Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-01-08, 18:38:

And yes, I'm aware that it incorrectly says that it is S-video. They seem to be producing cables without even knowing what they are used for.

I think they were maybe used in some early S-video applications, like for transfer off camcorders that were as big as a stinger launcher or had a separate minitower sized handbag for the deck.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-01-09, 04:49:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-01-08, 18:38:

And yes, I'm aware that it incorrectly says that it is S-video. They seem to be producing cables without even knowing what they are used for.

I think they were maybe used in some early S-video applications, like for transfer off camcorders that were as big as a stinger launcher or had a separate minitower sized handbag for the deck.

All I could find are cables that break out from that to a set of component cables. I'm thinking that's probably what they were most commonly used for.

In other news, the floppy drive on the 1040STf was not happy, and some quick googling told me that these are known to have bad caps. Sure enough, it has some of those evil way-too-early-for-their-own-good surface mount aluminum electrolytic caps. Not the ones used in the 90s, but the ones that usually have a little yellow label wrapped around them. Anyway, everything on the PCB had a bit of a corroded look to it, so I figured they were toast.

It ended up being a surprisingly time consuming repair (because the motor absorbs SO MUCH heat from the board and the solder had so much corrosion on it that nothing would melt), but I eventually got all of the electrolytics replaced. I did basically the same thing as this post:
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3147

Now, I'm happy to say that it works perfectly! The system boots up in seconds thanks to the OS being on ROM, and these STs are so stinking awesome that they read standard 720K IBM formatted floppies AND text files with nothing but the ROM loaded. I just popped an old 720K floppy into a Dell USB drive connected to my Windows 10 system, put some text files on it, put it into the ST, double "clicked" (I had to use alt+arrow keys and alt+insert) the floppy drive and there everything was...

I think I'm going to like tinkering with this machine.

Also, I had a friend 3D print a replacement key stem for one that was broken. I had to sand that down a bit, but it also works perfectly. It feels good to give a machine like this a new lease on life. I will post more pictures (and maybe a thread) once I am done reassembling it. After working on the floppy drive waaay too late and then cleaning up my work desk, I'm done for the day. 😌

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the monochrome VGA adapter cable it came with allows it to work on any of my CRTs as well as my Dell Ultrasharp 2001FP, as pictured. It is a little wobbly and has some lines on the LCD but looks perfect on a CRT.

... also, it turns out this 2001FP I was given a few years back is one of the unicorns that was made before they broke 15Khz horizontal refresh support... so I can either get a different adapter or rewire this one to use the ST's color video modes and it should work. 🙂

Woohoo good going.

One of the things I would be curious about if I had ST hardware, would be how much interoperability I could get going between the ST and Gem running on a PC. Might just be a limited set of file types and data and ancillary files that will cross. I guess if I get too curious I can find an ST emulator. The most tantalizing prospect would be getting familiar enough with the sameness and differences to be able to cross compile suitable open source stuff from the Atari side and have more than like 6 apps to run on Gem.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-01-09, 14:40:

Woohoo good going.

One of the things I would be curious about if I had ST hardware, would be how much interoperability I could get going between the ST and Gem running on a PC. Might just be a limited set of file types and data and ancillary files that will cross. I guess if I get too curious I can find an ST emulator. The most tantalizing prospect would be getting familiar enough with the sameness and differences to be able to cross compile suitable open source stuff from the Atari side and have more than like 6 apps to run on Gem.

Arghh...

Well, things were going well... I was easily writing disk images to floppies on my Windows 10 PC, and then testing them on the ST. So far everything seemed to be okay other than the fact that most things expect low\med res color mode, which I cannot use currently. I accidentally left the disk for Another World in the drive when I turned the machine on and it started trying to load it. I didn't want to wait for that so I powered the system off... aaaandd... that was apparently a mistake. Now, the floppy makes normal pc-like "brrrnnn-brrnnnn" motor sounds at startup, which it wasn't doing before, and when TOS loads there are no floppy drives visible. 🤦

So, let me guess, I just toasted the floppy drive controller or something?

EDIT: Oh! I fixed it! The drive's head carriage was stuck! I looked in the drive and didn't see any movement when it was making the seek-test noises. I took the cover off and saw that the carriage was all the way forward. When I pushed it back it was kind of hung up at the front but came free easily. Now, the drive does a simple "blip" of the carriage motor and then proceeds to start right up. The floppy icons are back on the desktop.

Whew!

EDIT2: Bleh... after struggling to find a game to run on this in monochrome, I finally got Battlezone working and I find out that there is no way to get sound out of a 1040STf without a different video adapter that has an audio jack. I don't know why I was expecting it to have an internal speaker. I have had it apart multiple times and never seen one. -_-

The adapters are plentiful but only available from Europe... and now that I do some more research it sounds like the image quality on most of them will be bad and have lines on it. Some people have developed adapters with buffers to alleviate this (seems not always successfully without yet more mods), but those projects seem to all be long dead. Man, I was really hoping I could just wire up an adapter and use this thing.

Fixed the stand/base lock of Compaq S710 CRT screen. The clip had broken off, so I went and created a quick 3d model and printed it out.

Works perfectly!

I now need to go to find some things to weld back all other plastic clips that have broken off - the back case has nothing to hold on to. Thankfully i have all the broken pieces. Found some local products with the help of AI to actually weld and recreate ABS plastic. I hope i don't have to just glue the backside onto the monitor somehow...

BTW, this CRT is beautiful. 80 contrast, 80 brightness, beautiful bright picture.

EDIT: Put it up in thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7267325

I thought all SECC2 coolers were interchangeable. But it seems there is a difference between Katmai and Coppermine. There is too much headroom when I installed the big heatsink on to the Coppermine, so bad contact. 🙁

GigAHerZ wrote on Yesterday, 15:02:

Fixed the stand/base lock of Compaq S710 CRT screen. The clip had broken off, so I went and created a quick 3d model and printed […]
Show full quote

Fixed the stand/base lock of Compaq S710 CRT screen. The clip had broken off, so I went and created a quick 3d model and printed it out.

Works perfectly!

I now need to go to find some things to weld back all other plastic clips that have broken off - the back case has nothing to hold on to. Thankfully i have all the broken pieces. Found some local products with the help of AI to actually weld and recreate ABS plastic. I hope i don't have to just glue the backside onto the monitor somehow...

BTW, this CRT is beautiful. 80 contrast, 80 brightness, beautiful bright picture.

EDIT: Put it up in thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7267325

Neat, that reminds me I have to do some work on my Philips 109B5.
Among other things:
- test whether the rounded type 107P4 stand works on it or not (as in, if they're interchangable)
- recap it
- consolidate the flyback with a bit of hotglue since it sometimes lets out a bit of slight arcing - not huge but just slightly noticeable during standard use.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-01-04, 11:38:

I just watched this episode of The Computer Chronicles from 1993 where they talk about the Pentium processor in detail.

About 13 minutes in, they show a server which had 64MB RAM, and could host up to 1GB at maximum. Didn't realize that was even a thing back then. When asked who is buying these systems, the salesman answers: people who are working on neural networks and AI. I had to do a double take on that.

well, some Silicon Graphics workstations (or deskside "supercomputers") from that year could be expanded to 16 GB

A few month ago, I've been given a pc with a KT7 Pro2 and a Duron 600, with 320 Mo ram and a TNT2 M64.
It worked for a few days, then stopped booting.
I removed the caps, usuals suspects, tested them, and they seemed fine.
But I noticed the VRM controler was very hot. It's a SC1155CSW, and seems to be a weak part on this board.
No power on the Mosfet outputs.

So I ordered 2 for 3.50 $ each on AlieExpress, and replaced it.
Quick test, and now it works 😀
Let's says I'm quite happy with this.
The Duron 600 is not the best cpu, but it seems this board can use Athlon XP up to 1.2 GHz or maybe more.
And I read the Duron can be overclocked easily up to 1 GHz.
Playing with old electronic can be frustrating, it's nice when things go well so easily 😀

Interesting, I might have to revisit a similar part on a KT133 board I shelved with similar symptoms, caps tested okay but I wanted to dig into ripple etc suspecting that more. The chip does get hot though and I could get partial boots with freeze spray until it got too hot.

BitWrangler wrote on Yesterday, 23:23:

Interesting, I might have to revisit a similar part on a KT133 board I shelved with similar symptoms, caps tested okay but I wanted to dig into ripple etc suspecting that more. The chip does get hot though and I could get partial boots with freeze spray until it got too hot.

Those chips are just Mosfet drivers.
Even if they are able to deliver a bit of current, they are supposed to stay cool.
Now the PC has been working for hours, and it's barelly about 40 C. I can touch it with no problem, it's not hot.

Did my first clean install of Windows 98 in a while for the retro timemachine PC, I did record it but the footage was so shakey that I decided not to publish any footage as it negated the point of the installation slow content.
It was to fix a bug I was having with the virtual modem as it stopped working. the reinstall didn't solve it. Turns out the K56Flex modem driver is just not liking this very specific setup, if I downgrade the script it works, if I do it in a VM it works, but 1.7 vmodem + my hardware + K56Flex is a no go. But, turns out the modem above it in the driver list doesn't have that quirk and works fine with no downsides. So instead of debugging a script that appears to work fine otherwise and actually behaves more authentic than the old version does, I figured switching the driver on Windows 98 was more appropriate.
I did upload a new VM version but the only change is in which modem driver is recommended.

PD2JK wrote on Yesterday, 15:48:

I thought all SECC2 coolers were interchangeable. But it seems there is a difference between Katmai and Coppermine. There is too much headroom when I installed the big heatsink on to the Coppermine, so bad contact. 🙁

The attachment 20260109_163037863.JPG is no longer available

That's bad. However, I would've sworn, that I'm using the same cooler for my Katmais as well as my Coppermines. But maybe I'm using Coppermine coolers, which may then be just pursuing a little more on the Katmais? That could give other issues probably ...

nali wrote on Yesterday, 22:48:

A few month ago, I've been given a pc with a KT7 Pro2 and a Duron 600, with 320 Mo ram and a TNT2 M64. It worked for a few days, […]
Show full quote

A few month ago, I've been given a pc with a KT7 Pro2 and a Duron 600, with 320 Mo ram and a TNT2 M64.
It worked for a few days, then stopped booting.
I removed the caps, usuals suspects, tested them, and they seemed fine.
But I noticed the VRM controler was very hot. It's a SC1155CSW, and seems to be a weak part on this board.
No power on the Mosfet outputs.

So I ordered 2 for 3.50 $ each on AlieExpress, and replaced it.
Quick test, and now it works 😀
Let's says I'm quite happy with this.
The Duron 600 is not the best cpu, but it seems this board can use Athlon XP up to 1.2 GHz or maybe more.
And I read the Duron can be overclocked easily up to 1 GHz.
Playing with old electronic can be frustrating, it's nice when things go well so easily 😀

Hello, what were the symptoms you were seeing when it refused to work? I have the exact same board in my "for parts" box but now I wonder if it could be the same issue. Mine simple does absolutely nothing when I try to power it up. The CPU cooler doesn't start, no signal on a POST card, nothing.

PD2JK wrote on Yesterday, 15:48:

I thought all SECC2 coolers were interchangeable. But it seems there is a difference between Katmai and Coppermine. There is too much headroom when I installed the big heatsink on to the Coppermine, so bad contact. 🙁

The attachment 20260109_163037863.JPG is no longer available

After Market 3rd party SECC2 vs OEM Intel SECC2 are different, my guess is the 3rd party ones with giant heatsinks needed a better/stronger retention setup to account for the extra weight.

Strange, I've never had issues using Katmai coolers on Coppermine. They wouldn't fit easily on Deschutes tho.

I spent the last few days troubleshooting shooting an SD-to-IDE adapter connected to my 386's primary IDE connector. SD partitions were getting so corrupted that, in one case, an SD card became unusable in other computers. I switched out cables, tried different BIOS extentions, a variety of SD cards, and different operating systems. I kept getting random access errors and system crashes.

I then tried the SD-to-IDE adapter on the computer's secondary IDE card, and it just works. No access errors or system crashes. I can only conclude that the primary IDE adapter on a super IO card has failed. It's a shame because I had the impression that Winbond adapters were pretty reliable.

GigAHerZ wrote on Yesterday, 15:02:

...
I now need to go to find some things to weld back all other plastic clips that have broken off - the back case has nothing to hold on to. Thankfully i have all the broken pieces. Found some local products with the help of AI to actually weld and recreate ABS plastic. I hope i don't have to just glue the backside onto the monitor somehow...
...

Found these products with the help of AI - i asked for ingredients, searched what is locally available, and then described the ingredients of the products to the AI to confirm if these are the right tools for the job.

Just applied these products on some plastic pieces.
The yellow product is like water, but it makes the Compaq's plastic a bit smeary-pastey on the surface it was applied after 10-15 seconds. (I used cotton swab) Applied it to the both sides of the break.
Then i took the red bottle. This is thicker, like some rubber-glue. Applied a thin coat on one piece on the broken surface.
Then pushed the pieces together and as AI predicted, I could even see some plastic slightly bulging out as it was soft. (I hope I still am in the margin of error for the measurements 😀 )
Now i have to wait at least 24h before I could apply a second coat of the red one to build a bit more material on the pieces.
But so far it's promising - I've never had myself any chemistry that could "melt" the original plastics. I hope it works.

It would be amazing, if at last, i have some sort of procedure and approach to repairing plastics once and for all. I already have 2-part epoxy to create "hard rock, concrete" in places where i have room and don't need any flexibility. (Think of laptop's display hinge screw posts) I really-really hope i have found "the way" now for slightly flexible plastics.

In summary:
Yellow Arrow 901 - Used only initially to soften the original plastics.
Red Arrow 1108 - Used initially as well as later to build additional material. After the first steps, some tiny cracks may appear in plastic - these can also be filled with this 1108 after 24+h.

The original usage for those products is to "glue" together PVC piping for hot and cold water.

Started to polymod my EpoX 8kha+ I got a while back.

Oddly all the CPU VRM ultra-low ESR caps I've already changed in the photo to new polymer caps, were externally in OK condition. However, two other are already on the way out, one bulging cap can be seen on the photo on the right and below the 20-pin power connector. The other is just visible on the top right corner of the MB behind the three memory sockets.

Naturally all these need to go, but usually the CPU VRM caps are in the worst condition.

Today I ordered some memory for an artifacting voodoo 3 2000 (when I press on some memory chips, the artifacting changes, so I'm pretty sure it's the cause). I also have a similarly artifacting radeon 9600 XT and with the new diagnostic tool developed by necroware and the fact that a friend has invested in some BGA soldering gear, this one might well come out of the "for parts" box.

I also took the time to make a complete inventory of my retro stuff and put some things on a local auction site: S3 AGP cards, i740, P2L97-DS mobo etc etc..all stuff I actually never use as I'm more interested in AMD/ATI stuff from 1995 to 2003.

That's the 3dfx misbehaving and me pressing on a memory chip (yes I know that it has no heatsink, but it's only on for about 30 seconds, I got it that way):

https://youtu.be/Fx3_WmrGBnw