appiah4 wrote:

the_ultra_code wrote:

If it is not the RAM, the only thing I can think of being the problem is the CPU itself. It is a P2 "Deschutes" 333MHz CPU, which, when I first installed it, I happened to not change the jumper settings on the motherboard, which beforehand was set for a P2 "Klamath" 300MHz CPU. 🙁

It is possible that I damaged the CPU's cache, and, possibly, the motherboard itself?

Possible; Deschutes is 2.0V and Klamat is 2.8V, you basically 40% overvolted the thing without proper cooling, you may have damaged it.

Damn. Thankfully, these processors are a dime a dozen. I'll get another one later soon and try that.

What happened was that I had originally threw this processor into the machine without changing the jumper settings, Win98SE started acting not-so-normal, then switching back to the 300MHz Klamath CPU, Win98SE still acting strange, then switching back to this CPU and recognizing how I screwed up the jumper settings, but still, Win98SE kept acting strange.

okenido wrote:

However I think more about a motherboard stability problem. Have you checked caps ? Can you lower the FSB or something to underclock it and see if it's more stable ? Tried another power supply ?

From what I have seen of the board, all of the caps are in good condition. I don't believe the BIOS would allow me to underclock the CPU, but I guess I could try with the jumpers, no? And as for power supply, no. I could try, but I doubt it would change the situation. Besides, the PSU is a key component of the case's airflow. and is designed specifically for the case.

My major concern is having somehow damaged the motherboard - I doubt running that Deschutes CPU like that is any good for the motherboard, no?

Now that i've finished with my K6 III+ build and happy with how it is i've now turned my attention to working on these two!

The top one is my Pentium III Tualatin build - The resource monster is what i'm calling it at the moment, i'm hoping though that it will become the resource master at some point! The Bottom one is my re-housed 200MMX machine which i put together today. I've dismantled my AT machine as i want to use the case for a 5x86 build i'm planning to put together after i've finished with these two. The MMX still has some more sound cards to be added 🤣 🤣 🤣

The Tualatin 1400s, 256mb, - Cards - GF4 Ti4600, MX300 with DBXG50, USB2 Card, EWS64s (32mb), Aztech Waverider 32+, SB64 Value

The MMX - 200MMX, 64mb, Banshee PCI, Awe32 (DB50XG & 2mb)

The DB50XG is the icing on the cake. I have one myself installed in my Packard Bell Pack-Mate 28 Plus on a Sound Blaster 16 CT2740 (CT1747 bus w/ the OPL3 integrated). I send a reset command (syx) to the card when the system initializes for GM files that utilize SFX, such as waves in the Last Wave MIDI file (OutRun) and it sounds amazing.

the_ultra_code wrote:

From what I have seen of the board, all of the caps are in good condition. I don't believe the BIOS would allow me to underclock the CPU, but I guess I could try with the jumpers, no? And as for power supply, no. I could try, but I doubt it would change the situation. Besides, the PSU is a key component of the case's airflow. and is designed specifically for the case.

My major concern is having somehow damaged the motherboard - I doubt running that Deschutes CPU like that is any good for the motherboard, no?

Caps doesn't need to be leaky to have lost more than half of their capacity, affecting stability. Same thing for old PSUs, a lot of people just trash them and use modern ones because they can get unreliable over time.
Without swapping parts one by one (if you have spares...) it'll be hard to guess what is wrong in your computer...

appiah4 wrote:

brostenen wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

If I had an A2000 I would be buying shit for it nonstop 🤣.

I know the thought dude.... I know it. And because they are just a tad too expensive for my pocket, I have bought a lot of upgrades for my Amiga500. Well... One of the two I own. It is not an Amiga300, yet on paper, my 500 should become some 2.5 times faster than a 3000 with the TF-530 that I bought. That was "on paper", as the accelerator will only communicate over an 16-bit bus.

Terriblefire is a nice accelerator.. I'm a ACA500plus guy though. Mine works flawlessly at 42 fps, so I'm also cruising at the limits of official Amiga speeds. 😎

Sweet. Once my 500 rev 8a.1 is fully upgraded. It will have kickstart 2 (37.350), TF-530, 1mb chip, 2mb fast, 1.5mb slow, ScanPlusECS scandoubler, boot-selector, CF-Card and an internal gotek.

My other 500 rev 5 model 3. Will have kickswitch with 1.2 and 1.3, ScanPlusECS scandoubler, internal gotek and an 68000 25mhz accelerator with 8mb fastram. Plus CF card and 512k of slowram.

My 600 will be getting an IndevisionECS scandoubler and a 1.3/3.1 kickstart switch. It already has SD card, IDE-splitter/dongle and 1mb chipram upgrade.

Not a fan of the vampire my self. Too expensive for what I am going to use Amiga's for.

And yeah... My two 500's and my C64 need some recapping. The 600 is recapped with ceramic caps.

derSammler wrote:

Partly repaired my Xbox today by swapping the DVD drive. The old one was completely dead, this one now works but the tray can only be opened manually.

I my experience, xboxs DVD drives are not very good.
I have several xboxs and only one has a 100% working DVD drive.

Since you've been working on your xbox, I also recommend preventive cleaning of contamination on the traces indicated in the tutorial http://www.ogxbox.com/forums/index.php?/topic … race-corrosion/ and removing or replacing (depending on your xbox version) the clock battery.

The Samsung drive I'm now using is said to be the best and very reliable. It's a bit sad that the door does not open correctly, but I don't care that much. That Xbox has a mod chip and runs the games from HDD anyway. The drive is good enough to re-install the dash board and that's all that matters. 😉 It's not a problem with the belt, btw. Replaced that already. Seems like the motor which drives the door has become too weak.

The clock battery has been replaced already. The Xbox has been fully maintained and works just great.

My Xbox Original needed a new PSU and HDD since both died the same day 8 years ago. I got a new PSU 8 years ago and installed it (1/2 way through the repair). In January, 2013, I purchased an EEPROM reader to read the EEPROM chip for the HDD password, created a boot CD, hooked up a good working 80GB HDD to the PC, created the new drive, and it's been working ever since. My first video game system repair, and it still works (kinda). I need to replace the motor and belt for the drive since they aren't working very well.

My Xbox Original is v 1.6b (the clock capacitor isn't prone to leakage unlike the previous versions).

oeuvre wrote:

https://i.imgur.com/46fJitlm.jpg […]
Show full quote

edited an IRC friend's picture

I love lunchbox computers! It's too bad Dolches are like gold. someday I may find one of the "lesser brands" from the 386/486 era.

There are a few companies like SCS and BSI that makes new computers in that format, with up to 22" screens and even multiple foldout screens, for applications where you need expansion cards and portability.

Following on from my post earlier about the 200mmx. I've been installing stuff and testing out the thing with some Midi's! I love listening to how midis sound on different hardware. Fitted a Turtle Beach Pinnacle with the HOMAC daughter board along side the AWE32. The card is so clean on its audio output. Routeed the Awe 32 through it for the time being so i can switch between the midi interfaces to hear the difference.

I thought the Pinnacle was a long card but the Awe32 CT3980 is ridiculous!

a Gotek to use in that A2000?

When the Gotek is modified to work with Amiga, can it still be used with PC?

I just came back from picking up a (modern) server I bought, so that's not retro; BUT the place I picked it up at had a bunch of old hardware that might get trashed pretty soon. I don't have a car or much room to store stuff so:

CALL-OUT FOR VOGONERS IN STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: free vintage computer goodies! (Assuming the guy I spoke to doesn't change his mind)

Among the stuff I saw was:
- Two badass beige IBM pedistal servers with (multiple?) Pentium Pros
- A Pentium Pro Dell desktop
- A Couple of Dell-branded flat Trinitron CRTs
There was also a whole lot of rack-stuff (and the racks themselves), other misc. computers and peripherals. It was also hinted that there was more stuff in storage. I'm not sure how much of it he is willing to part with for free, but he seemed like a cool guy who'd be content with seeing the stuff be put to use instead of being trashed. He wanted the stuff out of there before the end of the month.

So yeah, Gondor calls for aid and all that. PM me for deets. 😀

EDIT: It seems the guy took my advice and put up some auctions: https://www.tradera.com/profile/items/200327/compartment

Pentium pro chips? no pics?

Finished building this system to fully working condition:

Unfortunately I don't have an I/O shield for this motherboard

Specifications:

- New COMPAQ Prosignia 720 slot 1 ATX motherboard (Intel 440BX chipset)
- Intel Pentium III 500MHz CPU
- 2x LG 64MB PC100 CL2 RAM (128MB)
- Asus NVIDIA Geforce3 Ti 500 AGP graphics card
- Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold ISA sound card
- Transcend 32GB SSD with Digitus PATA-SATA adapter
- New Asus 16x DVD-ROM
- New AOpen 52x CD-RW
- Samsung 1.44MB FDD
- AOpen LED 80mm fan
- New AOpen 250W ATX power supply
- Time Colossus ATX case (comes from an e-waste container)

I like unique (or should I say Frankenstein?) setups that nobody else has, I think this one matches that preference.

This little project wasn't easy and took hours, I ran into the following issues:

- Finding suitable documentation about the motherboard -> ended up downloading quick specs of Proliant 400 and Prosignia 720, as well as a manual of the Deskpro EP series with a very similar motherboard
- PIII CPU that didn't work -> replaced with a working one that does have all capacitors 🤣
- SW1 switch that needed to be adjusted for the 500MHz PIII -> needed the Deskpro EP manual for this
- Motherboard that didn't like my ECC modules -> eventually just installed a regular non-ECC pair of LG that does work
- No video -> graphics card didn't make good enough contact in the AGP slot, have adjusted its position a little and decreased tightness of screw
- Disk controller error 601, didn't recognize FDD -> eventually found out that COMPAQ motherboards need an untwisted FDD cable, luckily I still have one!

Now it's ready for a Windows 98SE installation and all its drivers!

I'm a little late to the party, but a post on here finally pushed me to go woodgrain for one of my machines (386sx-25). The cover was in rough shape before, so this was more of a test than anything. But I'm really happy with the result!

okenido wrote:

the_ultra_code wrote:

From what I have seen of the board, all of the caps are in good condition. I don't believe the BIOS would allow me to underclock the CPU, but I guess I could try with the jumpers, no? And as for power supply, no. I could try, but I doubt it would change the situation. Besides, the PSU is a key component of the case's airflow. and is designed specifically for the case.

My major concern is having somehow damaged the motherboard - I doubt running that Deschutes CPU like that is any good for the motherboard, no?

Caps doesn't need to be leaky to have lost more than half of their capacity, affecting stability. Same thing for old PSUs, a lot of people just trash them and use modern ones because they can get unreliable over time.
Without swapping parts one by one (if you have spares...) it'll be hard to guess what is wrong in your computer...

I didn't know that about caps. A point which probably has some weight in this case, given how old the hardware is. "The more you know."

*sigh* Sadly, though, you are correct when it comes to having to swap out parts until the problem is found. That's what I had to do with my P3 system to try to find out why it wouldn't even post, let alone stay on, one day, which led me to discover that it was the primary IDE header on the motherboard causing problems. That was a pain, one that I have been trying to avoid with this back-burner of a project, but, I guess it's the only thing left to do. 😒

SSHed to my P90 with P200MMX overdrive which is connected to the Internet via PPP and a USRobotics ISDN Courier V.Everything and running Slackware 14.2 to recompile the kernel so I can compile OpenCBM kernel modules and use the P90's parallel port to interface to a 1541 drive with a XA1541 cable so that I can transfer files and disk images to use on my Commodore 64.

Why? Because I can. 😏

Tested a 350W PSU that would shut off if I had a floppy drive connected to it, and everything is working. Plus, it's the only PSU to have the -5VDC.

Has anyone heard of Codegen before, and is it any good? I checked ththe internals fofor bulged or exploded caps and they all look good to me and the fan is still quiet as a mouse.

bjwil1991 wrote:

Has anyone heard of Codegen before, and is it any good?

if you have to ask, the answer generally is no. It looks like a gutless wonder.

probably one of these:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDR … =Story&reid=123

dionb wrote:

So, choose 1.5x and 66MHz and you should get 233MHz even if BIOS can't figure it out.

This. Thank you, I got the 233 MHz readout. While I was at it, I upgraded the CPU cooler and installed a custom, brushless fan of high quality. It is a bit loud but I don't mind 😉

Also, I picked up a P133 with a nice case for an extremely compelling price! It had a 1Mb video Trident and an authentic (albeit stripped down) SB16. An FX66 chipset and a cache module upgrade was onboard too. I happen to have an extra 256k on a slot, but I don't have the requisite 64x8 tag chip so it didn't register. Maybe I'll get one and use the slot up - none of my other Pentium systems have or need them (already at 512k). All it needed was a hard disk and a floppy disk (both of which I had lying around) and it needed some retrobrighting, so I retrobrighted ALL the things!

The P133 (pictured at left most in above pic) had an unopened, seemingly unused manual.

With something REAAAALY COOL INSIDE!

I'm keeping this page for SURE!

There is a caveat: of all the computers pictured, THREE have DALLAS RTC chips. One I had retrofitted already (the newly upgraded Voodoo 233MHz, second from left) but the other two have soldered RTCs. However, these variants allow continuation of boot process (one even holds info despite BIOS displaying a dead battery) so I was at least able to install the OSes on them. Later on in the fall I will have to retrofit them.