Strike 5! Another bad Ti4600!

This one felt like it was on fire while it was running on an open bench. Several different boards, OS, and drivers were tried. The best it could do is attached, heh...

Current total of problem Ti4400/Ti4600s (I've yet to own a completely functional card...):

2 PNY
2 VisionTek
1 Sparkle (This one had two bad fans and a bad DVI port, but did at least produce 3D over D-Sub)
1 Abit

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-22, 20:20:

midicollector wrote on 2023-11-22, 20:02:

Finally broke down and bought a diamond mx300. Had been eyeing an aureal vortex 2 for a while, finally bought it on a whim.

Nice! It is, IMHO, the best Windows 9x sound card there is.

I’m excited to try it out, I haven’t heard A3D in many many years. I’m really curious to see what the 3d audio stuff sounds like after all this time. I had an Aureal 3d card back in the day, I forget if it was the turtle beach card I owned or if it was a vortex 2. It’s been so many years that I’m curious to see what it’s like today.

Today I received a Mac Wave Maker sound card from Morning Star Solutions that I bought in a Japanese auction.
I know pretty much nothing about this card and I also don't have a Mac with NuBus. It comes with a manual in Japanese, driver and MIDI breakout cable.
According to the box it is General MIDI compatible and also has MT32/CM32L modes. Some of the chips on the card are similar to an AVM Summit or a Kurzweil PC88 VGM board ("Marge" and "Homer").
I haven't decided yet if I should try to get a Mac that's compatible or if I should try to get sound out of it by just applying power and MIDI via MIDI-IN. If anyone knows more about this card, please let me know.

Meatball wrote on 2023-11-22, 22:45:

Strike 5! Another bad Ti4600! […]
Show full quote

Strike 5! Another bad Ti4600!

This one felt like it was on fire while it was running on an open bench. Several different boards, OS, and drivers were tried. The best it could do is attached, heh...

Current total of problem Ti4400/Ti4600s (I've yet to own a completely functional card...):

2 PNY
2 VisionTek
1 Sparkle (This one had two bad fans and a bad DVI port, but did at least produce 3D over D-Sub)
1 Abit

Man, that looks like something out of a horror movie. At least the HWinfo screen.

Heck, even the G736 I used for the Netburst challenge wouldn't go that much of a horror mode.

today i bought a matrox g450 PCI from aliexpress. I needed a reasonable PCI graphics card, with acceptable 3d capabilities.

It was cheap, ~25 USD, looks very clean.Quite fast shipping to EU.

PC@LIVE wrote on 2023-11-18, 21:11:

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?

Lol I was bidding on the same board 😀 Glad a fellow vogoner got it... let us know when you get it.. cheers!

Had to have this tank of a GPU, not a bad price either for a refurbished 9800 Pro in working condition, thing looks like its built for survivability. I get the feeling the seller is a retro head as the card looks like its been well cared for. Its not the full fat 256Mb model but only a 128 Mb card.

Have a rig in mind for it too.

PcBytes wrote on 2023-11-22, 23:42:

Meatball wrote on 2023-11-22, 22:45:

Strike 5! Another bad Ti4600! […]
Show full quote

Strike 5! Another bad Ti4600!

This one felt like it was on fire while it was running on an open bench. Several different boards, OS, and drivers were tried. The best it could do is attached, heh...

Current total of problem Ti4400/Ti4600s (I've yet to own a completely functional card...):

2 PNY
2 VisionTek
1 Sparkle (This one had two bad fans and a bad DVI port, but did at least produce 3D over D-Sub)
1 Abit

Man, that looks like something out of a horror movie. At least the HWinfo screen.

Heck, even the G736 I used for the Netburst challenge wouldn't go that much of a horror mode.

Sadly a lot of the Geforce 4 ti cards seem to die from bad Vram, I have at least three that work to varying degrees and all of them have at least one bad Vram chip, if I had the skills and tools I would replace them or at the very least reball the Vram to try and revive the card.

There must have been a really bad batch of Vram ICs from one of the fabs around the time the Geforce 4 was being fabbed out.. along with the bad caps and shitty solder there is a whole period of hardware that is just waiting to die.

I bought a "tested working" board from eBay, and didn't get around to testing it until outside of the return window. I sent a message to the seller to see if he is still willing to accept a return.

I used the same jumpers as configured at 66 Mhz (2.5 * 66) at 2.8V without changing it from its stock configuration. The CPU slowly warms up (just barely), but there is no POST code. I tried two different CPUs that are both known to be working.

I also power cycled it several times, just in case the capacitors were a little tired, to no effect.

https://youtu.be/PIqRZsP4XaE?si=fyRASK3efsFAkzEP

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-11-23, 10:36:

PcBytes wrote on 2023-11-22, 23:42:

Meatball wrote on 2023-11-22, 22:45:

Strike 5! Another bad Ti4600! […]
Show full quote

Strike 5! Another bad Ti4600!

This one felt like it was on fire while it was running on an open bench. Several different boards, OS, and drivers were tried. The best it could do is attached, heh...

Current total of problem Ti4400/Ti4600s (I've yet to own a completely functional card...):

2 PNY
2 VisionTek
1 Sparkle (This one had two bad fans and a bad DVI port, but did at least produce 3D over D-Sub)
1 Abit

Man, that looks like something out of a horror movie. At least the HWinfo screen.

Heck, even the G736 I used for the Netburst challenge wouldn't go that much of a horror mode.

Sadly a lot of the Geforce 4 ti cards seem to die from bad Vram, I have at least three that work to varying degrees and all of them have at least one bad Vram chip, if I had the skills and tools I would replace them or at the very least reball the Vram to try and revive the card.

There must have been a really bad batch of Vram ICs from one of the fabs around the time the Geforce 4 was being fabbed out.. along with the bad caps and shitty solder there is a whole period of hardware that is just waiting to die.

They pre-date the bumpgate flip-chip solderball problems though so they are at least fixable. Check out this video - TAGG XOC got a busted Ti4600 with the same graphical faults as yours and got it working very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i2Ne6WABig
Initially he was swapping RAM, but the eventual fault repair required re-balling the GPU. That honestly makes sense that it's GPU solder balls causing the problem, it's a long card with no frame (screw mounted heatsink) to stop it flexing so I suspect that eventually that flexing can break GPU solder balls on the corners of the chip.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-11-23, 19:29:

I bought a "tested working" board from eBay, and didn't get around to testing it until outside of the return window. I sent a me […]
Show full quote

I bought a "tested working" board from eBay, and didn't get around to testing it until outside of the return window. I sent a message to the seller to see if he is still willing to accept a return.

I used the same jumpers as configured at 66 Mhz (2.5 * 66) at 2.8V without changing it from its stock configuration. The CPU slowly warms up (just barely), but there is no POST code. I tried two different CPUs that are both known to be working.

I also power cycled it several times, just in case th capacitors were a little tired, to no effect.

https://youtu.be/PIqRZsP4XaE?si=fyRASK3efsFAkzEP

20231123_141754_resize_95.jpg

Reflash BIOS?
Try power on and then press reset.

Nexxen wrote on 2023-11-23, 19:59:

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-11-23, 19:29:

I bought a "tested working" board from eBay, and didn't get around to testing it until outside of the return window. I sent a me […]
Show full quote

I bought a "tested working" board from eBay, and didn't get around to testing it until outside of the return window. I sent a message to the seller to see if he is still willing to accept a return.

I used the same jumpers as configured at 66 Mhz (2.5 * 66) at 2.8V without changing it from its stock configuration. The CPU slowly warms up (just barely), but there is no POST code. I tried two different CPUs that are both known to be working.

I also power cycled it several times, just in case th capacitors were a little tired, to no effect.

https://youtu.be/PIqRZsP4XaE?si=fyRASK3efsFAkzEP

20231123_141754_resize_95.jpg

Reflash BIOS?
Try power on and then press reset.

I tried reflashing the BIOS and it had no effect. The seller was actually very understanding and issued a refund. He says that he remembers testing this one personally, so it must have received enough of a shock during shipping to fault.

The board appears relatively flawless otherwise.

Some of the sellers for things i watch on ebay have a "black friday" sale.

One seller was offering a sale on soundcards wich ended up costing 14,80 euros.

I already have this exact soundcard and it is quite good with a real OPL inside and a super simple one chip design.
My idea is to reverse engineer this card (Aztech generation 4) and make a new PCB for a PC104 version. Add a wavetable header and probably a second IDE connector.
In theory i just can transfer all parts i really need on the new PCB... But this will be a long way.
All 4th generation aztech cards are basically the same with more or less components around the one chip... You can make a minimal version with about 20 parts... Or a "full version" with wavetable(header), Amplifier and IDE interface.
So i bought 4 of these soundcards, that i can make soundcards for all my SBCs 😁

I want to make the new cards look exactly like the yellow well known Aztech cards.

florian3 wrote on 2023-11-22, 23:37:

Today I received a Mac Wave Maker sound card from Morning Star Solutions that I bought in a Japanese auction. I know pretty much […]
Show full quote

Today I received a Mac Wave Maker sound card from Morning Star Solutions that I bought in a Japanese auction.
I know pretty much nothing about this card and I also don't have a Mac with NuBus. It comes with a manual in Japanese, driver and MIDI breakout cable.
According to the box it is General MIDI compatible and also has MT32/CM32L modes. Some of the chips on the card are similar to an AVM Summit or a Kurzweil PC88 VGM board ("Marge" and "Homer").
I haven't decided yet if I should try to get a Mac that's compatible or if I should try to get sound out of it by just applying power and MIDI via MIDI-IN. If anyone knows more about this card, please let me know.

You should get a NuBus Mac, obviously!
Is there a manual in the box? Any mention of a website? Could you dump the floppy and upload it somewhere?

Today I have been mostly... feeling very happy about the motherboard I received from a seller on eBay. Gigabyte GA-5AA rev 3.2 super socket 7 motherboard. Sold as used and tested, but including original box, packaging, and manual. Immediately when I opened it up I could smell that 'new electronics' smell. There's not a spec of dust on the thing, the mouting holes have clearly never seen a screw head, and the thing is in 100% pristine immaculate condition. I reached out to the seller and they confirmed they believed it was new old stock.

So I'm quite happy with that! I bought it as a replacement for another GA-5AA 3.2 I've got that's been getting more and more unstable with random reboots. So far this one has survived multiple runs of 3DMark and not shown any signs of trouble. I don't know whether to laugh or cry about paying half the price for this one compared to the first board... c'est la vie.

The same seller is listing another identical board in the same condition at the moment, so if you want one just search eBay for Gigabyte GA-5AA you'll find it (UK auction).

lolo799 wrote on 2023-11-24, 13:53:

florian3 wrote on 2023-11-22, 23:37:

Today I received a Mac Wave Maker sound card from Morning Star Solutions that I bought in a Japanese auction. I know pretty much […]
Show full quote

Today I received a Mac Wave Maker sound card from Morning Star Solutions that I bought in a Japanese auction.
I know pretty much nothing about this card and I also don't have a Mac with NuBus. It comes with a manual in Japanese, driver and MIDI breakout cable.
According to the box it is General MIDI compatible and also has MT32/CM32L modes. Some of the chips on the card are similar to an AVM Summit or a Kurzweil PC88 VGM board ("Marge" and "Homer").
I haven't decided yet if I should try to get a Mac that's compatible or if I should try to get sound out of it by just applying power and MIDI via MIDI-IN. If anyone knows more about this card, please let me know.

You should get a NuBus Mac, obviously!
Is there a manual in the box? Any mention of a website? Could you dump the floppy and upload it somewhere?

I am already looking for a Mac IIcx, IIci or Quadra 700 😀.

The manual is in the box, I can scan it if you are interested. It is in Japanese but Google Translate does a good job. About half of it explains how to install the card and software, the other half is MIDI commands/sysex and instrument tables.

There is no website. On the box there is an address for Morning Star Solutions in Westford, MA, but according to Google Maps that's a single family home.

The ROM chips on the daughterboard look identical to what's on an AVM Summit.

a couple of ebay purchases. $40 for a plextor scsi cd burner for my dell precision 220 and a socket 423 pentium 4 2.0ghz which i already have but was only $11.

socket 423 pentium 4 2.0ghz willamette

scsi plexwriter 12/4/32 px.w124tsi

One of the two Zip drives I ought has a yellow blinking LED and the head deosn't come out.

wirerogue wrote on 2023-11-24, 22:10:

a couple of ebay purchases. $40 for a plextor scsi cd burner for my dell precision 220 and a socket 423 pentium 4 2.0ghz which i […]
Show full quote

a couple of ebay purchases. $40 for a plextor scsi cd burner for my dell precision 220 and a socket 423 pentium 4 2.0ghz which i already have but was only $11.

socket 423 pentium 4 2.0ghz willamette
pentium4.sl5sz.jpg
scsi plexwriter 12/4/32 px.w124tsi
plextor.px.w124tsi.front.jpg
plextor.px.w124tsi.jpg

That was a hell of a good price for a 2.0 Willamette!

H3nrik V! wrote on 2023-11-24, 22:41:

wirerogue wrote on 2023-11-24, 22:10:

a couple of ebay purchases. $40 for a plextor scsi cd burner for my dell precision 220 and a socket 423 pentium 4 2.0ghz which i […]
Show full quote

a couple of ebay purchases. $40 for a plextor scsi cd burner for my dell precision 220 and a socket 423 pentium 4 2.0ghz which i already have but was only $11.

socket 423 pentium 4 2.0ghz willamette
pentium4.sl5sz.jpg
scsi plexwriter 12/4/32 px.w124tsi
plextor.px.w124tsi.front.jpg
plextor.px.w124tsi.jpg

That was a hell of a good price for a 2.0 Willamette!

Indeed!!!!! Lucky