Radical Vision wrote on 2023-01-01, 20:46:

This AT PSU is insane, the build quality is like from an IBM system, or Delta/ SeaSonic, did not expect that... The fan even is so well made, with one hand squeezing it, it WONT move/ flex at all DAMN, that is what i call build quality... Most fans are such garbage i can even snap/ brake them if i squeeze with half force, not full. But this fan naaaa is like is made fro metal or something 🤣... Also everything on this power unit feels more then well made, the case i think is steel, since is same thing, if i force the case it wont bend, at least if i dont try very hard.. And the caps appear to be Matsuhita/ Panasonic 🤣.... The wires are also very well made, they are still soft, not hard like plastic, that will fall apart, i see on other cheap crap PSUs... They should have gave the name of "Quality of the Quality" for this PSU unit...
The moment i saw all of that, my test AT PSU was removed and send for sale, and this unit will take its place... Now people here that see this post will be able to know, that this NOname Taiwanese brand is Delta/ SeaSonic level of quality....

Can't find "Task International" in this list: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/psu-manu … oem,2729-9.html

But yeah, a good quality PSU is always good to have handy...

lti wrote on 2023-01-02, 01:01:

I'm still using two hard drives with a few bad sectors. I have two more drives that also have bad sectors and still work, but they're a little too far gone for me to want to use regularly. One of the drives that I don't use (a 60GB Toshiba 2.5" drive) had several hundred bad sectors scattered randomly across it, and Windows kept breaking randomly until I finally replaced it with an SSD in one of those IDE to SATA converters. Unfortunately, that computer has a VIA chipset, and that adapter has a JMicron bridge chip. The old failing drive had higher sequential read and write speeds.

I see so it is as i was expecting.. When isolated a drive will work, if the heads are fine, but on some places on the platter has damage/ bad sectors.. Isolating the bad sectors may help in some cases... My latest Conner 240MB i got had like 4-5 bad sector blocks, and after some windows sector repair 4 bad sectors did relocate, and only 1 left... That sector mades the drive very slow, since is from the start.. But i will keep it, as i like to collect Conner drives...

Did u try to put some of these HDDs with bad sectors in refrigerator, to see if they will fix, i did that in the past, and did not help, but i did read on some forums, that this helps..

pan069 wrote on 2023-01-02, 01:35:

Can't find "Task International" in this list: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/psu-manu … oem,2729-9.html

But yeah, a good quality PSU is always good to have handy...

Yes i did not know that brand as well first time for me to see it. Not sure why they did put so much effort in that PSU, since is not OEM, it was from custom system chance i guess.. But is one of the very few AT quality PSUs i have seen.. Normally i find only garbage and cheap ass AT PSUs that are so cheaply build is painful...
Best PSUs i ever found was an AOpen AT PSU made for socket 7 and my former test AT PSU, with the also shine steel case, but some crap caps, that was fine, and Sparkle PSU with Japan caps, LiteON PSU found in IBM system...

The AOpen with Japan caps and very high build quality on cables ect.. But the case is not as good, as on that Task International..

And this the Sparkle with the Rubycons, also very good build quality...

And this GT 200W AT, is nothing special, but the case is similar steel made like, but aside from that and maybe the cables, i dont see it as good as the rest here, but is above the average garbage AT PSU type (KME, 200W switching power supply, Ultra or whatever...)

But the Task International inc, beats them all, only the AOpen stand a chance, when it comes to build quality, but his case is not as durable as the one on the Task.. Also not sure about the fan tho... That Task Inc AT PSU is insane... I dont have Delta/ Fortron or SeaSonic 200/ 250W AT PSU for comparison..

Picked up a Rise MP6 iDragon Socket 7 CPU and did a small review and benchmarks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbf9SvUvjok

After the GeForce3 Ti200 I noctualized another card, an Asus V6600 / Geforce256 SDR and took it for a spin in the P3 1400S rig. The heatsink is from an old Igel thin client.

Edit: At power on there was a noise from the fan, but luckily only the mounts were touching the blades of the fan, so I clipped them a bit. And all was well, it was a good day.

PD2JK wrote on 2023-01-03, 15:01:

After the GeForce3 Ti200 I noctualized another card, an Asus V6600 / Geforce256 SDR and took it for a spin in the P3 1400S rig. The heatsink is from an old Igel thin client.

Edit: At power on there was a noise from the fan, but luckily only the mounts were touching the blades of the fan, so I clipped them a bit. And all was well, it was a good day.

Nice job! Imagine if these GPU manufacturers had used decent fans like the ones we have today. There would be so much more usable hardware out there now. One of the most frustrating parts of this hobby is dealing with cooling fans on old video cards and motherboard chipsets. It is just SO common for them to be dead or noisy, and the designs are frequently something non-standard that is hard or impossible to replace without modifications that change the entire look of the card.

The only fans I have not seen failures with are the ones on nvidia reference design cards from the high end FX series and 6000 series on. This must have been about the time they started to realize how bad some fan designs were. I think the absolute worst fans are those stupid dual fan FX and 6000 series cards that were sold under the BFG OC and Chaintech (I think) branding. They are almost guaranteed to be bad at this point and are an absolute nightmare to try to replace or even access for cleaning... I can't remember if I've ever managed to get into one to oil it, so I don't know if that's even possible. And because of the design of it with two tiny offset fans and a big dead space in the middle, there is no good way to cool the thing with an aftermarket fan. Just the absolute WORST fans on an absolutely terrible cooler design.

You know... if I had a 3D printer I would probably try to design brackets that could be used to adapt modern fans to old GPU\Chipset heatsink designs as discreetly as possible.

Thanks. 😀
Those really cheap and small fans don't even have a hole underneath the sticker to drip some oil in it. And I bet it won't make a difference either because of the futile bearings... ;(

Bought 3 AMD CPUs (1 x K6 233, 1 K6-2 333, and 1 K6-2 500) - bought them for $12 "for parts"with massively bent pins... a razor blade and 1 hour later.... all straight, and all working CPUs! The worst was the K6-2 500 AFX, and it took some force to get it into the socket... going to work on pins again now that I have it out.

Antieon wrote on 2023-01-03, 20:11:

Bought 3 AMD CPUs (1 x K6 233, 1 K6-2 333, and 1 K6-2 500) - bought them for $12 "for parts"with massively bent pins... a razor […]
Show full quote

Bought 3 AMD CPUs (1 x K6 233, 1 K6-2 333, and 1 K6-2 500) - bought them for $12 "for parts"with massively bent pins... a razor blade and 1 hour later.... all straight, and all working CPUs! The worst was the K6-2 500 AFX, and it took some force to get it into the socket... going to work on pins again now that I have it out.

Nice work!

I have a P100 chip with bent pins I need to fix. How do you fix it using a razor blade? Do you just line up each row and bend them back at once?

[/quote]

Nice work!

I have a P100 chip with bent pins I need to fix. How do you fix it using a razor blade? Do you just line up each row and bend them back at once?
[/quote]

Looking at the image below, I went down each row with the razor blade (red, rotate to light blue, rotate to green, rotate to purple....) - then I went down each row in white, across to help line them up. If some pins were more bent, I used the corner of the razor blade to LIGHTLY bend that single pin back into place. Then I would lift it up the light and just eyeball the straightness of the pin and would repeat the process as needed. Hope that helps.

I use the tip of one of these to straighten most CPU pins:
https://www.amazon.com/Pentel-GraphGear-Autom … /dp/B0006HXQXA/

Works perfectly and allows you to bend them accurately at different heights without twisting or pushing with excessive force.

On that same note, I use one of the little red plastic dispenser straws from a can of WD-40 (or other things that use them) to straighten through-hole pins on motherboards and cards (the type that take jumpers). The plastic is gentle enough that it shouldn't damage anything but it still allows me to straighten them easily.

I used a metal ruler to straighten the pins on an opteron 180 I had taken out of a 939 motherboard. The CPU came out stuck onto the cooler heatsink with the pins nearly sheared off.
I just pushed the ruler horizontally and vertically through the gaps and combed the pins back into place.

I use blunt tipped syringe needles to straighten the worst pins, then a thin knife blade.

Antieon wrote on 2023-01-03, 20:40:

Looking at the image below, I went down each row with the razor blade (red, rotate to light blue, rotate to green, rotate to pur […]
Show full quote

Looking at the image below, I went down each row with the razor blade (red, rotate to light blue, rotate to green, rotate to purple....) - then I went down each row in white, across to help line them up. If some pins were more bent, I used the corner of the razor blade to LIGHTLY bend that single pin back into place. Then I would lift it up the light and just eyeball the straightness of the pin and would repeat the process as needed. Hope that helps.

Thank you, that's useful to know!

Last weekend, with the help of my engineer friend, repaired , restored and backup my old PC-XT Motherboard's damaged BIOS and also burnt some few more EEPROMs.

Went to test this new floppy, since i forgot, and was stored, but UNtested... Well when insert diskette, it did not want to read said insert diskette... Early on before to install it on the test bench, i heard something inside the floppy to hit the walls inside, like a screw or something, but i thought that it was some broken plastic or crap, did not pay much attention to it... But when it refused to read any diskette, i checked the cables orientation and stuff, then pulled out the floppy to open it up and clean the heads... Just to see this crap broken head, god damn it, how the fuck can someone manage to do this shit.... It pisses me even more, since this floppy is Japan made and is in mint condition, but i will for sure look to get spare part from another TEAC that is in more shitty cosmetic state...

Also will look today later to fix somehow the looks of this card, since some moron did install big A$$ fan, and removed the stock fan and stuff, and now the card look like crap...
Removed the leftovers of solder, since the previous owner, did think it will be good idea, to solder that fan directly to the molex connector of the card... Like it was toooo hard to cut the cable and connector from the stock fan and solder that on the new fan, so he can use the factory fan header. Damn primates, i so much hate dumb and idiot solutions, that are harder to make, and also make the parts look like shit... Similar with the fucking screws on heatsinks WTF, why there are zip ties, rubber bands, glue, i even tend to use alot of these ties that when u buy something new, the power cable is tied with metal tie with rubber coating/ isolation .......

Dont know maybe something is wrong with my point of view as i am too radical or perfectionist, or other ppl that do shit like that are the baboons... But i think it is more then normal, for people to look for the best possible way to fix something and possible the perfectionist way....

Radical Vision wrote on 2023-01-04, 10:32:

Dont know maybe something is wrong with my point of view as i am too radical or perfectionist, or other ppl that do shit like that are the baboons... But i think it is more then normal, for people to look for the best possible way to fix something and possible the perfectionist way....

I feel the same. The only mods I like are if a better cooler is properly attached, replacement caps (if done right) or repasting coolers (or similar improvements that improve hardware while looking professional). I far prefer if everything looks and works as it did when first bought

ayandon wrote on 2023-01-04, 08:53:

Last weekend, with the help of my engineer friend, repaired , restored and backup my old PC-XT Motherboard's damaged BIOS and also burnt some few more EEPROMs.

Nice! This past weekend I just used Uniflash and got both of my Gigabyte GA-5SMM SS7 motherboards flashed from Compaq BIOS, to the retail Gigabyte BIOS that enabled a slew of features I didn't have access to before.

Luckily I was able to flash from a booted up motherboard, I assume you used an external programmer, or were you hotswapping BIOS chips? I think I have a compatible NIC card that can use Flashrom, but that just seems really risky to me.

Antieon wrote on 2023-01-04, 14:25:

ayandon wrote on 2023-01-04, 08:53:

Last weekend, with the help of my engineer friend, repaired , restored and backup my old PC-XT Motherboard's damaged BIOS and also burnt some few more EEPROMs.

Nice! This past weekend I just used Uniflash and got both of my Gigabyte GA-5SMM SS7 motherboards flashed from Compaq BIOS, to the retail Gigabyte BIOS that enabled a slew of features I didn't have access to before.

Luckily I was able to flash from a booted up motherboard, I assume you used an external programmer, or were you hotswapping BIOS chips? I think I have a compatible NIC card that can use Flashrom, but that just seems really risky to me.

No, he used his dedicated ROM Burner.
If you look closely, few Pins were either in bad condition or missing!!!

He used his dremel tool to get proper connection, also used a very thin wire as temporary connection.....

Been awhile, but I need somewhat of an outlet, becauuse things have been VERY stressful in general.

My wife has a few *problems* (of the professional help variety, been going on for a couple years now) and has taken to destroying things around my apartment as a part of her *episodes*. Pretty much every Versa has cracks in it now except the P/75 - they all still work. The one that took the most hits was the 40EC, which thankfully I had an entire clean, like-new 40EC enclosure to put it in. The V/50's hinge area is exploded, my M/75 has cracks in it from me traveling around with it - the NanTans came out clean (NanTans are a bit tougher). Moondog took a tumble, one monitor, a DVD/VCR Combo, and one CRT TV are broken, and there's been a lot of fighting and arguing trying to start as of late as a result. I basically, live in hell right now.

So right now I have been slowly, between *episodes* dealing with all the vintage equipment and trying to minimize because I'm looking either getting myself, or getting US the hell out of there since our apartment is a "trigger". Most of these problems came from a neighbor that terrorized her for an entire year (and our shitbox Aparmtent did fuck-all to help due to COVID eviction moratoriums). But that's not vintage stuff. However, the SPACE part of it is. I'm looking at either getting a storage unit, getting that rental house (or one of them), or both.

Did fix up my main 486 desktop for now, as I'm planning to shuffle HDDs again. Seems I can't get bloody U7 to work on anything running FreeDOS, so I'm moving back to MS-DOS for now (sigh). Seems to have something to do with how FreeCOM reports memory management to Ultima 7. Might start just doing up the Laptops with quad-boot Win95/3.11/DOS setups like my M/75 has (which needs the least mending ). Fixed the main 486 desktop up, video card now goes through clearly, and everythings very stable. I also may be selling some more machines vintage and modern as I just got a Surface, another victim was the Lenovo T61 (which still boots but the screen is cracked and the battery case is chipped open). Will pull the HDD from it and throw another drive and likely sell it as a parts unit.

THis really sucks, I got Famicom adapters for my NES for Christmas, I wanted to try obtaining some import carts to mess around with. But finances, family issues, and everything else have been making my life a literal shitshow for the past 2-3 months. I've been working on my website more to escape it all.

creepingnet wrote on 2023-01-04, 20:30:

Been awhile, but I need somewhat of an outlet, becauuse things have been VERY stressful in general. […]
Show full quote

Been awhile, but I need somewhat of an outlet, becauuse things have been VERY stressful in general.

My wife has a few *problems* (of the professional help variety, been going on for a couple years now) and has taken to destroying things around my apartment as a part of her *episodes*. Pretty much every Versa has cracks in it now except the P/75 - they all still work. The one that took the most hits was the 40EC, which thankfully I had an entire clean, like-new 40EC enclosure to put it in. The V/50's hinge area is exploded, my M/75 has cracks in it from me traveling around with it - the NanTans came out clean (NanTans are a bit tougher). Moondog took a tumble, one monitor, a DVD/VCR Combo, and one CRT TV are broken, and there's been a lot of fighting and arguing trying to start as of late as a result. I basically, live in hell right now.

So right now I have been slowly, between *episodes* dealing with all the vintage equipment and trying to minimize because I'm looking either getting myself, or getting US the hell out of there since our apartment is a "trigger". Most of these problems came from a neighbor that terrorized her for an entire year (and our shitbox Aparmtent did fuck-all to help due to COVID eviction moratoriums). But that's not vintage stuff. However, the SPACE part of it is. I'm looking at either getting a storage unit, getting that rental house (or one of them), or both.

Did fix up my main 486 desktop for now, as I'm planning to shuffle HDDs again. Seems I can't get bloody U7 to work on anything running FreeDOS, so I'm moving back to MS-DOS for now (sigh). Seems to have something to do with how FreeCOM reports memory management to Ultima 7. Might start just doing up the Laptops with quad-boot Win95/3.11/DOS setups like my M/75 has (which needs the least mending ). Fixed the main 486 desktop up, video card now goes through clearly, and everythings very stable. I also may be selling some more machines vintage and modern as I just got a Surface, another victim was the Lenovo T61 (which still boots but the screen is cracked and the battery case is chipped open). Will pull the HDD from it and throw another drive and likely sell it as a parts unit.

THis really sucks, I got Famicom adapters for my NES for Christmas, I wanted to try obtaining some import carts to mess around with. But finances, family issues, and everything else have been making my life a literal shitshow for the past 2-3 months. I've been working on my website more to escape it all.

Darn dude. Work on yourself and take the red pill. That's all I can advise