Shuffled the optical drives on my desktops. My Win7 machine had a pair of LG BluRay burners - WH12LS39 and BH12LS38 - from 2012-2013. For a few years now both have been in a peculiar failed state - reading/writing CD/BD fine, but only recognizing 1/5 or less DVD discs - burnt or pressed - doesn't matter. My Win10 desktop has a WH14NS40, which works fine, but has developed an "angry tray" syndrome - the tray closes immediately upon opening, unless held with force. It's annoying.

So I ordered one of these BH12LS35 from China. No idea if it's a fake, or some legacy production line, but according to the label it was manufactured in 2021, and together with some old LiteOn picked up from recycling, I seem to have three functional drives again. At least they read all types of discs, haven't tried burning yet. I've put the LiteOn in the Win10 desktop and both LGs in the Win7 system.

The LG WH14NS40 tray now sometimes stays open. Usually after 2nd or 3rd attempt. Not sure if it's a worn belt, a dirty/faulty sensor or what not. I may try to grease it or mess with it somehow if it gets too annoying. With all the semi-dead optical drives I have enough spare mechanical parts, but transplanting them isn't always easy. Last time I needed a working optical for my parents' computer I ended up getting a good belt from a drive with a dead laser and putting it in a good drive with a stuck tray.

The WH14NS40 is the only drive in my possession that supposedly reads and writes BD-XL (100GB) discs. Supposedly, because the only two discs I've ever burnt end up with CRC errors trying to read them back on the same drive. These were Verbatim discs ordered from Japan, so not rock-bottom garbage. I don't have another drive to try them on. Reading online it seems that any modern BD burner you buy tends to malfunction within a relatively short period of time. The age of optical media for backup/archival purposes might be drawing to a close, even for retro-enthusiasts.

appiah4 wrote on 2026-02-16, 06:16:

Because they are people of discipline who worked their asses off at the age you are trying to engage in hobbies instead, therefore they made enough money to afford paying however much they want for whatever they want, so they can sell it at whatever they want and tell you to fuck right off if you try to bullshit them.

Don't fuck with GenX. You are the problem. You are NOT entitled to someone else's Presario. Act like you are, and they will tell you where to put it.

I wanted to reply exactly this but couldn't be bothered. Well said appiah4 👍

I'm on the train to Stroud (UK) this morning, to visit The Cave, which regular Retro Collective (a.k.a. RMC Retro) viewers will know well. 🙂

I was in London for a conference this week, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to check it out this weekend, while I'm visiting the Island.

Tickets were selling out fast when I booked earlier this week! Pretty stoked to be checking it out, and perhaps I'll get to meet Neil in person as well, if he's there today.

I do have to say that train tickets in the UK are quite expensive! But I'm heaving a pleasant journey so far.

badmojo wrote on 2026-02-21, 09:12:

appiah4 wrote on 2026-02-16, 06:16:

Because they are people of discipline who worked their asses off at the age you are trying to engage in hobbies instead, therefore they made enough money to afford paying however much they want for whatever they want, so they can sell it at whatever they want and tell you to fuck right off if you try to bullshit them.

Don't fuck with GenX. You are the problem. You are NOT entitled to someone else's Presario. Act like you are, and they will tell you where to put it.

I wanted to reply exactly this but couldn't be bothered. Well said appiah4 👍

"Discipline", my ass. You old farts just got lucky, and proceeded to pull the ladder after you climbed it, so noone else could. Well done, leaving scorched earth for the next generations. Hope you're happy, jerks.

digger wrote on 2026-02-21, 09:22:

I'm on the train to Stroud (UK) this morning, to visit The Cave, which regular Retro Collective (a.k.a. RMC Retro) viewers will […]
Show full quote

I'm on the train to Stroud (UK) this morning, to visit The Cave, which regular Retro Collective (a.k.a. RMC Retro) viewers will know well. 🙂

I was in London for a conference this week, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to check it out this weekend, while I'm visiting the Island.

Tickets were selling out fast when I booked earlier this week! Pretty stoked to be checking it out, and perhaps I'll get to meet Neil in person as well, if he's there today.

I do have to say that train tickets in the UK are quite expensive! But I'm heaving a pleasant journey so far.

Sounds like some kind of quest, in a fantasy turn-based game.
"You are about to enter a Cave.
In front of you lies a menacing figure surrounded by obsolete tech.
All screens are emitting an enticing green light."

Enter -- Leave

Nexxen wrote on 2026-02-21, 12:40:

Sounds like some kind of quest, in a fantasy turn-based game. "You are about to enter a Cave. In front of you lies a menacing fi […]
Show full quote

digger wrote on 2026-02-21, 09:22:

I'm on the train to Stroud (UK) this morning, to visit The Cave, which regular Retro Collective (a.k.a. RMC Retro) viewers will […]
Show full quote

I'm on the train to Stroud (UK) this morning, to visit The Cave, which regular Retro Collective (a.k.a. RMC Retro) viewers will know well. 🙂

I was in London for a conference this week, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to check it out this weekend, while I'm visiting the Island.

Tickets were selling out fast when I booked earlier this week! Pretty stoked to be checking it out, and perhaps I'll get to meet Neil in person as well, if he's there today.

I do have to say that train tickets in the UK are quite expensive! But I'm heaving a pleasant journey so far.

Sounds like some kind of quest, in a fantasy turn-based game.
"You are about to enter a Cave.
In front of you lies a menacing figure surrounded by obsolete tech.
All screens are emitting an enticing green light."

Enter -- Leave

I saw at least one PC there that was running a text adventure game, so that tracks. 😁

Thankfully, the people working at the museum didn't appear so menacing. They were quite a friendly and enthusiastic bunch, actually. 🙂

I had a fascinating conversation with one of them about retro game development. His name is Jason, and he used to be a game developer for the C64 and such, back in the 80s and 90s. There is a separate room in the museum with development kits and such. His own development rig (or one of them) is also in that room, and he still uses it there from time to time. It's based on a remote developer kit that was popular back in the day (at least in the UK) called PDS, allowing remote developing, cross-assembling and debugging from an MS-DOS PC. I found some more online info about it here: https://lemmings.info/pds-programmers-development-system/

Really cool stuff!

The museum is located in an interesting historic old mill, with a small pictoresque river running along it.

https://www.rmcretro.com/visit-the-cave

TechieDude wrote on 2026-02-21, 12:32:

badmojo wrote on 2026-02-21, 09:12:

appiah4 wrote on 2026-02-16, 06:16:

Because they are people of discipline who worked their asses off at the age you are trying to engage in hobbies instead, therefore they made enough money to afford paying however much they want for whatever they want, so they can sell it at whatever they want and tell you to fuck right off if you try to bullshit them.

Don't fuck with GenX. You are the problem. You are NOT entitled to someone else's Presario. Act like you are, and they will tell you where to put it.

I wanted to reply exactly this but couldn't be bothered. Well said appiah4 👍

"Discipline", my ass. You old farts just got lucky, and proceeded to pull the ladder after you climbed it, so noone else could. Well done, leaving scorched earth for the next generations. Hope you're happy, jerks.

Any school kid today will tell you GenX and Millennials and Snowflakes are all squabbling old farts.

digger wrote on 2026-02-21, 15:05:

I saw at least one PC there that was running a text adventure game, so that tracks. 😁 […]
Show full quote

Nexxen wrote on 2026-02-21, 12:40:

Sounds like some kind of quest, in a fantasy turn-based game. "You are about to enter a Cave. In front of you lies a menacing fi […]
Show full quote

digger wrote on 2026-02-21, 09:22:

I'm on the train to Stroud (UK) this morning, to visit The Cave, which regular Retro Collective (a.k.a. RMC Retro) viewers will […]
Show full quote

I'm on the train to Stroud (UK) this morning, to visit The Cave, which regular Retro Collective (a.k.a. RMC Retro) viewers will know well. 🙂

I was in London for a conference this week, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to check it out this weekend, while I'm visiting the Island.

Tickets were selling out fast when I booked earlier this week! Pretty stoked to be checking it out, and perhaps I'll get to meet Neil in person as well, if he's there today.

I do have to say that train tickets in the UK are quite expensive! But I'm heaving a pleasant journey so far.

Sounds like some kind of quest, in a fantasy turn-based game.
"You are about to enter a Cave.
In front of you lies a menacing figure surrounded by obsolete tech.
All screens are emitting an enticing green light."

Enter -- Leave

I saw at least one PC there that was running a text adventure game, so that tracks. 😁

Thankfully, the people working at the museum didn't appear so menacing. They were quite a friendly and enthusiastic bunch, actually. 🙂

I had a fascinating conversation with one of them about retro game development. His name is Jason, and he used to be a game developer for the C64 and such, back in the 80s and 90s. There is a separate room in the museum with development kits and such. His own development rig (or one of them) is also in that room, and he still uses it there from time to time. It's based on a remote developer kit that was popular back in the day (at least in the UK) called PDS, allowing remote developing, cross-assembling and debugging from an MS-DOS PC. I found some more online info about it here: https://lemmings.info/pds-programmers-development-system/

Really cool stuff!

The museum is located in an interesting historic old mill, with a small pictoresque river running along it.

https://www.rmcretro.com/visit-the-cave

"You entered the cave and went past the menacing figure.
He was actually testing your silicon faith and you passed."
--
I know the the Cave from YT.
It must have been a great time from your answer.

I'd like to go to the Home computer museum one day.
Cheers!

MattRocks wrote on 2026-02-21, 18:56:

Any school kid today will tell you GenX and Millennials and Snowflakes are all squabbling old farts.

Snowflakes come in all generations. They just happen to be more prevalent in Baby Boomers and GenX 😉

I can't imagine our friendly immortal complaining about whiny roman patricians, assyrians, the Khan... and those neanderthals that never came back with the furs they promised.

Generational problems 🤣

Standard Def Steve wrote on 2026-02-20, 03:06:

Thinking it was 1989 this morning, I brought my Mac SE and 020 accelerator to work, fully intending to get the accelerator insta […]
Show full quote

Thinking it was 1989 this morning, I brought my Mac SE and 020 accelerator to work, fully intending to get the accelerator installed during my lunch break. I don't remember where I got it--it's a Radius something or other--I found it in a box of old PowerPC stuff in my basement the other day. The poor thing must have endured years of torture in that box: 'Hey! CISCasaurus! Compute Pi to 8008135 digits in 5 nanoseconds or your GAL is mine!'

PowerPCs and PowerPC accessories can be so mean.

It's not the fastest SE accelerator out there, as it hops on the existing (16-bit) memory bus & drives it at a school zone like 16 MHz. I guess you could call it more of a mehcelerator, amirite? But at least it has a math coprocessor, so there's a chance it will run iTunes and speedily rip my CDs to AAC files for maximum emailability.

I am super interested to see just where on the classic Mac spectrum this upgrade lands! Will it roar like a Mac II or whimper like a Portable? I've never experienced an 020 before, let alone a bandwidth-starved (yet FPU-endowed) one. This is new territory for me!

Alas, I only got as far as removing the back cover and yanking cables from the drives and analogue board before my lunch break was rudely interrupted and my single-day upgrade dreams dashed. I guess the adventure will have to continue tomorrow.

I think if I were to accelerate my SE, it'd be something like this. I know everyone likes to push the SE to the limits but I think it's more interesting to have something that makes you suffer a bit hahah.

Nexxen wrote on 2026-02-21, 21:13:

I can't imagine our friendly immortal complaining about whiny roman patricians, assyrians, the Khan... and those neanderthals that never came back with the furs they promised.

Generational problems 🤣

I guess today's retro activity was having to deal with older people who just like to shit on younger generations for some absurd reason 😂
Even Socrates dunked on younger people for writing stuff down instead of memorising. Honestly, I don't really hate older people, just those with that entitled attitude. It's annoying. And it's not like people nowadays don't work their asses off, either. I guess generational confilcts are a tale as old as time...

Now for something more on topic. Today, I mostly played Gran Turismo 4 on my PS2. Man, Gran Turismo World Championship (final Professional Event) is quite the spike in difficulty. Needless to say, I didn't win that, but completed other events at least.

I also apparently had a functional GeForce FX 5700 256MB (a PixelView with the fancy LCD and blue lights) that I had got from the flea market some months ago, so I guess my overkill Win9x PC is fully back in business. Someone had damaged it in a weird manner before I got it, though. When it was partially disassembled, everything worked fine, but fully assembled, no POST... I can't post pictures for some reason, but apparently some buffoon damaged one of the screw holes, basically shorting the PCB's layers when the screw was inserted. Well, nothing a little insulating tape between the card and shroud, and not inserting that screw couldn't fix! MIght as well clean and repaste it, so I did. So, all good, right?
Not really. Getting the card to work with winXP and Debian was no sweat (I also wisely chose not to bother with proprietary drivers on Linux, since after dealing with my GTX660 on my main system, I see why Torvalds despises nVidia), but I needed to 'update' the drivers a bit on winME, and lose the Omega drivers sadly. According to another topic here, the best option was 53.04, since anything later breaks Windows entirely, until am even later version that breaks compatibility and ruins performance across the board. Pretty much any nvidia driver later than 45.23 could be a gamble on Millenium, especially on a system with a previous version installed. Well, things turned out fine with 53.04, but I'm still kinda peeved about my GeForce 4 Ti 4600 to be honest.

NOTE: Sorry for editing so many times, and if it's kinda messy. ADHD makes me remember stuff I wanted to say after I have posted, and it's really late here 😅

TechieDude wrote on 2026-02-22, 02:52:

I guess today's retro activity was having to deal with older people who just like to shit on younger generations for some absurd reason 😂
Even Socrates dunked on younger people for writing stuff down instead of memorising.

Even Egyptians complained, centuries before Socrates 😀
I think old farts are just young farts who got older. Age has little to do.

I never had any major problems with Nvidia drivers on Linux (or even FreeBSD).
And I've been using Linux as my daily OS since 1998.
I've had TNT1, 400MX, Ti4200, 6800, 8800, now a 1660 Super and even a TNT2 M64 on my old K6 with Sarge.
Probably many others I forgot.

TechieDude wrote on 2026-02-22, 02:52:

Not really. Getting the card to work with winXP and Debian was no sweat (I also wisely chose not to bother with proprietary drivers on Linux, since after dealing with my GTX660 on my main system, I see why Torvalds despises nVidia), but I needed to 'update' the drivers a bit on winME, and lose the Omega drivers sadly. According to another topic here, the best option was 53.04, since anything later breaks Windows entirely, until am even later version that breaks compatibility and ruins performance across the board. Pretty much any nvidia driver later than 45.23 could be a gamble on Millenium, especially on a system with a previous version installed. Well, things turned out fine with 53.04, but I'm still kinda peeved about my GeForce 4 Ti 4600 to be honest.

At the time as I understand it any GeForce or Quadro was the go-to card by 2004 because fglrx was terrible and PowerVR, 3dfx, et. al. were more-or-less ancient history, so I'd say give a live boot of a distro from 2005-ish a go, you might be surprised. I was going to use my Ti4200 as the main GPU in my Athlon Linux box until I powered it on and found it was half dead (now I'm thinking either wait for a good deal on a V3 or maybe a G400) on the advice of forum posts from 2002.

nali wrote on 2026-02-22, 03:16:

Even Egyptians complained, centuries before Socrates 😀
I think old farts are just young farts who got older. Age has little to do.

I guess that's true 🤣

nali wrote on 2026-02-22, 03:16:

I never had any major problems with Nvidia drivers on Linux (or even FreeBSD). And I've been using Linux as my daily OS since 19 […]
Show full quote

I never had any major problems with Nvidia drivers on Linux (or even FreeBSD).
And I've been using Linux as my daily OS since 1998.
I've had TNT1, 400MX, Ti4200, 6800, 8800, now a 1660 Super and even a TNT2 M64 on my old K6 with Sarge.
Probably many others I forgot.

It must have been great watching Linux evolve over the years.
Yeah, Linux works perfectly with nVidia GPUs, except when you want a current distro, and the last non-Nouveau driver that worked with your card was 5 years ago, no longer works with kernels newer than 6.9, and newer distros don't even have those versions anymore. Or if you stupidly upgrade from a version that has support, to one that doesn't (that one's on me, though.) Nouveau drivers have crap performance on the cards I've tried, and aren't quite stable for some reason. Radeon cards have no such problems, but compatibility with win9x seems limited without palleted textures and table fog. Then again, those features might not even be relevant with the games I play.

lepidotós wrote on 2026-02-22, 06:01:

At the time as I understand it any GeForce or Quadro was the go-to card by 2004 because fglrx was terrible and PowerVR, 3dfx, et. al. were more-or-less ancient history, so I'd say give a live boot of a distro from 2005-ish a go, you might be surprised. I was going to use my Ti4200 as the main GPU in my Athlon Linux box until I powered it on and found it was half dead (now I'm thinking either wait for a good deal on a V3 or maybe a G400) on the advice of forum posts from 2002.

Haven't given pre-2008 Linux much of a try, but sure. Currently, it has Debian 14 testing, because I wanted something modern-ish, but I'm willing to try anything.

TechieDude wrote on 2026-02-22, 02:52:

I guess today's retro activity was having to deal with older people who just like to shit on younger generations for some absurd reason 😂

I had it hard when I was young.
I had to go to school shoeless in the scorching heat of the summer and had to go shoeless in the freezing winter, in the snow, for 20 miles, uphill both ways, fighting the wolves!!!

What are you youngsters complaining about? 🤣
----

I tried to use a PCI card to have USB 2.0 in my test rig, a P-233.
Wouldn't work. NEC chip with lots of issues with compatibility.
I have plenty of VIA that just work, I'm boxing this one for good.

TechieDude wrote on 2026-02-22, 15:17:

It must have been great watching Linux evolve over the years.

Sure. And with funny side effects.
It' s been more than 20 years I read "is Linux desktop ready ?"
Of course not, I just like to punish myself ...

Nouveau drivers have always been a pain ...
They usually work, but for 2D only.
And now I'm lazy and always use Mint, instead of trying 50 distro. Because it just work, and I have no more motivation to play with the OS.
I prefer spending time using it 😀

nali wrote on 2026-02-22, 20:00:

Sure. And with funny side effects. It' s been more than 20 years I read "is Linux desktop ready ?" Of course not, I just like to […]
Show full quote

Sure. And with funny side effects.
It' s been more than 20 years I read "is Linux desktop ready ?"
Of course not, I just like to punish myself ...

Nouveau drivers have always been a pain ...
They usually work, but for 2D only.
And now I'm lazy and always use Mint, instead of trying 50 distro. Because it just work, and I have no more motivation to play with the OS.
I prefer spending time using it 😀

I don't even care anymore about pointless questions like that. The right question is whether WE are ready to switch, and software will follow, or be adapted somehow with Wine or Proton.
As for distros, Mint is my personal favorite as well, although I do enjoy playing with the OS. I also tried Fedora recently, it couldn't even launch the installer, not sure how they even managed to break that and not notice it for so long. Could be just the XFCE version that's broken. Be it Linux, FreeBSD or NetBSD, I have quite the soft spot for XFCE.

Just put the hard drive back in my Dell. I dropped some water a few months ago that splashed onto the drive while it was out and in the Athlon to test the hardware works (it didn't, but that was due to the GF4) so I'm testing to see if it still works, I haven't heard any clicking from it so that's a good sign but I forgot to plug in a keyboard so I'm doing that now.

Update: drive is good but I really ought to image it and mirror it onto a CF card.

What retro activity did I get up to today?

My collection is ~20yrs old, growing all the time; especially the business I'm in (I find stuff constantly). I love them like my children, but other than take up shelf space in the lab & tech rooms, I don't do much with them.