That Nexterm is a nice compact unit, let us know how it goes for stuff... I see it and think "Yah I could mount an LCD to it then..." then the smarter bit of brain yells "You nut! That's exactly what that iOpener thing is you've been meaning to do something with for a decade."

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-10-23, 16:55:

That Nexterm is a nice compact unit, let us know how it goes for stuff... I see it and think "Yah I could mount an LCD to it then..." then the smarter bit of brain yells "You nut! That's exactly what that iOpener thing is you've been meaning to do something with for a decade."

Sound works with viasbcfg, BeOS runs nicely on it too after some patching.

I've just received this cool cd changer: TORISAN CDR-C3G.
It needed a small mechanical fix and now it is working 😀
Unfortunately a flap is missing....

Bought the following recently:

• OPL Awe32
• Awe64
• Awe64 Gold
• Creative 24x Cdrom drive
• SC88, to see if it really is identical sounding to an SC88Pro or not. Supposedly it is, and it should be, but I've heard conflicting reports, so I was curious enough to pick one up. Plus the SC88 line is cool enough that I don't mind having a spare.

I'm putting together a 333mhz 1999 period-ish computer, and I wanted an Awe64 Gold (I used to own one) and OPL Awe32 for it. I remember the 2 RCA type jacks on the back of the gold being annoying though, so I picked up a regular Awe64 just in case I get tired of dealing with them. CDRom drive is for the same system. I might even end up using the SC88 with it!

midicollector wrote on 2023-10-24, 03:07:

Bought the following recently:

• OPL Awe32

Which one? I got a CT3980, one of the last OPL3 cards? That thing is huge, but the EMU8000 chip gets quite hot. It could use a heatsink I think.

About the cable, if you don't have one laying around, then it can be annoying, yes. 😉

Nice list!

Just a CT3910, nothing special (other than the opl).

I imagine these days the cord situation might not be as bad since I can just buy whatever I want off Amazon, and since I plan to run it to an external MIDI module anyway, but I’ll never forget as a teenager the utter confusion I had at first when I went to plug in my brand new awe64 gold 😂 also every subsequent time when I forgot that the gold had that and went to put it in some machine and was promptly confused.

PD2JK wrote on 2023-10-24, 04:41:

Which one? I got a CT3980, one of the last OPL3 cards? That thing is huge, but the EMU8000 chip gets quite hot. It could use a h […]
Show full quote

midicollector wrote on 2023-10-24, 03:07:

Bought the following recently:

• OPL Awe32

Which one? I got a CT3980, one of the last OPL3 cards? That thing is huge, but the EMU8000 chip gets quite hot. It could use a heatsink I think.

About the cable, if you don't have one laying around, then it can be annoying, yes. 😉

Nice list!

I can confirm that the EMU8000 chip on the CT3980 runs very hot!

Re: Overheating EMU8K on AWE32 CT2760

EMU8000 can indeed run very hot but this is normal so nothing to worry about if it works and produces sound

Didnt buy today but it arrived today

Logic3 PC Swift pad £6
XFX GTX 275 1Gb £15
XFX GTS 250 512Mb £15
Iomega Zip 750 with 2 250Mb disks £30
Sold for £30 because it doesnt write to 100Mb disks, which the seller thought meant it was broken in some way so reduced the price.

Didnt buy today but it arrived today

Logic3 PC Swift pad £6
XFX GTX 275 1Gb £15
XFX GTS 250 512Mb £15
Iomega Zip 750 with 2 250Mb disks £30
Sold for £30 because it doesnt write to 100Mb disks, which the seller thought meant it was broken in some way so reduced the price.

Wah, I think the UK recycler is getting bored of what they're selling. 3 items I bought from them recently:
- A video card with broken memory - passes 2x tests so far in my video memory test after a brief cleaning
- A VLB video card that doesn't work at all - there are some loose legs on the QFP video chip and a quick resolder with flux gets it working 100% (way way easier to fix than my Genoa Phantom 32i card)
- A motherboard that doesn't start up or show any POST activity - yeah it's not gonna work if the jumpers are set for a CPU that's not fitted. Switched the jumpers back to use the onboard AM386DX-40 and it works

btw right now they're selling multiple VLB video cards that have the VESA pins smushed together. Or a video card that has almost no RAM fitted. My bank balance says I shouldn't buy them so they should be an easy for someone else.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-10-25, 03:14:

Wah, I think the UK recycler is getting bored of what they're selling. 3 items I bought from them recently: - A video card with […]
Show full quote

Wah, I think the UK recycler is getting bored of what they're selling. 3 items I bought from them recently:
- A video card with broken memory - passes 2x tests so far in my video memory test after a brief cleaning
- A VLB video card that doesn't work at all - there are some loose legs on the QFP video chip and a quick resolder with flux gets it working 100% (way way easier to fix than my Genoa Phantom 32i card)
- A motherboard that doesn't start up or show any POST activity - yeah it's not gonna work if the jumpers are set for a CPU that's not fitted. Switched the jumpers back to use the onboard AM386DX-40 and it works

btw right now they're selling multiple VLB video cards that have the VESA pins smushed together. Or a video card that has almost no RAM fitted. My bank balance says I shouldn't buy them so they should be an easy for someone else.

Doesnt surprise me in the least.
There is a IT reclaimer local to me and the "guy" who works there checking over all the kit to see if it works is no more than 20 years old and is quite ready to admit he has no knowledge of the really old kit he gets in there at all and no interest in testing it to see if it works and wouldnt know how to if he did.
He can make any PC work from the P3/K7 chips onwards, but if he looks at a slot 1 based system then its junk that goes in the melt bins. if it needs a jumper setting or something "complicated" like that then he wouldnt have a chance.
I cant believe he actually gets paid to do what he does.

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2023-10-25, 03:34:

Doesnt surprise me in the least. There is a IT reclaimer local to me and the "guy" who works there checking over all the kit to […]
Show full quote

Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-10-25, 03:14:

Wah, I think the UK recycler is getting bored of what they're selling. 3 items I bought from them recently: - A video card with […]
Show full quote

Wah, I think the UK recycler is getting bored of what they're selling. 3 items I bought from them recently:
- A video card with broken memory - passes 2x tests so far in my video memory test after a brief cleaning
- A VLB video card that doesn't work at all - there are some loose legs on the QFP video chip and a quick resolder with flux gets it working 100% (way way easier to fix than my Genoa Phantom 32i card)
- A motherboard that doesn't start up or show any POST activity - yeah it's not gonna work if the jumpers are set for a CPU that's not fitted. Switched the jumpers back to use the onboard AM386DX-40 and it works

btw right now they're selling multiple VLB video cards that have the VESA pins smushed together. Or a video card that has almost no RAM fitted. My bank balance says I shouldn't buy them so they should be an easy for someone else.

Doesnt surprise me in the least.
There is a IT reclaimer local to me and the "guy" who works there checking over all the kit to see if it works is no more than 20 years old and is quite ready to admit he has no knowledge of the really old kit he gets in there at all and no interest in testing it to see if it works and wouldnt know how to if he did.
He can make any PC work from the P3/K7 chips onwards, but if he looks at a slot 1 based system then its junk that goes in the melt bins. if it needs a jumper setting or something "complicated" like that then he wouldnt have a chance.
I cant believe he actually gets paid to do what he does.

Oof, that's a shame to see these items just get destroyed for basic metal recycling. Considering that the Slot 1 back to 486, 386 and earlier eras are less numerous it makes sense he wouldn't learn it but it's a shame to see these things wasted just because they were too complex to set up. The UK recycler is pretty good honestly, though he misses some stuff and I lately have exploited that, he does test video memory and I learned about DOS-level video memory testing from his ebay pictures 😀

Law212 wrote on 2023-10-23, 13:23:

I picked up this Creative Nomad Jukebox . It came complete in the box. I love that it had Creative rechargeable batteries in it. […]
Show full quote

I picked up this Creative Nomad Jukebox . It came complete in the box. I love that it had Creative rechargeable batteries in it. I put new batteries in it though.
I also found an NEC S/33 Laptop which i didnt take pics of. I dont have a power cable for it so I cant test it yet....

Woah a Nomad, I wanted one of those so badly back in the day but I'd already spent it all on a minidisc setup - which I quickly fell out of love with once I heard the ATRAC compression.

The Versa S/33 - I wonder if yours is a DSTN or a TFT model? There seems to be little distinction between the two. Here's the PSU if that helps you track it down:

Personally I mostly run mine from an adapter I made from a Dell C600 PSU cable that I cut off years ago which goes to a regular centre pin 19v laptop PSU that I use for soldering and powering laptops, the adapter doesn't get used much since I made the adapter 😀

Creative Nomad is an MP3 player right? Or does it use its own encoder?

Couldn't resist. Both unidentified yet.
1. Cyrix cpu + Cyrix Cx87DLC-40QP (some ACER board, not on TRW)
2. 386-33 + IIT 387-40 (probably https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/abit-ab-fu3)

Seller's pics.

Bought a very compact Baby AT case.. It needed some repairs and cleaning, almost completely done though. These are what came out of it:

It looks like 386SX was a very popular platform for business use where I live, I have come across more 386SX systems than 286 or even Pentium class in the last few years. Odd.

Also, I need help with identifying the motherboard. There is an S logo on the back, and it's not SOYO's logo.

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2023-10-25, 03:48:

Creative Nomad is an MP3 player right? Or does it use its own encoder?

MP3 player.

I just like anything by Creative. I have no need for this , but its neat . I will load it up with music. It has 6 gigs of space

Two NOS items; an Adaptec SCSI controller and a Zalman 7700Cu hsf.

And I have plans for the Matrox card, a third attempt to upgrade the memory of my MS-6168v2 board.

Law212 wrote on 2023-10-26, 13:43:

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2023-10-25, 03:48:

Creative Nomad is an MP3 player right? Or does it use its own encoder?

MP3 player.

I just like anything by Creative. I have no need for this , but its neat . I will load it up with music. It has 6 gigs of space

Part way explains why you didnt like ATRAC3 encoding.

I was an early adopter of MiniDisc and remember it was far superior to MP3 of the same time period.

Law212 wrote on 2023-10-23, 13:23:

I picked up this Creative Nomad Jukebox . It came complete in the box. I love that it had Creative rechargeable batteries in it. I put new batteries in it though.

I have several Creative products that are not sound cards.
All of them feel a little bit cheap.
For eample the creative Prodikeys... A cheap feeling computer keyboard combined with a cheap feeling musical keyboard makes it look fancy but not fun to use.