Gainward GTX285 2GB for my XP rig:

Found this beauty (which has seen better days) for 10€ on Kleinanzeigen (Craigslist in Krautland).
Seller pulled it from a broken machine and didn't knew if it works. Originally he wanted 10€ + shipping. But I wasn't happy because untested + broken fan. I did ask him, if he can at least check if it posts. He said he only has a laptop. Then he reduced the price to 10€ with shipping included. At that price I was willing to take the risk. 2GB variants run for around 50€ here.

Well, it works! No artifacts in 3DMark.
Told my retro buddy, that I'm looking for a watercooler now.
"I have one!"
"You did have a 285 back in the day?"
"Yeah. It broke, but I kept the cooler. You can have it."
So perfect!

The red PCB bothers me a bit. Will probably get one with black PCB one day.
But for now this is good enough. Like many of you I pick up whatever I can get, if it's an upgrade and the price is reasonable.

He stayed under a tarp for 20 years never used

Bought a Panasonic KXL-D745A with the interface card, manual, driver diskette, power brick, etc for a bit less than the asking price.

Seller's photo:

Bought off ebay. Don't know which card it will go to, but it's nice to have.

dataino.it wrote on 2021-11-11, 19:47:

He stayed under a tarp for 20 years never used

Looks in great condition. You know the specs?

Aublak wrote on 2021-11-11, 22:33:

Bought off ebay. Don't know which card it will go to, but it's nice to have. IMG_20211111_172930.jpg […]
Show full quote

Bought off ebay. Don't know which card it will go to, but it's nice to have.
IMG_20211111_172930.jpg

dataino.it wrote on 2021-11-11, 19:47:

He stayed under a tarp for 20 years never used

Looks in great condition. You know the specs?

MOBO is a GA-6WMM7
CELERON 766

Got my hands on something of a grail of mine, a Compaq LTE Elite 4/75CX. Unfortunately my particular example is not happy about its hard drive and its floppy drive sounds very troubled as well, but I'm hoping I can get it back up and running. At least it already has 24MB of RAM and thus doesn't need upgrading on that front.

dataino.it wrote on 2021-11-11, 19:47:

He stayed under a tarp for 20 years never used

Very nice looking unit. What are the specs on that?

Always been curious about these lumbering Bigfoot giants. 5.25’ bay HDDs slow as molasses but blessed with incredible capacity for their time, this is a late model 12GB that should slot nicely into my late 97-early 98 dual Deschutes build to be used as a storage drive.

Fingers crossed it arrives in working condition!

EvieSigma wrote on 2021-11-12, 00:14:

Got my hands on something of a grail of mine, a Compaq LTE Elite 4/75CX. Unfortunately my particular example is not happy about […]
Show full quote

Got my hands on something of a grail of mine, a Compaq LTE Elite 4/75CX. Unfortunately my particular example is not happy about its hard drive and its floppy drive sounds very troubled as well, but I'm hoping I can get it back up and running. At least it already has 24MB of RAM and thus doesn't need upgrading on that front.

PXL_20211112_000607274.jpg

PXL_20211112_000455308.jpg

PXL_20211112_000503965.jpg

PXL_20211112_000522975.jpg

The floppy drive used the belt drive to control the data spindle shaft (I have 486 laptops that use that style and they require replacements every so often).

It's complicated to repair, but there might be NOS ones out there and I got one for my one 486 laptop since that was a need for installing an OS and my other uses the same proprietary connector as my 400CDT and 410CDT, so using that drive works without issues on my 2150CDT.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2021-11-12, 01:23:

EvieSigma wrote on 2021-11-12, 00:14:

Got my hands on something of a grail of mine, a Compaq LTE Elite 4/75CX. Unfortunately my particular example is not happy about […]
Show full quote

Got my hands on something of a grail of mine, a Compaq LTE Elite 4/75CX. Unfortunately my particular example is not happy about its hard drive and its floppy drive sounds very troubled as well, but I'm hoping I can get it back up and running. At least it already has 24MB of RAM and thus doesn't need upgrading on that front.

PXL_20211112_000607274.jpg

PXL_20211112_000455308.jpg

PXL_20211112_000503965.jpg

PXL_20211112_000522975.jpg

The floppy drive used the belt drive to control the data spindle shaft (I have 486 laptops that use that style and they require replacements every so often).

It's complicated to repair, but there might be NOS ones out there and I got one for my one 486 laptop since that was a need for installing an OS and my other uses the same proprietary connector as my 400CDT and 410CDT, so using that drive works without issues on my 2150CDT.

Yeah, I see a belt in there but I have no clue how to get to it to replace it. I tried removing the PCB on the bottom but I wasn't successful, so maybe I have to go in through the top?

The belt is accessible on top, however, there's a catch: you'll have to remove the floppy diskette mechanism and protect the data heads from touching each other.

As I stated, it's complicated. If the belt isn't too stretched out, lubricate the motors and put it back together.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2021-11-12, 03:29:

The belt is accessible on top, however, there's a catch: you'll have to remove the floppy diskette mechanism and protect the data heads from touching each other.

As I stated, it's complicated. If the belt isn't too stretched out, lubricate the motors and put it back together.

I can't tell if it's stretched out or not, I just know that when I try putting a disk in I just get a loud whining noise that only stops when I remove the disk.

386/486 Hybrid motherboard with VL-Bus.

Likely Seanix 3486-VLB

Just snapped off a leaky Varta NiCd battery from it...

EvieSigma wrote on 2021-11-12, 15:18:

bjwil1991 wrote on 2021-11-12, 03:29:

The belt is accessible on top, however, there's a catch: you'll have to remove the floppy diskette mechanism and protect the data heads from touching each other.

As I stated, it's complicated. If the belt isn't too stretched out, lubricate the motors and put it back together.

I can't tell if it's stretched out or not, I just know that when I try putting a disk in I just get a loud whining noise that only stops when I remove the disk.

I just got a T2130CS that did the same thing when you put a disk in. Mine was entirely missing its belt, it was just nowhere to be found inside. Got it all fixed up and this time I didn't bother separating the heads, but of course I'm careful to not jostle those heads too much. The drive is now working to the point where it can boot off of it 😁 For reference, this is a Panasonic / Matsushita EME278TB. I've fixed an EME279 and this 278 is a bit tougher, the top PCB has to come off to get at the belt, but removing the PCB didn't affect the track 0 sensor or anything.
The belt dimensions are 62mm diameter, 0.4mm thickness and 1.4mm height. This was a little tight, maybe 64mm would be better.
Also had to lubricate the disk spinner as that had dried up and was tough to move. It runs well now after running a few disks through it.

This laptop's been fun, the laptop's inverter made a horrendous high pitch noise and that turned out to be caused by a faulty electrolytic cap (35v 10uf) on the inverter PCB. It's so nice and quiet (literally fanless and no longer has spinning disk) with that fixed.

That Compaq LTE, does it have a citizen V1D drive in it? or something similar?

Yes, it's a Citizen drive, but I don't know the model number off hand.

W1D is the common model. My Austin 312 laptop has the same drive.

Visiting my BF in Seattle and decided to stop by both RE PC locations since Metal Jesus brought it up a while back. Did not expect any good deals but came out kinda/sorta suprised.

Yes, that is a Voodoo 3 (2000?) on the table. It was shuffled in a $5 bin with a bunch of other PCI VGA cards. No idea if it works, but it absolutely is the star of the show, next to the Model M ofc.

Paid $115 for everything. Now thats what i call a fair price 😀

bjwil1991 wrote on 2021-11-11, 21:09:

Bought a Panasonic KXL-D745A with the interface card, manual, driver diskette, power brick, etc for a bit less than the asking price.

Seller's photo:

s-l1600.jpg

Ooh, it's the one with sound, those are so hard to come across 😀 Wish I had at least one PCMCIA with sound, my selection of 486 laptops could use a soundcard to share between them (might get a covox thingy at somepoint)

bjwil1991 wrote on 2021-11-12, 21:33:

W1D is the common model. My Austin 312 laptop has the same drive.

Yep, W1D is indeed what I have.

Found a Voodoo3 1000 and a Yamaha YMF719 sound card in a box-o-junk for sale.
Also an in-box Radeon x1950 pro AGP, although the box was completely trashed. While not a "real" agp card, it will certainly come in handy.