Radical Vision wrote on 2022-06-06, 19:21:

Well yes these scrappers are fu**ing idiots and savages and neanderthals... All they know is how to get an hammer and just smash these parts, and then to melt them with acids and repeat...

well, they couldn't afford to buy that acid if they didn't get 40-50% of its price back from selling the 'vast'* amounts of gold...

*by vast i mean of course, vanishingly small

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-06-05, 12:07:

Cheers for that, I found a post that sent me to the 98SE recovery CD for the A21M which apparently works fine with the A20M, along with the 2k/NT recovery disks you have found it'll give me a nice little CD package to throw in the Laptop case.

Now to scrounge up a new battery .. the most difficult hunt !

Hey, I told you the hunt for a battery would be hard 😀
If you have an issue with your recovery disk, I have one for the A20m ( win98SE )

Today I decided to work on a Motherboard I recently bought.

Matsonic MS7192S

The original Award bios is from 07/22/1999
According to Matsonic.com (via Archive.org) website, we can use MS7102S Last Bios, dated from 12/17/1999

I put a Slot1 P3 850Mhz but it was not correctly recognized ( 840Mhz ). I updated the bios to 12/17/1999 and it was seen a 850Mhz but displayed... 189x4.5 ... 😆

So I used the Award Bios Patcher (4.23) on 12/17/99 Bios to fix issues and add some CPU Microcodes. Now it's correctly seen as 850Mhz ( 100x8.5 ) and under Memtest86 detected as 852.1 Mhz

Adding Bios in attachment for future reference just in case 😄

Note that I modified the OEM string displayed when booting with patching date (06/06/2022)

NyLan wrote on 2022-06-07, 09:47:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-06-05, 12:07:

Cheers for that, I found a post that sent me to the 98SE recovery CD for the A21M which apparently works fine with the A20M, along with the 2k/NT recovery disks you have found it'll give me a nice little CD package to throw in the Laptop case.

Now to scrounge up a new battery .. the most difficult hunt !

Hey, I told you the hunt for a battery would be hard 😀
If you have an issue with your recovery disk, I have one for the A20m ( win98SE )

I found a supplier but have to wait for stock. Do you have a backup of the recovery disc online?

If so I would appreciate a link to it, would be great to have a copy of the original 😀

I've been looking into using modern ARM CPUs to create a retro soundcard. A soundcard which would be powered by a modern ARM CPU with DSPs (they are built into the ARM chips themselves) to achieve an unprecedented level of audio performance and quality, on par - and exceeding - what was capable during the glory days of Windows XP and hardware accelerated audio. Functions could include running MUNT/FluidSynth at the highest performance possible on the ARM CPU and running hardware accelerated emulation of the old 3D audio APIs from Windows 9x and XP in Windows 10/11/Linux.

Well did need to REtest (again) parts that i sold to a customer, die to him not being able to make the parts post, i asked him some questions, and when it did came to the PSU he said the unit was Cooler Master 1000W, and i was BINGOOO there is ur problem, but since he did pay 87 euro (for the Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 + Athlon XP-M that acheeves 2.5GHz) and i did give him 20 days warranty (as i give to most of my retro stuff) he did return the parts as they did not work, i did test them again with old ThermalTake Pure Power 480W PSU and everything is working fine... These damn modern PSUs, and ppl dont know they need old units in order to work with most old motherboards.... I wonder then ho ppl here and there buy some brand new 600-700W PSUs and put them on slot 1, socket 370 ect and they have no problems lmao .... Guess they got lucky, as MOST of the time even EnermaX Liberty 500W from 2008 does not work with old mobos... Last time from 3 tested Slot A, dual 370 and one 462 only one did work with that EnermaX 500W, rest did refuse to post..........

That Voodoo he did give it to me to test it if works, i did not sell it...

Nexxen wrote on 2022-06-06, 20:34:

I think that what you just wrote could become a common statement of us collectors. Couldn't be any clearer. :) […]
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Radical Vision wrote on 2022-06-06, 19:21:

Well yes these scrappers are fu**ing idiots and savages and neanderthals... All they know is how to get an hammer and just smash […]
Show full quote

Nexxen wrote on 2022-06-04, 10:55:

You got it wrong because I wrote it badly, I meant repairing the ISA slot. Too damaged to make the effort.
Salvaging components is the only thing to do.

I've seen other posts with cards damaged for gold recovery. As a collector it always hurts...

Well yes these scrappers are fu**ing idiots and savages and neanderthals... All they know is how to get an hammer and just smash these parts, and then to melt them with acids and repeat... But as they are dumb and ignorant, they dont even know for some nice piece of retro HW like 3Dfx cards, special ISA audio cards, special high end mb ect.. collectors may pay 20-30 times, what the dumb gold diggers will get from destroying some exotic and rare part instead.. Sure some scrappers by being ignorant open options for some of us to buy something good, as not all of them are as dumb, (like that scrapper that sold UNtested Voodoo V 5500 for 125 euros), some find parts that they think they have some value and they sell them.. But the nasty part when dealing with gold scrappers is they want ALOT more money for some part that they dont even take the time to test and see the part is working... Paying like 30-40-50 euros for UNtested voodoo card or some other exotic is, not something i am willing to do, after all i dont get money from the trees (no matter that is what they are made of), i can pay extra to some scrapper (lets say x2 the price in scrap) for UNtested exotic part and reward him double of what he will get otherwise and save him the time and effort, as x2 the price in scrap is ok (i am not only ok with the ceramic CPUs the price there is VERY dumb specially from scrappers, but the PCB parts are fine) if the part is 3Dfx or something else with similar value, and that is justified risk to me and is more then fine.. Shit i can even pay x3 and x4 times the scrap price of the thing is very rare such as Voodoo 5, or even more for Voodoo 6000, GUS, ASUS 386/ 486 boards, socket 8 boards and other..

Once when i did talk with one scrapper, he showed me piecture of Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music, and when i asked for price he repply:
" that card will cost you 40 euro, as it have so much gold on it, as the connectors are golden".... Similar shit when an scrappers get their hands on AWE64 Gold, the card color is like gold, the connectors are gold, and there is the name of the card GOLD, and these idiots think the card have tons of gold in it jesus fu**king christ.........

But some of these idiots to ask for like 60-100 euros for single part that he did not make even the effort to clean the dust from the part, not to talk about any testing, well they can go FK themselves.....
Back in 2017 i got x2 3Dfx Voodoo II PROvideo cards 12MB from scrapper for pocket change, it appear the cards was both pulled from working system in SLI, and the retards from the scrap did toss and trow them all around, and there was broken pins on the x3 main 3Dfx chips.... It was really sad, but did replace them at some point with better ones, and sold the these bad cards to someone that is willing to take the time to fix them..

IMG_20170609_125602.jpg

IMG_20170609_125641.jpg

IMG_20170609_125725.jpg

One time a guy that was going to a gypsy market, did send me a picture of Voodoo 3 2K, the card was with cut off/ snapped AGP port, we both was so pissed, that some retarded gold scrapper did rip off the fu**king AGP slot of the card and made it totally useless.... These gold scrappers with their hammers and shit they be damned....

I think that what you just wrote could become a common statement of us collectors.
Couldn't be any clearer. 😀

I can feel the dark side being strong in you! 🤣

Well ppl need to stop being polite and curse these nasty scrappers... As another old HW enthusiasts use to say "these gold recovery scrappers deserves to be punished by law for the crimes of destroying parts"... I think there is nor problem in scrapping most parts, but scrapping rares, exotics and good stuff, that should be punished even worse then jail...

Well guess i am too radical, and i hate when ppl do stupid things, too bad most of the world is burning from BS and stupidity...

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-06-06, 23:13:

How I imagine the average scrapper: https://i.imgur.com/7DHso4L.png […]
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Radical Vision wrote on 2022-06-06, 19:21:

Well yes these scrappers are fu**ing idiots and savages and neanderthals... All they know is how to get an hammer and just smash these parts, and then to melt them with acids and repeat...

How I imagine the average scrapper:

That seeems very legit, there are other pictures even more fitting for the gold digger scrappers, but better not to show them it will be too brutal..

gerry wrote on 2022-06-07, 08:49:

Radical Vision wrote on 2022-06-06, 19:21:

Well yes these scrappers are fu**ing idiots and savages and neanderthals... All they know is how to get an hammer and just smash these parts, and then to melt them with acids and repeat...

well, they couldn't afford to buy that acid if they didn't get 40-50% of its price back from selling the 'vast'* amounts of gold...

*by vast i mean of course, vanishingly small

I will like to use acid on scrappers, that used to destroy Pentium PRO CPUs, 3Dfx cards and other good stuff >>>>>

Fabricated a loop cable for the Miro Highscore 3D.

That's some serious fiddling with the soldering iron.

Edit; added end result pic. Happy with it. 😀

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2022-06-06, 23:30:

Normally I can save the paper stickers, but this time I had to soak it properly for a long time.
And I haven't even tested it yet, just couldn't do it with the smell 🤣.

I have had good luck with bleach-based cleaners like Arm and Hammer Scrubbing Bubbles and Clorox Foamer. You have to be careful with your hands and clothes.

I've restored a couple of systems that smelled like they were used inside a smoker's lungs... smelled like computers afterward. One of them was a laptop, that was fun.

Nexxen wrote on 2022-06-04, 10:55:

You got it wrong because I wrote it badly, I meant repairing the ISA slot. Too damaged to make the effort. Salvaging components […]
Show full quote

Thermalwrong wrote on 2022-06-04, 03:27:

Nexxen wrote on 2022-06-03, 12:10:

My eyes hurt. 🙁
Not even worth trying, too much time and effort.

Nah, it's worth it to me 😀 It also gave a good reason to use the Quick 861DA hot air station and in the end, it should result in a PCB design that others can use to repair the CT1350B PCBs

You got it wrong because I wrote it badly, I meant repairing the ISA slot. Too damaged to make the effort.
Salvaging components is the only thing to do.

I've seen other posts with cards damaged for gold recovery. As a collector it always hurts...

This is something I've been wanting to do for a while tbh, there's no shared design for the CT1350 and I wanted to make one. It also gives me a low stakes way to learn KiCAD's UI since I could sorta use Eagle but I got locked out of the useful version of that - once I'm free from work, my version of a GuS-PnP can start again in KiCAD.
I scanned in the PCB, did some measuring, vectorised the picture to get it into KiCAD and have been placing components following the scan locations. I'm quite happy with how this is coming along now 😀

Replacing dead Dallas RTCs on a pair of ASUS socket 7 boards with new Dallas RTCs, boards should be good for another 10 years now !

Didnt bother with sockets, too much finagling required and it would make the RTC block the ISA slot.

Radical Vision wrote on 2022-06-07, 14:13:

I will like to use acid on scrappers, that used to destroy Pentium PRO CPUs, 3Dfx cards and other good stuff >>>>>

Are you 9 years old?

Hey it was what it said on the tin.

badmojo wrote on 2022-06-09, 07:33:

Radical Vision wrote on 2022-06-07, 14:13:

I will like to use acid on scrappers, that used to destroy Pentium PRO CPUs, 3Dfx cards and other good stuff >>>>>

Are you 9 years old?

Are you being too generous ?

I think so, even 9 year olds wouldn't make such silly statements.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-06-09, 08:12:

badmojo wrote on 2022-06-09, 07:33:

Radical Vision wrote on 2022-06-07, 14:13:

I will like to use acid on scrappers, that used to destroy Pentium PRO CPUs, 3Dfx cards and other good stuff >>>>>

Are you 9 years old?

Are you being too generous ?

I think so, even 9 year olds wouldn't make such silly statements.

I don't think 9 year olds are THAT nice. 🤣

After some less than professional soldering, and some cannibalizing of the 486 build that I might just sell off due to a lack of interest after it failed to work completely, I have an SE/30 running with sound and 32MB of RAM.

TechieDude wrote on 2022-06-09, 21:18:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-06-09, 08:12:

badmojo wrote on 2022-06-09, 07:33:

Are you 9 years old?

Are you being too generous ?

I think so, even 9 year olds wouldn't make such silly statements.

I don't think 9 year olds are THAT nice. 🤣

I never said that 9 year olds are nice ..most of them can be nasty little fuckers when put to it and would be far more creative than using acid.

9 years old isn't even retro.

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-06-10, 09:13:

9 years old isn't even retro.

Sick burn .. he might need some ICE for that 😁

Decided to keep a Inspiron 530 to throw a gtx 960 2gb on, and finally replace the OG 500gb hdd with a 120gb SSD/1tb hdd in as a kids PC. Already has a Q9550+8gb of ram, should eat Roblox and Minecraft for breakfast