Kahenraz wrote on 2024-12-17, 18:27:

Besides being a collector's item, I never understood the draw of the 256 DDR versus a GeForce 2. Technically speaking, there isn't any driver advantage and it suffers from all the same problems as all post-TNT cards in Direct3D 5 games.

For Windows 9x retro machine with slower CPUs, my go-to is a TNT2 for compatibility or a GeForce 2 if I want TnL and better performance.

Anything with "TNT" in it was a dirty word for my era of folks/friends, it meant something to the effect of "Parent's Email Box, that overheated and was extremely choppy for gaming". Basically anything that didn't have the name "Geforce" attached to it was never touch/sad face category 🤣.

This is probably more attributed to the fact that the majority of us used oem boxes at first during childhood and oems had a tenancy to use the worst of the chips available while still being technically a "TNT" product.

The very first video card I purchased with my own money was a Geforce 2 PRO 64MB, and It was super fast and exciting when I bought it. I had wanted to buy a Geforce 256 in 1999 but had to wait until spring/summer of 2000 to scrape enough cash together to build my own machine. Which meant the release of the Geforce 2 was already at hand, so its mostly a nostalgia purchases because i missed the opportunity to pick it up back then. 😀

My only gripe with the GeForce et al is the mipmal and texel brokenness that happens with D3D5 games. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't bother with them. The early GeForce line was phenomenal besides that.

See here:

Mipmap settings that fix Incoming (DirectX 5) on the GeForce FX

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2024-12-17, 18:51:

Anything with "TNT" in it was a dirty word for my era of folks/friends, it meant something to the effect of "Parent's Email Box, […]
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Kahenraz wrote on 2024-12-17, 18:27:

Besides being a collector's item, I never understood the draw of the 256 DDR versus a GeForce 2. Technically speaking, there isn't any driver advantage and it suffers from all the same problems as all post-TNT cards in Direct3D 5 games.

For Windows 9x retro machine with slower CPUs, my go-to is a TNT2 for compatibility or a GeForce 2 if I want TnL and better performance.

Anything with "TNT" in it was a dirty word for my era of folks/friends, it meant something to the effect of "Parent's Email Box, that overheated and was extremely choppy for gaming". Basically anything that didn't have the name "Geforce" attached to it was never touch/sad face category 🤣.

This is probably more attributed to the fact that the majority of us used oem boxes at first during childhood and oems had a tenancy to use the worst of the chips available while still being technically a "TNT" product.

The very first video card I purchased with my own money was a Geforce 2 PRO 64MB, and It was super fast and exciting when I bought it. I had wanted to buy a Geforce 256 in 1999 but had to wait until spring/summer of 2000 to scrape enough cash together to build my own machine. Which meant the release of the Geforce 2 was already at hand, so its mostly a nostalgia purchases because i missed the opportunity to pick it up back then. 😀

Yeah there were lots of horrible ones around with crippled buswidth low clocks and crappy RAM, didn't help they went on 3 years longer than they should have in budget segment, I think they were worse than onboard offerings by 2003. However, "proper" TnTs are decent cards. I am going to have to go through mine sometime for a TNT-off, because all the board and chip types scramble up in your head, riva, vanta M64 etc.

Well, the testing concluded on the lot:

- Matrox Parhelia works although I think I'll need Matrox' proprietary DVI cable - apparently standard DVI-VGA adapters don't work, and DVI-HDMI produces a weird picture on my HDMI capture card.
- Commate S7AX seems dead as a doornail
- FIC PA-2013 is working, rev2 board. Also works with Voodoo 3!
- Soyo SY-5EMA+ also works but both it and the FIC have a broken latch on one side. Will have to figure how can I fix that (suggestions welcome!)

I bought a boat load of 5 1/4" floppy disks the other day, 9 boxes (90 disks) in total. A mixed bag of brands but all NOS.

Anyhow. Two of those boxes are Datalife branded and more or less the reason I bought the lot since these two boxes come with those hard plastic cases, which I think of as "cool" 😀

So, I open one of those Datalife boxes (as they are still wrapped in plastic) to admire the plastic carry box and to give the disks a quick format to see if they're still alive (they are!). However, in the back of the box I find an empty disk sleeve. I.e. a disk sleeve without a disk in it. Furthermore, the top of this sleeve is open. Looking inside the sleeve, it has the white cloth like material that all these disks have to prevent scratching of the magnetic surface.

There is also a leaflet inside the box with Japanese instructions on how to (looking at the pictures) cut open the sleeve of an existing disk and clean it?

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? 🤔

I purchased another one of these beige 17-inch displays for $20 USD.
It was up for auction for two months and no one wanted it. So I offered $20 and got it.
I love these Beige Displays. They Brighten up a room and Make me feel so Good.
These Beige computer cases and Displays really do change your mood for the better..
The 1980’s and 90’s was a Magical time with Campuses, Buildings and Rooms full of Beige computers.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-12-17, 22:41:

Well, the testing concluded on the lot: […]
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Well, the testing concluded on the lot:

- Matrox Parhelia works although I think I'll need Matrox' proprietary DVI cable - apparently standard DVI-VGA adapters don't work, and DVI-HDMI produces a weird picture on my HDMI capture card.
- Commate S7AX seems dead as a doornail
- FIC PA-2013 is working, rev2 board. Also works with Voodoo 3!
- Soyo SY-5EMA+ also works but both it and the FIC have a broken latch on one side. Will have to figure how can I fix that (suggestions welcome!)

Nevermind - found the solution to both.

The SY-5EMA+ will need a CPU with an glued heatsink unfortunately.

The FIC PA-2013 got a new socket from a dead Rev2.1 board.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2024-12-18, 01:09:

I purchased another of these beige displays for $20 USD.

Ah yes. Looks good with that Mitsumi/Logi 3-button combo. I hope to find a monitor like that someday..

I picked up a nice assortment of cards today. I was excited about the SCSI, because it came with all the original disks AND manuals, etc.; basically new without the box. The Audigy is pretty sweet. Retail version, always nice to have. The backside of the B16 is brown, so it was a hot one. Have not tested yet.

pan069 wrote on 2024-12-17, 23:54:

I bought a boat load of 5 1/4" floppy disks the other day, 9 boxes (90 disks) in total. A mixed bag of brands but all NOS. […]
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I bought a boat load of 5 1/4" floppy disks the other day, 9 boxes (90 disks) in total. A mixed bag of brands but all NOS.

Anyhow. Two of those boxes are Datalife branded and more or less the reason I bought the lot since these two boxes come with those hard plastic cases, which I think of as "cool" 😀

So, I open one of those Datalife boxes (as they are still wrapped in plastic) to admire the plastic carry box and to give the disks a quick format to see if they're still alive (they are!). However, in the back of the box I find an empty disk sleeve. I.e. a disk sleeve without a disk in it. Furthermore, the top of this sleeve is open. Looking inside the sleeve, it has the white cloth like material that all these disks have to prevent scratching of the magnetic surface.

There is also a leaflet inside the box with Japanese instructions on how to (looking at the pictures) cut open the sleeve of an existing disk and clean it?

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? 🤔

The attachment PXL_20241217_215820158.jpg is no longer available

Very interesting, I had not seen a method to clean the media like that before. I maybe have some DataLife in the stash though, I know about half the "stock" is old backup sets of somebody elses, which I think were maybe only written once, thus it's possible that that kit is still in the box and I didn't notice. So I will have to remember to check.

The bee in my 5.25 bonnet right at the moment is the accessible reuseable disks I found a small pack of ( and I need testers to make sure drives don't destroy a potentially rare original) and they are odd. Everything about them screams 360k low density, they've got 86 dates written on, but no hub ring, it's technically possible they are 1.2 from 86, but I guess it might have been older data from 86 backed up a year or two later. 1.2MB didn't seem to get around much until late 80s. They also don't have that "feel" of first couple of year disk tech, the heavier, expensive anal quality feel. Like early 3.5s feel like they've had their shutter action tuned and fitted in a machine shop etc.

Cutting open the disk to clean it sounds terrifying but probably wasn't that big of a deal. The alignment on these disks was very generous and was easily controlled by the drive holding onto the center. It wouldn't slip off inside the drive once it had been latched onto.

I would be more worried about forgetting that the disc had been cut open and casually launching the magnetic media out like a frisbee during handling.

I picked up a rather generic Beige Box today.

Yeah, there's nothing of note on the outside of this little guy. Of course, once you open it...

Is a whole gigabyte of SDRAM and an ASUS CUVX-D with two 1000MHz Coppermines running in tandem. It's genuinely impressive, even if the fans are incredibly loud. There's also two SCSI drives in there as well, and whoever gave this up had XP going on it. I might install XP again, and get some kind of sound and a non-matrox G400 gpu as well.

Don't tell Lucky Bob...

pan069 wrote on 2024-12-17, 23:54:

I bought a boat load of 5 1/4" floppy disks the other day, 9 boxes (90 disks) in total. A mixed bag of brands but all NOS. […]
Show full quote

I bought a boat load of 5 1/4" floppy disks the other day, 9 boxes (90 disks) in total. A mixed bag of brands but all NOS.

Anyhow. Two of those boxes are Datalife branded and more or less the reason I bought the lot since these two boxes come with those hard plastic cases, which I think of as "cool" 😀

So, I open one of those Datalife boxes (as they are still wrapped in plastic) to admire the plastic carry box and to give the disks a quick format to see if they're still alive (they are!). However, in the back of the box I find an empty disk sleeve. I.e. a disk sleeve without a disk in it. Furthermore, the top of this sleeve is open. Looking inside the sleeve, it has the white cloth like material that all these disks have to prevent scratching of the magnetic surface.

There is also a leaflet inside the box with Japanese instructions on how to (looking at the pictures) cut open the sleeve of an existing disk and clean it?

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? 🤔

The attachment PXL_20241217_215820158.jpg is no longer available

I used Google Lens to translate the instructions:

Even when things get tough, Datalife PLUS is safe. […]
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Even when things get tough, Datalife PLUS is safe.

Features of Datalife PLUS

Datalife PLUS is a completely new floppy disk developed to protect valuable data from fingerprints and dirt, which are the main enemies of floppy disks and cause data loss. Datalife PLUS coats the surface of floppy disks with Teflon (manufactured by Dupont), making it possible to recover data that was previously unrecoverable due to various accidents. However, accidents caused by scratches cannot be recovered, and recovery work can only be done with Datalife PLUS and cannot be done with regular floppy disks.

●Fingerprints attached
It is automatically removed by rotating the floppy disk during use. Repeat the operation until the data can be read.

●Surface dirt
To remove dust or dirt that has adhered to the head window (the oval window part), first lay out a clean cloth on a flat surface, place Datalife PLUS on top of it, and gently wipe it with a soft, lint-free cloth. To remove hardened deposits (saliva, etc.), moisten a cloth with water to dissolve it and wipe it off, then wipe thoroughly with a dry cloth.

●The entire floppy disk is dirty
In the event of an accident involving the jacket or liner (such as spilling tea), immediately wipe the dirt off the recording surface and replace the jacket as follows.

1 While being careful not to cut the floppy disk inside the jacket, slide it to the side and cut the jacket.
2. Open the jacket and remove the disc. At this time, be careful not to damage or bend the cut end.
3 Place the removed disc on a cloth laid out on a flat surface, and use a damp, lint-free cloth to thoroughly remove dirt from the recording surface on both sides.
4 Carefully place the cleaned disc into the spare jacket, making sure to put the front and back sides of the disc correctly. At this time, make sure that the gold hub is facing the jacket label.
5 Copy the contents of the disk replaced with the spare jacket to another Datalife PLUS using the system's disk copy or file copy.
6 After the data copy is complete, discard the original dirty disc as it may damage the drive. Please save the spare jacket as it can be used repeatedly. please.
Kasei Verbatim Co., Ltd.

Providing a spare disk jacket is a pretty novel concept for data recovery.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-09-14, 19:46:

Just got this industrial DFI motherboard: ATX Socket 7 with six ISA slots. […]
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Just got this industrial DFI motherboard: ATX Socket 7 with six ISA slots.

I see another six sound card build in my future. 😁

The attachment DFI 586ITOX REV C1.jpg is no longer available

And speaking of sound cards, also added this Terratec EWS64 XL to my collection.

The attachment Terratec EWS64 XL.jpg is no longer available

Hi There,

I have just received this board that i am trying to save. The board had issues with bulging caps and would post and just hang in bios.

The previous technician replaced the caps close to the cpu with 16v 1000uf , now the board doesnt post at all. He doent recall the value of the original capacitors.

Are you able to confirm for me what is the value of the capcitors ? The board model number is 586IT0X Rev C1.

I have already replaced the shorted IRL3103 mosfet with an IRLB8721 and no display still hence i need to confirm the value of the capacitors.

Thank you.

The good thing about capacitors is that bigger isn't a problem - 95% of the time.

Most motherboards from the p2 era use 1500uf 16v.

Do you have a multimeter? Is it getting the right voltage or not? I'd mostly expect it to be unstable, rather than not post if the caps were too small.

myne wrote on 2024-12-18, 11:11:

The good thing about capacitors is that bigger isn't a problem - 95% of the time.

Most motherboards from the p2 era use 1500uf 16v.

Do you have a multimeter? Is it getting the right voltage or not? I'd mostly expect it to be unstable, rather than not post if the caps were too small.

yep i do have a multimeter and i agree that usually bigger caps are not an issue.

By all accounts the board should be posting hence i wanted to double check the capacitor value, especially the microfarad value.

ASUS 7600GS 256MB AGP (N7600GS/HTD/256M/A)

BetaC wrote on 2024-12-18, 04:54:

I picked up a rather generic Beige Box today. […]
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I picked up a rather generic Beige Box today.

The attachment IMG_4222.jpg is no longer available

Yeah, there's nothing of note on the outside of this little guy. Of course, once you open it...

The attachment IMG_4223.jpg is no longer available

Is a whole gigabyte of SDRAM and an ASUS CUVX-D with two 1000MHz Coppermines running in tandem. It's genuinely impressive, even if the fans are incredibly loud. There's also two SCSI drives in there as well, and whoever gave this up had XP going on it. I might install XP again, and get some kind of sound and a non-matrox G400 gpu as well.

Don't tell Lucky Bob...

The build quality of the case itself seems very good. Great find 👍🏻.

dominusprog wrote on 2024-12-18, 21:27:

The build quality of the case itself seems very good. Great find 👍🏻.

Yeah. I was surprised by just how heavy it is, and am more than happy to have something that can actually house the dual PPro board I found recently as well.

BetaC wrote on 2024-12-18, 21:44:

dominusprog wrote on 2024-12-18, 21:27:

The build quality of the case itself seems very good. Great find 👍🏻.

Yeah. I was surprised by just how heavy it is, and am more than happy to have something that can actually house the dual PPro board I found recently as well.

I think that's an Inwin brand case, their old beige cases like that are wonderful.