Have to agree on fixing PSUs. I got myself a ChannelWell(CWT) made ISO PSU and a noname unit that turned out to be a 400W Seasonic inside. Both had badcaps, both got fixed.

The Seasonic now has the sticker from a Deer PSU (ANS LC-B400ATX) and is kept as backup, and my main benchbuild PSU is a ISO-500PP, for which Channel Well is the OEM (same as Thermaltake TR2 420W PCB wise)

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-01-15, 22:53:

Nexxen wrote on 2024-01-15, 16:26:

I was testing a Celeron dual-core E1200, 800/1.6GHz […]
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I was testing a Celeron dual-core E1200, 800/1.6GHz

Bios set it @333 and I got it at 2.6GHz
1GHz overclock and temp was 27°C...

Way better, at stock speed it's slow even with Xp 🤣

Edit: I pushed it to 3GHz stable @ stock parameters. Did a fast Pi test and it passed... Not my interest to go further down the road with this but it was sure a nice surprise.
Maybe it'll crash with some other stress test, funny nonetheless.

My first dual core was one of the first Core 2 CPUs. I bought the cheapest one because it reviewed as easy to overclock. Even as a budget model, it was much faster than my old Athlon 64 3400+, and I used it for years until finally upgrading to a quad core Q9550.

I watched some OC videos on YT and some cpus oc like crazy with almost no effort.
It's almost shamelessly easy... Even C2Q reach nice ocs. With a 95W cpu I wouldn't have thought.

There's a site with all the validated overclocks (can't remember the name now). I'm sure there must be impossible results beyond 6GHz.
If a celeron can reach 8GHz...
Time to bed I guess, otherwise I'l be up until 4 again 🤣

StriderTR wrote on 2024-01-15, 22:55:

If I can't repair it, I recycle, even on newer PSUs. I gutted the last one that died on me and made a simple filtered solder smoke extractor. 😀

New purpouse and useful object. 100% kudos!

StriderTR wrote on 2024-01-15, 22:55:

If I can't repair it, I recycle, even on newer PSUs. I gutted the last one that died on me and made a simple filtered solder smoke extractor. 😀

Cool, never would have thought of doing that. When I get round to testing all my AT PSUs, I'm bound to have a couple that aren't worth my effort to repair 😀

StriderTR wrote on 2024-01-15, 22:55:

If I can't repair it, I recycle, even on newer PSUs. I gutted the last one that died on me and made a simple filtered solder smoke extractor. 😀

Just a fixture for an active coal filter? I have a PSU lying in my electronics scrap bin, that I could consider giving that treatment too ... Maybe I'll 3D print something to attach a filter ...

Personally I'd keep the more modern PSUs in use since they have more safety functionality than really old stuff, but the late ATX 1.0 spec stuff with a big 5v rail or -5v rail still present is worth keeping operational 😀 I've retrofit TFX power supplies into a bunch of my old computers since they're small, extremely cheap and brackets can be easily made with the 3d printer.

The move has put a lot of retro electronics type stuff on hold but now that's done I've got this big USB-PD powerbank and some USB-C / USB-PD trigger chips that make the USB-PD power bank (or any USB Power Delivery PSU) give out 9/12/15/20v. I have enough DC-powered devices that keeping the original PSU in use for everything just isn't feasible, these trigger chips are very cheap and so I can easily make different PSU cables for different laptop types - here's one that fits Fujitsu / Sony / Panasonic plug laptops and gives out 15v.

My mini bench PSU just got upgraded with a similar chip so it can run from the powerbank too, that's one of my first 3d prints from about 5 years ago now. It had a hole in the back because it was someone else's model and I did not know CAD back then. Now the gap is filled with a tidy looking USB-C port 😀
The battery itself is nothing too fancy but with 185Wh of capacity it can run a laptop with no mains power nearby for quite a while.

Oh also, the Fujitsu Lifebook B110 here is such a cool mini laptop, it has ESS 1869 ISA-bus audio that's initialised by the BIOS so it's working very nicely for DOS games.

Edit: Huh, these PD trigger cables also work nicely with my Anker USB charger from a few years back that has USB-C with 35W PD on it 😀 The nice thing about the particular type I've got is that they're plug rather than receptable so it doesn't even use up a USB-C cable, those introduce another failure point too, some USB-C cables aren't happy doing 20V power delivery.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2024-01-16, 07:03:

StriderTR wrote on 2024-01-15, 22:55:

If I can't repair it, I recycle, even on newer PSUs. I gutted the last one that died on me and made a simple filtered solder smoke extractor. 😀

Just a fixture for an active coal filter? I have a PSU lying in my electronics scrap bin, that I could consider giving that treatment too ... Maybe I'll 3D print something to attach a filter ...

Yep, basically a DIY version of the extractors you see for sale on Amazon. It works wonderfully. Mine is actually a dual filter, one directly on the fan, and one on the case grill. I haven't got around to printing brackets for the filters yet, my Ender 3 is currently torn down and getting some upgrades (hopefully this weekend, time permitting), so the filters are just held in place with gaffers tape at the moment.

gerry wrote on 2024-01-15, 18:55:

PcBytes wrote on 2024-01-15, 13:22:

Second, started cleaning a pretty poor condition of a OGXbox, revision 1.6. https://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?mode=view&i […]
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Second, started cleaning a pretty poor condition of a OGXbox, revision 1.6.

I'm thinking of painting the case given how bad it looks, and I already have the 95/98SE/NT4 shade of green for it. Problem is idk what 2nd color to pick -black, or white?

that xbox has seen some action! i guess its also down to how roughed up the xbox is, maybe some polish and patience will work for it, but otherwise repaint could make it look band new (or really cool different colors!)

Finished painting it! Green and white, goes pretty well. Doesn't look the best as the place I used to buy paint from recently switched to crappy chinese-made paint.

To do: order a SATA2IDE adapter and an Aladdin XT.

Heh funny, in the UK there was a safety mascot character called the green cross code man, that's what that X box reminds me of now.

I have an OG xbox that has a stuck DVD-ROM tray, I can only open it with a pin through the emergency eject hole. I'd guess the belt went bad? Is that an easy repair with these machines?

appiah4 wrote on 2024-01-17, 06:51:

I have an OG xbox that has a stuck DVD-ROM tray, I can only open it with a pin through the emergency eject hole. I'd guess the belt went bad? Is that an easy repair with these machines?

Belts definitely go bad. Check online to see if your can source a replacement.

appiah4 wrote on 2024-01-17, 06:51:

I'd guess the belt went bad?

Before you replace, try to apply a bit of V-belt spray on tacky surface and then turn the pulley manually a few times.
I do this once a year as maintenance for all optical drives and they eject well.

If it's not ejecting now, it's probably too late for maintenance.

appiah4 wrote on 2024-01-17, 06:51:

I have an OG xbox that has a stuck DVD-ROM tray, I can only open it with a pin through the emergency eject hole. I'd guess the belt went bad? Is that an easy repair with these machines?

If you haven't yet, do consider softmodding your Xbox now. You need a working DVD drive to do that and without (soft)mod the whole system is at risk of becoming a brick when the HDD dies.

HandOfFate wrote on 2024-01-17, 23:16:

appiah4 wrote on 2024-01-17, 06:51:

I have an OG xbox that has a stuck DVD-ROM tray, I can only open it with a pin through the emergency eject hole. I'd guess the belt went bad? Is that an easy repair with these machines?

If you haven't yet, do consider softmodding your Xbox now. You need a working DVD drive to do that and without (soft)mod the whole system is at risk of becoming a brick when the HDD dies.

There's the IDE hotswap route as well. Used to do it on the regular as I couldn't find any of the softmod launching games available back when I first started doing it.

HandOfFate wrote on 2024-01-17, 23:16:

appiah4 wrote on 2024-01-17, 06:51:

I have an OG xbox that has a stuck DVD-ROM tray, I can only open it with a pin through the emergency eject hole. I'd guess the belt went bad? Is that an easy repair with these machines?

If you haven't yet, do consider softmodding your Xbox now. You need a working DVD drive to do that and without (soft)mod the whole system is at risk of becoming a brick when the HDD dies.

I have already done that; I only need to fix the drive at some point. Thanks for the heads up 😀

King_Corduroy wrote on 2015-12-18, 20:20:

Swapped the STB Super Res 400 CGA card out of my Tandy 3000HL Personal Computer with an ISA Eagle II VGA Card and low and behold it actually gave me video!!

Do you have a driver diskette for STB Super Res 400? I have this card but cannot get TGA mode working, and user's manual says I need to use its native drivers.

Recapped my newest board addition - the MSI 694D Pro-AR.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-01-19, 08:22:

Recapped my newest board addition - the MSI 694D Pro-AR.

I have this same board but no matching pair Coppermines 🙁 Why did you go with the recap, the capacitors appeared to be fine?

Figuring out how to get the 512kB COAST (L2 cache) working on this ATC-1545 mainboard.
All I could find was a corrupted *.doc file, which helped me out, and it works. Now to do some testing if the module is still good.
I stared for 5 minutes at the board, just to find JP9 for enabling pipelined burst. It's located between the SIMM slots and the FDD header, the most logical place to put it there.

The black spot under the fdd ribbon cable: