Now that I fixed the floppy drive with recapping last weekned, I took the recently acquired IBM PS/2 model 35SX apart and cleaned it thoroughly. I opened the PSU and did visual inspection. All good, there was very little dust in PSU and all componets looked brand spanking new. Even the case had pretty mild amounts of dust, although PSU fan sucks air from the case. Either the system is cleaned on the way, or it has gotten very little hours.

This morning I got the idea that I might have something in my parts bin I could transplant. Namely the retention clips themselves, and found something that looked promising.

It seems to do the job as is and it seems it can be turned into a permanent solution with a little more work.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-06, 08:08:

This one. :) https://www.peconnectors.com/sockets-pga-cpu-and-memory/ […]
Show full quote

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-06, 07:32:

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-03-05, 19:32:

Also does anyone know where can I buy 30pin SIMM slots? The RAM retention clips on one of the slots of the SB32 are broken.

I remember stumbling upon some website that carried all kinds of new old stock vintage stuff like this, but I can't recall its name. It had a lot of things that were not listed on eBay. See if you can locate it for a better deal.

This one. 😀
https://www.peconnectors.com/sockets-pga-cpu-and-memory/

I've never purchased from them, but the selection boggles my mind. Feels like being teleported back in time to the mid to late 90s... except, back then I was a kid and was only interested in games and video cards and would not have cared at all about slots and sockets. 🤣

I don't see any indication that they'd ship to the EU.

Nice. It never would have occurred to me to save the little clips.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-06, 18:10:

Nice. It never would have occurred to me to save the little clips.

Same here! The metal clips rarely fall off, so wouldn't bother harvesting them for other devices. It had never occurred to me that metal clips could bit fitted onto slots that only have plastic clips.

Mind blown! 🤯

I have either an AWE32 or SB32 with some broken plastic clips on it. I'm not sure if this would work on those kinds of slots (30pin), but I'll certainly look into it. It beats desoldering and replacing SIM slots. 🤢

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-06, 19:38:

I have either an AWE32 or SB32 with some broken plastic clips on it. I'm not sure if this would work on those kinds of slots (30pin), but I'll certainly look into it. It beats desoldering and replacing SIM slots. 🤢

The one on the photos is also an SB32 so it should work. These ones come from a Compaq RAM extension card where the metal clip hugs the plastic from the outside. On most boards the clip goes into a slit on the plastic. There may be a way to use those too, but probably not without modifying (drilling, filing) the RAM slot on the sound card.

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-03-06, 20:39:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-06, 19:38:

I have either an AWE32 or SB32 with some broken plastic clips on it. I'm not sure if this would work on those kinds of slots (30pin), but I'll certainly look into it. It beats desoldering and replacing SIM slots. 🤢

The one on the photos is also an SB32 so it should work. These ones come from a Compaq RAM extension card where the metal clip hugs the plastic from the outside. On most boards the clip goes into a slit on the plastic. There may be a way to use those too, but probably not without modifying (drilling, filing) the RAM slot on the sound card.

Oh duh... how did I not notice that was a sound card? 🤣

I got the pictures confused with other recent ones of a motherboard someone was fixing up.

Sounds like I should definitely keep an eye out for that style of metal clip though, just in case. Thanks for explaining. 😀

A long while ago I got this NF2 Gigabyte board, supposedly removed working, but I never got a peep out of it, it's just been sitting until I get back in Socket A phase... but then I was in it's neighbourhood today, and looked at it, and the Nichicon HD by the CPU socket were bloated "tae fook" as our Glaswegian friends might say. I did not notice that any earlier and I've eyeballed it a few times. Anyway, IDK what the heck is going on there, fake Nichicons???

Played Battlefield 1942 online for the first time in a decade, also got banned from a BF1942 server for the first time in a decade.

Connected to some random server and literally everything that made BF1942 fun was banned. No bombing enemy base, no stealing enemy vehicles, no team damage, no using jeeps to get tot he planes, etc. I logged 1200hrs in BF1942 on xFire back in the day.

I reinstalled to relive memories, mission failed hard. The norms of the game have changed so much its not even the same game I remember. I firmly believe gaming has been ruined over the last decade and some change.

Imaged the hard drive of my Compaq Armada 4120 (if anyone knows of restore cds for these let me know). Also went in to take out the cmos battery and in doing so found out that one of the two ram simms had gotten knocked loose because the second slot has a really crappy retention mechanism and easily lets go. That would explain why this is a Pentium system that only apparently had 4mb of ram when I tested it. Though the floppy drive seems to be on the fritz since putting a disk in makes it make motor noises and nothing else like an Apple drive makes when it has a bad eject gear.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2023-03-07, 08:36:

Played Battlefield 1942 online for the first time in a decade, also got banned from a BF1942 server for the first time in a decade.

Connected to some random server and literally everything that made BF1942 fun was banned. No bombing enemy base, no stealing enemy vehicles, no team damage, no using jeeps to get tot he planes, etc. I logged 1200hrs in BF1942 on xFire back in the day.

I reinstalled to relive memories, mission failed hard. The norms of the game have changed so much its not even the same game I remember. I firmly believe gaming has been ruined over the last decade and some change.

Thanks for the unfortunate heads up on one of my favorite games in the past. I was honestly thinking about installing it again and playing but now I don't think I'll be doing that.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-07, 14:04:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2023-03-07, 08:36:

Played Battlefield 1942 online for the first time in a decade, also got banned from a BF1942 server for the first time in a decade.

Connected to some random server and literally everything that made BF1942 fun was banned. No bombing enemy base, no stealing enemy vehicles, no team damage, no using jeeps to get tot he planes, etc. I logged 1200hrs in BF1942 on xFire back in the day.

I reinstalled to relive memories, mission failed hard. The norms of the game have changed so much its not even the same game I remember. I firmly believe gaming has been ruined over the last decade and some change.

Thanks for the unfortunate heads up on one of my favorite games in the past. I was honestly thinking about installing it again and playing but now I don't think I'll be doing that.

Though it also represents my back in the day experience with BF1942 ... I was extremely good with mouse aim at the time from playing FFE with mouse, but kinda clumsy moving as I wasn't that good at left hand WASD, so I'd go on a server and play a few mins then get "BANNED - aimbot"
Capt Mal Reynolds "They don't like it when you shoot at them, I worked that out myself" https://youtu.be/kVyCovIdW-s?t=18 18 secs if that timestamp link don't work.

Got a proper cable SAS cable at last for the harddrives I had found last year:
Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

After some unsuccessful reformatting attempt with the LSI card bios, I managed to format them to 512 bytes per sector using the sg3 utils, and test them with hdat2.
Two of them work fine, haven't had the time to do the remaining two.
I forgot how hot those drives get after a relatively short time...as for the speed, I'm not going to complain:

Now to find a good use for them...

Does it seem to anyone else that air dusters are super crappy the last 5 years? I swear I used to get five 2 second blasts out of any can that still had liquid slosh, then only have to leave it 5 or 10 mins before it was good to do the same again. Now it seems I get pip pip and spitting frost, half hour recovery time, can't blow anything unless you get super accurate first time nozzle placement. Tempted to get one of those powered cup warmer sleeves to keep one in, but they get all capital letters about not heating it or it will take your face off or some shizzle.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-07, 23:23:

Does it seem to anyone else that air dusters are super crappy the last 5 years?

Can't speak for crappy, but they are getting super expensive where I live.

Go through enough cans of these and it's worth it to just buy a compressor...

Last time I checked, they had doubled in price since prior to COVID. They are very expensive, even when purchased in bulk on Amazon.

Yah, the $3 dollarama ones used to be good, but grudgingly picked up a $5 one a few months back and it's chilled up too much on a couple of quick sprays. IDK actually if it's that the straws on recent ones got larger bore, so it's too much volume, not enough velocity.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-07, 23:23:

Does it seem to anyone else that air dusters are super crappy the last 5 years? I swear I used to get five 2 second blasts out of any can that still had liquid slosh, then only have to leave it 5 or 10 mins before it was good to do the same again. Now it seems I get pip pip and spitting frost, half hour recovery time, can't blow anything unless you get super accurate first time nozzle placement. Tempted to get one of those powered cup warmer sleeves to keep one in, but they get all capital letters about not heating it or it will take your face off or some shizzle.

Bit the bullet a few years ago and got me a battery powered one (opolar brand).
Looks like this:

Not as powerful as the canned variant ofc, and it obviously cannot spray freezing air.
But its powerful enough, and the battery seems to last forever.
Easily 30 minutes constant running.
No more short bursts, this puppy goes forever =)

Hurricane brand is wonderful tool to have and we use two of these at work daily for years.

https://canlessair.com/product/x3-hurricane-c … system-260-mph/

Cheers,

I've been using a two speed electric leaf blower for the past 15 years and it works great. I just keep it on it low setting and it get my computer's clean.

As a kid (and still am) I collected CPU's and glued them on a bulletin board, the kind with push pins to be precise.
Now I am restoring one of them, I use the Overdrive 'socket' as a mold.

Luckily another CPU, an Intel DX4 100 came off unharmed...