amontre wrote on 2024-06-04, 05:36:

IMG_4121.jpeg […]
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Got myself New Old Set of this Cambridge Soundwork speakers.

Looks like 2.1? I'd love to find new FPS1000. I have picked up a couple free, dirty sets of the FPS1000, without tripod legs, from local people, but they're such a pain to disassemble and clean, and a bit beat up.

The FPS1000 was my upgrade in 1998 from a cheap boombox with aux input. Subsequent upgrade was to the Klipsch Promedia v.2-400 in 2000, which raised the bar for "multimedia speakers."

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-06-04, 04:42:

I'm pretty pleased about this. […]
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I'm pretty pleased about this.

I must preface this by saying I have had a rough history with EGA-capable multi-sync monitors. Bought a Sony CPD-1302 online, seller shipped it with basically no packaging and it was destroyed (tube broken). A year or so later I bought an NEC Multisync II about 2 hours away (incredibly rare find in my area, far from cities) and it powers on but I have never been able to sort out some color related issues that render it unusable (basically the colors are inverted and the image is distorted).

So, a month ago I saw someone on a popular marketplace selling a bunch of vintage gear for very low prices in a large-ish city about 3.5 hours from me. They seemed far more knowledgeable about what they had than most sellers. It was a recycling place and they sell stuff online but if it's too bulky, can't be tested or the value is questionable they prefer to sell it in person only. Among the items they had listed was an Evervision monitor which may be capable of EGA (based on very limited info online), and a Mitsubishi Diamond Scan. The first one was untested due to them having no EGA\CGA equipment to test it with. The Mitsubishi they said they were unable to get an image on using a standard composite cable.

The prices were so low they were nearly free.

Problem is... I don't really like to travel, I don't have much time to travel and I hate (hate!) driving in cities... it's just how I am. I grew up in the rurals and I get very stressed out dealing with city traffic and navigation, especially places I'm unfamiliar with. So, it'd be a huge stretch for me to make such a trip just for some monitors that may both be dead. Coincidentally, a family related event popped up that would bring me within 20 minutes drive of this seller if I chose to go, but it was nearly a month away. This event really meant a lot to a particular family member so I made some arrangements and the seller actually said they would hang on to these for me.

Well... after almost 9 hours of driving today, we all made it home alive, the car is in one piece, the family had a great day and I now have these two beauties...

20240604_001618 (Custom).jpg

(err... I would say three, but I have had the cat for a while... she's not new)

20240604_001710 (Custom).jpg
20240604_001803 (Custom).jpg

They are in excellent condition cosmetically. The slight dark marks on the corners of the Evervision are just crud and come off easily. They seem to have basically no yellowing of the plastic!

So far, I have tested both and the Mitsubishi doesn't seem to want to power on properly... the led kind of flashes on then off, and sometimes kind of dims partially. I'm wondering if the power button got messed up recently somehow. I will crack it open and take a look some time.

The Evervision seems to work amazingly well though! I have only been able to do the tests available in Checkit, which doesn't seem to test for high res EGA modes, but even for the lower res 16 color modes (the same ones I use on my 5153) it looks fantastic! So, I do not yet know 100% for sure if this is an EGA monitor or just CGA, but it does work!

If anyone knows of a quick and easy way to test for high res EGA mode compatibility please let me know and I'll try it out as soon as I get some more time.

Nice haul. The mitsu might be doing an xray protection shutdown if the HV is going overvoltage due to regulation failure. But that's really just one thing off the wild guess laundry list. Hope it's simple, could just be bad joints.... I swear, TV/Monitor soldering practice in the 80s and 90s went, i) Place components. ii) stand board vertical. iii) take a run up with a cup full of hot solder and throw it at it.

acl wrote on 2024-06-03, 22:18:

Really nice. It was only sold in OEM systems if I remember correctly. Never seen one before. […]
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Really nice.
It was only sold in OEM systems if I remember correctly.
Never seen one before.

I'm using a 154 in my "top 2005 system" as a replacement for an FX-57 (and it was already not cheap). But the 156 is much rarer.

The 156 is the highest clocked CPU for socket 939 (3GHz). That's 200MHz faster than the FX-57 (and Opteron 154).

Yea I believe that's pretty much correct. There may have been an extremely small amount available in retail for a very short period, but they were basically nonexistent. Even in the OEM space they were extremely rare, as most server oem's went for 940 socket cpu's or 939 dual cores.
I found this as a spare parts replacement from an OEM company still selling older model replacement parts, it is technically brand new, never used. I couldn't believe when they said they still had it in stock, my jaw dropped... (although I took the last of the stock). Diamond in the rough!

They do 3.0Ghz @ 1.35-1.375 stock voltage. I think they are technically the fastest native single core cpu ever made.

Awesome on the 154 Opty in the Top 2005 system, Thats great!! I am collecting all the high end 939 Cpu's I don't have a Opt 154 yet!

amontre wrote on 2024-06-04, 05:36:

IMG_4121.jpeg […]
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Got myself New Old Set of this Cambridge Soundwork speakers.

Ooh, nice! I think I may have had that exact set in my dorm room back in 2000 or 2001. The sats look like little cubes, right?
Man, just looking at those makes me want to blast some Good Charlotte. 😜

I haven't seen one of these turn up locally for a fair price in the last 3 years so when this untested model appeared I had to snag it.

It gave weird memory/video beeps and only showed garbled screen with PCI cards, didn't even work with AGP.

After a BIOS update it came back to life again.

It's going to be fun building a system around it.

Seems to be a genal problem on Asus Slot A boards.
I have a K7M, that had the same problem. Weird beeps indicating a video problem with all sorts of graphics cards, but no POST.
A BIOS reflash was all that was needed in the end.
Another one:
I got an ASUS K7M 1.04 motherboard recently. Encountering issues

ChrisK wrote on 2024-06-05, 06:28:

Seems to be a genal problem on Asus Slot A boards.

Good to know, thanks. The seller told me that the board was put in storage 20 years ago in working condition and offered full refund + return postage if it's faulty.
It was a low-risk deal but I'm glad it worked out fine with a simple fix. I doubt I'll get my hands on another slot A anytime soon.

Could not resist buying it...
Time to start completing Compaq Deskpro M 😉

IBM 7588 with 586VE SBC
-K6-III(E?)+ 400(ACR)
-SiS 5598 northsouthbridge
-256MB
-A lot of exotic ISA cards I have no use for, although that DupliDisk card is intriguing, perhaps XT-IDE?
CPU runs at 210 MHz, I reckon it needs some dip switch reconfiguring.

Masejoer wrote on 2024-06-04, 07:25:

amontre wrote on 2024-06-04, 05:36:

IMG_4121.jpeg […]
Show full quote

Got myself New Old Set of this Cambridge Soundwork speakers.

Looks like 2.1? I'd love to find new FPS1000. I have picked up a couple free, dirty sets of the FPS1000, without tripod legs, from local people, but they're such a pain to disassemble and clean, and a bit beat up.

The FPS1000 was my upgrade in 1998 from a cheap boombox with aux input. Subsequent upgrade was to the Klipsch Promedia v.2-400 in 2000, which raised the bar for "multimedia speakers."

It's 4.1, Since it has 2 input front and rear, I use it with 2 pc making it 2.1

PD2JK wrote on 2024-06-05, 20:53:

-A lot of exotic ISA cards I have no use for, although that DupliDisk card is intriguing, perhaps XT-IDE?

There's other revisions of this card with a handful more FPGAs tacked onto it. It could certainly be used for XTIDE and maybe emulating other cards too.

That's the coolest looking ISA backplane enclosure I've ever seen. You could put so many full length sound cards into there!

Mildy interesting AGP/PCI cards and a new in box Matrox 450...all untested yet.

Mildy interesting PCI cards and a new in box Matrox 450...

Got delivery of this little guy today, Toshiba Protege 3110CT. Very neat little machine that came with floppy, CD, dock, etc.

Will replace the mechanical HDD with a CF solution (as usual).

my03 wrote on 2024-06-06, 17:40:

Got delivery of this little guy today, Toshiba Protege 3110CT. Very neat little machine that came with floppy, CD, dock, etc.

Nice. Love Protege /Libretto's...

my03 wrote on 2024-06-06, 17:40:

Got delivery of this little guy today, Toshiba Protege 3110CT. Very neat little machine that came with floppy, CD, dock, etc.

Will replace the mechanical HDD with a CF solution (as usual).

Ah... Memories.
I don't think it's the exact same, but I remember playing dune2 on the school libraries Toshiba 486 during detention.
They thought I was doing work, or just didn't want to risk annoying me while I was quiet.

Picked two identical 2.5" floppy drives for 7€. They seem to be unused but not boxed.

Finally found the first decent 775 board that came out of an e-waste rig (with a Q9450). Could be a great overclocker.

The Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad series of chips are excellent processors for Windows XP. They can run most anything that isn't bleeding edge for the platform.