CMB75 wrote on 2025-03-04, 06:39:

Been fiddling around with old floppies and drives, to me it's absolutely astounding that those disks from the 80s still work perfectly. Haven't had one bad in 30+ disks I tested. ...

Re: Floppy identification...

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

oldhighgerman wrote on 2025-03-04, 07:40:

O NO. They do not work perfectly. In fact it may be that if you actually accessed them once, it could have been the FINAL TIME. This isn't said often enough. Upon finding an old disk, do NOTHING with it prior to reading it into an image/file. You may live to regret it otherwise. Do not try to determine its contents (if it's unlabeled, mislabeled). Don't do a directory scan. Just hit it with whatever people are using these days. I used to use ImageDisk by Dave Dunfield.

I took have had lots of success with old floppies. But often times I've found they're only good for 1 access. Then it's bye-bye. For the rest of eternity.

You're probably right, either way, in this case it wouldn't really be a loss because they are all labeled properly and I do have images of all those disks. I'm going to give those drives a proper cleaning tonight to minimize the risk. If I do stumble upon a data disk I'll image it first *if it does indeed work.

Practice on a blank disk. Write to it, read it back, etc.

Updated a Gotek from FF2.14 to FF3.43 and tested the floppy images on the original systems - just to be sure… I am now.

I finished testing an old X1300Pro in a load of old games and put an article up on my hobby website:

https://ashsthingsandstuff.co.uk/connect3d-ra … pro-256mb-copy/

I replaced it with a standard, but very dodgy looking, X1300 to do some comparisons.

Checking out the innards of this ~26 year old laptop - a Kapok 6200AT:

The original owners were kind enough to leave me the original thermal pad protection tape??? This thing has been working a-ok with neither of the thermal pad tapes removed? Somewhat better than my last one: Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

When these kapok laptops don't completely self destruct, they're pretty reliable! (seriously they have no real overvoltage protection in the mainboard design so when things go wrong they go wrong catastrophically)
Entertainingly, this is the 2nd Kapok 6200AT I've got that's centerprise branded and both have BECTA labels and serial numbers underneath. This one had the full manual which I hope to scan soon 😀

Thermalwrong wrote on 2025-03-06, 04:55:

The original owners were kind enough to leave me the original thermal pad protection tape???

I had a similar experience while performing maintenance on an NEC laptop with a mobile Pentium 3.

NEC laptop with incorrectly applied thermal pad from the factory

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-03-04, 22:54:

I finished testing an old X1300Pro in a load of old games and put an article up on my hobby website:

https://ashsthingsandstuff.co.uk/connect3d-ra … pro-256mb-copy/

Very nice read, thank you for posting this! 😀
I have two or three X1300 cards (standard 4:2:4:2 config), one being an AGP variant. I haven't tested them with any of the same games as you (except Mafia, I think)... but your results more or less highlight the X1300's good and bad sides.
That said, I find the X1300's performance lacking in DX9c... but if you turn it down to just DX9 (a or b) or even better, DX8/8.1 in games that allow it (e.g. Valve's Source engine), the performance does go up considerably.
All in all, I consider it a decent video card for most early 2000's games and especially if gaming at a lower resolution on a CRT.
I also did a comparison with it to another low-power card I like using to test systems out: HD2400 Pro/XT. In short, the HD2400 handles DX9c titles much better... but will quickly tank in performance in certain situations due to its 64-bit memory bus. On the other hand, I find that the X1300 delivers pretty constant FPS for the most part, mostly due to its 128-bit bus. Had ATI made the HD2400 with 128-bit bus also, I think it would have been a pretty decent card... well, maybe (after all, that's what the HD2600 is more or less).

Tested DOOM with a YMF-724 on my Celeron 300A @450 machine w/ 3d Prophet 4500. Interesting what SB-Link can do.

momaka wrote on 2025-03-06, 20:20:

Very nice read, thank you for posting this! :) I have two or three X1300 cards (standard 4:2:4:2 config), one being an AGP varia […]
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Ash515253 wrote on 2025-03-04, 22:54:

I finished testing an old X1300Pro in a load of old games and put an article up on my hobby website:

https://ashsthingsandstuff.co.uk/connect3d-ra … pro-256mb-copy/

Very nice read, thank you for posting this! 😀
I have two or three X1300 cards (standard 4:2:4:2 config), one being an AGP variant. I haven't tested them with any of the same games as you (except Mafia, I think)... but your results more or less highlight the X1300's good and bad sides.
That said, I find the X1300's performance lacking in DX9c... but if you turn it down to just DX9 (a or b) or even better, DX8/8.1 in games that allow it (e.g. Valve's Source engine), the performance does go up considerably.
All in all, I consider it a decent video card for most early 2000's games and especially if gaming at a lower resolution on a CRT.
I also did a comparison with it to another low-power card I like using to test systems out: HD2400 Pro/XT. In short, the HD2400 handles DX9c titles much better... but will quickly tank in performance in certain situations due to its 64-bit memory bus. On the other hand, I find that the X1300 delivers pretty constant FPS for the most part, mostly due to its 128-bit bus. Had ATI made the HD2400 with 128-bit bus also, I think it would have been a pretty decent card... well, maybe (after all, that's what the HD2600 is more or less).

Thanks for reading through it and for the positive feedback, that made my day! Have you posted your test results anywhere? It would be good to see them.

The X1300 in this same system right now has only a 64Bit bus so perhaps the results will be interesting.
It's a shame that the XT version is so hard to find, I have a X1650Pro so we can also see how much better the mid-range of the generation will be along with a GeForce 6200 and 6600.

Today's retro activity today was to open up the side of an Acer Aspire Athlon XP system, I looked at all the dust and grime and decided I was too tired so closed it up again and played some more mafia.

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-03-06, 23:05:

Thanks for reading through it and for the positive feedback, that made my day! Have you posted your test results anywhere? It would be good to see them.

Unfortunately, no I haven't.
When I did those tests (over 10 years ago), I didn't even know about the existence of VOGONS nor of any people around me that were interested in retro PCs. Also back then, the X1300 probably wasn't quite "retro" status yet, so I never shared or even wrote / noted my results down. So no screenshots or anything like that to post. Just going by what's left in my brain... some of which may not be 100% accurate either.
Perhaps when I get more time, I can re-run those test one day... if my 939Dual-SATA2 ever allows it anymore, since I tested so many video cards in its PCI-E slots that it now practically refuses to recognize GPUs about 80% of the time.

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-03-06, 23:05:

Today's retro activity today was to open up the side of an Acer Aspire Athlon XP system, I looked at all the dust and grime and decided I was too tired so closed it up again and played some more mafia.

Heh, I have several system like that waiting in the basement. Could have done one today, given the nice weather, but ended up having to do something else and then later being too tired and preferring to be here and post on the forums than do more work. :p:

I forgot that the Creative SB Live! software replaces the Windows start-up sound. Ctmelody.wav just gave me a heart attack. Twice.

The first time when this screen showed up with the sound of thunder.

After that, the 'new' Windows start up sound. Aaargh!

DarthSun wrote on 2025-02-28, 06:47:

The Emperor of S478 in Via. Summary with Ti4200: […]
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The Emperor of S478 in Via.
Summary with Ti4200:

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Replacement for 6600GT:

The attachment P4EE_6600GT_3DM99.JPG is no longer available

The attachment P4EE_6600GT_3DM01.JPG is no longer available

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Same under Win98.

If you are having fun with it, I shouldn't think any further justification would be necessary. A girlfriend or spouse might have a second opinion though.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-03-07, 13:41:

If you are having fun with it, I shouldn't think any further justification would be necessary. A girlfriend or spouse might have a second opinion though.

I don't keep a wife 😀

DarthSun wrote on 2025-03-07, 13:49:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-03-07, 13:41:

If you are having fun with it, I shouldn't think any further justification would be necessary. A girlfriend or spouse might have a second opinion though.

I don't keep a wife 😀

I had a low caffeine moment and thought I was replying to the thread about building an overkill Win98 machine, but the same is true here.

Bought the digital microscope, have never expected that it would be so helpful in repair process.
Another rare 386 board was resurrected.
It looks much worse than expected, only one trace was repaired and bunch of SMD components were re-soldered.
Just need to buy a solder mask and protect the traces.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-03-07, 14:19:

DarthSun wrote on 2025-03-07, 13:49:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-03-07, 13:41:

If you are having fun with it, I shouldn't think any further justification would be necessary. A girlfriend or spouse might have a second opinion though.

I don't keep a wife 😀

I had a low caffeine moment and thought I was replying to the thread about building an overkill Win98 machine, but the same is true here.

Unfortunately, that's not true. These forums, results, etc. are not about who has a girlfriend or wife, but about the machines and the results.
To call retro out like that is not really sporting.

DarthSun wrote on 2025-03-07, 16:33:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-03-07, 14:19:

DarthSun wrote on 2025-03-07, 13:49:

I don't keep a wife 😀

I had a low caffeine moment and thought I was replying to the thread about building an overkill Win98 machine, but the same is true here.

Unfortunately, that's not true. These forums, results, etc. are not about who has a girlfriend or wife, but about the machines and the results.
To call retro out like that is not really sporting.

I believe you are misunderstanding my post - to clarify, if you or anyone else are having fun with your computer(s), then that is all the justification needed to keep doing what you are doing. But those who have girlfriends or spouses may have to answer to a higher authority when it comes to how much computer hardware they are allowed to accumulate/keep in the house. It was purely in jest.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-03-07, 17:27:

DarthSun wrote on 2025-03-07, 16:33:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-03-07, 14:19:

I had a low caffeine moment and thought I was replying to the thread about building an overkill Win98 machine, but the same is true here.

Unfortunately, that's not true. These forums, results, etc. are not about who has a girlfriend or wife, but about the machines and the results.
To call retro out like that is not really sporting.

I believe you are misunderstanding my post - to clarify, if you or anyone else are having fun with your computer(s), then that is all the justification needed to keep doing what you are doing. But those who have girlfriends or spouses may have to answer to a higher authority when it comes to how much computer hardware they are allowed to accumulate/keep in the house. It was purely in jest.

This is a common joke. It's worth getting your wife to accept this before marriage.