Finally tested out my dirty AWE64 Gold that I received a while back in my Pentium machine (even after three isopropyl alcohol spray-downs and some lovin' with Q-tips and compressed air, it still isn't 100% clean; oh well). Thankfully, it works.

However, the Cirrus Logic PCI graphics card started acting up today as well, as shown in the picture below:

I tried cleaning the card's contacts with some isopropyl-alcohol-tipped Q-tips and re-seating the card, to no avail. Is the poor thing truly dying, and if so, is there anything I could do? 🙁

Flashed a second GOTEK to the FlashFloppy firmware. Now I have 1 HxC and 2 Flashfloppy GOTEKS. The HxC is serving as a df1: external floppy drive for my A500/ACA500+, the FF ones are in my Roland SD-35 and 486 PC. Life is gud. 😎

appiah4 wrote:

Flashed a second GOTEK to the FlashFloppy firmware. Now I have 1 HxC and 2 Flashfloppy GOTEKS. The HxC is serving as a df1: external floppy drive for my A500/ACA500+, the FF ones are in my Roland SD-35 and 486 PC. Life is gud. 😎

Just curious, which method did you use for the flashing? I recently flashed 2 of these as well. I tried the USB method with the A-to-A cable but it didn't work. The ST software would not recognize either of the 2 Goteks as a valid target. I had to go with the USB-serial method, and even that one was difficult; I had to apply pressure on the PCB in a certain point for the method to work, I think the quality of recent Goteks has gone down and the PCBs have some hardware issues.

stamasd wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

Flashed a second GOTEK to the FlashFloppy firmware. Now I have 1 HxC and 2 Flashfloppy GOTEKS. The HxC is serving as a df1: external floppy drive for my A500/ACA500+, the FF ones are in my Roland SD-35 and 486 PC. Life is gud. 😎

Just curious, which method did you use for the flashing? I recently flashed 2 of these as well. I tried the USB method with the A-to-A cable but it didn't work. The ST software would not recognize either of the 2 Goteks as a valid target. I had to go with the USB-serial method, and even that one was difficult; I had to apply pressure on the PCB in a certain point for the method to work, I think the quality of recent Goteks has gone down and the PCBs have some hardware issues.

I soldered on the missing headers and used a USB-TTL adapter. the USB A-A cable thing did not work for me either, but I guess it was due to cheap chinese cables.

appiah4 wrote:

stamasd wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

Flashed a second GOTEK to the FlashFloppy firmware. Now I have 1 HxC and 2 Flashfloppy GOTEKS. The HxC is serving as a df1: external floppy drive for my A500/ACA500+, the FF ones are in my Roland SD-35 and 486 PC. Life is gud. 😎

Just curious, which method did you use for the flashing? I recently flashed 2 of these as well. I tried the USB method with the A-to-A cable but it didn't work. The ST software would not recognize either of the 2 Goteks as a valid target. I had to go with the USB-serial method, and even that one was difficult; I had to apply pressure on the PCB in a certain point for the method to work, I think the quality of recent Goteks has gone down and the PCBs have some hardware issues.

I soldered on the missing headers and used a USB-TTL adapter. the USB A-A cable thing did not work for me either, but I guess it was due to cheap chinese cables.

Hm. It's probably not the cable as I used a good quality A-A cable. Interesting. So the serial method is the only one that works in recent Goteks.

I wouldn't know if that is certainly true but I couldn't get it recognized with my PC; it may have to do with USB drivers etc. as well..

Got hold a cheap LCD monitor, Amstrad PC works fine with it, the Dell and Tiny PCs give no image. I also remembered my current gen PC actually has a built in VGA port so I tried that with my Trinitron and again everything worked fine. So at least the CRT is OK, it just means I have two duff PCs. If nothing else I can harvest them for parts while I wait for my Abit KT7 to arrive.

The LCD is 1024x768 and give a surprisingly nice image at that resolution. I'm quite impressed.

I've also been trying my hand at mapping with Akalabeth. Not made my way past level 4 of a dungeon yet and quickly realised I'd be better of with a pencil rather than a pen; so far it's been good fun (when I'm not falling through multiple trap doors to my doom that is 😵).

Putting together a Pentium 90. Just now playing with the LCD-Display.

While i'm waiting for a Slot-A heatsink for this newly bought board+cpu:

McBierle wrote:

<snip>

While i'm waiting for a Slot-A heatsink for this newly bought board+cpu:

WP_20180903_002.jpg

Did you also get the GFD?

Cyrix200+ wrote:

McBierle wrote:

<snip>

While i'm waiting for a Slot-A heatsink for this newly bought board+cpu:

WP_20180903_002.jpg

Did you also get the GFD?

great minds think alike, eh?

McBierle wrote:

While i'm waiting for a Slot-A heatsink for this newly bought board+cpu:

Where did you get one? I have an Athlon 700 that needs a Slot-A heatsink..

appiah4 wrote:

McBierle wrote:

While i'm waiting for a Slot-A heatsink for this newly bought board+cpu:

Where did you get one? I have an Athlon 700 that needs a Slot-A heatsink..

You should be able to also use a SECC1 Pentium 2 heatsink, if I'm not mistaken. Not that those are any easier to find but it might give you some more search options.

Cyrix200+ wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

McBierle wrote:

While i'm waiting for a Slot-A heatsink for this newly bought board+cpu:

Where did you get one? I have an Athlon 700 that needs a Slot-A heatsink..

You should be able to also use a SECC1 Pentium 2 heatsink, if I'm not mistaken. Not that those are any easier to find but it might give you some more search options.

+1

I personally use these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-SL2U3-Pentium- … fYAAOSw-ZBZpywP except a briglt BLUE.

You will need a hex-bit to get them off BTW.

Installed a new facia into the Voodoo 5 Shuttle. The cool thing is now that I designed a template, I can make it whatever design/art/color I want. 😁

@wiretap

🤣 thanks.

Tested the C64 by hooking it up to my 43" UHD TV (aspect set to 4:3) to make sure it still works and it does.

wiretap wrote:

Installed a new facia into the Voodoo 5 Shuttle. The cool thing is now that I designed a template, I can make it whatever design […]
Show full quote

Installed a new facia into the Voodoo 5 Shuttle. The cool thing is now that I designed a template, I can make it whatever design/art/color I want. 😁

Yikes. Knowing how hot mine gets with just the onboard video I'm guessing you do not want to close that case. Neat system though (& nice job with the front panel!)

the_ultra_code wrote:

I tried cleaning the card's contacts with some isopropyl-alcohol-tipped Q-tips and re-seating the card, to no avail. Is the poor thing truly dying, and if so, is there anything I could do? 🙁

I'm guessing VRAM, though it could be software. I mean, if you can test it in another machine, that would be a good idea. If it turns out to be the VRAM, it's probably cheaper to replace the card rather than fix it, which is sad.

It is *possible* to fix anything. If I found another identical card, I'd keep the old one for spare parts.

xjas wrote:

Yikes. Knowing how hot mine gets with just the onboard video I'm guessing you do not want to close that case. Neat system though (& nice job with the front panel!)

It's not bad. Gaming for an hour on Quake 3, it stays around 58C with the case closed.