Sorting out some old motherboards and organizing.

98lited my Win98SE Socket 7 PC. Win95 Explorer made it much snappier. Somehow made my 2nd floppy drive visible (and usable) again from within Windows. Go figure.

Wanted to install my Corsair RM850x in my retro rig, but realized that the 24-pin ATX connector on the PSU does not have a detachable 4-pin block, so I cannot plug it into my Ipox 3ETI23 board's 20-pin ATX power connector .
I opened a ticket with Corsair. Hopefully they can sell me an adapter or alternate cable (PSU is fully modular) .

On a few boards I've had I just let the extra 4 pins hang past the power connector

Modified my PB450 board with a multiple jumper header as I received the 5x86-P75 that runs at 3.3V CPU and didn't get the full 133MHz. Mod complete on the board and cannot wait to modify another board for 3.3V CPU support. I also need to figure out why the drive bay bracket doesn't want to slide in all the way as nothing's obstructing it at all and moved the dual floppy drive and the CD drive around to no avail.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-05-14, 23:07:

On a few boards I've had I just let the extra 4 pins hang past the power connector

In my case, I would need to modify the board connector to that . Since I do not feel like waiting for Corsair to respond, I decided to order myself a 12$ Startech adapter . Considering the number of weird, unusual and sometime complex things they make/market, I get the feeling that Startech are like the Road Runner universe's Acme Corporation of the computer world except more reliable .

wiretap wrote on 2020-05-14, 21:28:

Sorting out some old motherboards and organizing. […]
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Sorting out some old motherboards and organizing.

That's cool.. All my motherboards are in large boxes stacked against each other and somewhat uncomfortably tightly I might add, I will look into ordering a bunch of cardboards that will comfortably fit a single ATX motherboard each. I wonder if there is a standard size for this?

In other news, I got the second batch of SnarkBarker components in the mail and they included the capacitors I was waiting for to recap my MSI KT3 Ultra2, so I did just that:

No, they are not top notch capacitors like Rubicons or anything but these Koshin are better than bulging Teapos any day of the week regardless..

About to finish that once-poor PlayStation 2.

Had to re-align parts of the drive mechanism to get rid of odd sounds during seeks. The sled was slipping off the screw drive. Tested all kinds of media and it works as new. 😀

Now I have to find out why the disc tray does not close with the tray cover attached. I only have the tray cover from a 30004. It fits perfectly, but for some reason blocks the tray from going in the full way.

Nice work cleaning up that PS2.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-05-15, 04:59:

That's cool.. All my motherboards are in large boxes stacked against each other and somewhat uncomfortably tightly I might add, I will look into ordering a bunch of cardboards that will comfortably fit a single ATX motherboard each. I wonder if there is a standard size for this?

The boxes I'm using for standard ATX motherboards are Aviditi M13102. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BT3EQNE/

Less than $1 each.

My favorite retro activity is enhancing my MAME front-end! I love MAME and these days I run it on a little Raspberry Pi3b which works wonderfully. But I never liked the front-ends out there, not that they aren't decent apps but just because I wanted a much simpler app (and also, I don't have or need 10,000 roms 🤣). So I wrote a very simple front-end which runs on Windows but manages the Pi running MAME. So when my insomnia is driving me insane 🤣 I will bounce between playing a few games, then writing some code. And to be honest it's a toss up which of those 2 activities is the most fun for me! Coding often feels to me like that first video game, or rubiks cube if I'm solving a problem. So doing both is a win for me. And that's my retro activity today.

Here's a shot of my front-end app (which again is simplistic by design). I haven't made the source available but I certainly am willing to share the app or source with anyone who wants it.

wiretap wrote on 2020-05-15, 11:22:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-05-15, 04:59:

That's cool.. All my motherboards are in large boxes stacked against each other and somewhat uncomfortably tightly I might add, I will look into ordering a bunch of cardboards that will comfortably fit a single ATX motherboard each. I wonder if there is a standard size for this?

The boxes I'm using for standard ATX motherboards are Aviditi M13102. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BT3EQNE/

Less than $1 each.

unfortunately the standard box size here in europe is "35x25x5" and 25cm is just a smidge too narrow to fit a full size ATX board because of the rear I/O connectors sticking out 😒

they fit everything babyAT and non full-width ATX boards really well though.

imi wrote on 2020-05-15, 11:49:

wiretap wrote on 2020-05-15, 11:22:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-05-15, 04:59:

That's cool.. All my motherboards are in large boxes stacked against each other and somewhat uncomfortably tightly I might add, I will look into ordering a bunch of cardboards that will comfortably fit a single ATX motherboard each. I wonder if there is a standard size for this?

The boxes I'm using for standard ATX motherboards are Aviditi M13102. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BT3EQNE/

Less than $1 each.

unfortunately the standard box size here in europe is "35x25x5" and 25cm is just a smidge too narrow to fit a full size ATX board because of the rear I/O connectors sticking out 😒

they fit everything babyAT and non full-width ATX boards really well though.

This is my (painful) experience as well!

Benchmarked these some time ago (and are already on their way back into remote storage). Today I started working on the results data. After that, it will be onto the 3500TV and Voodoo4s.

Seeing as Windows 7 support officially ended in January, I've also spent the last two days downloading and organising updates that are being slipstreamed into my official Windows 7 SP1 ISOs using Windows AIK. This gets quite monotonous, especially when I have to slipstream several images for each version on each architecture (Enterprise, Ultimate, x86, x64 ...).

appiah4 wrote on 2020-05-15, 12:42:

imi wrote on 2020-05-15, 11:49:

unfortunately the standard box size here in europe is "35x25x5" and 25cm is just a smidge too narrow to fit a full size ATX board because of the rear I/O connectors sticking out 😒

they fit everything babyAT and non full-width ATX boards really well though.

This is my (painful) experience as well!

Just cut a hole for the I/O shield in the boxes. Then you can use them as low-budget cases in a pinch, too.

that defeats the whole purpose of storing them in a box though ^^ might as well keep them in their current storage then.
would probably also destroy the integrity of the cardboard box, they are flimsy enough as is.

janskjaer wrote on 2020-05-15, 15:45:

IMG_20200326_161021.jpg

Benchmarked these some time ago (and are already on their way back into remote storage). Today I started working on the results data. After that, it will be onto the 3500TV and Voodoo4s.

Seeing as Windows 7 support officially ended in January, I've also spent the last two days downloading and organising updates that are being slipstreamed into my official Windows 7 SP1 ISOs using Windows AIK. This gets quite monotonous, especially when I have to slipstream several images for each version on each architecture (Enterprise, Ultimate, x86, x64 ...).

Just a suggestion, you could put it online for some ppl that prefer 7 over the monstrous 10.

Fixed an 286 motherboard, found a case in the dumpster and finally started to build my dream 286.

My corect desktop. Speiclly to make retro content in 90s engines/games/stuff. And check with my friend his 2008.NET softwares.

Soldering. So much soldering. If there is such a thing as solder high, then I have it.

More likely, I poisoned myself with the fumes..