VOGONS


Reply 17560 of 27187, by TechieDude

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alvaro84 wrote on 2020-12-16, 19:53:

The bike is completely done for. Unfortunately. But thanks anyway, everyone.

And today I finished with the 20-120GB HDDs so I continued my tests with FDDs and CFs. Storage days, I say.

Well, if the frame isn't bent, it should be fixable. Worst case scenario, you might salvage some spare parts from it.

Reply 17561 of 27187, by PD2JK

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Recapped this lovely board;
X0kJuuWgbe2AuYG2yRUqg9vk.jpg

b0YZFzM8105sFgGOudU4eVpS.jpg

Green caps be gone.

i386 16 ⇒ i486 DX4 100 ⇒ Pentium MMX 200 ⇒ Athlon Orion 700 | TB 1000 ⇒ AthlonXP 1700+ ⇒ Opteron 165 ⇒ Dual Opteron 856

Reply 17563 of 27187, by creepingnet

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Last night had to transplant the M/75's VersaTrak into the P/75 because the P/75's has been spotty since the day I got it. That's actually the nicest trackball assembly of the three. Took apart the one from the P/75 to see how it goes together, I might be able to clean up and fix that one up as a spare. Also installed FLMail on the 40EC. Today I put offerup on my phone and found a DOS laptop from the 80's that I'm tempted to get locally for really cheap but kind of hesistant as well since I'm tempted to cut down on stuff at the same time.

Jeesus, this stuff is like an addiction and a business idea all rolled into one.

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Reply 17564 of 27187, by PD2JK

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chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-12-16, 21:31:

Nice job on the recap. Is that a voodoo 3 slot 1 board? I really like that slot 1 cool what kind is it.

Thanks, and you are correct. The legendary MS-6168 VER:2 / Packard Bell 'Bora Pro 2'. It's from an iMedia 6600 machine.
The cooler has no sign of a manufacturers' logo. Some kind of OEM cooler I guess.
Maybe dion_b can shine a light on that. He's the PB guru. 😉

i386 16 ⇒ i486 DX4 100 ⇒ Pentium MMX 200 ⇒ Athlon Orion 700 | TB 1000 ⇒ AthlonXP 1700+ ⇒ Opteron 165 ⇒ Dual Opteron 856

Reply 17565 of 27187, by alvaro84

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TechieDude wrote on 2020-12-16, 20:47:

Well, if the frame isn't bent, it should be fixable. Worst case scenario, you might salvage some spare parts from it.

It's folded into a new, bizarre shape, the front fork completely bent under the rest of the bike and the grips bent... I can't even grip what they did.
The driver offered some other bike, btw. As for the rest, let's see some lawyers/insurance company match. I don't even have an idea how to assess the value of a 41-year-old, perfectly functional spleen (that I lost), for example.

But I keep on the storage track but ran into a minor setback. This is a 720kB 5.25" drive. I value it highly, it's like the one I used back in my 8-bit days and very nice for, for example, XTs to make those 360k disks way more useful at double capacity. It can be disguised as a 3.5" DD drive and this is where the fun begins.

The problem is, it doesn't want to begin on the P5A's FDC. But apparently even my old and tested drive won't work on that so I'll try something much older. I cleaned a 386SX board of the battery corrosion (wasn't too bad) and this will be my next test bed.

Shame on us, doomed from the start
May God have mercy on our dirty little hearts

Reply 17566 of 27187, by dionb

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PD2JK wrote on 2020-12-17, 05:36:
Thanks, and you are correct. The legendary MS-6168 VER:2 / Packard Bell 'Bora Pro 2'. It's from an iMedia 6600 machine. The coo […]
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chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-12-16, 21:31:

Nice job on the recap. Is that a voodoo 3 slot 1 board? I really like that slot 1 cool what kind is it.

Thanks, and you are correct. The legendary MS-6168 VER:2 / Packard Bell 'Bora Pro 2'. It's from an iMedia 6600 machine.
The cooler has no sign of a manufacturers' logo. Some kind of OEM cooler I guess.
Maybe dion_b can shine a light on that. He's the PB guru. 😉

Guru? Just an unhealthy obsession 😉

Not sure he's asking about the cooler on the V3, I read it more as about the Slot 1 cooler i.e. CPU cooler.

Anyway, the V3 cooler is a PITA, no mounting holes at all. You need an adhesive thermal pad to connect whatever heatsink you are using to the GPU. I use a pure copper northbridge heatsink (on the one board where I replaced it).

As for the Slot 1 cooler, I think that's a pretty generic OEM cooler (maybe even Intel OEM) used on ~600MHz Coppermine CPUs. I have two or three with the same. Then again, those CPUs almost certainly came from my three CuMine supporting MS-6168 boards, from Packard Bell systems, so could be whatever PB purchased around that time.

Reply 17568 of 27187, by Caluser2000

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Finally replaced the reset switch on my computer test bench.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 17569 of 27187, by PD2JK

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chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-12-17, 17:29:

Yes I was referring to the CPU cooler. Not sure if it's a good one or not I just think it looks cool. How much vram did they put on the Mobo?

I looked again at the pictures above, I spotted AVC on the metal clip. Thought they only made fans?

i386 16 ⇒ i486 DX4 100 ⇒ Pentium MMX 200 ⇒ Athlon Orion 700 | TB 1000 ⇒ AthlonXP 1700+ ⇒ Opteron 165 ⇒ Dual Opteron 856

Reply 17570 of 27187, by appiah4

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I tested a PCPartner 486CV motherboard I had desoldered a barrel battery from, then modified to accomodate a coin cell holder instead by removing the recharging curcuitry. It actually works. I was considering using my Biostar MB-8433UUD-A for my Cx5x86 DOS/OS2 build but it has a Dallas RTC, and I am basically allergic to that shit so I will likely go with this instead..

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Reply 17571 of 27187, by alvaro84

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The FDD experiment wasn't a success but the 386SX board is fine and faster than any other 386SX I've ever met. So it's a keeper. This morning I tried another one aginst it, but it didn't start, sometimes gave me a 8042 A20 error, and never gave me keyboard control... So I got a bit angry and I know exactly where to put the new one - to the place of the other that stopped working...

Btw it's a strange one because it loses speed not only with a single bank of RAM but with full 16MiB too. So I'll keep it a 4M config while I have my 16M "showcase" board too. And that's all for this kind.

Shame on us, doomed from the start
May God have mercy on our dirty little hearts

Reply 17572 of 27187, by creepingnet

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Last night was yet another night of trying to fix crap with one of the Versa involving bottom plastic.....probably the weirdest thing so far.....

Basically put, the P/75's trackball - the one out of the M/75, was being erratic.....GRRR. So no Solitaire for me last night.....no Under a Killing Moon....but rather, figure out why the heck I was only getting activity from one roller on the diagonal, then jar the laptop, and it would get no activity on another movement. I seem to have traced this issue down to that infernal plastic once again.

So all the NEC Versa PC-4xx series laptops have cracking plastic issues, but they are very different and varying depending on model and type of screen. The most solid base so far is the 40EC base. It just cracks under the Versa Bays but not much else. Those I easily reinforced with foil tape and they're pretty much solid enough not to chip or crack through the case. The strongest screen is the touch screen because it's practically got it's own heavily attached-to-the-hinge fiberglass (PCB), metal, glass, and ABS plastic structure (Screen and touch circuitry + hinge structure). The touch screen I have is off the M/75. I spent the other night trying to get the flickering fixed and managed to using the VR trimpots on the back, but I'm having problems with green balanced with red and blue (another project for another day) - this is the LCD panel itself though.....not the wiring.

Anyway, back to plastic...

The M/75's biggest failure point is where the screen attaches, probably because it had a much heavier touch screen, and the 40EC....oddly being a non-touch model, has some strenghtening in back via the blank-plated slot for a stylus to be stored. The M/75 and P/75 with touch does not have this (I know all Versa models from the E-series up had touch as an option, as the E-series manual specificially gives a phone number to request it from, and all the other laptops have drivers from the NEC FTP for pen-mouse for DOS). The right corner was cracked up, and it also started having problem with the Versa Bay slots as well.

The P/75's biggest failure point is the whole front line of the case where it bends upward - and this is where the trackball issues come from. Apparently something is pushing or moving in a way in there that it's interfering with movement and/or possibly interefering with the optical sensor for the shutters and causing one axis to act as two, or something, or possibly a short with the case in the area. So I've got some looking around to do. For now, the workaround? Packing Tape, remove the broken out chunks of case (two), and just be careful with it.

While experimenting, I ripped the wire out of the CMOS Battery.....I managed to "hack" it back together by stripping the wire that came off, and wiring it into the connector through the pin hole. I may later try a more modern battery with a similar connector....like those used in modern Dell Laptops - since it's the same connector.

This is leading me down a path where I might start making a series of youtube videos on fixing up old Laptops using various epoxies and other adhesive types and methods and then using them for months and seeing how they hold up. If nothing else, the successful ones I don't want to keep could end up back up for resale or auction somewhere to some lucky buyer/bidder who will have a laptop that has all it's plastic structure related flaws fixed.

Stuff I'm planning to try...(plus some I've already used with varying success)

- J.B. Weld Steelstick - J.B. Weld Steelstick I've found works INCREDIBLE on the hinge covers on the Ultralite Versa, E, V, P, and M series, especially in the center of the hinge assembly where the most pain is. It also allows me to replace those crappy brass screw anchors with coarse thread wood or machine screws which will not strip as easily and hold just as tight, if not tighter. I'm also considering this for sections of the P/75's case where things are cracking out as well, building a thicker wall here and there. The stuff really does bond heavily and it really does make a strong, shapable extrusion. What it's not good for is filling in case cracks.

- J.B. Weld Original - I actually did extrude and repair most of my 40EC's original screen assembly this way. I found the best fix was to loosen the hinge a bit first (that's where the problem starts, and honestly, the Versa Active Matrix screen does not need a very tight hinge to hold place more than solidly enough even at extreme angles). Then, after that, coat the hinge in some form of tape....use foil tape to create a mold inside the case, and then flood the area with J.B. Weld original - with any loose screw anchors also installed, and just make that corner solid or semi-solid. Since then, it's been solid and has not broken again. However, I saw BBSBISHOPCM on Youtube had the same exact laptop and flood filled the area with what I think was 10 ton Epoxy and got a similar result.

- Cyanoacrilate and Baking Soda or CArbon Fiber - the idea I have here, after seeing certain ratios actually SMOKE and heat up, is that I could literally coat the inside of the cracks and fill certain sections of the case with this to build a heavy structure. I'm going to also maybe experiment with this for making replacement parts and repariing and strenghtening other strcutures such as the screen latches and the PCMCIA slot covers. I think if I get the ratio right, I could cause the stuff to heat up enough it will melt and literally mold itself into the existing plastic.

- Plastic Welding - I have a wood burning kit which is really a second soldering iron with multiple tips - I might be able to try this out in some spots.....and use the other tricks here to make some insane structural boosts.

- Fiberglass or Aluminum Mesh Reinforced Automotive Plastic Professional Epoxy - I was thinking this would be great to strengthen the bottom and sides inside the Versa Bays and around the Trackball in front - and get everything aligned and isolated enough on the inside that it won't break again. I get my J.B. Weld from Summit Racing so I can't imagine they don't have other stuff....and one of my talents is "macro" work with stuff designed for larger areas so mayb eI can get this to work.

If this stuff really works well....I might start "rescuing" the "un-rescuable" laptops with structural issues. I see a lot of cheap ones on e-bay that are broken and busted up, some to a point I'd need to fabricate parts, and if I can get to that point using clay molds and various hand-worked plastic work. As frustrating as this stuff is when I'm trying to do something else, I do enjoy dabbling around with rescuing old stuff most people would just throw up their hands and go "I'll just slap DOSBOX on a Pi and call it a day" after they see what is involved - then getting it down to a science where it's just a minor inconvenience and not a major undertaking.

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Reply 17573 of 27187, by RetroLizard

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I have what appears to be an ATi Radeon 9700 AGP card, but I can't tell if it works. Plugged in the extra cable and everything, but the computer just throws a POST error code through the PC speaker.

Nothing appears to be bad, as far as I can tell.

Reply 17574 of 27187, by appiah4

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RetroLizard wrote on 2020-12-18, 20:58:

I have what appears to be an ATi Radeon 9700 AGP card, but I can't tell if it works. Plugged in the extra cable and everything, but the computer just throws a POST error code through the PC speaker.

Nothing appears to be bad, as far as I can tell.

What motherboard is it in? These cards don't run at AGP 2x despite being keyed for it IIRC..

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 17576 of 27187, by PD2JK

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I thought the 9500/9700 (Pro) was the last card to have AGP 2x backwards compatability.

i386 16 ⇒ i486 DX4 100 ⇒ Pentium MMX 200 ⇒ Athlon Orion 700 | TB 1000 ⇒ AthlonXP 1700+ ⇒ Opteron 165 ⇒ Dual Opteron 856

Reply 17577 of 27187, by xcomcmdr

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Setup my new OSCC for the Megadrive. Works perfectly.
I'll try not to power it with a random power cable that output more than 5V.
The previous one did not like it at all.

Reply 17578 of 27187, by cyclone3d

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Tonight I was working on getting another 486 setup going.

Motherboard is a FIC 486-PIO-2.

I had ordered some EEPROM chips that would work for this board so I could update from the ancient version that came on the board on an EPROM.

So I went ahead and flashed it to the newest one which was a beta with Y2K support.

Well, it kept giving me a no video beep code and I finally decided to try an ISA video card and it fired right up but said that the CMOS checksum was bad and then proceeded to try to boot from the floppy drive.

After it booted, the keyboard input was not giving the correct keypresses.

Decided to try the latest regular BIOS and it worked.

So instead of using my programmer to update to the beta BIOS I used the flash program to do it on the board. Same results as writing it with my programmer.

Since there were two different beta BIOS files available for my version of the board.. one said it was for using with a programmer and an EPROM and the other with the flash program and an EEPROM, I downloaded the one that said it was for use with a programmer and programmed the EEPROM chip with that and now it works.

Uggghhhh. stupid corrupted or downright bad BIOS image caused me a couple hours of trouble and almost giving up on the board.

Is it somebody here who owns http://cwcyrix.duckdns.org ? If so, they need to know that the BIOS file for the FIC 486-PIO-2 with the name of 1175B701.BIN is no good.

Oh yeah.. got another Voodoo 3 working as well that I just acquired a couple days ago for cheap in a lot of random parts. It wasn't working in the above board and so I pulled out another Voodoo 3 and tried it and it worked. I didn't see any damage to the board or missing components after examining both so I cleaned the edge connector and tried again and the board sprang to life. That made me happy.

Both boards are V3-2000s I believe but one has 7ns RAM and the one I just got has 6ns RAM.

I'll need to hook them up to a different machine to compare and see if the one with faster RAM is clocked higher or not. They both have the V3-2000 heatsink so I think that they would be clocked the same.

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Reply 17579 of 27187, by appiah4

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PD2JK wrote on 2020-12-18, 21:27:

I thought the 9500/9700 (Pro) was the last card to have AGP 2x backwards compatability.

They are supposed to. They don't always.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.