SquallStrife wrote:

dogchainx wrote:

More Apple retro-ness....

I got a Power Mac G3 so I could get on the net and create my own disks for my growing collection of Appleware, specifically my Mac SE which when I was younger I spent a great deal using.

Nice. I assume that's one of the beige "Outrigger" PowerMacs?

It is. 233MHz CPU, desktop-style. Its quit snappy for 233MHz. I'd say on par of a 450MHz Pentium 3 running Windows 98SE.

I tried to install a 74GB WD Raptor, but the Sata-IDE adapter didn't work with the G3 when it tried to initialize the drive. Oh well, I'll only boot this thing up once or twice a year just to make disks for the MAC SE. I was thinking about getting a better CPU, but really, it would be a waste of money for something I'll hardly ever turn on.

Next on the list of "TO-DOs" is to build my ultimate Windows 98 SE build with an Abit BH-6 and an Tualatin 1.4GHz (modded) cpu with an Abit Sloket III. That will be next month since the CPU is coming from the far east. I'll be running Windows 2000 and XP, since this is my "ultimate" media station to read any media...... ZIP, Jaz, LS120, 3.5, 5.25, Syqyest, CD, DVD, tape, USB 3.5 floppy emulations, etc. Whatever media I have, or someone else has, I'll be able to read and write.

Finally got around to working on the Katmai today. The fan seized up in the PSU, so I had to replace that, and for some extra airflow I patched in a 120mm Antec 3-speed fan running at max sitting above the PSU and CPU. It's not screwed in or anything, but it's a tight enough fit that it isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but I did test and there is plenty of air going to the fan. A byproduct of this is that the machine is a little louder than before and it's filled with an otherworldly blue glow while in operation courtesy of the LEDs.

I'm guessing from what happened today that my 98SE install didn't just randomly implode. The hard drive's dead or dying, it crashes anything that tries to initialize it. Windows setup BSODs, Linux kernel panics, even the BIOS hangs when I try to modify any settings relating to it. Guess I need to replace it. For the record, I did narrow it down to the drive -- testing the drive in my Pentium 4 gave me the same results. Just gonna see if I can snag a 40GB drive from the school with a promise to DBAN it.

Haha, just remembered that I still need to take those pictures of it that I promised. I'll grab those when I get a suitable drive and put it in, with an added bonus being the progress of a Windows install and some benchmarks after all is said and done. Might consider selling that particular machine once I finish getting it back on its feet, my fun lies in the restoration. What games I do play run perfectly on newer versions of Windows or in DOSBox and I could use the extra money to grab a couple upgrades for my main machine.

I finished stripping a Prescott P4 laptop to turn into a digital picture frame. Got the measurements and am going to pick up a suitable frame from the dollar store.

ODwilly wrote:

I finished stripping a Prescott P4 laptop to turn into a digital picture frame. Got the measurements and am going to pick up a suitable frame from the dollar store.

So your digital picture frame will double as a room furnace in the winter? 🤣

dogchainx wrote:

More Apple retro-ness.... […]
Show full quote

More Apple retro-ness....

I got a Power Mac G3 so I could get on the net and create my own disks for my growing collection of Appleware, specifically my Mac SE which when I was younger I spent a great deal using.

One thing that worried me when I got it was that the seller said it boots up with the chime, but it didn't at all. I spent about 4 hours today going over everything. Guess what, the damn stupid "Personality Card" wasn't seated right. That thing made the loudest "CANK" sound when I forced it down, i swear i cracked the slot...but nope. Now the G3 boots up. I upgraded it from 96mb to 512MB, and the 6GB IDE to a spare 30GB I had sitting unused. Loaded OS 9.2.2 on it, and its running nicely.

Now I just need to get it online...

dogchainx wrote:

It is. 233MHz CPU, desktop-style. Its quit snappy for 233MHz. I'd say on par of a 450MHz Pentium 3 running Windows 98SE.

If it's a 233, it's probably a Rev. 1 motherboard with a Rev. A ROM, meaning it won't support slave drives. More importantly, make sure you partition that 30GB drive properly. If the OS partition is over 8GB, bad things could happen...

http://lowendmac.com/1997/beige-power-mac-g3-1997/ (read the "oddities" section)

kithylin wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

I finished stripping a Prescott P4 laptop to turn into a digital picture frame. Got the measurements and am going to pick up a suitable frame from the dollar store.

So your digital picture frame will double as a room furnace in the winter? 🤣

Of course! The cpu heatsink is even exposed, so it will be very convenient to warm hands when they are frozen 😊 but in all seriousness it is not that bad, the 1.8ghz clock setting you can lock it to in the bios does not pull hardly any juice.

As I took the box of AT expansion PCB thingies from the attic, I noticed the box beneath it and decided to bring it down as well in order to cure my curiosity 😁

It had tons of old mouses in a couple bags. To the top right are the scroll wheel mouses which "might" be serial-compatible. Top left are a few optical mouses (most are USB) and the rest are just plain old mouses which are obviously kinda...icky and need a good clean 🤣!

Even now, when each of my mice that I use on my main rig dies for whatever reason. I always replace it with the result of a lengthy search for a nice right handed mouse that still works. Standard (not gaming) right handed mice are something I think should still be produced, and cheaply, not as a specialist item.

Tinkering with my Dell Precision 420 MT figuring out the SCSI, still waiting on a 2GB RDRAM kit.
Reflowed a 9800 XT and it ran 3d mark 06 without any artifacts.

Rawrl wrote:

If it's a 233, it's probably a Rev. 1 motherboard with a Rev. A ROM, meaning it won't support slave drives. More importantly, ma […]
Show full quote

dogchainx wrote:

More Apple retro-ness.... […]
Show full quote

More Apple retro-ness....

I got a Power Mac G3 so I could get on the net and create my own disks for my growing collection of Appleware, specifically my Mac SE which when I was younger I spent a great deal using.

One thing that worried me when I got it was that the seller said it boots up with the chime, but it didn't at all. I spent about 4 hours today going over everything. Guess what, the damn stupid "Personality Card" wasn't seated right. That thing made the loudest "CANK" sound when I forced it down, i swear i cracked the slot...but nope. Now the G3 boots up. I upgraded it from 96mb to 512MB, and the 6GB IDE to a spare 30GB I had sitting unused. Loaded OS 9.2.2 on it, and its running nicely.

Now I just need to get it online...

dogchainx wrote:

It is. 233MHz CPU, desktop-style. Its quit snappy for 233MHz. I'd say on par of a 450MHz Pentium 3 running Windows 98SE.

If it's a 233, it's probably a Rev. 1 motherboard with a Rev. A ROM, meaning it won't support slave drives. More importantly, make sure you partition that 30GB drive properly. If the OS partition is over 8GB, bad things could happen...

http://lowendmac.com/1997/beige-power-mac-g3-1997/ (read the "oddities" section)

Oooo...nice information! Thanks! I'll have to check and re-partition if needed. I just barely loaded OS 9.2.2 on it, so I deleting the current install isn't an issue.

nforce4max wrote:

Tinkering with my Dell Precision 420 MT figuring out the SCSI, still waiting on a 2GB RDRAM kit.
Reflowed a 9800 XT and it ran 3d mark 06 without any artifacts.

Holy smokes, how much did the 2gb kit of RDRAM set ya back if ya dont mind me asking? I know 512mb sticks do not go for cheap. Thus why I have a bunch of 256's 🤣

ODwilly wrote:

nforce4max wrote:

Tinkering with my Dell Precision 420 MT figuring out the SCSI, still waiting on a 2GB RDRAM kit.
Reflowed a 9800 XT and it ran 3d mark 06 without any artifacts.

Holy smokes, how much did the 2gb kit of RDRAM set ya back if ya dont mind me asking? I know 512mb sticks do not go for cheap. Thus why I have a bunch of 256's 🤣

A fantastic $14 with free shipping, 45ns ECC 800. Last year the prices were Much higher but lately the RDRAM prices seam to have crashed thank God. 😎

Resurrected my 15 year old 4-processor Pentium-III Xeon "Monster Dell" server to use as a tape read-writing machine once every few months.

More photos and information about machine I named "Monster Dell" is over here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8034131@N06/alb … 157624821970340

Blurredman wrote:

Even now, when each of my mice that I use on my main rig dies for whatever reason. I always replace it with the result of a lengthy search for a nice right handed mouse that still works. Standard (not gaming) right handed mice are something I think should still be produced, and cheaply, not as a specialist item.

I bought some cheap PS/2 optical mouses years ago for almost nothing and haven't run out of those yet (roughly 9 years and counting). These things seem to never die, I even "lend" my mother one of mine when her wireless mouse failed and this one too is still in working condition.
The ones I got were OEM mouses, but made by logitech and all have scroll wheels, been using these for years. I did have an old gamers mouse (old non-optical Razer mouse) but that one finally failed and I've been using these cheap optical mouses ever since.

I'm actually more concerned with having enough mouses available that come with a scroll wheel and support serial ports.

Personally I prefer the universal ones as I am bi-mousehanded 😁

nforce4max wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

Holy smokes, how much did the 2gb kit of RDRAM set ya back if ya dont mind me asking? I know 512mb sticks do not go for cheap. Thus why I have a bunch of 256's 🤣

A fantastic $14 with free shipping, 45ns ECC 800. Last year the prices were Much higher but lately the RDRAM prices seam to have crashed thank God. 😎

For some reason I've always found it more difficult to find (nice) RDRAM boards, I already have more RDRAM modules than I have boards to put them in 😢

Repaired a Multi I/O, i wanted to scrap parts but found that its easy to fix.
So i need another source for a db25 connector.

After spending hours with the PC Chips M729 BXCel ALi Aladdin Pro II Slot-1 Baby AT motherboard yesterday I really need some change of scenery.

It has probably been 15 years since I last tinkered with an i440LX motherbord so its about time! I have a feeling this will be less depressing than benching the BXCel garbage. 😀

The new DOS-system motherboard candidate: The Shuttle HOT 637 i440LX.

Tetrium wrote:

I bought some cheap PS/2 optical mouses years ago for almost nothing and haven't run out of those yet (roughly 9 years and count […]
Show full quote

Blurredman wrote:

Even now, when each of my mice that I use on my main rig dies for whatever reason. I always replace it with the result of a lengthy search for a nice right handed mouse that still works. Standard (not gaming) right handed mice are something I think should still be produced, and cheaply, not as a specialist item.

I bought some cheap PS/2 optical mouses years ago for almost nothing and haven't run out of those yet (roughly 9 years and counting). These things seem to never die, I even "lend" my mother one of mine when her wireless mouse failed and this one too is still in working condition.
The ones I got were OEM mouses, but made by logitech and all have scroll wheels, been using these for years. I did have an old gamers mouse (old non-optical Razer mouse) but that one finally failed and I've been using these cheap optical mouses ever since.

I'm actually more concerned with having enough mouses available that come with a scroll wheel and support serial ports.

Personally I prefer the universal ones as I am bi-mousehanded 😁

nforce4max wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

Holy smokes, how much did the 2gb kit of RDRAM set ya back if ya dont mind me asking? I know 512mb sticks do not go for cheap. Thus why I have a bunch of 256's 🤣

A fantastic $14 with free shipping, 45ns ECC 800. Last year the prices were Much higher but lately the RDRAM prices seam to have crashed thank God. 😎

For some reason I've always found it more difficult to find (nice) RDRAM boards, I already have more RDRAM modules than I have boards to put them in 😢

Just like socket 8 boards 😢

My Shuttle HOT 637 did not want to post, I tried everything twice but I have now given up. I guess I will have to do my i440LX testing with another motherboard. I found two other i440LX motherboards in a pile with untested Slot-1 boards, an IBM board and an Intel board so I guess I will have to manage without overclocking.

The fancy looking IBM board with lots of onboard stuff.

The Intel board, the one I will use.

Wasted some time trying to install and play Serios Sam for Palms
After having fun with drivers and synchronizing i finally get it working but it looks like that:

Made my first YouTube video for my channel - repairing the power switch on a Commodore 1084 monitor using a switch from an AT PSU.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2lrrXp-Zn8

It's a bit long but I prefer a chatty video like those by WaybackTECH and Phil than one with subtitles and music that you often see.