svfn wrote on 2022-09-17, 17:39:

Focus G is always a nice choice for retro builds if you want more airflow haha. Now they've also released Pop Air with 2x 5.25" bays but these cases feel big in terms of footprint.

I do like the size of the Focus G cases. Perfect for full sized ATX without being gigantic like some modern cases.

The Pop Air cases look really awesome, although I'm not completely sold on the placement of the 5.25 bays in it.

Yeah some said the 5.25" bay with the cover off looks ugly. Tbh I am not sure why Fractal added a new line with 5.25" bays and removed bays from the Focus G line. Also I just feel uncomfortable with tempered glass, acrylic is fine for me as my nails are short and a few scratches are not that bad.

PD2JK wrote on 2022-09-15, 16:53:

Commodore 386SX-16 took a vinegar bath. It had some nasty battery goo. Yes, it got revived! Two long beeps + three short beeps. I think it needs a battery.

Hi @PD2JK, I didn't know about this method of cleaning a board with a vinegar bath. What kind of vinegar or mixture do you use? And for how many minutes?

Cheers

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-09-17, 18:13:

The Pop Air cases look really awesome, although I'm not completely sold on the placement of the 5.25 bays in it.

If the case is on a table or something it's fine, no problems. If the case is on the floor it's AWFUL, I wouldn't recommend these cases for anyone who need 5.25" drives and would have to keep the case on the floor. I've got mine sitting on top of Fractal Design Define R4.

svfn wrote on 2022-09-17, 18:16:

Yeah some said the 5.25" bay with the cover off looks ugly.

It does look ugly, I always slap the cover right back once I'm done with the dvd drive.

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-09-17, 17:34:

Transplanted my Windows 98 build into its new case, a Fractal Designs Focus G.

Next on the list is adding an Audigy 2 ZS alongside the current Diamond Monster MX300.

Looks really clean for a Win98 build 🙂👍
My setup compared to that looks a bit messy inside but using a GA-6BA (Baby AT) with a P3 Coppermine I'm ok with that 😅

Keeping the dream alive, shopping for a faster VLB card for my 486 rig. I also had a very generous person hook me up with a mouse systems mousepad that would work with a PCjr optical mouse. It works better than I expected and is so odd to think it was from 1984.

Sombrero wrote on 2022-09-17, 18:38:

If the case is on a table or something it's fine, no problems. If the case is on the floor it's AWFUL, I wouldn't recommend these cases for anyone who need 5.25" drives and would have to keep the case on the floor. I've got mine sitting on top of Fractal Design Define R4.

I keep mine of the floor, so I think I'll stay with the Focus G cases for now. 😀

GuillermoXT wrote on 2022-09-17, 19:04:

Looks really clean for a Win98 build 🙂👍

Thank you! It came with a window, so I feel extra obligated to tidy up those cables. 😉

Cleaned an old AT PSU. Painted it black, as it will be installed in unusual case with black chassis (though white front panel and that П shaped cover).

Installed a new cooler, had to add a resistor - it's powerful but loud. And all of that pain for 25-30 years old stuff, to run it several times and forget 😀

Today I dropped off my Retro Rig's motherboard a few of its expansion cards to be recapped.

Giuliano wrote on 2022-09-17, 18:25:

PD2JK wrote on 2022-09-15, 16:53:

Commodore 386SX-16 took a vinegar bath. It had some nasty battery goo. Yes, it got revived! Two long beeps + three short beeps. I think it needs a battery.

Hi @PD2JK, I didn't know about this method of cleaning a board with a vinegar bath. What kind of vinegar or mixture do you use? And for how many minutes?

Cheers

Hey Giuliano, I used a cardboard box with same dimensions of the mainboard, put a plastic bag in it so it won't leak. Then I used 100% cleaning vinegar and let it soak for an hour. I also used a toothbrush to get the green leaky stuff off. Don't use your own everyday use toothbrush.
After that I rinsed the board with demineralized water and dried it with my hot air station. You can also use a hair dryer or heat gun. I still have to paint the traces with some clear nail polish to protect them against new corrosion...

Spent the last 3-4 hours trying to get a compact flash card setup and booting on my Tandy 1000 HX. I have the 3-in-1 PCB add-on which includes extra RAM, a serial port and CF adapter.

This ended up not being a straight-forward process.

First, creating bootable 720kb disks was a challenge. I tried several different applications. FDImage could create 720kb floppies that would read on the Tandy 1000, but for some reason they wouldn't boot. Rawwrite and rawrite proved useless entirely. Finally using WinImage I was able to successfully create disks that would boot on the Tandy.

Then came partitioning and formatting. I'm using a 32MB CF card. I wiped the card on my Windows 10 machine using AOEMI Partition Assistant.

Initially I tried using MS-DOS 3.3 to partition and format the CF card. Unfortunately while the CF card was formatted and usable, I could not get DOS to boot from the card.

One card wipe later, I switched to MS-DOS 5.0 and success! Finally it was booting from the CF card.

I then reconnected the CF card to my Windows 10 machine. It initially wouldn't show up until I assigned a drive letter with AOEMI Partition Assistant. Once that was done, I could read/write to the CF card in Windows 10, flip it over to the Tandy 1000, boot up and play those games.

It turns out that proper disk imaging software (WinImage) and appropriate DOS version (5.0) is critical to getting everything to work.

Now to enjoy some classic Sierra games with their glorious 3-channel Tandy sound. 😁

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-09-17, 17:34:

Transplanted my Windows 98 build into its new case, a Fractal Designs Focus G.

Next on the list is adding an Audigy 2 ZS alongside the current Diamond Monster MX300.

I can recommend a fan to blow air for GPU ram chips. Zalman is a good cooler but chips/vrm below cooks very easily on ti4600 / 9800pro in my experience. Originally Zalman came with a 60mm fan mount on the side with some models.

Your case front 120mm may be just enough though. Maybe I'm being paranoid 😁

Tried to install Notepad++ on the Windows 98 instance I set up yesterday, using DOSBox-x. Tried several versions, with very little luck. Even the ones that would start up mysteriously refused to open or save a file.

timsdf wrote on 2022-09-18, 19:59:

I can recommend a fan to blow air for GPU ram chips. Zalman is a good cooler but chips/vrm below cooks very easily on ti4600 / 9800pro in my experience. Originally Zalman came with a 60mm fan mount on the side with some models.

Your case front 120mm may be just enough though. Maybe I'm being paranoid 😁

This particular card is a Ti4200, which does have lower memory clock speed compared to the Ti4600. So maybe it doesn't run as hot?

I suppose the best solution would be adding some additional heatsinks directly on the memory chips.

I'm also hoping the general air flow (dual 120mm intake and 120mm exhaust) will give it enough airflow. Certainly more than typical cases from back in the 90s.

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-09-18, 20:24:

This particular card is a Ti4200, which does have lower memory clock speed compared to the Ti4600. So maybe it doesn't run as ho […]
Show full quote

timsdf wrote on 2022-09-18, 19:59:

I can recommend a fan to blow air for GPU ram chips. Zalman is a good cooler but chips/vrm below cooks very easily on ti4600 / 9800pro in my experience. Originally Zalman came with a 60mm fan mount on the side with some models.

Your case front 120mm may be just enough though. Maybe I'm being paranoid 😁

This particular card is a Ti4200, which does have lower memory clock speed compared to the Ti4600. So maybe it doesn't run as hot?

I suppose the best solution would be adding some additional heatsinks directly on the memory chips.

I'm also hoping the general air flow (dual 120mm intake and 120mm exhaust) will give it enough airflow. Certainly more than typical cases from back in the 90s.

It's probably fine with 120mm fan blowing from distance and older TSOP large ram chips. Nice build and way more quiet than a card with stock heatsink 😁

Desoldered dead battery Dallas RTC from Pentium motherboard. Oh my, spent all evening on that. Surprised, motherboard still alive.

I'm still waiting for details for Necroware RTC module - I ordered wrong ICs - they are in much smaller formfactor than required by PCB. So put another Dallas from AliExpress in the socket - seems working.

Started working on another Tandy I own, a model TL/2 I bought awhile ago but hadn't tested.

Oddly didn't work with my CM-11 monitor for some reason (garbled output), but worked fine with this old Packard Bell CGA monitor I had. I assumed it should be compatible with the CM-11 monitor since I've seen photos of TL/2's running on them? Or is there some settings that need to be configured somehow?

At any rate, the machine seemed to work, including the 3.5 inch drive.

I have a CF adapter and memory expansion board I may try in this one. I do lack a proper Tandy Enhanced Keyboard, so I'll have to try to pick one up.

There might be a DIP switch or jumper block that got set to CGA 80 mode instead of TGA mode and it's either in the back of the computer or inside on the motherboard.

I flashed a modified BIOS for my Austin M1RC and it works (I archived the original to be safe) and I flashed a MR BIOS set for a 286 board I'm going to test later on tonight.

I have yet to get that ECS 286 LX-A working and if the MR BIOS boots up, then I know for a fact that the original ROMs have gone bad or just a fluke somewhere. No battery damage since the board was never used and I have another 286 board I can test out as well which uses SIMM-30 RAM and there isn't a spot for PDIP RAM (late 286 board).

Not really retro, but old activity..

Installed the stock coolers of my R9 280x VaporX and R9 280x Toxic, they had missing fans and shrouds, so when is aw local ADs i did purchase dead cards, but with well working fans, to install on my cards, and making them as they should be. I even managed to revive the artifacting VaporX, and did buy another cooler for it, so i have now extra VaporX, that will be sold, the card is working great did test it multiple days for like 2 hours per day, and no crashes, artifacting or any crap going on..

Did install also X-Fi Xtreme music to the x58 system, the card works great, no craclikng, buggy sound or anything. I think that card did even improve the performance in Prototype II and GTA V, since before installing it, the games did run well, but there was some sort of microsttuter, now with the X-Fi there is not. The interesting part is that, this is the Music card, not the Gamer or Fatal1ty, as they have more memory for gaming. Some ppl did state that this memory on these X-Fi cards is BS, but it appers, that they improve the performance of the sound, and with that the games run smoother as well...

This is how the cards did look before adding the factory fans and shroud...

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-09-19, 00:27:

Started working on another Tandy I own, a model TL/2 I bought awhile ago but hadn't tested. […]
Show full quote

Started working on another Tandy I own, a model TL/2 I bought awhile ago but hadn't tested.

Oddly didn't work with my CM-11 monitor for some reason (garbled output), but worked fine with this old Packard Bell CGA monitor I had. I assumed it should be compatible with the CM-11 monitor since I've seen photos of TL/2's running on them? Or is there some settings that need to be configured somehow?

At any rate, the machine seemed to work, including the 3.5 inch drive.

I have a CF adapter and memory expansion board I may try in this one. I do lack a proper Tandy Enhanced Keyboard, so I'll have to try to pick one up.

That Tandy and PB CRT look near mint. Very nice!