I enjoy using retro computers where they actually still can do the job without sacrificing usability for fun and (mainly) to use old peripherals that are not supported by modern computers / operating systems any more: Mainly electronics related stuff like controlling measurement equipment via GP-IB …

Asus P3C-D (from HP Kayak XM600). I literally cannot get this guy to POST. System fan, gpu fan, and cpu fan spins, but no POST. I'm using 3x 256MB PC800 RDRAM with a P3-450 Katmai and a CPU terminator that works on the below Asus P2B-DS board. Any help would be appreciated. Otherwise I might have …

FAST Multimedia AG was a munich-based company (around the corner from where I lived). They produced professional video-editing cards ("Movie Machine", and also some for hobbyists (e.g. the "AV-Master" and "DV-master"). The video-business was acquired by Pinnacle Systems. They seem to have closed all …

Here's a picture of two fuses. Both are very magnetic :) Mmmh. Are you sure? "F" could also designate "Ferrite" or "Filter". See: http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en/filters/ferrite-beads-and-chips/3408555?FV=1140050%2Cfff40034%2Cfff802ab%2C400001%2C403885%2C403888%2C403891%2C403895%2C403999& …

Can you do a continuity check on the part, and tell to which pin of the keyboard connector it leads? It's probably a fuse. I've seen inductors placed instead of fuses on some boards - maybe here it's the other way around. Any component will act as a fuse from some point on. That one is beyond that …

Could be an evaluation board for a "SHARC" DSP from Analog devices.

Just remembered another point: The Schneider Tower AT machines can overclock the ISA-bus. As far as I remember there are two option in the BIOS: Full CPU clocks of 1/2 the CPU clock (10MHz or 5 MHz in my case for the 10MHz version). The standard clock is only 8 MHz. Many cards have issues with …

I've got 3 Schneider Tower AT systems. - 2 System 240 (286/10MHz), both non-operational because of (supposedly) dead DALLAS RTCs and also PSU (in one case). - one System 386 (386SX/16MHz). Can't access/open one of the 240s (should be the newer one of them) to look for the bios revision, the other ( …

Since it is only a coil and chances are good that the drive will still work provided the windings are still intact. The core seems not so intact. The inductance and behaviour (saturation) of the coil are greatly affected by it. Taking the core out might result in much less inductance - in turn …

The combination of an inductor (I'm pretty sure that is not an air-core therefore) with the capacitors and a power-MOSFET around it looks like its for some DC/DC-converter. If you can find and identyfy a DC/DC controller then the datasheet should give a hint about the needed inductivity (usually …

Had some dual-CPU P2-400 systems with RDRAM (ASUS P3C-D), and another one with SDRAM (ASUS P2B-D). Used both with the maximum number of RAM modules (2x128 MB 800-40 RDRAM vs. 4x64MB 100MHz SDRAM). I'm currently trying to get the P3C-D ones working again in another thread. I can post some benchmarks …

I am wondering whether the problem could be that I killed the boards (all of them) by shorting the "RTC clear" contact points whith the boards powered?

I know a P2B-DS works fine with out CPU terminator things. Worst case it just wont boot. I'd try the PCI card in a different PC to confirm if it works or not. swapping from AGP to PCI is always a good start. Tried to boot with one CPU - doesn't boot (same behaviour as with two ones in that case). …

You could try the following: Leave those boards without a battery for a few hours Leave the boards on for a while (lets say an hour or two) to recondition some capacitors Try booting with a single processor (do those boards support that?) Try an old PCI graphics card EDIT: if the BIOS chip is …

Started to dig out old hardware to build some 'new' retro machines. For the first builds, I planned to use some ASUS P3C-D dual-processor boards (have five of them). Here is the problem: All of the boards but one don't boot. No video signal. Same for one already assembled computer that used to be …