Tetrium wrote on 2022-04-09, 08:36:

Which board did you brick?

Foxconn P9657AA-8EKRS2H

gex85 wrote on 2020-10-26, 12:57:

Over the last few days I did some BIOS modding for my Diamond Micronics C400 motherboard, which is identical to the BCM QS440BX. […]
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Over the last few days I did some BIOS modding for my Diamond Micronics C400 motherboard, which is identical to the BCM QS440BX. While Diamond stopped shipping BIOS updates at version 1.06, BCM continued to improve the BIOS for their board - but only for the later revisions with a 2 MBit flash chip. Seems they didn't want to bother with the space constraints on the 1 MBit chip anymore.

Since Diamond used the 1 MBit variant, I could not use the much newer and improved BCM BIOS version 2.10 on my board. So I salvaged a 2 MBit chip from another (dead) Slot 1 board and did a hot-flash, which to my surprise worked on the first attempt.

While I was at it, I modded the BIOS:
- Used the patched BCM QS440BX image from wimsbios with 128 GB HDD support as a base
- Inserted the full-screen logo (Diamond/Micronics) that I had extracted from the original C400 BIOS image
- Created and inserted a Diamond logo to replace the EPA logo
- Added various microcode updates so I can for example run my Tualeron 1400/100 in a modified Slotket
- Modified the BIOS string to show the Diamond C400 name instead of BCM

I know this is old but do you happen to have that modified BIOS at hand? I have the same board and would like to update the bios with the hotflash method and a 2mb chip, and I don't feel confident enough to modify a BIOS myself

Sorry if I'm necroposting quoting this btw but I'm not allowed to send DMs yet and I think it's the only way to reach you
Thanks!

Have a 23mb C: drive going to try to compress it and install WIndows 3.11 on it

Had one of those nightmare/comedic repair days, inside a far-far-too-cramped, awkward arcade machine of my own making.

One of those days where you begin work (slash, gaming), but realise something is not working right. So I fix it, and re-assemble the machine. I then realise *idiot* I've forgotten to re-plug something trivial inside the machine. So I open it up again, plug the thing in, put it back together again. Sigh! Sigh the First, as it happens.

Then I begin work (slash, gaming) again, and immediately notice that now audio's gone. What?! Awesomely, while doing the previous fix, in this nightmare cramped machine, bent over double with my arm shoved up this cavern of arcade doom, I've accidentally pulled a connector out from deeeep in the innards. 5 parts need to come out to even *get* to the socket for replugging. This is *at least* twice as annoying as the initial fix was. Sigh the Second. His reign was not short, and also, not sweet.

But fiinally it's done. And so I game.

Hey. One button's not working. One BUTTON'S NOT #%&$*^% WORKING. Doesn't take long to realise that Fix 2, which was caused by Fix 1, has itself caused 8% of Fix 1 (that is, one pin) to come unstuck, and oooohh yes, it's time for a visit to Fun Old Aunty Take-Apart again, for the 5th time this day. Grrrrr!

This time, I thoroughly test every aspect before putting the screws back in. While glaring harshly at the machine, just daring something to not work. This repair is going to get veeerry interesting, Will Smith style, if this farce goes on any longer. But at last, I'm here, looking at the attract screen finally. All the controls are good. Picture's good. Audio works.

Just in time to go and do the house work and meal preparation! 😁

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-04-10, 08:02:

Had one of those nightmare/comedic repair days, inside a far-far-too-cramped, awkward arcade machine of my own making.

Heh, I had my share of those days too.

Always reminds me of this clip with Hal trying to replace a lightbulb.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-04-10, 08:16:

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-04-10, 08:02:

Had one of those nightmare/comedic repair days, inside a far-far-too-cramped, awkward arcade machine of my own making.

Heh, I had my share of those days too.

Always reminds me of this clip with Hal trying to replace a lightbulb.

Hahaha!, nice one. Yes it was exactly that. With the addition of the Benny Hill theme music.

All part of the hobby. There is a certain satisfaction in being able to solve all the problems. But no doubt, sometimes some mighty fine bouts of high frustration too! 😁

Well...never thought I'd be busy with computers outside of work given the weather......I did replace the shocks in my 93' Explorer last weekend, this week+weekend though....so Auto season has started....

Latest events?

- Bought a DFI MediaBook (NanTan 9200M) for $55 on evil-bay, bought a $15.00 charager for it as well. Currently plotting to put an Active Matrix panel in there once I figure out the pinout from the graphics chipset to STN/DTSN adapter board. Put the FreeDOS drive from my M/75 in it - though toying with reloading with DOS 7 and Windows 3.1. - as then I can run Ultima 7 and some other games on it that don't run on freeDOS properly.

- Spent Wednesday morning tuning/tweaking, fixing up the Versa P/75. now the battery latch works again and it feels a little more solid. I need to figure out a good way to fix the screw anchors on the bottom though -and my M/75 is getting close to needing the same treatment.

- Brought the M/75 in last night and did tuning/tweaking to Windows 95, tried installing Exult (failed), tinkered some more with WSS (I seem to be getting better at that), downloaded a few WSS compatible games (William Shatner's TekWars, Flying Tigers I & 2, Get Losts, Giana Sisters, Abuse, and FitUp!), and did some dabbling with OHRRPGCE on it (been building a sci-fi RPG of sorts on there - which I'll probably never finish TBH - like every other game I started developing).

- Tonight I inspired a mass firesale of my big-box DOS games on e-bay with people offering to me left and right just before leaving for work. Never thought a bunch of old Sierra games would inspire such madness. Now I'm wondering why I did not do this sooner! I'm also planning to put 2 systems on the block (GEM 286 and my NEC Ready 9522).

After Asking a Coworker for a Laserdisc player, which he was more than glad to let me have thanks to his five spares, I decided to expand my collection of old Media. Of course, none of it was Laserdisc today because I didn't find something that just stood out to me. That said, I did pick up Ben-Hur on Betamax (because that exact phrase is fun to say) and The Menagerie on CED. I'll never have a reason to play my CEDs, and am explicitly never going to pay for a Betamax player, but they're interesting to have as part of a dead medium collection.

It's unfortunate that laserdiscs are to be counted as a medium that can suffer from physical rot. I think it's a result of the discs being manufactured as two separate plates and it's the glue in between that's decomposing.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-04-11, 06:06:

It's unfortunate that laserdiscs are to be counted as a medium that can suffer from physical rot. I think it's a result of the discs being manufactured as two separate plates and it's the glue in between that's decomposing.

Luckily, a lot seem to still be holding up well.

I honestly can't understand how disc rot happens, I should research into that somehow.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-04-11, 07:01:

I honestly can't understand how disc rot happens, I should research into that somehow.

Not sure about laserdiscs, but prolonged exposure to sunlight and heat can most certainly cause CDs and DVDs to become unreadable.

I've personally had several game discs go bad due to this.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-04-11, 07:10:

appiah4 wrote on 2022-04-11, 07:01:

I honestly can't understand how disc rot happens, I should research into that somehow.

Not sure about laserdiscs, but prolonged exposure to sunlight and heat can most certainly cause CDs and DVDs to become unreadable.

I've personally had several game discs go bad due to this.

Sometimes its the glue they use to bind the layers of the disc together, all it takes if for a tiny part of it to decay and itll spread to the rest of the disc spindle, I have had this happen recently, destroyed a lot of discs. The other is the binding simply gets to old and when the drive spins the disc up it tears parts of the recording section off the disc surface.

Fixed some bent pins on a motherboard I bought "as-is" for a discount. I knew that the damaged area had very few components and saved myself some money. The pins bent back easily and the board is fine with no visible damage to traces or components.

The quest is finally coming closer to an end.

Boards left to check:
3x LGA775
2x Socket A
1x Socket 7
1x Slot 1

Planing to get done with LGA775 today and continue with Socket A tomorrow.
So far 3 boards that aren't working at all and 5 with partial malfuctions.

I measured watts. Measuring equipment says max. around 73 watts. 73 by 0,85 is 62,05.

That is 62W for PIII 866 and GF2 Ultra.

https://streamable.com/x8mybh

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-04-11, 11:26:

The quest is finally coming closer to an end.

This is why you always check for life before shelving. I would say that around 30% or more of vintage stuff I buy online is damaged or defective.

I have a pile of things on my workbench to fix as a result.

In trying to distract myself from lots of things I'm supposed to do, I got the integrated DVD-ROM decoder card working on my Pentium 233 MMX equipped Toshiba Tecra 750DVD laptop.

It actually works! It was so difficult to find the drivers!! They were apparently scrubbed from the Internet because of licensing issues with the DVD player software and I don't think I'll ever find the recover CDs for this thing. Driverguide of all places had the driver and software: https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php … driverid=104622
Then followed this guide to get it operational with the proper video chip driver for the S3 Virge/MX: https://support.dynabook.com/support/viewCont … ontentId=107612
It's janky and apparently can't even zoom the DVD video to full screen, but it's state of the art for mid-1997. This thing apparently cost $5,799 when new 😀

Also tried watching the same DVD on the Satellite 2800-500 to give it some use and see how the sound is, it couldn't read the DVD, but I cleaned the laser's lens with an ESD-safe cotton swap soaked with IPA and to my surprise that worked, it could actually read DVD again. I don't think that's ever worked for me before.
Then got annoyed that there was a bit of dirt inside the LCD (a little black dot) on there, so took apart the LCD and cleaned it out from between the LCD panel and the backlight. Now the LCD looks as good as a 15" toshiba from 2001 can.

Well, I think I'm done actively looking for CEDs. I managed to find ESB locally, and that's probably my peak.

I also went over to my Co-Worker's place earlier to see if the discs I own actually work, and was pleased to learn that they actually do. Of course, they sped ESB up hilariously in order to fit it on to a single disk.

I got sidetracked into what I'd call a KoOGOKoNS (Kind of Old Games On Kind of New Systems) thing to try to save some space, but a 10-year-old Optiplex seems to have a dead mobo and an even earlier one seems to have a dead CPU. So thos projects go on hold (for the mini 980 I even had a low profile video card lined up, and I do technically have two other i5-650s but they're in AIO systems and I don't want to strip one of those just yet, they're actually nice).

I even got all the XP drivers lined up for the SFF Optiplex 980, the i5 650, with a GT 720 for now and maybe a 745 later. A compact late XP system. The 980 is actually about 2/3 the size of a typical SFF system, but bigger than a USFF, so I like the for factor. I have an i7 2600 that would serve fine but I'm annoyed because I like the smaller case - but the i7 has a better PSU and can fit a 3.5" HDD.

I really want compact systems that can serve as horizontal desktop-style systems, which I've actually had a hard time finding other than the SFF Optiplexes. If they were more common (and easier to search for since everything but laptops is a desktop now, there's no practical desktop/tower distinction), I would be looking for some cool older desktop ATX cases like Netvistas, but they're rare and pricey around here - and I'm trying to trim down my collection not spend money growing it. I'm also about out of DDR3, but BOY do I have PC1xx, DDR, and DDR2.

I checked craigslist and everyone was listing laptops, so I listed some newer desktops for sale, and within 24 hours about 40 other people did the same. Filled the whole front page. So far I have an offer to trade for a bicycle.

I did get my 3D printer running again after a disastrous experiment with PETG (I think the reel was bad) and clearing out 3 print heads. I printed a short bracket for a low-profile card but I had to trim it a lot to get it to fit, the 980 case requires a paper-thin bracket.

I don't feel very energetic but I did a lot of stuff. Hopefully tomorrow will be a green light day.

Here's a pic of testing a Radeon 3870 in a low-profile socket 775. Janky enough?