VOGONS


Reply 200 of 222, by retardware

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mockingbird wrote on 2021-10-14, 19:13:

Not in the least, DW1640 is the standard media scanning drive... Test your burns with CDSpeed2000 (attached) and post the results (Use 8x P-CAV for the scan speed). DW1620 is also good for scanning, but its results are not always the same as the DW1640.

That are good news for me... For me, my Benq DVD writers were just unspectacular, just worked and didn't pester me with complaints where other drives either produced errors or even failed to recognize the media.
So I think, I'll keep them 😀

I even still have the Nero CD supplied with the drives. But I didn't like it and cdrecord is fully sufficient for my personal purposes.
But I'll install it on the 5x86-PR75, already curious whether it can manage to write CDs.
Back in 1990, the 486-25 was barely able to write CDs using the monster Philips CDD-521... we had to walk on feet tips in the office when it was burning, or else the vibrations could render an expensive CD-R unusable... iirc one cost us 30DM back then (=15 euros without inflation).
So I bought a Philips DVDR1648 also, and I am already curious how it performs.
Because, I killed the previous one I found by stupidly prying it open with a heavy screwdriver, as the door belt was defective, and I failed to get it open even with the emergency office clip.

Reply 201 of 222, by mockingbird

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retardware wrote on 2021-10-14, 20:29:

But I'll install it on the 5x86-PR75, already curious whether it can manage to write CDs.

Ah yes, the memories of buffer underrun errors are abound.

I wouldn't try burning on anything older than the 430TX (PIIX4 Southbridge with UDMA2). That or PCI SCSI.... Maybe VLB SCSI on a 486 board with a 5x86 class chip.

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Reply 202 of 222, by retardware

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mockingbird wrote on 2021-10-14, 20:43:

Ah yes, the memories of buffer underrun errors are abound.

I wouldn't try burning on anything older than the 430TX (PIIX4 Southbridge with UDMA2). That or PCI SCSI.... Maybe VLB SCSI on a 486 board with a 5x86 class chip.

Well, with a 5400 4800 rpm 5.25" CDC/Imprimis WrenRunner SCSI HDD (stason info), probably the fastest SCSI HDD that existed in 1990, on AHA-1542 and the CDD-521 on a second AHA-1542 buffer underruns were not the issue, at least not if the HDD got defragmented before writing CDs using a 486-DX25 on DOS.
It was the sensitivity of the CDD-521 that caused us the most inconveniences. We had to place a sign in the hall "CD burning - do not enter!"

So I have some hope that CD (and possibly even DVD burning?) will be possible on that SiS496/497 board with PCI, and Fujitsu 15k rpm drives on ASC-39320... I am already curious how the setup will perform 😀 Will report 😀

Reply 203 of 222, by SBLive

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retardware wrote on 2021-10-14, 18:34:

But I do not know which drives are so nice like the CD writer mentioned above.

As far as I know any Plextor made after the Premium (that means all Plextor DVD burners) is a rebadged OEM drive.

That's why I collect only the "nice" Plextors that were actually designed and manufactured by Plextor.

Reply 204 of 222, by ODwilly

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I failed to write a Windows 10 iso to two different brands of DVD's on my main rig. Turns out the 2016 sata drive does not like my no name Dual layer 8x discs or Sony DVD+R's
RIP: Coasters 🙁

Main pc: Asus ROG 17. R9 5900HX, RTX 3070m, 16gb ddr4 3200, 1tb NVME.
Retro PC: Soyo P4S Dragon, 3gb ddr 266, 120gb Maxtor, Geforce Fx 5950 Ultra, SB Live! 5.1

Reply 205 of 222, by SBLive

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ODwilly wrote on 2021-10-15, 06:07:

I failed to write a Windows 10 iso to two different brands of DVD's on my main rig. Turns out the 2016 sata drive does not like my no name Dual layer 8x discs or Sony DVD+R's
RIP: Coasters 🙁

Upgrade the firmware. The media database is in the firmware and it's possible your drive does not know how to burn (laser power, etc.) those discs.

Reply 206 of 222, by mockingbird

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Check the DVD MID and then find the results over at the appropriate thread at the Club MyCE forum... Some "inferior" media will burn perfectly fine on one burner and is able to be read back fine on other burners... An example for me last week was Ritek G05 which worked well on my Nec/Optiarc drive but not on others. That Philips DVD1648 is the same as a BenQ 1640.

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Reply 207 of 222, by retardware

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SBLive wrote on 2021-10-14, 22:35:

As far as I know any Plextor made after the Premium (that means all Plextor DVD burners) is a rebadged OEM drive.

That's why I collect only the "nice" Plextors that were actually designed and manufactured by Plextor.

The Plextor PX-708A that arrived yesterday did not recognize any media.
So I said to myself, I'll open it, just my curiosity about the innards are worth the 10 euros I spent for the recorder (including shipping).
I liked what I saw.
But, look yourself.
file.php?mode=view&id=121736
This looks like the old Plextor CD writer I mentioned above.
Boy, it is dirty!
But, all mechanical parts easy to reach and clean!
I need a vacuum cleaner, but it is too late for this today.
So maybe it is indeed bona fide Plextor.
I absolutely won't be surprised if it works fine after cleaning and relubing, because even the lens is covered with a thick layer of dust.
But maybe I'll just destroy it, if I slip... then this won't be OT anymore 😀
file.php?mode=view&id=121737

mockingbird wrote on 2021-10-15, 17:27:

That Philips DVD1648 is the same as a BenQ 1640.

What a delight! I get the feeling that I somehow buy only good drives... the other drives I have just found in computers I gutted or bought used.

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Reply 208 of 222, by SBLive

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retardware wrote on 2021-10-15, 22:16:
The Plextor PX-708A that arrived yesterday did not recognize any media. So I said to myself, I'll open it, just my curiosity abo […]
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The Plextor PX-708A that arrived yesterday did not recognize any media.
So I said to myself, I'll open it, just my curiosity about the innards are worth the 10 euros I spent for the recorder (including shipping).
I liked what I saw.
This looks like the old Plextor CD writer I mentioned above.

That does totally look like the chassis and mechanism from a Premium/PX-W5224TA/PX-W4824TA, but the laser pickup is completely different.

The pickup is a lot bigger and the ribbon cable is twice as wide. Can you post a picture of the board?

I usually disassemble dirty drives like this completely and wash everything with Windex (except the laser!), then rinse with warm water, immediately shake it out, dry with paper towels, then evaporate all visible moisture with a blow-dryer on medium power, and then leave it to air-dry overnight.

Reply 209 of 222, by ruthan

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This is not repair thread, whine elsewhere.. This is about nice fragging.

Im old goal oriented goatman, i care about facts and freedom, not about egos+prejudices. Hoarding=sickness. If you want respect, gain it by your behavior. I hate stupid SW limits, SW=virtual world, everything should be possible if you have enough raw HW.

Reply 210 of 222, by retardware

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ruthan wrote on 2021-10-16, 22:24:

... nice fragging.

Oops yes! Anti-Conner violence. Not today, but nice anyway 😀

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Reply 211 of 222, by bjwil1991

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Attempted to power on my floppy drive-less NEC Versa M/75 and it's dead. Not powering on at all and I didn't do anything to kill it. It stopped working all of a sudden.

Had issues to begin with anyway and it was a huge pile of shit to make it run.

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

Reply 212 of 222, by Claris

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I accidentally killed a 486 motherboard once by having my cat sneak into my room, brush her tail against the board trying to cuddle me and ESD something important on it to death. Pretty sure it was the cat anyway. Iv gotten some static shocks from her before.

Haven't let a cat in my gameroom ever since. Little power generators.

Reply 213 of 222, by zapbuzz

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in the early 90's i got a tandy color computer III and there was limited stuff for it.
A coouple of cartridges and a cassette recorder.
eventually the tapes and carts wore out and i couldnt get anything because the store stop selling stuff
so it had a ritual burn at the stake in a bonfire the capacitors were exploding i said to my dad "that was more action than this thing ever had"
dad said "don't ask me to buy you another computer" i said "but dad it'd be a real one." soon after i got an atari 2600 i forgot all about tandy but if that pc had internet it'd survive.
I attach its easter egg the programmers could have got into a lot of trouble for the added cost by marketing but at least it shows they had the same capability of gameboy cameras 🤣

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Reply 214 of 222, by canthearu

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zapbuzz wrote on 2021-11-18, 12:13:
in the early 90's i got a tandy color computer III and there was limited stuff for it. A coouple of cartridges and a cassette re […]
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in the early 90's i got a tandy color computer III and there was limited stuff for it.
A coouple of cartridges and a cassette recorder.
eventually the tapes and carts wore out and i couldnt get anything because the store stop selling stuff
so it had a ritual burn at the stake in a bonfire the capacitors were exploding i said to my dad "that was more action than this thing ever had"
dad said "don't ask me to buy you another computer" i said "but dad it'd be a real one." soon after i got an atari 2600 i forgot all about tandy but if that pc had internet it'd survive

This story made me a bit angry .... but then I remember that I have been just as evil in my younger years and applaud you for having the fortitude to own up to your warcrimes!

Reply 216 of 222, by zapbuzz

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canthearu wrote on 2021-11-18, 13:15:
zapbuzz wrote on 2021-11-18, 12:13:
in the early 90's i got a tandy color computer III and there was limited stuff for it. A coouple of cartridges and a cassette re […]
Show full quote

in the early 90's i got a tandy color computer III and there was limited stuff for it.
A coouple of cartridges and a cassette recorder.
eventually the tapes and carts wore out and i couldnt get anything because the store stop selling stuff
so it had a ritual burn at the stake in a bonfire the capacitors were exploding i said to my dad "that was more action than this thing ever had"
dad said "don't ask me to buy you another computer" i said "but dad it'd be a real one." soon after i got an atari 2600 i forgot all about tandy but if that pc had internet it'd survive

This story made me a bit angry .... but then I remember that I have been just as evil in my younger years and applaud you for having the fortitude to own up to your warcrimes!

I since got an IBM XT I think in 1994 and I overclocked it so bad it lasted 2 to 3 hours i realised after i could feel the heat from the chip why it didn't work anymore the whole time whilst it was dieing i thought i did something good and it was meant to run that fast. Oh wELL.

Last edited by zapbuzz on 2021-11-18, 16:39. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 217 of 222, by zapbuzz

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I once had a compaq 286 with a con artists fake horse tipping program in it my brother wanted me to figure out that he thought it was legit. After explaining to him that it was a scam he said it was useless to him and I had nothing to run on it that my parents were such illiterate technologically wise they thought video games damage tv's!
So i had no chance getting games or anything useful. So I thought stuff this frustrating ugly peice of crap and started to slowly kill it by removing components.
I took the hard disk pulled off chips it started making buzzing sounds. Ithen started pulling chips off the motherboard until finally it showed on the screen system board failiure.
To save face I repurposed the power supply by taking its components out and turning it into a TV antenna amplifier.
The memory board I kept that I thought was neat I ended up boosting my sisters computers memory in her compaq 386 until it got bad sectors on its hard disk. She then gave it to me I actually fixed it with a spare disk. that and 2 other computers were confiscated by police under suspicion of being involved in crime I had no receipts for their retreival or proof ownership.
I lost a 486 dx 66 I built out of 2 ibm clones and another one i forgot the description about.
they even took my shareware disks, jewel disc cases, software discs, amplified speakers etc.
Crown forfeit means the crown gets it sold for money.
Life as a teenager i suppose.
I was left with a cardboard box with dos commands scribbled on it.
Ithink this all happened 1996-97

Reply 218 of 222, by zapbuzz

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in 1998 I was given a 386 dx with 4 mb ram. It has an 80mb servo driven sqeaky drive. I killed the disk by ramping up drive compression I think the servo disk couldn't keep up with the read write compression demand and gave it bad sectors making it useless. I replaced the disk with a larger quantum loaded windows 98se gave extra 4mb ram and gave it back to its previous owners with a book how to use windows for dummies (the in laws never found a use for it now they could) I just didn't want another disaster. As far as windows 98se disk compression is concerned f*** tinkerbell. I killed several disks with that crud. I go visit friends they have hard drive lockups i ask do you have disk compression they be like yes I be like explaining my story to them so they just bought new pcs than refit them I be like dammit I didn't get their old ones!
to cheer up anyone theres been no un natual fatalityhere since 2006 only 1 gpu card has died of natural causes

Last edited by zapbuzz on 2021-11-18, 17:31. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 219 of 222, by FFXIhealer

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Ok, so my story for today starts about a week ago. I was digging around in some old boxes in storage and came across my old external Parallel-port ZIP drive. Big, purple, bulky. Had a ZIP disk inserted in it. Can't eject it without power, right? Had the parallel cable but didn't have the power supply. But I KNOW I've seen that power supply somewhere before in my house. Just had to find it.

A week later, digging in completely different area, found the power supply. Yay! Plugged it in, pushed the button, disk pops right on out.

So I thought to myself "Hmm, I'll bet after all this time the inside could use some serious cleaning, especially given where it had been sitting this whole time." So I went to take it apart with no directions or instructions.

The top half of the shell literally broke in half. Also, the clear plastic window on top had already come damned near completely loose.

No problem. I have epoxy resin somewhere around here. I can just epoxy cement that thing back together. So I found the resin. It's literally 3-4 years old at this point, stinks like hell, almost impossible to squeeze out of the tubes for me to mix, but I got some done. Cemented the window back, taped the top together with duct tape, then cemented the inner side. Let it sit for a day.

Checked the internal electronics and everything looks ok - no busted or popped capacitors. Read/write heads look ok. Cleaned them with rubbing alcohol and q-tips. Cleaned everything with alcohol and a toothbrush.

Re-assembled the drive - ended up cracking the external housing some more. Like, wow, this is some fragile-a** plastic. Maybe it spent too much time in the sun? I don't know.

Finally pulled out my Windows 95 (1997) computer and the driver floppy I had says it can't find any adapters while it's hooked up. I have no idea what mode the parallel port is supposed to be in, but I also notice I'm having "Primary IDE" and "Secondary IDE" driver issues (yellow exclamation mark on both). Tried to fix THOSE and ended up making Windows 95 unbootable.

Wow. Such fun times. Now I have to reinstall Windows 95 from scratch and re-download the Ethernet drivers for it and put them on a floppy, since the floppy they WERE on is now "not formatted" and any attempt to format it ends with an error, no matter which system I attempt it on.

Ahhhh, fun times in retro-land. I can't even find my Windows 95 CD-Rs, but lucky for me I was smart enough to copy the entire \Win95 folder from the disc onto the hard drive, so I can re-install Windows from that.

Also wondering how many years are left on this 20GB hard drive. Thinking about getting an 8GB Compact Flash card and adapter....just in case? Don't know how well those work and write-levelling, etc. Compact Flash cards on Ebay seem old as hell and probably already have tons of writes on them.

Anyway, tried hooking that Zip drive to my WIn98 PC, and the only drive the floppy sees is the internal ATAPI on installed - no mention of the Parallel Port one. I'm thinking maybe the drive's dead after all this time and I have no idea how to diagnose where the issue is or not. The entire drive has literally been duct-taped together. Wishing I had a friend with a 3D printer to make me a new external housing for the drive.

That's my story.

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