Got this old external scsi bay, the hdd works fine, full of old sharewares, games, magazines cover disks and so on.

The power supply on the other hand, a bit suspicious, dare i trigger the end of the world with it? 😒

timsdf wrote on 2023-03-04, 10:56:

I would be more concerned about removing original yellow paste which can pull the gpu die with it. 9800 Pro coolers were updated to make contact with the die better. There's a ~0.2 - 0.5mm thick square shim machined over the die. Early 9700pros don't have this.

A thin metal plate and thermal paste between is a good fix. Just repasting the card with thick, quality paste is good enough too since original yellow cement is more of an insulator than a paste 😁

Yes the original paste is really thick and rubber-like. It's hard to remove. But with help of alcohol and gently scratching with fingernails, this can be totally removed.

My card is a 3d prophet, the surface under the cooler is totally flat. That's why I added this metal sheet.
I confirm that it can be hard to find a working 9700 pro. I consider myself lucky, the third one was working. Some collectors reported having bought 10+ before finding a working one...

acl wrote on 2023-03-04, 13:35:

Yes the original paste is really thick and rubber-like. It's hard to remove. But with help of alcohol and gently scratching with […]
Show full quote

timsdf wrote on 2023-03-04, 10:56:

I would be more concerned about removing original yellow paste which can pull the gpu die with it. 9800 Pro coolers were updated to make contact with the die better. There's a ~0.2 - 0.5mm thick square shim machined over the die. Early 9700pros don't have this.

A thin metal plate and thermal paste between is a good fix. Just repasting the card with thick, quality paste is good enough too since original yellow cement is more of an insulator than a paste 😁

Yes the original paste is really thick and rubber-like. It's hard to remove. But with help of alcohol and gently scratching with fingernails, this can be totally removed.

My card is a 3d prophet, the surface under the cooler is totally flat. That's why I added this metal sheet.
I confirm that it can be hard to find a working 9700 pro. I consider myself lucky, the third one was working. Some collectors reported having bought 10+ before finding a working one...

They are worth the hunt, such a kick ass card for its time well beyond the capabilities of other cards of that era and made nvidia owners jealous with how effortlessly it broke benchmarks.

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-03-04, 05:56:

Bought this lot of 3x "K6-2 300" CPUs. K6-300-black.jpg K6-300-1998.jpg K6-2-300.jpg […]
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Bought this lot of 3x "K6-2 300" CPUs.
K6-300-black.jpg
K6-300-1998.jpg
K6-2-300.jpg

Had been wanting to get a K6-300 for a while.. and two different versions popped up in one listing.

Date codes are weeks 12, 37 and 40 of 1998, right?

Yeah, that's the production date.
Also 2 of those are K6 and one is K6-2 (quite different thing).

I think he was saying it was listed as K6-2s but he saw the K6es that he wanted.

Picked up this mystery box from FB market. Unknown CPU. Quite scared of this PSU so wont power it on until I can swap in a trusted one.
40A on the 5A rail tho so perhaps it would be worth looking into...

Little video peek at it:
https://youtube.com/shorts/h-KgSfoc1y8?feature=share

lolo799 wrote on 2023-03-04, 12:04:

Got this old external scsi bay, the hdd works fine, full of old sharewares, games, magazines cover disks and so on. 20230304_12 […]
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Got this old external scsi bay, the hdd works fine, full of old sharewares, games, magazines cover disks and so on.
20230304_125346.jpg
20230304_125403.jpg20230223_182151.jpgThe power supply on the other hand, a bit suspicious, dare i trigger the end of the world with it? 😒
20230223_182141.jpg

That's neat! I wonder how long it had been before it was last used. Skynet sounds like a friendly consumer oriented company.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-04, 17:41:

I think he was saying it was listed as K6-2s but he saw the K6es that he wanted.

Exactly as I stated in my post.

Plus they were way cheaper than I normally see the K6-300 go for.

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-03-04, 22:09:

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-04, 17:41:

I think he was saying it was listed as K6-2s but he saw the K6es that he wanted.

Exactly as I stated in my post.

Plus they were way cheaper than I normally see the K6-300 go for.

I haven't done a lot with K6s before the K6-2. Is the benefit that the K6-300 is the fastest production CPU that can be dropped into most 66Mhz Socket 7 boards? (at least in situations that aren't heavily favoring Intel)

Asininity wrote on 2023-03-04, 21:47:

That's neat! I wonder how long it had been before it was last used. Skynet sounds like a friendly consumer oriented company.

Most of the folders are from 1999, most recent files I found were created in 2002.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-04, 22:24:

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-03-04, 22:09:

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-04, 17:41:

I think he was saying it was listed as K6-2s but he saw the K6es that he wanted.

Exactly as I stated in my post.

Plus they were way cheaper than I normally see the K6-300 go for.

I haven't done a lot with K6s before the K6-2. Is the benefit that the K6-300 is the fastest production CPU that can be dropped into most 66Mhz Socket 7 boards? (at least in situations that aren't heavily favoring Intel)

Nah, just the fact that they are the fastest regular K6.
Only for collection purposes really.
You can drop any K6-2 or 3 into an older Socket 7 board and even Socket 5 board by using an interposer.

^ he beat me but...

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-04, 22:24:

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-03-04, 22:09:

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-04, 17:41:

I think he was saying it was listed as K6-2s but he saw the K6es that he wanted.

Exactly as I stated in my post.

Plus they were way cheaper than I normally see the K6-300 go for.

I haven't done a lot with K6s before the K6-2. Is the benefit that the K6-300 is the fastest production CPU that can be dropped into most 66Mhz Socket 7 boards? (at least in situations that aren't heavily favoring Intel)

Is it? If they take K6 and have 2.5V or lower they get K6-2s here. 2x remap to 6x wheeeeeeee, of course you can patch BF2 in the socket and use 4.5, 5, 5.5 if you want. I can see the older core being popular for boards that don't go below 2.7

edit: K6-III are occasionally a bit speshul when the board gets confused about what to do with another level of cache, but those seem to be iffy on post CXT K6-2 as well.

The T5710 doesn't really feel or look that retro (~2006) but it's destined to become a mini MS-DOS system. Well, once I decide what I want to do with the PCI slot.

lolo799 wrote on 2023-03-04, 22:26:

Asininity wrote on 2023-03-04, 21:47:

That's neat! I wonder how long it had been before it was last used. Skynet sounds like a friendly consumer oriented company.

Most of the folders are from 1999, most recent files I found were created in 2002.

Even if there isn't anything really unique in there trawling through all those files sounds like a good time.

brostenen wrote on 2023-03-03, 17:52:

Recieved a Macbook Pro 2011 that I bought. Need new battery. Need new rubber feet. Need SSD installed can run MacOS, Windows and […]
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Recieved a Macbook Pro 2011 that I bought.
Need new battery. Need new rubber feet. Need SSD installed
can run MacOS, Windows and Linux. Probably even BSD Unix if I dare to venture into that.
I really like the build quality on this machine.

Got one on launch week (last computer I didn't pay for myself 😁) because my Vaio FZ21M (which apparently cost almost twice of that 😳) broke because of the 2007 Nvidia scandal and was stuck on a P4/512MB/Win7 stopgap for a month...

Mine was the Snow Leopard model (look at F3/F4, you have Mission Control and Launchpad, I had Exposè and Dashboard), more specifically 10.6.6 - the last good one before further cloud crap forced in your face (the App Store in this case), I did use Lion and ML when they came out but pretty much the only innovation I cared about was the Japanese on-screen keyboard and the non-English TTS (which can be installed on Snow Leopard with some trickery)!
OS X was nice (after about 1 month learning curve) but too much commercial software ("if you bought a thousand dollar computer surely you can sucker some more") that's also bloated (I occasionally ask Mac users to check how much memory TextEdit uses with 0 windows open: I noted over 32 MB!! and apparently it has improved by now, but then the flat glass iOS7+ kiddie graphics ruined it and I started boycotting Apple)

The computer itself unfortunately was even worse - first went the battery*, soon after the optical drive, then the woofer; while SD (actually part of the Ethernet chip) and wireless never worked right in Linux (no wonder, both are Broadcom), and for Windows you get the (undocumented) choice between BIOS emulation (no AHCI) or EFI (no sound)...

* Were you ever hurt by a computer? - then once the replacement arrived I noticed a "DO NOT REMOVE THE BATTERY" sticker, so I removed the sticker, went for a walk, then after forgetting about it I removed the battery... I think it's also the only part of the computer using triwing screws, good thing I already had precedent cleaning and repairing DSes and Wiis 😀

Asininity wrote on 2023-03-04, 23:58:

lolo799 wrote on 2023-03-04, 22:26:

Most of the folders are from 1999, most recent files I found were created in 2002.

Even if there isn't anything really unique in there trawling through all those files sounds like a good time.

Ah, right, I did buy that Thinkpad 365XD I pretty much registered here to inquire about (after some haggling!), what did I get?
A 4th hand computer never once reformatted, it appears!
Snooping a bit in Netscape Mail and the recycle bin it appears that it was used by a local university student whose family includes a teacher in an American college (which probably explains the PC being a premium American brand with an US keyboard); I did export them before doing a "full software refurbishment" and still undecided on whether it would be more appreciated/less creepy to find contact information and offer them their stuff back or just forget about it...

Ryccardo wrote on 2023-03-05, 00:19:

Got one on launch week (last computer I didn't pay for myself :D) because my Vaio FZ21M (which apparently cost almost twice of t […]
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Got one on launch week (last computer I didn't pay for myself 😁) because my Vaio FZ21M (which apparently cost almost twice of that 😳) broke because of the 2007 Nvidia scandal and was stuck on a P4/512MB/Win7 stopgap for a month...

Mine was the Snow Leopard model (look at F3/F4, you have Mission Control and Launchpad, I had Exposè and Dashboard), more specifically 10.6.6 - the last good one before further cloud crap forced in your face (the App Store in this case), I did use Lion and ML when they came out but pretty much the only innovation I cared about was the Japanese on-screen keyboard and the non-English TTS (which can be installed on Snow Leopard with some trickery)!
OS X was nice (after about 1 month learning curve) but too much commercial software ("if you bought a thousand dollar computer surely you can sucker some more") that's also bloated (I occasionally ask Mac users to check how much memory TextEdit uses with 0 windows open: I noted over 32 MB!! and apparently it has improved by now, but then the flat glass iOS7+ kiddie graphics ruined it and I started boycotting Apple)

The computer itself unfortunately was even worse - first went the battery*, soon after the optical drive, then the woofer; while SD (actually part of the Ethernet chip) and wireless never worked right in Linux (no wonder, both are Broadcom), and for Windows you get the (undocumented) choice between BIOS emulation (no AHCI) or EFI (no sound)...

* Were you ever hurt by a computer? - then once the replacement arrived I noticed a "DO NOT REMOVE THE BATTERY" sticker, so I removed the sticker, went for a walk, then after forgetting about it I removed the battery... I think it's also the only part of the computer using triwing screws, good thing I already had precedent cleaning and repairing DSes and Wiis 😀

Yup... The best OSX are still Snow Leopard. But most cloud crap on Mountain Lion are now non-working, so I cant be forced to use it. 😁
It can still run as a off-line machine, and with this browser, I can still get to various modern news websites.
That said, I need to check if I can use it with home banking. The wireless linux-issues you are facing, are that the wifi card is a broadcom one.
It is still proprietary firmware that broadcom uses, however the community have done a lot to get those cards working.

It is still a nice machine to run as a medie-machine and picture viewer. You know, using it for music listening. It is thin and there are lots of open source productivity stuff.
Libre office, gimp and many more things. Most can be found in the archives with older versions.

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-03-04, 23:03:

Nah, just the fact that they are the fastest regular K6. Only for collection purposes really. You can drop any K6-2 or 3 into an […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-04, 22:24:

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-03-04, 22:09:

Exactly as I stated in my post.

Plus they were way cheaper than I normally see the K6-300 go for.

I haven't done a lot with K6s before the K6-2. Is the benefit that the K6-300 is the fastest production CPU that can be dropped into most 66Mhz Socket 7 boards? (at least in situations that aren't heavily favoring Intel)

Nah, just the fact that they are the fastest regular K6.
Only for collection purposes really.
You can drop any K6-2 or 3 into an older Socket 7 board and even Socket 5 board by using an interposer.

And the printed K6 300 is a very nice one!

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-04, 23:06:

Is it? If they take K6 and have 2.5V or lower they get K6-2s here. 2x remap to 6x wheeeeeeee, of course you can patch BF2 in the socket and use 4.5, 5, 5.5 if you want. I can see the older core being popular for boards that don't go below 2.7

edit: K6-III are occasionally a bit speshul when the board gets confused about what to do with another level of cache, but those seem to be iffy on post CXT K6-2 as well.

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-03-04, 23:03:

Nah, just the fact that they are the fastest regular K6.
Only for collection purposes really.
You can drop any K6-2 or 3 into an older Socket 7 board and even Socket 5 board by using an interposer.

Ah, okay. I'll admit, I was kind of just throwing that comment out there. I didn't do any research, and that time period in CPUs isn't really my strong point. 🤣

I used an Evergreen Spectra 333 in an old Pentium board (not sure if it was Socket 5 or 7) for DOS games about 20 years ago, but aside from that I have never really dabbled with anything but Pentium and Pentium MMX in socket 5\7 boards. I have set up and used some SS7 K6-2 systems though, including the DOS\9x system I've been running for probably 18 years with a K6-2 500 in an FIC PA-2013 with 2MB cache. I have always just associated Pentium MMX and K6 with 66Mhz systems and K6-2 with 100Mhz systems... though thinking about it now, I know there are lots of K6-2 models with different bus speeds. I guess I just haven't set any up personally. 😀

Yah they're not bus speed "locked" like PII, PIII up, no FID to fiddle, just set it at what you want.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-05, 03:06:

Yah they're not bus speed "locked" like PII, PIII up, no FID to fiddle, just set it at what you want.

Yeah, that's one reason I liked the PA-2013 in the first case I had it in back in 2004-2010 or so. That case was one with the side mounted PSU, which was inconvenient for nearly everything, except it left the top right corner of the motherboard easily accessible from the top so I could switch the multiplier and bus speed jumpers relatively easily.

... realistically though, I only ever did that a couple times. I eventually just started hording parts to make computers of different capabilities and didn't bother much with slowing down the K6-2. 😁

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-03, 08:20:

I would like to talk to some Dell experts to learn where this system fits into their history, because there is absolutely zero i […]
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I would like to talk to some Dell experts to learn where this system fits into their history, because there is absolutely zero information about the existence of this machine online aside from the trademark registration in 1993 and one 20 year old post from someone saying they repurposed the chassis of one of these.

It's a Dell Exclaim 486/50 (DX2-50) desktop, with original keyboard, mouse and monitor in original box. As a bonus, someone had upgraded this with a Media Vision multimedia kit, so it has a PAS16, 2x SCSI CDROM and fancy Labtec stereo speakers! So far, everything works, and the CRT is absolutely gorgeous! Perfect blacks, excellent color.
20230302_202829 (Custom).jpg

I found it listed recently and managed to get it for a great price in untested condition. Thankfully, the seller not only packaged it back into the box appropriately (base off of monitor, original packaging in place and double boxed to protect the artwork!!).
20230302_185123 (Custom).jpg

Inside it is incredibly clean and the CMOS battery is, thankfully, external. It had slightly corroded the battery negative battery pin but there appears to be no damage on the top of the board (haven't pulled it yet to check the back). Everything else seems to be working great though! I get a tiny bit of sporadic noise from the power supply so I will probably crack that open and see how things look in there.

To my astonishment, I managed to get the hard drive reading by just setting the drive parameters to auto (not as shown in the picture above... those are the defaults due to the lack of battery) and rebooting the PC. It has DOS, Windows 3.1 and an interesting startup program called Dell Library Menu.
20230302_204141 (Custom).jpg

Also, there are hand-written labels on the pull tabs on all of the drive ribbon cables... but not on the CD-ROM cable which was added later. Surely, the writing didn't come from Dell, did it? 🤣
20230302_191328 (Custom).jpg

Anyway, I plan on making a thread about this but I had to post something now. I'm super excited to get it 100% cleaned up and to get all the kinks worked out.
From my reading online, non-business-oriented Dell PCs were barely a thing in 1993, which is when this was manufactured. It's very well built too. The back of the chassis is painted and looks very "premium", except for the fact that the keyboard "hole" is obviously DIN\AT sized but has a PS/2 port in the middle of it... which tells me this case wasn't tooled exactly for this machine.

Oh gawd... It came with the GOOD AT101 keyboard, and not the later rubber dome "QuietKey" trash!!!
This machine is a good getting just for the keyboard alone!