Socket 3 PCI boards have become rather rare / expensive.
So this seemed worth a gamble.

I may be a fool and it might turn out to be utterly useless yet.

Intel Aries chipset with CL onboard VGA. 2 PCI, 3 ISA via riser.

Searching those numbers so far hints at some rather proprietary embedded controller of industrial cnc machinery...
(no documentation whatsover in sight...)

RandomStranger wrote on 2026-05-07, 13:32:

Today I picked up two of the graphics cards of all time.

MX4000 32bit, the worst of the Geforce 2/4 MX

Wow a 32 bit NV18, weren't those banned by the Montreal protocol? 🤣
The part I like the most is that premium low-loss inductor at L19
On the bright side it has 5ns memory and the passives for the missing modules seem all there so it may be possibile to turn it into a gaming powerhouse just by soldering the missing ICs and flashing a 64 bit bios*.

andrea wrote on 2026-05-07, 18:04:

Wow a 32 bit NV18, weren't those banned by the Montreal protocol? XD The part I like the most is that premium low-loss inductor […]
Show full quote

RandomStranger wrote on 2026-05-07, 13:32:

Today I picked up two of the graphics cards of all time.

MX4000 32bit, the worst of the Geforce 2/4 MX

Wow a 32 bit NV18, weren't those banned by the Montreal protocol? 🤣
The part I like the most is that premium low-loss inductor at L19
On the bright side it has 5ns memory and the passives for the missing modules seem all there so it may be possibile to turn it into a gaming powerhouse just by soldering the missing ICs and flashing a 64 bit bios*.

*

On NV34 the bios defines the memory ranks and the hw straps set the module size. NV18 is designed to be pin-compatible with NV34 so i don't think nVidia reinvented the wheel for nothing

Ironically Sparkle made the exact opposite of that 🤣
https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/spar … sp7310m4t-128mb

Some interesting cards, physically okay, but needs testing.

I can't test the Compaq CPU/RAM board as I lack a Prosignia (?). That funky EISA card with all the RJ45 jacks is going to be a challenge as well, so I don't think I'm gonna spend time on that.

andrea wrote on 2026-05-07, 18:04:

On the bright side it has 5ns memory and the passives for the missing modules seem all there so it may be possibile to turn it into a gaming powerhouse just by soldering the missing ICs and flashing a 64 bit bios*.

That was the first thing when I've seen it, but that would defeat the purpose of having the worst 😁

PcBytes wrote on 2026-05-07, 18:09:

Ironically Sparkle made the exact opposite of that 🤣
https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/spar … sp7310m4t-128mb

See but at least the Sparkle makes sense... in hindsight perhaps even more sense than the 256MB NV34s.
But that 32 bit card why?
Such a compromised design and then they stuffed it with 64MB of premium name-brand memory.
Considering that I don't see it able to do much beyond the "3D Flowerbox" screensaver, the usual pulled-from-supermarket-prebuilt Radeon 7000, a 64 bit Rage 128 Pro or even the later AGP 4x TNT2 M64s would all be cheaper and more competent at being a low end card.

"But a system integrator could use it to say their machine has a GF4 class card" you may say, but it's so cheaply built no mayor OEM would use it, and most mom-and-pop type system builders would either use the above or go with chipset graphics I feel.
(I'm basing the previous thought after having see how much care the shop I worked for, in much later years, took in its builds, and on what old machines of them came back in for service/scrap/trade, so I may be biased and wrong)

PD2JK wrote on 2026-05-07, 18:47:

Some interesting cards, physically okay, but needs testing.

The attachment 20260507_150952254.JPG is no longer available

I can't test the Compaq CPU/RAM board as I lack a Prosignia (?). That funky EISA card with all the RJ45 jacks is going to be a challenge as well, so I don't think I'm gonna spend time on that.

I understand the three 3Dfx cards, S3 Vision, Edge 3D, and MGA. The rest are too esoteric for me - I might make out what they are for but lack an ecosystem to utilise them. The NIC is a vey big NIC, but what are the other gismos - maybe terminals or blades?

Cuttoon wrote on 2026-05-07, 17:59:

Socket 3 PCI boards have become rather rare / expensive. So this seemed worth a gamble. […]
Show full quote

Socket 3 PCI boards have become rather rare / expensive.
So this seemed worth a gamble.

I may be a fool and it might turn out to be utterly useless yet.

Intel Aries chipset with CL onboard VGA. 2 PCI, 3 ISA via riser.

Searching those numbers so far hints at some rather proprietary embedded controller of industrial cnc machinery...
(no documentation whatsover in sight...)

Looks like an IBM PS/1 or Aptiva or Ambra or PC 300 line board to me.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-05-07, 21:48:

Cuttoon wrote on 2026-05-07, 17:59:

Socket 3 PCI boards have become rather rare / expensive. So this seemed worth a gamble. […]
Show full quote

Socket 3 PCI boards have become rather rare / expensive.
So this seemed worth a gamble.

I may be a fool and it might turn out to be utterly useless yet.

Intel Aries chipset with CL onboard VGA. 2 PCI, 3 ISA via riser.

Searching those numbers so far hints at some rather proprietary embedded controller of industrial cnc machinery...
(no documentation whatsover in sight...)

Looks like an IBM PS/1 or Aptiva or Ambra or PC 300 line board to me.

I know, because of the highly integrated design with all the connectors on the rear edge.
However, it's most likely a Siemens-Nixdorf produced Type "3-424-2123A", used in the control unit of industrial machinery.
It's being offered as a spare part here.

So, probably very solid build quality, but extremely obscure.
Maybe I can piece together the jumper logic from near hits of the same brand somehow.
I'll probably just slap in a DX-33 and see what happens. 😉

Also because of the index squares, A B C etc along the edge, and the Ireland sticker because they had plants in Galway and Dublin.

Edit: But guess who else had Irish facilities? Intel...
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … -pci-lp-entrada

BitWrangler wrote on Yesterday, 00:00:

Also because of the index squares, A B C etc along the edge, and the Ireland sticker because they had plants in Galway and Dublin.

Edit: But guess who else had Irish facilities? Intel...
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … -pci-lp-entrada

Wow, thx!
I did know about Intel in Ireland, but I had found a discussion that clearly pointed towards Siemens. And you'd find a lot of similar boards under that name.
Well, may have been badge engineering on their side.
They did produce x86 motherboards in Germany, though.

steberg wrote on 2026-05-07, 09:22:

Found a Compaq Elite 4/50e in perfekt condition. 50$. Witout a harddrive but I had one spare. Now it works fine. But it’s the first notebook I ever seen the has an active matrix monochrome screen. So clear and nice. Came with 12 mb of ram as well.

A truly rare find, that one's supposed to be the largest active matrix mono panel there ever was 😀 I've got the LTE Lite 4/25E and sadly that one suffers from really bad tunnel vision where the corners fade out after a bit. I hope your one is doing better and is usable for longer.

Today I got something I've been waiting on for a week or two - I did a random search and came across this in a wrong category with a title that's not going to hit people's saved searches. Got it for ten bucks - though 30 with shipping. I've already got *one* PCMCIA sound card with the IBM cd-rom drive with sound, but I'm not going to pass up another. It hasn't got the dongle but it's got a real gameport that supposedly does MIDI as well:

Stinks of cigarettes but the first thing I did was open it up, I had a feeling it would be an ESS chip and was not disappointed:

It's an ESS1488 doing the sound codec stuff with a Xilinx FPGA doing the PCMCIA interfacing and probably some other things.

Finding the drivers took ages, seems it's not a card anyone likes enough to have backed up the drivers fully - it doesn't do sound in anything that uses DOS4GW so its uses are limited and it's an 8-bit mono card. It works though! Once I got the drivers installed in Win95 on my trusty T2130CS it made pretty good sound. The internal speaker sounds pretty good being stuck in the PCMCIA slot area.
The drivers seem pretty comprehensive with lots of options for DOS usage and using it specifically as a gameport only card.
Now to figure out the gameport pinout and see how it does MIDI, looks like it's fairly simple going by where the NE558 is. Don't know how I'd wire stuff up to that proprietary connector without making changes to the PCMCIA frame.

I'll be making a more detailed post / infodump in the PCMCIA sound cards thread.

Thermalwrong wrote on Yesterday, 02:43:

It hasn't got the dongle but it's got a real gameport that supposedly does MIDI as well: […]
Show full quote

It hasn't got the dongle but it's got a real gameport that supposedly does MIDI as well:

The attachment s-l1600.jpg is no longer available

Stinks of cigarettes but the first thing I did was open it up, I had a feeling it would be an ESS chip and was not disappointed:

The attachment IMG_9605.JPG is no longer available

The attachment IMG_9610.JPG is no longer available

It's an ESS1488 doing the sound codec stuff with a Xilinx FPGA doing the PCMCIA interfacing and probably some other things.

Finding the drivers took ages, seems it's not a card anyone likes enough to have backed up the drivers fully - it doesn't do sound in anything that uses DOS4GW so its uses are limited and it's an 8-bit mono card. It works though! Once I got the drivers installed in Win95 on my trusty T2130CS it made pretty good sound. The internal speaker sounds pretty good being stuck in the PCMCIA slot area.
The drivers seem pretty comprehensive with lots of options for DOS usage and using it specifically as a gameport only card.
Now to figure out the gameport pinout and see how it does MIDI, looks like it's fairly simple going by where the NE558 is. Don't know how I'd wire stuff up to that proprietary connector without making changes to the PCMCIA frame.

I'll be making a more detailed post / infodump in the PCMCIA sound cards thread.

Oh that's a nice find!

The drivers are on the official website in the support section.
https://web.archive.org/web/19961112083936/ht … corp.com/gj.htm

Please make a recording of it with whatever game you want!

Edit: oh you already posted in the pcmcia sound thread, disregard everything.

Cuttoon wrote on 2026-05-07, 17:59:

Socket 3 PCI boards have become rather rare / expensive. So this seemed worth a gamble. […]
Show full quote

Socket 3 PCI boards have become rather rare / expensive.
So this seemed worth a gamble.

I may be a fool and it might turn out to be utterly useless yet.

Intel Aries chipset with CL onboard VGA. 2 PCI, 3 ISA via riser.

Searching those numbers so far hints at some rather proprietary embedded controller of industrial cnc machinery...
(no documentation whatsover in sight...)

just one IDE channel ?
Do you have the Raiser ? sometimes we think its a plain ISA raiser and its not. its proprietary.

Cuttoon wrote on 2026-05-07, 17:59:

Socket 3 PCI boards have become rather rare / expensive. So this seemed worth a gamble. […]
Show full quote

Socket 3 PCI boards have become rather rare / expensive.
So this seemed worth a gamble.

I may be a fool and it might turn out to be utterly useless yet.

Intel Aries chipset with CL onboard VGA. 2 PCI, 3 ISA via riser.

Searching those numbers so far hints at some rather proprietary embedded controller of industrial cnc machinery...
(no documentation whatsover in sight...)

just one IDE channel ?
Do you have the Raiser ? sometimes we think its a plain ISA raiser and its not. its proprietary.

nuno14272 wrote on Yesterday, 16:23:

Cuttoon wrote on 2026-05-07, 17:59:

Socket 3 PCI boards have become rather rare / expensive. So this seemed worth a gamble. […]
Show full quote

Socket 3 PCI boards have become rather rare / expensive.
So this seemed worth a gamble.

I may be a fool and it might turn out to be utterly useless yet.

Intel Aries chipset with CL onboard VGA. 2 PCI, 3 ISA via riser.

Searching those numbers so far hints at some rather proprietary embedded controller of industrial cnc machinery...
(no documentation whatsover in sight...)

just one IDE channel ?
Do you have the Raiser ? sometimes we think its a plain ISA raiser and its not. its proprietary.

You've got a kinda sorta nearly semi-standard thing going on with LPX form factor though, so you can get lucky.

I'm not sure what draws me to buy high end obsolete Quadro's, but I got an FX 4400 this time.

Hi, I'm new here after some lurking over the years.
I am buying some scrap electronics on eBay from time to time to scavenge for hardware of the range 1997 to 2000. In my last pile of "crap" I found this gem.

It is a "ATI VGA Stereo F/X". I don't know if it is working, though. I have not found an past eBay listings. Is this really as rare as I think?

drringding wrote on Yesterday, 20:50:

Hi, I'm new here after some lurking over the years. I am buying some scrap electronics on eBay from time to time to scavenge for […]
Show full quote

Hi, I'm new here after some lurking over the years.
I am buying some scrap electronics on eBay from time to time to scavenge for hardware of the range 1997 to 2000. In my last pile of "crap" I found this gem.

The attachment IMG_20260508_223829_DRO~2.jpg is no longer available

It is a "ATI VGA Stereo F/X". I don't know if it is working, though. I have not found an past eBay listings. Is this really as rare as I think?

Nice find! Yes, those are quite rare.

The VGA port should just work as normal, I believe. The port in the center is a Microsoft compatible BUS mouse port (not for PS/2 mice). The large port apparently uses a proprietary dongle that breaks it out to proper audio connections. I don't think I've ever seen a picture of one of those dongles though, aside from the one in the ad on this page:
https://dosdays.co.uk/topics/Manufacturers/at … ti_stereofx.php

Thermalwrong wrote on Yesterday, 02:43:

steberg wrote on 2026-05-07, 09:22:

Found a Compaq Elite 4/50e in perfekt condition. 50$. Witout a harddrive but I had one spare. Now it works fine. But it’s the first notebook I ever seen the has an active matrix monochrome screen. So clear and nice. Came with 12 mb of ram as well.

A truly rare find, that one's supposed to be the largest active matrix mono panel there ever was 😀 I've got the LTE Lite 4/25E and sadly that one suffers from really bad tunnel vision where the corners fade out after a bit. I hope your one is doing better and is usable for longer.

Yes it's hardly been used at all. The screen is so nice, and no tunnel vision what I can see. But alas, one hinge is broken, so I don't think it can be fixed. Have to search for an replacement hinge. But else it's a joy to use. Of course the floppy drive is broken as well, but for now I'm transferring files via Interlnk - Intersvr and a cable via LPT1 port.