Reading those packaging horror stories makes me want to post my own. This just happened:

I bought something brand new in box, an old computer item but nothing special. They shipped it in a paper bag. A paper bag. No padding, no box, no mailer, they just literally wrapped a paper bag around it and shipped it. Needless to say the box was destroyed, though luckily the box was built in such a way that the electronic item inside survived…

pentiumspeed wrote on 2023-11-18, 01:42:

External PSUs for both 360 and xbox one, uses a small blower fan that needs to be maintained, oiled and cleaned. There are 2 baffles that needs to be pulled for through cleaning. Unaltered design just the looks. Same way on Xbox One (original) too. Supposed to be quiet. Not buzzing.

Yeah, I've watched a couple of YouTube videos on this, and I'll likely have to open up and clean mine as well. Such a weird design choice by Microsoft, to put a fan inside an external power brick.

Anyway, the console works great, aside from the noise. I'm about to order a custom hard drive enclosure so that I can install a modern SSD in there. That should lower the noise amount by a tiny bit as well (no spinning platters) but I'm mostly getting it for performance reasons.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-11-17, 22:07:

Got an RGH modded Xbox 360 S (Trinity). The controller will take some getting used to, due to the swapped left stick and d-pad positions. As a PlayStation guy, this feels kinda weird to me. On the flip side, I do like that it uses standard AA batteries instead of a proprietary battery pack. Makes long term use much more convenient, with rechargeable AA batteries being readily available for purchase.

I was a bit taken aback with the amount of noise this console makes. Upon closer inspection (and some googling) it turns out that the power supply brick produces most of it. Apparently, that brick has a small and annoyingly loud fan inside. I'll probably have to do some maintenance on that.

I have two Trinity units and use the same brick. That fan in the PSU is similar to the PS2 slim's fan in design, except... it's loud no matter what, I cleaned mine and it's still GOD AWFULLY LOUD! The consoles themselves are dead silent - both the glossy one I have (16MB) and the matte one (4GB), they're both silent. Glossy has the OG 250GB HDD inside it while the matte unit has a 640GB I harvested out of a flooded Dell (out of which surprisingly the HDD, C2D T9600 CPU and 16GB (4x4GB) worth of DDR3 have survived)
which has passed the HD sentinel test.

Speaking of bought - I won a CECHB00 japanese PS3 - the one with the absolutely GORGEOUS black trim!

Downside would be no card reader and WiFi, though I'll probably dive my nose into that as I have some spare CECHC04 parts to tinker with, and IDPS changing to a CECHA00 would be something cool as hell to find out how to do.
First thing in order though, swapping the PSU inside for a PAL unit - I'm seriously not even thinking of running a japanese PSU on 240V AC. Even if the PSUs is claimed to be universal voltage (100-240VAC)
That, and it supposedly YLODs. Depending on the duration, it could very well just be rotten NECs like my current CECHC04 has - this one IS CHOCK FULL of 1001 and 1002 errors in the syscon log.

Picture shown is my current CECHC04, that'll hopefully undergo capacitor surgery soon. I'll resort to doing only the topside NECs to avoid doing the wire bridge, and that should be helpful enough, I suppose.

Funniest and most ironic fact - the HUEG 203W power brick I use for my large stack o' 360 phats is barely audible compared to the slim's brick - even when used on the most fiery Xenon EXT_CLK unit I have. (which I should swap the HDD on soon enough - that 500GB Samsung inside it seems to be on its last legs unfortunately.)

Today I got this Conexant Fusion 878A-based 4x BNC PCI capture card. Opinion?

RetroPC_King wrote on 2023-11-18, 14:05:

Opinion?

You can now live very secure with all the securtiy cameras you can connect to it...

RetroPC_King wrote on 2023-11-18, 14:05:

Today I got this Conexant Fusion 878A-based 4x BNC PCI capture card. Opinion?

Looks like a generic card without the audio in or video out...
I foung this post that might be useful: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/169623-Co … ant-fusion-878A
Should work under Linux out of the box?

PcBytes wrote on 2023-11-18, 13:43:

I have two Trinity units and use the same brick. That fan in the PSU is similar to the PS2 slim's fan in design, except... it's loud no matter what, I cleaned mine and it's still GOD AWFULLY LOUD! The consoles themselves are dead silent - both the glossy one I have (16MB) and the matte one (4GB), they're both silent.

Yeah, same deal for me. The console itself is barely audible even when I'm playing Forza Motorsport 4. In contrast, the power brick fan is annoyingly loud while the system is just sitting at the dashboard.

I wanted to open it up today, but I seem to have misplace my Torx screwdrivers during last year's move, so it will have to wait until next week. Thinking of adding a small amount of electro motor lubricant to the fan after cleaning it. I've had some success with that method on old GPU fans.

nfraser01 wrote on 2023-11-18, 14:25:

Looks like a generic card without the audio in or video out... I foung this post that might be useful: https://forum.videohelp. […]
Show full quote

RetroPC_King wrote on 2023-11-18, 14:05:

Today I got this Conexant Fusion 878A-based 4x BNC PCI capture card. Opinion?

Looks like a generic card without the audio in or video out...
I foung this post that might be useful: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/169623-Co … ant-fusion-878A
Should work under Linux out of the box?

Yes. It can work on Linux out of the box because I have a similar old TV Tuner card that works out of the box.
And maybe I can use the generic BTWincap driver.

DerBaum wrote on 2023-11-08, 22:39:

Is it possible that you measure some connections for me? just beep out some things. nothing fancy […]
Show full quote

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-11-02, 18:36:

I have one 7193-U and it is manufacterd in 1993.

Is it possible that you measure some connections for me?
just beep out some things. nothing fancy

2023-11-08 23.14.57.jpg
1 is the Pad on the test connector
2 and 3 are the missing pads
4, 5 and 6 are vias.

I made a small chart of the measurments i need.
Screenshot 2023-11-08 233237.png
1 to 2,3,4,5,6
2 to 3,4,5,6
3 to 4,5,6
4 to 5,6
5 to 6

Thanks in advance.

I expect:
1 to 6
2 to 5
3 to 4

I can report success!
Charlie sent me over the measurments:

Thank you very much! That was the last piece of the puzzle.
It confirms my predictions and i am now sure it wont fry anything.

I soldered wires to the points

covered everything with white paint and connected it to my test pc...

The Teac drive is working again!!

AND i can confirm that the missing pins are indeed needed.
To test if the pins do something i covered them up with capton tape and tested the drive again.

Now the speed selection doesnt work anymore, it always spins at 360rpm and does not go down to 300 if , for example IMD tells it to spin slower.
And that is the feature that makes these drives great. Dual speed operation.

This confirms :
A. Pins needed
B. Repair successful

Thanks to all involved vogonians 😀

That's one of the more impressive repairs I've seen! Bravo 👏

Great work! That’s some tricky repair.

devius wrote on 2023-11-18, 14:53:

That's one of the more impressive repairs I've seen! Bravo 👏

3lectr1c wrote on 2023-11-18, 15:00:

Great work! That’s some tricky repair.

Thanks 😁

Without the help of vogons it would be even harder... Such a nice place. 👍

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-11-18, 14:27:

PcBytes wrote on 2023-11-18, 13:43:

I have two Trinity units and use the same brick. That fan in the PSU is similar to the PS2 slim's fan in design, except... it's loud no matter what, I cleaned mine and it's still GOD AWFULLY LOUD! The consoles themselves are dead silent - both the glossy one I have (16MB) and the matte one (4GB), they're both silent.

Yeah, same deal for me. The console itself is barely audible even when I'm playing Forza Motorsport 4. In contrast, the power brick fan is annoyingly loud while the system is just sitting at the dashboard.

I wanted to open it up today, but I seem to have misplace my Torx screwdrivers during last year's move, so it will have to wait until next week. Thinking of adding a small amount of electro motor lubricant to the fan after cleaning it. I've had some success with that method on old GPU fans.

I had used bike oil lubricant on my Trinity PSU's fan to no avail. That thing is by design made to run loud. That or I definitely have to replace it with something else.

DerBaum wrote on 2023-11-18, 14:49:

I can report success! Charlie sent me over the measurments: IMG_1981.JPEG Thank you very much! That was the last piece of the pu […]
Show full quote

DerBaum wrote on 2023-11-08, 22:39:

Is it possible that you measure some connections for me? just beep out some things. nothing fancy […]
Show full quote

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-11-02, 18:36:

I have one 7193-U and it is manufacterd in 1993.

Is it possible that you measure some connections for me?
just beep out some things. nothing fancy

2023-11-08 23.14.57.jpg
1 is the Pad on the test connector
2 and 3 are the missing pads
4, 5 and 6 are vias.

I made a small chart of the measurments i need.
Screenshot 2023-11-08 233237.png
1 to 2,3,4,5,6
2 to 3,4,5,6
3 to 4,5,6
4 to 5,6
5 to 6

Thanks in advance.

I expect:
1 to 6
2 to 5
3 to 4

I can report success!
Charlie sent me over the measurments:
IMG_1981.JPEG
Thank you very much! That was the last piece of the puzzle.
It confirms my predictions and i am now sure it wont fry anything.

I soldered wires to the points
2023-11-09 05.24.53.jpg

covered everything with white paint and connected it to my test pc...
2023-11-18 15.21.48.jpg

The Teac drive is working again!!

AND i can confirm that the missing pins are indeed needed.
To test if the pins do something i covered them up with capton tape and tested the drive again.
2023-11-18 15.28.21.jpg

Now the speed selection doesnt work anymore, it always spins at 360rpm and does not go down to 300 if , for example IMD tells it to spin slower.
And that is the feature that makes these drives great. Dual speed operation.

This confirms :
A. Pins needed
B. Repair successful

Thanks to all involved vogonians 😀

This is one of the most impressive retro repairs I've seen. I wouldn't have thought it to be possible to reattach that broken PCB well enough to provide mechanical support. Well done.

Today I purchased a MB 486, I thought it was an EISA ISA, in reality I discovered that the EISA is an OPTI, I honestly don't know what the difference is, could it be the same thing?
It already has some 30 pin RAM, some L2 cache chips, I think it's 128KB, and an Intel 486DX2-66 CPU, I don't think there is a heatsink with fan, if I'm not mistaken the 486DX2 was required?
I hope 🤞 arrives soon, I will have to test it and add some essential cards to complete the PC, I already have a 1MB ISA VGA Paradise, and some ISA sound cards, then also some 30 pin RAM, I hope to have the same ones as the ones used, but I have in case of other RAM always 30 pins of 1MB each, which can be put, unfortunately I only have 1MB modules, so at most I can get to 8MB, I would have preferred 🤩 to have at least 16MB of RAM, or why not 16+4=20MB, maybe yes could they find cheap 30 pin 4MB modules?

I've just received my ISA graphics card, it is based on a Yamaha V6363 and can do Hercules MDA and CGA. Hopefully if it works I'll be using it as a backup video card on my P200 build (which at the moment is non funtional).

Technically I did not buy it. I forgot about it many years ago and retrieved it in a box full of old stuff while looking for something different.

I am in shock when I see the price of similar cards on the net... I've seen sellers asking 50-100 bucks for it. This is insane. So sad to see the limited offerings for "vintage", retro computing parts and the silly asking prices.

DerBaum wrote on 2023-11-18, 14:49:

That is a nice one! Congrats.

I love it when my past self sends me unexpected gifts.... kind of annoying when he hid things I know about though.

mtest001 wrote on 2023-11-18, 21:40:

I've just received my ISA graphics card, it is based on a Yamaha V6363 and can do Hercules MDA and CGA. Hopefully if it works I'll be using it as a backup video card on my P200 build (which at the moment is non funtional).

Technically I did not buy it. I forgot about it many years ago and retrieved it in a box full of old stuff while looking for something different.

I am in shock when I see the price of similar cards on the net... I've seen sellers asking 50-100 bucks for it. This is insane. So sad to see the limited offerings for "vintage", retro computing parts and the silly asking prices.

You sound like a glutton for punishment if you want to use a CGA/MDA card on a P200, unless it's only running DOS or an early Linux 😀 Great that it's HGC compatible though.

late 90s linux was fairly bearable on hercules with xfree86 and fvwm or something basic, was as useable as a mac classic anyway. It was better than if you had some spectacularly unsupported 256kb VGA I think that it could barely do 16 colors on the 640x480 mode... mainly because everything expected VGA to do better so everything looked nasty... the extra 10% horizontal res helped also.