sunkindly wrote on 2025-10-21, 00:08:

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!! Holy heck, I can't believe it. My hands are red from clapping. […]
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sunkindly wrote on 2025-10-16, 18:50:

Thermalwrong wrote on 2025-10-16, 03:46:

I wish you luck with getting your one working 😀

Thanks! If it doesn't work off the bat I'll likely open it up as you did yours and poke around.

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!! Holy heck, I can't believe it. My hands are red from clapping.

Took a bit of digging to find the drivers but this post was super helpful:
https://retechvintage.blogspot.com/2025/08/an … -get-it-to.html

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An update on the CDR-80: I'm assuming it's the Trantor T100 controller but connection to the drive on boot is inconsistent. Sometimes the host adapter isn't found, sometimes the device inquiry fails, sometimes the adapter is found yet the CD driver fails to load, sometimes the inquiry fails yet the CD drive still detects, and sometimes both the adapter and drive find each other with no problems. Even using a properly terminated cable didn't change the inconsistency. So I swapped out the Trantor CD driver for aspicd.sys and the CDR-80 accepts it so...I've ordered an Adaptec controller from 1990 and I'm *hoping* it'll resolve this issue.

Got these two Voodoo 1s for a very good price. The other is probably one of the most common V1 cards out there, Diamond Monster:

The other one is a little bit more peculiar one and I haven't bumped into one before: InnoVision 3DX5000TV. InnoVision Voodoos aren't that uncommon, but this one has TV out as an extra feature. Most of these InnoVision cards out there in the wild seem to lack the connectors and chip for TV out, so it was probably pretty much dropped at some point. Otherwise the design resembles the reference card:

I got a Banshee 😁

dukeofurl wrote on 2025-09-25, 02:07:

I noticed the PC I got recently says Genius 1 Win 3.1 on the side.

Obviously windows is windows but I wonder what genius 1 refers to? A network name for the PC? The user's nickname? Some obscure software?

Just an update on this. I finally replaced the Dallas battery on this PC and it booted up on the original HDD. On the HDD in the main path were dos and windows 3.1 installations as well as a folder called genius1, which basically had all the previous user's files in it, mostly word processing stuff. So I guess it may have been the person's nickname for themselves/username.

dukeofurl wrote on Today, 02:58:

dukeofurl wrote on 2025-09-25, 02:07:

I noticed the PC I got recently says Genius 1 Win 3.1 on the side.

Obviously windows is windows but I wonder what genius 1 refers to? A network name for the PC? The user's nickname? Some obscure software?

Just an update on this. I finally replaced the Dallas battery on this PC and it booted up on the original HDD. On the HDD in the main path were dos and windows 3.1 installations as well as a folder called genius1, which basically had all the previous user's files in it, mostly word processing stuff. So I guess it may have been the person's nickname for themselves/username.

I can't speak for anyone else, but in a small PC repair business ~20 years ago, each PC we used had a nickname and that was how we referred to that station. It's possible this was, at the time, the fastest or most advanced computer they had so they named it Genius, and added the 1 because they knew there'd inevitably be a faster computer some day. 😁

My recent eBay/Gumtree purchases:

Unfortunately, the Asus SLI board is refusing to post; 1 long beep two short.

I've tried multiple VGA cards and RAM sticks but the result is the same. Hopefully it's just a bad cap but will need to investigate more.

TheIpex wrote on Today, 06:35:

My recent eBay/Gumtree purchases: https://i.imgur.com/0q2THJbl.jpeg […]
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My recent eBay/Gumtree purchases:

Unfortunately, the Asus SLI board is refusing to post; 1 long beep two short.

I've tried multiple VGA cards and RAM sticks but the result is the same. Hopefully it's just a bad cap but will need to investigate more.

That SLI board is nice. Maybe try some contact cleaner in the CPU socket? I use WD-40 Contact Cleaner.

Btw, how do you search for retro boards on Guntree?

zuldan wrote on Today, 08:23:

That SLI board is nice. Maybe try some contact cleaner in the CPU socket? I use WD-40 Contact Cleaner.

Good idea.

zuldan wrote on Today, 08:23:

Btw, how do you search for retro boards on Guntree?

I found the Asus board by searching "SLI". Otherwise, I generally just search using the socket name.

Ozzuneoj wrote on Today, 03:08:

dukeofurl wrote on Today, 02:58:

dukeofurl wrote on 2025-09-25, 02:07:

I noticed the PC I got recently says Genius 1 Win 3.1 on the side.

Obviously windows is windows but I wonder what genius 1 refers to? A network name for the PC? The user's nickname? Some obscure software?

Just an update on this. I finally replaced the Dallas battery on this PC and it booted up on the original HDD. On the HDD in the main path were dos and windows 3.1 installations as well as a folder called genius1, which basically had all the previous user's files in it, mostly word processing stuff. So I guess it may have been the person's nickname for themselves/username.

I can't speak for anyone else, but in a small PC repair business ~20 years ago, each PC we used had a nickname and that was how we referred to that station. It's possible this was, at the time, the fastest or most advanced computer they had so they named it Genius, and added the 1 because they knew there'd inevitably be a faster computer some day. 😁

Hehe well, the previous user's files suggest the PC was used in a church, or as the personal computer of a reverend. It's full of sermons, calendars of church events, planning the church web page, contact info of parishioners circa 2000, etc. There was enough there to learn the previous owners name and sure enough, previous owner was a beloved reverend of a church in my state who passed away a few years ago. The interesting thing is the machine was used from 1993-2005 with no upgrades, no sound card, no CD-ROM, same under 200MB HDD. That's a long time to go with a 486, but I guess if you mainly use a PC for word processing there's no significant need to upgrade... Hope I don't get any bad juju when I eventually play Doom on this machine 😛