Sander's Compaq cache module arrived, have to check it out when I have time.

Cheers,

Nothing interesting at the flea market yesterday, despite being full of people and quite a few sellers. I did come pretty late, though, so maybe all the good stuff was bought out... and I suspect that was the case to a big extent, as I spotted a younger guy buying all kinds of computer boards. When I was looking at something and he asked me if I'm looking at it for gold scrapping, I of course replied no. He then went on to tell me how much he makes from extracting gold from that stuff. I find that hard to believe, but we will see. I told him to be on the look out for VooDoo video cards, as he might be able to get considerably more than what he would scrapping them. Same with older 90's systems. Got his number and need to text him what to look out for. Would be good to find some local scrappers finally.

That aside, the only retro PC items I got from the flea market were an old(ish) and half-decent beige ATX case, a Newton 250W PSU from a Dell (heavy like a tank and with a 22A 5V rail), and a red semi-transculent keyboard-and-mouse set branded by Yahoo! - right from the year 2000! The KB and MS combo were by far the most expensive item I got - paid a "whooping" $2.50. On the other hand, the Newton PSU was too cheap to pass: $0.50. just needs cleaning. And the beige case was a free fetch from the place's dumpster. Managed to find both side panels too, which is almost rare. Only thing that I didn't find (because I didn't see it was missing until I got it home) was a beige case door over the optical bays. So not a top-shape case, but I can't complain for a freebie... other than having to drag it for 2 km. 🤣

WTB local flea markets and swap meets .. also a few e-waste places that give gear away.

One can dream right.

After a year and a half of acquiring them, cleaning them, sending photos and data to Theretroweb, and keeping them safely stored, I'm preparing my two ALR motherboards to test them in a few days.
It's a shame I couldn't find the cache cards for either of them. I will test them with a DX -33 and a DX2-66.
The best things is that I didn't buy them; it only cost me some time to sort through a pile of things that were going to be recycled. Maybe the cache was there too, but I couldn't find it. I almost couldn't even find the CPU card of one of them.
It's a shame I doesn't have EISA cards either. It would be something interesting to try. I've seen few reports, articles, or videos of tests with EISA cards. The interesting thing about theisALR Evolution 4 EISA mobo is that it also has VL-B. Necroware made a couple of videos on the subject a while back, but I feel he fell a bit short on testing. Perhaps someone should do some well-calibrated tests of ISA vs. EISA vs. VLB vs. PCI. Let's say, something like cards that use the same chip/memory but on different buses. In my opinion, the worst thing about EISA is the same thing that's bad about MC: the need for specific configurations.

What I did bought for $2 was an IBM (Cyrix) 486 DX4-100, with oxidized and bent pins and one broken pin. The break included the corner of the ceramic, but incredibly the pin was still attached and connected!!!. Very carefully I straightened it, fitted the fragment into the crack in the ceramic, and applied superglue. I cleaned all the pins by gently scraping them and applying rust remover, until they were good enough. While doing this two pins fell, so I solder them back. the rest of the pins feels well fitted, and all connected. I still have to test this chip (taking the picture, now I see it need a little more cleaning, there still some rust).

kinetix wrote on Yesterday, 00:08:

What I did bought for $2 was an IBM (Cyrix) 486 DX4-100, with oxidized and bent pins and one broken pin. The break included the corner of the ceramic, but incredibly the pin was still attached and connected!!!. Very carefully I straightened it, fitted the fragment into the crack in the ceramic, and applied superglue. I cleaned all the pins by gently scraping them and applying rust remover, until they were good enough. While doing this two pins fell, so I solder them back. the rest of the pins feels well fitted, and all connected. I still have to test this chip (taking the picture, now I see it need a little more cleaning, there still some rust).

Good work ! I would never test try it in a PGA socket, might break all that work. Would test try it in a ZIF socket. Just my thoughts....

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-05-19, 14:58:

WTB local flea markets and swap meets .. also a few e-waste places that give gear away.

One can dream right.

my in laws were going to recycle this one year old pc but they gave it to me to play with. Ubuntu runs fine.

I got the board lot a few days ago.

Results:

-BX2000+ - not working, seems to action the BIOS somewhat (I can hear the speaker tick twice, something that happens on standard BX2000 as well) but POST card keeps showing dashes. If anyone has an idea what could I do to get it to POST, I'm all ears.
-BX2000 - working, needs RAM clips and a cleaning
-Epox EP-MVP3G5 - won't work with AGP video cards for whatever reason, although I found some strange black gunk in the AGP port so that may have to do with it, as well as a pin that's looking a bit suspect. Could be caps as well.
-PCChips M577 - dead unfortunately, although it's the first dead 577 that at least reacts to ATX switch on.
-GA-7IXE - one dead, one somewhat works but I have to power it by shorting green and black. No idea where's the fault on this one.
-MSI 6167 IR1 - one will stop at C1 and beep regardless whether there's RAM or not, the other will POST but same AGP issue as Epox. There's a few broken off SMDs in the AGP direction between the slot and the 751 chipset
-GA-7IX - no post, dashes only
-ABIT KA7-100 - same as 7IX but other than the toasty MOSFETs I suspect I have to do some resoldering on the clockgen pins... there's cap gunk almost everywhere.
-ASUS P2B-DS - POSTs with single CPU, is horribly unstable with 2x Coppermine SL3XK. (as in, will get as far as doing the POST beep then re-cycles through codes with 2x CPU. Single CPU runs fine.)
-ASUS P3B-F - one will sit at dashes only, the other gets stuck at C0--. I suspect the well-known POWERGOOD issue on the VRM although I have a hard time sourcing the schematics @rasz_pl found on Vinafix (the Onedrive link there doesn't work for me) so if anyone has the P3B-F schematics, let me know.
-GA-7VX - pretty dire enough. No POST, same issues as 7IX - 4 dashes on POST card
-Tekram P5M3-A+ - same issue as 7VX
- Intel VS440FX - untested, one is a Dell OEM and the other is retail. I don't have CPUs nor the DELL specific PSU for the OEM board. High chances the DELL one might be working though, since its only issue was a missing cap and a broken regulator I could replace from the retail board. The retail one has bent pins on the chipsets and a few other issues I could see.
- Intel L440GX - untested and it'll likely stay that way... I legitimately don't have any PSU that could power that behemoth.
- neither of the X1950s work so far
- tested only one of the 815EPT Pro-R ver5. The other was pretty dented enough that I didn't bother. A shame I cannot replace just the plastics on its socket - MOLEX branded sockets are literally impossible to remove without destroying the mobo IMO, so I'll have to live dangerously by using it with a 462 cooler hanging on one side.

PcBytes wrote on Yesterday, 13:10:

-GA-7IXE - one dead, one somewhat works but I have to power it by shorting green and black. No idea where's the fault on this one.

Could be a bad RTC crystal, had this problem twice with boards from that era and luckily easy to fix.

PD2JK wrote on Yesterday, 20:39:

PcBytes wrote on Yesterday, 13:10:

-GA-7IXE - one dead, one somewhat works but I have to power it by shorting green and black. No idea where's the fault on this one.

Could be a bad RTC crystal, had this problem twice with boards from that era and luckily easy to fix.

You mean the small cylinder-like crystal?

I have added a huge, yet small piece to my collection of CPUs. A genuine Intel 8088, in ceramic to boot. I already have an AMD 8088-2 and a V20 in my XT, but this is just special enough to make me happy.

PcBytes wrote on Yesterday, 13:10:

I got the board lot a few days ago. […]
Show full quote

I got the board lot a few days ago.

Results:

-BX2000+ - not working, seems to action the BIOS somewhat (I can hear the speaker tick twice, something that happens on standard BX2000 as well) but POST card keeps showing dashes. If anyone has an idea what could I do to get it to POST, I'm all ears.
-BX2000 - working, needs RAM clips and a cleaning
-Epox EP-MVP3G5 - won't work with AGP video cards for whatever reason, although I found some strange black gunk in the AGP port so that may have to do with it, as well as a pin that's looking a bit suspect. Could be caps as well.
-PCChips M577 - dead unfortunately, although it's the first dead 577 that at least reacts to ATX switch on.
-GA-7IXE - one dead, one somewhat works but I have to power it by shorting green and black. No idea where's the fault on this one.
-MSI 6167 IR1 - one will stop at C1 and beep regardless whether there's RAM or not, the other will POST but same AGP issue as Epox. There's a few broken off SMDs in the AGP direction between the slot and the 751 chipset
-GA-7IX - no post, dashes only
-ABIT KA7-100 - same as 7IX but other than the toasty MOSFETs I suspect I have to do some resoldering on the clockgen pins... there's cap gunk almost everywhere.
-ASUS P2B-DS - POSTs with single CPU, is horribly unstable with 2x Coppermine SL3XK. (as in, will get as far as doing the POST beep then re-cycles through codes with 2x CPU. Single CPU runs fine.)
-ASUS P3B-F - one will sit at dashes only, the other gets stuck at C0--. I suspect the well-known POWERGOOD issue on the VRM although I have a hard time sourcing the schematics @rasz_pl found on Vinafix (the Onedrive link there doesn't work for me) so if anyone has the P3B-F schematics, let me know.
-GA-7VX - pretty dire enough. No POST, same issues as 7IX - 4 dashes on POST card
-Tekram P5M3-A+ - same issue as 7VX
- Intel VS440FX - untested, one is a Dell OEM and the other is retail. I don't have CPUs nor the DELL specific PSU for the OEM board. High chances the DELL one might be working though, since its only issue was a missing cap and a broken regulator I could replace from the retail board. The retail one has bent pins on the chipsets and a few other issues I could see.
- Intel L440GX - untested and it'll likely stay that way... I legitimately don't have any PSU that could power that behemoth.
- neither of the X1950s work so far
- tested only one of the 815EPT Pro-R ver5. The other was pretty dented enough that I didn't bother. A shame I cannot replace just the plastics on its socket - MOLEX branded sockets are literally impossible to remove without destroying the mobo IMO, so I'll have to live dangerously by using it with a 462 cooler hanging on one side.

Hello and congratulations on your batch of cards, all more or less very interesting, in my page here on Vogons, I worked on some similar cards or with the same symptoms.
Starting from the first card, the BX2000+ which should be a Slot1 (?!), on a fairly similar card, I managed to make it work, only after cleaning the contacts of Slot1, and spraying a deoxidant, I also don't know the reason but it's more likely that a Celeron Slot1 (FSB 66) will work than a PII or PIII (FSB 100), at least for now that's what I can do on a Soyo SY-6BA+IV, I don't know if it depends on some contact, which in the Celeron remains unused, however a Celeron should be a fairly reliable CPU, and it would rule out that the problem is due to this, even if sometimes you have to enter it several times before it works.
MSI6167 with beep and C1 code, maybe it could be a RAM problem, but if you use modules working in similar cards, it could be something else, I would check if there is the correct voltage on the RAM slots, and if the Mosfet (or regulator?) That generates that current functions, I think these are the things to do initially.
Asus P3B-F with code C0 —, I have the same error code on a S.7 Chaintech 5TDM2, I tried unsuccessfully to rewrite the BIOS Chip, and I think the problem is in the automatic recognition of the CPU, so I don't remember if in the P3B-F, there are manual settings, I advise you to use those.
Unfortunately I don't have any diagram, but some users have them, if I remember correctly, on the YouTube channel Necroware, there are six ASUS Slot1 motherboards, which he repaired in six different videos, maybe if it can help you, there could be some useful suggestions.

BX2000+ didn't work with any CPU. Tried a Celeron as well and even a Pentium II and had the same outcome.

PcBytes wrote on Today, 07:46:

BX2000+ didn't work with any CPU. Tried a Celeron as well and even a Pentium II and had the same outcome.

Well then there might be more to check, I would suggest checking the voltages on the pins of the Mosfets (or regulators), looking for abnormal values, which you may have already done (I guess).
Regarding the P3B-F, the YouTube video is not on Necroware, but on Bits und Bolts, you will find six P2Bs being repaired, they are not exactly the same motherboard, but if you have time and you are interested in looking at them, maybe it could provide some interesting ideas, to help you repair your P3B-F.

Got this nice Gainward FX 5900XT GS, needs a good clean and new paste but appears to be in ok physical condition.

its no FX 5950 Ultra but it should OC nicely being a golden sample and wont be that much slower for the games i want to throw at it.

Trashbytes wrote on Today, 11:26:

Got this nice Gainward FX 5900XT GS, needs a good clean and new paste but appears to be in ok physical condition.

its no FX 5950 Ultra but it should OC nicely being a golden sample and wont be that much slower for the games i want to throw at it.

I was watching this listing, but decided to let it go. I'm happy to see what it ended up in the hands of someone here on VOGONS. Good job. 💪

Kahenraz wrote on Today, 11:48:

Trashbytes wrote on Today, 11:26:

Got this nice Gainward FX 5900XT GS, needs a good clean and new paste but appears to be in ok physical condition.

its no FX 5950 Ultra but it should OC nicely being a golden sample and wont be that much slower for the games i want to throw at it.

I was watching this listing, but decided to let it go. I'm happy to see what it ended up in the hands of someone here on VOGONS. Good job. 💪

I wasn't sure if I was going to jump in, had been watching it shortly after it got listed .. but threw a bid at it in the last hour, honestly expected it to go for more than it did.

It was still pretty low at the last 15 minutes when I stopped watching it. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I already have plenty of video cards and tap out. If it's something I was sure that I could snag for sure closer to $50, I would have snapped it up.