I've an Asus P4P 800 that I had to partially recap a little over a year ago. I got it for free in 2019 and have used it to play some games. I looked at it one day, and it had a bulging cap so I replaced all that were that brand/voltage.

KZG are known to fail in storage. Had several cases of it.

A friend from work messaged me, he found an old pc in a thrift shop, figured I might like it and brought it home for me.
This was the picture he sent me:

Imagine my joy.

So in the last few days I took the machine apart, cleaned it and checked for visible damage.
Today I've started reassembling. Happy moment: we have output!

This makes perfect sense, since only the 3 1/2"drive and the screen are attached. All other parts, including hard drive and memory cards, are not connected.
If you want, I can post updates on the reassembly every now and then. Also open for suggestions on what to use it for.

dr_st wrote on 2025-10-15, 05:54:

Looks like the GPU (Zotac GTX 660) is finally toast. It won't POST in two different boards. Even prior to that, BSODs pointing to the nVidia driver were getting far too common.
Currently using a GT 710 just a a placeholder until I can get a proper GPU.

Found a GV-N950XTREME-2GD. Seems to work fine. ~30% more performance for ~40% less power is a pleasant tradeoff. No idea why it uses an 8-pin PCIe power whereas the 660 used a 6-pin. It's also a bit bigger and heavier, but not unreasonably so.

aspiringnobody wrote on 2025-10-15, 16:08:

Lostdotfish wrote on 2025-10-15, 14:55:

All the 6.3v 1500uf caps were totally gone... I removed the 16v ones too as they were the same Chemi-Con KZG series. Now I need to dig out my polymer caps and see if I have the right ones to replace these with...

That’s fairly alarming, that’s a late 2003 board, I usually consider that to be after the capacitor plague.

I wonder if this board got hot at some point in storage?

All KZG and KZJ are bad. In my experience especially the 6.3v version. 16v and very late ones (2008+) are maybe less bad but still dodgy.
Their replacement was the KZE and those are reliable.

If nowadays you need caps with such extremely low ESR as KZG were used back then go with polys without a doubt.

octopus wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:12:

This makes perfect sense, since only the 3 1/2"drive and the screen are attached. All other parts, including hard drive and memory cards, are not connected.
If you want, I can post updates on the reassembly every now and then. Also open for suggestions on what to use it for.

i demand a separate thread with lots of pictures and updates

Living wrote on 2025-10-15, 23:40:

octopus wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:12:

This makes perfect sense, since only the 3 1/2"drive and the screen are attached. All other parts, including hard drive and memory cards, are not connected.
If you want, I can post updates on the reassembly every now and then. Also open for suggestions on what to use it for.

i demand a separate thread with lots of pictures and updates

Same!

octopus wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:12:

A friend from work messaged me, he found an old pc in a thrift shop, figured I might like it and brought it home for me. This wa […]
Show full quote

A friend from work messaged me, he found an old pc in a thrift shop, figured I might like it and brought it home for me.
This was the picture he sent me:

Imagine my joy.

So in the last few days I took the machine apart, cleaned it and checked for visible damage.
Today I've started reassembling. Happy moment: we have output!

This makes perfect sense, since only the 3 1/2"drive and the screen are attached. All other parts, including hard drive and memory cards, are not connected.
If you want, I can post updates on the reassembly every now and then. Also open for suggestions on what to use it for.

It never stops to amuse me what treasures people found at a thrift store.

octopus wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:12:

A friend from work messaged me, he found an old pc in a thrift shop, figured I might like it and brought it home for me. This wa […]
Show full quote

A friend from work messaged me, he found an old pc in a thrift shop, figured I might like it and brought it home for me.
This was the picture he sent me:

Imagine my joy.

So in the last few days I took the machine apart, cleaned it and checked for visible damage.
Today I've started reassembling. Happy moment: we have output!

This makes perfect sense, since only the 3 1/2"drive and the screen are attached. All other parts, including hard drive and memory cards, are not connected.
If you want, I can post updates on the reassembly every now and then. Also open for suggestions on what to use it for.

Is that a bad photo or is the monitor really a blue phosphor? I've never seen a blue monochrome monitor before...

That is a legendary find!

I did some benchmarking (video below) I had an ATI 9500 pro and recently got hold of a Geforce FX 5600, I remember the days when geforce was undisputed king, but then ATI was really starting to catch up, and actually went ahead in my opinion in this era with the 9000 Series, because the FX series was a Dog of a card (i know its looked upon fondly now) but at the time I remember all the negative reviews, and we all wondered if it was going to be a defining shift to ATI! Alas it didn't turn out that way, but for those few years, nVidia were worried I feel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKuDccIW66A&feature=youtu.be

octopus wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:12:

A friend from work messaged me, he found an old pc in a thrift shop, figured I might like it and brought it home for me. This wa […]
Show full quote

A friend from work messaged me, he found an old pc in a thrift shop, figured I might like it and brought it home for me.
This was the picture he sent me:

Imagine my joy.

So in the last few days I took the machine apart, cleaned it and checked for visible damage.
Today I've started reassembling. Happy moment: we have output!

This makes perfect sense, since only the 3 1/2"drive and the screen are attached. All other parts, including hard drive and memory cards, are not connected.
If you want, I can post updates on the reassembly every now and then. Also open for suggestions on what to use it for.

That really is an incredible find. I am also curious about why the display text is blue though. I know in my 5153 display I had to replace some caps because the colors started to get wonky, but I don't think this is the same thing.

What is that funky little drive though? The blue button reminds me of PS/2 drives, but I can't tell what would go into the one on this computer. Is it a tape drive of some sort?

Also, the question we all want to know is what kind of cards were in it? Anything aftermarket? Sound card, high end graphics, etc.? 😁

The text came out blue on the picture, because of bad lighting... it's 'just' an ordinary CGA monitor

Cards: to my surprise it had an rtx 5070 that didn't seem to work.
Just kidding. The cards inside:
- CGA graphics card
- MFM
- TOPHAT memory expansion
- INTEL memory expansion
- serial and parallel card
- 5 1/4 floppy drive
- 3 1/2 disk drive
- hard disk, IBM type 0665

So far both disk drives seem to work. I have not yet put the memory cards back. When I attach the hard drive, the psu goes into failsafe. Probably a bad cap, I'll have to look into that.

octopus wrote on 2025-10-17, 06:37:

The text came out blue on the picture, because of bad lighting... it's 'just' an ordinary CGA monitor […]
Show full quote

The text came out blue on the picture, because of bad lighting... it's 'just' an ordinary CGA monitor

Cards: to my surprise it had an rtx 5070 that didn't seem to work.
Just kidding. The cards inside:
- CGA graphics card
- MFM
- TOPHAT memory expansion
- INTEL memory expansion
- serial and parallel card
- 5 1/4 floppy drive
- 3 1/2 disk drive
- hard disk, IBM type 0665

So far both disk drives seem to work. I have not yet put the memory cards back. When I attach the hard drive, the psu goes into failsafe. Probably a bad cap, I'll have to look into that.

Everyone knows its a waste to put more than an RTX 5060 in an IBM 5170. Also interesting, that doesn't appear to be the original keyboard for that unit. Did you add that? The original 5170 keyboards have the Function keys down the side, or did they change the keyboard design sometime after release?

octopus wrote on 2025-10-17, 06:37:

The text came out blue on the picture, because of bad lighting... it's 'just' an ordinary CGA monitor […]
Show full quote

The text came out blue on the picture, because of bad lighting... it's 'just' an ordinary CGA monitor

Cards: to my surprise it had an rtx 5070 that didn't seem to work.
Just kidding. The cards inside:
- CGA graphics card
- MFM
- TOPHAT memory expansion
- INTEL memory expansion
- serial and parallel card
- 5 1/4 floppy drive
- 3 1/2 disk drive
- hard disk, IBM type 0665

So far both disk drives seem to work. I have not yet put the memory cards back. When I attach the hard drive, the psu goes into failsafe. Probably a bad cap, I'll have to look into that.

Wow, that's a funky looking 3.5" floppy drive. It doesn't even look like it's the right shape, but if you've tested it that must be what it is. Is there a model number on it somewhere?

Messing around with my "mini-ITX" Socket 7 machine today. I've gone back and forth on the exact specs, but I think I've settled on a "1996" vibe for this one. So, Pentium 166 (non-MMX) and a AWE 64. I have a Diamond Stealth 3D (ViRGE) card that would have been nice to get in there, but VGA connector is on the far left of the card and wouldn't fit - so, sticking with the Stealth 64 (which is the card I had back in the day, so it's all good).

Since I was also replacing a dead HD, and 1996 < 1998, I decided to go with Windows 95 and... wow. It is so much less refined than Win98, I had completely forgotten. Just getting basic drivers loaded was a chore. Now that I think about it, I've probably not used Windows 95 since well.. 1998. I did get everything working, including the PicoGUS's CDROM and MPU-401 support, as well as USB (though that's functionally useless in Win95). Not sure there's any point in sticking it out with Windows 95 other than sheer stubbornness.

Also added a PS2 mouse connector - tight fit, but it works!

(The P166 has a permanent passive heatsink on it)

ubiq wrote on 2025-10-19, 00:50:

Messing around with my "mini-ITX" Socket 7 machine today. I've gone back and forth on the exact specs, but I think I've settled […]
Show full quote

Messing around with my "mini-ITX" Socket 7 machine today. I've gone back and forth on the exact specs, but I think I've settled on a "1996" vibe for this one. So, Pentium 166 (non-MMX) and a AWE 64. I have a Diamond Stealth 3D (ViRGE) card that would have been nice to get in there, but VGA connector is on the far left of the card and wouldn't fit - so, sticking with the Stealth 64 (which is the card I had back in the day, so it's all good).

Since I was also replacing a dead HD, and 1996 < 1998, I decided to go with Windows 95 and... wow. It is so much less refined than Win98, I had completely forgotten. Just getting basic drivers loaded was a chore. Now that I think about it, I've probably not used Windows 95 since well.. 1998. I did get everything working, including the PicoGUS's CDROM and MPU-401 support, as well as USB (though that's functionally useless in Win95). Not sure there's any point in sticking it out with Windows 95 other than sheer stubbornness.

Also added a PS2 mouse connector - tight fit, but it works!

The attachment IMG_3151.jpeg is no longer available

(The P166 has a permanent passive heatsink on it)

The attachment IMG_3153.jpeg is no longer available

The attachment IMG_3152.jpeg is no longer available

Yeah windows 95 was a quantum leap at the time but things like the driver updater are very painful by modern standards. Most builds I use Windows 98, especially on anything that has USB support. That case looks so awesome, what did you use to cut the ATX backplate?

I have been checking out the Toshiba Tecra 8200 laptops lately - they all have bad batteries and I think I understand why now. The battery is rather basic compared to modern lithium batteries, specifically there is no smart charging chip to cut off the cells fully from the laptop and it always outputs? My thinking is that the laptop keeps trying to draw power and eventually ruins the cells. All 3 PA3062U battery packs I've seen had at least one bad pair of cells where there is visible corrosion / leakage from the cells which ruins the cells and any nearby solder.
Interestingly the same thing happened on a Toshiba Tecra 8100 which is a similar pack, there might be something wrong with Sony's cells (US18650GR G3A) or the pack design, I think it's the latter.

This most recent one I got had only 2 bad cells and the previous one I got had 2 still working cells with ~1400mah capacity out of 1800mah design capacity. So I jammed them together by removing the 2x bad cells and spot welding in the 2x working cells from the other battery and this Toshiba battery is so simple it just has no idea of what I did.

Most other battery packs would require the controller to be reset but these Toshiba packs only really contain an EEPROM and a basic voltage cutoff chip (MM1309)

The Tecra 8200 is pretty interesting, the top spec (900MHz & 1GHz) models get a 1400x1050 screen which has enough resolution to do perfect integer scaling of 640x480 and 320x200 with a fairly small black border. Shame that the Trident VGA is not great at least with the drivers from Toshiba, but it has Yamaha DS-XG audio which is behaving well with DOS games in Windows 98. The proper integer scaling has been wonderful for playing some 640x480 games like Diablo 1 😀

So, the hard drive is failing up until now. Luckily my brother handed me a spare Seagate ST-225 a while ago, and that seems to work fine.
Fine as in: no failsafe from the PSU.
The inside is now clean and reassambled, with the replaced hard drive. Next step: testing and getting an AT Diagnostics disk up and running.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-10-17, 18:32:

Wow, that's a funky looking 3.5" floppy drive. It doesn't even look like it's the right shape, but if you've tested it that must be what it is. Is there a model number on it somewhere?

I'll post on that later, focussing on the main pc first and also taking it one step at a time. To stretch the amount of fun.

Shagittarius wrote on 2025-10-17, 14:54:

Everyone knows its a waste to put more than an RTX 5060 in an IBM 5170. Also interesting, that doesn't appear to be the original keyboard for that unit. Did you add that? The original 5170 keyboards have the Function keys down the side, or did they change the keyboard design sometime after release?

This is the keyboard that came with it. I think the first models came with the model F keyboard, I remember having one of those as a child. But the later models came with a model M. This is the 5170 from 1986, with the model M.

I picked up this ASUS P4P800-E with missing jumpers, north bridge heatsink and most of 1000uf caps were removed too, the remaining 1000uf caps were soldered backwards.

the soldering was terrible and nearby traces were damaged.

I replaced all of those 1000uf caps, fixed the broken traces and board posted.

then washed it with warm water mixed with dishwashing soap and it looks good as new.

Also saw some crazy prices for this board on ebay like $200,$300,$400. 🤣

Karbist wrote on 2025-10-19, 11:43:

I picked up this ASUS P4P800-E with missing jumpers, north bridge heatsink and most of 1000uf caps were removed too, the remain […]
Show full quote

I picked up this ASUS P4P800-E with missing jumpers, north bridge heatsink and most of 1000uf caps were removed too, the remaining 1000uf caps were soldered backwards.

The attachment 1.jpg is no longer available

the soldering was terrible and nearby traces were damaged.

The attachment 2.jpg is no longer available

I replaced all of those 1000uf caps, fixed the broken traces and board posted.

The attachment 3.jpg is no longer available

then washed it with warm water mixed with dishwashing soap and it looks good as new.

The attachment 4.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 5.jpg is no longer available

Also saw some crazy prices for this board on ebay like $200,$300,$400. 🤣

Cool find and great job on the repairs! I'm no soldering hero, so compliments on that

Thermalwrong wrote on 2025-10-19, 03:24:

Yeah windows 95 was a quantum leap at the time but things like the driver updater are very painful by modern standards. Most builds I use Windows 98, especially on anything that has USB support. That case looks so awesome, what did you use to cut the ATX backplate?

Thanks!

Other than adding the PS2 connector, this particular backplate is an early effort of mine and the especially the KB hole is rather rough. I have a sheet metal hole punch set for smaller holes and everything else is just a lot of creative use of my dremel.