You can't test capacitors in circuit with DC components on a circuit board. Whomever told you this is dead wrong.

I see components marked like this often. It's probably part of the binning process in factories. This is very common in electronics and indicates that a particular component has been verified by hand.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-04-08, 11:21:

You can't test capacitors in circuit with DC components on a circuit board. Whomever told you this is dead wrong.

I see components marked like this often. It's probably party of the binning process in factories. This is very common in electronics and indicates that a particular component has been verified by hand.

Sombrero wrote on 2022-04-08, 10:57:

Someone tested it with a multimeter without taking it off the card and deemed it in need of replacing, even though you can't get reliable readings that way?

🙂

Good to know about that, thanks! Never seen a mark like that before other than on cards that have been clearly tampered with.

Next up are a couple of Compact Flash 64GB cards and a few motherboards recently purchased. For the AU31, I was actually looking for an Athlon 3200+ Barton. There's only 2 on eBay at $55.00 and the next up is probably $80.00 with currency conversion. The AU31 listing left off the XP in the title and the board, I/O shield and the 3200+ was $10.00 cheaper shipped with currency conversion than buying the processor alone. 3200+ seems to be hard to come by now. I never owned a Thunderbird Athlon; that explains the GA-71XE4 pickup, which includes 1100Mhz B chip. I'll have it compete against a Tualatin board. I have a 1200Mhz CPU on the way (B), but 1300 (B)and 1400MHz (B) versions are even harder to find than the XP 3200+. I don't want to put the time in to look anywhere else except eBay, of course. I bought the Asus board because I thought I was getting a 400MHz memory bus and DDR400 support. I now know I need a KT880 for that - oh well. It looks like this version of the AU31 is the board it will stay in since it has the missing requirements.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-04-08, 11:21:

You can't test capacitors in circuit with DC components on a circuit board. Whomever told you this is dead wrong.

For capacitance no, but they can be tested with an ESR meter in circuit, can they not?

Realistically, the only test you can do on a cap in circuit is a short/open test. Even that can be wrong.

I was using a x-fi card until recently, that cap Is likely just fine.

I tried to do an ESR test in circuit recently on capacitors that I had already planned to remove and the readings were completely wrong.

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-04-08, 18:52:

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-04-08, 11:21:

You can't test capacitors in circuit with DC components on a circuit board. Whomever told you this is dead wrong.

For capacitance no, but they can be tested with an ESR meter in circuit, can they not?

Depends on the circuit, most often it will be wrong or misleading.

Ordered a Tandy CM-11 monitor off Ebay. I was admittedly nervous at the prospect of having a CRT monitor shipped.

It turned out to be one of the single best packaging jobs I've seen. It had been wrapped in bubble wrap, then encased in rigid foam insulation, then placed in a box, then that box placed in a larger box along with more bubble wrap. Kudos to the seller for such a marvelous packaging job!

And testing it out, it looks fantastic! 😁

Wow that seller did a fantastic job getting that crt packed up. Sadly I've seen some horror shows here were the sellers basically just dropped a monitor in a box.

HanJammer wrote on 2022-04-07, 15:21:

A few items from a local trash trader... I don't even mention price I paid... but lets say it was comparable to a good business lunch.

Both machines in nice Enlight cases (the more recent case is missing the USB ports cover, but I will make one on a 3D printer). Dual socket Abit BP6 needs recap but it's supposed to work... we will see.

Great find!

The other motherboard needs recapping too, but the BP6 is the real perl in this pickup IMO. At least in that case intel tried to get good Japanese caps, but sadly they weren't.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2022-04-08, 23:19:

Wow that seller did a fantastic job getting that crt packed up. Sadly I've seen some horror shows here were the sellers basically just dropped a monitor in a box.

Yeah, I was super impressed at the double boxing, plus the rigid foam. Seems a really good way to ship these!

HanJammer wrote on 2022-04-07, 21:12:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2022-04-07, 15:29:

HanJammer wrote on 2022-04-07, 15:21:

Dual socket Abit BP6 needs recap but it's supposed to work... we will see.

One of the coolest boards ever! Congrats

I got into PCs with SMP around 2001 with Athlon MP configurations (I still have one of the MSI boards with a dual MPs from that time) but I never had any SMP motherboard with Slot 1 / S370 CPUs. And BP6 seems quite interesting not only because it looks cool, but also the crazy idea Abit had to design it exclusively for Celerons (I've read that PIIIs were never supported in MP config on this board).

And even more, the totally rogue move of designing a motherboard for dual Celerons, which according to Intel wasn't SMP capable and they definitely didn't want people to run them in dual. IIRC, Abit even wrote in the manual that it wasn't supported and should be considered a feature for test purposes only 🤣

Had a lost item arrive today .. one of the two missing coast modules arrived ... 6 months and a refund later ...not sure what to do about it but I guess it'll get added to the board that is missing one.

Also finally added a GeForce 3 Ti500 to my collection, dont worry about it not getting used, I have a retro PC in mind for it that will likely end up being a Xbox emulation rig as I managed to retrieve all the ISO files off the dead Xecuter Xbox I have. Im still researching the best way to set it up in a manner that replicates an Xbox as close as possible. Also looking into if the original Xbox controllers can be connected to a PC via USB, the rig really does need original controllers if its possible.

Here's something that I really wanted, but didn't buy in the end:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313941800168?orig_cvip=true

Tell me this isn't the most beautiful tower case ever made! I didn't buy it because the seller sold it as defective, and he's sold lots of older PCs that look like they were sourced from a scrap yard. But if it's working, whoever bought it got a great deal - it's a Pentium 60 system which is worth quite a bit on its own.

asdf53 wrote on 2022-04-09, 16:59:

Here's something that I really wanted, but didn't buy in the end:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313941800168?orig_cvip=true

Tell me this isn't the most beautiful tower case ever made!

It's not 😁

I stumble upon them from time to time and sell them because I don't really like this design.

asdf53 wrote on 2022-04-09, 16:59:

I didn't buy it because the seller sold it as defective, and he's sold lots of older PCs that look like they were sourced from a scrap yard. But if it's working, whoever bought it got a great deal - it's a Pentium 60 system which is worth quite a bit on its own.

Even if defective, it could make for a good restoration project.

asdf53 wrote on 2022-04-09, 16:59:

Here's something that I really wanted, but didn't buy in the end:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313941800168?orig_cvip=true

Tell me this isn't the most beautiful tower case ever made! I didn't buy it because the seller sold it as defective, and he's sold lots of older PCs that look like they were sourced from a scrap yard. But if it's working, whoever bought it got a great deal - it's a Pentium 60 system which is worth quite a bit on its own.

Maybe "beautiful" isn't quite the right term, but it's certainly sleek and stylish and used to be high end.
The backplate is missing but if it had one back then, chances are it wasn't cheap.
Just a pity as the breakouts for the ports were used and without that plate, they stick out from the surface, which is pretty irritating. d-sub sockets should not be a bumper.

Judging by the photos, the sticker on the VGA, it was sold in that config.
The P60 and Socket 4 was rather elite in its time, well overlapping 486 times.

It's a good board:
http://www.amoretro.de/2012/03/si5pi-aio-rev- … otherboard.html

P60 goldcaps go for mid two figures these days but s4 boards are really rare. So if in working order, that's not even a bad price.

But, I did not notice the offer since I strictly refuse to filter for keywords like "retro" or "vintage". (as a matter of style and general principle)
And, I'd have passed it as well, it's quite a bit of money for am electric door block.

I never quite understood how people can move these things and not even have a generic power cable and old tft with VGA cable.
That would be perfectly sufficient for the most basic confirmation of working order. Anyone below that skill should not be allowed to use my internet.

So, maybe we're lucky or nothing would be cheap any more or maybe for some sellers, it's on purpose for plausible deniability - if it does indeed not work, they don't want to know.

HanJammer wrote on 2022-04-09, 17:07:

I stumble upon them from time to time and sell them because I don't really like this design.

Really? What would be a better looking one in your opinion? I've been scouring ebay for about two months now and have looked at 300-400 machines, and 95% of them are either ugly by design or in very bad shape. So far, this is the only one that I really like. I love the boxy, minimalist design of it, looks very classy.

asdf53 wrote on 2022-04-09, 17:17:

HanJammer wrote on 2022-04-09, 17:07:

I stumble upon them from time to time and sell them because I don't really like this design.

Really? What would be a better looking one in your opinion? I've been scouring ebay for about two months now and have looked at 300-400 machines, and 95% of them are either ugly by design or in very bad shape. So far, this is the only one that I really like. I love the boxy, minimalist design of it, looks very classy.

Since that old Trödler in Hamburg was unable to even turn the bloody photo on its feet, this is what we're discussing:

IMHO:
It's pretty neat.
In good preservation, low yellowing. Fairly symmetrical. Clean surface, no unnecessary bells, whistles, ornaments in ugly off colors. That could be much worse.
The protruding sections up top and for the buttons and the nameplate seem a bit random, or the step between the two layers.
But somehow, that was very common back then.

One could do much, much worse - especially for a case with a working MHz display - that feature alone is about 50 bucks nowadays...

For the timeframe and apart from the MHz LEDs, I'd still prefer the Artist I received this week. If it were less yellowed, which sadly, it is:
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-09, 17:14:

Maybe "beautiful" isn't quite the right term, but it's certainly sleek and stylish and used to be high end.
The backplate is missing but if it had one back then, chances are it wasn't cheap.
Just a pity as the breakouts for the ports were used and without that plate, they stick out from the surface, which is pretty irritating. d-sub sockets should not be a bumper.

I wouldn't even have noticed the missing back panel - did most cases from that era have one? What I found a bit strange is that the seller had sold a sound card as tested and working, but seemed to lack the knowledge to test this PC. That made me a bit suspicious. But if it was working, I would have paid 200, mainly because I'm getting tired of being on the hunt every day for weeks now.

But in the meantime I did finally score a Pentium 60 machine - sadly not as beautiful as this, but in working condition. I will of course post it here when it arrives!

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-09, 17:31:

For the timeframe and apart from the MHz LEDs, I'd still prefer the Artist I received this week. If it were less yellowed, which sadly, it is:
Bought these (retro) hardware today

That's a very nice one, too. I like the understated look and especially that power button, almost screams "push me"!