Just finished cleaning this Papst fan.
It was used in a custom built server and ran for many years and was one of the dirtiest fans I've ever seen. Now after thorough cleaning, it is stil running silent and smooth, the bearings are just one of the best. These things are built like a tank. I can go rambling on like this for ages, but I won't.

Successfully flashed modded bios 3.22 for my 775i65g rev g/a 2.14 to get e5800 working on it
bios found on the bottom of this page:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asrock … 5i65g-r2.0#bios
flash tool used was AFUDOS_4.40:
https://soggi.org/motherboards/bios-update-fl … h-utilities.htm
Also having some success with augigy 2zs in dos with SBEMU, HDPMI32I.EXE with the -r and -w flags
need to find the joystick port extension cable for my audigy 2zs to test sc55 functionality
Update: found the joystick break out cable for the audigy 2zs, nothing plays out of the sc55 under duke3d setup music test, port 330 soundcanvas or general midi

keropi wrote on 2025-06-26, 15:35:

that socket is complete and nothing missing , this is a low-profile socket and the cooling solution is mounted directly to the s […]
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that socket is complete and nothing missing , this is a low-profile socket and the cooling solution is mounted directly to the socket via the 2 screw terminals that it has
you are supposed to drop the cpu in the socket and you push the whole cpu either up or down to lock/release
the 2 spots I have marked are meant to be used as points where you insert something like a flat head screwdriver and slowly push the cpu , one spot is used to lock the cpu the other to release it - they should have writing on them so you will know which is which

you can see the same socket on the Datavan DTV-07C system: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/datava … nternat-dtv-07c , this is how I found out about this kind of socket, never seen it before

I hope the pics make it clear what you are supposed to do, also added a close-up of the pins inside - this is what made me realize how this socket works 🤣

Thanks for the info. I didn't expect it was the CPU itself which had to shift sideways.

By some miracle, this thing actually powers on. Maybe it can be my new NT4 system, since the Gateway Solo 2200 crapped out.

I recently set up my Amstrad CTM 644 RGB Monitor again, to use with a couple of games consoles. Since I've had it I've never gotten around to tweaking the picture settings as I didn't fancy having to open it up to do so as I don't like messing with CRT monitors usually. But today I finally decided to just go for it and opened it up. It sure was dusty inside -

Firstly the image was too dark, even with the contrast control at the side set to max. A few adjustments of the sub bright & brightness pots and I got it looking much better. Also applied some contact cleaner to the contrast pot, so that it no longer flickers when used.

Next the colours were slightly off, with dull almost invisible reds. Using the 240p Test Suite on my Mega Drive, I brough up the colour test patterns and then tweaked the red pot slightly to increase the vibrance. At first the picture became a bit too reddish, so I tweaked it back down slightly and got a good balance. Now the reds are bright and visible and the overall colour balance is much improved.

I could probably spend more time and tweak it further, but to avoid pushing my luck I think I'll just quit while I'm ahead. It's not perfect, but it'll certainly do. I have it placed next to a circa-2000s era CRT TV and when they're both switched on you can clearly see the Amstrad's deficiencies in comparison, but it does it's job.

Also yesterday I received an Amstrad GX4000 games console "Untested" from eBay. Of course "Untested" here = broken.

The Player 1 controller port is missing all the fire button pins for a start - not shown in the pictures.

Secondly after opening it up and powering it on, 1 of the RAM chips was burning hot. Even without a game to test with at present, I'm 100% sure that DRAM chip is dead, so I removed it. I've got replacement 464 DRAM chips on the way this week. I've just removed the 1 chip for now, if it still doesn't work then I'll remove the other too.

I tested the voltages and the regulator seems fine, everything that should be getting 5V seems to be, so hopefully it's just a bad RAM chip and a broken controller port.

I don't have a hot air station to properly remove & replace the controller port , so I might just bodge it by soldering in some jumper wires and using a 9-pin adapter with jumper breakout cables.

I do have a fully working Amstrad GX4000 on the way, along with a copy of the pack-in game Burnin' Rubber, so getting this console up and running is mostly just for fun at this point.

PTherapist wrote on 2025-06-28, 17:13:

I recently set up my Amstrad CTM 644 RGB Monitor again, to use with a couple of games consoles. Since I've had it I've never go […]
Show full quote

I recently set up my Amstrad CTM 644 RGB Monitor again, to use with a couple of games consoles. Since I've had it I've never gotten around to tweaking the picture settings as I didn't fancy having to open it up to do so as I don't like messing with CRT monitors usually. But today I finally decided to just go for it and opened it up. It sure was dusty inside -

The attachment ams-ctm.jpg is no longer available

Firstly the image was too dark, even with the contrast control at the side set to max. A few adjustments of the sub bright & brightness pots and I got it looking much better. Also applied some contact cleaner to the contrast pot, so that it no longer flickers when used.

Next the colours were slightly off, with dull almost invisible reds. Using the 240p Test Suite on my Mega Drive, I brough up the colour test patterns and then tweaked the red pot slightly to increase the vibrance. At first the picture became a bit too reddish, so I tweaked it back down slightly and got a good balance. Now the reds are bright and visible and the overall colour balance is much improved.

I could probably spend more time and tweak it further, but to avoid pushing my luck I think I'll just quit while I'm ahead. It's not perfect, but it'll certainly do. I have it placed next to a circa-2000s era CRT TV and when they're both switched on you can clearly see the Amstrad's deficiencies in comparison, but it does it's job.

The attachment 11-ctm644on.jpg is no longer available

Also yesterday I received an Amstrad GX4000 games console "Untested" from eBay. Of course "Untested" here = broken.

The attachment 11-gx4000.jpg is no longer available

The Player 1 controller port is missing all the fire button pins for a start - not shown in the pictures.

Secondly after opening it up and powering it on, 1 of the RAM chips was burning hot. Even without a game to test with at present, I'm 100% sure that DRAM chip is dead, so I removed it. I've got replacement 464 DRAM chips on the way this week. I've just removed the 1 chip for now, if it still doesn't work then I'll remove the other too.

I tested the voltages and the regulator seems fine, everything that should be getting 5V seems to be, so hopefully it's just a bad RAM chip and a broken controller port.

I don't have a hot air station to properly remove & replace the controller port , so I might just bodge it by soldering in some jumper wires and using a 9-pin adapter with jumper breakout cables.

I do have a fully working Amstrad GX4000 on the way, along with a copy of the pack-in game Burnin' Rubber, so getting this console up and running is mostly just for fun at this point.

Well done! The picture is super sharp and colors are vivid, but you should do a little bit of cleaning.

Overclocked a Q6600 on a nForce 780i SLi (XFX oem) mobo.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-06-28, 19:55:

Overclocked a Q6600 on a nForce 780i SLi (XFX oem) mobo.

What did you manage to overclock to?

I tried to read the distribution of five licensed floppy disks. Unfortunately, two of them are partially unreadable. This is a serious problem.
I'll save up money, buy Greaseweazle, and I won't read these floppy disks 100% without it (there's no guarantee that I'll be successful with GW).
This is a rare Lotus 1-2-3 distribution, the Install diskette is damaged.

zuldan wrote on 2025-06-29, 05:46:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-06-28, 19:55:

Overclocked a Q6600 on a nForce 780i SLi (XFX oem) mobo.

What did you manage to overclock to?

The Q6600 could overclock really well, not hard to imagine it hitting 4Ghz with little trouble.

3GHz. 1333 FSB, 1100 RAM. I didn't push further as I recall nForce of that period having FSB holes.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-06-29, 13:39:

3GHz. 1333 FSB, 1100 RAM. I didn't push further as I recall nForce of that period having FSB holes.

That's a good sweet spot. Equivalent to the native frequencies of the Q(X)9650. I've been keeping mine like this for the last few years, as the aging hardware no longer could hold a stable overclock to 3.6GHz/1600 FSB.

dr_st wrote on 2025-06-29, 13:58:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-06-29, 13:39:

3GHz. 1333 FSB, 1100 RAM. I didn't push further as I recall nForce of that period having FSB holes.

That's a good sweet spot. Equivalent to the native frequencies of the Q(X)9650. I've been keeping mine like this for the last few years, as the aging hardware no longer could hold a stable overclock to 3.6GHz/1600 FSB.

Tests. GPU used is Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB, ASUS OEM, reference build.

Did some testing of an S3 Virge in a couple of 440BX boards to see if they work together, they do.

440BX and S3 PCI incompatibility

Clean and retrobright another drive.

dominusprog wrote on 2025-06-30, 12:44:

Clean and retrobright another drive.

The attachment 20250630_155614.jpg is no longer available

It turned out very beautiful!

DarthSun wrote on 2025-07-01, 07:06:

It turned out very beautiful!

Yes, thank you. The summer sun is awesome!

Retrobright the panel for both floppy drives and the case buttons. I did a retrobright for the bottom part last summer, but I've to do another round. Also replace the LED to white for the 1.44MiB drive 😁.

A few days ago, I picked up a Nokia 447X092 monitor — you might’ve seen my post in Bought These (Retro) Hardware Today. Unfortunately, it died right during the seller’s demo. Yesterday, I finally had some time to give it a first visual inspection.

Spent about an hour trying to open it without causing any damage. There's a lot of soot inside. It seems this monitor has seen quite a few hours of operation.
Once the main PCB was cleaned, I found two burned resistors: R195 and R205. All other components look fine — no leaky capacitors or other visibly damaged elements.

I’m still trying to find a schematic for this monitor to check the specs for the burned resistors.
As the next step, I’ll inspect the PCB traces for damage and try to trace the resistors to understand what may have caused their failure.

Susanin79 wrote on Today, 09:20:

As the next step, I’ll inspect the PCB traces for damage and try to trace the resistors to understand what may have caused their failure.

Yes, you should do that. Also check all the diodes for short.

Updated the Kayak BIOS, now the system posts with a P3 550.