I replaced all of the TOKIN capacitors on my launch model PlayStation 3 and brought it back to life.
It was randomly freezing in games lately, up to the point where it was too frequent to be useable anymore.

Now it's back in business and going strong. What a great machine.

So this is kind of a hybrid activity, using modern parts but for a retro purpose. I ordered all the parts to build 5 clumsyMIDI interfaces for the MT32-Pi devices I'm going to build for DOS gaming and received most of the parts, just waiting on the DACs and OLED screens to arrive. Other than that I'm good to get started soldering all the components to the PCBs.

Brawndo wrote on 2022-07-24, 23:00:

So this is kind of a hybrid activity, using modern parts but for a retro purpose. I ordered all the parts to build 5 clumsyMIDI […]
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So this is kind of a hybrid activity, using modern parts but for a retro purpose. I ordered all the parts to build 5 clumsyMIDI interfaces for the MT32-Pi devices I'm going to build for DOS gaming and received most of the parts, just waiting on the DACs and OLED screens to arrive. Other than that I'm good to get started soldering all the components to the PCBs.

Nice pants!

myrsnipe wrote on 2022-07-24, 18:54:

Not strictly retro, but I got 3 of these shelves at Ikea at 1/4th the price due to going out of catalog, really tidied up some of my recent acquisitions. H

That's a really nice collection, very tidy!

My new retro items of the day are this IRQ Book and this tiny thumb trackball mouse. I thumbed through the book and it seems to have some pretty practical advice for setting up and troubleshooting devices and IRQs, as well as backing up the registry and other administrative tasks.

The little trackball mouse was too cool to pass up. Two buttons on top and one inside a finger hole that's not visible in the photo. It is an AMI TRUST FDM-G10. I'll try it out soon.

UPDATE: The trackball works great! However it's inverted... left button is right click, scroll left moves cursor right, etc., so I'll have to find a way to switch it.

Started working on my Compaq Proliant 1500, also have the scsi disk tower, but that will have to wait, because it seems the PSU died after I dusted it with the air compressor.

Finally got around to testing the ASUS P5A board I got a little over a month ago, and it works! It's always a stressful few moments just before finding out if a newly acquired mobo is going to POST.

retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2022-07-24, 20:18:

MarkP wrote on 2022-07-23, 22:22:

386SX wrote on 2022-07-22, 09:52:

About the early Atom I wonder if in linux had maybe a better "GPU" support beside its single 32bit core would limit it too to older kernels. More powerful Atoms like the DDR3 versions once became dual core x64 were more capable to run more modern o.s. (beside at a late Pentium 4 speed level maybe a bit better in multitasking) but limited anyway by the usual complex PowerVR iGPU situation which ended with a 32bit only Win (with a sort of latest good driver) or 64bit linux with a late DRM compatible cpu demanding 2D driver beside is still updated. I'm not sure about the GMA linux support of the N270 config, does a drm/mesa support exists?

There are 32 bit 5.x kernals that will run fine on that system

My P4 3.2GHz HT system in running Linux Mint Debian Edition just fun. I updated it from LMDE4 which went through without a hiccup as well.

huh, I didn't think anybody would even bother with linux on a Pentium 4 even with a light desktop environment like XFCE. I imagine to have a passable browser experience a core 2 duo would've been the minimum

A late Pentium4 3,6Ghz on Socket 775, when using a dual channel fast DDR2 memory and SSD with a supported OpenGL accelerated video card and on a lighter linux distribution, it's a faster than expected experience supporting even the SSSE3 cpu requirements. The only problems would be heat, fan noise, power demand, for what any Core2 or Pentium or Celeron on the same Socket would clearly do better. Even a late Prescott Pentium4 on Socket 478 and 2GB Dual DDR1 with SSD and a last AGP video card resulted in a theorically usable generic office machine imho.

386SX wrote on 2022-07-25, 09:22:

retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2022-07-24, 20:18:

MarkP wrote on 2022-07-23, 22:22:

There are 32 bit 5.x kernals that will run fine on that system

My P4 3.2GHz HT system in running Linux Mint Debian Edition just fun. I updated it from LMDE4 which went through without a hiccup as well.

huh, I didn't think anybody would even bother with linux on a Pentium 4 even with a light desktop environment like XFCE. I imagine to have a passable browser experience a core 2 duo would've been the minimum

A late Pentium4 3,6Ghz on Socket 775, when using a dual channel fast DDR2 memory and SSD with a supported OpenGL accelerated video card and on a lighter linux distribution, it's a faster than expected experience supporting even the SSSE3 cpu requirements. The only problems would be heat, fan noise, power demand, for what any Core2 or Pentium or Celeron on the same Socket would clearly do better. Even a late Prescott Pentium4 on Socket 478 and 2GB Dual DDR1 with SSD and a last AGP video card resulted in a theorically usable generic office machine imho.

^^ What 368SX posted.

Some years ago i got this Siemens Nixdorf Scenic Pro M5. Siemens (Nixdorf) was something like the german IBM. They made some very boring but high quality and expensive PCs that were targeted towards professional users.
Its from the time where Siemens wanted to be funky like Apple with their transluscent plastics. But the most funky thing the rational germans could come up with was a sliding door at the front. Funky but not too weird.

The transluscent plastic part is now very weak and most of the cases i see online are missing the sliding door.
The quality of the rest is outstanding. the case is built like a tank. The HDD tray can swing out to make service easy. No blown caps on the board or PSU.

One annoying thing is how they fix the cards in place. They used small plastic clips for tool less operation. But im missing 2 ot the plastic things and its basically impossible to get some.
This unit is a late 1996 early 1997 model with a Pentium 200 MMX. It doesnt have neither the integrated smart card reader nor the Irda transciever option in the front. Im not planning on retrofitting these, because i just dont need them.
It also has no onboard Audio option.
But it has a Matrox Mystique 220 (2MB) graphics card onboard... Wich has a pretty good picture quality and all Dos games i tried during the initial "does it even work" test worked. First i thoungt it was the 4MB version. But the 2 chips next to the CPU are the cache. Just the 2 Chips between the Matrox memory expansion headers are graphics ram.

The CD-Rom drive that came with it was a factory option.
It came with no RAM and no HDD. So i put in 256MB of RAM and fitted a Seagate 4.3GB HDD.

For me this is a special PC. A little bit weird and a little bit funky. So i chose some components for it that are also a little bit weird and funky.

To support the Matrox Mystique i added a 3Dfx voodoo 1 with 4 MB.
For networking i added a D-Link DE-530 wich is PCI and still has a BNC connector.
The Soundcard is a Ensoniq SoundScape VIVO 90. I think the design of the soudscape and the Mainboard match quite well.

I know this are not the best components. But it isnt the goal to build "the best". I wanted it to be average and a little bit weird.

The Soundcard has quite a nice sounding Wavetable.
The implementation of Adlib (FM) is more like an approximation. Ensoniq used the Wavetable to "emulate" the FM sounds... It sounds so bad that its funny again. If the games use standard FM sounds its okish. As soon games use custom FM sounds it gets quite experimental.

Now its time to set up the system and get some games on it.
The PC was intended for Windows 95 but i will use 98SE.

sirotkaslo wrote on 2022-07-25, 05:59:

Started working on my Compaq Proliant 1500, also have the scsi disk tower, but that will have to wait, because it seems the PSU died after I dusted it with the air compressor.

Re: Proliant 1500 or 1500R motherboard and front panel wiring information wanted.

Take apart the power supply, careful of large capacitors, might be charged. Then, inspect the solder joints and resolder with fresh solder and soldering iron. If you are not able to do this, find someone who knows the electronics repair do this for you.

Power supply have two boards internally.

Cheers,

I've recently made a recreation of the interface board and backplane from the Sharp CE700E expansion chassis for the Sharp PC7000/PC7100 line of portable computers. It's currently just a working prototype, but i can use one of those ISA to USB cards to get a 2GB mass storage drive on the PC7100 (although i need a floppy or gotek to load the driver for the card).

SteveC wrote on 2022-07-23, 22:59:

CrFr wrote on 2022-07-23, 22:40:

Welcome to the club :) […]
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SteveC wrote on 2022-07-23, 22:05:

Oh I didn't see this and I have just joined your SPRINGS EVERYWHERE club 😁 Just learnt the hard way to open an IBM PS/1 buckling spring keyboard!

I don't suppose you took a photo of what spring was where before you closed it up did you? I'm about to try to do it but yeah I need to figure out where the springs should go 😁

Welcome to the club 😀

Luckily, I took a photo before opening the case. Then mirrored it, so it was easier to find the right slots for the springs looking from the other side. Here's the photo.

Mine was very clean for such an old keyboard. I was surprised by how clean it was, and that was the reason why I took the photo 😀

Thanks 😀

This is literally the worst thing ever. Half way through putting the caps back on I found a spring on the floor. This can wait till tomorrow now!

Woohoo! All fixed up. I did somehow manage to trap a spring as I refitted the key caps and bent it a bit so one key no longer has its satisfying click but oh well 😀

Couple days ago I received 3 more sounds modules, 2 of which I had been looking for for a decent price. The seller sold all 3 as a lot, an AKAI SG01K (already had one), Casio MZ-50M and Korg NS5R.

The Casio and Korg work great but I haven't tested the AKAI yet as I wasn't so concerned about that one and the lot was sold with that one untested because they didn't have a power adapter for it.

DerBaum wrote on 2022-07-25, 14:14:

Some years ago i got this Siemens Nixdorf Scenic Pro M5.

That is a really beautiful machine.

Yesterday I finally had the time to finish the XP test runs on the GTS450. My experiences that it's very CPU limited in 1280×1024 and 1280×960. Most games use only a single core, even relatively late games like Oblivion. CPU utilization in most games maxes out at around 25-30% on the Q6600.

I also suspect the poor 1% and 0.1% lows are because of the hard drive. I'll probably upgrade to SSDs. Most of the times autosaves drop the frame rate or also with Oblivion it stalls for a moment to load the next chunk of world.

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-07-12, 10:44:

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-07-12, 09:03:

i tried to put an Gainward Nvidia GeForce 6800 GS 512MB NA/6800GXTD52-PM8370 gpu into an abit vp6 but the bios didn't agree. I t […]
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i tried to put an Gainward Nvidia GeForce 6800 GS 512MB NA/6800GXTD52-PM8370 gpu into an abit vp6 but the bios didn't agree. I therefore put it in a hot Prescott machine (foxconn agp Socket LGA775) it runs at 8x but its set for 4x for stability with the slower than DDR2 memory running at 400mhz.
That tower came with windows 7 but driver support dried up in xp so it was so much happier when i put xp on it even the usb hubs built in started to work. I guess due to SATA 150 built in I may even set up a RAID 0 one day for a kick I mean it has 2 threads and a 1000 watt PSU it gets warm maybe kick out the prescott for something cooler i dunno but its stable anyhow so I am gonna have some more fun on mr prescott the hair dryer 🤣.
These Socket LGA775 / AGP 8X boards are not in abundance these days everyone moved onto vista and seven and forgot them or threw them away that time was when PCIE first came out all them old cards were simular sizes to agp like 128, 256 , 512mb 🤣 still under $20 on ebay those PCIE
i wonder if Socket LGA775 came out before PCIE

Just a question: what bench can i test this gpu for free to see if its healthy? under xp please?

I ran this bench it raised its temps but survived i'm more confident my card is good.

managed to reduce heat by taking the finger shield off the psu fan it was restrictive and that really cooled things down did another bench cool to touch. similar bench result.

Pulled out the Tandy to start recording some footage for #SEPTandy this year.....christ....all sorts of issues...

- Most of the bigger games are corrupted and refuse to run
- having issues copying over files using mTCP (file corruption)
- Now looking around at working 8088 compatible pkunzip tool so I can copy ZIPs over and unzip them on the PC (more reliable in general)

creepingnet wrote on 2022-07-26, 07:12:

Pulled out the Tandy to start recording some footage for #SEPTandy this year.....christ....all sorts of issues... […]
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Pulled out the Tandy to start recording some footage for #SEPTandy this year.....christ....all sorts of issues...

- Most of the bigger games are corrupted and refuse to run
- having issues copying over files using mTCP (file corruption)
- Now looking around at working 8088 compatible pkunzip tool so I can copy ZIPs over and unzip them on the PC (more reliable in general)

I had trouble copying to my PS/1 286 using the mTCP FTP Server (copying from the 286 was fine) - by setting WinSCP to its slowest possible setting it helped a bit but was still really unreliable to the point of being useless. Ended up using Windows 3.0's terminal tool and a serial->usb adapter and copied files that way! One file at a time was a bit painful though 🙁

SteveC wrote on 2022-07-26, 09:56:

creepingnet wrote on 2022-07-26, 07:12:

Pulled out the Tandy to start recording some footage for #SEPTandy this year.....christ....all sorts of issues... […]
Show full quote

Pulled out the Tandy to start recording some footage for #SEPTandy this year.....christ....all sorts of issues...

- Most of the bigger games are corrupted and refuse to run
- having issues copying over files using mTCP (file corruption)
- Now looking around at working 8088 compatible pkunzip tool so I can copy ZIPs over and unzip them on the PC (more reliable in general)

I had trouble copying to my PS/1 286 using the mTCP FTP Server (copying from the 286 was fine) - by setting WinSCP to its slowest possible setting it helped a bit but was still really unreliable to the point of being useless. Ended up using Windows 3.0's terminal tool and a serial->usb adapter and copied files that way! One file at a time was a bit painful though 🙁

Yeah, I think slowing down is key. I hit success this morning when I finally got Leisure Suit Larry over there as a ZIP file and unpacked it with pkunzip 2.04(?) - which I got on there one file at a time. Reason is I restored the NEC Ready 9522 a few months ago, and sold it on e-bay, so the 3GB the Tandy had is gone. Now it has a more appropriate 100M Seagate 2.5" HDD out of an Ultralite Versa that was DOA.

Tried spinning up that drive in Linux, Mac OS, and Windows 10, seems nobody supports FAT-16 anymore, and even when they do they think it's a 2.2TB HDD (LOL). Drive is fine, ran scandisk on it on the Tandy, came out with 100% clean bill of health. Starting to get tempted to build a Windows 7 computer just for the purpose of file xfers since I know 7 does FAT-16 drives fine.

Oddly this morning the file transfers went pretty fast. And Space Quest 1 came over fast and uncorrupted. That was something I might play with commentary since it's my first time playing that seriously (played it on the Versa the other night and thought "This would be cool on the Tandy with the full 3-voice sound").

Maybe Tandy was cranky after sleeping in the closet for about a year.

For ultimate compatibility I hear the 32 bit versions are best because the 64 bit versions are bugged for proper legacy filesystem handlig.