I had a 9700 Pro, the tiny heatsink and fan got so hot that the fan's lubricant quickly dried up and it seized. There were no replacement fans, the card wouldn't work anymore and you either had to build a DIY cooling solution or throw it away. I think the mindset of repairing or preserving hardware didn't really exist at that time, everthing was outdated after 1-2 years anyway.

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-08-09, 01:55:

Not that difficult to understand if you know just how many died due to ATI being generally boneheaded about GPU die design and p […]
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TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2023-08-08, 19:37:

Bought *another* 9700 Pro off eBay. This time to the tune of $60 USD.

Hopefully this one works. 3rd times the charm right?

It is remarkable how difficult it is to find a working example of a card that sold like hotcakes. Even considering how comprehensively the cooling solution on them seems to suck.

Not that difficult to understand if you know just how many died due to ATI being generally boneheaded about GPU die design and putting fast heating metal around it while not bothering to have both adequate cooling nor temp monitoring of that metal shim or die.

If the cooler had been bigger with stronger retention we may have more working 9700 Pros out there, the fact the 9700 could overclock like a demon also didn't help.

They did actually fix all these issues with the XT PCB design which had both temp monitoring and a bigger cooler with retention bracing, not sure why the 9700 didnt get a XT model.

Yeah I'm debating if I want to go ahead and replace the thermal adhesive with a graphite thermal pad (which SHOULD stay in contact with the GPU die even as the metal shim heats up) before I even test it. My only concern is BGA damage from the massive amount of force it takes to remove the heatsink from ATI cards of this period in my experience. Is there a way to get that shitty yellow thermal adhesive to release?

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2023-08-09, 05:49:

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-08-09, 01:55:

Not that difficult to understand if you know just how many died due to ATI being generally boneheaded about GPU die design and p […]
Show full quote

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2023-08-08, 19:37:

Bought *another* 9700 Pro off eBay. This time to the tune of $60 USD.

Hopefully this one works. 3rd times the charm right?

It is remarkable how difficult it is to find a working example of a card that sold like hotcakes. Even considering how comprehensively the cooling solution on them seems to suck.

Not that difficult to understand if you know just how many died due to ATI being generally boneheaded about GPU die design and putting fast heating metal around it while not bothering to have both adequate cooling nor temp monitoring of that metal shim or die.

If the cooler had been bigger with stronger retention we may have more working 9700 Pros out there, the fact the 9700 could overclock like a demon also didn't help.

They did actually fix all these issues with the XT PCB design which had both temp monitoring and a bigger cooler with retention bracing, not sure why the 9700 didnt get a XT model.

Yeah I'm debating if I want to go ahead and replace the thermal adhesive with a graphite thermal pad (which SHOULD stay in contact with the GPU die even as the metal shim heats up) before I even test it. My only concern is BGA damage from the massive amount of force it takes to remove the heatsink from ATI cards of this period in my experience. Is there a way to get that shitty yellow thermal adhesive to release?

If it behaves like the stuff 3DFX used then you can use a can of compressed air turned upside down to freeze the area of the cooler where the epoxy is, once its frozen you should be able to gently twist the cooler and the epoxy will break away.

I have a 9800 (Non-Pro) that is built on a 9700 Pro PCB, I wonder if I can down-flash it to become a 9700Pro..

wirerogue wrote on 2023-08-08, 16:15:

another shopgoodwill purchase.

Is that a Pentium 3 with RAMBUS memory? i820?

I bought a few Aztech sound cards. I bought the pair mostly for the NX which I plan to use in my 286 for the time being, and ended up overpaying for the MMP16 (which is essentially the same card as my WaveRider 32+ without the wavetable..) but Aztech was an underrepresented brand in my collection, and I'm happy to own these.

I now own 45 ISA and 20 PCI sound cards, and aside from a few unicors I'm still chasing, namely a Genuine GUS, a PAS16 as well as a few select Terratec (Maestro, EWS), Turtle Beach (Tropez, Maui,Malibu) and Creative (2.0, Pro/2.0, AWE64Gold) cards, I feel like my audio collection is amazingly close to where I hoped it would be when I first got into the hobby.

I have a question about the NX though, maybe it will get answered here before I even make a new thread about it; how do you enable and use the IDE interface on that card? I can't seem to locate any drivers for this card specifically, and the only IDE related jumpers on the board are related to its IO Address (configurable between 300h/320h) but I can not see a way to control which IDE channel it would be, which IRQ it would use etc.. Quite possibly (considering the age of the card) it is not actually IDE but something like Mitsumi or Panasonic? But every reference I see online refers to this card's CD-ROM interface as IDE..

appiah4 wrote on 2023-08-09, 06:56:

I bought a few Aztech sound cards. I bought the pair mostly for the NX which I plan to use in my 286 for the time being, and en […]
Show full quote

I bought a few Aztech sound cards. I bought the pair mostly for the NX which I plan to use in my 286 for the time being, and ended up overpaying for the MMP16 (which is essentially the same card as my WaveRider 32+ without the wavetable..) but Aztech was an underrepresented brand in my collection, and I'm happy to own these.

Aztech Sound Galaxy NX.jpg

Aztech Sound Galaxy Multimedia Pro 16.jpg

I now own 45 ISA and 20 PCI sound cards, and aside from a few unicors I'm still chasing, namely a Genuine GUS, a PAS16 as well as a few select Terratec (Maestro, EWS), Turtle Beach (Tropez, Maui,Malibu) and Creative (2.0, Pro/2.0, AWE64Gold) cards, I really want I feel like my audio collection is amazingly close to where I hoped it would be when I first got into the hobby.

I have a question about the NX though, maybe it will get answered here before I even make a new thread about it; how do you enable and use the IDE interface on that card? I can't seem to locate any drivers for this card specifically, and the only IDE related jumpers on the board are related to its IO Address (configurable between 300h/320h) but I can not see a way to control which IDE channel it would be, which IRQ it would use etc.. Quite possibly (considering the age of the card) it is not actually IDE but something like Mitsumi or Panasonic? But every reference I see online refers to this card's CD-ROM interface as IDE..

I probably have the same Aztech one, but with a Packard bell sticker covering the chip.

The cards missing to your collection will probably not be the hardest to find... But probably the most expensive.

I experienced a similar thing with my ATI graphics card collection. Having almost everything but still needing a Fury Maxx and X850XT PE. Finding one is easy. Finding a cheap one is not 😅
I found a Maxx at a semi decent price... Still looking for the X850 XT PE....

appiah4 wrote on 2023-08-09, 06:56:

I now own 45 ISA and 20 PCI sound cards, and aside from a few unicors I'm still chasing, namely a Genuine GUS, a PAS16 as well as a few select Terratec (Maestro, EWS), Turtle Beach (Tropez, Maui,Malibu) and Creative (2.0, Pro/2.0, AWE64Gold) cards, I really want I feel like my audio collection is amazingly close to where I hoped it would be when I first got into the hobby.

The upside is most of those are readily available, but do tend to be on the more expensive side of things...

Got myself a Zalman VF700-ALCU I plan to use on my Radeon 9800 Pro.
Came with a Geforce 9600GT which is claimed to at least post.

There is some dirt around some SMD components near the blue DVI port. At first I thought something blew there, but the components seems to be fine to the naked eye. I don't really care if the card works. If it does, that's a bonus. I only wanted the cooler and only paid something like 6€ shipping included.

Well first you gotta find if the 9600 goes up to 400/400 with that beast on 🤣

Just received this EpoX 8RGA+ with IO shield, 2x256MB Kingston HyperX CL2 RAM and Athlon 1900+ (it is T-bred, but haven't checked whether A or B):

Those three caps below the NB don't exactly look like in top notch condition 👀

Well, I was sort of expecting that and was going to recap the board in any case, so I wouldn't call this a shocker. I'm actually surprised that those are the only caps that show signs of actually being bad.

All in all for 25€+shipping I find this very nice haul and good basis for my sA project when recapped.

PD2JK wrote on 2023-08-09, 06:35:

wirerogue wrote on 2023-08-08, 16:15:

another shopgoodwill purchase.

Is that a Pentium 3 with RAMBUS memory? i820?

yes it is. hopefully a geforce 256 ddr 64mb also.

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-08-09, 01:55:

if you know just the fact the 9700 could overclock like a demon also didn't help.

Can comfirm. I actually didn’t have 9700 Pro, but the non pro model with slightly lower clock speed (core 325 vs 275). I threw in unlocked BIOS and slapped a GPU block and could run the core @400MHz completely stable.

It was so frickin’ good card that only GTX 1080 ti is on the same level on my personal ”Best GPUs of all time” list. I got that card relatively soon after they were launched and used it through the rest of my Socket A days until I upgraded to A64 and X800 Pro sometime in late 2004 when Winchester cores were released.

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-08-09, 15:24:

Just received this EpoX 8RGA+ with IO shield, 2x256MB Kingston HyperX CL2 RAM and Athlon 1900+ (it is T-bred, but haven't checke […]
Show full quote

Just received this EpoX 8RGA+ with IO shield, 2x256MB Kingston HyperX CL2 RAM and Athlon 1900+ (it is T-bred, but haven't checked whether A or B):

8RGA.JPEG

Those three caps below the NB don't exactly look like in top notch condition 👀

CAPS.JPEG

Well, I was sort of expecting that and was going to recap the board in any case, so I wouldn't call this a shocker. I'm actually surprised that those are the only caps that show signs of actually being bad.

All in all for 25€+shipping I find this very nice haul and good basis for my sA project when recapped.

I licked the picture, tastes like a B... ... okay, my general sense is it is a B due to combo of green substrate, bridges that are blown and "look", given the stepping wasn't readable.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-08-09, 14:45:

Well first you gotta find if the 9600 goes up to 400/400 with that beast on 🤣

???

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-08-09, 16:40:

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-08-09, 14:45:

Well first you gotta find if the 9600 goes up to 400/400 with that beast on 🤣

???

It's a beast=monster=large cooler so the card may overclock quite high with it.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-08-09, 16:57:

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-08-09, 16:40:

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-08-09, 14:45:

Well first you gotta find if the 9600 goes up to 400/400 with that beast on 🤣

???

It's a beast=monster=large cooler so the card may overclock quite high with it.

Ah, I see. I was confused about you mention the 9600, the card the cooler came with and already above 400/400.
The cooler goes onto a Radeon 9800 Pro. A card already infamous for its unreliability so I wouldn't dare overclock it. If I need more power I have a X800XT to do the job.

The 9800PRO is actually not a very unreliable card; 9700/PRO is a completely different matter though..

I still don't trust that tiny reference cooler.

It gets very hot when you work the card.

Took delivery of a Prometheus ARIA16 sound card.

Not sure if it works. Will have to give it a good cleaning and inspection before testing it.