imi wrote on 2020-09-16, 14:59:

umm... you're only testing WITH a heatsink? right?
just put a fan blowing air on it should be cool enough to touch.

Good question. If it was used without a heatsink it could be toast.

Miphee wrote on 2020-09-16, 15:20:

imi wrote on 2020-09-16, 14:59:

umm... you're only testing WITH a heatsink? right?
just put a fan blowing air on it should be cool enough to touch.

Good question. If it was used without a heatsink it could be toast.

Of course I use a heatsink for any real testing.

I will sometimes test it without heatsink really quick to see if the image is fine. Just enough so I can see the Win98 boot logo.

Those Voodoo3 cards can even get the heatsink unbearably hot as well.

Aublak wrote on 2020-09-16, 22:14:

I will sometimes test it without heatsink really quick to see if the image is fine. Just enough so I can see the Win98 boot logo.

I don't know about V3 3500 chips but I once did something similar to a Celeron 700. I wanted to see if it's working but I was too lazy to bother with the heatsink (I despise the s370 heatsink design) so I tried it without one to see the post code (it appears immediately). I ran it for a mere second and that was enough to bake the chip. (I forgot that capacitors need time to fully discharge so it was actually more than a second even after I turned the PSU off).
Learn from my mistake.

I've been interested in building a 486 computer.
I found this mainboard at a recycler, but I never took it. I haven't been able to identify it. Regardless I asked the recycler to hold on to it.

However I noticed that the EPROM is missing. Can I replace that thing?

I think you have a Epox GXA486SPM http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/show/6241

Maybe you can try to fit a SiS 85C496 BIOS from another board ? We don't have the bios for this exact board (until someone comes with one), but we have other boards with the same chipset that have bioses available, like the Zida 4DPS.

Nice ! Those black resistor packs near CPU socket remind me of some on FIC boards and are probably just jumpers inside (is why they have even number of pins where most true resistor packs have odd number pins).

I found these Teac speakers in a local dumpster yesterday. I've owned these speakers in 2003, when I bought a Celeron 4 system. Then I sold them a few years later along with other components. It's great having them back again.

My greatest "dumpster find" of all time must be this Trinitron CRT... it was buried in a pile of discarded CRTs that had been left outside in the rain for an unknown length of time.

I brought it home and left it indoors to dry out. For a year.

And finally worked up the courage last month to apply 220VAC. It sprung into life with nary a complaint!

The convergence and geometry are awful at anything above 640x480.

But I am confident that it will survive the collapse of human civilization.

kdr wrote on 2020-09-20, 13:06:

My greatest "dumpster find" of all time must be this Trinitron CRT... it was buried in a pile of discarded CRTs that had been l […]
Show full quote

My greatest "dumpster find" of all time must be this Trinitron CRT... it was buried in a pile of discarded CRTs that had been left outside in the rain for an unknown length of time.

I brought it home and left it indoors to dry out. For a year.

And finally worked up the courage last month to apply 220VAC. It sprung into life with nary a complaint!

The convergence and geometry are awful at anything above 640x480.

But I am confident that it will survive the collapse of human civilization.

Very nice. That has a great looking image.

Deksor wrote on 2020-09-19, 23:18:

I think you have a Epox GXA486SPM http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/show/6241

Maybe you can try to fit a SiS 85C496 BIOS from another board ? We don't have the bios for this exact board (until someone comes with one), but we have other boards with the same chipset that have bioses available, like the Zida 4DPS.

I never programmed an EPROM. I'd need something like this, right?

Aublak wrote on 2020-09-20, 13:24:

Very nice. That has a great looking image.

The overscanning nicely hides the vertical keystone issues. 😀

One day I'll crack open the housing and fiddle with the internal adjustments...

Yes, and if you plan to buy lots of recycled/poor condition boards, this will be an incredible tool 😀

So I found this SyncMaster 753df.

She was really dusty so I opened her up and cleaned her as best as I could without touching anything dangerous. I got cold feet and only ended up cleaning the back cover instead. Clean enough I guess. At least it isn't tracking dust everywhere.

Nice CRT to get for free! Compressed air can would do the trick.

I had to clean my second hand CRTs thoroughly.. could smell the last owner as the tube warmed up 🤣

Hanamichi wrote on 2020-09-22, 23:37:

Nice CRT to get for free! Compressed air can would do the trick.

I had to clean my second hand CRTs thoroughly.. could smell the last owner as the tube warmed up 🤣

Yeah, I was think of taking it to work and using the air compressor there.

It would be good idea to let it sit and discharge and then maybe I could wear some rubber gloves and clean it nicely with a toothbrush.

The business opposite my workplace has gone bust and there's a large skip sitting in the car park so I had a look. Some local miscreants had smashed the glass on a 19" rack cabinet full of switch gear but I grabbed enough ethernet cables to ensure I never have to buy any ever again. And cage nuts which I needed... and had ordered a pack of just last night. D'oh.

I might go back with a screwdriver and claim the cabinet if it's not too beaten up.

Aublak wrote on 2020-09-20, 13:29:

Deksor wrote on 2020-09-19, 23:18:

I think you have a Epox GXA486SPM http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/show/6241

Maybe you can try to fit a SiS 85C496 BIOS from another board ? We don't have the bios for this exact board (until someone comes with one), but we have other boards with the same chipset that have bioses available, like the Zida 4DPS.

I never programmed an EPROM. I'd need something like this, right?

Only buy from the actual Mfg eBay page. Most/All the other sellers are selling counterfeit devices.... ask me how I know. The counterfeit units work but the software detects them as counterfeit. Who knows if they cause issues with some things. The one I received the first time I bought one was a modified earlier version relabeled as a newer version.

I purchased a newer version from the official eBay page after that.

Deksor wrote on 2020-09-19, 23:18:

I think you have a Epox GXA486SPM http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/show/6241

Maybe you can try to fit a SiS 85C496 BIOS from another board ? We don't have the bios for this exact board (until someone comes with one), but we have other boards with the same chipset that have bioses available, like the Zida 4DPS.

Thanks for identifying the board and the advice.
I have my hands on a programmer now.
I should have thanked you sooner.

I believe the ASUS PVI-486SP3 Bios might be the winner for me. It has support for 3 PCI, 3 ISA, and 1 VLB exp slots.

Guys, today for like an hour I thought I died of COVID-19 and gone to heaven. I changed job recently, and I'm working in a reasearch institute now. I've been cooperating with them since 2007 and knew they had some interesting stuff hidden around but recently they started renovating and getting rid of "trash". And just the day I've been hired full-time there they told me they are getting rid of some electrical stuff. So today I gone to see what they are throwing out... beside the usual stuff like electric kettles, telephones old copy machines I found some real gems! They also had no problems with me taking these thing out of the container. Needles to say I dived in it as deep as I could because it was pretty much full already. Most of the stuff was random assortment of electronic boards from scientific equipment made in the 80s, I catched some of it because of TTL logic chips and sockets I will desolder... In total I found like one CGA card, several uninteresting but handy VLB controllers, some ISA card including AWE64, some 286 motherboards in perfect condition, XT motherboard, some handy cables, very cool old mice and so on... I will post more pics tomorrow...

Some more pics...