvs
450FW3.ZIP 9887 06-01-92 QuickVGA FrameWork 3 drvs
450GEM3.ZIP 36896 06-01-92 QuickVGA GEM 3 drvs
450GENCD.ZIP 6641 06-01-92 QuickVGA Generic CADD level 3 drvs
450LOTUS.ZIP 7220 06-01-92 QuickVGA Lotus 1-2-3, Symphony drvs
450OS2PM.ZIP 194284 06-01-92 QuickVGA OS/2 1.21 and 1.3 PM drvs
450SCOOD.ZIP 4754 06-01-92 QuickVGA SCO Unix Open DeskTop Drvs
450SETUP.ZIP 24089 06-01-92 QuickVGA SETUP pgm (must build dsks to use)
450UTIL.ZIP 30757 06-01-92 QuickVGA Utilities
450VCAD.ZIP 26160 06-01-92 QuickVGA VersaCAD drvs
450VESA.ZIP 29855 06-01-92 QuickVGA VESA utilities/drivers
450WIN3X.ZIP 423297 06-01-92 QuickVGA Windows 3.x drvs
450WORD5.ZIP 13442 06-01-92 QuickVGA MS-Word 5.0 drvs
450WRD55.ZIP 15356 06-01-92 QuickVGA MS-Word 5.5 drvs
450WP50.ZIP 6051 06-01-92 QuickVGA WordPerfect 5.0 drvs
450WP51.ZIP 10808 06-01-92 QuickVGA WordPerfect 5.1 drvs

Perhaps the files attached to this post contains the files PC Hoarder Patrol pasted. NJRoadFan is a member here too incase you don't want to create an account to download it. https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/power … 065/post-331047

This site is truly amazing went from little to no info on the card to having drivers and Utils for it !

Big thanks to you all !

Today I bought a Creative Labs SB0460 X-Fi Xtreme PCI Sound Card, the one with 64mb memory and a Maxtor Ultra Series 100GB 8MB Cache 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive in box.
Last week I bought a Dell Dimension XPS B866 w/ 384MB RD-RAM, an in box Sony CRX230AD CD-RW drive.
Just have to wait for everything to come in, can't wait!

vetz wrote on 2024-03-31, 16:54:

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2024-03-31, 13:54:

Sadly no :) , that's your lot as far as the STB archive goes, though I did find an old bbs listing of what was available back in […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-03-31, 11:57:

Are there any other drivers for it in the STB archive ? like DOS and VGA utils ?

Sadly no 😀 , that's your lot as far as the STB archive goes, though I did find an old bbs listing of what was available back in the day (maybe worth further searches by filename, or perhaps someone has them hiding in personal archives!). Datasheet for the 450 is still up at https://www.dosdays.co.uk/media/c_and_t/82C45 … roller_1993.pdf

450DOC.ZIP 47987 06-01-92 QuickVGA DRIVERS DOCUMENTATION
450DISK1.ZIP STORED OFF-LINE QuickVGA DRIVERS DISK 1
450DISK2.ZIP 447969 09-24-92 QuickVGA DRIVERS DISK 2

Either get all of the above for QuickVGA disks, OR...
get one or more of the following which is the SAME DRIVERS
as found in the DISK version above!

450ACAD.ZIP 136987 06-01-92 QuickVGA AutoCAD 9, 10, and 11 ADI drvs
450CDKEY.ZIP 12163 06-01-92 QuickVGA CADKey drvs
450CDVNC.ZIP 18236 06-01-92 QuickVGA CADvance drvs
450FW3.ZIP 9887 06-01-92 QuickVGA FrameWork 3 drvs
450GEM3.ZIP 36896 06-01-92 QuickVGA GEM 3 drvs
450GENCD.ZIP 6641 06-01-92 QuickVGA Generic CADD level 3 drvs
450LOTUS.ZIP 7220 06-01-92 QuickVGA Lotus 1-2-3, Symphony drvs
450OS2PM.ZIP 194284 06-01-92 QuickVGA OS/2 1.21 and 1.3 PM drvs
450SCOOD.ZIP 4754 06-01-92 QuickVGA SCO Unix Open DeskTop Drvs
450SETUP.ZIP 24089 06-01-92 QuickVGA SETUP pgm (must build dsks to use)
450UTIL.ZIP 30757 06-01-92 QuickVGA Utilities
450VCAD.ZIP 26160 06-01-92 QuickVGA VersaCAD drvs
450VESA.ZIP 29855 06-01-92 QuickVGA VESA utilities/drivers
450WIN3X.ZIP 423297 06-01-92 QuickVGA Windows 3.x drvs
450WORD5.ZIP 13442 06-01-92 QuickVGA MS-Word 5.0 drvs
450WRD55.ZIP 15356 06-01-92 QuickVGA MS-Word 5.5 drvs
450WP50.ZIP 6051 06-01-92 QuickVGA WordPerfect 5.0 drvs
450WP51.ZIP 10808 06-01-92 QuickVGA WordPerfect 5.1 drvs

Perhaps the files attached to this post contains the files PC Hoarder Patrol pasted. NJRoadFan is a member here too incase you don't want to create an account to download it. https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/power … 065/post-331047

I am a member there, here is the file (renamed) and a txt of what I see on the two disks
contains:
disk1
Chips 450 Win3.1 drvs

disk2
QuickVGA AutoCAD 10 drvs
QuickVGA CADKey drvs
QuickVGA CADvance drvs
QuickVGA FrameWork 3 drvs
QuickVGA GEM 3 drvs
QuickVGA Generic CADD level 3 drvs
QuickVGA Lotus 1-2-3 drvs
QuickVGA Utilities
QuickVGA VersaCAD drvs
QuickVGA VESA utilities/drivers
QuickVGA MS-Word 5.0 drvs
QuickVGA MS-Word 5.5 drvs
QuickVGA WordPerfect 5.0 drvs
QuickVGA WordPerfect 5.1 drvs

Horun wrote on 2024-04-01, 00:44:

I am a member there, here is the file (renamed) and a txt of what I see on the two disks contains: disk1 Chips 450 Win3.1 drvs […]
Show full quote

vetz wrote on 2024-03-31, 16:54:

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2024-03-31, 13:54:

Sadly no :) , that's your lot as far as the STB archive goes, though I did find an old bbs listing of what was available back in […]
Show full quote

Sadly no 😀 , that's your lot as far as the STB archive goes, though I did find an old bbs listing of what was available back in the day (maybe worth further searches by filename, or perhaps someone has them hiding in personal archives!). Datasheet for the 450 is still up at https://www.dosdays.co.uk/media/c_and_t/82C45 … roller_1993.pdf

450DOC.ZIP 47987 06-01-92 QuickVGA DRIVERS DOCUMENTATION
450DISK1.ZIP STORED OFF-LINE QuickVGA DRIVERS DISK 1
450DISK2.ZIP 447969 09-24-92 QuickVGA DRIVERS DISK 2

Either get all of the above for QuickVGA disks, OR...
get one or more of the following which is the SAME DRIVERS
as found in the DISK version above!

450ACAD.ZIP 136987 06-01-92 QuickVGA AutoCAD 9, 10, and 11 ADI drvs
450CDKEY.ZIP 12163 06-01-92 QuickVGA CADKey drvs
450CDVNC.ZIP 18236 06-01-92 QuickVGA CADvance drvs
450FW3.ZIP 9887 06-01-92 QuickVGA FrameWork 3 drvs
450GEM3.ZIP 36896 06-01-92 QuickVGA GEM 3 drvs
450GENCD.ZIP 6641 06-01-92 QuickVGA Generic CADD level 3 drvs
450LOTUS.ZIP 7220 06-01-92 QuickVGA Lotus 1-2-3, Symphony drvs
450OS2PM.ZIP 194284 06-01-92 QuickVGA OS/2 1.21 and 1.3 PM drvs
450SCOOD.ZIP 4754 06-01-92 QuickVGA SCO Unix Open DeskTop Drvs
450SETUP.ZIP 24089 06-01-92 QuickVGA SETUP pgm (must build dsks to use)
450UTIL.ZIP 30757 06-01-92 QuickVGA Utilities
450VCAD.ZIP 26160 06-01-92 QuickVGA VersaCAD drvs
450VESA.ZIP 29855 06-01-92 QuickVGA VESA utilities/drivers
450WIN3X.ZIP 423297 06-01-92 QuickVGA Windows 3.x drvs
450WORD5.ZIP 13442 06-01-92 QuickVGA MS-Word 5.0 drvs
450WRD55.ZIP 15356 06-01-92 QuickVGA MS-Word 5.5 drvs
450WP50.ZIP 6051 06-01-92 QuickVGA WordPerfect 5.0 drvs
450WP51.ZIP 10808 06-01-92 QuickVGA WordPerfect 5.1 drvs

Perhaps the files attached to this post contains the files PC Hoarder Patrol pasted. NJRoadFan is a member here too incase you don't want to create an account to download it. https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/power … 065/post-331047

I am a member there, here is the file (renamed) and a txt of what I see on the two disks
contains:
disk1
Chips 450 Win3.1 drvs

disk2
QuickVGA AutoCAD 10 drvs
QuickVGA CADKey drvs
QuickVGA CADvance drvs
QuickVGA FrameWork 3 drvs
QuickVGA GEM 3 drvs
QuickVGA Generic CADD level 3 drvs
QuickVGA Lotus 1-2-3 drvs
QuickVGA Utilities
QuickVGA VersaCAD drvs
QuickVGA VESA utilities/drivers
QuickVGA MS-Word 5.0 drvs
QuickVGA MS-Word 5.5 drvs
QuickVGA WordPerfect 5.0 drvs
QuickVGA WordPerfect 5.1 drvs

Horun, vetz...nicely done 😀

Grabbed this Super socket 7 board Gigabyte GA-5AA Rev 3.2 with a K6-2 500 today. I have a Rev 1.1 (still need to upload this revision to retroweb) so excited to get this Rev 3.2. Hopefully it’s posting ok.

Vipachei wrote on 2024-03-31, 17:56:

Got this dual Xeon Dell Precision 690. What an absolute monster!
Here it is next to it’s little brother, a 1366 Dell Precision T5500.

Nice ones, those are getting really hard to find!

zuldan wrote on 2024-04-01, 08:48:

Grabbed this Super socket 7 board Gigabyte GA-5AA Rev 3.2 with a K6-2 500 today. I have a Rev 1.1 (still need to upload this revision to retroweb) so excited to get this Rev 3.2. Hopefully it’s posting ok.

2C7EB5E3-0E3A-4050-A842-A844137F3ADA.jpeg

Very nice! I love this board, it was my first proper PC upgrade that I did, also with a K6-2 500. I bought myself a brand spanking new GA-5AA 3.2 last year 😁

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-04-01, 10:16:

Very nice! I love this board, it was my first proper PC upgrade that I did, also with a K6-2 500. I bought myself a brand spanking new GA-5AA 3.2 last year 😁

Very nice!. A brand new one must have cost a fortune. Very lucky to get that.

zuldan wrote on 2024-04-01, 10:21:

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-04-01, 10:16:

Very nice! I love this board, it was my first proper PC upgrade that I did, also with a K6-2 500. I bought myself a brand spanking new GA-5AA 3.2 last year 😁

Very nice!. A brand new one must have cost a fortune. Very lucky to get that.

I own the ATX version of this board the GA 5AX Rev 5.2

Very solid board

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-01, 11:13:

I own the ATX version of this board the GA 5AX Rev 5.2

Gigabyte_GA-5AX_F.jpg

Very solid board

That’s awesome. Can’t believe you got the Rev. 5.2 of that board. Isn’t it super rare?

zuldan wrote on 2024-04-01, 11:17:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-01, 11:13:

I own the ATX version of this board the GA 5AX Rev 5.2

Gigabyte_GA-5AX_F.jpg

Very solid board

That’s awesome. Can’t believe you got the Rev. 5.2 of that board. Isn’t it super rare?

Yes, I got mine from eBay a few years ago, I threw the seller a crazy lowball offer for it and he took it. I had wanted the ASUS P5A which is a similar board but they are even now crazy expensive.

I guess I should pair it up with the MVP board I got recently and have a shoot out between them using the same setup. My Ali V has the G revision of the chipset too which was a huge bonus.

Just had a quick look in my board store and I also have a DFI K6XV3+/66 Rev B which is also another hard to get Socket 7 board that also uses that MVP3 chipset, I wonder if its got a better setup than the Epox board.

zuldan wrote on 2024-04-01, 11:17:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-01, 11:13:

I own the ATX version of this board the GA 5AX Rev 5.2

Gigabyte_GA-5AX_F.jpg

Very solid board

That’s awesome. Can’t believe you got the Rev. 5.2 of that board. Isn’t it super rare?

I'm not sure that it's super rare, I would say that the GA-5AX and P5A are the 3dfx Voodoos of the SS7 mainboards, everyone started keeping them relatively early and already 20 years ago it was one of the recommended boards for SS7 builds. But the price increased for sure.

I own 2x rev 5.2 and 3x rev 4.1, bought them about 10-15 years ago, but the last one I got 2 months ago for 5€. Practically it doesn't really matter if you have a rev 5.2 or a previous version on standard retro builds.

The gigabyte ga-5ax 5.2 with the H revision Chipset are super rare and are the only SS7 boards where you can find this revision.