VOGONS


Bought these (retro) hardware today

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Reply 47020 of 52338, by pete8475

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SteveC wrote on 2022-11-11, 23:23:

Picked these 5 PCs up last week for a tenner each and have been working on them since. A P3 1GHz, P3 1.26GHz, a Celeron 700MHz, an Athlon 1GHz and a P4 3GHz with a mix of hardware, nothing particularly exciting.

Built up 3 good ones so far ready to pass on! A proper Win98SE and XP fest 😀

The 1.26GHZ P3 could have an interesting (to some anyway) motherboard. I love that Tualatin era P3 stuff.

Reply 47021 of 52338, by Murugan

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This got in today...

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My retro collection: too much...

Reply 47023 of 52338, by Murugan

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Yes. I still need to take a good look at it but it seems it's pretty much complete except for the driverfloppy.
Got 2 versions of Falcon 3.0 now :p

My retro collection: too much...

Reply 47024 of 52338, by PTherapist

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Xicor wrote on 2022-11-11, 19:16:
Had some luck in the past weeks and managed to pick some goodies : […]
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Had some luck in the past weeks and managed to pick some goodies :

And at last a A1200 in a Micronik Infinitiv case with the mediator:

Micronik_Infinitiv_1200.jpg

mediator.jpg

The motherboard had a bad video DAC and the capacitor plague, also the psu and FDD were missing .

That Amiga looks pretty damn cool, excellent find there!

Reply 47025 of 52338, by Socket3

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eesz34 wrote on 2022-11-11, 23:44:

I've been seeing a lot of newer stuff so I thought I'd post this. I actually got it earlier in the year for very little because it didn't work.

It was all original and I believe was last booted in the mid-90s when I received it. This computer stood for everything I hated back in the day with it's proprietary design and lack of expansion. But I have a nostalgia for it because the computer store I used to visit sold them 😀

I have one of these. Picked it up because I tough it looked interesting. Unfortunately the PSU is dead and everything inside is proprietary... I'll have a look at it one day.

Reply 47026 of 52338, by eesz34

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Socket3 wrote on 2022-11-12, 19:26:
eesz34 wrote on 2022-11-11, 23:44:

I've been seeing a lot of newer stuff so I thought I'd post this. I actually got it earlier in the year for very little because it didn't work.

It was all original and I believe was last booted in the mid-90s when I received it. This computer stood for everything I hated back in the day with it's proprietary design and lack of expansion. But I have a nostalgia for it because the computer store I used to visit sold them 😀

I have one of these. Picked it up because I tough it looked interesting. Unfortunately the PSU is dead and everything inside is proprietary... I'll have a look at it one day.

You sure the PSU is dead? The problem with mine was a blown tantalum on the motherboard that shorted the +12 on the power supply. And you know what is funny? I got an extra motherboard, untested, and when I connected power to it the exact same tantalum blew. Everything was fine when I removed the blown cap (I eventually replaced it even though it ran without it).

Reply 47027 of 52338, by Socket3

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eesz34 wrote on 2022-11-13, 02:00:
Socket3 wrote on 2022-11-12, 19:26:
eesz34 wrote on 2022-11-11, 23:44:

I've been seeing a lot of newer stuff so I thought I'd post this. I actually got it earlier in the year for very little because it didn't work.

It was all original and I believe was last booted in the mid-90s when I received it. This computer stood for everything I hated back in the day with it's proprietary design and lack of expansion. But I have a nostalgia for it because the computer store I used to visit sold them 😀

I have one of these. Picked it up because I tough it looked interesting. Unfortunately the PSU is dead and everything inside is proprietary... I'll have a look at it one day.

You sure the PSU is dead? The problem with mine was a blown tantalum on the motherboard that shorted the +12 on the power supply. And you know what is funny? I got an extra motherboard, untested, and when I connected power to it the exact same tantalum blew. Everything was fine when I removed the blown cap (I eventually replaced it even though it ran without it).

I didn't test it extensively... I don't remember if I just cleaned it and tried turning it on or did what I usually do after cleaning - try to power the PSU up (disconnected from the rest of the hardware) and measure voltages..

Reply 47028 of 52338, by SteveC

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pete8475 wrote on 2022-11-12, 02:48:
SteveC wrote on 2022-11-11, 23:23:

Picked these 5 PCs up last week for a tenner each and have been working on them since. A P3 1GHz, P3 1.26GHz, a Celeron 700MHz, an Athlon 1GHz and a P4 3GHz with a mix of hardware, nothing particularly exciting.

Built up 3 good ones so far ready to pass on! A proper Win98SE and XP fest 😀

The 1.26GHZ P3 could have an interesting (to some anyway) motherboard. I love that Tualatin era P3 stuff.

I'm 99% sure it's a DFI CS35-TC https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/dfi-cs35-tc

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Reply 47029 of 52338, by eesz34

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Socket3 wrote on 2022-11-13, 13:43:
eesz34 wrote on 2022-11-13, 02:00:
Socket3 wrote on 2022-11-12, 19:26:

I have one of these. Picked it up because I tough it looked interesting. Unfortunately the PSU is dead and everything inside is proprietary... I'll have a look at it one day.

You sure the PSU is dead? The problem with mine was a blown tantalum on the motherboard that shorted the +12 on the power supply. And you know what is funny? I got an extra motherboard, untested, and when I connected power to it the exact same tantalum blew. Everything was fine when I removed the blown cap (I eventually replaced it even though it ran without it).

I didn't test it extensively... I don't remember if I just cleaned it and tried turning it on or did what I usually do after cleaning - try to power the PSU up (disconnected from the rest of the hardware) and measure voltages..

Good chance it's only that capacitor given my experience.

Reply 47030 of 52338, by HanJammer

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eesz34 wrote on 2022-11-13, 22:21:

Good chance it's only that capacitor given my experience.

If caps are dead then very likely also other components (voltage regulator, diodes) are bad. If just caps are dead then PSU at least tries to work (ie. it gives some voltages but usually way too low, if caps are dead in the high voltage section it may also give off some 'electrical' noises but then again - it will quickly kill the semiconductors which are dependent on the healthy caps). Anyway, it's easy to check with the multimeter.

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Reply 47031 of 52338, by eesz34

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HanJammer wrote on 2022-11-14, 01:05:
eesz34 wrote on 2022-11-13, 22:21:

Good chance it's only that capacitor given my experience.

If caps are dead then very likely also other components (voltage regulator, diodes) are bad. If just caps are dead then PSU at least tries to work (ie. it gives some voltages but usually way too low, if caps are dead in the high voltage section it may also give off some 'electrical' noises but then again - it will quickly kill the semiconductors which are dependent on the healthy caps). Anyway, it's easy to check with the multimeter.

This is a tantalum close to the power supply connector on the MB. In my case, the power supply was in good condition. The MB had a cap that was shorting a rail.

Reply 47032 of 52338, by HanJammer

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eesz34 wrote on 2022-11-14, 01:33:

This is a tantalum close to the power supply connector on the MB. In my case, the power supply was in good condition. The MB had a cap that was shorting a rail.

Well, I guess he can tell if the PSU is shot or not - if LEDs go shiny and HDD go spinny then it's likely OK. If Nothing happens when the power is turned on - then it's likely not OK. Tantalum cap of course can be broken as well but usually it won't stop PSU from working (unless it's shorted internally, didn't blew up and PSU has overcurrent protection which is possible, yet I rarely stumble upon such case).

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Reply 47033 of 52338, by eesz34

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HanJammer wrote on 2022-11-14, 01:46:

Tantalum cap of course can be broken as well but usually it won't stop PSU from working (unless it's shorted internally, didn't blew up and PSU has overcurrent protection which is possible, yet I rarely stumble upon such case).

The tantalum definitely stopped the PSU from working in the exact same computer I have. It was burned and prevented the PSU from functioning. I removed the cap and everything came to life. Tantalum in the exact same location on a spare MB, that apparently hadn't been powered for many years, smoked as soon as I applied power by the same PSU. Took that one off and everything came to life.

Positively a weak spot on those Compaq MBs.

Reply 47034 of 52338, by TrashPanda

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Snagged a PCI Creative Blaster Banshee today for a super reasonable price, it wasn't listed in with the other 3DFX Banshee cards so I got pretty lucky. Its no Voodoo3 but I do like the PCI based Banshee as it makes a great little card for Socket 7 boards that don't have AGP and cant run a PCI Voodoo3 due to the known voltage issue, it has really great DOS compatibility too which makes it an even better fit for a Socket 7 DOS/Windows build.

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Also bought a totally not a K5 AMD5k86-P75 which is one of the early AMD K5 CPUs with its branch prediction disabled, didn't buy it to put into a system but rather to have this odd little CPU in the collection. I'm pretty curious to see how it stacks up against a AM5x86-P75 which is their turbo charged 486. In theory it should smack the 486 but without branch prediction and a lower clock speed the 486 might match or beat it at tests.

Im super curious to find out and will have a Pentium-75 in the tests along with the AM5x86 to see how the K5 fairs against a CPU that should be its competitor.

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Edit - Also bought a bunch of spares for my Compaq Armada 1750, so when they arrive the 1750 will be back in mint condition again. Also going to start to crazy task of restoring the HDD back to factory, for some reason the previous owner put Win98 FE on it and while it does work I'm almost sure the BIOS partition got nixed when they did it as I have not found a way to get into the BIOS. Win98 FE is an abomination that shouldn't ever be put onto any system except for shits and giggles and trying to get it to play nice is an experience in patience and pulling the power cord.

So ill be exercising the well known maneuver of Nuke and Pave as I have the original Win95 OSR2 restore CD along with the diagnostics and system restore disks which can restore the BIOS partition.

Reply 47036 of 52338, by MarkP

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TrashPanda wrote on 2022-11-14, 08:28:

SNIP!!
Edit - Also bought a bunch of spares for my Compaq Armada 1750, so when they arrive the 1750 will be back in mint condition again. Also going to start to crazy task of restoring the HDD back to factory, for some reason the previous owner put Win98 FE on it and while it does work I'm almost sure the BIOS partition got nixed when they did it as I have not found a way to get into the BIOS. Win98 FE is an abomination that shouldn't ever be put onto any system except for shits and giggles and trying to get it to play nice is an experience in patience and pulling the power cord.

So ill be exercising the well known maneuver of Nuke and Pave as I have the original Win95 OSR2 restore CD along with the diagnostics and system restore disks which can restore the BIOS partition.

Rubbish. Win98FE worked just fine on supported hardware. I had it on my IBM PC300 mini tower for years without any issues at all as well as applied a few unofficial updates, NTFS read/write as well as USB support for thumb drives. It was my ppp internet gateway for many years....

You don't even need the BIOS partitions on Compaqs for them to function correctly from my experiences having owned a few over the last 30 odd years.

Reply 47037 of 52338, by Kahenraz

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I also had no problem with the original release of Windows 95, from floppy disks, on the various computers I used it on. I think that some of the stability issues we encounter nowadays are due to the various different driver loads that we put these systems through. For example, I have a lot of stability problems with USB 2.0 and wireless adapters, both of which are technologies well past the prime of these operating systems.

Reply 47038 of 52338, by TrashPanda

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MarkP wrote on 2022-11-14, 14:51:
TrashPanda wrote on 2022-11-14, 08:28:

SNIP!!
Edit - Also bought a bunch of spares for my Compaq Armada 1750, so when they arrive the 1750 will be back in mint condition again. Also going to start to crazy task of restoring the HDD back to factory, for some reason the previous owner put Win98 FE on it and while it does work I'm almost sure the BIOS partition got nixed when they did it as I have not found a way to get into the BIOS. Win98 FE is an abomination that shouldn't ever be put onto any system except for shits and giggles and trying to get it to play nice is an experience in patience and pulling the power cord.

So ill be exercising the well known maneuver of Nuke and Pave as I have the original Win95 OSR2 restore CD along with the diagnostics and system restore disks which can restore the BIOS partition.

Rubbish. Win98FE worked just fine on supported hardware. I had it on my IBM PC300 mini tower for years without any issues at all as well as applied a few unofficial updates, NTFS read/write as well as USB support for thumb drives. It was my ppp internet gateway for many years....

You don't even need the BIOS partitions on Compaqs for them to function correctly from my experiences having owned a few over the last 30 odd years.

Happy to know you had a wonderful experience with 98FE, did you also have a wonderful time with Windows ME ?

I want to restore the BIOS partition, its really that simple.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-11-14, 15:41:

I also had no problem with the original release of Windows 95, from floppy disks, on the various computers I used it on. I think that some of the stability issues we encounter nowadays are due to the various different driver loads that we put these systems through. For example, I have a lot of stability problems with USB 2.0 and wireless adapters, both of which are technologies well past the prime of these operating systems.

95 OSR2 should be perfect for the 1750 as its one of the two systems that I can find restore discs for, the other being NT4.

Ive also had little issue with 95 on period correct hardware, as for 98FE my experience is to nuke it and install 98SE instead, I can see little to no reason to use FE over SE.