I recapped floppy drive for my recently acquired IBM PS/2 model 35 SX. It wasn’t reading disks, so repairs was needed.

Here is the image of some caps (there are two more right of the motor) and they were all leaking. Gladly no major corrosion to other components or traces:

Important thing to note for anyone recapping this Alps drive: three capacitors next to motor are bi-polar/non-polar.

Final testing:

Now onwards with the project, as system is pretty much working 100% now 🙂

Got my hyper super non-PCI 486 properly configured with all caches in WB mode.
Post is here: Re: ABIT AB-AH4 / AB-AH4T Write Back L1 Cache

That's a beast that steps well onto lower pentiums' heels. 😉

I bought a GeForce 5950 Ultra 256MB, which was listed as "untested". I set it up on my test bench today and found that it works just fine, albeit with some very crunchy bearings on one of the fans.

https://youtu.be/Ckxrrg-AuKk

Good luck replacing that fan 😜

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-05, 05:51:

I bought a GeForce 5950 Ultra 256MB, which was listed as "untested". I set it up on my test bench today and found that it works just fine, albeit with some very crunchy bearings on one of the fans.

https://youtu.be/Ckxrrg-AuKk

Screenshot_20230305-005223_Gallery.jpg

Wow, a working one is quite a find! A few years ago I was finding 5950 Ultras somewhat regularly... now not so much. That particular cooler is known for having horrible fans though. It is an absolute *nightmare* to disassemble as well. I spent a while trying to take one of those apart to get to the fan, and ended up getting covered in a horribly messy conglomeration of white thermal paste and some stringy mesh-like material found on every memory chip. I can't remember if I was ever able to oil the fan... and afterward I had to figure out how to replace all that gunk to keep the memory cool.

It's just a terrible design that was clearly not built with longevity or repairability in mind. Sadly, because it has two small offset fans it is unlikely you'll be able to cool it with a simple blower fan in the slot below it... there just isn't enough of an opening.

I think the best way to handle one of these would be to take a hole-saw to the cover, make one big opening and attach a modern slim 80mm fan to it. It may not help with the collector value but it's better than killing one with heat when one or both of the fans seize up eventually. If I ever find one with a cooler that's pretty trashed, I will seriously consider doing this to it.

Finished my video on my £2 PC purchase: https://youtu.be/HuzksYGsycA

Also decided 1am was the perfect time to test another recent PC pickup and after swapping the PSU it worked great. The original PSU may well work but I have never held such a light one. It literally feels empty!
Works great and found the cpu to be a core2duo E6550 with 2gb ram and a GTS 250 1gb. With a fairly nice late 2000s case I am very happy with it for £10.

2nd day of the extended vintage market. Today was just as cold as yesterday, but at the same time the market itself was much bigger. A lot of interesting things, not much I can't live without.

BUT! I finally had a score.

Found it for 13.20€, haggled it down to 7.90.

I am pronouncing sentence on one of two Asus P2B boards...

They both arrived in a scrap lot years ago, both had BIOS, MOSFETs and voltage chip removed already, there is a possibility that some other major part fried, leading to them being cannibalized for other boards. Ergo, even if voltage controller, MOSFETs and BIOS replaced they may not be functional. So, is either of them rare or desirable enough that that doesn't even matter? One is a Rev 1.01 and the other a Rev 1.10 ... on the one hand I'm thinking. "Dismember the 1.01 it don't support crap" and on the other "Well the 1.10 isn't all that great, and the 1.01 might be the most collectible because it's early board of famous line"

So, I repeat, they are already in Norwegian Blue mode, less the plumage and flesh, dead by being shot, hung, electrocuted, drowned and bleeding out, and I'm wondering if even after all that, there is a reason I should not dismember one of them. One of them is going to the chopping block for parts, this prioritizes getting the parts cleanly and damages PCB.

Thumbs up or down for 1.01 ? Thumbs up or down for 1.10 ?

edit: pic here if you want to look at/pay last respects to the condemned. Re: Flying Dutchmen, White Whales, the ghost HW that eludes you, lost & found. and Re: Asus P2B Motherboard: No support for PIII?

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-03-05, 10:01:

2nd day of the extended vintage market. Today was just as cold as yesterday, but at the same time the market itself was much bigger. A lot of interesting things, not much I can't live without.

Nice find! Is that communazi market?

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-05, 18:16:

I am pronouncing sentence on one of two Asus P2B boards... […]
Show full quote

I am pronouncing sentence on one of two Asus P2B boards...

They both arrived in a scrap lot years ago, both had BIOS, MOSFETs and voltage chip removed already, there is a possibility that some other major part fried, leading to them being cannibalized for other boards. Ergo, even if voltage controller, MOSFETs and BIOS replaced they may not be functional. So, is either of them rare or desirable enough that that doesn't even matter? One is a Rev 1.01 and the other a Rev 1.10 ... on the one hand I'm thinking. "Dismember the 1.01 it don't support crap" and on the other "Well the 1.10 isn't all that great, and the 1.01 might be the most collectible because it's early board of famous line"

So, I repeat, they are already in Norwegian Blue mode, less the plumage and flesh, dead by being shot, hung, electrocuted, drowned and bleeding out, and I'm wondering if even after all that, there is a reason I should not dismember one of them. One of them is going to the chopping block for parts, this prioritizes getting the parts cleanly and damages PCB.

Thumbs up or down for 1.01 ? Thumbs up or down for 1.10 ?

edit: pic here if you want to look at/pay last respects to the condemned. Re: Flying Dutchmen, White Whales, the ghost HW that eludes you, lost & found. and Re: Asus P2B Motherboard: No support for PIII?

I'd save the later version if both are already damaged. The later board will have improvements that increase its reliability, and likely has less hours on it as someone who invested earlier into the platform is more likely to have ran the system into the ground due to higher cost sunk already.

The way I see it, they aren't making more Slot 1 motherboards. They are making new mosfets and voltage regulators every day at a 100 different factories in china. Its worth putting the parts on the board.

pan069 wrote on 2023-03-05, 19:14:

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-03-05, 10:01:

2nd day of the extended vintage market. Today was just as cold as yesterday, but at the same time the market itself was much bigger. A lot of interesting things, not much I can't live without.

Nice find! Is that communazi market?

Yup. And there was plenty of that stuff too. This time it was mostly commie with a lot of Lenin portraits and busts. Some Hitler too, but not that many.

One thing I forgot to mention that the game seller didn't bring the games, but we exchanged phone numbers so maybe at a later date I can browse through what he has.

Also does anyone know where can I buy 30pin SIMM slots? The RAM retention clips on one of the slots of the SB32 are broken.

Finished cleaning and reassembling the case and internals of the HP Vectra, still works after putting it back together, so that's great! I'm always nervous to fire up an old system after giving everything a good cleaning. I brushed all the PCBs with electronics cleaner, opened up the PSU and blew out all the dust, and gave the metal chassis a "shower." It's cherry again and ready for action.

One thing I'm not a fan of, the riser board not having any retention mechanism on the expansion cards. Seems kind of thoughtless on the part of the case designers.

L

L

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-03-05, 19:32:

Also does anyone know where can I buy 30pin SIMM slots? The RAM retention clips on one of the slots of the SB32 are broken.

Found some on eBay [1], pricey... With a bit of digging you can probably find a better deal elsewhere, or salvage/source from a defected card or component.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324776752435

pan069 wrote on 2023-03-05, 21:16:

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-03-05, 19:32:

Also does anyone know where can I buy 30pin SIMM slots? The RAM retention clips on one of the slots of the SB32 are broken.

Found some on eBay [1], pricey... With a bit of digging you can probably find a better deal elsewhere, or salvage/source from a defected card or component.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324776752435

I've seen those too, but with import costs it'd come out to around $46.50.

It's retro related, so ehh.
Working hard to restore my Sony DXC-M3a 3 tube camera to functional condition. Recapped 2 of 8 boards so far, 82 capacitors. There were a few leakers I caught just in time before they started to rot the board.
The camera itself was built to be repairable, you just need really steady hands because of all the smd parts that surround the through-holes on the backside.
*Knock on wood* the tubes test fine, so I just need to press on.

This is what it's outputting if anyone wanted to see. The red channel is completely dead, even though the red tube was found to be operating correctly.

The camera has mostly been gutted as I work on the boards inside.

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-03-05, 19:32:

Also does anyone know where can I buy 30pin SIMM slots? The RAM retention clips on one of the slots of the SB32 are broken.

I remember stumbling upon some website that carried all kinds of new old stock vintage stuff like this, but I can't recall its name. It had a lot of things that were not listed on eBay. See if you can locate it for a better deal.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-06, 07:32:

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-03-05, 19:32:

Also does anyone know where can I buy 30pin SIMM slots? The RAM retention clips on one of the slots of the SB32 are broken.

I remember stumbling upon some website that carried all kinds of new old stock vintage stuff like this, but I can't recall its name. It had a lot of things that were not listed on eBay. See if you can locate it for a better deal.

This one. 😀
https://www.peconnectors.com/sockets-pga-cpu-and-memory/

I've never purchased from them, but the selection boggles my mind. Feels like being teleported back in time to the mid to late 90s... except, back then I was a kid and was only interested in games and video cards and would not have cared at all about slots and sockets. 🤣

Debugged my ISA-Bus with a multimeter. Didn't help my problem in the end even though I found a short but I learned something which is nice as well. And I went back to a trusted Aztech MM Pro16 ABI and threw out the Soundblaster16. My FIC PIO-2 and the SB hate each other so very much that I cannot get a usable IRQ/DMA config with the SB to have any sound.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-06, 08:08:

This one. :) https://www.peconnectors.com/sockets-pga-cpu-and-memory/ […]
Show full quote

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-06, 07:32:

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-03-05, 19:32:

Also does anyone know where can I buy 30pin SIMM slots? The RAM retention clips on one of the slots of the SB32 are broken.

I remember stumbling upon some website that carried all kinds of new old stock vintage stuff like this, but I can't recall its name. It had a lot of things that were not listed on eBay. See if you can locate it for a better deal.

This one. 😀
https://www.peconnectors.com/sockets-pga-cpu-and-memory/

I've never purchased from them, but the selection boggles my mind. Feels like being teleported back in time to the mid to late 90s... except, back then I was a kid and was only interested in games and video cards and would not have cared at all about slots and sockets. 🤣

Yay, that's the place I found a year and a half ago, but couldn't re-google or dig up the thread where I posted. I was needing stuff also. Gotta write me a big list....

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-06, 08:08:

This one. :) https://www.peconnectors.com/sockets-pga-cpu-and-memory/ […]
Show full quote

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-06, 07:32:

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-03-05, 19:32:

Also does anyone know where can I buy 30pin SIMM slots? The RAM retention clips on one of the slots of the SB32 are broken.

I remember stumbling upon some website that carried all kinds of new old stock vintage stuff like this, but I can't recall its name. It had a lot of things that were not listed on eBay. See if you can locate it for a better deal.

This one. 😀
https://www.peconnectors.com/sockets-pga-cpu-and-memory/

I've never purchased from them, but the selection boggles my mind. Feels like being teleported back in time to the mid to late 90s... except, back then I was a kid and was only interested in games and video cards and would not have cared at all about slots and sockets. 🤣

That's the one!