Eyeing up 16v 1500uF rubycon cap on kt600 with faulty agp slot to replace bulging cap on neo2 platinum

DerBaum, that looks professional. Very nice job

Did some cleaning on my PS2 and Xbox360.

Moreover, after updating Arch Linux on my Pentium 4 build (dual booted with Windows XP), I finally discovered a lightweight browser which does not hang the PC and can display modern web pages properly: Falkon by KDE

smtkr wrote on 2023-10-13, 23:44:

DerBaum, that looks professional. Very nice job

Thanks.

Already working on the next one 😁

At the moment i reroute the cables, do some small fixes and make it look nice from the inside.

Connected my socket 4 p60 system to my omniview se kvm switch..

I moved my 3DFX configuration to a new AT case with an AT PSU, Upgrade to Pentium III 600EB from Celeron 300A, and also installed a USB bracket but I'm not getting any display on my monitor since I made these upgrades.
Manual says it supports coppermine CPUs from 500Mhz-733Mhz, there is a 3pin jumper on the board to set FSB to 66/100.
This is the motherboard:
The config: Acorp 6VIA/ZX85 ver 1.3 board, Intel Pentium III 600EB (SL3XT) CPU, 128MB SDRAM@133Mhz, Voodoo 3 2000 AGP, AT 200 Watt PSU, 1x IDE HDD, 2x ODD.

This is the motherboard: https://theretroweb.com/motherboard/image/6vi … ca448558803.jpg

Does it run if you force it to 100FSB? Other users have reported no start with 133FSB set.

It does not post with 100 FSB force I will try some tweaks tomorrow: unplug usb, odds, I might try a bigger ATX PSU and a pci vga.

Built a system using the otherwise empty Node 202 that I've been using as monitor stand for the past little bit.

Overall, really happy with this lil guy. I decided to stick to DOS 6.22 for this one, but man - it's been a while since I've tried to live without FAT32 and I'm just not sure its worth it. Hmmm.

You just have to make strnuous efforts to keep your filenams constrnd to 8 charctrs.

Doggy wrote on 2023-10-14, 20:42:

I moved my 3DFX configuration to a new AT case with an AT PSU, Upgrade to Pentium III 600EB from Celeron 300A, and also installe […]
Show full quote

I moved my 3DFX configuration to a new AT case with an AT PSU, Upgrade to Pentium III 600EB from Celeron 300A, and also installed a USB bracket but I'm not getting any display on my monitor since I made these upgrades.
Manual says it supports coppermine CPUs from 500Mhz-733Mhz, there is a 3pin jumper on the board to set FSB to 66/100.
This is the motherboard:
The config: Acorp 6VIA/ZX85 ver 1.3 board, Intel Pentium III 600EB (SL3XT) CPU, 128MB SDRAM@133Mhz, Voodoo 3 2000 AGP, AT 200 Watt PSU, 1x IDE HDD, 2x ODD.

This is the motherboard: https://theretroweb.com/motherboard/image/6vi … ca448558803.jpg

I'm looking at that picture, and it looks like a VIA Apollo Pro Plus chipset, which doesn't support 133MHz FSB. Not sure if there's a way to get it to post at a lower FSB, but that northbridge might be the issue here. It looks like the 1.9 variant has the apollo pro 133.

Booted up my 775i65g rev 3.0 board w/ E5800 and this time just for lulz put in the PCI128 soundcard. Lo and behold, no hanging note when playing MIDI files via my SC-55... so all these soundblaster live!, audigy 2zs, CMI8738 and aureal vortex's gave me issues with hanging note on systems newer than kt400 and now this little card doesnt have that issue on lga775. i need to stock up on pci128

Today I realised that I'm never going to find a spare Tseng ET4000/W32P chip available and I have to use what I have. I bought a broken Genoa Phantom 32i 8900VL card, probably from someone on here 😀
It started out looking like this:

Now it looks like this:

It's had a bad time. This is my second attempt, the first was a few months ago with the dremel and using enamel wire I rebuilt the missing chip legs. It didn't work and just made some noise on the display when I tested it so it went back in the box.
A few months later I thought I had sourced an undamaged chip but no, I had mis-remembered and bought a TC6167HF. This is a TC6169HF - not compatible at all and the pin counts are very different, but I guess this means I can test them both now heh. The TC6167HF is attached to a compaq 486 motherboard that I bought as scrap and it's rusty on the ports area, but works just fine after reinstalling one missing jumper and straightening 2 chip legs.

So today I had another go at installing this chip, pulled it off the card again and removed all my original leg repair wires. Took it slower this time and used the microscope to re-align all the chip legs as they were all over the place last time. This time around instead of using enamel wire, I've used single strands of bare copper wire from a mains cable. Much easier to work with and this time the card booted up with no graphical glitches, that is awesome.
It could only see 512KB of its 1MB of RAM though, briefly checked some of the important data pins and thought to use the thermal cam to check for a short or...

Thermal cam ftw 😁 The SOJ ram in the lower right, its VCC pin was no longer connected to the board and was probably bashed off the same time this ET4000/W32P chip originally got dislodged, soldered that back on and now it can see not 1, but 2MB of RAM (borrowed). I'm so glad, I wasn't in the mood to do 2 complex fixes today.
Anyone know of good part codes for DIP20 256Kx4 5v memory with low latency? Looks like the DIP version of the original is the way to go with V53c104HP-45 chips

Sold all of my retro laptops over the last couple of months. They were taking up space and I just don't have the time to give them the proper upkeep they deserved. Turns out 50+ laptops even keeping up with basic stuff like CMOS batteries, the occasional randomly dying hard drive, etc becomes a major problem. I've also been selling off or giving away alot of the stuff I had sitting around that I know is both repairable, and valuable cheaply to get it into the hands of people who will actually put in the time and get it fixed.

Debating what other portions of my collection to sell, if I should sell any of it. I really don't want to become the computer equivalent of the guy with a 60s muscle car rotting into the ground behind his house that's "going to fix it up someday". Like all these computers are going to need recapped or have component failures remedied eventually. I used to look at the people with a giant wall of vintage computers in their garage enviously, now as one of them (who also works a full time job) I'm realizing what an actual nightmare it can be.

How do YOU guys decide when to let go of stuff? Right now I'm starting with the stuff I get almost no usage out of, things that just sit on a shelf.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2023-10-15, 17:12:

Sold all of my retro laptops over the last couple of months. They were taking up space and I just don't have the time to give them the proper upkeep they deserved. Turns out 50+ laptops even keeping up with basic stuff like CMOS batteries, the occasional randomly dying hard drive, etc becomes a major problem. I've also been selling off or giving away alot of the stuff I had sitting around that I know is both repairable, and valuable cheaply to get it into the hands of people who will actually put in the time and get it fixed.

I have this same problem. I love vintage laptops but I have way way wayyy too many. It's shocking how quickly they can pile up in collection and how much room they actually take up.

I have a habit of refurbishing them as soon as possible, so once they inevitably enter long term storage, they are more or less complete enough to grab and go. However, there are some that I have been trying to restore for over 20 years, due to a lack of parts.

I ordered a unit off of eBay for parts this past month to fix said 20-year old laptop and it looks like it went through a flood... of course, all of the conspicuous angles were excluded from the listing, such as the rear I/O ports. I had to literally break the plastic apart to disassemble it to get at the motherboard, which I then dunked in vinegar to try and salvage it. It was very gross.

smtkr wrote on 2023-10-14, 23:39:

Doggy wrote on 2023-10-14, 20:42:

I moved my 3DFX configuration to a new AT case with an AT PSU, Upgrade to Pentium III 600EB from Celeron 300A, and also installe […]
Show full quote

I moved my 3DFX configuration to a new AT case with an AT PSU, Upgrade to Pentium III 600EB from Celeron 300A, and also installed a USB bracket but I'm not getting any display on my monitor since I made these upgrades.
Manual says it supports coppermine CPUs from 500Mhz-733Mhz, there is a 3pin jumper on the board to set FSB to 66/100.
This is the motherboard:
The config: Acorp 6VIA/ZX85 ver 1.3 board, Intel Pentium III 600EB (SL3XT) CPU, 128MB SDRAM@133Mhz, Voodoo 3 2000 AGP, AT 200 Watt PSU, 1x IDE HDD, 2x ODD.

This is the motherboard: https://theretroweb.com/motherboard/image/6vi … ca448558803.jpg

I'm looking at that picture, and it looks like a VIA Apollo Pro Plus chipset, which doesn't support 133MHz FSB. Not sure if there's a way to get it to post at a lower FSB, but that northbridge might be the issue here. It looks like the 1.9 variant has the apollo pro 133.

Even the 700 MHz Celeron processor doesn't work with it. Yes, the description says Celerons should work from 300-500 MHz, worth a try. But I can get a 650 MHz Pentium III for about 6-7 dollars, so I'll manage with a 400 MHz Celeron until then.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2023-10-15, 17:12:

How do YOU guys decide when to let go of stuff? Right now I'm starting with the stuff I get almost no usage out of, things that just sit on a shelf.

Yeahhhhh, that's not going well. 🤣 I have intentions to round down to a cadre of favored systems, but I'm still in the "gotta build, mend and try them all first" phase... Then I get my favorite platforms, 486, late socket 7, and socket A and I'm trying to build a dozen variations of each. Then I can't even focus on straight period builds and go off the reservation so to speak cobbling things together out of later low end parts to see how those "feel" and whether they could stand in for other stuff.... but then I want that other stuff to compare it to set up before I let it go, heh. Anyhoo, tried to hash a logical approach out here, Some logical basis for refining the collection, E3 series, 1-2-5 series, slowest, middle, fastest... I dunno how close the end result will be or if there really is one.

I know the feel about the laptops though, fixing simple stuff is sometimes a multi hour disassemble/reassemble in which it's easy to break things. I have quite a few, and WAS thinking of them as my quick and convenient retro machines, until I get one acting dead, another ate it's partition table or the drive is toast, another needs a CMOS batt etc etc. Desktops might take more space to store and set up, but at least you've gotta be really unlucky/clumsy to tear a ribbon cable or strip a screw, just to get in there and do something simple, laptops, it's a risk every time.

After feeling how scortchingly hot the Riva 128 chip on this Diamond V330 video card gets, decided to add a heatsink. Just in case.

And.... The dreaded windows protection error at startup. Ah yes that's why I stopped using this 775i65g

Finished the Battle Isle 1 campaign. Currently deciding if I play the two mission disks as well or jump straight to History Line or Battle Isle 2.