Re: AT PSU voltage question

Posted on 2020-08-10, 06:51

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's not that the PSU is unable to run on 110V due to some technical limitation, but rather because they saved the cost of a voltage switch + two wires and slapped a 230V sticker instead. It should be easy to scavenge a 110/230V switch from another PSU and make your unit support both voltages, but …

---

Re: Old hard disks lifetime?

Posted on 2020-08-09, 20:58

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think the "expected" lifespan of a hard drive is only a few years, so it's amazing to me any of these old hard drives still work after 20 or 30 years. Manufacturers usually specify life expectancy assuming the drive is going to be running all the time and at a certain temperature above ambient …

---

Re: Old hard disk lifetime?

Posted on 2020-08-09, 17:42

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The problem is that it's usually impossible to know the past history of those drives, especially until they started incorporating SMART which at least allows you to know the total power-on hours. So there's no way to tell whether the drive has been running 24/7 for years or just used sparingly, how …

---

Re: Something wrong with AT PSU - hissing noise and not powering on

Posted on 2020-08-06, 20:00

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, considering the caps are Fuhjyyu, the probability of those having failed by this point is extremely high (they are known to fail and even leak on unused hardware! It happened to me...). So I'd say replacing them could be a first step in diagnosing the problem. You don't really need to replace …

---

Re: Something wrong with AT PSU - hissing noise and not powering on

Posted on 2020-08-05, 15:21

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, unfortunately that chip seems to be cracked. It's a shame, because it's a nice unit (built by Sparkle/FSP) but unless you're comfortable desoldering and replacing chips I wouldn't recommend attempting to repair. Besides, other components may have also failed, and you will also need a full …

---

Re: Want some Duron with your Arctic Silver?

Posted on 2020-08-05, 04:13

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Whoever did that probably also left a 0-star review back then: "This stuff is too expensive, each tube has barely enough paste for 1 CPU application! Arctic Silver sucks!!!11!1 😠"

---

Re: EPROM Burner for 486 Award BIOS

Posted on 2020-08-04, 17:43

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you get a programmer (I agree with the TL866 recommendation, it does the job well) then you might as well get a new EEPROM chip and burn the 4DPS BIOS to that one. Doesn't really matter if the original was a UV-erasable EPROM, you can usually find EEPROM equivalents that are much more convenient. …

---

Re: AT cases, PSUs, and builds--are they really as hard as I've heard?

Posted on 2020-08-04, 17:34

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

3) when the case is found, and ipotetically having all the components already, deciding the PSU. And imho it's the worst part. Many AT psu I've seen seems that were cheap even back in those days ironically for system that maybe were really expensive, rarely instead depending on the brand (if there …

---

Re: Old rusty power supply works, fancy new power supply does not.

Posted on 2020-08-04, 03:53

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sparkle units are good quality, it should work without issues. Try attaching at least one 12V device, such as a hard drive, and see if it works. Maybe without additional load on that rail the voltage is not stable enough and the power good signal is not asserted high. That would prevent the …

---

Re: Types of capacitors to recap computer stuff (motherboard and PSU)

Posted on 2020-08-03, 20:45

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Aside from PSUs, when it comes to capacitor replacement, doesn't vintage hardware have much more lenient tolerances than newer motherboards that run at much higher clock speeds and at much lower voltage levels? I would assume that an old 5V CPU can tolerate significantly more ripple in absolute …

---

Re: Types of capacitors to recap computer stuff (motherboard and PSU)

Posted on 2020-08-02, 21:55

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Still no answer here yet some of you said that worked well, please provide the brand and series of these capacitors (especially electrolytic low ESR capacitors)? When it comes to brands it's easy: Nichicon, Rubycon, United Chemi-con (also known as Nippon Chemi-con) or Panasonic. As for specific …

---

Re: S3 Vision864 vs 964 Vesa Local Bus VLB

Posted on 2020-08-02, 03:13

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Do you know of any VLB cards that use EDO DRAM? I don't. There might be one or two, but they must be pretty darned rare. One advantage of going with a 96x card is that more care was likely taken designing the output section. There are good quality 86x cards, but some of them were low spec too. My …

---

Re: Adding usb to an isa machine

Posted on 2020-08-01, 21:20

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ethernet cards are the way to go! Cheap and reliable way for transferring data to old machines.

---

Re: Types of capacitors to recap computer stuff (motherboard and PSU)

Posted on 2020-08-01, 19:31

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

pentium3 + socket 462 era boards were made with fake crap capacitors , so if you replace them with non low esr, it would be ok? i was working on a soyo motherboard yesterday, most of the caps of metalic color were bad. No, for boards of that era you really want low ESR (at least for the large caps …

---

Re: Types of capacitors to recap computer stuff (motherboard and PSU)

Posted on 2020-08-01, 00:58

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Recapping with polymers is especially useful for certain boards/cards that originally used electrolytic caps with extremely low ESR, starting around 2002-2003 up until the last part of the decade. These "ultra-low ESR" series usually had reduced lifespan (even for good brands) and their production …

---

Re: Win10 retail - reuse in new build?

Posted on 2020-07-31, 00:19

by

by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

You can create a MS account and deactivate the license from the old PC. Then install Windows on the new build with the MS account first to get the license associated to the new motherboard, and finally do a clean reinstall and set up a local account. It will activate automatically when it detects …

---

Re: How does the Pentium Overdrive 83 work?

Posted on 2020-07-30, 21:21

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Another thing that made the chip unpopular was that it didn't work properly with many older 5V only motherboards. I remember reading that Intel changed some specs at the last minute, so many boards that were built with P24T support before the POD was released didn't actually work (especially in L1 …

---

Re: 286 Motherboard repair - Please assist

Posted on 2020-07-29, 21:34

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Agree that the tantalum caps that had yet to fail shouldn't be replaced. They will actually self recover with use, meaning the more you use the better they become. Hmm this quote is interesting: Impurities, tiny mechanical damages, or imperfections in the dielectric can affect the structure, …

---

Re: Overheating EMU8K on AWE32 CT2760

Posted on 2020-07-27, 23:26

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I haven't measured temps, but I can tell you it gets scorching hot after a short while, I can't keep my finger on the chip for more than an instant and I can feel the heat radiating to the surrounding area. The card does work fine, including the AWE Synthesized Music, but I haven't used it long …

---

Re: Cd rom audio

Posted on 2020-07-27, 04:53

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

To my knowledge all CT1600 SBPro cards have the same white connector for the CD Audio In, in the OP's card it isn't there so probably the previous owner ripped it off accidentally while trying to unplug the cable. Compared to the MPC connector type this one can be somewhat difficult to unplug so I …

---