no craiglist around here

But there are many facebook groups that sell used pc hardware. mostly new hard (that i dont care)
But a guy appeared, selling an "old pc" for $15 dollars , with case, 2 cdrom drives,40gb drive, motherboard+ cpu duron, lan card, and a voodoo

and when i saw the voodoo.....my god a voodoo4 ! bought it right away.

just the fan is noisy, but works.

Pabloz wrote:

no craiglist around here […]
Show full quote

no craiglist around here

But there are many facebook groups that sell used pc hardware. mostly new hard (that i dont care)
But a guy appeared, selling an "old pc" for $15 dollars , with case, 2 cdrom drives,40gb drive, motherboard+ cpu duron, lan card, and a voodoo

and when i saw the voodoo.....my god a voodoo4 ! bought it right away.

just the fan is noisy, but works.

Hmmm it might be possible to mount a passive heatsink to that V4. Single tiny fan shouldn't be too hard to cool off. I think these ran cooler than something like a 6800 Ultra so it might be modifiable.

95DosBox wrote:

Pabloz wrote:

no craiglist around here […]
Show full quote

no craiglist around here

But there are many facebook groups that sell used pc hardware. mostly new hard (that i dont care)
But a guy appeared, selling an "old pc" for $15 dollars , with case, 2 cdrom drives,40gb drive, motherboard+ cpu duron, lan card, and a voodoo

and when i saw the voodoo.....my god a voodoo4 ! bought it right away.

just the fan is noisy, but works.

Hmmm it might be possible to mount a passive heatsink to that V4. Single tiny fan shouldn't be too hard to cool off. I think these ran cooler than something like a 6800 Ultra so it might be modifiable.

its possible but i don't know
3dfx used to glue the heatsinks with something like arctic alumina
I know some people left it in the fridge for some minutes and then tried to take off the heatsink with lever force but i dont want to ruin it.

Dang, that's a nice buy. Where are you located that has FB groups for computer selling?

I got this yesterday, just tested it today. Creative Labs GeForce 2 Ultra. Works flawlessly. My can or air ran out... but most of the dust is gone.

dexvx wrote:

Dang, that's a nice buy. Where are you located that has FB groups for computer selling?

I got this yesterday, just tested it today. Creative Labs GeForce 2 Ultra. Works flawlessly. My can or air ran out... but most of the dust is gone.

Im in argentina

We got a site like ebay
there is no craiglist

but there is a dozen facebook groups, practically facebook is replacing the sites like ebay. There is a dozen of facebook groups that sell only videogame consoles and games (something that skyrocketed these last years where people pay like 100dollars for a SNES, or a sega CDX is worth like a playstation4, other groups sell pc hardware, other groups sell home stuff, other group old toys. At least the retro pc hardware is no so expensive, i was able to get really old stuff pretty cheap.

nice gf2 ultra, those are not found here, the best i was able to get on gf2 was an Hercules 3D Prophet II Ti . for like $2 bucks

Unfortunately crazy customs duties in Argentina (50% without any duty free allowance) kill all purchases from eBay - I'm also here mate 😉

I've been super busy lately with life...and things. Been trying to find time to re-cap my 486 PSU...hopefully soon.

Anway, I went to the local recycler for non-retro computer business (needed a newer system for something else) and he had this sitting behind the counter. I told him if it was a 486, don't tell me the price because I shouldn't buy it. Turns out it was a 386 (SX-20) and untested. He said $10 and of course I couldn't say no, so now I have a 386 to play with! 😀

Decided to take it apart and clean it ouside because a.) it was caked with dust and b.) it's a beautiful 30c outside with near 100% humidity, so why not?

hosed off the case parts

floppy drives were CAKED with dust

battery looked like it hadn't leaked at first glance. On closer inspection it had just started, so looks like I got it just in time!

It came with 2mb, and I decided to add another 4mb from another 486 that I'm planning to part out

The power supply was in very good shape. Fan still spun like new, and there was no visible bad signs or bulging caps or heat damage. Still going to re-cap anyway.

I forgot to take an after-pic of the inside, but it's nice and clean now, time to see if the drives need more than just a cleaning.

95DosBox wrote:

Where is that new avatar from? You had a less animated one that was less distracting not too long ago. 😐

How were you charging these batteries for 6 minutes so fast?

It's a very old avatar I've had for some 9 years elsewhere, I just didn't put it on vogons because I wasn't sure I wanted everyone here to know I'm a furry.. but there's other furs here on the site now so figured it's okay now. I haven't put it on vogons also because I couldn't figure out how to get it resized down to vogons site avatar requirements without destroying it. Finally one of my friends stepped in for me.

And for charging: http://charger.nitecore.com/CHARGER/D/D4/

You can find em on ebay for $25 brand new. These chargers are awesome. One of em can push 750ma through 2 cells at the same time, or 350ma between 4 (automatic mode). You can also cycle through and manually specify charge rates for each individual cell being charged down to 250ma or 175ma to slow charge some and fast charge others at the same time. And it counts up and stores the total charge time taken for all cells. When done you can press a button to cycle through and see how long each cell took to reach full charge. They're fantastic chargers. I have a pair of them (2), and for really speedy charging of a set of 4, I'll put 2 per charger and push all 4 up at 750ma at the same time, if I have healthy cells that I know can take it without bursting. They automatically stop charging and just keep the display on for time logging when the charge is done to prevent overcharging. Also one of the special unique features of this device is you can insert multiple different cells of different voltages (like 18650 2.7v and 1.2v NiMh, and 1.5v NiCad) all at the same time and it will detect and charge them all at different voltages and rates together automatically.

And a 1000mah cell @ 750ma charge current takes about 6-10 mins to full charge from almost dead.

probnot wrote:

I've been super busy lately with life...and things. Been trying to find time to re-cap my 486 PSU...hopefully soon. […]
Show full quote

I've been super busy lately with life...and things. Been trying to find time to re-cap my 486 PSU...hopefully soon.

Anway, I went to the local recycler for non-retro computer business (needed a newer system for something else) and he had this sitting behind the counter. I told him if it was a 486, don't tell me the price because I shouldn't buy it. Turns out it was a 386 (SX-20) and untested. He said $10 and of course I couldn't say no, so now I have a 386 to play with! 😀

I forgot to take an after-pic of the inside, but it's nice and clean now, time to see if the drives need more than just a cleaning.

I hope I can find a working 386 some day. The very first PC I bought was a 386 DX 40. It brings back memories of adding a math co-processor -- the joy. I imagine that somewhere in this tiny town I've ended up in, there's a 386 waiting for me with a case just as wonderful as this one... But sadly I have not found jack... Woe is me... 😐

..

95DosBox wrote:

Sounds like you have better engineering background to troubleshoot this. Usually if you see a spark or smoke or smell smoke tha […]
Show full quote

Predator99 wrote:

Yes the board has an external battery header. I connected 3V to it (do not have something better at the moment) but it didnt cha […]
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bjwil1991 wrote:

Or a 5.5v memory super capacitor can be used in placed of the NiCd battery, or using a cordless phone NiMH battery pack to the motherboard (mounted somewhere safe, that is) since some boards don't have jumpers for an external battery pack.

Yes the board has an external battery header. I connected 3V to it (do not have something better at the moment) but it didnt change anything. Never seen a board that requires a battery connected to power on...
I am almost sure POST passes the 1st time I turned on the PC as I heard the seeking noise from both floppies. I think the VGA didnt initialize because the 5V trace was already broken, therefore the screen was black.

Hope I didnt destroy the board by powering on with a shortage...

Sounds like you have better engineering background to troubleshoot this. Usually if you see a spark or smoke or smell smoke that's a bad sign and it happened once when I inserted my 8-bit Sound Blaster into a 486. Luckily whatever popped or smoked didn't kill the Sound Blaster.

But I'd try all the methods I have outlined to troubleshoot but if it already fried I don't see any more harm it could do hooking up the PC internal speaker and removing your diagnostic card. Use a cheap VGA 8-bit card and hook it up to a monitor. You can forget about hooking up the HDD/Floppy controller. It should still boot up or count the memory with ticks. Now if it doesn't show any video output or hear any ticking on the PC internal speaker then it could be the CPU or the onboard memory is not installed or possibly one of the chips is defective causing it not to start the memory count. Oh you'll also need to hook up a 5 PIN DIN keyboard to see if the keyboard LED lights turn on for Caps lock, Num lock, and Scroll Lock. If this doesn't light up on the keyboard or able to turn it off and on then you might have more serious problems.

What was the 8-bit diagnostic board you were using in that picture?

It is this card here

http://www.ebay.de/itm/PC-Motherboard-Analysi … 74AAOSww9xZCzXI

and its working perfectly. Speaker is integrated.

As for this board is stops with
- Phoenix (02)[Beep]=1-1-3 CMOS write/read test in-progress or failure.
- 1-1-3 CMOS read/write error The real time clock/CMOS is faulty. Replace the CMOS if possible
Low 1-1-3 Extended CMOS RAM failure The extended portion of the CMOS RAM has failed. Replace the CMOS if possible
- 1-1-3 Your computer can't read the configuration info stored in the CMOS. Replace the motherboard.

and the corresponding number of beeps, it doesnt make any sense to try with a VGA installed. It is the second step of the POST procedure...no video initilization done yet.

This error seems to be related to the CMOS itself, integrated in the P82C206 in this case. Not the battery.

But I also tried with 5V now and no change...

Currently I have also some trouble with the MFM harddisk Seagte ST 251-1. Seek tests etc are working perfectly in the diagnostic program and it sounds good. But when I try to read/write on it it doesnt work. Will try a low-level format later.

EDIT: Cool, low-level format did it. Now booting from the ST-251 😀 Strange, was thinking this is only neccessary when using the disk the first time. Also played with the intervealve but it was not possible to read anything at all before the format...

Playing around with impossible 😀

Fire Strike Ultra : 1374 (LINK)

Predator99 wrote:

It is this card here […]
Show full quote

95DosBox wrote:

Sounds like you have better engineering background to troubleshoot this. Usually if you see a spark or smoke or smell smoke tha […]
Show full quote

Predator99 wrote:

Yes the board has an external battery header. I connected 3V to it (do not have something better at the moment) but it didnt change anything. Never seen a board that requires a battery connected to power on...
I am almost sure POST passes the 1st time I turned on the PC as I heard the seeking noise from both floppies. I think the VGA didnt initialize because the 5V trace was already broken, therefore the screen was black.

Hope I didnt destroy the board by powering on with a shortage...

Sounds like you have better engineering background to troubleshoot this. Usually if you see a spark or smoke or smell smoke that's a bad sign and it happened once when I inserted my 8-bit Sound Blaster into a 486. Luckily whatever popped or smoked didn't kill the Sound Blaster.

But I'd try all the methods I have outlined to troubleshoot but if it already fried I don't see any more harm it could do hooking up the PC internal speaker and removing your diagnostic card. Use a cheap VGA 8-bit card and hook it up to a monitor. You can forget about hooking up the HDD/Floppy controller. It should still boot up or count the memory with ticks. Now if it doesn't show any video output or hear any ticking on the PC internal speaker then it could be the CPU or the onboard memory is not installed or possibly one of the chips is defective causing it not to start the memory count. Oh you'll also need to hook up a 5 PIN DIN keyboard to see if the keyboard LED lights turn on for Caps lock, Num lock, and Scroll Lock. If this doesn't light up on the keyboard or able to turn it off and on then you might have more serious problems.

What was the 8-bit diagnostic board you were using in that picture?

It is this card here

http://www.ebay.de/itm/PC-Motherboard-Analysi … 74AAOSww9xZCzXI

and its working perfectly. Speaker is integrated.

As for this board is stops with
- Phoenix (02)[Beep]=1-1-3 CMOS write/read test in-progress or failure.
- 1-1-3 CMOS read/write error The real time clock/CMOS is faulty. Replace the CMOS if possible
Low 1-1-3 Extended CMOS RAM failure The extended portion of the CMOS RAM has failed. Replace the CMOS if possible
- 1-1-3 Your computer can't read the configuration info stored in the CMOS. Replace the motherboard.

and the corresponding number of beeps, it doesnt make any sense to try with a VGA installed. It is the second step of the POST procedure...no video initilization done yet.

This error seems to be related to the CMOS itself, integrated in the P82C206 in this case. Not the battery.

But I also tried with 5V now and no change...

Currently I have also some trouble with the MFM harddisk Seagte ST 251-1. Seek tests etc are working perfectly in the diagnostic program and it sounds good. But when I try to read/write on it it doesnt work. Will try a low-level format later.

EDIT: Cool, low-level format did it. Now booting from the ST-251 😀 Strange, was thinking this is only neccessary when using the disk the first time. Also played with the intervealve but it was not possible to read anything at all before the format...

Incredible news...board is also running again 😀 😀 😀

What did I do...dont know. I tested the board with an AWARD Bios from another board to see where it stops. It was at 12 14 - also seem to be related to the 82C206. Therefore I checked the voltages on that Chip (VCC, VSS, PWRGOOD, TEST) and also noticed that the Reset line is only high when performing a hardware reset. Everything with cabling seemed to be OK. Therefore I switched to the original Phoenix BIOS again.
In between I noticed that I inserted the Diagnotic card in that not-ISA RAM slot again...and it started to smell 😵 🙁 (Catastrophic design of this feature!!) Therefore I put it in another ISA-slot and was happy that it was still running. But now it displayed surprisingly 06-08 which indicated a RAM failure.

Therefore I inserted the RAM card and the VGA...and the board is powering up gain...

Somebody able to tell me what the repair step was? 😀

Bad contact between the legs on the BIOS chip and the socket: removing and reinstalling fixed the issue. Possibly.

I brought this beauty home today:
IBM 5155 from 1985. 640k RAM and a 10MB hard drive.
From what I can tell it's near mint. It was used by a bank before but sat for years on someone's attic. It has almost no wear on the outside.

Still learning on how to use it, it came with MS-DOS 6.2 and stuff like antivirus. If I get my hands on a 5.25 FDD I think I'm going to reinstall the OS.

10 doubloons for a few cards - Radeo 8500 LE by Hercules, SoundBlaster Live 4760, Aureal Vortex 1 card from Turtle Bach. One stands out - Aztech Waverider pro 32

Has integrated MIDI wavetable plus a genuine Yamaha OPL chip.

yawetaG wrote:

Bad contact between the legs on the BIOS chip and the socket: removing and reinstalling fixed the issue. Possibly.

Yes, I think this is a good explanation...

martin939 wrote:

I brought this beauty home today: IBM 5155 from 1985. 640k RAM and a 10MB hard drive. From what I can tell it's near mint. It wa […]
Show full quote

I brought this beauty home today:
IBM 5155 from 1985. 640k RAM and a 10MB hard drive.
From what I can tell it's near mint. It was used by a bank before but sat for years on someone's attic. It has almost no wear on the outside.

Still learning on how to use it, it came with MS-DOS 6.2 and stuff like antivirus. If I get my hands on a 5.25 FDD I think I'm going to reinstall the OS.

Wow...is this a XT? what did you pay?

1985, must be an XT then. 😉

martin939 wrote:

1985, must be an XT then. 😉

Hehe, I could have googled it myself 😉

But AT was introduced 1984 😉 Therefore AT would have been possible.

Bought these two for 10€ at a local shop. ATI Rage Theater 128 along with a SoundBlaster 5.1 Live!
Fair price or not? (haven't tested it yet, i hope they work 😀 )