Does this count? I found this Socrates Educational video system yesterday and it looks very cool. I love that the game cart looks like a 3.5 inch floppy

Law212 wrote on 2024-03-11, 13:25:

Does this count? I found this Socrates Educational video system yesterday and it looks very cool.

Got memories, or can you do anything "interesting" with it? I have an old Vtech to mess with the z80, and a more recent Leapfrog handheld hacked to run emulators.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-03-11, 15:02:

Law212 wrote on 2024-03-11, 13:25:

Does this count? I found this Socrates Educational video system yesterday and it looks very cool.

Got memories, or can you do anything "interesting" with it? I have an old Vtech to mess with the z80, and a more recent Leapfrog handheld hacked to run emulators.

I'm not sure yet, I need to take it to work to hook it all up . I love how the thing looks. and the games on the back of the box look great.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-03-11, 15:02:

Law212 wrote on 2024-03-11, 13:25:

Does this count? I found this Socrates Educational video system yesterday and it looks very cool.

Got memories, or can you do anything "interesting" with it? I have an old Vtech to mess with the z80, and a more recent Leapfrog handheld hacked to run emulators.

I'm not sure yet, I need to take it to work to hook it all up . I love how the thing looks. and the games on the back of the box look great.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-03-11, 03:14:

PC@LIVE wrote on 2024-03-10, 09:42:

1 Heatsink I believe for chipset, but easily adaptable to CPU Slot 1 or A;

I think that's the annoying as hell passive sink that came on everything from 8400GT, thru GT210 to 610 and even 710 nVidia "basic desktop" cards... annoying because the card might even be low profile but that stupid thing makes it a slot and a half wide. It doesn't even seem to work as well as some more "boring" looking ones.

Thank you very much friend, I imagined that it came from a video card, but I didn't know which ones, however the use I will make of it is on Slot1 CPUs, I have a P2-400 without heatsink, I hope to adapt it easily, of course I will add a fan to keep the temperatures as low as possible.

I'm posting this here because it's an almost-bought thing. On a local auction website there is a Voodoo 3 2000 for sale, relatively cheap at about 50€ as an auction. The seller's description is "I bought it for my system but when I wanted to install it, I realised I didn't have an AGP slot", yeah.

Then looking at the pictures in detail, this card has clearly been messed with. Signs of screws on the heatsink, and on the back of the die some gunk on the PCB. This card is most probably dead...I will still try to talk to the seller to see at what point he is willing to play his "untested card" game :p

A zoom on the gunk:

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-03-11, 18:56:

I'm posting this here because it's an almost-bought thing. On a local auction website there is a Voodoo 3 2000 for sale, relativ […]
Show full quote

I'm posting this here because it's an almost-bought thing. On a local auction website there is a Voodoo 3 2000 for sale, relatively cheap at about 50€ as an auction. The seller's description is "I bought it for my system but when I wanted to install it, I realised I didn't have an AGP slot", yeah.

Then looking at the pictures in detail, this card has clearly been messed with. Signs of screws on the heatsink, and on the back of the die some gunk on the PCB. This card is most probably dead...I will still try to talk to the seller to see at what point he is willing to play his "untested card" game :p

A zoom on the gunk:

You could ask if you could bring over a computer with an AGP slot to test it quickly. The seller probably doesn't want people coming over to test a dead card. They would probably come up with an excuse for why you can't test it.

I would never pay 50€ for an untested Voodoo 3 2000, even if it was in perfect shape. Why not wait a bit and find a tested one for 70-80€?

asdf53 wrote on 2024-03-11, 20:44:

I would never pay 50€ for an untested Voodoo 3 2000, even if it was in perfect shape. Why not wait a bit and find a tested one for 70-80€?

I have a 3000 and a 3500, I don’t need it…but I still have a notification on 3dfx and follow some auctions. But this auction made me laugh…selling because no available AGP slot, yeah I believe you.

* You find a strange looking 5.25 hard drive on a shelf, it is very dusty *
* You take it down, and rub the dust away with your cleaning cloth *
* A mystical figure appears...*
"I am the Genie of the ST-251, I grant three retrocomputer wishes to those that free me."
You: Awesome
Genie: What do you command for your first wish?
You: I would like a Voodoo 3 please!
*a voodoo 3 appears*
You: Great, thanks!
Genie: What do your command for your second wish?
You: I would like another Voodoo 3 please.
*a second voodoo 3 appears*
Genie: *pinching the bridge of his nose* And for your third and FINAL wish?
You: Take a wild friggin' guess buddy...

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-03-11, 18:56:

I'm posting this here because it's an almost-bought thing. On a local auction website there is a Voodoo 3 2000 for sale, relativ […]
Show full quote

I'm posting this here because it's an almost-bought thing. On a local auction website there is a Voodoo 3 2000 for sale, relatively cheap at about 50€ as an auction. The seller's description is "I bought it for my system but when I wanted to install it, I realised I didn't have an AGP slot", yeah.

Then looking at the pictures in detail, this card has clearly been messed with. Signs of screws on the heatsink, and on the back of the die some gunk on the PCB. This card is most probably dead...I will still try to talk to the seller to see at what point he is willing to play his "untested card" game :p

A zoom on the gunk:

It is missing one of the three caps along the edge of the board. That alone will make it not work. That's an easy fix, but it makes it impossible to know whether the card is dead by some other means.

EDIT: Oh! Also, it has an S-Video output blocked off behind the back plate. Sooo... that just raises further questions, because the Voodoo 3 2000 rarely has TV- Out, but the 3000 never has that square black heatsink. So, this is likely pieced together from two or more cards. Perhaps they got a 3000 from a scrap lot missing the heatsink, the back plate and probably that capacitor and then used a back plate and a heatsink from a 2000 as a donor. Or, it could be a 2000 with TV-out (rare, but they seem to exist at least in old pictures) and they simply replaced the back plate with whatever fit the card (looks like a V3 plate... just not the one for a card with TV-out).

If you are good at repairs and don't mind the risk, I'd pay a little for it, but no way would I pay $50.

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-03-11, 18:56:

I'm posting this here because it's an almost-bought thing. On a local auction website there is a Voodoo 3 2000 for sale, relatively cheap at about 50€ as an auction.
Then looking at the pictures in detail, this card has clearly been messed with.

Don't feel too bad, happens to everyone eventually. You desire something so much that logical thinking goes out the window. You fail to inspect the low quality pictures properly. You know the thing is untested but you don't care because you are 100% sure that it will work. The clock is ticking, you are ready to snipe and bam! You win! You are high af.
Then it all subsides and you actually take a closer look at the item you just bought. Reality hits, depression surfaces, you take an oath never to impulse buy untested stuff ever again. But that's a lie.

Found would be the correct term.. got lucky and never thought to own or even touch a Slot-A CPU / motherboard. It's got a 128MB's of RAM and a Matrox G+MDH4A16G.

Fr0ns wrote on 2024-03-12, 07:13:

Found would be the correct term.. got lucky and never thought to own or even touch a Slot-A CPU / motherboard. It's got a 128MB' […]
Show full quote

Found would be the correct term.. got lucky and never thought to own or even touch a Slot-A CPU / motherboard. It's got a 128MB's of RAM and a Matrox G+MDH4A16G.

Very lucky and rare find. I would love to own a Slot A.

Bought an Athlon XP 3200+, which turned out to be a fake 🙁

The seller's cool and taking it back, they were none the wiser either. From looking at the bridges and comparing with a reference guide it appears to be an XP-M 2500+, which by itself is a great chip and a good overclocker, and this one runs totally fine at 200x11 (although you have to set that manually).. but it's not the 3200+ I wanted. Frustrating!

Pic attached. L3 bridges 1 and 2 joined, L5 bridges 2 and 3 cut, and L12 bridge 2 joined. Plus all the cut bridges on L6 for the mobile speeds 🤦‍♂️

Fr0ns wrote on 2024-03-12, 07:13:

Found would be the correct term.. got lucky and never thought to own or even touch a Slot-A CPU / motherboard. It's got a 128MB's of RAM and a Matrox G+MDH4A16G.

That would be a Matrox G400. It's a good card, especially for dual monitors.

Fr0ns wrote on 2024-03-12, 07:13:

Found would be the correct term.. got lucky and never thought to own or even touch a Slot-A CPU / motherboard. It's got a 128MB' […]
Show full quote

Found would be the correct term.. got lucky and never thought to own or even touch a Slot-A CPU / motherboard. It's got a 128MB's of RAM and a Matrox G+MDH4A16G.

Nice! In particular a nice board - GA-7IXE with AMD750 chipset. Not as fast as KX133, but solid, and no 686B southbridge issues.

dionb wrote on 2024-03-12, 10:45:

Fr0ns wrote on 2024-03-12, 07:13:

Found would be the correct term.. got lucky and never thought to own or even touch a Slot-A CPU / motherboard. It's got a 128MB' […]
Show full quote

Found would be the correct term.. got lucky and never thought to own or even touch a Slot-A CPU / motherboard. It's got a 128MB's of RAM and a Matrox G+MDH4A16G.

Nice! In particular a nice board - GA-7IXE with AMD750 chipset. Not as fast as KX133, but solid, and no 686B southbridge issues.

In fact, so good is that board that AMD used it for evaluation systems. It matched their reference spec very closely and as a result is extremely stable.

Found 2 awesome ads that I couldn't resist.

First a Chaintech CT-6BDU !!! A lovely dual PII, BX chipset and a dual SCSI onboard....

Plus 2 Pentium II @350MHz:

A couple of days later, I found a Timex TC2048 with a very rare FDD set :

In my modest opinion the best 48K ZX Specterum ever made. Note that this floppy drive was for 3 inches disks, but it is possible to use a common 3½ DD drive.

I have a Timex TC2048 as well. It's a really nice machine. I wish they had made more of these, as they are very hard to find.

I didn't know that there was a disk accessory. How does it work? I would love to know more, including any model or part numbers on the boxes.