Turbo -> wrote on 2023-02-13, 21:10:

Cleaned the fan, replaced thermal pads and thermal paste on this beast Geforce 8800 Ultra.

Did you use NT-H2 noctua thermal paste not the generic paste? Very important with hot running GPUs.

Thermal Grizzly Hydroanaut is another reasonable price and excellent 11w/mk.

Cheers,

Wdj2005 wrote on 2023-02-13, 22:27:

Repaired the broken hinge on Compaq Contura Aero 4/33c with the aid of Araldite epoxy resin, and swapped out the broken HDD for CF card.

I have resorted to that method on some laptops in the past, basically casting the hinge in place with epoxy. Tip, use a precision oiler to get a little inside the hinge's moving parts first, then wipe part that needs to hold glue with alcohol on a cloth. This so that if epoxy goes runny, as it sometimes does while the chemical reaction gets going for the curing process, but before it has progressed enough to make it gel, it does not wick into the hinge, and the alcohol on a wipe to get any oil trace off the parts you need to glue to, and not spraying it or having the wipe sopping wet or it just goes and displaces the oil.

Further tips... if the plastic had turned to cheese/chocolate type consistancy and crumbled away a lot on the corner or edge, you can build a dam around it with modelling clay to contain the epoxy while it sets. If the plastic is ABS, any crumbs saved and any that can be scavenged from flash or structurally insignificant parts inside the shell can be ground up and dissolved in Acetone or Methy Ethyl Ketone (MEK) for pasting over the repairs, either as a putty, or as more or less a matching paint if the epoxy fills to the level of original. If you don't have matching plastic for this, you can attempt to color match by grinding legos or other convenient ABS source.

ChrisK wrote on 2023-02-13, 16:55:

I'd suggest reflashing the BIOS. Wouldn't be the first board appearing dead but a simple reflash could bring back to life. I had […]
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Shponglefan wrote on 2023-02-12, 00:21:

Replaced some capacitors on this SOYO SY-5EMA+ V1.0 motherboard. […]
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Replaced some capacitors on this SOYO SY-5EMA+ V1.0 motherboard.

In initial testing I couldn't get it to POST. One of the 1000 uF caps was budging so decided to de-solder and replace all the 1000uF caps.

After testing them it turns out only the one cap was bad. Oh well, no harm in replacing all them I suppose. At least they now match the other caps on the board. 😁

Not sure if this fixed the issue, but we'll see once I get around to testing the board again.

edited to add:

Didn't fix the problem. Still won't POST. It's getting power, fans spin and various components (including the CPU) get warm. But no POST, no beeps.

Back to the drawing board.

I'd suggest reflashing the BIOS. Wouldn't be the first board appearing dead but a simple reflash could bring back to life.
I had several socket 7 boards with no signs of damage but not POSTing. A reflash with the correct BIOS brang them back to life.
Another slot A even POSTed with beep codes indicating bad memory or graphics card. None of that was the case, after reflashing the BIOS it worked like a charm.

That's good advice.

I do need to test the BIOS chip to make sure it's working and I suppose reflashing it couldn't hurt.

pentiumspeed wrote on 2023-02-13, 23:19:

Did you use NT-H2 noctua thermal paste not the generic paste? Very important with hot running GPUs.

Actually, I used a generic one. Do you really think it would make any difference?

It think it depends on how generic it is. I use a particular paste I got from AliExpress with excellent results. I showed it to someone who commented that it looked like the same paste Tesla uses on their equipment. If it's good enough for Tesla it's good enough for me.

With that said, on my MODERN gear, I always use genuine Noctua paste. I don't use it often, simply because it's a lot more expensive.

Any generic pastes that comes from china are 1w/mk and is equivalent to zinc white thermal paste. No good for demanding cooling applications and is *no good* in game consoles as they have bare die and is over 80W for PS4 series except Pro which is bit more watts around 120W, Xbox One series and One X and Series S/X needs all the best you can use.

PS: These pastes is what I use in repairing consoles and none came back for overheating or other issues. And we now warranty a year.

Exception is PS5, which kept the liquid metal.

GPU cards and athlon bare die and any P4 needs Noctua, MX-4 and -5, Arctic Silver 5 or Thermal Grizzly Hydroanaut or Kryonaut.

For 70W or more Xeon processors same issue too.

Cheers,

Kingpin's KPX thermal compound is really good as well. It's good from Sub-Zero to ambient cooling. It also doesn't dry out like alot of pastes.

Iv been using the same 30g tube of Arctic Ceramique 2 for like 8 years now. Fancier pastes here or there, but when I repasted my RX 480 blower card temps dropped from 97c peak to 84c peak.

Here is a picture of my generic thermal compound that I applied on my 8800 card. It says 1.93W/m-K. I also found in my storage this unopened Akasa AK-455 thermal compound which spec says 2.4 W/m-K. Would it be any good if I cleaned the generic compound and add an Akasa one?

Neither of those sound particularly good. The higher the number the better. 2.4 is pretty low for heat transfer, but better than the generic paste.

Been repairing a new addition to my retro collection, a Neo Geo CD console:

It was sold in working condition, but during import from Japan it must have taken a knock and somehow damaged the CD spindle hub. The spindle hub had been pushed down too far and the plastic leg had snapped into 3 pieces, which I had to fish out from deep within the console. Of course in this state it wouldn't spin any discs.

I've ordered a replacement spindle, they're literally less than £3 from Aliexpress. I didn't want to return the console as damaged for such a simple fix.

In the meantime, I dug through my spare parts drawer and found a spare spindle I bought for a PS1. It's not the correct type or a totally perfect fit for the Neo Geo CD, but it works and plays all games perfectly. I could have gotten away with leaving the PS1 spindle in place permanently, but it kinda ruins the original aesthetic and feel of the Neo Geo CD's disc drive.

Also attempted repairs on 1 of the controllers, which I knew wasn't working properly when I bought it - 2 of the directions weren't working. I managed to get the Left direction working after applying some contact cleaner directly into the microswitch, but Down still wasn't responding so I'm going to have to go back inside again this weekend and try again. The connections to the microswitches themselves are perfectly fine as they respond when shorted, so must just be years of dirt build-up inside.

Is ARCTIC MX-4 2019 Edition any good? It is more price affordable for me, because I can get 45g for about 20 EUR. The specs on the internet say it has 8.5W/m-K. That has to be good.

Iv been using same 100g jar of 0,88 W/mK silicone thermopaste https://termopasty.pl/produkty/pasta-silikono … oprzewodzaca-h/ for the last 30 years on anything below 200W 😀 Got it before I even played with computers, needed something for power supplies and amplifiers I was making in school 😀
I wouldnt hung onto W/mK parameter all that much. You arent using paste for heat transfer, you are using it to fill in contact imperfections. The better radiator with more precisely polished surface the less of a difference paste makes. The less paste you apply the better. Even Arctic no longer uses W/mK for marketing? now its all about thermal resistance with MX-6 at 0.013 C/W. Meanwhile 2x cheaper https://termopasty.pl/produkty/ag-extreme/ is >6 W/mK and <0.004 C/W.

Thermal pastes is one of those things that has very little impact (MX-2 vs theoretically almost 2x better MX-4 is 0.1C difference https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/x55gSEMYGi2YaPGFWHKGs6.png) and is hard to measure(application, clamping force, radiator quality all influence the outcome) thus it became a religion like audiophoolery.

Installed Windows 95 on my Pentium MMX 200 build. Wanted to test out the Diamond Monster 3D and had forgotten that most 3DFX games required Windows.

Also was digging through some older bins and found my original Diamond Monster 3D software bundle! I forgot I still had these and was relieved to find they were still in my collection.

Especially Whiplash. Loved playing that game back in the day. 😁

Turbo -> wrote on 2023-02-15, 14:24:

Is ARCTIC MX-4 2019 Edition any good? It is more price affordable for me, because I can get 45g for about 20 EUR. The specs on the internet say it has 8.5W/m-K. That has to be good.

There is no such thing as an MX-4 2019 edition, it was released in 2020. Those 2019 editions are bootlegs. They are not terrible, but also not great.

Been working on a 8800 GTS 512MB (G92), black screen, long beep + 3 short.

Do G92's require re-flowing as well?

I don't think so. It was only supposed to be the laptop series of this generation that had a fault. I actually have a 6800 with the same problem.

Grab a magnifying glass and check the back of the card for missing or cracked surface mount capacitors.

PD2JK wrote on 2023-02-15, 17:29:

Been working on a 8800 GTS 512MB (G92), black screen, long beep + 3 short.

Do G92's require re-flowing as well?

They have this problem like the rest of 8000 series, but "re-flowing" is not a fix. Nothing is.

Munx wrote on 2023-02-15, 22:13:

PD2JK wrote on 2023-02-15, 17:29:

Been working on a 8800 GTS 512MB (G92), black screen, long beep + 3 short.

Do G92's require re-flowing as well?

They have this problem like the rest of 8000 series, but "re-flowing" is not a fix. Nothing is.

Probably 8 years ago I have my 8800gtx fixed by a local electronics repair store. They removed the GPU reballed it and soldered it back on and it's been functional ever since.

Average price is about $30 to $50 for 20 to 30g tubes of recommended pastes by me. Nothing cheap but lasts long time and is a must to have in your toolkit and for any who earn a living repairing worth their high quality salt, stuff like me you *MUST* invest costly stuff to keep issues and warranty issues at bay. I get about 20-30 applications for type of work I do. And no, they do not dry out due to high ratio of thermal particles vs carrier oil. Cheap ones dry out easily.

PS: The original change phase TIM is worst of all and they develop air bubbles and pump out badly, and ring of re hardened TIM, (hard as rock literally), around the die holding die and heatsink apart after 1 year of thermal cyclings especially in microsoft's consoles (any, really YES, all of them!) same to said for the PS4 in general but not as bad since Sony used much softer quality TIM in less amounts. The one I pasted 1 year ago was still good. At my work we had to change from 90 day to standard 1 year warranty by decree by our business owners (yes, very large business chain) meant we had to be really on the toes and on top of doing quality repair *every* time.

Yes, you do need 8w/mk at least for *any* high watts, even 50W is considered high especially bare die.

Yes again, there are fakes especially if you are buying from chinese or any sellers that purportedly sounds inexpensive for same brands even. Aamzon and Alixpress is minefield, and Ebay as well.

Arctic Ceramique 2 even is old model but very good paste as well.

Cheers,