VOGONS


Reply 20000 of 27172, by andrea

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Munx wrote on 2021-09-23, 08:10:

Pulled a Pentium200 PC from storage for a Win95 install. During Windows and other installations I got some error messages about not being able to write to disc C, as well as the drive just being sluggish in general. Ran checkdisk and found this:P_20210922_204918.jpg
OOF. When 1 appears, more will soon follow. RIP my 8GB IBM drive.

Run a MHDD erase, then a few MHDD scans with remap. At this point the drive should have reallocated all dodgy sectors. Then use Victoria (Service > HGST Vendor Specific) to force the drive to merge the G-List to the P-List with a format. If you want the used car salesman experience you can also clear SMART. Congrats, now you have a good drive.

Reply 20001 of 27172, by AmiSapphire

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Partially recapped the Abit SR7-8X board some hours ago. The soldering iron I use had to be set to near max to remove and replace the caps (no surprise). But, I can't test the board. I misplaced the older Pentium 4 CPU cooler somewhere in my room. Before and after images provided.

Before:

20210926_162922_crop.jpg
Filename
20210926_162922_crop.jpg
File size
1.4 MiB
Views
1586 views
File license
Public domain
20210926_162936_crop.jpg
Filename
20210926_162936_crop.jpg
File size
1.41 MiB
Views
1586 views
File license
Public domain

After:

20210927_031919.jpg
Filename
20210927_031919.jpg
File size
1.53 MiB
Views
1586 views
File license
Public domain
20210927_031934.jpg
Filename
20210927_031934.jpg
File size
1.69 MiB
Views
1586 views
File license
Public domain

Site update: cwcyrix.duckdns.org -> cwcyrix.nsupdate.info due to the former no longer working.

Reply 20002 of 27172, by Kahenraz

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

It's very hard to replace capacitors on some PCBs due to the copper ground plane acting as an enormous heatsink. I use a very wide solder tip in this case to heat up the area surrounding the via to try and counteract this. You don't want to direct all of the heat into the pad or you're at risk of delaminating it from the board.

It gets even worse when ROHS solder is involved. I've lost hours due to solder refusing to melt or getting stuck inside a via that blocks the insertion of new components.

A pre-heater can help and I've been wanting to get one but they are large and expensive and I don't think I'd use it often enough to justify the expense.

Reply 20003 of 27172, by Brawndo

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I got one of my old cases cleaned up inside and out and ready for a Super 7 build. Since it has a MSI sticker on the front, maybe I'll stay true and put my MS5169 motherboard in with a K6-2 500.

20210927-231850.jpg
20210927-231916.jpg
20210927-231944.jpg

Reply 20004 of 27172, by gerry

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Brawndo wrote on 2021-09-28, 05:27:

I got one of my old cases cleaned up inside and out and ready for a Super 7 build. Since it has a MSI sticker on the front, maybe I'll stay true and put my MS5169 motherboard in with a K6-2 500.

wonderfully 90's and it will be a rocketship with that cpu

Reply 20006 of 27172, by HanJammer

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I finished and uploaded another Rusty Bits episode... this time SEPTANDY themed one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am9TjVZqAgc

New items (October/November 2022) -> My Items for Sale
I8v8PGb.jpg

Reply 20007 of 27172, by BitWrangler

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

I went through some P4 bits, realised I have 3 "sorta interesting" socket 478 P4 CPUs but only one "meh" motherboard (Some MSI with SiS DDR chipset) I am wondering if I ought to rectify that situation while they're not expensive or not. Interesting is subjective of course, but I've got one 1.8A Northwood that was the overclock king of the "thank god RAMbus is dead and now we can have decent DDR boards" era. One 2.4 HT that should also be a sweet spot overclocker of the HT 478s. Then lastly a 2.8 2nd rev Prescott, which S-spec claims has EMT64 https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/p … 33-mhz-fsb.html but I probably need a late chipset to take advantage of that.

I don't wanna have that many P4 systems, I have an unexplored RAMbus system that's in storage, that would probably be the "first half" P4 representative at up to about 2.4Ghz, prolly with a Radeon 8500, then there's a S775 3.4 PentiumD that's gotta have a spot as the "last half" maybe in a PCIe board. So 1.8A, 2.4HT and 2.8-64 are all fighting for the middle half I guess. 1.8A although a decent overclocker probably needs to be at a max of 2.4 for unflaky not too strenuous longevity, 2.4HT might max around 3.6 and 2.8 will either go barely at all or up to 3.2... But at 3.2 would I think be quicker than the HT single threaded at 3.6, due to arch enhancements and 1MB cache. Also moping around though is an Evo desktop which is SDRAM early 478 that won't do much, not sure it can be got past 2Ghz... Those have official 98 support though so would be a good fast 98 machine, if I didn't have 10 other options.

Thassss the problem though, wanna have hardware for it's differences, but then when you come to think of what to put on it, you get to realising that 10 Win98 or XP machines is a bit unnecessary, and I've got Athlon XP and S754 to squeeze in too.

BTW something I have still not figured out, Celeron D... what the heck is up with that? The locals/yokels were going crazy for them a decade back "best gaming CPU evahhhhh" sorta thing. I get that it had lots of mhz for cheap and could clock up a ways, but still, it's a cut down P4. Got too many of the darn things too, it's like a promo "One Celeron D free with every lot of random parts". So is there one thing that Celeron D was super special at?

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 20008 of 27172, by Kahenraz

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I got a 1.4Ghz Pentium 4 with 256MB if RDRAM as my first real computer. I don't know what I had been using before as my personal computer; it would have been a 486 or very slow Pentium. We did have a Pentium 2 as the family computer but this new one would be mine!

This computer was incredible and I used it for several years on Windows 98se, later upgrading to Windows 2000 and finally XP where it started to really struggle due to the size of memory. But RDRAM was so expensive and had to be installed in pairs! It was so expensive in fact that I built a whole new computer around the time of DDR instead of expanding it.

I have good memorizes of my Pentium 4 but the RDRAM spoiled it towards the end by making it too expensive to upgrade. I did buy other things such as a new CPU, hard drive, and video card, but I stubbornly refused to pay those RAM prices.

Reply 20009 of 27172, by HanJammer

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-28, 14:40:

I went through some P4 bits, realised I have 3 "sorta interesting" socket 478 P4 CPUs but only one "meh" motherboard (Some MSI with SiS DDR chipset) I am wondering if I ought to rectify that situation while they're not expensive or not. (...)

I wouldn't expect them to ever be as expensive as the real vintage hardware. Mass produced, largely uninteresting. Nostalgia factor even among people who have been using them is minimal simply because they were no longer a 'novelty' for them. Also modern PCs can pretty much do exactly the same as them.
I do have one of them - pretty high end Intel motherboard and in rare-ish Englight desktop ATX case. It's fine for testing cards but that's about how useful it is for me...

New items (October/November 2022) -> My Items for Sale
I8v8PGb.jpg

Reply 20010 of 27172, by BitWrangler

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Kahenraz wrote on 2021-09-28, 17:04:

I got a 1.4Ghz Pentium 4 with 256MB if RDRAM as my first real computer. I don't know what I had been using before as my personal computer; it would have been a 486 or very slow Pentium. We did have a Pentium 2 as the family computer but this new one would be mine!

This computer was incredible and I used it for several years on Windows 98se, later upgrading to Windows 2000 and finally XP where it started to really struggle due to the size of memory. But RDRAM was so expensive and had to be installed in pairs! It was so expensive in fact that I built a whole new computer around the time of DDR instead of expanding it.

I have good memorizes of my Pentium 4 but the RDRAM spoiled it towards the end by making it too expensive to upgrade. I did buy other things such as a new CPU, hard drive, and video card, but I stubbornly refused to pay those RAM prices.

Yah RDRAM was four times the price of anything else at release and never eased up much. Even into the 2010s it was staying expensive to pick up used. It makes you wonder if RAMbus or Intel were subsidising the platforms for the OEMs who had premade systems with it, because the price on those was a hundred more maybe than other options but didn't seem to reflect full cost of what it would take to put the system together from stock parts. Trying to lock ppl in I guess. Then you were stuck with a not economically upgradable lump, probably why I got given that RDRAM system when P4s were still sliding down the back slope of useful. However, when I get "to it" I've got some random RDRAM modules to try that turned up in random lots of RAM acquired over the years.

HanJammer wrote on 2021-09-28, 17:22:
BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-28, 14:40:

I went through some P4 bits, realised I have 3 "sorta interesting" socket 478 P4 CPUs but only one "meh" motherboard (Some MSI with SiS DDR chipset) I am wondering if I ought to rectify that situation while they're not expensive or not. (...)

I wouldn't expect them to ever be as expensive as the real vintage hardware. Mass produced, largely uninteresting. Nostalgia factor even among people who have been using them is minimal simply because they were no longer a 'novelty' for them. Also modern PCs can pretty much do exactly the same as them.
I do have one of them - pretty high end Intel motherboard and in rare-ish Englight desktop ATX case. It's fine for testing cards but that's about how useful it is for me...

Might be a few years, but I would think they'll get expensive eventually, even if the reason is that they are completely disregarded now, resulting in higher scrappage and less long term survivors. But yeah, you can completely skip them, high end PIII for early XP, Core2 for late. Really, I'd call myself an AMD guy, but I'll keep one/some for the same reason that the RAF museum has Messerschmidts.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 20011 of 27172, by HanJammer

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-28, 17:40:

Might be a few years, but I would think they'll get expensive eventually, even if the reason is that they are completely disregarded now, resulting in higher scrappage and less long term survivors. But yeah, you can completely skip them, high end PIII for early XP, Core2 for late. Really, I'd call myself an AMD guy, but I'll keep one/some for the same reason that the RAF museum has Messerschmidts.

Lol, nice comparison...
Personally I had Athlon 600 Slot A, then Athlon 1000 Slot A (Orion core) then I skipped the Socket A crap and I got Athlon 64 3000+ when they came out. Quickly switched to Athlon 64 X2 5200+. I never missed anything in between (well, I missed the capacitor plague years 😁 ) and never really lacked any performance (and I was playing alot of games).
I do keep Socket 939 platform parts in case I ever want to rebuild this machine, but I don't really think I ever will - simply because I have no nostalgia for it and everything I could do on any Windows XP computer - I can do as well on my modern PC under Windows 10.

New items (October/November 2022) -> My Items for Sale
I8v8PGb.jpg

Reply 20012 of 27172, by bjwil1991

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Brawndo wrote on 2021-09-28, 05:27:
I got one of my old cases cleaned up inside and out and ready for a Super 7 build. Since it has a MSI sticker on the front, mayb […]
Show full quote

I got one of my old cases cleaned up inside and out and ready for a Super 7 build. Since it has a MSI sticker on the front, maybe I'll stay true and put my MS5169 motherboard in with a K6-2 500.

20210927-231850.jpg
20210927-231916.jpg
20210927-231944.jpg

My Socket 7 system has an Apple Macintosh Quadra 650 badge up front (my dad put that on there back in the 1990's when it was the family 486 computer).

Discord: https://discord.gg/U5dJw7x
Systems from the Compaq Portable 1 to Ryzen 9 5950X
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/retropcuser

Reply 20013 of 27172, by Kahenraz

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I also believe that the entire Socket 423 and 478 (Pentium 4) era can be skipped entirely unless it fits a particular niche or you get it at a good deal. You can easily get a Pentium 4 on Socket 775 where there is much more room for growth with the option of either AGP or PCIe.

Even though I have nostalgia for my Pentium 4 experience, there isn't anything that this particular platform can do that a Pentium 3 or later AMD or Socket 775 system can't. Well, except for RDRAM but there is no advantage to using it over a slightly faster CPU with cheaper SDRAM or DDR. This is the era of PCI/AGP which isn't particularly special or exciting.

One advantage I can think of over a Pentium 3 though is that these platforms are very stable. I can see someone choosing these early Pentium 4 sockets as a way to stay near the late Pentium 3 in performance but with more reliability and hardware compatibility.

Reply 20014 of 27172, by Joakim

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Kahenraz wrote on 2021-09-28, 19:23:

Even though I have nostalgia for my Pentium 4 experience, there isn't anything that this particular platform can do that a Pentium 3 or later AMD or Socket 775 system can't.

Can you socket do this?https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asus-ct-479/

Ironically the most interesting thing about socket 478 is socket 479.

Reply 20015 of 27172, by Kahenraz

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I mean performance-wise. I don't see the point of using a socket 479 processor with DOS or Windows 9x. And if you're considering using an flavor of NT then you can just as easily use Intel Socket 775 or AMD Socket 754, 939, etc.

A socket converter for a Pentium M is an interesting novelty and there were reasons to want one back when it was new. But what would be a use case where such a thing would actually be useful now for retro gaming?

Reply 20016 of 27172, by KCompRoom2000

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

The external floppy drive for my Toshiba Tecra 720CDT died a week ago and I ended up buying two Toshiba external floppy drives because the first one wasn't the correct one for this laptop, so here's to hoping that the second one is the right one this time. I've double-checked the seller's images this time and it looked like it would be compatible. I would've taken a floppy drive out of another laptop and placed it in the enclosure, but none of my other laptop floppy drives have the matching connector (and neither did the first Toshiba drive which I accidentally ordered).

Don't you hate it when your old laptop uses a proprietary floppy drive and you're struggling at finding a suitable replacement? If only they made Goteks for laptops.

Reply 20017 of 27172, by pan069

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I hope you guys don't mind me posting this here, not sure if this is worthy of a new thread.

The other day I posted about my leaky caps:

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?
Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

I did a quick clean of the parts where the caps had spilled and thought I might order some new caps and try to replace these suckers (I have no experience in this what so ever but wiling to give it a go 😀)

All the leaky caps are the same. It says 1000 uf 6.3v (hope I got that right). I counted 13 of them and I might replace all of them while I'm at it, I guess. The other caps seem to be all fine so I'll leave those alone for now (i.e. the smaller ones and the ones next to the CPU socket).

Just wondering what to order or to look for. Also, I might as well go for quality parts. Any suggestions much appreciated!

PXL_20210929_004216246.jpg
Filename
PXL_20210929_004216246.jpg
File size
457.92 KiB
Views
1478 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 20018 of 27172, by canthearu

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
pan069 wrote on 2021-09-29, 10:02:

Just wondering what to order or to look for. Also, I might as well go for quality parts. Any suggestions much appreciated!

PXL_20210929_004216246.jpg

This one here is my suggestion ... but maybe from your supplier of choice, rather than my supplier of choice.

https://au.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/7660040

At least here in AU, Panasonic FR and FS capacitors are kinda reasonably priced, and very high quality. For 8mm Diameter replacement capacitors.

If you need a 10mm Diameter capacitor, Panasonic also have the FM range.

Reply 20019 of 27172, by BitWrangler

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Sorting through my DDR, first pass separation by size... got more 512s than I thought, which is nice, got a few 1GBs too, not as many as I'd like, but I'll cope. Also split out some SDR from those boxes, got a few 256 one 512, sweet.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-28, 14:40:

I went through some P4 bits, realised I have 3 "sorta interesting" socket 478 P4 CPUs but only one "meh" motherboard (Some MSI with SiS DDR chipset) I am wondering if I ought to rectify that situation while they're not expensive or not.

Maybe I don't need to buy another 478 board, but just find it. Going through some old notes to see if I put DDR into lurking half built systems and what pops out at me but SY-P4VTE, apparently I was messing round with it in about 2009. Was going to build a PVR box with it then realised my ATSC capture card was PCIe. Memories of this are extremely dim. It's another "Where TF could that have gone?" Haven't seen it around in the upstairs area. Also appearing amid the scribbles is GA6VEM, a Tualatin board!!! I didn't think I had a native tually board, though in chronology of platform messing that I recall, it may have been some time after my previous attempts at getting tuallys going, and appeared when 64bit was the new hawtness, so could have got ignored/filed. I swear I've been in every nook and cranny in the upstairs though and these both should have turned up. Must have moved a load to the basement at some point when I didn't think I had. Probably some box that I think something else is in, is full of "got or had out since I moved here" hardware I can't find, like these boards, some Voodoos, a GF4600.. ... ...

Anyway, that board would be a vast improvement over the MS-7005 (checked model since last) which will only do woodies and willies. Should let the rev 2 Prescott stretch it's legs. Seems to have 64bit drivers available, so you'd think that means it supports 64bit if the pressie does.

Edit: Well damn, now I've found "P4S8X" written somewhere else, but that could have been a mis-ID of the MS-7005 based on chipset/slots. Or I was looking at putting that BIOS on the MSI and brainfarted when I wrote model down.

Last edited by BitWrangler on 2021-09-29, 16:05. Edited 1 time in total.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.