Re: “Let’s Talk About Capacitor Failure”

Posted on 2019-04-11, 06:42

by

by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I thought it was interesting that a number of people who seem to have more experience than I do (with electronic *work*) have much less experience with specific failures (tantalum cap explosions, failed caps in monitors/motherboards/car ECUs) - I've a number of each of these under my belt. Maybe I …

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Re: Is this EuroPC salvageable?

Posted on 2019-04-09, 19:20

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, first of all, get the battery out of there if you haven't already. Then clean the area with a very weak acid (yes vinegar will work though I never use it myself), then alcohol to rinse everything off and dry it, then get a good picture of the damaged area. It may require some patch wires and/ …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2019-04-09, 06:47

by

by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm sitting between two foot-high stacks of hard drives. One is DOA, one passed SMART but I just started doing surface tests. I'm running the Linux mini on Hiren's and running 6 concurrent badblocks instances on 6 drives at once. It's the simplest way I've found to test 6 drives at once. Technically …

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2019-04-07, 21:06

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Absolute lunacy! Clearly these people are utterly clueless as to what they have. I've just deployed 24 i3-8100 systems about 2 months ago at one of my clients. They're stupidly fast for Office and the Web that they're being used for. I'd very happily use one of those CPUs for my main gaming rig.. …

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2019-04-07, 02:37

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Everyone with money (and no tech knowledge) seems to think anything that's not an Ultrabook is obsolete. Well as long as they throw them at me I guess it's okay. I got an i3-8100 with one of the bent-pin mobos - that's an *8th gen* i3 quad-core. Dang people, it's almost as fast as the 3770. I …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2019-04-07, 02:29

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Man literally everyone finds AT desktop cases these days. Gotta save up my pennies and buy from you guys, I think everyone here threw them out in the 90s. BUT I have had some awesome hauls lately, to put that salt in context. On the bench at the moment is a funky Thermaltake case, will probably make …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-04-07, 02:25

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

YAY posted to wrong thread, sorry. 🤣 Now I have to buy something retro.

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2019-04-05, 01:48

by

by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nothing retro the last few days. Been testing a bunch of hardware described as "mostly not working." Narrator: It was mostly working.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-04-05, 01:47

by

by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Whenever I get a computer item that smells like smoke I usually end up junking it because the smell never comes out. Unless it's something rare... :lol: Scrub Free with Bleach. I've recovered systems (including a laptop) that smelled like the inside of a smoker's lung. Just don't do it over a …

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2019-04-05, 01:43

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

3770s must be on the "rich people discard pile," I got three of them recently and it blew my mind. Just how... why... how... Got a stack of mini ITX motherboards with minor bent pins that were thrown out but appear OK otherwise, will have to see if that's the case. 5 is a "stack", right? Nothing …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2019-04-02, 06:35

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I need to get some super-precise tweezers. It's not exactly retro, but I got a stack of motherboards in the 115x range with bent pins because they were handled improperly. I do have an endoscope I can attach to a tablet I have, and a way to hold the scope and light, but my current tools for …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2019-03-30, 02:05

by

by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Many of the FDDs can be repaired by replacing the small electrolytic capacitors on them. They don't age well. But of course, 3.5inch floppy drives are as common as dirt. You may or may not have the motivation to repair them. I find myself cleaning and fixing things like Mac floppies more than PC, …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2019-03-26, 02:59

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

No pics for the moment but I am still tinkering with the dtk PII, I have tons of video options, ram, even video cards to test (the one in it is period-appropriate, tho). On the subject of "it works better if you dry it out," I picked up a somewhat brutalized Packard Bell 75MHz Pentium (the one with …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2019-03-21, 05:44

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Courtesy of liqmat: DTK-a-1.jpg Dat DTK logo tho... You can barely see Amok on that LCD to the right, and you can't see the PS/2 MouseMan I hadn't tested yet (works great). This beast is SWEET and was only lost in shipping for three days (yikes). Great packing job BTW. I will probably get some more …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-03-21, 01:02

by

by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Which alloy version? The Powermac G5: https://www.macstories.net/mac/the-mighty-power-mac-g5/ Thing was a freakin' piece of art. It's too bad so many of the hot ones were water-cooled and leaked, it can be hard to find a dual 2.7GHz or quad 2.5GHz. I have a Dual 2.7 but it completely ate itself ( …

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Re: Sad looking ACT 386 DX year mfg.1991 ?

Posted on 2019-03-16, 21:55

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

1) It sounds like you got the message to replace the battery, but it's important to *remove* it ASAP because it can leak and destroy the motherboard (or at least damage it). 2) If you decide not to keep the 5.25" drive, see if you can test it to see if it's working. They're starting to get rare and …

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Re: Sad looking ACT 386 DX year mfg.1991 ?

Posted on 2019-03-16, 08:31

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You may want to try running each set of 4 separately in the slots you took them out of (i.e. install 4 but not the other 4). There can be a lot of problems with old machines, bad components, trace damage from leaking batteries, etc.

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Re: Sad looking ACT 386 DX year mfg.1991 ?

Posted on 2019-03-16, 08:30

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Maybe it's just me but I'd take a low-end cheap 1991 machine over a high-end mid-2000s machine any day, if only because of how rare they are. If you work at it long enough I'm sure we can help you get it working, or help you find someone who will take it off your hands and get it working. Circa 1990 …

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Re: Post your system, board, cable & general organization pictures

Posted on 2019-03-16, 04:52

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by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Anti-Static-PCB-Board-Turnover-Rack-Holder-Bracket-U-Shaped-Stripe-Card-Board/272209067570?epid=2127422874&hash=item3f60ecbe32%3Ag%3A58UAAOSwGYVXC34a&LH_BIN=1 https://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-Laptop-Memory-tray-container-packing-box-DDR-DDR2-DDR3-SDRAM-dimm-sodimm/261921786270? …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2019-03-15, 05:02

by

by Merovign

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I actually badly want a PCI Rage 128 for PC and cant find one for a reasonable price or trade offer.. I got a couple with old PCs and the one I bought for the mac was $10 plus shipping on ebay. Patience and keep an eye out. Though it looks like people keep driving prices up by bricking them by …

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