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Re: Easy Win-95 era gaming PC.

BIG upgrade: I found a motherboard in my garage that I must have purchased long ago and forgot about it. So I am going to put it in. It’s an Intel 430tx motherboard. Intel Space walker / shuttle. This should fix the DIMM memory socket problem I was having with the other motherboard so I can use …

Re: What retro hardware you killed today or in the past :(. Killing spree stories+serial killers are welcome.Rest in pie

The Plextor PX-708A that arrived yesterday did not recognize any media. So I said to myself, I'll open it, just my curiosity about the innards are worth the 10 euros I spent for the recorder (including shipping). I liked what I saw. This looks like the old Plextor CD writer I mentioned above. That …

Re: What retro hardware you killed today or in the past :(. Killing spree stories+serial killers are welcome.Rest in pie

I failed to write a Windows 10 iso to two different brands of DVD's on my main rig. Turns out the 2016 sata drive does not like my no name Dual layer 8x discs or Sony DVD+R's RIP: Coasters :( Upgrade the firmware. The media database is in the firmware and it's possible your drive does not know how …

Re: What retro hardware you killed today or in the past :(. Killing spree stories+serial killers are welcome.Rest in pie

But I do not know which drives are so nice like the CD writer mentioned above. As far as I know any Plextor made after the Premium (that means all Plextor DVD burners) is a rebadged OEM drive. That's why I collect only the "nice" Plextors that were actually designed and manufactured by Plextor.

Re: What retro hardware you killed today or in the past :(. Killing spree stories+serial killers are welcome.Rest in pie

That was actually their worst-performing model ever, it was boo'd in reviews top to bottom. They quickly learned and fixed all the issues in the PX-W1610TA which was basically a reference-grade CLV burner, see the CDRInfo review of it https://www.cdrinfo.com/d7/content/plexwriter-px-w1610a-cd-rw . …

Re: What retro hardware you killed today or in the past :(. Killing spree stories+serial killers are welcome.Rest in pie

I know, I sank $300 into a PX-1210TA in 1999. That was actually their worst-performing model ever, it was boo'd in reviews top to bottom. They quickly learned and fixed all the issues in the PX-W1610TA which was basically a reference-grade CLV burner, see the CDRInfo review of it https://www. …

Re: What retro hardware you killed today or in the past :(. Killing spree stories+serial killers are welcome.Rest in pie

Regarding laser calibration - you're referring to a different kind of calibration, specifically, the one that takes place before a write operation... What I'm referring to are adjustments in the firmware based on the unique characteristics of each laser. This is something that's done at the factory …

Re: What retro hardware you killed today or in the past :(. Killing spree stories+serial killers are welcome.Rest in pie

Hmmm, I might try it on my TL866 now that you mention it... The only thing I'm worried about is calibration data, which would transfer over from the other drive, but since you say you regularly swap lasers, it should not be an issue. There are sections of the EEPROM that are programmed at the …

Re: What retro hardware you killed today or in the past :(. Killing spree stories+serial killers are welcome.Rest in pie

Do you change caps on your Plextors? True, they use Nichicon, but they're 20 years old by now. I don't change caps unless the device is malfunctioning. I have devices with 30+ year old Matsushita caps that still test at 95% original capacity and barely any ESR on a capacitor tester so unless the …

Re: What retro hardware you killed today or in the past :(. Killing spree stories+serial killers are welcome.Rest in pie

Dead laser pickup. From my experience NOS Plextors starting with the PX-W4824TA often come like that straight out of the box. When building my Plextor collection, I've gone through about a dozen PX-W4824TA and Premiums that were DOA with bad lasers. Fortunately, they use the same mechanism so you …

Re: What retro hardware you killed today or in the past :(. Killing spree stories+serial killers are welcome.Rest in pie

Also killed a Dell 2001FP monitor when I opened it up for cleaning and disconnected the LCD panel from the controller board. Apparently those things are super-static sensitive and you're supposed short the connectors with dummy plugs when they're disconnected. When I plugged the panel back in, …

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