rasz_pl wrote on 2023-07-15, 16:35:

If you ever watched defragging visualization you will know Windows does all manner of 'clever' write patterns to avoid fragmenting data, sooner or later every sector of the drive will contain some stale long erased data SSD doesnt know about thus has to keep intact.

That's true since Windows XP or 2000, but not true for the Windows 3.X/9.X line. It will write data at the first available sector. I know because I have a 9X/XP dual boot. Even with next to no use, 9X needs a defrag from time to time, and XP pretty much never does.

Today I did the "eraser mod" on my fat PS3.

It's been a bit warm here for the past few days and despite reapplying new thermal paste, my PS3 was simply not happy. The CPU was hitting 78 degrees C just sitting there idle. In gaming it was reaching 84 degrees C and eventually got to 86 and shut down, whilst the fan was running at full blast and sounding like it was about to take off!

After applying the "mod" and also slightly bending the CPU bracket upwards, the PS3 now idles at around 53-54 degrees C and whilst gaming hits 59, with the fan running at about 40%. I'll call that a nice win! There's some wiggle room to get the fan running even slower and quieter with Webman, at the expense of a slightly higher CPU temp, but I'm happy with it as-is.

I wasn't happy at the prospect of delidding, so thought I may as well go with the simpler eraser trick. If it damages the board over time due to the extra pressure exerted on the CPU, then so be it, as this thing was destined to die anyway if I didn't do something.

PTherapist wrote on 2023-08-12, 19:34:

Today I did the "eraser mod" on my fat PS3. […]
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Today I did the "eraser mod" on my fat PS3.

It's been a bit warm here for the past few days and despite reapplying new thermal paste, my PS3 was simply not happy. The CPU was hitting 78 degrees C just sitting there idle. In gaming it was reaching 84 degrees C and eventually got to 86 and shut down, whilst the fan was running at full blast and sounding like it was about to take off!

After applying the "mod" and also slightly bending the CPU bracket upwards, the PS3 now idles at around 53-54 degrees C and whilst gaming hits 59, with the fan running at about 40%. I'll call that a nice win! There's some wiggle room to get the fan running even slower and quieter with Webman, at the expense of a slightly higher CPU temp, but I'm happy with it as-is.

I wasn't happy at the prospect of delidding, so thought I may as well go with the simpler eraser trick. If it damages the board over time due to the extra pressure exerted on the CPU, then so be it, as this thing was destined to die anyway if I didn't do something.

The CPU bracket bending wasn't probably needed. I have a BC compatible CECHC03 done this way that's hitting the 4 year mark since its first reflow (it only needed another one about two years later after the first one) and still runs strong after I did the eraser mod, and did not require any bracket bending. I did owe my friend a whole tube of MX4 at the time though 🤣

First time dealing with VLB. I had read it takes a lot of force to seat the cards but I was not truly prepared to experience it. Very Likely to Break!

Tested out a Primax Soundstorm I received recently. Also upgraded it to a full 1024k of onboard memory.

I was a bit surprised at how easy it was to install. Just plugged it into a system in place of the previous GUS classic and it worked without issue, same drivers and all.

I do like that it's also a more compact card that the GUS classic. Though for my 386 system probably moot since the system easily handles full length cards.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-08-13, 00:28:

Tested out a Primax Soundstorm I received recently. Also upgraded it to a full 1024k of onboard memory. […]
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Tested out a Primax Soundstorm I received recently. Also upgraded it to a full 1024k of onboard memory.

Primax Soundstorm Test 1.jpg

I was a bit surprised at how easy it was to install. Just plugged it into a system in place of the previous GUS classic and it worked without issue, same drivers and all.

I do like that it's also a more compact card that the GUS classic. Though for my 386 system probably moot since the system easily handles full length cards.

Primax Soundstorm and GUS Classic.jpg

I just have to say Im more inclined towards that sexy red PCB of the GUS, wish more companies used red PCB boards.

Yeah I suppose it's a Canadian thing. 😉
Hence ATi.

Although MSI and PCChips made quite a lot of red mainboards around/after 2000...

I am crawling through all my boxes of old stuff to find a working CPU cooler for my Rohde & Schwarz 486.
And I'll probably do some thermal shots of it to check for dead caps.

And then I proceed in repairing old Rohde & Schwarz CMS radio test sets, which are not a real PC as they use an 80188 for graphics and a 18C186 for all the math and measurement. But still retro 😉

PD2JK wrote on 2023-08-13, 07:07:

Yeah I suppose it's a Canadian thing. 😉
Hence ATi.

Although MSI and PCChips made quite a lot of red mainboards around/after 2000...

I could be Soviet 😜

I do see your point about Canuks loving the old colour red !

Hell they even have it in their flag 😁

Got this server from the trash some time ago.
Today i had a look at it and got it working again.
Battery mod for the dallas clock and one of the SCSI drives was stuck.
I took it apart and after slight precussive maintanace its fully working again and makes all the right SCSI sounds 😁
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iSusDqLjn8o

And as a bonus it even has !!2!! modems... Awesome... 2 modems is all i ever wanted. Either they will go in the bin or in the case to all the other 500 modems i have...

The mainboard is a Elitegroup P5HX-B with fancy white slots.

The case is a little bit beat up... but i think its worth a restauration... Even if i put some different parts in there...

Did some internal cleaning and renewing of CPU thermal paste on an 2012 Thinkpad T420s.
Those machines aren't build to be serviced. Both tasks require a complete disassembly of the unit with finding and removing of 30+ screws.
Took me about 3 hours. Thermal paste of course wasn't much more than dry dust.
But now it's ready for a second round.

I found the thermal paste in one of my laptops to have turned to cement. I had to chip it away slowly with a screwdriver, it was so hard.

I have a T61 somewhere. It won't boot umless you tap on the area above the fan. I guess it starts overheating. Screen is clapped out. Wish I could juryrig something modern in it's place.

Finally have a fresh "512MB Diagnostics CF card" made.
Decided to go for FreeDOS 1.3 with few XMS memory managers even for 286. Also contains bunch of diagnostics and benchmark utilities, and games. And on top of it, bunch of NIC packet drivers and MTCP + intersrv to facilitate any kind of connection to other PCs for data transfer. Also contains bunch of utilities to manage hard drives and floppies.
I also made an "mini-version" of it as floppy disk. It has all connectivity-related capabilities (CD-ROM, NICs, intersrv) and disk management utilities (fdisk, format, etc) to get (any) machine up and running and connected to something else for data transfer.

It should make it possible for me to boot up any AT+ machine (as i also have a ready-to-go NIC with XT-IDE) immediately and with few adjustments to XT-IDE, XT machines should be supported, too.

GigAHerZ wrote on 2023-08-14, 10:36:

Finally have a fresh "512MB Diagnostics CF card" made. Decided to go for FreeDOS 1.3 with few XMS memory managers even for 286. […]
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Finally have a fresh "512MB Diagnostics CF card" made.
Decided to go for FreeDOS 1.3 with few XMS memory managers even for 286. Also contains bunch of diagnostics and benchmark utilities, and games. And on top of it, bunch of NIC packet drivers and MTCP + intersrv to facilitate any kind of connection to other PCs for data transfer. Also contains bunch of utilities to manage hard drives and floppies.
I also made an "mini-version" of it as floppy disk. It has all connectivity-related capabilities (CD-ROM, NICs, intersrv) and disk management utilities (fdisk, format, etc) to get (any) machine up and running and connected to something else for data transfer.

It should make it possible for me to boot up any AT+ machine (as i also have a ready-to-go NIC with XT-IDE) immediately and with few adjustments to XT-IDE, XT machines should be supported, too.

This is something interesting. Good job!

Finally replaced the battery in my BSi/NanTan FMA3500C. So no more Varta. That said, I think NanTan uses boat paint on their motherboards because even scrubbing with 2000 grit sandpaper and Mass Airflow Sensor cleaner did not breech the traces, and neither did the battery acid, so it was a nice easy cleanup. The replacement is a Dell E-series laptop CMOS battery and it is working great. Next is to address that ginormous battery pack that goes on the back - I might be able to replace it or even daisy chain in a Lithium Ion Equivalent with a proper BMC to handle the charging using the old NiCAD system in the laptop.

I got my Roland MT-300S working. It's an oddball boombox that runs midi files off a floppy drive and was sold as a music training device. However, it comes with general midi support and can be used as a poor man's SC-55. It is flakey af and took some trial and error to get working with midi, but it sounds great.

At first it wouldn't play any midi music sent from my computer. Next, I got it to play midi music from my computer, but it only played it back using piano sounds, so I got to play Doom and Duke 3D with a cheesy piano soundtrack. I then got better sounds, but it only played back the drum parts. I don't know exactly what I did to get it working, but after a lot of trial and error and a bunch of factory resets, it now works great.

This thing sounds great! Lost Vikings, in particular, sounds so good with it. It even uses general midi for the sound effects. Even some MT-32 games sound fine. I loaded up Space Quest III and it was decent apart from a weaker bass sound. Given how much an actual SC-55 would go for, I'm really glad that I picked this up for cheap!

Installing Windows 98 SE Select onto a Dell Optiplex GX270. Eizo L367 15" TFT LCD
Intel P4 2.8GHz, 512Mb DDR PC2700, 250Gb ATA HDD 50/50 partition, Gainward Geforce 6200 Low Profile, Adaptec 29160LP U160 controller (for the Pioneer DRM-624X CD ROM changer, only low profile SCSI card I had to hand.)

Memtested four DDR sticks, each of them 1 GB in size. I'm happy to say they all worked, so I left two of them in the Barton machine I ran the tests on, thus upgrading it from 1.5 gigs to 2 gigs of RAM.

Also, finally finished testing all the AGP graphics cards I have. They are all working on at least one computer out of the two I have with an AGP slot, yay!

Based on the tests I've run, the P3 machine will keep the GeForce 4 MX440 it has had from nearly the beginning of my ownership of said machine and the Barton box will be paired with a Radeon 9600, the only card of mine to get over 200 FPS in Q3 Arena and over 10000 points in both 3DMark 2000 and 2001.

Removed a corroded väta battery from an ibm 760cd. Broke both speaker connectors so I had to fix that.. got my hands on some leaded solder and damn, now I can actually solder without much problem at all.

Hopefully it is all working tomorrow.