I let my creativity do something for today.

2GB stick that was advertised as 4GB.

Left is what I did to the stick, right is the original shell which now houses a (real) 8GB TDK pendrive.

I basically had two BIOS chips that were broken, so I just went ahead and used them as a shell for the 2GB pendrive. Works just as intended, might use it for retro drivers.

^it's nuts, but and therefore I like it!

The world's first dual-BIOS USB stick??

I solved a few problems on my Mitsubishi 386, and identified a couple more. Two steps forward, one step back.

I am constantly finding new problems to solve.

And it's glorious. 😀

HanSolo wrote on 2022-04-24, 10:44:

How are missing pads repaired? I always thought that is next to impossible?

They can be replaced and bridged to the adjacent solder traces.

While I haven't attempted this type of repair before, I've ordered some materials and will give it a shot.

Changed the GF2 MX400 for a noisy Asus V6600/32 in my IBM 300GL.
Might need to look at the fan though. I like silent builds 😀

Worked on a Roland MT 200 I bought recently.

It had a wonky power connector; wiggling the cable would cause it lose power.

Figured it was cracked solder on the power connector. A quick reflow later and it works perfectly. (Also reflowed a few of the other connectors for good measure.)

Not a complicated fix, but it's one less piece of hardware that is having issues. 😀

Crushed two caps on a Tx97-xe when trying to install a cooler onto a K6/3 400. Perfectly avoidable stupid action.

Took the time needed to replace the caps, and carefully checked the board before setting the jumpers. 66*6 ( I have tried 83 MHz, but I prefer running stock). Cleaned a Banshee Pci and fitted it with a cooler. Put all together for a DOS/early Win98SE build.

Never hurry in this hobby ...

I was looking inside my PCIe Win98 box and noticed this..

Will be doing some recapping later in the week I guess.

Currently working on getting my dream slot 1 build going , its being a bit of a basket case atm , some cards aren't working as they should : the voodoo 2s are showing the wrong ram values in the display settings and I need to replace a fan on a 256 gpu that I plan on swapping in for the verite 2200 which is locking up atm oh and the encore dxr2 refuses to work.
Fun all round.

So ill probably be testing lots of different drivers and trying to find the ones that work.

AppleSauce wrote on 2022-04-25, 04:11:

Currently working on getting my dream slot 1 build going , its being a bit of a basket case atm , some cards aren't working as they should : the voodoo 2s are showing the wrong ram values in the display settings and I need to replace a fan on a 256 gpu that I plan on swapping in for the verite 2200 which is locking up atm oh and the encore dxr2 refuses to work.
Fun all round.

I had a surprising time with AGP and PCI cards on a Slot 1 recently - like 5 of them would only work in one system and not the other.

Standards seem to be more like suggestions than actual rules.

Slow weekend, did a little emulation and looked for a case for the Emulation VM server I'm planning. Stared at my 3D printer and sighed, that kind of thing.

Did a little DOSBox tinkering with a few adventure games, Apogee games, Ultima (Martian Dreams as well), what have you.

So, I had this M27C512 EPROM I had sitting under the sun since August 2021, and today I confirmed in my XGecu Pro that after 7 months of being in direct sunlight it has finally been completely blanked. That sure took its sweet time. Granted, most of it was under autumn/winter sun, but still.. Those last few FE bytes were stubborn as hell, I think it took like a whole month to clear the last 3 bits or something like that. Regardless, back in service, this EPROM is.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-04-26, 08:31:

So, I had this M27C512 EPROM I had sitting under the sun since August 2021, and today I confirmed in my XGecu Pro that after 7 months of being in direct sunlight it has finally been completely blanked. That sure took its sweet time. Granted, most of it was under autumn/winter sun, but still.. Those last few FE bytes were stubborn as hell, I think it took like a whole month to clear the last 3 bits or something like that. Regardless, back in service, this EPROM is.

Do you have plastic or glass windows? Glass does block quite a lot of UV, while plastic let's pretty much everything through. Might explain some of this experience. 😀

GigAHerZ wrote on 2022-04-26, 08:34:

appiah4 wrote on 2022-04-26, 08:31:

So, I had this M27C512 EPROM I had sitting under the sun since August 2021, and today I confirmed in my XGecu Pro that after 7 months of being in direct sunlight it has finally been completely blanked. That sure took its sweet time. Granted, most of it was under autumn/winter sun, but still.. Those last few FE bytes were stubborn as hell, I think it took like a whole month to clear the last 3 bits or something like that. Regardless, back in service, this EPROM is.

Do you have plastic or glass windows? Glass does block quite a lot of UV, while plastic let's pretty much everything through. Might explain some of this experience. 😀

It was sitting in front of a (double) glass window. I didn't feel like leaving it to rust outside, but in hindsight an airtight clear plastic box and leaving it out in the balcony would have worked better 🤣

AppleSauce wrote on 2022-04-25, 04:11:

Currently working on getting my dream slot 1 build going , its being a bit of a basket case atm , some cards aren't working as t […]
Show full quote

Currently working on getting my dream slot 1 build going , its being a bit of a basket case atm , some cards aren't working as they should : the voodoo 2s are showing the wrong ram values in the display settings and I need to replace a fan on a 256 gpu that I plan on swapping in for the verite 2200 which is locking up atm oh and the encore dxr2 refuses to work.
Fun all round.

So ill probably be testing lots of different drivers and trying to find the ones that work.

20220424_221920 - Copy.jpg

Is the mobo an ABIT BE6-II, by any chance? Those caps' placement inbetween the PSU and the CPU look so familiar to me.

EDIT: Almost got it, it's a BF6 that you're rocking there, basically same board as I have but without HPT366/370.

PcBytes wrote on 2022-04-26, 11:08:

AppleSauce wrote on 2022-04-25, 04:11:

Currently working on getting my dream slot 1 build going , its being a bit of a basket case atm , some cards aren't working as t […]
Show full quote

Currently working on getting my dream slot 1 build going , its being a bit of a basket case atm , some cards aren't working as they should : the voodoo 2s are showing the wrong ram values in the display settings and I need to replace a fan on a 256 gpu that I plan on swapping in for the verite 2200 which is locking up atm oh and the encore dxr2 refuses to work.
Fun all round.

So ill probably be testing lots of different drivers and trying to find the ones that work.

20220424_221920 - Copy.jpg

Is the mobo an ABIT BE6-II, by any chance? Those caps' placement inbetween the PSU and the CPU look so familiar to me.

EDIT: Almost got it, it's a BF6 that you're rocking there, basically same board as I have but without HPT366/370.

Yeah it's a bf6 , I got it from a friend in a pretty sorry state , spent many years in a garage with bulged caps.
He said I could have it and try to fix it. It was perfect for my build since it had so many pci slots.

The 2nd motherboard I ever bought was an Intel D815EEA w/Pentium III@733MHz, which replaced an Asus P2B w/400MHz Pentium II. I installed it into some kind of translucent green case. I think this was during the iMac G3 "berry" rage. Anyway, this board conveniently included a 900/100MHz CPU (one of the last socket 370 PIIIs I wanted to complete the set).

AppleSauce wrote on 2022-04-26, 17:47:

Yeah it's a bf6 , I got it from a friend in a pretty sorry state , spent many years in a garage with bulged caps.
He said I could have it and try to fix it. It was perfect for my build since it had so many pci slots.

Happy to know it's recapped. My BE6-II was recapped as well once I got it. Surprisingly none of the Tayeh caps were bulged.
All of them looked brand new, but considering they haven't been powered for so long (it probably has at least 15 years of no power going through it) I feel that recapping with Panasonic/Sanyo/Rubycon (used all three) was a good thing to do.
And sure it was, cause it's literally eating almost any P3 CPU I throw at it, except Tualatins (the only one being a Tualeron for which I'll probably mod a Epox EP-3VCM to get it running) and SL5QW CPUs (I have two of them - neither POST'd on the BE6, both POST'd on the Epox.) and for the latter I haven't found any solution yet - it's a Mendocino slotket that I modified so I'm not expecting much.

Meatball wrote on 2022-04-26, 18:21:

The 2nd motherboard I ever bought was an Intel D815EEA w/Pentium III@733MHz, which replaced an Asus P2B w/400MHz Pentium II. I installed it into some kind of translucent green case. I think this was during the iMac G3 "berry" rage. Anyway, this board conveniently included a 900/100MHz CPU (one of the last socket 370 PIIIs I wanted to complete the set).

That's a nice board 🙂
You gonna use it in a build or did you get it just for the processor?

Tetrium wrote on 2022-04-26, 20:32:

Meatball wrote on 2022-04-26, 18:21:

The 2nd motherboard I ever bought was an Intel D815EEA w/Pentium III@733MHz, which replaced an Asus P2B w/400MHz Pentium II. I installed it into some kind of translucent green case. I think this was during the iMac G3 "berry" rage. Anyway, this board conveniently included a 900/100MHz CPU (one of the last socket 370 PIIIs I wanted to complete the set).

That's a nice board 🙂
You gonna use it in a build or did you get it just for the processor?

Thank you! I have big BIG plans for both - I foresee they will end up in several different cases 40o different times over the next several years...

Replaced the bad CD-ROM data cable for my Mitsumi CRMC-LU005S since the drive wasn't detected in DOS and had to fix the cable management on the Compaq Portable 286.

Had hiccups with the I/O card not detecting anything, so I had reseated everything and all's well.

I also installed the 287 the other day.