sf78 wrote:

Dell wasn't really a thing here at that time. Most late 90's early 00's corporate PC's were Compaq/HP/IBM. I think it wasn't until P4 that Dell started to gain some ground.

Yeah, Dell actually pulled out of the consumer market once or twice because they weren't doing so well. Couldn't compete with Packard Bell or Compaq on price point.

They soared selling to businesses, however, selling customized machines in large amounts to schools and offices. That's where most of these machines come from, I'm sure.

derSammler wrote:

Traces don't burn in such a small spot. These are certainly impact spots. Not sure what the silver color there is, however. Either remains of the metal part that caused the damage, or it's the inner ground layer. In the latter case, you can pretty much forget repairing it.

Yes, that maybe true as well - even V1 had multi-layer PCBs as far as I remember...

it looks like a layer underneath the top traces to me, groundplane maybe?
would make a repair quite hard 😒 ...poor voodoo

Depending on what they go to, it might be too timing sensitive to use bodge wires or similar methods. I'd definitely ask the seller if they knew about it before hand and potentially contact the shipping company for a refund.

FAMICOMASTER wrote:

Depending on what they go to, it might be too timing sensitive to use bodge wires or similar methods. I'd definitely ask the seller if they knew about it before hand and potentially contact the shipping company for a refund.

He replied he 'doesn't have knowledge of electronic circuits' so he couldn't notice the damage (but at the same time he didn't posted pic of the card's backside in the auction, so It wasn't possible for buyers to notice the damage as well). He also stated he was selling the card as broken because he couldn't test it (lack of a cable and computer to test it) - which is true, but no word about physical damage and auction parameters stated that the item is 'used' instead of 'damaged'. Package arrived intact and he packed the item quite well (ESD safe bag, bubble wrap, good box). Well, I'm sending it back as he agreed to return the money... Well, I guess I will never learn no to buy untested items even if the prices is good (I payed around 18 USD including shipping).

I see...

Not to beat a dead horse, but you don't have to know anything about electronics to notice something is physically damaged. It's obviously not designed to have gouge marks in the backside.

He should have at least posted a picture of the back of the card.

Sad, it'll probably go straight in the trash as soon as he gets in back.

FAMICOMASTER wrote:

I see... […]
Show full quote

I see...

Not to beat a dead horse, but you don't have to know anything about electronics to notice something is physically damaged. It's obviously not designed to have gouge marks in the backside.

He should have at least posted a picture of the back of the card.

Sad, it'll probably go straight in the trash as soon as he gets in back.

Well, I guess he will try to sell it without the starting price (ie. best offer auction) - this time posting correct information. I guess he can still make some money out of it (it's not something I would buy, but there are people who will use it to repair other cards).

BTW: I find it curious your nick is FAMICOMASTER yet you are located in the USA which had NES instead of FAMICOM - is there some following to FAMICOMs and related stuff in the USA?

FAMICOMASTER wrote:

Not to beat a dead horse, but you don't have to know anything about electronics to notice something is physically damaged. It's obviously not designed to have gouge marks in the backside.

Well, while that might be true, the picture HanJammer posted is extremely magnified. If you own such a Voodoo 1 card, you can imagine how tiny the traces and those two damaged spots are. You'll probably not notice that damage when just looking at the card for setting it up for auction. As long as it was sold "as is" and not as "tested and working", there's no need to rant about the seller.

derSammler wrote:

FAMICOMASTER wrote:

Not to beat a dead horse, but you don't have to know anything about electronics to notice something is physically damaged. It's obviously not designed to have gouge marks in the backside.

Well, while that might be true, the picture HanJammer posted is extremely magnified. If you own such a Voodoo 1 card, you can imagine how tiny the traces and those two damaged spots are. You'll probably not notice that damage when just looking at the card for setting it up for auction. As long as it was sold "as is" and not as "tested and working", there's no need to rant about the seller.

It's quite visible on normal picture as well... And it was very clearly visible having it in hand - I noticed it immediately when I turned the card back.
I agree there is no need to rant about the seller - he agreed for a refund once he receives the card back.
On the other hand I sell some stuff as well (as you can see from my footer) and (although I test everything) - every once in a while some issues like bent pins I havn't noticed pop up... Yet I never reply "I don't know a thing about electronic circuits" - rather that I just didn't noticed (which is true) - I guess it's seller's responsibility to check everything unless detailed pictures are posted...

For someone with no knowledge, these spots don't look much different to the bigger soldering spots around. And at original size (that is, picture zoomed to the size of the card, not looked at 100%), these spots are tiny, not even 1mm.

derSammler wrote:

For someone with no knowledge, these spots don't look much different to the bigger soldering spots around. And at original size (that is, picture zoomed to the size of the card, not looked at 100%), these spots are tiny, not even 1mm.

Yes. They are. But they are quite deep and stand out from the rest of the card once you hold it in hand (and my vision is far from perfect even when I wear glasses).

HanJammer wrote:

Well, I guess he will try to sell it without the starting price (ie. best offer auction) - this time posting correct information. I guess he can still make some money out of it (it's not something I would buy, but there are people who will use it to repair other cards).

BTW: I find it curious your nick is FAMICOMASTER yet you are located in the USA which had NES instead of FAMICOM - is there some following to FAMICOMs and related stuff in the USA?

Maybe. Hopefully he will relist it properly and someone with the equipment and expertise to repair it will get what they're looking for instead.

Ehhh, I'm not even particularly a fan of the Famicom / NES. It's an old, old username, and I tend to keep it around mainly for other people. A very, very long time ago, I got a box containing several (and I mean 10-15) Famicoms and Super Famicoms at a yard sale for extremely cheap. Only 2-3 actually worked, I tore a couple down and parted some out, got a few more working, and sold them all. I have one Famicom, one disk system, and one SFC laying around. The FDS needs a new drive belt and probably a head cleaning but it should work.

They're all but useless to me. I don't particularly like any of the games released on NES, SNES, Famicom, Super Famicom, Disk System, whatever. I've always been more of an Atari / Sega guy when it comes to consoles, but I really just like PCs to be honest.

The name came from the "Holy crap I have a lot of these," at which point I was promptly nicknamed "The Master of Famicoms" and shortened to "Famicomaster." I haven't touched anything with a cartridge slot in probably 6 years now, but I've just kept it to have a consistent name across all my platforms, if that makes any sense.

FAMICOMASTER wrote:

Maybe. Hopefully he will relist it properly and someone with the equipment and expertise to repair it will get what they're looking for instead.

(...)
The name came from the "Holy crap I have a lot of these," at which point I was promptly nicknamed "The Master of Famicoms" and shortened to "Famicomaster." I haven't touched anything with a cartridge slot in probably 6 years now, but I've just kept it to have a consistent name across all my platforms, if that makes any sense.

That's actually a cool story.
I had a Famicom (or rather it's clone called Pegasus MT-777DX which was extremally popular in Poland in the 90s). I still like some of the games I played on it (SMB, SMB2, SMB3, Tiny Toon Adventures, Codemasters games from the "Golden 5" card sold by Camerica). These things got pretty pricey these days...

Creative Labs Graphics Blaster 3D (Cirrus Logic CL-GD5464 Laguna3D, 4MB RDRAM, PCI)

Not really today, but almost. 😉

Roland MT-300s. What a nice unit. It combines almost every feature a MIDI device can have.

derSammler wrote:

Not really today, but almost. 😉

IMG_20191011_184039873.jpg

Roland MT-300s. What a nice unit. It combines almost every feature a MIDI device can have.

I have one of these I got a few years ago. Pretty sweet unit if I do say so myself.

Media Concept 16 isa sound card boxed - not finding ANY information about this soundcard on the web.. only their older 8-bit card - seller's pics:

cyclone3d wrote:

I have one of these I got a few years ago. Pretty sweet unit if I do say so myself.

It's also compatible to XG. But unlike the SC-88 Pro, which already had unofficial XG mode, the MT-300s does it right. I could not hear any wrong sound or missing XG effect in my XG test files. 😀

Gathering components for my 286 build: I got this power supply yesterday.

Also the seller gave me this motherload of IDE cables. I think I have enough IDE cables now for my lifetime.

Received this awesome CD-ROM:

MIDI files from my favourite Ghibli movie. There being a volume 1 implies there is a volume 2, of course.