I managed to repair a 237-pin ZIF socket (socket 3), it is a socket 235 now:

A motherboard I was trying to test had issues with the CPU socket. After some deliberation I though of three options to fix the board: repair the socket, replace the socket or remove the socket and solder the CPU straight on the motherboard. The propect of desoldering and resoldering 237 pins motivated me to at least try to repair it.

To get a look at the pins in the socket the sliding part of the socket has to be removed. I got the sliding part loose by following this guide. Unfortunatly the lever of the socket in my board can not be removed, it is somehow molded (how?) in both the sliding part and the fixed part of the socket. With a soldering iron and a box cutter I managed to free the lever and the sliding part from the fixed part. There were three crushed pins. One pin I managed to straighten with needles but the other two were to far gone, they needed to be replaced. Now where to get replacement pins? Well from the socket! I am only going to use this board with a PGA 168 CPU, so all the pins in the outer ring intended for the Pentium Overdrive will never be used. Replacing the pins is quite hard because the pins are press fit into the socket. Anyway, I managed to get the crushed pins out and the replacement pins in and the motherboard booted first try.

Duouk2000 wrote on 2018-09-02, 12:55:

t.

Also picked up a Tiny 810ls1 desktop for £2 at the local car boot.

Do you still have this? It was my first family computer. I have been looking everywhere for years for one.
Are you willing to sell?

Lots of great memories with that.

While volunteering at my local recycler I ended up finding an incredibly dead, and incredibly interesting looking CPU in a completely thrashed by battery leakage Macintosh IIci.

I don't know what happened to cause this outcome, but the result is damn cool looking.

BetaC wrote on 2025-02-12, 00:13:

While volunteering at my local recycler I ended up finding an incredibly dead, and incredibly interesting looking CPU in a completely thrashed by battery leakage Macintosh IIci.

The attachment IMG_4401.jpg is no longer available

I don't know what happened to cause this outcome, but the result is damn cool looking.

Wow, that looks awesome! Definitely keep it. 😁

I have seen aluminum electrolytic caps do some crazy stuff that kind of reminds me of that. They'll get little white lines around them going in all random directions... it looks like someone shook the caps in a basket while drizzling them with a very fine stream of white paint.

I think this is different, but is the closest I've seen.

zuldan wrote on 2025-02-10, 08:18:

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-02-10, 07:38:

Picked up a K7-900Mhz Orion to compare against the A-900Mhz Thunderbird I have. I want to see how much of a performance differen […]
Show full quote

Picked up a K7-900Mhz Orion to compare against the A-900Mhz Thunderbird I have. I want to see how much of a performance difference you gain going to Thunderbird on Slot A! Should be some fun benches.

Oh yea, and I'll definitely crack it open to replace the TIM and see what's inside!

The attachment PXL_20250209_012035147.jpg is no longer available

Looking forward to seeing the results!

With all other things equal, same Motherboard, Ram, Drivers, OS, ect. ect. The Thunderbird Core mhz to mhz is 8% faster in XP/Windows 2k and 6% Faster in Win98SE/ME than the Orion Core!
this was tested with 3DMark2001 SE and 3DMark 2000 Using a Geforce 2 Pro.

Also going from the 900Mhz T-Brid to a 950mhz T-bird netted about 2% for both Win2k & win98. Same with Orion.
So the practical gain in 3D performance of going from Orion to Thunderbird is the same or more than stepping up 100/150MHz. At least at the high end, I can't speak for below 900 MHz.

For instance if you are Running a 900Mhz T-bird according to my benches you are running the same or faster than a 1Ghz Orion.!

Pretty cool stuff

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-02-12, 22:31:

With all other things equal, same Motherboard, Ram, Drivers, OS, ect. ect. The Thunderbird Core mhz to mhz is 8% faster in XP/W […]
Show full quote

zuldan wrote on 2025-02-10, 08:18:

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-02-10, 07:38:

Picked up a K7-900Mhz Orion to compare against the A-900Mhz Thunderbird I have. I want to see how much of a performance differen […]
Show full quote

Picked up a K7-900Mhz Orion to compare against the A-900Mhz Thunderbird I have. I want to see how much of a performance difference you gain going to Thunderbird on Slot A! Should be some fun benches.

Oh yea, and I'll definitely crack it open to replace the TIM and see what's inside!

The attachment PXL_20250209_012035147.jpg is no longer available

Looking forward to seeing the results!

With all other things equal, same Motherboard, Ram, Drivers, OS, ect. ect. The Thunderbird Core mhz to mhz is 8% faster in XP/Windows 2k and 6% Faster in Win98SE/ME than the Orion Core!
this was tested with 3DMark2001 SE and 3DMark 2000 Using a Geforce 2 Pro.

Also going from the 900Mhz T-Brid to a 950mhz T-bird netted about 2% for both Win2k & win98. Same with Orion.
So the practical gain in 3D performance of going from Orion to Thunderbird is the same or more than stepping up 100/150MHz. At least at the high end, I can't speak for below 900 MHz.

For instance if you are Running a 900Mhz T-bird according to my benches you are running the same or faster than a 1Ghz Orion.!

Pretty cool stuff

Very interesting results, thank you for all the testing. Jealous of your 900MHz slot A’s 😉

Funny, I got a Pluto yesterday of all things. DFI AK70 (neat AMD based SLOT A mobo from 'em IMO) and a 600MHz Pluto 🤣. Even got the case to go with it.

Might throw a Kyro build with it just for fun. Wonder how well does a Kyro fare with a Slot A build, more so a AMD based one - the other one I have w/ MSI K7Pro runs a Voodoo 3 3000.

I've been oiling up some stepper motors. The SCSI drive is working, the IDE-XT needs more care. I'll be doing some poking around with the scope tomorrow.

In one of my cases the MHz display was not working anymore. Found out that it used not one but two of those small watch batteries that of course started leaking. Ruining the board in the process. Probably fixable but I wanted something without batteries.

So started a little project with an Adruino Pro Mini to replace it. Took some time to program it and connect all wires (turbo, reset, power and 12 wires for the LED itself). But the end result was very satisfying. Also "upgraded" it from a 3 * 7-segment LED to a 4 * 7-segment LED. Maybe in the future I will use a 7-segment LED with a Max7219 chip which uses less wires but I don't think it would fit in this case.

I always bothered me that enabling the turbo button commonly did the opposite one light expect in that it slowed the chip down. It's nice to see that you have it the logical way around.

This makes sense in concept because it's the slowdown that's what is enabled. It's just such a confusing misnomer of you didn't already know that. Of course, no one did at the time. Or at least it wasn't common knowledge for a while.

Yoghoo wrote on 2025-02-13, 18:29:

In one of my cases the MHz display was not working anymore. Found out that it used not one but two of those small watch batteries that of course started leaking. Ruining the board in the process. Probably fixable but I wanted something without batteries.

So started a little project with an Adruino Pro Mini to replace it. Took some time to program it and connect all wires (turbo, reset, power and 12 wires for the LED itself). But the end result was very satisfying. Also "upgraded" it from a 3 * 7-segment LED to a 4 * 7-segment LED. Maybe in the future I will use a 7-segment LED with a Max7219 chip which uses less wires but I don't think it would fit in this case.

Nice job 👍🏻. Can you post a picture of the whole case?

dominusprog wrote on 2025-02-13, 21:09:

Yoghoo wrote on 2025-02-13, 18:29:

In one of my cases the MHz display was not working anymore. Found out that it used not one but two of those small watch batteries that of course started leaking. Ruining the board in the process. Probably fixable but I wanted something without batteries.

So started a little project with an Adruino Pro Mini to replace it. Took some time to program it and connect all wires (turbo, reset, power and 12 wires for the LED itself). But the end result was very satisfying. Also "upgraded" it from a 3 * 7-segment LED to a 4 * 7-segment LED. Maybe in the future I will use a 7-segment LED with a Max7219 chip which uses less wires but I don't think it would fit in this case.

Nice job 👍🏻. Can you post a picture of the whole case?

Sure. It's the middle one (486).

this week I just restored 3 OLD keyboards. they were dirty as F*, being in the open for who know how long. one was beyond yellow, almost brown. but another was still pristine white (after washing), different kind of plastic. anyway all passed several retro bright process. I´ll keep one and the other will be a gift. the third will be modified for a MSX Im rebuilding. I had to use conductive ink for restore some disappearing and creaked lines.

I got an MSX motherboard, a version of the Daewoo IQ-1000 or DPC-200 or CPC-200 or something like that, but I haven't found any photos of this motherboard. The closest Ive found is the "Bawareth Perfect MSX1", but with an 8255 for keyboard control and that part of the circuit with a different layout, although similar components.
The thing is , someone cut the video and audio connectors (!!!!!) and removed the RF module and some transistors and capacitors. I dont care about the RF, but I d about the composite and analog audio
I dumped the BIOS and tried it in an MSX emulator and it seems to be fine.
I did the reverse engineering of the keyboard circuits and connectors and how they mapped to the standard MSX key matrix and what this matrix have different (the combination keys), also did the same with the video and sound circuits so I can rebuild them, as several component were removed. Except for the video and audio chips , I have spares for all components. also Im getting ready a small power supply, and designing a case.

Someone gave me this scope the other day.

But it's got some issues. Learning how to disassemble it so I can test caps.
Will probably have to wait a little to open the CRT driver side.

Either way, this bohemoth is perfect for what I like to play with: old video equipment and old computers.

yourepicfailure wrote on 2025-02-14, 06:38:

Someone gave me this scope the other day. […]
Show full quote

Someone gave me this scope the other day.

The attachment scope-1.jpg is no longer available

The attachment scope-2.jpg is no longer available

But it's got some issues. Learning how to disassemble it so I can test caps.
Will probably have to wait a little to open the CRT driver side.

Either way, this bohemoth is perfect for what I like to play with: old video equipment and old computers.

what a wonderful thing! Sure it will need some attention but hopefully you'll soon have it up and running, good as new

Dorunkāku wrote on 2025-02-10, 22:47:

I managed to repair a 237-pin ZIF socket (socket 3), it is a socket 235 now:

A motherboard I was trying to test had issues with the CPU socket. After some deliberation I though of three options to fix the board: repair the socket, replace the socket or remove the socket and solder the CPU straight on the motherboard. The propect of desoldering and resoldering 237 pins motivated me to at least try to repair it.

To get a look at the pins in the socket the sliding part of the socket has to be removed. I got the sliding part loose by following this guide. Unfortunatly the lever of the socket in my board can not be removed, it is somehow molded (how?) in both the sliding part and the fixed part of the socket. With a soldering iron and a box cutter I managed to free the lever and the sliding part from the fixed part. There were three crushed pins. One pin I managed to straighten with needles but the other two were to far gone, they needed to be replaced. Now where to get replacement pins? Well from the socket! I am only going to use this board with a PGA 168 CPU, so all the pins in the outer ring intended for the Pentium Overdrive will never be used. Replacing the pins is quite hard because the pins are press fit into the socket. Anyway, I managed to get the crushed pins out and the replacement pins in and the motherboard booted first try.

Well done!

After a LONG time I finally got to buy an OSSC and try it with some of my old PCs... I have to admit it's pretty nice!(It would be prefect if more monitors had a vertical resolution of 1200 pixels)
Only drawback one needs a monitor/TV able to display refresh rates higher than 60hz.
I have some CRTs but I do not like to "use them up" for things that take long work hours.

gerry wrote on 2025-02-14, 10:26:

yourepicfailure wrote on 2025-02-14, 06:38:

Someone gave me this scope the other day. […]
Show full quote

Someone gave me this scope the other day.

The attachment scope-1.jpg is no longer available

The attachment scope-2.jpg is no longer available

But it's got some issues. Learning how to disassemble it so I can test caps.
Will probably have to wait a little to open the CRT driver side.

Either way, this bohemoth is perfect for what I like to play with: old video equipment and old computers.

what a wonderful thing! Sure it will need some attention but hopefully you'll soon have it up and running, good as new

What I love is that everything is BNC, which 90% of the stuff I work with (old video equipment) uses by default. Makes connections so easy with BNC patch cables.

Otherwise, any recommendations when disassembling and troubleshooting it?

yourepicfailure wrote on 2025-02-15, 08:50:

Otherwise, any recommendations when disassembling and troubleshooting it?

Only, don't tear into it too much until you've given this a thorough read https://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/test_equi … nual_197608.pdf

yourepicfailure wrote on 2025-02-15, 08:50:

gerry wrote on 2025-02-14, 10:26:

yourepicfailure wrote on 2025-02-14, 06:38:

Someone gave me this scope the other day. […]
Show full quote

Someone gave me this scope the other day.

The attachment scope-1.jpg is no longer available

The attachment scope-2.jpg is no longer available

But it's got some issues. Learning how to disassemble it so I can test caps.
Will probably have to wait a little to open the CRT driver side.

Either way, this bohemoth is perfect for what I like to play with: old video equipment and old computers.

what a wonderful thing! Sure it will need some attention but hopefully you'll soon have it up and running, good as new

What I love is that everything is BNC, which 90% of the stuff I work with (old video equipment) uses by default. Makes connections so easy with BNC patch cables.

Otherwise, any recommendations when disassembling and troubleshooting it?

Take great care, I doubt itll be easy to replace the more delicate internal parts and components, the screen might be the hardest part to replace so its good you are leaving that part alone. I would recommend finding someone with old CRT knowledge they can be tricky to work with blind.