That's an amazing system, man.

Just set up and tested an MSI MS5169 mainboard (SS7, Aladdin 5). Used 64 MB PC-100 and an AMD K6-2 350 MHz. Speed is impressive!

Wonder what figures I get when using an AMD K6-2 500 MHz, which I have lying around here as well.

Plugged in the new Commodore 64 PSU I got on eBay (last one) to the C64 I got back in October of 2017, hooked up the C64 to my TV set using a homemade RF cable (RCA cable with the RCA to RF or Coax adapter), and viola! Tested the SID chip as well with the BASIC commands I found using Google, and the SID chip works! Next purchase would be an S-Video cable, a 64HDD adapter to hook up to my ThinkPad R40 for games and stuff, and I'm all set.

Gallery: https://imgur.com/gallery/7ScUV

Thanks! The bugs were super gross but I'm pretty happy with how clean I got it and it works well.

Installed 128KB L2 cache into my Packard Bell Pack-Mate 28 Plus with some success (system locks up for some reason) and in order for me to get the system to boot would be to push the restart button.

1PB450M+ v1.1a BIOS
2
3Intel DX4 100
4640K Conventional Memory Passed
535840K Extended Memoy Passed
6
7This is where it gets stuck at cold boot

After pushing the restart button

1PB450M+ v1.1a BIOS
2
3Intel DX4 100
4640K Conventional Memory Passed
535840K Extended Memoy Passed
6128K L2 Cache SRAM Passed
7Shadow Memory Enabled
8Video Memory Enabled
9Mouse Detected
10
11Intel Plug-n-Play BIOS v1.1u
12Auto-Configuring Disk 0.

What's going on here? I have the right speed of the L2 cache (4x 20ns 28-pin 32kx8 SRAM, 15ns 28-pin 32kx8 SRAM <-- WinBond, and 64kx1 22-pin 15ns AT&T SRAM). I did put one in backwards, and luckily, I didn't short the board out and I turned the system off immediately.

bjwil1991 wrote:

I did put one in backwards, and luckily, I didn't short the board out and I turned the system off immediately.

That chip is dead. I'll give 10:1 odds on it too.

In lighter news, I got a little unboxing video of my recent acquisition; an IBM Eduquest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlXGfqc4X38

luckybob wrote:

bjwil1991 wrote:

I did put one in backwards, and luckily, I didn't short the board out and I turned the system off immediately.

That chip is dead. I'll give 10:1 odds on it too.

I did put another chip in there at the right orientation this time (got a lot of them).

Insanely pissed off right now. My 2nd 680i SLI board failed. The double dashes no post code thing that killed my first one.

Fuck EVGA and there garbage products. My next 680i will be from a better brand. No excuse for boards randomly dying like these do.

bjwil1991 wrote:

I did put another chip in there at the right orientation this time (got a lot of them).

try it without the cache?

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Insanely pissed off right now. My 2nd 680i SLI board failed. The double dashes no post code thing that killed my first one.

Fuck EVGA and there garbage products. My next 680i will be from a better brand. No excuse for boards randomly dying like these do.

This is why I buy Supermicro boards. They may not be flashy, but damn are they stable.

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboa … e/index.cfm#775

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Insanely pissed off right now. My 2nd 680i SLI board failed. The double dashes no post code thing that killed my first one.

Fuck EVGA and there garbage products. My next 680i will be from a better brand. No excuse for boards randomly dying like these do.

Pretty sure the newer Nvidia chipsets had major issues with reliability/longevity. They were generally good for about 2 years max before they would fry. This is from working on systems with them back when they were new.

luckybob wrote:

bjwil1991 wrote:

I did put another chip in there at the right orientation this time (got a lot of them).

try it without the cache?

I took the cache out and had to push the reset button since the system would "think" the L2 cache was still installed. After I pressed the reset button, it fired up. Then, I turned the system off and back on, and it boots up completely. I believe there might be corrosion in the cache chip sockets or just bad luck. 5 of them are WinBonds and the other one is AT&T branded (which might be the issue) since it's hard to find a 22-pin 64kx1 15ns manufactured by WinBond.

Could it be the one cache chip causes the system lock ups?

cyclone3d wrote:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Insanely pissed off right now. My 2nd 680i SLI board failed. The double dashes no post code thing that killed my first one.

Fuck EVGA and there garbage products. My next 680i will be from a better brand. No excuse for boards randomly dying like these do.

Pretty sure the newer Nvidia chipsets had major issues with reliability/longevity. They were generally good for about 2 years max before they would fry. This is from working on systems with them back when they were new.

Managed to get it to post once. Then I hit the reset switch and it went back to doing what it was doing before. I set the reset jumper and I was able to get post code 10 on the LEDs. Reset again and nothing. Maybe letting it sit for a minute will help.

Damn these boards are finnicky.

CkRtech wrote:

derSammler wrote:

Almost finished by Pentium 4 build today. Installed a Geforce2 MX 400, a floppy drive, a DVD+RW DL drive, and the ASUS iPanel Deluxe. The iPanel is quite cool. It's completely hardware-driven, shows POST code, CPU speed, temperatures, fan speed, and voltages. 😀

Already had Windows ME installed yesterday.

Ha! I remember wanting an iPanel back in the day when I ran a CUSL2. Cool stuff

Removed the iPanel today. While it looks cool and gives nice info, it makes the PC useless. Whenever it reads data from the mainboard every few seconds, the system freezes for a moment. This happens everywhere; on the desktop, in games etc. since it's hardware-driven. What a shame...

I believe I know the issue with the L2 cache: apparently, I believe it's the write-back cache on the DX4-100 OverDrive that's causing the issue. Would that be the case?

oeuvre wrote:

FINALLY got my Intellistation! Here's an imgur album with some more info https://imgur.com/a/TuQew

Nice system! Was Windows all configured that way when you got it? I like the IBM logo in the System screen. I wonder how hard it is to do that on a custom computer... 😲

EDIT: Answered my own question! http://infocellar.com/winxp/customize-system-properties.htm

Also, I think those are Conifer Seed Bugs. Harmless little guys, even if they look gross. They are very common where I live in Pennsylvania... they come out of the walls\attics in the winter to get warm.

derSammler wrote:

Removed the iPanel today. While it looks cool and gives nice info, it makes the PC useless. Whenever it reads data from the mainboard every few seconds, the system freezes for a moment. This happens everywhere; on the desktop, in games etc. since it's hardware-driven. What a shame...

Sadly, that doesn't surprise me. I can't speak for Asus today (because I've been Asus-free for 15 years), but their QA was absolute garbage back then.

Looks like some guys chatted up some fixes on a French forum way back when, but it only minimized the freezing instead of eliminated it.

I finally had some shreds of free time to play with my modded Toshiba T3200SX with Opti SB-clone and CF disk. Managed to run UFO: Enemy Unknown on it, played a bit of Prince of Persia, Wolfenstein 3D and Metal Mutants (one of my favourite Silmarils games). VGA plasma screen is awesome, albeit 256-colour games do suffer from being limited to only 16 shades of orange. But EGA games look great and black is black (not other shade of orange like on CGA and EGA plasma). Sound from Opti card is different than what I was used to in my childhood, so all midi music sounds a bit off (for me, subjectively - not saying it is bad, just different than what I remember). I have also installed Derive and text editor, and intend to add ZBrush Paint. And tested old Logitech mouse. Ready to work on this one as well, not only play games!

Will share photos at some point, but didn't have enough time for that yesterday.

Planning on rednecking or MacGyvering an A/V jack (either RCA or 35mm jack) for my C64 since the RF Modulator is failing (have to smack it with a screwdriver). Also, I'm planning on purchasing a uIEC/SD Deluxe and an IEC Disk Drive cable to hook up the unit to the diskette/serial port.

The MSI P7N Diamond I bought is also dead. Its an extremely rare 780I board worth $125.

I'm 2 for 2 on nForce boards this week. Its hard to built a contemporary high end NVIntel system without a working SLI motherboard. I wonder if my case is killing them. They haven't been lining up 100 percent right and I've been having to put pressure on the board in one direction or another to get the the holes lined up and everything screwed in, but that shouldn't cause boards to start dying on me.

I'm down 3 pieces of expensive to replace hardware this week. First my 7800GS AGP, then my EVGA 680I SLI, and now my P7N Diamond. Its hard to build a superior collection when your superior equipment keeps failing.

If the case is killing the mobos just put damn plastic under the MB and problem solved. Antistatic bag can be used for this, or like on the old S7, Slot 1 and other they did have plastic under the mobo to prevent shorting on the case..