PcBytes wrote on 2025-07-09, 20:56:

I can confirm that - I have an Aspire X-Cruiser on the way. I'm actually undecided if I should save and buy a BX2000 PLUS for it or go with something newer.

That case is awesome! Does it fit a full size atx?

I think it does. I've rarely seen any of its caliber that wouldn't do full size ATX 🤣. Maybe not E-ATX but standard full ATX is defo on the table.

Today I saw an LGR video on the dazzle parallel port capture device and one of the pieces of software showcased on the disc was VideoSaver Pro which gave me an idea. I tracked down the ISO file Clint uploaded to internet archive to try out the software. It had a bunch of generic video content that I promptly removed from the playlist.

I converted a bunch of YouTube videos of mid 80s to late 90s era hardware, software and game promos and TV commercials into MPEG1 using ffmpeg and loaded them into the software as a playlist. I also rolled in a bunch of Microsoft adverts included on the Win98 disc.

So now the screensaver on my retro system is random play of golden era video spots, trailers and local computer stores selling PC bundles.

Still on the lookout for more interesting commercials/promos from the era to add to the rotation. My favourite so far is the Intel MMX 1997 "Stayin' Alive" TV spot. Second favourite is the 1988 AdLib promo.

vutt wrote on 2025-05-24, 16:06:

Modding day. This card has annoying fan whine at full tilt in Win98SE. Card has full sensor set and Asus SmartDoctor tool to for […]
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Modding day.
This card has annoying fan whine at full tilt in Win98SE. Card has full sensor set and Asus SmartDoctor tool to for setting custom fan profile, but it's WinXP+ only. So I installed WinXP just for Temp tuning.
At first I put there regular 2W resistor but it heated up ~50C. 5W ceramic one while bulky seems to be fine. 82Ω brought fan RPM down to ~4000RPM from 6000+ default speed.
Results: GPU core seems to be floating in low-mid 40-ies now under load. However hottest part is actually memory ~52C and back side mem chips are naked. Not sure where temp sensor is located.
I'm using my retro rigs in semi open bench inside shelf. So this mod might not be good for tight less ventilated cases.

Streamlined little bit my 9600XT fan speed mod look. Replaced bulky ceramic resistor. It turned out that 3W SMD resistor is cool enough for my application.

I made a DRAMarduino https://forum.defence-force.org/viewtopic.php?t=1699 to test some amount of 4164 and 41256, installed in some boards and spares.
Got it working with my Arduino Uno R4.
Today I enhanced the original code, with some help from Copilot.
I added: Fill, WalkingBits, Checkerboard, Retention, Inversion, AddressAliasing (this one is sloooww).
"Fill" was the basic original test, but some chips passed this test and faults with the more strict ones.
Still working on some even more stricter integrity test and maybe add a couple of modifications from other people
Latter on I will share the code

Fixed a broken pin on those 6400+ AM2 Athlon64 X2 i got. Would not say it is hard, it takes just a couple of minutes, but it is definitely challenging in terms of working with tiny stuff and seeing it well enough to work with it.

So i've basically stolen "reserved" pin nearby and soldered it in place of broken one. It works:

Also while i was testing the CPU thought i'd test pci-e x1950pro i had laying around for years. Needed a card anyway since this motherboard does not have integrated graphics and since i was investigating AGP versions recently thought - why not. It works, but... i must be cursed or ATI/AMD really makes the most buggy hardware/software in existence.

This time it was unable to detect resolutions supported by the monitor, which resulted in weirdness like native 1920x1080 being stretched into gigantic image i have to scroll around to get to things. Had to specify custom resolution just to get the desktop right and when i tried to run a game with 1024x768 it did not work correctly either, so i gave up with the card for now.

I mean i did connect it through DVI-VGA adapter and through KVM, but i've used this exact setup to tests dozens of different cards in different systems and it is the first time i've seen this issue.

ATI/AMD stuff just never works right for me for some reason...

I created a topic Extended DRAMArduino code with a code I expanded from the DRAMarduino project https://forum.defence-force.org/viewtopic.php?t=1699
It has been expanded with the help of Copilot and tested with an Arduino Uno R4 Wifi, but it should work with others, taking the pins into account.
I focused on this project because it's very simple, inexpensive, and just what I needed for the memory chips I wanted to test.
The tests included are Fill, Checkerboard ,Retention, Inversion, WalkingBits, MATS++, MarchC, MarchA, Address Aliasing.
Is a work in progress.

Fixed the screen mechanism latch (again) on my IBM PS/2 P70. This thing just keeps breaking, and every time I make sturdier replacement part. Maybe this time it will last more than two years 😀

CrFr wrote on 2025-07-12, 12:37:

Fixed the screen mechanism latch (again) on my IBM PS/2 P70. This thing just keeps breaking, and every time I make sturdier replacement part. Maybe this time it will last more than two years 😀

The attachment IMGP2442_.jpg is no longer available

Oh, wow! What a beauty 🙂.

Due to very lucky circumstances I acquired two more Dell 2007FP monitors and I've set them up on my Windows Vista machine (that's running an GeForce 780Ti).
One of them is connected via VGA (because the blue channel is missing on DVI), the other one with a DVI to HDMI adapter and the third one with plain DVI.

This feels like the most decadent retro corner ever and I love it. The third screen is noticeably darker (I grabbed that from my soon-to-be former employer where it ran nonstop for many years) so I'll probably try to swap the CCFL's in the near future.

replaced my gtx 960 with my gtx 970. Also, "repasted" my msi gtx 970 (never been repasted since i got it) with PTM7950 I had laying around from a cooling project on my thinkpad t480- msi afterburner showing temps hovering around 60degC in astuffy thinkcentre e72 case. installed noctua on intake of case 60mm (?), replaced xonar dx with x-fi titanium

If it counts, I just watched the guys from Digital Foundry analyze Doom performance on period correct hardware. 😁

Relevant video.

CrFr wrote on 2025-07-12, 12:37:

Fixed the screen mechanism latch (again) on my IBM PS/2 P70. This thing just keeps breaking, and every time I make sturdier replacement part. Maybe this time it will last more than two years 😀

The first computer I ever used, good to see people keeping them running! I hear they are notorious for breaking down.

NeoG_ wrote on 2025-07-14, 06:55:

The first computer I ever used, good to see people keeping them running! I hear they are notorious for breaking down.

This actual machine was the first computer I ever used too. My father bought this for work in 1989, so I'm the second owner 😀

The screen hinge is the main headache currently. Right side hinge is broken, so it is supported by the locking latch. That plasma screen is quite heavy, so the latch keeps breaking. Also I guess rear of the warm plasma screen is not optimal environment for PLA plastics. The hinge itself seems a bit too complicated to model and 3D print, so I've been thinking maybe removing the hinge and replacing it with some simple permanent support.

Other problems I've had to deal with so far are broken floppy drive, broken solder joint in keyboard, bad microchannel riser preventing the machine from booting and probably something else I've already forgotten.

NeoG_ wrote on 2025-07-14, 06:55:

The first computer I ever used ...

CrFr wrote on 2025-07-14, 07:58:

This actual machine was the first computer I ever used too. ...

Ah... "young pups" !

The first computer I used was an IBM 360 mainframe long-about mid-70s.

The first computer I actually owned was a homebuilt 8080 a couple years later (obviously I really liked the idea of
a computer) .. and the first "commercial" one I had was an "Altair 8800" which IIRC was 1978 or 79. (you can see
pics of the actual machine on "Daves Old Computers")

DaveDDS wrote on 2025-07-14, 12:41:

Ah... "young pups" ! […]
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NeoG_ wrote on 2025-07-14, 06:55:

The first computer I ever used ...

CrFr wrote on 2025-07-14, 07:58:

This actual machine was the first computer I ever used too. ...

Ah... "young pups" !

The first computer I used was an IBM 360 mainframe long-about mid-70s.

The first computer I actually owned was a homebuilt 8080 a couple years later (obviously I really liked the idea of
a computer) .. and the first "commercial" one I had was an "Altair 8800" which IIRC was 1978 or 79. (you can see
pics of the actual machine on "Daves Old Computers")

Its always great when the Dinosaurs wake up 🤣

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-07-14, 15:55:

Its always great when the Dinosaurs wake up 🤣

Hey... if you kick us hard enough we will (sometimes) wake up 😀

Does raise an interesting question about the hardware I mentioned.

I'm pretty sure the Altair still works because I sold it last year (for a LOT more than I paid for it in the 70s) and as part of that
process I unpacked it, set it up and fired it up - all worked perfectly. --- after almost 50 years (lets see how well "modern"
system do after that long!) -- and perhaps whats even more interesting is that it had only 5.25" floppy drives, and as it
was my main system for many years, I had many DOZENs of floppy disks (rather unique ones by today's standards, SS-SD
a whopping 90k storage per disk) - and I read them all (full disk read = every sector) - and it all those disks, I had only
1 (ONE) read error - and that disk was marked "has bad sector" - I think back in the day I had dropped
something in it (which made a visible mark)!

But... what I think is more interesting (at least to me) - is wondering it there are still any of the true dinosaurs I mentioned
still running - the IBM 360 was a huge mainframe, a large air-conditioned room with a big (truck size) frame containing the
CPU and main operator console, and another large room filled with peripheral equipment (disk drives, tape drives, printers,
card punches and readers etc.) This wasn't CMOS stuff - It used a LOT of power... but it was one of the main "big iron" systems
in it's time, and a LOT of corporate and research installations depended on them --- We would have it shut down every few
months while IBM came to service/maintain it (I can't imagine that they would still support it, let alone still make parts for it)
-- I wonder if there are any still in operation anywhere in the world now --

DaveDDS wrote on 2025-07-14, 19:54:

I'm pretty sure the Altair still works because I sold it last year (for a LOT more than I paid for it in the 70s) and as part of that
process I unpacked it, set it up and fired it up - all worked perfectly. --- after almost 50 years (lets see how well "modern"
system do after that long!)

Old stuff was built to last. They say "but how will they make money if everyone keeps their electronics forever?" or something along these lines.

So how did they make money back then? 🤔

Played around a bit with NFS: Porsche Unleashed and found a solution for the weird text issues on my FX card, made a post about it on here of course.

NFS: Porsche Unleashed - Geforce FX menus - the fix I use

UCyborg wrote on 2025-07-14, 20:19:

So how did they make money back then? 🤔

"Obsolete before you open the box" was a meme for a reason, things were moving so fast from the 70s to around 2010 that new sales were virtually guaranteed due to new technology and requirements. Doing anything useful on a 10 year old system in that time was uncommon, now it's normal.