VOGONS


Reply 21520 of 27187, by creepingnet

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Setup the DOS Multiboot Menus on the BSI. Also managed to wrangle some extra clarity out of the DSTN screen by ever-so-slightly twisting the panel....it must have lined up the layers.

Really odd thing is this DSTN panel does not really "smear" very much at all. It's a Sanyo LCM-533 series panel IIRC. Played a some DOS games on it last night, Wacky Wheels and Doom do really well on this laptop.

Also enabled the fn+ key pop-up drivers so now I can do all the usual wacky STN adjustments (bold text, stretch, etc.).

Looks like this one will be a keeper. Planning to put in one of those WiFi Modems (basically an Arduino AP that connects to the COM port), and that LPT Adlib card.

~The Creeping Network~
My Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/creepingnet
Creepingnet's World - https://creepingnet.neocities.org/
The Creeping Network Repo - https://www.geocities.ws/creepingnet2019/

Reply 21521 of 27187, by Shponglefan

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Finished repairing the first of three Korg 05R/W units today.

Previous repair work on this unit included replacing a half dozen capacitors, and reflowing solder on a couple cracked solder joints.

Volume was still wonky on this unit, so I disassembled the potentiometer and cleaned out the grime that had built up. After reassembling it's working just fine.

One down, two to go!

Attachments

  • korg05rw_no1_fixed.jpg
    Filename
    korg05rw_no1_fixed.jpg
    File size
    243.08 KiB
    Views
    1147 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 21522 of 27187, by ODwilly

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

After letting the Thinkpad R51 dry out after rescue it is dead. Not boops, doots, just a slow sizziling power noise. EDIT: After further testing it now is fully working and the battery briefly charged enough to not die in the bios if my hand moves from the tiny micro position the charger will charge from. Worn DC jack or charger plug. Have a Dell Centrino Pentium M with borked hinges Im going to finally decommission and snag hopefully a 2nd 512mb stick to get the R51 up to 1gb along with the CPU to get rid of the 1.3 Celeron.

Main pc: Asus ROG 17. R9 5900HX, RTX 3070m, 16gb ddr4 3200, 1tb NVME.
Retro PC: Soyo P4S Dragon, 3gb ddr 266, 120gb Maxtor, Geforce Fx 5950 Ultra, SB Live! 5.1

Reply 21523 of 27187, by Kahenraz

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Shponglefan wrote on 2022-04-21, 22:53:

Volume was still wonky on this unit, so I disassembled the potentiometer and cleaned out the grime that had built up. After reassembling it's working just fine.

DeoxIT makes a specific kind of contact cleaner for this called Fader F100. I would recommend keeping a small bottle of this on hand for audio repairs. It's great for cleaning scratchy pots.

Reply 21524 of 27187, by Zeerex

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Completed my testing of dos 6.22 + Windows 3.11 on a 23mb hard drive. Using drvspace for compression still had about 13mb free after trimming down the help files and the lesser useful apps. My experience with this OS (Win3) was on a PS/2 for many years, so I never had networking or audio. This time around i learned about enabling SB support in Control Panel (that was easier than expected 🤣) and got networking to work too. Mapped network share in File Manager to my Pi running Samba and it worked pleasantly and immediately. The only issue I’m seeing is that I guess Linux isn’t managing dos 8.3 Filenames so files longer than 8 are a crapshoot and only the first letter appears to be reliable. Good news is the stuff I would need for that OS is limited and I could work on renaming those.

But I won’t. Had my fun learning but it’s just not worth using. Honestly even on a 486dx2 66 Windows 95 is plenty fast enough for me and frankly just more fun and flexible, and that’s about the lowest spec I have in my arsenal so I’m definitely sticking with it.

Last edited by Zeerex on 2022-04-23, 00:44. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 21525 of 27187, by gerry

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Zeerex wrote on 2022-04-22, 04:31:

Had my fun learning but it’s just not worth using. Honestly even on a 486dx2 66 Windows 95 is plenty fast enough for me and frankly just more fun and flexible, and that’s about the lowest spec I have in my arsenal so I’m definitely sticking with it.

yes, whilst it can be fun to run a machine of pre 486 vintage when it comes to actually using a machine i will always take a 486 or pentium 1 over a pre 486

and will always prefer win 95 (if machine has 16 or more mb ram) for ease of use, win 3.1 if spec is borderline. I suppose it's my lower limit for practical vintage use

Reply 21527 of 27187, by Shponglefan

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Kahenraz wrote on 2022-04-22, 03:32:
Shponglefan wrote on 2022-04-21, 22:53:

Volume was still wonky on this unit, so I disassembled the potentiometer and cleaned out the grime that had built up. After reassembling it's working just fine.

DeoxIT makes a specific kind of contact cleaner for this called Fader F100. I would recommend keeping a small bottle of this on hand for audio repairs. It's great for cleaning scratchy pots.

Yeah, I should probably invest in some new contact cleaner. I do have some off-brand stuff, which I tried on this particular pot. It didn't help much.

When I took it apart, there was a lot of blackish gunk built up which I removed. Wonder if a better contact cleaner might have helped with that.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 21528 of 27187, by Kahenraz

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I wonder if that gunk was some kind of fader grease. I'm not sure why else something like that would be in there. If the component produces a lot of compression, it might be designed for grease and wear quickly with it cleaned off.

Reply 21529 of 27187, by Shponglefan

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Kahenraz wrote on 2022-04-22, 14:09:

I wonder if that gunk was some kind of fader grease. I'm not sure why else something like that would be in there. If the component produces a lot of compression, it might be designed for grease and wear quickly with it cleaned off.

There was some sticky black gunk on the device in various places (including inside). Not sure if it's all related, although it could ben an indication of the environment the unit was used in, or some type of past spill.

At any rate, the pot is lubed up so it should hopefully be fine. Since it's only used for volume, I don't think it would be used as frequently as if it was some multi-purpose encoder. I'm not too fussed about it.

I do have replacements if I ever needed to replace it.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 21530 of 27187, by Bancho

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Started recording some Game Midi's on a Miditech Pianobox USB Module and uploading them to Youtube.

Made a Playlist for Transport Tycoon and started uploading the recordings

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8qJAX … TuBJ1kEWP7yr8qj

Reply 21531 of 27187, by Shponglefan

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Bancho wrote on 2022-04-22, 17:35:

Started recording some Game Midi's on a Miditech Pianobox USB Module and uploading them to Youtube.

Made a Playlist for Transport Tycoon and started uploading the recordings

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8qJAX … TuBJ1kEWP7yr8qj

Awesome, sounds like a great module!

Did you do any editing to the MIDI files first or are these stock GM files?

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 21532 of 27187, by Bancho

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Shponglefan wrote on 2022-04-22, 20:52:
Bancho wrote on 2022-04-22, 17:35:

Started recording some Game Midi's on a Miditech Pianobox USB Module and uploading them to Youtube.

Made a Playlist for Transport Tycoon and started uploading the recordings

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8qJAX … TuBJ1kEWP7yr8qj

Awesome, sounds like a great module!

Did you do any editing to the MIDI files first or are these stock GM files?

I didn't touch the files. I downloaded the files from https://www.transporttycoon.net/music?recording=1

I plan on making recordings of other games and uploading them to my channel.

Reply 21533 of 27187, by Turbo ->

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I've made a bracket - stand; I don't know how else would I name it, to prevent my graphics card from bending too much, due to quite heavy passive heatsink. It was time-consuming, but I like the result in my Windows XP build.

Attachments

Reply 21534 of 27187, by PcBytes

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Replaced the socket plastics on a ECS K7VZA. Left is the old socket and right is, of course, the new socket.

Attachments

"Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door..."
Main PC: i5 3470, GB B75M-D3H, 16GB RAM, 2x1TB
98SE : P3 650, Soyo SY-6BA+IV, 384MB RAM, 80GB

Reply 21537 of 27187, by scruit

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Last night I built an tested a Dramarduino from these instructions. https://forum.defence-force.org/viewtopic.php?t=1699

Found the arduino code has a bug (I use the version from this post specifically https://forum.defence-force.org/viewtopic.php?p=26686#p26686) The bug is thatthe arduino code makes use of nointerrupt mode for faster processing of the memory testing cycles, but between tests it issues a "delay(1000)" (within the blink() function) while still in noninterrupt mode, so the test hangs waiting for the delay to come back, which it will never do. I fixed my copy of the code and I'm registering there to give feedback (or find out if there is a github for it these days)

This tester is stated to work with 4164 and 41256 chip for vintage computers. I have around 64 of M5M4257 memory chips that are compatible with 41256 and the first couple tested fine.

This morning I'm upgrading the protoboard with a 1602 I2c screen, ZIF socket and 3d-printed case. All this will make it more user-friendly for testing all of the chips. I'm also going to see if I can use it to test the external cache ram chips. "To the datasheets!!"

Reply 21538 of 27187, by PcBytes

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Kahenraz wrote on 2022-04-23, 14:13:

Well done. How hard was it to desolder the socket?

I didn't desolder it. Just followed @Robert B's guide from here:
Re: Hello, World! :D - Robert B's PC builds - oogle away freely :)
In my case though, the socket proved a bit tighter than the original ECS socket after installing.
Currently has a Duron 1100 (I think?) and 256MB of RAM in it as I plan on doing a ceramic AMD build for once (Morgan core btw!), hopefully the ever so slightly chipped core won't cause me horrible issues.

All in all, this could be a positive "warning" 🤣 - things will get crazier by each day for me, now that I'm fully recovered after a rather severe enterocolitis. Anything goes, from replacing Skt462 sockets to doing Tualeron mods on the cheap.

"Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door..."
Main PC: i5 3470, GB B75M-D3H, 16GB RAM, 2x1TB
98SE : P3 650, Soyo SY-6BA+IV, 384MB RAM, 80GB