aspiringnobody wrote on 2025-10-07, 04:18:

My upgraded V2 found its forever home today!

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Nice! What are the specs?

I was going to try fixing up some 40 year old PCB from a car, but there is something weird about it. Unsoldering a component released some unusually unpleasant fumes, and I found that the old solder joints repelled any attempt to add new solder which would just ball up and roll away. Can't remember having this problem before.

Recapped this VIBRA16 sound card.

Asus A6R: I didn't think it would be such a great retro, I liked it, it's good that my friend called to ask if it was necessary, or he would throw it away.
I plugged it into the test bench monitor via DSub, so it fits FHD as needed, and now fulltrack/3DM99:

Under DOS I knew it would bite:

SBEmu - sound is also ok:

I haven't tried the LPT and PCMCIA ports. SD reader ok. DVDRW ok - IDE interface.
Perfect working and nice condition, good thing it didn't end up in the trash.

bakemono wrote on 2025-10-07, 07:51:

I was going to try fixing up some 40 year old PCB from a car, but there is something weird about it. Unsoldering a component released some unusually unpleasant fumes, and I found that the old solder joints repelled any attempt to add new solder which would just ball up and roll away. Can't remember having this problem before.

I am gonna guess the board is maybe a phenolic type which when overheated gets a bit formaldehyde-y. Then the solder might be a low tin, maybe even silver solder which is higher temperature and doesn't form tin whiskers in low temperatures. Might have to look out SAE or military specs for solder from that era. I remember also that GM somehow managed to make some PCBs in the late 80s that had steel leads on some components and steel bus bars, some of which were rivetted and welded to each other rather than soldered. So test with magnet that you're not trying to desolder a weld, and if it's broke, you may need a different flux to put solder on it, cooking oil may work.

DarthSun wrote on 2025-10-07, 10:47:

Asus A6R: I didn't think it would be such a great retro, I liked it, it's good that my friend called to ask if it was necessary, or he would throw it away.

You should be able to upgrade the cpu to a T7200 or some sort of Merom-2M of for less than 5€, it may be worth it especially considering the notebook looks practically brand new.
Don't bother with high end stuff (T7400 or higher) as they cost way too much for what they are and the single channel memory controller would hold it back somewhat.
Even if you use it only for single threaded programs, you get more cache, speedstep and better IPC. Just upgrade the bios first.

andrea wrote on 2025-10-07, 18:35:

You should be able to upgrade the cpu to a T7200 or some sort of Merom-2M of for less than 5€, it may be worth it especially con […]
Show full quote

DarthSun wrote on 2025-10-07, 10:47:

Asus A6R: I didn't think it would be such a great retro, I liked it, it's good that my friend called to ask if it was necessary, or he would throw it away.

You should be able to upgrade the cpu to a T7200 or some sort of Merom-2M of for less than 5€, it may be worth it especially considering the notebook looks practically brand new.
Don't bother with high end stuff (T7400 or higher) as they cost way too much for what they are and the single channel memory controller would hold it back somewhat.
Even if you use it only for single threaded programs, you get more cache, speedstep and better IPC. Just upgrade the bios first.

Thanks for the info! I think I have all kinds of models in my CPU collection. There are 1000 of them at the moment. I don't even have to spend money on expansion 😀

andrea wrote on 2025-10-07, 18:35:

You should be able to upgrade the cpu to a T7200 or some sort of Merom-2M of for less than 5€, it may be worth it especially con […]
Show full quote

DarthSun wrote on 2025-10-07, 10:47:

Asus A6R: I didn't think it would be such a great retro, I liked it, it's good that my friend called to ask if it was necessary, or he would throw it away.

You should be able to upgrade the cpu to a T7200 or some sort of Merom-2M of for less than 5€, it may be worth it especially considering the notebook looks practically brand new.
Don't bother with high end stuff (T7400 or higher) as they cost way too much for what they are and the single channel memory controller would hold it back somewhat.
Even if you use it only for single threaded programs, you get more cache, speedstep and better IPC. Just upgrade the bios first.

The ones I've tried the 400fsb ones pin to 533 real easy and don't seem to overheat as long as the cooling system kept clean, maybe copper shimmed instead of pads too.

Locutus wrote on 2025-10-06, 23:31:

aspiringnobody wrote on 2025-10-04, 05:22:

Today I upgraded an 8MB Voodoo 2 to a 12MB Voodoo 2. Always a challenge with the tight spaces between chips but usually worth it!

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Were did you buy RAM chips ?
I'm planning to the same with my card.

I've done the same modification a few years ago, you can still easily source these chips online, both on ebay and on aliexpress: M11B416256A
My post on upgrading the card from a long time ago: Re: Voodoo2 8 to 12MB RAM upgrade - is it really that straightforward?

DarthSun wrote on 2025-10-07, 10:57:

Under DOS I knew it would bite: […]
Show full quote

Under DOS I knew it would bite:

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SBEmu - sound is also ok:

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I haven't tried the LPT and PCMCIA ports. SD reader ok. DVDRW ok - IDE interface.
Perfect working and nice condition, good thing it didn't end up in the trash.

Very lucky that it's behaving well with SBEMU, that makes this a pretty good one for retro gaming now 😀
Compatibility with SBEMU on various AC97 laptops seems to have worse odds than roulette for me.

The Apogee Voxel Pack. All the heroes and villains of the company universe are represented as a voxel pack, from BJ to Snake Logan and even Talon Brave from the 90s Prey game.

https://www.moddb.com/games/duke-nukem-3d/add … apogee-vox-pack

TheChexWarrior wrote on 2025-10-08, 04:58:

The Apogee Voxel Pack. All the heroes and villains of the company universe are represented as a voxel pack, from BJ to Snake Logan and even Talon Brave from the 90s Prey game.

I recognize most of them, but not all. 😀

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-10-07, 07:45:

aspiringnobody wrote on 2025-10-07, 04:18:

My upgraded V2 found its forever home today!

The attachment IMG_7765.jpeg is no longer available

Nice! What are the specs?

It's a P3-1.4GHz on a VC820 board. 1GB of RDRAM with a Radeon 9800 XT as the non-3Dfx GPU.

The most useless activity - stripping off DALLAS :]

Locutus wrote on 2025-10-08, 12:37:

The most useless activity - stripping off DALLAS :]

I would rather drill it.

Locutus wrote on 2025-10-08, 12:37:

The most useless activity - stripping off DALLAS :]

That is a really clean result ~
Such a simple solution inside 🤣

I found a great bargain very close by on Facebook Marketplace 4 boxes for $20, and I noticed one had the Soundblaster front panel, wanted one of these for ages! turned out to be an Audigy 2 ZS!
So what do you, make a video about it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcI2DKo2hYI

RetroBus wrote on 2025-10-08, 23:15:

I found a great bargain very close by on Facebook Marketplace 4 boxes for $20, and I noticed one had the Soundblaster front panel, wanted one of these for ages! turned out to be an Audigy 2 ZS!
So what do you, make a video about it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcI2DKo2hYI

No video, just photos, two with Audigy 2 ZS Pro external drive.

Oh Wow! Thats awesome! puts my find to shame 🤣. Those bigger external ones must be even rarer these days, I think I have only ever seen one on marketplace

RetroBus wrote on 2025-10-09, 02:31:

Oh Wow! Thats awesome! puts my find to shame 🤣. Those bigger external ones must be even rarer these days, I think I have only ever seen one on marketplace

I bought it a long time ago. On an online marketplace here. I found a photo after the purchase.