TheIpex wrote on 2026-01-24, 05:08:

This is actually my first encounter with the AMD K6 CPUs in general. I was planning on acquiring one for an Epox SS7 board I have in storage but never got around to it.

Wait...how old are you? K6-2 were everywhere from 98 to 2003 at least

rasz_pl wrote on 2026-02-26, 06:12:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-02-26, 04:54:

For me it goes straight to this page: https://classic.technology/ […]
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weedeewee wrote on 2026-02-26, 04:34:

Odd, link works for me.

For me it goes straight to this page:
https://classic.technology/

EDIT: Weird, I tried it four times and it went to their main page. Now, the link takes me to the pdf as expected.

EDIT2: And now its bake to sending me to their main page again. Wut? 🤣

same. to be fair I dont expect much from a website using .technology domain 😀

It's weird.
Just to verify, I opened another browser, pasted the link and it opened the pdf immediately.
I got no idea why it works for me, yet fails for you and others.
This, https://classic.technology/tape-shuttle-family/ ,is the link to the webpage that links to the pdf.
And I've added the file to this comment, hope that's ok.

weedeewee wrote on 2026-02-26, 17:13:

It's weird.
Just to verify, I opened another browser, pasted the link and it opened the pdf immediately.
I got no idea why it works for me, yet fails for you and others.

The weird thing is not that it fails, its that its inconsistent. It failed first time, but after Ozzuneoj mentioned it working after multiple persistent tries I tried again and it _did_ work yesterday. I just checked again now and it doesnt work again 😀 I can only guess its one of those modern stack kubernetes/docker "omg so scalable" cloud deployments where no one knows how anything works anymore because of all the layers between simple www server and the client. Caches, balancers, cdn setup, routing, workers, microservices, the list goes on and on.

Living wrote on 2026-02-26, 10:01:

TheIpex wrote on 2026-01-24, 05:08:

This is actually my first encounter with the AMD K6 CPUs in general. I was planning on acquiring one for an Epox SS7 board I have in storage but never got around to it.

Wait...how old are you? K6-2 were everywhere from 98 to 2003 at least

I'm in my 30s, I grew up in a small town and pretty much all the computers I encountered/owned in that period were Intel.

Yeah you get that kind of thing in isolated towns, single supplier basically. I remember one guy I talked to years back, who was still getting used to the idea that computers came in different cases. I guess he was at the far end of a county and the "small smoke" county town computer store must have got in a full container or truckload of this one case and was selling them for years, supplying biz, local schools, personal.

A couple storage locker finds yesterday.

The retro was an Asus P5A-B with a K6-2 500MHz w/ 128MB RAM. It was in an antistatic bag. In working order.

Came with the accessories.

Typical 5V sucker board.

...but hey, it was free!

Next up from same as above is a HP Omen. Not really retro, it's a 6th gen i7....but worthy of an honorable mention.

It's pretty filthy. Nasty dust & some mildew.

Lighting works....as goofy as it is.

CPU and GPU are liquid cooled.

The M.2 disk is dafuct. Won't read and HDTUNE says @ 6% life... 🤣

Hey, free is free!

please tellme that its not a smokers computer.

I found a https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/nvidia … rce-680i-lt-sli
with a https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/evga … t-super-clocked

But check out these caps!! Looks like they were chewing bubble gum and had an accident

douglar wrote on 2026-03-08, 02:33:

I found a https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/nvidia … rce-680i-lt-sli with a https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/evga … […]
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I found a https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/nvidia … rce-680i-lt-sli
with a https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/evga … t-super-clocked

But check out these caps!! Looks like they were chewing bubble gum and had an accident

The attachment Photo Mar 07 2026, 7 31 23 PM.jpg is no longer available

An Nvidia branded motherboard.. While I knew Nvidia made chipsets (starting with the XBOX), this is new. Also, obligatory capacitor plague

Yuss!!!

Motherboard is a https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/biostar-p4m800-m7a

Video card is a PNY Certo 6800 GT

I wanted something like both of these, but didn't want to pay for it.

douglar wrote on Today, 00:12:

Yuss!!! […]
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Yuss!!!

The attachment Photo Mar 31 2026, 7 14 32 PM.jpg is no longer available

Motherboard is a https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/biostar-p4m800-m7a

The attachment Photo Mar 31 2026, 7 15 04 PM.jpg is no longer available

Video card is a PNY Certo 6800 GT

I wanted something like both of these, but didn't want to pay for it.

For a freebie that's a really nice find 😀 A good reference design card and I always really liked that aluminium bar along the top of the card to strengthen it. Seems quaint to think that such a card would sag compared to what we have now, my current RX 7900 is so heavy it damaged the PCIe slot on my motherboard and it crashes frequently now if I don't put in something to prop the card up.

Thermalwrong wrote on Today, 04:43:

For a freebie that's a really nice find 😀 A good reference design card and I always really liked that aluminium bar along the top of the card to strengthen it. Seems quaint to think that such a card would sag compared to what we have now, my current RX 7900 is so heavy it damaged the PCIe slot on my motherboard and it crashes frequently now if I don't put in something to prop the card up.

Oh the irony that video cards are more massive than motherboards. Might be time to reevaluate the venerable ATX.

My 6800GT find was soaking wet, so I think I'll let it sit for a couple days before applying power. It as a pretty interesting micro AT case too, with the floppy drive behind a door, opposite the USB ports at the other end.

douglar wrote on Today, 15:17:

Thermalwrong wrote on Today, 04:43:

For a freebie that's a really nice find 😀 A good reference design card and I always really liked that aluminium bar along the top of the card to strengthen it. Seems quaint to think that such a card would sag compared to what we have now, my current RX 7900 is so heavy it damaged the PCIe slot on my motherboard and it crashes frequently now if I don't put in something to prop the card up.

Oh the irony that video cards are more massive than motherboards. Might be time to reevaluate the venerable ATX.

My 6800GT find was soaking wet, so I think I'll let it sit for a couple days before applying power. It as a pretty interesting micro AT case too, with the floppy drive behind a door, opposite the USB ports at the other end.

One thing I have found to be super useful for wet electronics is one of those little handheld blowers that are meant for dusting. I often use mine to blow-dry a circuit board after I wash one. It's amazing how thoroughly a powerful blower will get the water out from underneath surface mounted chips and out of all the sockets and connectors. Makes drying take way less time. Also, when it gets humid here it is almost impossible to air-dry anything until the air conditioners come out, so removing most of the water by force makes a big difference.

I use one of these, though the price has gone up considerably since I bought mine 8-10 years ago:
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Powerful-Elec … y/dp/B01FWSYOME

There are much cheaper alternatives out there now (though this one still works like new, so I would recommend it anyway).

Working 6800GTs seem rarer than most - is there something extra delicate on Nvidia boards from that era?

MattRocks wrote on Today, 17:42:

Working 6800GTs seem rarer than most - is there something extra delicate on Nvidia boards from that era?

It's the GPU itself. Bumpgate basically. Same thing that killed a lot of MacBooks, PS3s and Xbox 360s.
Basically, they used the wrong material for the underfill (it's that glue-like thingy between the GPU die and substrate, holding it steadily together so the solder bumps don't crack), resulting in it melting at much lower temperatures, which were actually within normal operating range of the GPU! It wasn't even overheating, but still more than enough for it to deform and crack the solder bumps (they're just like the BGA solder balls, but much smaller)

TechieDude wrote on Today, 18:43:

It's the GPU itself. Bumpgate basically. Same thing that killed a lot of MacBooks, PS3s and Xbox 360s. Basically, they used the […]
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MattRocks wrote on Today, 17:42:

Working 6800GTs seem rarer than most - is there something extra delicate on Nvidia boards from that era?

It's the GPU itself. Bumpgate basically. Same thing that killed a lot of MacBooks, PS3s and Xbox 360s.
Basically, they used the wrong material for the underfill (it's that glue-like thingy between the GPU die and substrate, holding it steadily together so the solder bumps don't crack), resulting in it melting at much lower temperatures, which were actually within normal operating range of the GPU! It wasn't even overheating, but still more than enough for it to deform and crack the solder bumps (they're just like the BGA solder balls, but much smaller)

The attachment images.jpeg is no longer available

Thank you. It feels like not worth repairing (or even using) GeForce6/7/8 cards as their breakage is just.. inevitable.

MattRocks wrote on Today, 19:18:

Thank you. It feels like not worth repairing (or even using) GeForce6/7/8 cards as their breakage is just.. inevitable.

same for many nvidia based notebooks, we had plenty of failed units in the late 2010s.

Nvidia GeForce 7xxx Go, 6xxx Go and Quadro NVS.. up to the Core 2 Era (Thinkpad T61 for example)

MattRocks wrote on Today, 19:18:

Thank you. It feels like not worth repairing (or even using) GeForce6/7/8 cards as their breakage is just.. inevitable.

Quite a few GeForce FX and Radeon GPUs are also susceptible to it, sadly. But there are also revisions that fixed that problem.

TechieDude wrote on Today, 20:03:

MattRocks wrote on Today, 19:18:

Thank you. It feels like not worth repairing (or even using) GeForce6/7/8 cards as their breakage is just.. inevitable.

Quite a few GeForce FX and Radeon GPUs are also susceptible to it, sadly. But there are also revisions that fixed that problem.

The Radeons in my collection are holding up better. I have more failures in X1000 era, but I figured that was due to insufficient cooling on the Rialto?