The listing had a 7500, 8500, and G3 tower, 14" and 17" colorsync monitors, hundreds of original software CDs in books, keyboards, cards, etc....for $100.

brostenen wrote:

kanecvr wrote:

Yup, 1GB drive. Unfortunately it's dying. I/O cuts off while reading or scanning the drive for defects.

Have you tried a Low Level Format (found in the controllers BIOS)? Just for the fun of it. 😁

clueless1 wrote:

brostenen wrote:

kanecvr wrote:

Yup, 1GB drive. Unfortunately it's dying. I/O cuts off while reading or scanning the drive for defects.

Have you tried a Low Level Format (found in the controllers BIOS)? Just for the fun of it. 😁

^^Yes^^

Worth a shot. A few times I've seen SMART errors clear up after I DBAN a drive. When you touch every sector intentionally, you give the drive controller a status update and it can make adjustments accordingly.

Huh - did not know you could low level format SCSI drives. I'll give it a shot. The adaptec utility failed to fix it tough (system hangs part-way).

jarreboum wrote:

I did! some of the corroded traces were near the board and inaccessible without taking it out, which made me decide I would be better of buying one that works. Unforeseen expenses made me rethink that goal, and after a long struggle I managed to extract the board off its plastic cradle without breaking anything. I can see why people say they break easily though, everything is so tight you need to put a lot of force on the legs and breaking them is very likely. I think I was lucky on that one.

Man that is awesome you managed to fix it up! Mine had a couple of traces that had oxidized (gone black) and I tried redrawing them with the pen but yeah that resistance over a long retrace just bugged me. Maybe I'll try it again soon. So many projects right now so... hehe.

Thanks for the advise though. Makes me more confident to try it again.

I did think about maybe reproducing the membranes with kicad and getting it etched out on flex PCB but so far I've not found an online source for making such large flex PCB's, and cost is always a problem too I guess. Might still do the design work eventually anyway just so in the future it could be done.

Today, I pulled my old PS2 slim and my old DDR MAX game out of my gaming box and I hooked up my brand-new dance pad and tried to dance.

Apparently, being 60 lbs heavier and 15 years older makes playing these games a WHOLE LOT HARDER. I used to routinely play this game on HEAVY. Now I'm playing on LIGHT and it's a bit tough.

So this is over the span of a few days as I've been trying to get this thing to work for a little while and life gets in the way etc (dang work!)

I recently purchased a single board computer, the AP-520 from 'Industrial Computer Product'.

I didn't realise at the time that it would come with everything originally packed with the board - the IDE/Floppy leads, keyboard lead and PS/2 to 5 pin DIN adapter, manual, etc. That was a pleasant surprise enough, however...

The board was still sealed, as new, in the anti-static bag it was originally placed in those many years ago! Amazing! I haven't seen a 'new' socket 7 motherboard in so long, this was icing on the cake 🤣

Anyway, I really wanted to try this thing out, so I grabbed my old junked ISA riser card (from a Commodore 386 no less...) and carefully wired up AT power lines to the board.

Despite testing the wiring and so on, the board refused to POST. Nothing I tried worked. I thought maybe the CPU or RAM was bad, tried replacing those, no juice. It really had me stumped.

Anyway I left it for a couple of days as I thought it over more, and just last night I came back to it and I instantly realised I had not tested the CMOS battery... which turned out to be absolutely dead (it didn't even register on my admittedly shitty multimeter).

So I replaced the CMOS battery with a new CR-2032 holder and fresh battery...

Turned it on...

And it POSTs first go!!

Now I need to figure out a way to make a small case for this, something nice and portable. It'll make for an interesting x86 system!

I finally finished recapping an old Antec SL350 power supply to power my "new" KT7A v1.3, which was also recapped. Everything seemed stable when testing the voltages under minor load (a couple of fans and a spare CD-ROM drive), so I hooked the system up and it appears to run smoothly. Surprisingly, the Antec is now quieter than I expected. Can't wait to put it through its paces this weekend.

TechNoirMK wrote:

Got an AcerPower/M Ultima PC along with an Acer 6311 K9R/RU keyboard for free. Now for the question - how the heck do I open this case up?
It seems to be somehow screwed inside the front panel, so it's impossible for now without getting thin pliers or just breaking it, which I don't want to do.

http://imgur.com/a/DGJ2D

So, basically, the side panel is held on four small screws inside the front panel, and they're nearly inaccessible. There are no screws on the back except for PSU screws. Wat do?

Very vague memory here of an old 486 Acer desktop system... But I think you just pull the front panel off the case..? Unless this is a different setup...

orinoko wrote:

Very vague memory here of an old 486 Acer desktop system... But I think you just pull the front panel off the case..? Unless this is a different setup...

Thats how my Pentium Acer Power is. . .the case shroud is an all in one piece deal (sides and top as one piece) and you pull on the levers on each side of the front panel at the same time

orinoko wrote:

So this is over the span of a few days as I've been trying to get this thing to work for a little while and life gets in the way etc (dang work!)

I recently purchased a single board computer, the AP-520 from 'Industrial Computer Product'.

Im surpruised it POST without the front half of its PICMG connector plugged in. Surprised the ISA half of the connector was enough to get it to boot.

In accordance with my wife's decree to declutter...

I took my last two built systems and gutted them from their cases. The cases are going to the bulk trash. I've been meaning to replace them with matching ATX cases for the sake of compactness, etc anyway so no big loss.

Going to evaluate what I want in terms of old DOS/Windows machines and set aside the parts for builds and then try to sell off the rest.

Replaced the Zip 100 drive in my G4 Digital Audio and now all the drives are recognized and working.

senrew wrote:

In accordance with my wife's decree to declutter... […]
Show full quote

In accordance with my wife's decree to declutter...

I took my last two built systems and gutted them from their cases. The cases are going to the bulk trash. I've been meaning to replace them with matching ATX cases for the sake of compactness, etc anyway so no big loss.

Going to evaluate what I want in terms of old DOS/Windows machines and set aside the parts for builds and then try to sell off the rest.

Replaced the Zip 100 drive in my G4 Digital Audio and now all the drives are recognized and working.

Another reason for me to remain single forever if I want to keep collecting old computer bits. 😀

She actually loves watching me go full retard with the old hardware. 😀 We are just in a smaller apartment now so we had to consolidate an extra room's worth of desks and computers and boxes and things I've forgotten I owned into a 1 bedroom apartment. The living room is layers of boxes and hardware on top of other boxes and hardware on top of furniture...so yeah, she's a bit touchy about the clutter.

It's no big deal though, gives me a chance to go through and see what I really want to keep, etc. I'm not a collector, what I have is meant to filter down to working systems and the rest is up in the air.

I pulled out my Pentium machine, upgraded the sound and video cards (SB16 to AWE64, S3 Virge to Verite V2200) then put in a PMMX 200 and overclocked it to 262.5 MHz. Oh, and replaced 4x8MB EDO sticks with one stick of 64MB SDRAM. It's blazing fast now.

BloodyCactus wrote:

Im surpruised it POST without the front half of its PICMG connector plugged in. Surprised the ISA half of the connector was enough to get it to boot.

I'm a little surprised myself. Although, I thought I'd give it a go anyway. The board has a dedicated power connector on it too, for 12v, 5v, -12v, -5v and GND, so it made me wonder if that's all it needed anyway. I supposed if I want to utilise the PCI side, I'd need to use a proper PICMG board anyway.

kithylin wrote:

senrew wrote:

In accordance with my wife's decree to declutter... […]
Show full quote

In accordance with my wife's decree to declutter...

I took my last two built systems and gutted them from their cases. The cases are going to the bulk trash. I've been meaning to replace them with matching ATX cases for the sake of compactness, etc anyway so no big loss.

Going to evaluate what I want in terms of old DOS/Windows machines and set aside the parts for builds and then try to sell off the rest.

Replaced the Zip 100 drive in my G4 Digital Audio and now all the drives are recognized and working.

Another reason for me to remain single forever if I want to keep collecting old computer bits. 😀

I am dreading the day this happens...

I took a laptop with a dead screen apart and scored a K6-2 300AFR 2.2v.
Alright, off to the recycling with the rest... or not?

A few minutes later I found a guy selling a supposedly working replacement LCD screen. Since the CPU is not special to me, maybe... maybe I could fix the whole laptop?
I guess the world could need another Super Socket 7 Laptop, right? What do you guys think?

Arctic wrote:

I took a laptop with a dead screen apart and scored a K6-2 300AFR 2.2v. Alright, off to the recycling with the rest... or not? […]
Show full quote

I took a laptop with a dead screen apart and scored a K6-2 300AFR 2.2v.
Alright, off to the recycling with the rest... or not?

A few minutes later I found a guy selling a supposedly working replacement LCD screen. Since the CPU is not special to me, maybe... maybe I could fix the whole laptop?
I guess the world could need another Super Socket 7 Laptop, right? What do you guys think?

I looked for K6 laptops the other day and didn't have much time luck finding working ones. So fixing it wouldn't not be a bad think i don't think.

Alright! I will give it a shot then!
I upgraded my Thinkpad A20p from 128MB to 192MB SDRAM 😀

I can't wait for the 2x256MB to arrive. 😎

ODwilly wrote:

orinoko wrote:

Very vague memory here of an old 486 Acer desktop system... But I think you just pull the front panel off the case..? Unless this is a different setup...

Thats how my Pentium Acer Power is. . .the case shroud is an all in one piece deal (sides and top as one piece) and you pull on the levers on each side of the front panel at the same time

I tried pulling the levers, but, as I've said, the front panel is held by screws I can't reach.