Hans Tork wrote on 2025-10-02, 17:00:

dominusprog wrote on 2025-10-02, 16:50:

Hans Tork wrote on 2025-10-01, 19:21:

The attachment IMG_2875.jpg is no longer available

I got them from the local surplus store for really cheap. Both pair of speakers were a quarter each. For 50 cents this was really a good haul and the altec lansing set even has working audio and a power cable. However I was not able to get a 12 V DC power cable for the Creative speakers.

Great find 🙂, they are very clean too. So why you couldn't use the 12V adapter?

I tried a spare 12 V adapter but it seems that adapter is not able to power up the creative speakers. Either that or the speakers are dead. I am guessing the former as the connector did not seem to properly fit in the power port. I do not have another 12 V adapter right now but if I do manage to find another one I can test if the speakers are working or need some repair.

The connectors used in these applications are usually the same, you should try a 12V 2.5A adapter. Also check the solder joints on the female connector.

EZFlyer wrote on 2025-10-03, 04:41:

looks like eisa slots. that thing's a monster

Speaking of EISA slots - or maybe not...

If it looks like an EISA slot but there's only one on the board and it's not electrically compatible, it's probably an OPTi local bus slot. I.already had the BC3486 motherboard, a nice surprisingly small 386/486.combo affair with UMC 82C481/2 chipset. But as of half an hour ago (and thanks to Locutus 😀 ) I now have matching VGA card, an apparently anonymous Tseng ET4000AX based card, helpfully labeled 'LOCAL BUS', just to make it your own fault for not reading if you fry an EISA motherboard with it.

However in the correct board you get this (and no.smoke):

Apparently the card is called "214XA". Still no clue to the vendor unfortunately.

dionb wrote on 2025-10-03, 12:27:

If it looks like an EISA slot but there's only one on the board and it's not electrically compatible, it's probably an OPTi local bus slot. I.already had the BC3486 motherboard, a nice surprisingly small 386/486.combo affair with UMC 82C481/2 chipset. But as of half an hour ago (and thanks to Locutus 😀 ) I now have matching VGA card, an apparently anonymous Tseng ET4000AX based card, helpfully labeled 'LOCAL BUS', just to make it your own fault for not reading if you fry an EISA motherboard with it.

I’m really happy that this OLB VGA has finally found ‚compatible’ slot and is working 😍

dominusprog wrote on 2025-10-03, 09:40:

Hans Tork wrote on 2025-10-02, 17:00:

dominusprog wrote on 2025-10-02, 16:50:

Great find 🙂, they are very clean too. So why you couldn't use the 12V adapter?

I tried a spare 12 V adapter but it seems that adapter is not able to power up the creative speakers. Either that or the speakers are dead. I am guessing the former as the connector did not seem to properly fit in the power port. I do not have another 12 V adapter right now but if I do manage to find another one I can test if the speakers are working or need some repair.

The connectors used in these applications are usually the same, you should try a 12V 2.5A adapter. Also check the solder joints on the female connector.

Thanks for the tip. Yeah I will probably pick up a generic 12V 2.5 adapter from the surplus store.

Yay! Another large haul! With a combination of thrift stores, marketplace free, and a scrap pile, I was able to fill my bin!

There was a few items that blew me away in that pile, too! I revealed ALL this time, right away.

Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-10-05, 17:05:

Yay! Another large haul! With a combination of thrift stores, marketplace free, and a scrap pile, I was able to fill my bin!

The attachment 20251004_133817.jpg is no longer available

There was a few items that blew me away in that pile, too! I revealed ALL this time, right away.

I see a dual slot 1 board and 2 Zip drives (100 I guess).
Nice stash 😀

Also the X570 for 20$... if it works it's a steal!

So, this isn't something I purchased recently, this is just related to a purchase I made a while back and it's a last ditch, moon-shot attempt to find something I probably should have posted about over a year ago.

It goes like this: Someone had listed a huge pile of scrap cards in ~July 2024. I did not need the entire lot and the box would have been enormous. I picked out a whole bunch that I could use, gave the seller a good offer on them as-is and they accepted. The cards had all had their brackets removed and these are almost all uncommon cards that aren't even for IBM PC compatibles, so finding replacement brackets was unlikely. I messaged the seller about the brackets and, to my utter amazement, they said that they found a big pile of the brackets they'd pulled off their scrap boards and sent them along.

... but a little while later they wrote back and said "oops, I put them in the wrong box and they went to another buyer. Sorry." ...... I was... not pleased... but I was holding out one last tiny sliver of hope that the seller or this other buyer would somehow get them to me since I asked, but I never received another reply from the seller.

Life got complicated, and we all got COVID right about that time (2024 was a crap year for my family) so I completely forgot about this whole thing and the cards have all been sitting safely, bracket-less, in a box in my basement.

I really wish I'd remembered this sooner, but here's the moon-shot: Did anyone here buy a bunch of parts from a scrap lot last summer and end up with a pile of unrelated brackets for other cards? If you received them and already threw them away, that is absolutely expected since it has been over a year but if not, please let me know.

Nexxen wrote on 2025-10-05, 19:03:

I see a dual slot 1 board and 2 Zip drives (100 I guess). Nice stash :) […]
Show full quote

Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-10-05, 17:05:

Yay! Another large haul! With a combination of thrift stores, marketplace free, and a scrap pile, I was able to fill my bin!

The attachment 20251004_133817.jpg is no longer available

There was a few items that blew me away in that pile, too! I revealed ALL this time, right away.

I see a dual slot 1 board and 2 Zip drives (100 I guess).
Nice stash 😀

Also the X570 for 20$... if it works it's a steal!

My brother gambled on the x570... it was dead. BUT some signs of life. Will power up by force, but, of course, becomes stuck resetting. Behavior changes when the BIOS is removed. Possibly a corrupt BIOS. I picked a junk HP ($15) a while ago and left me with a Ryzen 3700x, which will pair nicely with the x570, if he can get it working. About to be a damn nice computer for junk prices.

No dualies, just another BE6-II in there. The huge looking gold one is a K7S5A.

Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-10-05, 20:48:

Nexxen wrote on 2025-10-05, 19:03:

I see a dual slot 1 board and 2 Zip drives (100 I guess). Nice stash :) […]
Show full quote

Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-10-05, 17:05:

Yay! Another large haul! With a combination of thrift stores, marketplace free, and a scrap pile, I was able to fill my bin!

The attachment 20251004_133817.jpg is no longer available

There was a few items that blew me away in that pile, too! I revealed ALL this time, right away.

I see a dual slot 1 board and 2 Zip drives (100 I guess).
Nice stash 😀

Also the X570 for 20$... if it works it's a steal!

My brother gambled on the x570... it was dead. BUT some signs of life. Will power up by force, but, of course, becomes stuck resetting. Behavior changes when the BIOS is removed. Possibly a corrupt BIOS. I picked a junk HP ($15) a while ago and left me with a Ryzen 3700x, which will pair nicely with the x570, if he can get it working. About to be a damn nice computer for junk prices.

No dualies, just another BE6-II in there. The huge looking gold one is a K7S5A.

Not dual?? I need glasses or was it just my enthusiasm? 😀
Sucks for the X570

I got this Quimax (ADI) Phoenix PX-IV (Tandon branded) CGA monitor few days ago.
Very nice visual condition (unfortunately somebody was dumb enough to remove AR coating ehh). It needs some geometry tune up (which scares me), but other than that colors are superb (it has Hitachi CRT) and is very bright.

More info here: https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/tan … r-help.1243051/

Using ebay late at night has once again lead to me buying hardware I don't really need.

I just bought a Dell branded GTX 7800 when I saw it came with this silly full length slot extender thing. I must have it in my P4.

Tbh I'm surprised the full length card rails haven't made a comeback.

The AT or XT had them.

myne wrote on Yesterday, 06:49:

Tbh I'm surprised the full length card rails haven't made a comeback.

The AT or XT had them.

Today, where coolers are a metric ton, it'd be a nice addition. But I guess the issue is "they don't look cool" in the fancy RGB cases.

Finally got a full-fat first gen Radeon...will test later this week.

nfraser01 wrote on Yesterday, 10:00:

Finally got a full-fat first gen Radeon...will test later this week.

Nice, first T&L ATi card?

marxveix wrote on Yesterday, 10:08:

[Nice, first T&L ATi card?

Should be, but ATI had so many variationsof the R100 and RV100 it's hard to be sure until it's actually plugged in and turned on 😒

HanJammer wrote on 2025-10-05, 23:58:

I got this Quimax (ADI) Phoenix PX-IV (Tandon branded) CGA monitor few days ago.
Very nice visual condition (unfortunately somebody was dumb enough to remove AR coating ehh). It needs some geometry tune up (which scares me), but other than that colors are superb (it has Hitachi CRT) and is very bright.

More info here: https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/tan … r-help.1243051/

Nice find! Shame about the coating but glass looks in good condition regardless. And most CGA monitors didn't have coating AFAIK so it doesn't look out of the ordinary.

Last week I had bought early slot 1 motherboard - Tekram P6F40K-A5. An interesting fact is that on CPU slot it has written "Preproduction Sample". Also CPU votage jumper indicate 2.5 V for Pentium II instead of 2.8 V for Klamath core. Date code on PCB is 9720 so its from the time when the P2 has it's premiere.

tehsiggi wrote on Yesterday, 07:07:

myne wrote on Yesterday, 06:49:

Tbh I'm surprised the full length card rails haven't made a comeback.

The AT or XT had them.

Today, where coolers are a metric ton, it'd be a nice addition. But I guess the issue is "they don't look cool" in the fancy RGB cases.

The biggest issue is that in a modern case, the slots that the card extender would fit into are usually taken up by fans or radiators. A big, high power GPU needs a lot of cool air to keep in a good operating temperature range!

I haven't bought it yet (the price is a bit too high), but I am tempted by this very unusual case:

https://www.ricardo.ch/de/a/retro-modulares-c … use-1298795090/

What kind of mobo can fit in this?