LewisRaz wrote on 2021-09-16, 16:58:

First attempt at retrobriting... Being hindered by the great british weather but it seems to be working slowly. […]
Show full quote

First attempt at retrobriting... Being hindered by the great british weather but it seems to be working slowly.

I would detach the acrylic plate before retrobrightning. I ruined one like this - it got some very minor cracks all over it's surface - like a spiderweb. Unless it's not an acrylic plate over the space the display should be?

HanJammer wrote on 2021-09-16, 20:25:

LewisRaz wrote on 2021-09-16, 16:58:

First attempt at retrobriting... Being hindered by the great british weather but it seems to be working slowly. […]
Show full quote

First attempt at retrobriting... Being hindered by the great british weather but it seems to be working slowly.

I would detach the acrylic plate before retrobrightning. I ruined one like this - it got some very minor cracks all over it's surface - like a spiderweb. Unless it's not an acrylic plate over the space the display should be?

There is not one. The LCD display has its own that fits directly into that hole 😀

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-16, 13:25:

Merovign wrote on 2021-09-14, 23:27:

AST Pentium 133 from the "funky proprietary backplane design" era, ....
...
Seriously, this case was designed by a maniac. It's got more interdependent parts in its assembly than a Volvo. Easy 9-step processes everywhere! I'll get more detailed pics later.

Heh yeah, AST sneered at the clone makers back in the day, saying "The best technology they've got is a screwdriver" meaning they just used standard parts and screwed them together. So I guess they were out to prove they had 10 screwdrivers for every one the competition had 🤣 But yeah, designed and made their own platforms basically. They did seem to integrate stuff well and their machines tended towards faster and smoother than contemporary machines of same spec. But Holy. Freaking. Screws. though, assemblies needed assemblies to fit them to other assemblies, brackets and lugs were not part of these and were screwed on separately, and brackets had sub-brackets. It's almost like AST was originally a small metal pressings company and just requested manufacturers send them "some kind of motherboad" "some kind of PSU" etc then they fitted together all what they got with eleventy one little bits of metal. Back in the day, I got an AST 386 with a burned board, and due to repair/replacement being uneconomical as it was obsolete, you weren't randomly gonna come across anything that had a hope of fitting, I stripped the thing out entirely. I think I got a full cup measure of screws and small hardware out of it.

Yeah if part of it goes bad, it's kind of a loss. 😒 But fingers crossed.

I guess we'll see if that "faster and smoother" thing has any weight when I use it as a test platform for late-era DOS / early Windows benchmarking of my hardware from that era (mainly video cards). Eventually...

IIRC this chipset can do P60 to P233, and I have both, so that should be interesting as well. I have not tested this with this particular motherboard yet. I also need to fabricate a better CPU cooler for it, the airflow is not great for such a customized case (it has a small distribution fan between he upper and lower sections). I may do something about that airflow, or maybe I'm just always looking for an excuse to 3D print something, especially ducts for 120mm fans. 😀

Oh, and I fixed three keyboards today. The old IBM (membrane) was just in need of cleaning, the old Dell had some detritus stuck under the membrane that was making the zero key go off by itself, and the mechanical keyboard, which was newer, needed a new switch soldered on.

null

And that's why Windows is king.

null

Of retro-compability, and therefore desktop market share. 😉

I'm troubleshooting an AOpen Vi9 motherboard that is kind of curious and important to me because it's a 386/486 combo board with VLB. It doesn't POST though. There is some battery damage I am fixing up, but I also noticed this strange solderjob on the chipset legs, it's as if two legs are soledered to a joint solderpad that go to the same via. Anyone think this is leftover from a botched repair attempt (and possibly root of the problem) or just something normal? Maybe they are both ground or something? I am not familiar with the chipset in question but the markings say it is an EFAR EC798.

I can't find a datasheet for it, but it looks ok to me. The PCB trace looks to head for both of the pads, so must be meant to connect to both pins. It's also looks slightly thicker than the nearby traces so might be a ground or power connection, or a configuration pin.

OTOH, a thread here https://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum/genres/late … v3486ef-386-486 has a photo of the same chipset with those two pins with separate traces.

Watching youtube videos of Louis R and Linus. Now listening to a scammer being scammed 🤣. All on ye Olde P4 running an old fashion computer operating system. 32-bit luv...😉

xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-09-17, 09:16:

Of retro-compability, and therefore desktop market share. 😉

Not in my house hold...😉 And that is all I personally care about, not what others do.

How is Arch going for ya? Figured it out yet?

Few days ago I retrobrited a VGA monitor

Hyundai - came out better than the Pony I recently tried to use as a daily

(that's before I applied the retrobrite to it)

1000th page! Way to go, folks!

Stiletto wrote on 2021-09-18, 06:37:

1000th page! Way to go, folks!

Cool. May there be many more.........😉

appiah4 wrote on 2021-09-17, 09:42:

I'm troubleshooting an AOpen Vi9 motherboard that is kind of curious and important to me because it's a 386/486 combo board with VLB. It doesn't POST though. There is some battery damage I am fixing up, but I also noticed this strange solderjob on the chipset legs, it's as if two legs are soledered to a joint solderpad that go to the same via. Anyone think this is leftover from a botched repair attempt (and possibly root of the problem) or just something normal? Maybe they are both ground or something? I am not familiar with the chipset in question but the markings say it is an EFAR EC798.

Looks like the legs share a soldering surface and a route, so it's probably not a defect.

That's weird, I see 997 pages.

Need to plot out my "final collection," holes and all, later today. If I have time. Part of my problem is a lot of what I will likely keep are "cool surprises" and not part of a plan. Complications.

And I got my systems and video cards laid out (on paper) by year (short a few video cards in systems). Sound cards next, then a "what I need" list for controllers and NICs and what-have-you.

And if I'm very, very lucky I will get to moving some drives off the shelf into systems, clear up a little space.

You only need a 1985 system, a 1990 system a 1995 system a best CPU/GPU system for every 3 months between 1995 and 2000, a noughties system...

Hmm.. I would like a 1980s system. Just for Winter games, Digger and the eventual Frogger...

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-18, 19:10:

You only need a 1985 system, a 1990 system a 1995 system a best CPU/GPU system for every 3 months between 1995 and 2000, a noughties system...

I mean, the purpose of them is software, but I'm kind of a hardware guy. That's why I have AMD and intel 386's and AMD, Intel, and IBM 486s, and two PII systems, and socket 423, 478, and 775 P4's, single and dual PPros, etc. Not to mention Macs, CPM, PDAs... Also not to mention modernish systems to keep my friends and family in computers when they need it (or when I need it because something breaks on my main system).

I have only a few holes in what I want post 1995, and very little from the 80s (but not none, I must remind myself).

To some extent, when a case isn't really special and the parts are standard, I can basically have a mobo take less space and get moved into a case as needed... but I kind of like having systems ready to go!

Also, my plan includes multiple things outside the mainstream in some eras, like OS/2, BeOS, OpenStep... I still miss the SGI system I gave away, and the Cromemco that was (literally) dropped off a truck during a move.

If I had the resources, I'd be at serious risk of tech hoarding (looks nervously at ten feet of double-stacked cases and closet full of motherboards, keyboards and cables...).

Yeah, I could pare it down to a relatively few systems from a pure software POV, but hardware's half the fun.

I'm not complaining that I don't have things, I have a ton. Also it keeps me busy. I need to keep practicing soldering, now that I have my microscope I have the gear to fix up several mobos, I just need to start crossing them off.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-18, 19:10:

You only need a 1985 system, a 1990 system a 1995 system a best CPU/GPU system for every 3 months between 1995 and 2000, a noughties system...

Each to their own. I need one for the top end of each generation of CPU (and variants thereon). At least, from 386 and later (although I still need to get round to starting to test and sell some of my many superfluous CPUs and FPUs, as well as over 125 motherboards)