NyLan wrote on 2022-04-13, 16:02:

Who could resist the urge to buy 340 new floppy disks?
6 sealed 50u packs and 1 opened with 40 unused floppies inside.

2022-04-13 14.13.24.jpg

This should be enough to back-up at least a single CDROM disk! 😋

I always jump on the new floppies when I can. They are getting rarer.

There's probably a market for somebody to figure out how to make small production runs of new floppy disks.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2022-04-13, 18:31:

I always jump on the new floppies when I can. They are getting rarer.

There's probably a market for somebody to figure out how to make small production runs of new floppy disks.

They were dirt cheap back then and I'm rather positive that some manufacturer kept some of the tooling for them, the injection molds at least. Just needs a marked. But even among us happy few, these things are loathed by most, so that may take some time. I wonder how bad they age chronologically and how much chance there is to reuse them over the years. But not too keen on finding that out.
Just the other day, I copied some bundle software from a 30 year old OEM 3.5, without errors. Imagine that...

Some jerk paid a lot of money for an IBM model 60. (286)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194956867483

I'll get it on the 15th if UPS tracking can be trusted.

I recently picked up this PCX1. It's been sitting around for a bit, but I finally got around to testing it today. PowerVR Biohazard runs great on the PCX1, and it doesn't suffer from fast CPU issues like the other releases (tested on a 2GHz Willamette Pentium 4). I don't recall if the PCX2 responds the same. I thought Biohazard had fast CPU problems with the PCX2, also, but I'll have to test it again to confirm.

luckybob wrote on 2022-04-13, 18:54:

Some jerk paid a lot of money for an IBM model 60. (286)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194956867483

I'll get it on the 15th if UPS tracking can be trusted.

Nice handle: every PC should have one. It's going to be satisfying cleaning that one up and reassembling. I'm looking forward to the before and after.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-13, 14:36:

ELSA Erazor X² arrived safely. Supposed to have 2D issues, ghosting in higher Windows resolutions. Possibly an easy fix of a single discrete component, if one can find it.

I have this exact or similar problem on one of my Elsa cards as well. I've only ever tested it on an LCD. Maybe it's a flat panel thing.

luckybob wrote on 2022-04-13, 18:54:

Some jerk paid a lot of money for an IBM model 60. (286)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194956867483

I'll get it on the 15th if UPS tracking can be trusted.

I see a Sound Blaster MCV there. I don't know what they go for, but you may have actually gotten a sweet deal. They are rare as gold.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-13, 18:46:

They were dirt cheap back then and I'm rather positive that some manufacturer kept some of the tooling for them, the injection molds at least. Just needs a marked. But even among us happy few, these things are loathed by most, so that may take some time. I wonder how bad they age chronologically and how much chance there is to reuse them over the years. But not too keen on finding that out.
Just the other day, I copied some bundle software from a 30 year old OEM 3.5, without errors. Imagine that...

I enjoy them myself, mostly for fun and using the machine to its full potential. I FTP a lot of stuff, especially larger things, though.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-04-13, 19:37:

I have this exact or similar problem on one of my Elsa cards as well. I've only ever tested it on an LCD. Maybe it's a flat pane […]
Show full quote

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-13, 14:36:

ELSA Erazor X² arrived safely. Supposed to have 2D issues, ghosting in higher Windows resolutions. Possibly an easy fix of a single discrete component, if one can find it.

I have this exact or similar problem on one of my Elsa cards as well. I've only ever tested it on an LCD. Maybe it's a flat panel thing.

20220319_103536_resize_7.jpg

20220319_103718_resize_83.jpg20220319_103639_resize_42.jpg

20220319_103518_resize_7.jpg

If you've got some spare VGA cables to try, maybe one of the ones with a ferrite near each end would help.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-04-13, 21:09:

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-04-13, 19:37:

I have this exact or similar problem on one of my Elsa cards as well. I've only ever tested it on an LCD. Maybe it's a flat pane […]
Show full quote

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-13, 14:36:

ELSA Erazor X² arrived safely. Supposed to have 2D issues, ghosting in higher Windows resolutions. Possibly an easy fix of a single discrete component, if one can find it.

I have this exact or similar problem on one of my Elsa cards as well. I've only ever tested it on an LCD. Maybe it's a flat panel thing.

20220319_103536_resize_7.jpg

20220319_103718_resize_83.jpg20220319_103639_resize_42.jpg

20220319_103518_resize_7.jpg

If you've got some spare VGA cables to try, maybe one of the ones with a ferrite near each end would help.

I know what you mean but it's probably baked into the signal from the start. Decent VGA wire helps with blurry CRTs and some of the bundled ones of TFTs are surprisingly shitty.
I have the grandmother of all VGA cables on the heap that rivals the average anaconda and also one with BNC on one end. Shall try them out.

My understanding is that the ferrite chokes don't so much prevent parasitic signals as suppress them, so it don't matter if it happens in the middle of the cable or you put it in the end, it will still choke it out.

NyLan wrote on 2022-04-13, 16:02:

Who could resist the urge to buy 340 new floppy disks?
6 sealed 50u packs and 1 opened with 40 unused floppies inside.

2022-04-13 14.13.24.jpg

I bought a pack of floppys like that a few years back, they were all dead. I hope you have more luck.

pan069 wrote on 2022-04-13, 22:21:

NyLan wrote on 2022-04-13, 16:02:

Who could resist the urge to buy 340 new floppy disks?
6 sealed 50u packs and 1 opened with 40 unused floppies inside.

I bought a pack of floppys like that a few years back, they were all dead. I hope you have more luck.

I don't understand why the quality of floppy disk turned to poop towards the 90s. You would think that a company like Sony could be trusted, but theirs were as junk as the rest. I know that they had become a commodity and that maybe this was a way to encourage people to buy more, but the problem was systemic. Could any manufacturer be trusted?

That brand has done okay by me I think, but haven't had many of them. On my "avoid like the plague" list are Memorex translucent colored disks, I think they said "cool disk" on label and package. All of those I had have died, strangely the Memorex solid black or blue ones I've got are still kicking (older?)

edit: I think there was a "race to the bottom" thing going on as bulk price for brand name disks was like $2 per at the beginning of the decade and 25cents or less at the end.

Snarfed a retro GPS, Mio N177 at the thrift, hoping to get this kind of shenanigans going... https://ripitapart.com/tag/miopocket/ ... hoping to have more luck figuring out input devices on this one than that dude had on his magellan.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-04-13, 23:47:

I think there was a "race to the bottom" thing going on as bulk price for brand name disks was like $2 per at the beginning of the decade and 25cents or less at the end.

Floppy disks are a plastic sheet covered with iron oxide. I don't understand what there is to go wrong. It seems like a technology that is easily perfected and not something that is easily to manufacture worse than before.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-04-14, 00:38:

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-04-13, 23:47:

I think there was a "race to the bottom" thing going on as bulk price for brand name disks was like $2 per at the beginning of the decade and 25cents or less at the end.

Floppy disks are a plastic sheet covered with iron oxide. I don't understand what there is to go wrong. It seems like a technology that is easily perfected and not something that is easily to manufacture worse than before.

Well, that's why it's called a race to the bottom. Someone in capitalism will always be even more depraved and void of a general sense of honor and decency if they can lower cost somehow. Then all others are forced to do the same, repeat. Also known as a prisoner's dilemma.
Also, well, plastic usually does not rust. The magnetic material is suspended in some kind of alien gelatin, afaik. And that is bound to deteriorate eventually.

Floppy disks / decline : some discussion on the topic here. Data density, hardware manufacturing, environmental factors, are among common reasons given.

Concepts like 'clip rate' are interesting. To quote an old mag advertisement 'Clip Rate is the amount of oxide coating that a disk can loose before it becomes unuseable. It is usually expressed as a percentage. Most high quality disks have a clip rate of 60% or higher'.

The fact such quantifiable factors exist, with variation between brands/etc, all but proves that There Are Ways To Do It Cheaper & Worse! Presumably, the decline of the market for floppy disks involved a gradual, general withdrawal of resources and attention on every level.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-14, 00:57:

The magnetic material is suspended in some kind of alien gelatin, afaik. And that is bound to deteriorate eventually.

Or maybe they ran out, after all they only recovered 7 from Roswell, 4 from somewhere else, doubt they had more than 29 sets of bones to boil down for it... must have thinned it out with plain old cowbone juice as the years went on.