devius wrote on 2022-03-02, 19:52:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-02, 14:44:

... grabbed the 64mb ti4200 with the faster memory, should be able to overclock both to get them close to their bigger brothers.

Why not just get the ti4200-8X which comes with 128MB at the same speed as the 64MB version?

4200 and 4200-8X both come in 64MB and 128MB versions. Only difference is that the 8X can transfer data at AGP-8X speeds (although more 8X have memory clocked at 250+MHz than on the 4200)

Attention, extra attention, every atom of attention in your being...

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-02, 22:11:

[Any regulated 9V center-negative pack of 950mA or greater (I recommend allowing headroom, for longevity - e.g. a 1500 or 2000mA regulated pack) will run the device.

... because of everything "sorta standardising" to center positive, center negative stuff is much rarer now. I've even hear ppl saying, "That's stupid, I've never seen it." like it's a myth or something. And even though when I was a kid, you had only a 50:50 chance of getting it right without checking, so it's somewhat ingrained in me, the center positive has become so common that I've taken to marking all my center negative stuff with red paint (actually wife's discarded nail polish) around the socket so I don't forget. My stuff is usually functional rather than shined up museum quality though, so maybe one could find red hole punch reinforcements that can be peeled off later if one didn't want to sully one's pristine piece of kit.

sirotkaslo wrote on 2022-03-02, 21:18:

1.2 amps. Thank you both. For my sc i’m using 0.6a, but the mt wont power up with it, only blinks. Hope its the power supply and not something else

I have a bag full of Roland power supplies from various Sound Canvases and can confirm that my MT-32 also blinks and does not power on if the power supply does not provide enough amps. I use this 1200mA supply since it has always worked, but I think it also worked with some lesser supplies such as 1000mA.

The reason I mentioned using linear vs switching is that when I tried using a small switching power supply that worked fine in lower power units like the SC-55, my MT-32 made a horrible screeching sound. This occurred with at least two or three different supplies and only when connected to my MT-32. Because they were all lower power, I can't confirm if this was due to linear vs switching or from a lack of power.

Also of note, I did try using a ground loop loop isolator on the RCA cables, as well as reversing the polarity on the outlet plug of the power supply (the plug itself was not unpolarized) but neither cured the screeching sound.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-03-02, 22:54:

Attention, extra attention, every atom of attention in your being...

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-02, 22:11:

[Any regulated 9V center-negative pack of 950mA or greater (I recommend allowing headroom, for longevity - e.g. a 1500 or 2000mA regulated pack) will run the device.

... because of everything "sorta standardising" to center positive, center negative stuff is much rarer now. I've even hear ppl saying, "That's stupid, I've never seen it." like it's a myth or something. And even though when I was a kid, you had only a 50:50 chance of getting it right without checking, so it's somewhat ingrained in me, the center positive has become so common that I've taken to marking all my center negative stuff with red paint (actually wife's discarded nail polish) around the socket so I don't forget. My stuff is usually functional rather than shined up museum quality though, so maybe one could find red hole punch reinforcements that can be peeled off later if one didn't want to sully one's pristine piece of kit.

Somehow I always thought that center negative was quite widespread - If you're familiar with the world of guitar stompboxes, you'll know that center negative is actually much more common than center positive, probably because BOSS (which is a brand of Roland) kinda set the standard sometime in the '70s. AFAIK, most (if not all) Roland devices are center negative.

I bought a couple of GeForce 6200 PCIs new in box, just I case I ever want additional monitors at some point in an XP machine running older drivers.

Even though there are lots of GeForce PCI cards available for XP, the oldest driver I can use is limited to the newest card in the system. These 6200s will give me a floor at a very good point in time. The only alternative would be a GeForce 5200 or 5500 (basically still a 5200) and this is not ideal.

I will place them here, next to a couple of GeForce GT 430 PCI cards I also have in my collection. 😀

so that's why we can't find them anywhere :p

devius wrote on 2022-03-02, 19:52:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-02, 14:44:

... grabbed the 64mb ti4200 with the faster memory, should be able to overclock both to get them close to their bigger brothers.

Why not just get the ti4200-8X which comes with 128MB at the same speed as the 64MB version?

It was twice the price of the 64mb version and had an inferior cooling setup for the memory, and others have said it doesnt work with older drivers as well.

All the 8x version I could find also had 250mhz memory on them .. this 64 has the faster memory at 275mhz and should be able to push to 300 with its cooling setup.

In the end it doesnt matter much a P3 1ghz system wont be needing 128mb of memory or will be able to fully use a Ti4200 in any case.

This is the same conclusion I've come to with the GeForce 4 MX 440. The original 128-bit variant was actually good and, although I still need to get one to compare, probably as good or better than the GeForce 2 Ultra which is an absolutely incredible DX7 card.

A lot of manufacturers, especially during the time of the AGP 8x and SE variants, cut costs by pairing these GPUs with half the memory chips on a 64-bit bus, sometimes combined with even lower clock speeds. I believe that this is the origin of why people remember MX series being so bad. And while their cards may have been justifiability terrible, it is not the fault of the GPU but rather the manufacturers cutting costs and pulling a bait and switch.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-03, 01:38:

This is the same conclusion I've come to with the GeForce 4 MX 440. The original 128-bit variant was actually good and, although I still need to get one to compare, probably as good or better than the GeForce 2 Ultra which is an absolutely incredible DX7 card.

A lot of manufacturers, especially during the time of the AGP 8x and SE variants, cut costs by pairing these GPUs with half the memory chips on a 64-bit bus, sometimes combined with even lower clock speeds. I believe that this is the origin of why people remember MX series being so bad. And while their cards may have been justifiability terrible, it is not the fault of the GPU but rather the manufacturers cutting costs and pulling a bait and switch.

The MX400 was a pretty sweet card back in the day, it hit all the right points for a budget gaming GPU and was still powerful enough to tackle the games of the time, wasn't till Shaders became required that the card suffered.

The fast development cycles of the 90's had also left computer users with somewhat of an entitled attitude in the early 2000's. We expected each successive hardware generation to make massive strides over the last, to exponentially eclipse it. We'd had the 3dfx shock, we'd had the Geforce & TNT explosions, the successive Pentiums, the Athlons, each making massive strides. "The worst of the new generation should about equal the best of the last generation", was a common unspoken sentiment or expectation.

So the Geforce 3 and 4 lineups caused some minor angst for many at the time, the former because it was a fairly soft release and had a limited market reach, and the latter because (with the MX lineup) it dared to market as mainstream, a level of performance that, for some, had already existed for years. And yet, decent mainstream cards is exactly what they were, and (in context) remain.

And crucially, a lot were sold, which makes them more readily available than many other options from that approximate Geforce 2-3-4 era.

The Geforce 3 line-up was .. more of an experiment in using up spare Xbox GPUs or should I say GPUs that were either too good for the Xbox or didn't quite meet the specs MS was aiming for. The Ti500 was an outlier though as it was more powerful than either of its two brothers almost as if nVidia decided to show the market what that GPU was actually capable of. A marketing showcase for the Xbox GPU if you will.

It might also explain why it has the best compatibility with Xbox era PC game ports like Splinter Cell and its Light and Shadow graphics that work perfectly on GF3 GPUs but were broken on later GPUs due to the lack of hardware features that were exclusive to GF3 and Xbox.

As to the MX line . .I wish we still had MX4XXX GPUs, even if they only had basic PS support but came with amazing raster power, would make for some really nice quick and dirty GPUs for extra displays and such or for shoving in SFF home entertainment setups for movies and 4k. (I guess the GTX 1030 might have fitted this line up really well)

Sony Walkman belts, 2 more Walkman WM-F2081 units, and a GA-6VTXE (needs TLC, caps, the works) on eBay:

Misc hardware (my interest is the dual floppy drive) from shopgoodwill:

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-02, 22:11:

From the manual: "950mA/9V" http://cdn.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/MT-100_OM.pdf […]
Show full quote

sirotkaslo wrote on 2022-03-02, 21:49:

Roland MT-100

I have 9v but only 0.6a, so i think it collapses on power on. Will try tomorrow with a 1A and hopefully that’ll do

From the manual: "950mA/9V"
http://cdn.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/MT-100_OM.pdf

Roland US AC Adapter Guide, recommending specific models :
"Original MT-100/120 adapter = ACB-120, which was unregulated 9V 1200mA
New adapter/substitute = PSB-1U, which is regulated 9V 2000mA"
https://www.rolandus.com/assets/press_media_r … dapterGuide.pdf

Any regulated 9V center-negative pack of 950mA or greater (I recommend allowing headroom, for longevity - e.g. a 1500 or 2000mA regulated pack) will run the device.

Opting for a good quality or known reliable brand is preferred (for example, your country's versions of the models recommended by Roland), with respect to longterm durability, stress upon the module's electronics, potential introduction of erratic noise, etc; but that's somewhat down to personal preference.

Great news! Thank you for this information.

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-02, 22:11:

Me too! It came with my module, from Japan seller. Which likewise came with the original manual, unused - in Japanese naturally. It has been nice to have the remote control, shining in it's original wrapper, sitting in my drawer for X months/years since I got it. But beyond that, the question is: what to do with it. I've no need to remotely control my SC-55, as it is already within arm's length when I am using it.

I actually use it to turn it on and off. lazy me

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-02, 23:46:

I will place them here, next to a couple of GeForce GT 430 PCI cards I also have in my collection. 😀

There are PCI ones?!?

*head explodes*

I thought so far that the 6200 was the last word...

Where did you get that many NOS cards, IIMA? Ali express? Good opportunity or expensive hobby?

bjwil1991 wrote on 2022-03-03, 05:09:

my interest is the dual floppy drive

Hehe, isn't that just the holy grail of floppy drives?
(especially for cases without 3.5 bays)

I was so happy when I got one on ebay and NOS, in a box, the dummy disk still inside.
For almost nothing because HE HAD NO IDEA WHAT HE WAS DEALING WITH! 😳

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-03, 09:40:

(especially for cases without 3.5 bays)

well you can get a 5,25" 3,5" bay for 2,50€

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-03, 09:34:

There are PCI ones?!? […]
Show full quote

There are PCI ones?!?

*head explodes*

I thought so far that the 6200 was the last word...

Where did you get that many NOS cards, IIMA? Ali express? Good opportunity or expensive hobby?

I made a best offer on a lot that someone was selling on eBay. Sometimes you can negotiate a better deal per-unit by buying in bulk. I will sometimes do this if the item is particularly rare or unusual.

These are the fastest PCI cards that were made. There is also a GT 520 and a GT 610 (which is a rebranded 520) but these are inferior as they have half the number of shaders as the 430.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-03, 09:40:

Hehe, isn't that just the holy grail of floppy drives? (especially for cases without 3.5 bays) […]
Show full quote

bjwil1991 wrote on 2022-03-03, 05:09:

my interest is the dual floppy drive

Hehe, isn't that just the holy grail of floppy drives?
(especially for cases without 3.5 bays)

I was so happy when I got one on ebay and NOS, in a box, the dummy disk still inside.
For almost nothing because HE HAD NO IDEA WHAT HE WAS DEALING WITH! 😳

I want one! A dual floppy drive would be amazing.

schlang wrote on 2022-03-03, 09:43:

well you can get a 5,25" 3,5" bay for 2,50€

Thank you, Captain Obvious, you arrived in the nick of time.
But you'd be wasting a perfectly good 5.25" bay for a 3.5" and probably run short in space for the 5.25" floppy, the CDROM, the DVDROM, the respective burners, the sound card front panel, micro speakers, HDD cage, watercooling reservoir, multi card reader and that terrarium for your pet cricket, won't you?

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-03, 09:47:

I want one! A dual floppy drive would be amazing.

All you need to find is an ebay seller who has no idea what he's dealing with. They're not that rare, huh?