I believe it's faster to write to unused clusters than it is to write to as used one. I suspect that it would have to erase the cluster before writing to it, which would take longer.

Thanks for the flux chat on the last page - I was taking notes! 😉

Rav wrote on 2023-10-11, 02:07:

Yeah, fragmentation that I know, but I did not expect the same stuff all over the place at various stage of advancement. […]
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Horun wrote on 2023-10-11, 01:35:

Rav wrote on 2023-10-10, 18:43:

I managed to blow up my c:\ fat :joy: 5 - I managed to recover ALL my source code... It was literally all over the place, I woul […]
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I managed to blow up my c:\ fat 😂
5 - I managed to recover ALL my source code... It was literally all over the place, I would have thought that if you save, the identical part of the file would stay in the same location but I think it does save all the file over again at a different location, in many many many many chunks.

I should probably backup more often than the ~weekly "Ghost" to the network...
Now I think I will have to save my config.sys and autoexec.bat then restore the partition from the latest ghost image, I don't think it can be trusted anymore 🤣

Nope even DOS can and does fragment files, is why they included Defrag.exe. If you Del a small file, that cluster can be written too by a Save or other app, if the file written is large it can be spread across many clusters scattered all over.
Probably got something wrong in pure description but that is what happens....

Yeah, fragmentation that I know, but I did not expect the same stuff all over the place at various stage of advancement.

I was thinking that DOS would reuse clusters when saving the same file instead of resaving the whole thing somewhere else. I assume it save from the beginning of the first free space hole and split the files when there is not enough space to save it. But the file is already there, is seam to just not reuse the file clusters.

It's just hilarious, I have like some wayback machines (until theses old fragments actually get overwritten).

The reason it doesn't reuse the sectors/clusters a file is already using is so that, if the PC crashes in the middle of a save operation, the old version of the file will still be readable. Otherwise, the file will be corrupted, with parts of the original file and parts of the new file. The FAT will be updated with the new data as each cluster is written, but the directory entry will point to the original file until the new version is fully written to disc.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-10-10, 14:04:

Liquid flux is really for BGA and even then it's not great, like you say it just gets everywhere. Most pros I've seen on Youtube […]
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Liquid flux is really for BGA and even then it's not great, like you say it just gets everywhere. Most pros I've seen on Youtube do also use the tacky flux for most BGA stuff.
I'm on the fence about making a big Mouser order for supplies and flux - I've been using SMD291 which is a no-clean flux, but want to get some more powerful flux that isn't no-clean, the number of flux types just from chip-quik is mind boggling.

Today I remembered that I've been in posession of an original Creative Soundblaster 2.0 (or Pro 1/2, early soundblaster 16) bracket for a whole year and didn't copy the design of it! So I've updated my 3d printed bracket using the dimensions of the original, I was 0.8mm off 😁
https://www.printables.com/model/176794-creat … retro-isa-pc-so
Should be a much better fit on more cards now, my original the tolerances were unnecessarily tight, making them a tough fit on some cards.

Very nice design! Would you mind sharing the source files - it seems very good to work on from?

Well I decided I need test bench in order to lower risks with wobly cards. Since I have blown my quarterly hobby budget on expensive vlb cards I had to improvise. Sized down old ultra cheap sheet metal ATX case. It will pass safety requirements in "cutting hazard category" as you can see from brown accents in my design...

vutt wrote on 2023-10-11, 18:53:

Well I decided I need test bench in order to lower risks with wobly cards. Since I have blown my quarterly hobby budget on expensive vlb cards I had to improvise. Sized down old ultra cheap sheet metal ATX case. It will pass safety requirements in "cutting hazard category" as you can see from brown accents in my design...

Pretty and passing regulations 100%! 😀

vutt wrote on 2023-10-11, 18:53:

Well I decided I need test bench in order to lower risks with wobly cards. Since I have blown my quarterly hobby budget on expensive vlb cards I had to improvise. Sized down old ultra cheap sheet metal ATX case. It will pass safety requirements in "cutting hazard category" as you can see from brown accents in my design...

Rubber tubing in the correct size(s) would work very well there - cut a slit and press it on to the sharp edge, it'll look almost professional.

I'm trying out my mobile Barton on my Soyo K7V (KT266A). This board had to be modified to work with a Tbred, so I'm really on my own with a mobile 2600+. It does POST, but it often hangs without POSTing. Hitting reset can work though it often takes several tries; turning the PSU's rocker switch off, then turning it on and hitting the power button usually works. I used the BIOS patcher in hopes of curing this, but while it now correctly recognizes the CPU, the intermittent no POST is still there. It's only an issue on cold boot, I can restart Windows XP as many times as I want and it will continue to work, and it hasn't had any issues when in Windows.

vutt wrote on 2023-10-11, 18:53:

Well I decided I need test bench in order to lower risks with wobly cards. Since I have blown my quarterly hobby budget on expensive vlb cards I had to improvise. Sized down old ultra cheap sheet metal ATX case. It will pass safety requirements in "cutting hazard category" as you can see from brown accents in my design...

Heh, another thing you can do is split thin tubing or 12-18AWG wire insulation and glue that on the edge.

Edit: Oops didn't mean to steal Repo Man's thunder, can't read or something 🤣

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-10-11, 22:29:

I'm trying out my mobile Barton on my Soyo K7V (KT266A). This board had to be modified to work with a Tbred, so I'm really on my own with a mobile 2600+. It does POST, but it often hangs without POSTing. Hitting reset can work though it often takes several tries; turning the PSU's rocker switch off, then turning it on and hitting the power button usually works. I used the BIOS patcher in hopes of curing this, but while it now correctly recognizes the CPU, the intermittent no POST is still there. It's only an issue on cold boot, I can restart Windows XP as many times as I want and it will continue to work, and it hasn't had any issues when in Windows.

Just got my MSI k7t266 pro. Only have mainly 0.13um chips. Looks like it takes 0.18um only, with Max xp 2000+ palomino which I've ordered. Put in a 2600+ 0.13um, the fastest I had laying around and started to get smoky plastic smell. Immediately shut it down. On hand, the best 0.18um chip I have is an Athlon 4 mobile 1500+, which allowed me to post and rev up the bios.

gmaverick2k wrote on 2023-09-29, 21:02:

vutt wrote on 2023-09-29, 15:04:

So far I have been using cheap PSU-s to power my retro test bench. However with more expensive retro components managing to end […]
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So far I have been using cheap PSU-s to power my retro test bench. However with more expensive retro components managing to end up on my table I decided to start managing risks. Went for well priced modern Seasonic PSU. Didn't plan to take fanless but as it happened I came across good deal locally. Modular one is better suited for retro setups.

Good side effect - compared to old XILENCE one which cost me 25EUR some 5 years ago Seasonic is clearly more efficient.
On my VLB 486DX2 rig running PC Players VGA Benchmark revealed this: power off the wall dropped 27.4W -> 20.8W.
Funnily enough Sesonic does not advertise efficiency figure on their promo graphs below 20% ...

Edit: I only just realised looking at label that XILENCE is actually German company. How it manages to be cheap brand...

My 440bx was acting flaky initially. Got my 300w seasonic back which has 30A on 5v rail I had foolishly put into a build for a family member. Now it runs solid with case fans etc no sweat. I have been looking to get hx1200i for the 30A on the 5v rail but it's above my cost threshold

Lack of decent seasonics on eBay these days.... The model I have is the SS-300FT with 30A on 5v rail.

I checked in on Daggerfall Unity this morning, to see if there was another release and there was. Unfortunately, it's going to be the last release, for the foreseeable future. The Unity fiasco drove the lead developer to shut down the project and walk away. Someone/anyone is free to pick up the ball and do their own releases/forks, but he's leaving after this latest release, unless some urgent fixes need to happen after this latest one, which will be bumped to version 1.0 and marked as the final release, in the next few weeks.

Cleaned up ~25 EPROMs from stickers and glue residue that i got from an auction long time ago. (as scrap computer parts, possibly for an euro or two)
Soaked them in cooking oil for the night, then washed them in sink with soap and toothbrush.
In the end, i cleaned them up with my UV EPROM eraser.

I now have a lot of 64-512kb EPROMs + some random ones, including one 1Mb one. 😮
Ready to upgrade BIOSes with era-correct EPROMs both on motherboards and video cards!

gmaverick2k wrote on 2023-10-12, 04:49:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-10-11, 22:29:

I'm trying out my mobile Barton on my Soyo K7V (KT266A). This board had to be modified to work with a Tbred, so I'm really on my own with a mobile 2600+. It does POST, but it often hangs without POSTing. Hitting reset can work though it often takes several tries; turning the PSU's rocker switch off, then turning it on and hitting the power button usually works. I used the BIOS patcher in hopes of curing this, but while it now correctly recognizes the CPU, the intermittent no POST is still there. It's only an issue on cold boot, I can restart Windows XP as many times as I want and it will continue to work, and it hasn't had any issues when in Windows.

Just got my MSI k7t266 pro. Only have mainly 0.13um chips. Looks like it takes 0.18um only, with Max xp 2000+ palomino which I've ordered. Put in a 2600+ 0.13um, the fastest I had laying around and started to get smoky plastic smell. Immediately shut it down. On hand, the best 0.18um chip I have is an Athlon 4 mobile 1500+, which allowed me to post and rev up the bios.

The same was true for my K7V, but I found a mod that consisted of adding a capacitor and removing a resistor - after that, it works perfectly with tbred CPUs. But I can't call the mobile Barton upgrade a success: if you have to do a rain dance around your PC to get it to POST, that isn't working correctly. It reminds me of how some early revisions of KT7A motherboards wouldn't POST with Athlon XP CPUs, or would require you to hit reset in order to get them to. I only know of this from descriptions, I was lucky with my KT7A 1.1 it had no issue with XP CPUs.

Made a Slot1 slocket adapter holder since all the brackets available don't grip them properly and the slight movement can cause system to crash

Fits great, works great, happy!

https://i.imgur.com/KCD7onj.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/MlUXika.jpg

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2023-10-12, 13:48:

I checked in on Daggerfall Unity this morning, to see if there was another release and there was. Unfortunately, it's going to be the last release, for the foreseeable future. The Unity fiasco drove the lead developer to shut down the project and walk away. Someone/anyone is free to pick up the ball and do their own releases/forks, but he's leaving after this latest release, unless some urgent fixes need to happen after this latest one, which will be bumped to version 1.0 and marked as the final release, in the next few weeks.

Yeah, that's a bummer 🙁

I love Daggerfall Unity. It fixes so much of the original game.

Decided to add some oomph to my 486 5v MB only rig.
Back in a days I had classic am5x86@160MHz system with active cooler. Never experienced "power stacker" type of 5v only system upgrades.
My 486DX2 (left on pic) is working at least on open bench w/o active cooling (80C is max by spec sheet I believe).
Bought "power stacker", sadly it really cannot run passively even with 3x multiplier. Sink reaches 68-70C and voltage regulator chip goes even higher. No idea if it's W or Z chip. Is there software to ID it?
Anyways found 40mm 5v Noctua cooler in my parts bin. Fortunately very little airflow is needed to cool it. Works down-volted at 3V and is very silent.

vutt wrote on 2023-10-13, 16:27:

Anyways found 40mm 5v Noctua cooler in my parts bin. Fortunately very little airflow is needed to cool it. Works down-volted at 3V and is very silent.

This is exactly what I was going to suggest, until I finished reading your post. Often, you only need a tiny bit of airflow for a large improvement over a passively cooled.

I did a thing!

Some days ago i bought some industrial computers for basically nothing.
The hardware inside is super cool... but its inside the case... Thats not so cool.

So i decided that these computers will :
1. Never be installed in a rack again.
2. Never be used for its intended purpose again and dont need to be super rugged.

Back in the days i always modded my computers. I made/modded cases by myself because everything was a beige box... And i miss the times to mod pcs.
But today i´m also a huge fan of keeping things stock.
I hate decisions!!

I started by masking the area i want to remove...

Then i filed the edges and masked off the original paint and sprayed primer on the cut edges.

I put a small rubber seal around the cut edge

And i used super strong automotive window glue to prevent the rubber seal from falling off and hold in the new window in place.
(The protective film on the window took off all excess glue and its a super tidy corner now. Not kept the mess in the picture.)

The result:

If you dont know it, this looks like a factory option.
Now you can see the PISA SBC in its huge backplane.
I seriously like how it turned out. And tomorrow i will build another one!

Eyeing up 16v 1500uF rubycon cap on kt600 with faulty agp slot to replace bulging cap on neo2 platinum