My current rant is that I am away on a work trip and have multiple packages waiting for me at home, including a huge close to 70 lb lot of motherboards, cards, RAM and CPUs....... I'm gonna have some fun this weekend though... unless the wifey kills me that is.
I'm testing/fiddling with some 440LX motherboards, some of which support Coppermine voltages and some which don't.
One of my CPUs is a Celeron 700/66. I'm using a slocket to set the VID to 1.8V where needed.
I just misaligned the jumpers and set it for 3.3V.
After correction, it runs enough to make a few POST codes but it doesn't display video.
Doing the same thing too many times leads to carelessness.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-06-09, 17:24:I'm mostly annoyed by blurry pictures which often don't show the true state of the hardware (bulged capacitors and such).
You can always request better pictures and other details. I always ask if there's scratches or other problems. Of course, the response is not always honest, but most of the times I get enough hints.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-06-09, 17:24:Also, people selling untested hardware and still demanding ridiculous prices for it.
So? Is anyone forcing you to buy? I'm seeing this very often lately, especially for 3dfx cards, people trying to sell cards that they have no idea if they work for huge amounts of money. They are clearly not collecting, they probably got the card for free (or very cheap) and they think they can make some money. It's easy, ignore them. If we all ignore them (and I mean ignore, not message that it's too expensive or if they are willing to discuss the price), then they'll realise that the price is too big and that they don't have some holy grail of hardware.
RaverX wrote on 2020-07-21, 11:20:You can always request better pictures and other details. I always ask if there's scratches or other problems. Of course, the response is not always honest, but most of the times I get enough hints.
Depends on the seller. Some actually do send you higher quality photos when asked, but a lot the times I got something along the lines of "the item is in storage, I can't take a photo right now" and then never following up when asked again. Or just no response at all.
It's easy, ignore them. If we all ignore them (and I mean ignore, not message that it's too expensive or if they are willing to discuss the price), then they'll realise that the price is too big and that they don't have some holy grail of hardware.
It's pretty much what I do. Doesn't change the fact that seeing such offers irritates me. And this is a rant thread after all.
RaverX wrote on 2020-07-21, 11:20:So? Is anyone forcing you to buy? I'm seeing this very often lately, especially for 3dfx cards, people trying to sell cards that they have no idea if they work for huge amounts of money. They are clearly not collecting, they probably got the card for free (or very cheap) and they think they can make some money. It's easy, ignore them. If we all ignore them (and I mean ignore, not message that it's too expensive or if they are willing to discuss the price), then they'll realise that the price is too big and that they don't have some holy grail of hardware.
just ignoring them doesn't make the listings go away though, and if there is a large amount of overpriced listings for untested/not working hardware, other listings will adjust to those prices too sooner or later... sure, most of it probably won't sell anyways, but still.
imi wrote on 2020-07-21, 11:51:sure, most of it probably won't sell anyways, but still.
On our local auction site you can't even block sellers so you have to scroll through heaps and heaps of overpriced hardware. I keep seeing the same items and I can't even hide them.
One seller has fantastic things but his prices are so high that even the prince of Monaco would ask for a discount. Most of those are on sale since the beginning of 2019 but his prices remain the same. Out of the 20 pages of retro hardware 15 pages are dedicated to severely overpriced crap and I have to watch them every single time because they keep getting renewed and I can't block sellers. Annoying.
shamino wrote on 2020-07-21, 10:16:I'm testing/fiddling with some 440LX motherboards, some of which support Coppermine voltages and some which don't. One of my CPU […]
I'm testing/fiddling with some 440LX motherboards, some of which support Coppermine voltages and some which don't.
One of my CPUs is a Celeron 700/66. I'm using a slocket to set the VID to 1.8V where needed.
I just misaligned the jumpers and set it for 3.3V.
After correction, it runs enough to make a few POST codes but it doesn't display video.Doing the same thing too many times leads to carelessness.
And it's still alive, somehow. It's like the motherboard went into shock or something, but after a lot of swapping around CPUs and reseating them about 15 times, it started booting again.
The Coppermine Celeron that got slammed with 3.3V earlier is now running Prime95, and passing.
Miphee wrote on 2020-07-21, 12:03:Out of the 20 pages of retro hardware 15 pages are dedicated to severely overpriced crap and I have to watch them every single time because they keep getting renewed and I can't block sellers. Annoying.
yep, I had to adjust my general ebay searches with price limits lately, because the same listings keep popping up over and over that haven't sold since a year... just generic ISA cards listed for 50-100€
shamino wrote on 2020-07-21, 12:14:And it's still alive, somehow. It's like the motherboard went into shock or something, but after a lot of swapping around CPUs and reseating them about 15 times, it started booting again.
The Coppermine Celeron that got slammed with 3.3V earlier is now running Prime95, and passing.
it's aliiive! x3
shamino wrote on 2020-07-21, 12:14:And it's still alive, somehow.
Overshoot protection did it's job but it severely reduces the lifespan of the CPU (it can only compensate for a few nanoseconds of overshoot pulses). If it happens a few more times the CPU dies.
It could have been a lot worse. The other 2 CPUs I've been using on that slocket recently are a Mendocino 533MHz and a Coppermine Celeron 1100MHz. Both of those are fastest of their breed and would have been a lot more expensive to replace. If I'd killed one of those, I'd be ranting a lot more. 😀
A Celeron 700/66 is nothing special, except maybe for 440LX boards (if not for the issue I'm trying to troubleshoot, anyway).
I'm thinking about modifying that slocket adapter. The high-order VID signal should be locked into the sane region, which maxes out at 2.05V. That's as much Vcore as I ever expect to want, and it's a lot safer.
In the meantime I'm just putting a red jumper on it and hoping I'll pay careful attention to it in the future.
shamino wrote on 2020-07-21, 13:18:It could have been a lot worse. The other 2 CPUs I've been using on that slocket recently are a Mendocino 533MHz and a Coppermi […]
It could have been a lot worse. The other 2 CPUs I've been using on that slocket recently are a Mendocino 533MHz and a Coppermine Celeron 1100MHz. Both of those are fastest of their breed and would have been a lot more expensive to replace. If I'd killed one of those, I'd be ranting a lot more. 😀
A Celeron 700/66 is nothing special, except maybe for 440LX boards (if not for the issue I'm trying to troubleshoot, anyway).I'm thinking about modifying that slocket adapter. The high-order VID signal should be locked into the sane region, which maxes out at 2.05V. That's as much Vcore as I ever expect to want, and it's a lot safer.
In the meantime I'm just putting a red jumper on it and hoping I'll pay careful attention to it in the future.
Doesn't your slotket have an Auto voltage setting? That should work regardless of your vrm type.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-07-21, 11:48:Depends on the seller. Some actually do send you higher quality photos when asked, but a lot the times I got something along the lines of "the item is in storage, I can't take a photo right now" and then never following up when asked again. Or just no response at all.
Then it's simple, you don't buy it.
And I understand the frustration, but, since you can't do much about it, it's better to ignore it.
imi wrote on 2020-07-21, 11:51:just ignoring them doesn't make the listings go away though, and if there is a large amount of overpriced listings for untested/not working hardware, other listings will adjust to those prices too sooner or later... sure, most of it probably won't sell anyways, but still.
That's true, but again, if nobody buys at those prices, what's the problem? OK, those items won't get to collector's, but that's all.
And if some buy at those huge prices... again, there's nothing you can do.
I had a funny experience, a while ago I spotted a S3 Savage4, nothing special, the card looks normal, but I liked it and it was priced decent. I asked the seller if he can send it, he said yes. I gave him the address, then waited. Nothing happened for a week, I sent him another message asking if he sent the card. He said he forgot and asked me if I still want it. I said yes. Then nothing. The card is still listed (after a few months have passed). What can I say? Some people are weird, some are plain stupid, again, there's nothing that can be done.
I literally just told you what the problem is ^^
if there's a vast amount of listings with "untested" hardware at high prices most people who are going to list something similar will use those prices as a guideline, heck people are even using prices of mint condition stuff in packaging that is tested and working as guideline for their untested stuff ^^
... and then they're going to wonder why it doesn't sell... or they happen to accidentally have something that's actually worth that much and sell it, and then in turn thing everything else that's "old" is worth that much as well
Oetker wrote on 2020-07-21, 16:24:shamino wrote on 2020-07-21, 13:18:It could have been a lot worse. The other 2 CPUs I've been using on that slocket recently are a Mendocino 533MHz and a Coppermi […]
It could have been a lot worse. The other 2 CPUs I've been using on that slocket recently are a Mendocino 533MHz and a Coppermine Celeron 1100MHz. Both of those are fastest of their breed and would have been a lot more expensive to replace. If I'd killed one of those, I'd be ranting a lot more. 😀
A Celeron 700/66 is nothing special, except maybe for 440LX boards (if not for the issue I'm trying to troubleshoot, anyway).I'm thinking about modifying that slocket adapter. The high-order VID signal should be locked into the sane region, which maxes out at 2.05V. That's as much Vcore as I ever expect to want, and it's a lot safer.
In the meantime I'm just putting a red jumper on it and hoping I'll pay careful attention to it in the future.Doesn't your slotket have an Auto voltage setting? That should work regardless of your vrm type.
Auto passes through the signals on the VID pins from the CPU. If the CPU calls for 1.65V and the slocket is set to Auto then it will pass that through, even if the VRM doesn't support below 1.8V. In that event, it won't work.
Typically the VRM controller will disable it's output when it detects an unsupported VID. Theoretically, on a badly designed board or a knockoff controller IC, some undefined behavior could occur.
imi wrote on 2020-07-21, 19:08:I literally just told you what the problem is ^^
if there's a vast amount of listings with "untested" hardware at high prices most people who are going to list something similar will use those prices as a guideline, heck people are even using prices of mint condition stuff in packaging that is tested and working as guideline for their untested stuff ^^
... and then they're going to wonder why it doesn't sell... or they happen to accidentally have something that's actually worth that much and sell it, and then in turn thing everything else that's "old" is worth that much as well
As an eBay seller, I can assure you that competition does not raise prices. Quite the opposite.
I used to get much better margins on stuff when there were less people selling them.
There can be a lot of spammy noise in search results though. Being willing to sort through all that noise can lead to finding good deals, but it takes time.
it's not about competition, it's about people not knowing what something is worth and having to search for other auctions as a guideline what to ask for an item... and if they see 10 listings with a $100 pricetag, they're going to list it for that too most of the time, then there is just one more listing with too high of a pricetag and the circle continues.
if there were instead no listings because the item would have been listed for reasonable prices and actually sold, they'd have to check under sold listings instead, or would simply find other listings with lower reasonable prices and use those as a guideline.
it's quite simple really.
of course if multiple of the same items are listed as auction or for actual reasonable prices (as in actual competition going on) it is better, yes, because if I for example have already found what I'm looking for, I'm unlikely to bid on another so the next person gets the chance without the same people outbidding each other.
The real problem (which I feel like I mentioned in this same thread ages ago) is when people who aren't on eBay punch in whatever their computer is, see some pants on head crazy listing, and then put their computer up on Craigslist at that price. And probably when it doesn't sell after a while, rather than "taking a loss on their investment", it rots somewhere until it's now damaged beyond repair by battery/capacitor leakage and rust.
One thing I really don't get are people that enable the "price proposal" option on eBay, but then act super weird when I actually use it.
I wanted to buy a piece of hardware a while ago and made a reasonable offer to the seller and then he counter-offered with one measly Euro less than the original price.
Why even use this feature if you're just virtually spitting into people's faces then? 😁 That's really weird.
Sometimes I even get a message like "Sorry I'm not willing to offer it for less than I've listed it".
Maybe these people are clueless and don't know how to disable the option or they just want to mess with people out of pure ego...
It's been mentioned a lot already, prices are getting ridiculous on eBay. Not all of it can be blamed on the YouTuber's, though.
For example: I bought an Abit VH6T just because I was googling for "the best Tualatin motherboard" and I landed here on Vogons.
This forum seems like THE place for getting the best knowledge about retro hardware and I think that might drive up some prices, too.
BTW, I got mine for a few bucks because the caps were visibly blown and the seller didn't want to rip me off. That was over a year ago - now when I take a look there are two offers for 150$ where I'd also have to replace the caps. That is just crazy - if I slip and destroy the board that money just goes down the drain. Way too much of a risk.
Yeah, prices have gotten quite high for some things.
With the increased interest in retro/vintage computers it is not all that surprising.
I bet some of it has to do with the reduced availability because there are those of us who have a horde of parts that we need to go through and sell most of them.
I have had people come back with a counter-offer that is only a tiny bit less than what the original asking price was.... seems silly to me.
When I am selling I usually enable the best offer option as well. But I also don't generally list an item for a whole lot more than the minimum I would accept for it either. So if I am selling something for say $50, don't expect me to accept $40 for it, especially when I am offering free domestic shipping. I know what I am selling and what I should reasonably be able to get for it.
What is interesting is that a lot of time when I watch items, I will get offers from the seller for anywhere from about 10% off to 25% off. Guess they are hoping somebody will buy it at the asking price.
The last card I bought recently, the original asking price was $150 or higher.... I had been watching it for I think around a month and then it was lowered to $90. Then I got an offer form the seller for another $20 off so I took it. Shipping was from overseas so the shipping was of course kind of high. Figured since it was pretty much a one of a kind card (no pictures or other information I could find online) I would buy it.. now just waiting for it to get here.
So my rant is.... why am I so attracted to insanely rare cards? I'm not even sure I will use it besides testing it out.... bleh.
cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-22, 18:28:What is interesting is that a lot of time when I watch items, I will get offers from the seller for anywhere from about 10% off to 25% off.
I've noticed that recently, too.
Sometimes I just leave items on my watchlist for months, because either I don't really need them right now (just a nice to have) or I periodically look for some better offers and having them on my watchlists makes sure I don't forget about wanting them in the first place. 😁
If no one else buys them, I often get pretty good offers after a while. I'm not complaining, that's actually a very good system! 😀
I've stopped selling on eBay, though - it's just SO much of a hassle. People arguing about petty things or claiming the item is broken etc. Last time I sold a motherboard I extensively tested it out, made pictures of it in a working state, packed it up like it was a nuclear missile and three weeks after I shipped it the seller suddenly wrote to me "Yeah well I've installed it and it doesn't work". Yeah, sure buddy - and you just happen to notice this weeks after you've received it?
I told him the item was fine and sent some pictures as proof and nothing happened. Guess it magically worked after all.
Things like these happen way too often - people arguing about minor scratches on items many decades old or flaws that were clearly mentioned in the listing...I'm not putting up with that anymore. I'd rather give away some stuff as a present than having to deal with that.
