Tetrium wrote:

I had missed about this connector, cheers for making me aware of it! 😁
Does it require some special cable? I probably don't have it though (I got a single Medion 4MX 460) but I suppose I'll probably never need it anyway.

There are different type of scart "dongles" for medion cards. Though they all look like it is just a pcb with wires and connectors.

http://microdream.co.uk/medion-pc-mt9-3-rca-s … ml#.WIZR7bnYRNw
http://microdream.co.uk/medion-pc-mt6-scart-s … ml#.WIZR7LnYRNw

If I knew this thread was here, I would have used it for the NEC MultISync II JC-1402HMA I found last week at Computer Surplus in Redmond. I expected to have to BUY it but those guys told me nobody wants CRTs anymore and just gave it to me. It needed a few repairs (I still need to do a focus adjustment after warmup), but runs great otherwise. Technically a dumpster find though hard to tell because the "scrap pile" was exactly the same as the "Virus Free Computer, Limited Quantities (this one is not for sale)".

Picked up three 250GB SATA hard drives from a trashed dell server... all have about 36000 hours of runtime 😀

Also rescued a fat PS3 from the trash, no controllers just the composite cable and what appears to be a functional Gigabyte 1155 motherboard but further testing is needed to confirm that. It just happened to be inside a nice blcak Gigabyte case which Phil used for his time machine setup at one time 😀

What else.. ah a Dell Studio 1555 laptop which beeps 8 times (LCD failure) - haven't tried fixing it yet, and a PowerMac G4 (unknown specs atm).

These are not recent finds... I found them years ago in the dumpster.
The left one is a whopping 9.1GB SCSI drive and tested all green by HDTune.
The middle one is a weeny 20MB MFM drive and I reckon the port is ST-506. It came with the board on the right side, which I guessed an ST-506 to SCSI converter, but couldn't get it to work, and I don't have an ST-506 adapter to test it.
Dunno what to do with them... They are surely heavy, especially the left one.

OK, this is not a PC or even a computer, but: it's hardware, it's retro, it's got a floppy drive and it's MIDI compatible, so I figure it's relevant...
In a futile attempt to actually REDUCE the amount of crap in my home, I was off to trash some stuff, but while doing so:

I couldn't help myself. 😀
Lots to like here: early '90 aesthetics, memory expansion, nice keyboard, etc. Here is what vintage synth explorer has to say about it.

It powers up, but there's a bit of a hum from the PSU (I assume), the LCD has a few un-lit sections and the sliders are a bit stiff. I haven't tried to get sound out of it yet. However, it seems to be built with the quality of yesterdays pro-audio gear, so I have hope. It's a heavy beast, made in the U.S.A.

You won't know until it's cracked open, but there's a good chance it will be amenable to component level servicing. Cap replacement would be high on the list.

c0keb0ttle wrote:

I spend some more time digging through my parents' basement, trying to find some hidden gems I might've overlooked earlier. […]
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I spend some more time digging through my parents' basement, trying to find some hidden gems I might've overlooked earlier.

Found a paper bag with some stuff wrapped in newspapers, which I assumed was plates and other old kitchen utensils because... newspaper wrappings.

Turns out it was some more old computer hardware, yay!

First up is a Gravis Gamecard rev 1.4. I think this is used for connecting joysticks and the dial which I first assumed was a volume knob is for adjusting the speed of the joystick communication protocol in "newer" PCs. I don't remember this card from my childhood at all, but apparently my dad used it at some time...

http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=765

I found this back ago.. I have the same card here.With that volume controller.

gdjacobs wrote:

You won't know until it's cracked open, but there's a good chance it will be amenable to component level servicing. Cap replacement would be high on the list.

You're probably right. I had it open yesterday and I saw no leaking or bulging caps, but I'll keep an eye on them.

While opened, I investigated some rattling I had heard, and found not only one, but two metal sewing needles (!) in there. I guess I should be glad I found them before they did any (further?) damage.

It starts up to the point of asking for a boot disk, which is normal operation apparently. So next up is digging up a compatible DD floppy disk, and setting something up to get the OS on it.

stoof wrote:

It starts up to the point of asking for a boot disk, which is normal operation apparently. So next up is digging up a compatible DD floppy disk, and setting something up to get the OS on it.

720kb? If yes, then grab a 1.44 and put some tape over the hole. 😉

brostenen wrote:

stoof wrote:

It starts up to the point of asking for a boot disk, which is normal operation apparently. So next up is digging up a compatible DD floppy disk, and setting something up to get the OS on it.

720kb? If yes, then grab a 1.44 and put some tape over the hole. 😉

Yep, that's it. I've read that doing the tape-over-hole trick is not recommended. But luckily, I have an entire case of old Mac DD disks (incidentally also trash picked!), some of which appear to be unused, so I'll give those a go. I've located a disk image of the OS and some apps to format the disk and transfer the image. Now I have to set up a computer with a native floppy drive and Windows. Linux and USB floppy drive won't do apparently.

Shame on me for not always having a computer with Win and a floppy drive ready to go, right? 😉

stoof wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

You won't know until it's cracked open, but there's a good chance it will be amenable to component level servicing. Cap replacement would be high on the list.

You're probably right. I had it open yesterday and I saw no leaking or bulging caps, but I'll keep an eye on them.

Doesn't necessarily mean they're good. Considering age and symptoms, there's a good chance you have caps out of tolerance, in the power supply filtering if not elsewhere.

brostenen wrote:

stoof wrote:

It starts up to the point of asking for a boot disk, which is normal operation apparently. So next up is digging up a compatible DD floppy disk, and setting something up to get the OS on it.

720kb? If yes, then grab a 1.44 and put some tape over the hole. 😉

Or better, just get a Gotek and flash it with HxC firmware so it can become usable to the Ensoniq unit. This will ease for sure file transfer from the unit to your working PC and the contrary operation too. As a small plus, there are many chances Jeff helping you to get/someone in HxC support forum wanting to share with you their Ensoniq OS/System/microcode images if you become an HxC customer.

hyoenmadan wrote:

Or better, just get a Gotek and flash it with HxC firmware so it can become usable to the Ensoniq unit. This will ease for sure file transfer from the unit to your working PC and the contrary operation too. As a small plus, there are many chances Jeff helping you to get/someone in HxC support forum wanting to share with you their Ensoniq OS/System/microcode images if you become an HxC customer.

Yeah, if I end up using it beyond testing and messing about, I'll definitively get a floppy emulator of some sort.

Another option would be getting the add-on SCSI interface, which would allow me to access more samples without loading floppies (emulated or not) inbetween. But I'm thinking that'll be more trouble and expense than it's worth.

The original OS is available on the interwebs, so that's sorted.

A coworker gave me a box of old-ish parts yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised at what I found inside:

Fractal Design Tesla R2 1000W power supply
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium w/ unknown CPU and Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TC attached
ASUS A8N-E w/ unknown CPU and stock cooler attached
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 cooler
2x BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC w/ SLI bridge
XFX GeForce GT 240
2x 1GB Corsair DDR-400 RAM
2x 512MB Corsair DDR-400 RAM
2x 1GB OCZ DDR-400 RAM
2x 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 RAM
6x assorted IDE optical drives (I'll be lucky if two work 🤣)

I haven't tested anything yet, but I'm told everything worked when it was put away. Not a bad assortment of enthusiast-grade components!

maximus wrote:

A coworker gave me a box of old-ish parts yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised at what I found inside: […]
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A coworker gave me a box of old-ish parts yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised at what I found inside:

Fractal Design Tesla R2 1000W power supply
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium w/ unknown CPU and Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TC attached
ASUS A8N-E w/ unknown CPU and stock cooler attached
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 cooler
2x BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC w/ SLI bridge
XFX GeForce GT 240
2x 1GB Corsair DDR-400 RAM
2x 512MB Corsair DDR-400 RAM
2x 1GB OCZ DDR-400 RAM
2x 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 RAM
6x assorted IDE optical drives (I'll be lucky if two work 🤣)

I haven't tested anything yet, but I'm told everything worked when it was put away. Not a bad assortment of enthusiast-grade components!

How rich is this guy to be giving away modern 80+ Gold 1000W power supplys? thats like a 300 dollar part even today.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

How rich is this guy to be giving away modern 80+ Gold 1000W power supplys? thats like a 300 dollar part even today.

Yeah, I'm a little suspicious of the power supply. I won't be too surprised if it turns out to be dead or defective. A man can hope, though, right? 😊

lazibayer wrote:

These are not recent finds... I found them years ago in the dumpster. The left one is a whopping 9.1GB SCSI drive and tested all […]
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These are not recent finds... I found them years ago in the dumpster.
The left one is a whopping 9.1GB SCSI drive and tested all green by HDTune.
The middle one is a weeny 20MB MFM drive and I reckon the port is ST-506. It came with the board on the right side, which I guessed an ST-506 to SCSI converter, but couldn't get it to work, and I don't have an ST-506 adapter to test it.
Dunno what to do with them... They are surely heavy, especially the left one.

I found the manual of the rightmost MFM to SCSI converter and I gave it another try and still couldn't get it to work, so I went ahead and purchased an RLL controller:

It asks the geometry of the drive before formatting and I am not sure about what value I should gave to the "WPcom" parameter. I did a google search and got two answers, none or 128. I tried none and the formatting finished with one bad sector at C255 H2 S15 IIRC. The following DOS format told me 16KB in bad sectors with a cluster size of 2KB. So I guess DOS quarantined 32 adjacent sectors?

lazibayer wrote:

I found the manual of the rightmost MFM to SCSI converter and I gave it another try and still couldn't get it to work, so I went […]
Show full quote

lazibayer wrote:

These are not recent finds... I found them years ago in the dumpster. The left one is a whopping 9.1GB SCSI drive and tested all […]
Show full quote

These are not recent finds... I found them years ago in the dumpster.
The left one is a whopping 9.1GB SCSI drive and tested all green by HDTune.
The middle one is a weeny 20MB MFM drive and I reckon the port is ST-506. It came with the board on the right side, which I guessed an ST-506 to SCSI converter, but couldn't get it to work, and I don't have an ST-506 adapter to test it.
Dunno what to do with them... They are surely heavy, especially the left one.

I found the manual of the rightmost MFM to SCSI converter and I gave it another try and still couldn't get it to work, so I went ahead and purchased an RLL controller:

WechatIMG2.jpeg

It asks the geometry of the drive before formatting and I am not sure about what value I should gave to the "WPcom" parameter. I did a google search and got two answers, none or 128. I tried none and the formatting finished with one bad sector at C255 H2 S15 IIRC. The following DOS format told me 16KB in bad sectors with a cluster size of 2KB. So I guess DOS quarantined 32 adjacent sectors?

Did you happen to try and use the SCSI interface, and if so, did you properly terminate it?

Brickpad wrote:

Did you happen to try and use the SCSI interface, and if so, did you properly terminate it?

I had been trying with the SCSI board all the time because I didn't have an MFM/RLL controller till today. Yes I terminated it with either onboard terminator or external terminator.

Not from the dumpster, but I "found" this stuff in my own storage room which I only have access to once or twice a year (it's 5000km away from where I live.)

It's highly likely I have the box for the Voodoo Banshee (top left, a Guillemot Maxi Gamer Phoenix) around too.

Going through the whole thing right now with the intent of keeping what I want and letting the rest go; there's tons more interesting hardware and a lot of big box DOS/Win95 games in excellent shape. Still trying to figure out what to do with it all. Somewhere in there is a boxed GUS PnP with 8.5MB RAM that I would **really** like to get my hands on.