henryVK wrote:

I have since completely disassembled my Toshiba Tecra 510CDT in order to replace that noisy fan. It has about a 100 screws to it and all components are just stacked on top of one another like so many pancakes.. wish I had taken a picture of the mess. I was sweating bullets too, but in the end it wasn't too hard doing it with the maintenace manual, it just took a good long time to reassemble. Maybe I can still find a tool for fan speed control for this one.

I'm very afraid of removing fans from my computers, don't know if their lifespan will diminish. I would try to find a silent replacement fan. Another thing that maybe could be done (I don't know if it would fit inside the laptop) would be some kind of speed control mod:
https://bit-tech.net/guides/modding/adding_fa … peed_control/1/

Does this count as hardware? I mean, it IS a PCB with a ROM chip on it... Have been looking for this for a looong time. I guess I know what I'll be playing tonight!

Also: it's two player compatible! I didn't know that...

I received my Dreamblaster S1 today ... I know, the S2 is out, but I can get an S1 much cheaper than an S2 here in Australia.

Paired up with my ESS1689 in my Pentium 200 MMX machine, sounds rather pleasing testing it out in windows and DOS.

This does make me want to go buy more sound hardware though ... damnit, spend too much on this crap!

root42 wrote:

Does this count as hardware? I mean, it IS a PCB with a ROM chip on it... Have been looking for this for a looong time. I guess I know what I'll be playing tonight!

Also: it's two player compatible! I didn't know that...

62E7C7FA-8AA0-4F8C-9A36-5E7EA065FA82.jpeg

Oh my, I am SO jealous now!

canthearu wrote:

I received my Dreamblaster S1 today ... I know, the S2 is out, but I can get an S1 much cheaper than an S2 here in Australia.

Paired up with my ESS1689 in my Pentium 200 MMX machine, sounds rather pleasing testing it out in windows and DOS.

This does make me want to go buy more sound hardware though ... damnit, spend too much on this crap!

S1/S2 are amazing hardware IMO. It was my gateway to spending shitloads on MIDI hardware. I can see lots of money down the drain in your future 😎

There is very little practical difference between S1 and S2.

It's a CT2230. I love these things. But this card is interesting especially because it has the CSP soldered on. I didn't think I'd ever see one of these.

...not that the CSP is particularly useful at all, but it's nice to have options 😀

I have very few posts in this tıopic, mainly due to the (almost) lack of any nice bargains in my Retro life. Today is different though! 🤣

The local IT tech of the company that I'm working for is aware of the fact that I love those "ancient useless shit" and before sending any old hardware for recycling, he let me take a look and take whatever I want. The stuff was almost always not so interesting (P4 era things that I rarely bother to take).

Wow...Not today. 🤣 All for free 😊

Here is the list:

Conner CFS210A 210MB HDD
Conner CFS635A 635MB HDD
Intel PIII 550 Slot CPU (SL3FJ)
Intel PIII 650 Slot CPU (SL3KV)
Teac FD-55GFR-570-U 1.2MB 5.25" FDD
Generic S3 Trio64 V2/DX PCI Display Adapter
Axle GF2 MX400 64M AGP Display Adapter
Sound Blaster 16 Wave Effects CT4170 ISA Sound Card
Generic ISA Multi I/O IDE Controller (J3ITN-171)
Towertech TT2000 CL 5422 ISA 1M Display Adapter
Tseng Labs ET4000AX (FIS VGA 4000) 1MB ISA Display Adapter
An unknown PCChips variety PCI 486 Motherboard (fake cache) with a TI 486DX2-80 CPU and some (16MB?) 72 pin RAM and CPU cooler
An unknown EISA 486 Motherboard with an Intel 486DX2-66 CPU and some (8MB?) 30 pin RAM and CPU cooler

Here are the pics of motherboards. Can anyone identify them? EISA board has serious CMOS battery problems. Which one of the Dallas chips should I replace (It has two)?

appiah4 wrote:

There is very little practical difference between S1 and S2.

I have both and think the S1 sounds better. The S2 applies some crazy overdriven effects on all instruments, making it sound like a SID chip on ecstasy. 😉 Both are great, however, but I would always prefer the S1 if I could choose. Too bad the S1 is no longer available.

appiah4 wrote:

S1/S2 are amazing hardware IMO. It was my gateway to spending shitloads on MIDI hardware. I can see lots of money down the drain in your future 😎

Hopefully this won't be the same for me, since today I bought ESS Solo-1 with wavetable connector. I'm planing to buy some Dreamblaster someday, but that's it for me and MIDI hardware. At least, that's the plan 🤣

Also, received AMD Geode NX 1750, just because 😁 (Since I don't have Socket A board yet).

derSammler wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

There is very little practical difference between S1 and S2.

I have both and think the S1 sounds better. The S2 applies some crazy overdriven effects on all instruments, making it sound like a SID chip on ecstasy. 😉 Both are great, however, but I would always prefer the S1 if I could choose. Too bad the S1 is no longer available.

I did get an S1 as well, back when they had the black pcb limited edition for sale. I am impressed by the S2's capabilities, yet I felt that the bang for bucks was too little when comparing S1 and S2. So I went for the S1 instead of the S2. Now the X2. That is a quite different beast though.

dionb wrote:

Looks like it would have originally housed some lead-acid battery, but modded to take four D batteries. Which would supply 9V, so no surprise that a 9V brick works.

A primary D cell provides (nominally) 1.5V; 4x1.5V=6V. A 9V battery requires 6 1.5V cells.

9V batteries have a very low current output, so the voltage probably dropped down pretty low under the load-- and the battery would not have lasted very long, either.

AlaricD wrote:

dionb wrote:

Looks like it would have originally housed some lead-acid battery, but modded to take four D batteries. Which would supply 9V, so no surprise that a 9V brick works.

A primary D cell provides (nominally) 1.5V; 4x1.5V=6V. A 9V battery requires 6 1.5V cells.

9V batteries have a very low current output, so the voltage probably dropped down pretty low under the load-- and the battery would not have lasted very long, either.

I did find another site to ask questions, and there used to be a plastic tubing for the batteries themselves, but, it's gone missing (probably the original owner tossed it out or kept it for a DIY project). My plan is to get a plastic tubing, 4 D cell batteries or C cell batteries, split the power connection in two for the toggle switch for in between AC/DC power and battery for making it portable while supplying AUX inputs (for old iPods, or bluetooth devices) and three more toggle switches (audio source, AUX source, and the use of the internal speaker, or headphones (might be overkill, but, I will put resistors and caps in series to prevent the audio from getting distorted or cooked)).

One more thing that arrived today: matze79's prototype boards for the SN76489 soundcard. I now have to hunt down the ICs themselves and order the rest of the components... 😀

That's the Tandy 3-voice compatible board, correct? Love the color of the PCB.

AlaricD wrote:

A primary D cell provides (nominally) 1.5V; 4x1.5V=6V. A 9V battery requires 6 1.5V cells.

9V batteries have a very low current output, so the voltage probably dropped down pretty low under the load-- and the battery would not have lasted very long, either.

Ugh, on holiday in (for Northern European standards) crazy heat. Must have lost the capacity for basic arithmetic... You're right of course 😀

tayyare wrote:

I have very few posts in this tıopic, mainly due to the (almost) lack of any nice bargains in my Retro life. Today is different […]
Show full quote

I have very few posts in this tıopic, mainly due to the (almost) lack of any nice bargains in my Retro life. Today is different though! 🤣

The local IT tech of the company that I'm working for is aware of the fact that I love those "ancient useless shit" and before sending any old hardware for recycling, he let me take a look and take whatever I want. The stuff was almost always not so interesting (P4 era things that I rarely bother to take).

Wow...Not today. 🤣 All for free 😊

Here is the list:

Conner CFS210A 210MB HDD
Conner CFS635A 635MB HDD
Intel PIII 550 Slot CPU (SL3FJ)
Intel PIII 650 Slot CPU (SL3KV)
Teac FD-55GFR-570-U 1.2MB 5.25" FDD
Generic S3 Trio64 V2/DX PCI Display Adapter
Axle GF2 MX400 64M AGP Display Adapter
Sound Blaster 16 Wave Effects CT4170 ISA Sound Card
Generic ISA Multi I/O IDE Controller (J3ITN-171)
Towertech TT2000 CL 5422 ISA 1M Display Adapter
Tseng Labs ET4000AX (FIS VGA 4000) 1MB ISA Display Adapter
An unknown PCChips variety PCI 486 Motherboard (fake cache) with a TI 486DX2-80 CPU and some (16MB?) 72 pin RAM and CPU cooler
An unknown EISA 486 Motherboard with an Intel 486DX2-66 CPU and some (8MB?) 30 pin RAM and CPU cooler

Here are the pics of motherboards. Can anyone identify them? EISA board has serious CMOS battery problems. Which one of the Dallas chips should I replace (It has two)?

WhatsApp Image 2018-07-31 at 18.17.56.jpeg

WhatsApp Image 2018-07-31 at 18.18.31.jpeg

This is the EISA board: http://www.uncreativelabs.de/th99/m/C-D/31280.htm

bjwil1991 wrote:

That's the Tandy 3-voice compatible board, correct? Love the color of the PCB.

Yes, that's the one. Colour is nice. PCB quality is not as high as the ones I get from Aisler, but the price is also about 3 times less, so I don't complain. 😁

Very nice feature: PC Speaker input and potentiometer.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

tayyare wrote:

I have very few posts in this tıopic, mainly due to the (almost) lack of any nice bargains in my Retro life. Today is different […]
Show full quote

I have very few posts in this tıopic, mainly due to the (almost) lack of any nice bargains in my Retro life. Today is different though! 🤣

The local IT tech of the company that I'm working for is aware of the fact that I love those "ancient useless shit" and before sending any old hardware for recycling, he let me take a look and take whatever I want. The stuff was almost always not so interesting (P4 era things that I rarely bother to take).

Wow...Not today. 🤣 All for free 😊

Here is the list:

Conner CFS210A 210MB HDD
Conner CFS635A 635MB HDD
Intel PIII 550 Slot CPU (SL3FJ)
Intel PIII 650 Slot CPU (SL3KV)
Teac FD-55GFR-570-U 1.2MB 5.25" FDD
Generic S3 Trio64 V2/DX PCI Display Adapter
Axle GF2 MX400 64M AGP Display Adapter
Sound Blaster 16 Wave Effects CT4170 ISA Sound Card
Generic ISA Multi I/O IDE Controller (J3ITN-171)
Towertech TT2000 CL 5422 ISA 1M Display Adapter
Tseng Labs ET4000AX (FIS VGA 4000) 1MB ISA Display Adapter
An unknown PCChips variety PCI 486 Motherboard (fake cache) with a TI 486DX2-80 CPU and some (16MB?) 72 pin RAM and CPU cooler
An unknown EISA 486 Motherboard with an Intel 486DX2-66 CPU and some (8MB?) 30 pin RAM and CPU cooler

Here are the pics of motherboards. Can anyone identify them? EISA board has serious CMOS battery problems. Which one of the Dallas chips should I replace (It has two)?

WhatsApp Image 2018-07-31 at 18.17.56.jpeg

WhatsApp Image 2018-07-31 at 18.18.31.jpeg

This is the EISA board: http://www.uncreativelabs.de/th99/m/C-D/31280.htm

Thanks a lot! This is extremely helpfull 😀

debs3759 wrote:

Intel486dx33 wrote:

Lucky Star 5A A1 Socket 7 motherboard with pentium 166mhz and 8mb ram. Via chipset. Baby AT ( really small form factor ). 8.75" […]
Show full quote

Lucky Star 5A A1 Socket 7 motherboard with pentium 166mhz and 8mb ram.
Via chipset.
Baby AT ( really small form factor ).
8.75" x 8.75"

Only 8 MB RAM on a Pentium board? I'm upgrading two of my 486 to 128 MB. Will be able to run Win 95 from a ramdisk 😀

I also like the authentic amount of the ram. You cant feel the real config speed, if you boost up with sdcard or more ram... we build retro config, because they are slow 😀

Pentiums usually had 16MB or more as this was pretty much needed to run Win95.