Today's retro activity - disassembling a recently purchased Super Famicom completely and giving it a thorough clean. It was pretty filthy on the outside, but only some mild dust bunnies on the inside.

It's yellowed a bit, but otherwise it looks pretty good. I might try just putting it out in the sun for a few hours each day, when we next get some sunlight here. It takes a lot longer to see results, but it helped a little to brighten both my VIC-20 and Dreamcast.

Tested the IBM PS/2 Model 25 and the head broke off of the original floppy drive when I was attempting to clean it (I was careful).

Last night, I cleaned the Kawai ACR-20 out and it smells better, but the silicone buttons need a deep musty removal and some of the plastic has a faint smell. Also tested it and it's working. Had to put the mounting plates back on the right spot since the unit would glitch out.

Well that dumpster LEnovo M30-70 turns oout that it works LMAO never expected that to be the case... Guess the previous owner did trow it to the trash die to the display holders was broken, and the plastic on the bottom panel are broken too... Nice when i sell it i will buy some good retro part with the money...

Jesus it tursn out, that these 2 are working MSI MS-6167, DFI AK76-SN. But the 500W EnermaX i was using did made only the dual Gigabyte board post, but these 2 not (WTF !?!?!?). Now when replaced the EnermaX with some older TT Pure Power 480W they post... As usual the wonders of the PC HW...

I've got a pair of Voodoo 2 cards arriving today.

This is the picture from the eBay listing:

They were pricey but worth it (if ever so slightly) in order to pursue the concept build I have in mind for them.

SolidSonicTH wrote on 2022-05-28, 09:44:

I've got a pair of Voodoo 2 cards arriving today. […]
Show full quote

I've got a pair of Voodoo 2 cards arriving today.

This is the picture from the eBay listing:

They were pricey but worth it (if ever so slightly) in order to pursue the concept build I have in mind for them.

Oooo whatcha drop on those?

What are you gonna put em in?

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-05-28, 09:47:

SolidSonicTH wrote on 2022-05-28, 09:44:

I've got a pair of Voodoo 2 cards arriving today. […]
Show full quote

I've got a pair of Voodoo 2 cards arriving today.

This is the picture from the eBay listing:

They were pricey but worth it (if ever so slightly) in order to pursue the concept build I have in mind for them.

Oooo whatcha drop on those?

What are you gonna put em in?

$395. >_> Very pricey but actually about $100 less than the next item up. I originally tried to offer $325 but I realized at the price they were at they wouldn't last long (I learned my lesson on that as recently as the day before as someone sent me an offer for $80 on a 3.5"/5.25" combo drive, which was actually a great price but I waited and someone snapped it up) so I just pulled the trigger and paid full price.

It's part of an SBC "concept" build (meaning I'm building around a specific design target -- I've done PC projects like this before but this is the first time I've done one with a retro build). You can see some of the other parts I've already got here (although now I'm using a different backplane). The idea behind this build is to see what kind of performance I can get out of a system without an AGP slot. Since I saw that SBC video from LGR I've been interested in trying to make one myself and it helps that, as far as I can tell, no SBC would also let me use an AGP slot it's a match made in heaven.

I've also got a Turtle Beach sound card of some sort with an Aureal Vortex chip on it (don't know the exact spec, it's one of these, I believe), some floppy drives, and a massive full tower case (Rosewill Throne) as of now (needed the full tower in order to get enough expansion slots for the 8-slot backplane).

Despite the girth of the case I actually need to have it modified in order to fit the SBC because it slams up against the drive rails (the case, quite unnecessarily I think, can support 10 HDDs). I'm going to take it to a metal shop on Tuesday to see if there's anything that can be done (as I lack those sorts of tools and...frankly I'd rather not have to use them if I can avoid it). I'm also probably going to drill out new standoff holes because these backplanes always seem to be missing several ATX-standard holes (despite the fact I'm using a backplane that has an ATX power connector).

Enjoying for the first time the wonders of setuping an non-PnP ISA system with add-on cards.
Had to setup manually the IRQ/DMA/etc of the ESS 1868 and the NE-12 ethernet card.

Now both cards work in DOS and WfW 3.11.

Bonus question: does the ethernet card may be compatible with the XT-IDE rom?
In the setup tool there is the option for enabling the boot rom.

mrfusion92 wrote on 2022-05-28, 14:06:

Enjoying for the first time the wonders of setuping an non-PnP ISA system with add-on cards. Had to setup manually the IRQ/DMA/e […]
Show full quote

Enjoying for the first time the wonders of setuping an non-PnP ISA system with add-on cards.
Had to setup manually the IRQ/DMA/etc of the ESS 1868 and the NE-12 ethernet card.

Now both cards work in DOS and WfW 3.11.

Bonus question: does the ethernet card may be compatible with the XT-IDE rom?
In the setup tool there is the option for enabling the boot rom.

Good job ! I like setting up old hardware that are jumper set, sure is nice on older stuff.
Being NE2000 compliant that card should work with XT-IDE but you will have to run it's config tool to turn on the boot rom feature and set an address.
Here is some info: Need a NE2000 setup/config program
Somebody else may have better info on that card but IIRC most ISA NE2000 type ethernet cards work OK as long as you use the ROM chip size and type that the card supports.

SolidSonicTH wrote on 2022-05-28, 09:58:

$395. >_> Very pricey but actually about $100 less than the next item up. I originally tried to offer $325 but I realized at the […]
Show full quote

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-05-28, 09:47:

SolidSonicTH wrote on 2022-05-28, 09:44:

I've got a pair of Voodoo 2 cards arriving today. […]
Show full quote

I've got a pair of Voodoo 2 cards arriving today.

This is the picture from the eBay listing:

They were pricey but worth it (if ever so slightly) in order to pursue the concept build I have in mind for them.

Oooo whatcha drop on those?

What are you gonna put em in?

$395. >_> Very pricey but actually about $100 less than the next item up. I originally tried to offer $325 but I realized at the price they were at they wouldn't last long (I learned my lesson on that as recently as the day before as someone sent me an offer for $80 on a 3.5"/5.25" combo drive, which was actually a great price but I waited and someone snapped it up) so I just pulled the trigger and paid full price.

It's part of an SBC "concept" build (meaning I'm building around a specific design target -- I've done PC projects like this before but this is the first time I've done one with a retro build). You can see some of the other parts I've already got here (although now I'm using a different backplane). The idea behind this build is to see what kind of performance I can get out of a system without an AGP slot. Since I saw that SBC video from LGR I've been interested in trying to make one myself and it helps that, as far as I can tell, no SBC would also let me use an AGP slot it's a match made in heaven.

I've also got a Turtle Beach sound card of some sort with an Aureal Vortex chip on it (don't know the exact spec, it's one of these, I believe), some floppy drives, and a massive full tower case (Rosewill Throne) as of now (needed the full tower in order to get enough expansion slots for the 8-slot backplane).

Despite the girth of the case I actually need to have it modified in order to fit the SBC because it slams up against the drive rails (the case, quite unnecessarily I think, can support 10 HDDs). I'm going to take it to a metal shop on Tuesday to see if there's anything that can be done (as I lack those sorts of tools and...frankly I'd rather not have to use them if I can avoid it). I'm also probably going to drill out new standoff holes because these backplanes always seem to be missing several ATX-standard holes (despite the fact I'm using a backplane that has an ATX power connector).

I need to build me a sbc one of these days…

I’d like to build one around dual socket 7

SolidSonicTH wrote on 2022-05-28, 09:44:

I've got a pair of Voodoo 2 cards arriving today. […]
Show full quote

I've got a pair of Voodoo 2 cards arriving today.

This is the picture from the eBay listing:

They were pricey but worth it (if ever so slightly) in order to pursue the concept build I have in mind for them.

Did they include the VGA cables ?

Horun wrote on 2022-05-29, 01:38:

SolidSonicTH wrote on 2022-05-28, 09:44:

I've got a pair of Voodoo 2 cards arriving today. […]
Show full quote

I've got a pair of Voodoo 2 cards arriving today.

This is the picture from the eBay listing:

They were pricey but worth it (if ever so slightly) in order to pursue the concept build I have in mind for them.

Did they include the VGA cables ?

Yep. You can see how it's going over here.

Fiddled around with heat sinks and coolers for my hot running ASUS GF DDR.
And after trying the usual extruded alu stuff, I remembered i have a few Zalman VF900's to spare.
And to my surprise it can be made to fit!
Some persuasion was required, but nothing that ruins the cooler or the card.

I reckon that should sort the temperatures =)

Tracked down a decent MS DOS 6.22 book in PDF (1050 pages) that is better than the ones I have that MS released. Uploaded it to Archive org to go with the MS DOS 5 User Guide (660 pages) upped a few weeks ago...
https://archive.org/details/ms-dos-6.22-using-ms-dos and https://archive.org/details/msdos_5_User_Guide_complete

Outfitted an MSI 6168 ver2 with Tualatin on Slot-T, a new cooler on the V3 and heatsinks on all VRAM chips. Wondering whether I should sell my 6168 ver1 (PIII 450).

Currently working on a P5PE-VM and E7500, idea is to have 4 identical machines for C&C titles, dual booting Win98 and XP on WD Raptors.
One will have a GF5900 Ultra, two a 9800 Pro and one 9700 Pro.

I installed two old Edirol VSTs from the early 2000's. The GM2 one was superb. The Orchestral one was a mess, because the plug-in won't work like a regular VST and handles MIDI input in such a way that the output is not what you put in, but rather what the plug-in conforms your MIDI data to, per it's Orchestra Style. While it has some superb classical instruments, it's pretty much useless for playing back MIDI files, unless you either have one that somehow fits perfectly with the VST or one that you change to fit it. I tried some files that should be suitable and what instruments worked properly sounded great, while what was modified by the VST sounded terrible.

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2022-05-29, 17:51:

Fiddled around with heat sinks and coolers for my hot running ASUS GF DDR. And after trying the usual extruded alu stuff, I reme […]
Show full quote

Fiddled around with heat sinks and coolers for my hot running ASUS GF DDR.
And after trying the usual extruded alu stuff, I remembered i have a few Zalman VF900's to spare.
And to my surprise it can be made to fit!
Some persuasion was required, but nothing that ruins the cooler or the card.

I reckon that should sort the temperatures =)

Yes it appears you found what i did but on Voodoo III instead.. This cooler of Zalman is total overkill, BUT it will keep the precious old HW cool and quiet (AMD ™)... I want to find some smaller Zalman x2 of them to cool my Voodoo V 5.5K as well (or maybe i will just add extra fans, cuz want to preserve the original look, maybe when i get an second one...), as the stock coolers are a joke... And interestingly enough one of the chips is ALOT more hot then the other, guess one good bin chip and one way worse, or is from another thing (the fans both spin fine), or maybe the first chip closer to the I/O is just getting more hot on all V5...

PTherapist wrote on 2022-05-27, 11:06:

Yeah it has been worryingly slow for a while, there seemed to be lots of development last year but not so much this year.

Worst case scenario, if it's still not out by the end of next year I'll probably have to consider something like the Terrible Fire myself too.

I reckon by the time you drop a ton on the TF060, which has a gimped CPU (full MMU/FPU '060 are crazy unobtainable prices), I'd just go an Vampire A1200 card for more $$$, but not that much more. Yes, it replaces pretty much everything in an A1200, but you can do modern computing tasks on it which make the difference.

The TF030 looks good however not at all an upgrade from the basic '030 card I have ... keeping fingers crossed for the PiStorm in development.

Radical Vision wrote on 2022-05-29, 22:20:

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2022-05-29, 17:51:

Fiddled around with heat sinks and coolers for my hot running ASUS GF DDR. And after trying the usual extruded alu stuff, I reme […]
Show full quote

Fiddled around with heat sinks and coolers for my hot running ASUS GF DDR.
And after trying the usual extruded alu stuff, I remembered i have a few Zalman VF900's to spare.
And to my surprise it can be made to fit!
Some persuasion was required, but nothing that ruins the cooler or the card.

I reckon that should sort the temperatures =)

Yes it appears you found what i did but on Voodoo III instead.. This cooler of Zalman is total overkill, BUT it will keep the precious old HW cool and quiet (AMD ™)... I want to find some smaller Zalman x2 of them to cool my Voodoo V 5.5K as well (or maybe i will just add extra fans, cuz want to preserve the original look, maybe when i get an second one...), as the stock coolers are a joke... And interestingly enough one of the chips is ALOT more hot then the other, guess one good bin chip and one way worse, or is from another thing (the fans both spin fine), or maybe the first chip closer to the I/O is just getting more hot on all V5...

I've never been able to remove the heatsink on my Voodoo 3 😩 Any trick ?

NyLan wrote on 2022-05-30, 07:39:

Radical Vision wrote on 2022-05-29, 22:20:

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2022-05-29, 17:51:

Fiddled around with heat sinks and coolers for my hot running ASUS GF DDR. And after trying the usual extruded alu stuff, I reme […]
Show full quote

Fiddled around with heat sinks and coolers for my hot running ASUS GF DDR.
And after trying the usual extruded alu stuff, I remembered i have a few Zalman VF900's to spare.
And to my surprise it can be made to fit!
Some persuasion was required, but nothing that ruins the cooler or the card.

I reckon that should sort the temperatures =)

Yes it appears you found what i did but on Voodoo III instead.. This cooler of Zalman is total overkill, BUT it will keep the precious old HW cool and quiet (AMD ™)... I want to find some smaller Zalman x2 of them to cool my Voodoo V 5.5K as well (or maybe i will just add extra fans, cuz want to preserve the original look, maybe when i get an second one...), as the stock coolers are a joke... And interestingly enough one of the chips is ALOT more hot then the other, guess one good bin chip and one way worse, or is from another thing (the fans both spin fine), or maybe the first chip closer to the I/O is just getting more hot on all V5...

I've never been able to remove the heatsink on my Voodoo 3 😩 Any trick ?

Throw it in the freezer for 30 mins and then give the cooler a gentle twist, if that doesnt work grab a can of air blaster turn it upside down and spray the cooler where the GPU is for 30 - 40 seconds till it frosts up then try gently twisting it. The Thermal epoxy used goes brittle when frozen and it shouldnt take a lot of break it, the hard part is then removing the remaining epoxy off the GPU after 🤣.

Dont freeze the GPU after removing the cooler to try removing the epoxy, youll likely risk damaging the solder joints.

Instead of doing the BS with the freezer, use instead brakes cleaner, but be sure to soak very well the cemented heatsink such like the ons on Voodoo 3 and Voodoo 5... And after some hours of soaking the cemented thernal compound will be gone... With freezer normally you will not get good result...

I used to renove nasty cemented heatsinks from 486 CPUs with carpet blade, it works fine, but sadly the paint letters on any of these or VGA cards will faint, or straight fall and nake the chip look like shit...

https://imgur.com/ET8HAp8
https://imgur.com/3hrHNSs