OK so I was digging through my stash of floppies to find three no-name, black, HD floppies - I wanted to make disks for an MS-DOS 6.21 OEM original license/manual pack.. And I found these:

I have absolutely no fucking idea where and when I got them and how long I've been sitting on them. Just wow.

Gift from the Amnesia Fairy, like a Logitech trackball I completely forgot I had.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-02-28, 19:24:

Gift from the Amnesia Fairy, like a Logitech trackball I completely forgot I had.

This also reminds me of a Logitech trackball I have... somewhere.

Sorted out an ABIT VP6 i got a few months ago.
Was unstable and suffered from random shutdowns.
The cause was probably a botched recap.
3 caps were swapped by some previous owner, probably with a 2KW heatgun or something like that.
The PCB epoxy has actually boiled by the looks of it.
Well thankfully most caps were untouched.
Interestingly also that apart from the 3 badly swapped caps I found 2 unattached legs (cold solder joints) on the original caps for the CPU power delivery.
I found no caps that were broken, tho they all had fairly high ESR.

Pre fix pic:

One recap and thorough clean later (one word: yuck!) its sorted and running fine.
2 x 1GHz P3's under 2 shiny and brand new Global WIN CAK-2 38's:

Now to figure out what to do with it.
Maybe I could do a newer version of my BP6 system.

Not computer related, but I replaced the worn belt in my newly acquired Sony Walkman WM-F2108 cassette/radio/alarm unit with a replacement 1mm thick belt from Amazon (since shipping from Europe is postponed on account of something that's going on that I rather not say anything).

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2022-02-28, 20:57:

Sorted out an ABIT VP6 i got a few months ago. Was unstable and suffered from random shutdowns. The cause was probably a botched […]
Show full quote

Sorted out an ABIT VP6 i got a few months ago.
Was unstable and suffered from random shutdowns.
The cause was probably a botched recap.
3 caps were swapped by some previous owner, probably with a 2KW heatgun or something like that.
The PCB epoxy has actually boiled by the looks of it.
Well thankfully most caps were untouched.
Interestingly also that apart from the 3 badly swapped caps I found 2 unattached legs (cold solder joints) on the original caps for the CPU power delivery.
I found no caps that were broken, tho they all had fairly high ESR.

Pre fix pic:

One recap and thorough clean later (one word: yuck!) its sorted and running fine.
2 x 1GHz P3's under 2 shiny and brand new Global WIN CAK-2 38's:

Now to figure out what to do with it.
Maybe I could do a newer version of my BP6 system.

Err, you appear to have a fan hovering approx one imperial foot above your motherboard. 😁 That is an interesting setup.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-02-28, 18:29:

debs3759 wrote on 2022-02-28, 17:53:

NyLan wrote on 2022-02-28, 12:40:

I've found very few example of 6.2 version but I modified mine for MS-DOS 6.2 and will send you files in PM

Could you send me a copy for 6.2 as well please?

Me too, please. 😀

debs3759 wrote on 2022-02-28, 17:53:

NyLan wrote on 2022-02-28, 12:40:

I've found very few example of 6.2 version but I modified mine for MS-DOS 6.2 and will send you files in PM

Could you send me a copy for 6.2 as well please?

I'll post my labels so everyone can use them. Just hope they won't finish on ebay.. Just checked this morning, there's so many people selling Homemade Ms-Dos 6.22 floppy but claming it's OEM and Genuine...
Can't be 100% sure since I even have myself genuine floppies from Microsoft using different fonts and sizes from time to time... but there's no way Microsoft printed this ( 2 different examples )

Edit : Posted on my Github. Link in my Sign.

Actually, I was gonna say earlier in the thread, that back in the day MS label printing could look a bit crappy, like it was done on a printer, rather than production printed... and this was from disks I got in a full package with all the paperwork certificates and holograms etc circa 1993.

Edit: Just thinking though, there were several standards of "genuine" MSDOS disks, the retail, off the shelf version, and the OEM packaged versions. It's possible that MS gave the license but the OEMs actually had the install media produced themselves... As became increasingly common with later OS.

Was just looking at the print "quality" of the labels my pharmacist uses, and that label printer makes exactly the same jaggies and faint spots etc as I remember on MSDOS disk labels I believed genuine in 1993. I know I had an OEM package, but not sure of the original OEM as they were bought as surplus. Possibly Viglen or Elonex.

Finally my OEM copy has disks to go with it..

NyLan wrote on 2022-03-01, 09:38:

Edit : Posted on my Github. Link in my Sign.

Thanks

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-03-01, 14:34:

Actually, I was gonna say earlier in the thread, that back in the day MS label printing could look a bit crappy, like it was done on a printer, rather than production printed... and this was from disks I got in a full package with all the paperwork certificates and holograms etc circa 1993.

Hey so true. Look at these I have in a box. German version. Horrible font, not aligned, etc..

Microsoft: Half assing shit for decades..

Changed my 233MMX PC memory banks from 2x128MB PC100 CL3 to a single 64MB PC66 CL2.
Performance jumped up a nice 18,6% in at least 3Dmark99 Max. Never thought too much memory would have such an performance impact.
going from 1150 to 1369 3Dmarks and from 1507 to 1645 CPU 3Dmarks.
On a Voodoo2 12MB in SLI mode.

Aebtdom wrote on 2022-03-01, 19:17:

Changed my 233MMX PC memory banks from 2x128MB PC100 CL3 to a single 64MB PC66 CL2. Performance jumped up a nice 18,6% in at lea […]
Show full quote

Changed my 233MMX PC memory banks from 2x128MB PC100 CL3 to a single 64MB PC66 CL2.
Performance jumped up a nice 18,6% in at least 3Dmark99 Max. Never thought too much memory would have such an performance impact.
going from 1150 to 1369 3Dmarks and from 1507 to 1645 CPU 3Dmarks.
On a Voodoo2 12MB in SLI mode.

Sounds like it had too much memory to cache and once the cache was full it tanked performance when using the uncached memory.

Been looking around for an ultrabay slim hard drive bay to go with a Thinkpad T42 that I plan on getting soon.

Well today I realised that the older semprons arent totally useless, they make great cat combs

tunertom wrote on 2022-03-03, 01:41:

Well today I realised that the older semprons arent totally useless, they make great cat combs

I love it! A great way to recycle dead processors. 😀

tunertom wrote on 2022-03-03, 01:41:

Well today I realised that the older semprons arent totally useless, they make great cat combs

Best use of broken, pinny CPUs I have heard. Much better than key ring or wall display.

Heh, I got a dead thoroughbred I could epoxy to a dead stick of RAM as a handle to do that with.

A technical drawing of BitWrangler's good idea.