BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-12, 01:50:

Yah need the stuff that's colored pink by the protective fairy dust in it.

Afaiu, this pink stuff is non-conductive and not antistatic e.g. conductive like carbon or aluminium-vapor coated bags.
I read that it only tends to not develop strong static potentials and attract dust like untreated plastic stuff.

Personally I don't think that this pink color is really sufficient to avoid zapping the electronics.
I believe it is more sort of (questionable) risk reduction than elimination, only for saving a few cents.

However, there is pink stuff with additional (often only partial) ESD coating you often see in electronics packaging which probably is better than the uncoated variant.

the pink stuff is esd safe as in that it doesn't build up any static charge itself (as opposed to most regular packaging materials), it does not provide protection against a static discharge though.

retardware wrote on 2021-09-12, 01:08:

psychofox wrote on 2021-09-10, 17:31:

Is it repairable?

It always gives me shivers seeing MOS electronics lying on highly-electrostatic bubble foil.

Usually I avoid purchasing hardware which I see presented this way. Got too many shot stuff and stuff with strange problems delivered in such packaging.

Is it really that big problem? I purchase often from ebay (and other online places) computer stuff and one out of ten items are packed as it should be. If item was described as working, it always has worked too after transportation. This Banshee was sold as is.

PcBytes wrote on 2021-09-11, 18:25:

Been given a freebie PC. Robert B, I figure you remember these cases?

-generic JNC case - I'm still searching the model but one thing I know for sure is both our AGER cases and this beige generic case are made by JNC (a L&C/Deer Computer Co. LTD subsidiary, also known for those cheapo cases.)

This thread has some info on a very similar (same?) case style.

psychofox wrote on 2021-09-12, 08:13:

retardware wrote on 2021-09-12, 01:08:

psychofox wrote on 2021-09-10, 17:31:

Is it repairable?

It always gives me shivers seeing MOS electronics lying on highly-electrostatic bubble foil.

Usually I avoid purchasing hardware which I see presented this way. Got too many shot stuff and stuff with strange problems delivered in such packaging.

Is it really that big problem? I purchase often from ebay (and other online places) computer stuff and one out of ten items are packed as it should be. If item was described as working, it always has worked too after transportation. This Banshee was sold as is.

The ESD protection diodes can handle only (usually) .5 to 2kV and a little charge, and blow away with higher discharges, like fuses, leaving the component unprotected from then on.
The damage on the chip opens up new undesirable current paths, which will be destructive in long term, even if the chip apparently "survived" the initial discharge.

Today I rolled off some bubble wrap. My hair stood up from more than 20cm distance, so I think one can safely assume a 200+kV potential.

I guess you can you understand why I package stuff I sell in conductive coated bags, then wrap some sheets of (conductive by moisture content) newspaper around them for safety against pinches, and only then wrap that into bubble wrap.
My personal opinion is that it is justified to generally give negative feedback when sellers directly wrap stuff in non-ESD bubble wrap or similar.
This is my method to increase problem awareness of sellers.

I'm on a roll baby! 😀

Fresh loot!

1. AOpen AK73(A) - S462 - VIA KT133A + Duron 1.4GHz
2. ASUS A7N8X Ver 2.0 DELUXE Gold - S462 - nForce 2 Ultra 400 + AXP 2000+
3. ASRock P4AL-800 - S478 - ULi® A800N chipset - needs caps
4. Intel i7-860 - SLBJJ + H57 Mobo + 4GB DDR3
5. QDI KinetiZ 7T - QDI K7V8363A/K7E-A - VIA KT133 - needs caps
6. MSI MS-6318, MED 2000 VERL2 - S370 - VIA Apollo Pro133A + CPU (I don't know the model yet) - needs caps
7. AOpen MX46 U2 - SiS 650GX SIS 962L + CPU ( I don't know the model yet) - needs caps.
8. Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 64MB TV-OUT - Kyro II
9. AMD K6-2/300AFR
10. Intel Q6600 x2, Q8300, Q8400
11. Cyrix 486 DX4 100MHz - Cx486DX4-100GP
12. AXP 2000+ Palomino
13. Creative Labs – Creative Labs ct2290 Sound Blaster 16 SB16IDE - CT2291 - FCC ID:IBACT-SB16IDE
14. OCZ Platinum Edition PC2 8500 2x2GB 5-5-5@2.2V
15. OCZ PC2 5400 2x2GB
16. Labway Audio Sound Card LWHA151A00 A151-a00 16-bit ISA - YAMAHA YMF719E-S
17. MSI MS-8818 VER:10B - Geforce 2 MX
18. MSI 8800GTS - Zalman Cooler
19. ATI Mach64 VT4 PCI
20. AIW ATI 3D Rage PRO + VRAM ext.
21. Logitech C7-3F-9F mouse
22. Sealed NIB Iomega zip 250 - 3.5" internal
23. CD-ROM Plextor PX-54TA
24. Mushkin Enhanced 2x1GB PC6400
25. 10 MFM HDD cables - the wider ones. I still need to find the pair. (the slim one)
26. AXP 2400+ https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Athlon% … A2400DKV3C.html 2GHz/266
27. No name ISA FDD/SER/PARALEL/IDE controller
28. Future Domain TMC-850MEX 8-BIT ISA SCSI CONTROLLER 01-00850-043-00 PC or Apple

gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/37x7s2g

Nice haul Robert, 27x Sweet! ... 1x meh, K6-2 300 is kinda lame, IDK if it "fills a hole" in having a set or something though. #28 might disappoint you depending on what ideas you had for it.

Thanks BitWrangler! 😀

The entire stuff was a job lot so I wasn't too picky. 😀 Yeah the K6-2 is meh but it can still do well in a machine. 😀. Also the prices were too good to pass. Competition was fierce so I didn't stand and think too much. Many of the parts will be sold locally after repairs, some cleaning and testing.

The #28 was just a curiosity. If I find an ancient SCSI CD-ROM this will come in handy.

Some of the motherboards have chipsets that aren't too common so I bought them just for that. Bad caps era has bitten me by the a$$ but I have a solution for this. I'll change just the big caps and call it a day. The dead Soyo SY-D6IBA is still fresh in my mind.

A nice controller

Bought Roland MT-32. Not in the best cosmetic shape and I still need to test it. But seller said it was working fine. Will post photo later...

More updates on the retro machine I got for free - was given also the LCD (some 15 inch Belinea I trashed as I had no use and space for it), as well as a Genius DIN5 keyboard and Serial DB9 mouse.

Just got back from Vintage Computer Festival Midwest... with goodies! I actually sold a lot of stuff I wasn't using too, but now I've brought back some new projects and parts to try... haven't tested anything yet but will in the coming days. Maybe this will result in some interesting build threads from me.

Systems:
Dell Inspiron 8200 (haven't checked specs, bought to merge with the 8200 I already have to make a working unit)
Packard Bell Legend 204CD (486DX2/66)
Packard Bell Legend 406CD (Pentium 75)
Power Macintosh 7100/80 (w/ High Performance Video card)
Tandy 1000 RL (Reportedly working but the IDE-XT drive is dead-- might as well stick an XTIDE card in it)

Motherboards:
Tekram P5T30-A4 (ATX, Socket 7, Intel 430TX, Pentium MMX installed, not sure of the speed yet)
Some random Pentium III board (have not checked model yet, dead, included with a case I bought)

CPUs:
Pentium II 266 (Klamath)
Unknown Pentium III in board from above, need to check

Graphics cards:
GeForce 3 Ti 200 (MSI/Dell OEM) (AGP)
GeForce 4 Ti 4400 (PNY) (AGP)
GeForce FX 5900 (BFG Asylum FX 5900) (AGP)
2x GeForce 6800 GT (BFG 6800 GT OC) (AGP)
Radeon X800 XL (AGP)
Rage Pro Turbo All-in-Wonder (AGP) with all cables/dongles
RIVA 128 (STB Velocity 128) (AGP)
S3 Trio64V+ (Diamond) (PCI)

Sound cards:
Pine Tech PT-230X (ESS AudioDrive 1868F)
Reveal SC400 Rev.3 (Aztech AZT1605 based)
Sound Blaster 32 CT3600
Sound Blaster Live! CT4670

Drives:
LS-120 SuperDisk USB
Reveal CR-563-B CD-ROM (Panasonic Interface)
2x Yamaha CRW3200 CD-RW (IDE)

Cases:
2x Enlight 7237s

Other:
After Dark 3.0 for Mac
Amiga 500/1200 "NuBrick" power supply
Audio mixer board with some kind of USB/Win9x control software?
CTX 15" CRT monitor (FREE!!, works well, seems to prefer 800x600 or lower)
Diamond DTV-1100 ISA tuner (connects to S3 cards via LPB feature connector)
Netgear GS108 gigabit switch
Wacom tablet/monitor hybrid (not a Cintiq, a cheaper thing), maybe about 10 years old, need to research it a bit more

PcBytes wrote on 2021-09-11, 18:25:

Been given a freebie PC. Robert B, I figure you remember these cases? […]
Show full quote

Been given a freebie PC. Robert B, I figure you remember these cases?

20210911_195935.jpg

Mine came in PRISTINE condition (the PSU only has some very very early and slight rust spots) with the following parts:

- PCChips M726MRT mobo - looks promising, quite unusually packed knowing PCChips is notorious for being cheap. ALI Aladdin Pro chipset, has both Slot1 and Socket 370.

- about 192MB of RAM? (the sticks don't tell much besides one PQI stick that's surprisingly heatsinked which reads 128MB unbuffered)

- Celeron 533 Mendocino - prolly the best CPU that could be paired with the mobo. Shame it doesn't support Coppermines probably

- ATI Rage IIC AGP 8MB

- VIA VT6212L USB card

- ASIC LC200C "gutless wonder" PSU (which is in dire need of a overhaul.)

-generic JNC case - I'm still searching the model but one thing I know for sure is both our AGER cases and this beige generic case are made by JNC (a L&C/Deer Computer Co. LTD subsidiary, also known for those cheapo cases.)

- Quantum LCT10 HDD that I left to the owner (he had some rather special apps that I couldn't source, and besides I have enough IDE HDDs of various sizes, including a LCT15 that's more silent that that LCT10.). Had a broken XP install.

- some broken Toshiba and LG CD-RW drives that went straight in the bin in favour of an ASUS DVDRW and a LG DVDROM-CDRW drive

- no NIC

- Genius AT keyboard + DB9 mouse with ball inside

- some Belinea LCD that I had no use for and sent to the bin, not before saving its 12v 2.5A charger and the monitor type AC cable that would go on the back of the PSU normally.

Will probably make a nice "exotic" retro machine, paired with a GF2 MX400, the onboard CMI8738 the mobo provides through bracket, and some better RAM, and of course the Mendocino 533.

Yeah I got one just like it. 😁

I got myself an IBM usb floppy drive so that I can have floppy disks fail on me also in windows 10.

If windows sais "invalid media or track 0 bad -disk unreadable"... Should I just throw it out or is there a way to try to repair it? :-s

Edit: added a pic.

Joakim wrote on 2021-09-13, 17:34:

I got myself an IBM usb floppy drive so that I can have floppy disks fail on me also in windows 10. […]
Show full quote

I got myself an IBM usb floppy drive so that I can have floppy disks fail on me also in windows 10.

If windows sais "invalid media or track 0 bad -disk unreadable"... Should I just throw it out or is there a way to try to repair it? :-s

IMG_20210913_192950.jpg

Edit: added a pic.

I'd check the disk in another drive before tossing it. Check the disk platter first though for evidence of damage.

It is also possible the fdd drive heads need a clean.

Edit:Waiting to think what else I could edit....

Joakim wrote on 2021-09-13, 17:34:

I got myself an IBM usb floppy drive so that I can have floppy disks fail on me also in windows 10. […]
Show full quote

I got myself an IBM usb floppy drive so that I can have floppy disks fail on me also in windows 10.

If windows sais "invalid media or track 0 bad -disk unreadable"... Should I just throw it out or is there a way to try to repair it? :-s

IMG_20210913_192950.jpg

Edit: added a pic.

Are you getting this error on Windows 10?

Usually it means the disk is bad, but I have had issues where that will show up if a security software is scanning the drive and you try to format it.

Also, Windows 10 only works reliably to format floppies through the command prompt. The GUI interface is broken and has been since before Windows 10 was released.

Oh I have always used the command prompt to do such things. Yeah this particular floppy I had written 'bad' on.. so I guess it was bad in an other drive.

I was just thinking if it could be formatted in the wrong way or something that can't be fixed with a simple reformatting. (Got these in a goody box once.)

I think you can dd in linux disks that windoze/DOS thinks are bad just because they are apple or amiga formatted. Sometimes I think it's necessary to do that to format a HD you force formatted to DD 720kB back to 1440kB.

Joakim wrote on 2021-09-13, 17:34:

I got myself an IBM usb floppy drive so that I can have floppy disks fail on me also in windows 10. […]
Show full quote

I got myself an IBM usb floppy drive so that I can have floppy disks fail on me also in windows 10.

If windows sais "invalid media or track 0 bad -disk unreadable"... Should I just throw it out or is there a way to try to repair it? :-s

IMG_20210913_192950.jpg

Edit: added a pic.

I have a few of these, never cracked them open but they've been very reliable for 15 years now...

Never had an issue with my Dell USB floppy drive. The diskette itself might be bad and I recommend checking that diskette in an older computer and see if it throws the same error and if it does, then the diskette is bad. If not, the USB drive needs a good cleaning on the heads and possibly the track laser.