Finally started doing recordings of MIDI files with my various MIDI modules. 😀

appiah4 wrote:

I think you have to manually update windows updater to the final version.

The update.microsoft.com web page started working after it installed the first round of Automatic Updates via Windows itself.

So...
1. Install SP3 and IE8
2. Let it do the first round of automatic updates through Windows itself.
3. update.microsoft.com works.

badmojo wrote:

Just for fun, I ran through several ISA sound cards from my box of treasures to see if I could find one that worked / sounded as […]
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Just for fun, I ran through several ISA sound cards from my box of treasures to see if I could find one that worked / sounded as nice as my Acer Magic S23, but failed to do so.

I've always had compatibility issues with my CS4232 card's WSS mode. Has yours been trouble free and if so what drivers did you use?

Not retro, but I took the guts out of a Compaq case that I used for my daily driver desktop, the FX-6300, into another case that has the external drive bay door with the keys.

I also used the same case with the Socket 370 build I did a week or so ago. The cases are the Ultra products ult31586 (standard case without the side clear view window panel, just the standard side panel), one has the door, and the other one does not. Got these cases at a thrift store (never used, but scuffed, but no big deal) for $4.99 a piece. Figured they're going to be handy someday, and the main reason why I decided to get a better case was because there was no wiggle room to add memory to the computer whatsoever (PSU's cables were in the way and almost got shredded alive by the CPU and GPU fans).

gdjacobs wrote:

I've always had compatibility issues with my CS4232 card's WSS mode. Has yours been trouble free and if so what drivers did you use?

I'll have to check the specific version of the driver I use - it came with an AOpen AW32 Pro (~Magic S23A) I have - but I've had good experiences with the WSS functionality.

In saying that, games will often claim that they don't detect it in the setup program, and you just need to know the correct port and DMA # and skip the detection if you can. Nascar and Links386 CD come to mind, and maybe Warcraft2? So yes it's not as easy as it could be but I can't think of a game that offers WSS that I've failed to get working.

The quality of the sound in WSS mode is glorious.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

bjwil1991 wrote:

I have 2 computers (3 after I re-install Windows XP on the Dimension 4550) that have XP installed on them right now with the POSReady 2009 Registry hack. I diagnosed my GT 730 that's not outputting the desktop when Windows 10 Pro loads after the splash screen, and it looks like a graphics card driver issue. HDMI works, but the TV it's hooked up to isn't displaying right (desktop chops off at the top, bottom, and the sides). However, when I turn the system on, it shows the BIOS info (lists of Hard Drives, Optical Drives, etc), and the splash screen.

HDMI Overscan. Google it. There should be adjustments on your TV unless its no name garbage and if not there are tools in the driver.

Got the card to work again. The drivers were glitch, but I got it to work once again. YAY!!!!!!

With a lot of alcohol and careful scrubbing I was able to completely remove the rubber coating from an IBM think pad 760 Palm rest. Unearthed the matte plastic, now completed sticky free.

Now that I've got an EGA monitor, I noticed that it wasn't working properly : the picture was a little bit jiterry and the red color was often missing ... So I opened it, and I reflowed some solders, recaped with some spare rubycon caps I had laying around. Now the pictures is fine, the red works every time ... but the green is gone ... Also at some point I heared a big "POP !" so for now I'll just buy some more caps and I won't turn it on again until I look back inside of it.

Upgrading my Windows 98SE system from an AOpen AX33 mobo to an AX34. The button cell battery had leaked on the AX34, but luckily the plastic cradle that holds the battery caught all the leakage and it was an easy cleanup with vinegar. No damage to the board. Phew.

liqmat wrote:

Upgrading my Windows 98SE system from an AOpen AX33 mobo to an AX34. The button cell battery had leaked on the AX34, but luckily the plastic cradle that holds the battery caught all the leakage and it was an easy cleanup with vinegar. No damage to the board. Phew.

Button cell battery leakage? I haven't heard that one here before. Its usually the old barrel batteries guilty of that.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

liqmat wrote:

Upgrading my Windows 98SE system from an AOpen AX33 mobo to an AX34. The button cell battery had leaked on the AX34, but luckily the plastic cradle that holds the battery caught all the leakage and it was an easy cleanup with vinegar. No damage to the board. Phew.

Button cell battery leakage? I haven't heard that one here before. Its usually the old barrel batteries guilty of that.

First time I've ever come across it myself, but no harm done thank goodness.

jaZz_KCS wrote:

With a lot of alcohol and careful scrubbing I was able to completely remove the rubber coating from an IBM think pad 760 Palm re […]
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With a lot of alcohol and careful scrubbing I was able to completely remove the rubber coating from an IBM think pad 760 Palm rest. Unearthed the matte plastic, now completed sticky free.

I hate that stuff, only thing that makes it nicer than napalm is that it isn't on fire.

So, still takes "effort"? Damn, I am still looking for an easy way to get rid of it then 😁

jaZz_KCS wrote:

With a lot of alcohol and careful scrubbing I was able to completely remove the rubber coating from an IBM think pad 760 Palm re […]
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With a lot of alcohol and careful scrubbing I was able to completely remove the rubber coating from an IBM think pad 760 Palm rest. Unearthed the matte plastic, now completed sticky free.

Nice.

For future reference there are a couple other methods that work much better.
1. Any citrus essential oil - fastest way without messing up the plastic
2. Any citrus based furniture polish.

I've had to do the same exact thing to my Logitech G9 mouse as well as my Saitech x35/x36 setup and other things further back in the past.

Alcohol takes forever compared to citrus based stuff.

Testing the Precision Instruments PS/2 3-button mouse on my Windows 10 machine and it works.

Pledge also works well on older ThinkPads

jaZz_KCS wrote:

With a lot of alcohol and careful scrubbing I was able to completely remove the rubber coating from an IBM think pad 760 Palm re […]
Show full quote

With a lot of alcohol and careful scrubbing I was able to completely remove the rubber coating from an IBM think pad 760 Palm rest. Unearthed the matte plastic, now completed sticky free.

Sometimes retro equipment drives me to drink too! 🤣

But seriously, liking the look of that 760 palmrest, will have to try rubbing alcohol, as citrus oil tends to be pretty destructive, it's ruined at least one of my cassette cases. Did you use magic erasers at all?

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

liqmat wrote:

Upgrading my Windows 98SE system from an AOpen AX33 mobo to an AX34. The button cell battery had leaked on the AX34, but luckily the plastic cradle that holds the battery caught all the leakage and it was an easy cleanup with vinegar. No damage to the board. Phew.

Button cell battery leakage? I haven't heard that one here before. Its usually the old barrel batteries guilty of that.

This is something not uncommon. I have seen it in the repair center I worked before, even on very recent systems.
Sometimes a badge of awfull cr2032's made it into systems/notebooks and they killed the systems in under a year from corrosion.
Even decent coin cell batteries eventually become susceptible to this kind of leakage, and I have found 2 on stored mainboards in my own lot.
You can detect it well in a black holder, but some manufacturers did use white or grey holders, and then the leakage is not so visible (greyish spots, eventually turning rustbrown)
Here you have a nice case from a system nuked by a coin cell from horrible quality:
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Softwa … rd/td-p/5100244

😲

JidaiGeki wrote:

jaZz_KCS wrote:

With a lot of alcohol and careful scrubbing I was able to completely remove the rubber coating from an IBM think pad 760 Palm re […]
Show full quote

With a lot of alcohol and careful scrubbing I was able to completely remove the rubber coating from an IBM think pad 760 Palm rest. Unearthed the matte plastic, now completed sticky free.

Sometimes retro equipment drives me to drink too! 🤣

But seriously, liking the look of that 760 palmrest, will have to try rubbing alcohol, as citrus oil tends to be pretty destructive, it's ruined at least one of my cassette cases. Did you use magic erasers at all?

I used isopropyl alc. and brushed away with an old toothbrush at the bigger areas. After a few seconds of scrubbing, the sticky rubber residue started to peel away in small crumbs. After another 2 or 3 appliances of alcohol, I could feel the toothbrush had removed all gunk as I felt the brush having almost no inertia anymore. Did the same things with the harder to reach spaces like the sides and grill, took a bit longer in those areas, as there were never plams resting in that area so the rubber coating was most intact there still needing the most work to remove it.

After rinsing it with water and drying it you'll see which areas you'll have to work on again. After 3 rounds, it was finished and now the plastic feels totally clean, matte and new. Considering that I applied a lot of alcohol, I used some car-plastic protector spray afterwards just in case I did remove too many softeners from the plastic. But if you only apply alc. to the upperside, and not the underside where some important little plastic hinges reside, then you should be all fine.

I can't stress enough how good this palm rest "feels" now. It went from the utmost worst (as old thinkpad palm rests usually are) from one of my favourites in an instant.

Desoldered the jacks and volume potentiometer on my Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro since the soldering job I did didn't work out too well as the jacks were loose and didn't make contact.

Fortunately, I have spare jacks, and the volume potentiometer solder points didn't exactly go away in a couple of spots. Looks like a pin plus the soldering iron will suffice.

On the plus side, I inserted the new jacks successfully to the board since the Line-In and Mic stopped working, and I melted the plastic for the Line-Out jack and the only thing that's left is to get the old crappy solder out of the holes for the volume potentiometer and jumper some wires for the potentiometer to the right areas since the traces aren't that great, same as the Mic and Line-In jack traces.

Prepared my Intel Neptune board for testing today. Complete the way it was sold in 1994, with a P75 and 2x 8 mb fast-page RAM.