MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-07, 10:45:

Very cool. Is that a trackball next to the screen?

I love how HCI kept changing. If that is a trackball, it strikes me as being one of the better ideas - it would be a more comfortable distance from the user than a modern trackpad. My big Apple MacBook trackpad sometimes goes unresponsive when a fibre of wool jumper is touching it.

Yes, that's the trackball, and there is quit a lot of options in windows to customize it. I had to fix it first, it was stuck, but now it's fine for shorter sessions.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-05-08, 23:27:

Nice find! Yes, those are quite rare. […]
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drringding wrote on 2026-05-08, 20:50:

Hi, I'm new here after some lurking over the years. I am buying some scrap electronics on eBay from time to time to scavenge for […]
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Hi, I'm new here after some lurking over the years.
I am buying some scrap electronics on eBay from time to time to scavenge for hardware of the range 1997 to 2000. In my last pile of "crap" I found this gem.

The attachment IMG_20260508_223829_DRO~2.jpg is no longer available

It is a "ATI VGA Stereo F/X". I don't know if it is working, though. I have not found an past eBay listings. Is this really as rare as I think?

Nice find! Yes, those are quite rare.

The VGA port should just work as normal, I believe. The port in the center is a Microsoft compatible BUS mouse port (not for PS/2 mice). The large port apparently uses a proprietary dongle that breaks it out to proper audio connections. I don't think I've ever seen a picture of one of those dongles though, aside from the one in the ad on this page:
https://dosdays.co.uk/topics/Manufacturers/at … ti_stereofx.php

I just found that there was a post here on Vogons about a breakout-box: ATI VGA Stereo F/X Pinout
Guess I will contact keropi about this.

Took a little haul from the flea market today. Half of this stuff probably doesn't work, but for 15$ it should still be worth it.

A Virge with populated memory banks should be good find I guess. There are two GF2 MX400s. And a socket 7 board with 6x86 IBM Cyrix 150+. Some RAM on the board as well... It's just shame they bring these thrown in boxes unprotected, they scratch and damage each other and then you make a gamble every time 😅

Cool finds, good luck with them.

I miss the fun of getting "worthless junk" at "worthless junk" pricing and getting some of it working. Usually my luck ran good and I got most of it working. Computer fairs were epic, wait for the crush to die down after the first hour, then go digging in the boxes under the tables... real treasure hunt.

Our flea markets in the area have been crap for a decade plus, all coca cola kitsch, glassware, sports cards, "collectibles", only vintage tech is console stuff and $150 copies of Mario Kart. It's all "stale" too, time was you could go every week and see new stuff, now you can go once a year and most stalls look like they haven't sold anything in five years. For general items that you want a unique piece, you're probably better off going to the small antique stores now for selection and pricing. Certainly there are retro console gaming stores around that are only asking 2/3 what the fleamarket stalls do. So yeah if you've got a fleamarket that gets fresh stuff and isn't stupid on pricing, appreciate it.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-05-09, 13:11:

Cool finds, good luck with them.

I miss the fun of getting "worthless junk" at "worthless junk" pricing and getting some of it working. Usually my luck ran good and I got most of it working. Computer fairs were epic, wait for the crush to die down after the first hour, then go digging in the boxes under the tables... real treasure hunt.

Our flea markets in the area have been crap for a decade plus, all coca cola kitsch, glassware, sports cards, "collectibles", only vintage tech is console stuff and $150 copies of Mario Kart. It's all "stale" too, time was you could go every week and see new stuff, now you can go once a year and most stalls look like they haven't sold anything in five years. For general items that you want a unique piece, you're probably better off going to the small antique stores now for selection and pricing. Certainly there are retro console gaming stores around that are only asking 2/3 what the fleamarket stalls do. So yeah if you've got a fleamarket that gets fresh stuff and isn't stupid on pricing, appreciate it.

Yeah... Concerning flea markets I think it's more about the experience than actual appropriation of hardware. You never know what you are going to find. I used to find brand new in box Titan coolers for CPUs GPUs and even a Matrox G400 Max once (which I was stupid enough not to pick up) Sometimes it works sometimes not, but you spend peanuts so it ain't really a problem 😀 Can't wait for my next dig through 😁

Gotta love it when you stumble onto a good deal before the scalpers can get it. The board is a Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775-RH. Seller didn't post any pics that showed the revision. The hint that this was one of the revisions (3.9 in this case) that support 45nm CPUs with a modded bios was the seller stating it booted and was being sold with a "1.2 GHZ Core 2 CPU." I figured it was worth the gamble (around 50 bucks shipped) and it paid off. Flashed the modded bios off of the retro web (Q flash was being difficult so I wound up having to use a floppy) and it recognized the 45nm C2D that was included correctly. Swapped in the Pentium Dual Core E5800 I was planning to use and that worked nicely! Looks like I have a replacement for the much less capable Foxconn board I was using for fast AGP stuff!!!

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-05-09, 10:47:

https://i.ibb.co/MDrbfQH5/IMG-20260509-123724.jpg […]
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Old news to most I'm sure, but I had no idea there were any nVidia cards done up in that very "ATI red"-coloured PCB. Cheeky!

Jackal1983 wrote on 2026-05-09, 16:35:

Gotta love it when you stumble onto a good deal before the scalpers can get it. The board is a Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775-RH. Seller didn't post any pics that showed the revision. The hint that this was one of the revisions (3.9 in this case) that support 45nm CPUs with a modded bios was the seller stating it booted and was being sold with a "1.2 GHZ Core 2 CPU." I figured it was worth the gamble (around 50 bucks shipped) and it paid off. Flashed the modded bios off of the retro web (Q flash was being difficult so I wound up having to use a floppy) and it recognized the 45nm C2D that was included correctly. Swapped in the Pentium Dual Core E5800 I was planning to use and that worked nicely! Looks like I have a replacement for the much less capable Foxconn board I was using for fast AGP stuff!!!

Happy to hear you got lucky 😁 Keep it safe and cool now 😎 The furthest I got to fast AGP mobo was 4Core Dual SATA 2, but there is one faster board for AMD CPU... can't remember the model. I just know it's hell expensive and it doesn't come up often.

ubiq wrote on 2026-05-09, 17:18:

Old news to most I'm sure, but I had no idea there were any nVidia cards done up in that very "ATI red"-coloured PCB. Cheeky!

It's a Gainward card... they made a lot of red cards back in the day. Interesting thing is, this exact card was made by Gainward in both Red and Green PCB.

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-05-09, 17:22:

Jackal1983 wrote on 2026-05-09, 16:35:

Gotta love it when you stumble onto a good deal before the scalpers can get it. The board is a Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775-RH. Seller didn't post any pics that showed the revision. The hint that this was one of the revisions (3.9 in this case) that support 45nm CPUs with a modded bios was the seller stating it booted and was being sold with a "1.2 GHZ Core 2 CPU." I figured it was worth the gamble (around 50 bucks shipped) and it paid off. Flashed the modded bios off of the retro web (Q flash was being difficult so I wound up having to use a floppy) and it recognized the 45nm C2D that was included correctly. Swapped in the Pentium Dual Core E5800 I was planning to use and that worked nicely! Looks like I have a replacement for the much less capable Foxconn board I was using for fast AGP stuff!!!

Happy to hear you got lucky 😁 Keep it safe and cool now 😎 The furthest I got to fast AGP mobo was 4Core Dual SATA 2, but there is one faster board for AMD CPU... can't remember the model. I just know it's hell expensive and it doesn't come up often.

Yeah, before it goes in a case I'm changing the thermal compound on the NB heatsink for sure. I may or may not use the Intel P4EE spec cooler from my other board. Both are overkill for a 65 watt TDP processor as it is.

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-05-09, 17:22:

Happy to hear you got lucky 😁 Keep it safe and cool now 😎 The furthest I got to fast AGP mobo was 4Core Dual SATA 2, but there is one faster board for AMD CPU... can't remember the model. I just know it's hell expensive and it doesn't come up often.

It's the AM2NF3-VSTA. I've owned it for a while and sold it because it's got pretty huge issues past XP thanks to nVidia not being able to release working drivers for Vista/7.

PcBytes wrote on 2026-05-09, 21:10:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-05-09, 17:22:

Happy to hear you got lucky 😁 Keep it safe and cool now 😎 The furthest I got to fast AGP mobo was 4Core Dual SATA 2, but there is one faster board for AMD CPU... can't remember the model. I just know it's hell expensive and it doesn't come up often.

It's the AM2NF3-VSTA. I've owned it for a while and sold it because it's got pretty huge issues past XP thanks to nVidia not being able to release working drivers for Vista/7.

I'm betting its also vulnerable to bumpgate related issues. That's part of the reason (the other being garbage windows 98 drivers) I tend to stay away from Nvidia based chipsets for s754 and S939/AM2.

Jackal1983 wrote on 2026-05-09, 21:17:

PcBytes wrote on 2026-05-09, 21:10:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-05-09, 17:22:

Happy to hear you got lucky 😁 Keep it safe and cool now 😎 The furthest I got to fast AGP mobo was 4Core Dual SATA 2, but there is one faster board for AMD CPU... can't remember the model. I just know it's hell expensive and it doesn't come up often.

It's the AM2NF3-VSTA. I've owned it for a while and sold it because it's got pretty huge issues past XP thanks to nVidia not being able to release working drivers for Vista/7.

I'm betting its also vulnerable to bumpgate related issues. That's part of the reason (the other being garbage windows 98 drivers) I tend to stay away from Nvidia based chipsets for s754 and S939/AM2.

It's nForce 3 250GB, outside the bumpgate affected chips. Bumpgate started once they shifted to the process used for nForce 4.

steberg wrote on 2026-05-09, 07:46:

Thermalwrong wrote on 2026-05-08, 02:43:

steberg wrote on 2026-05-07, 09:22:

Found a Compaq Elite 4/50e in perfekt condition. 50$. Witout a harddrive but I had one spare. Now it works fine. But it’s the first notebook I ever seen the has an active matrix monochrome screen. So clear and nice. Came with 12 mb of ram as well.

A truly rare find, that one's supposed to be the largest active matrix mono panel there ever was 😀 I've got the LTE Lite 4/25E and sadly that one suffers from really bad tunnel vision where the corners fade out after a bit. I hope your one is doing better and is usable for longer.

Yes it's hardly been used at all. The screen is so nice, and no tunnel vision what I can see. But alas, one hinge is broken, so I don't think it can be fixed. Have to search for an replacement hinge. But else it's a joy to use. Of course the floppy drive is broken as well, but for now I'm transferring files via Interlnk - Intersvr and a cable via LPT1 port.

The hinges on the Compaq LTE Elite laptops really suck. The cast metal likes to break, the screw mounts like to break the surrounding plastic. No source of replacement hinges that I've ever seen and 3d printing isn't strong enough or able to make the hinge tension bit.

Here's my method for repairing it on my LTE Elite where the hinges were very broken, in the LCD area: Re: What retro activity did you get up to today? - this is holding up
And this for the part that mounts to the laptop base: Bought these (retro) hardware today - this wasn't good enough because the clear epoxy is too brittle. JB weld would probably hold up for this job though.

Good luck with your one, the Citizen W1D can often be fixed with a belt replacement too 😀

Thermalwrong wrote on 2026-05-10, 17:09:

The hinges on the Compaq LTE Elite laptops really suck. The cast metal likes to break, the screw mounts like to break the surrou […]
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steberg wrote on 2026-05-09, 07:46:

Thermalwrong wrote on 2026-05-08, 02:43:

A truly rare find, that one's supposed to be the largest active matrix mono panel there ever was 😀 I've got the LTE Lite 4/25E and sadly that one suffers from really bad tunnel vision where the corners fade out after a bit. I hope your one is doing better and is usable for longer.

Yes it's hardly been used at all. The screen is so nice, and no tunnel vision what I can see. But alas, one hinge is broken, so I don't think it can be fixed. Have to search for an replacement hinge. But else it's a joy to use. Of course the floppy drive is broken as well, but for now I'm transferring files via Interlnk - Intersvr and a cable via LPT1 port.

The hinges on the Compaq LTE Elite laptops really suck. The cast metal likes to break, the screw mounts like to break the surrounding plastic. No source of replacement hinges that I've ever seen and 3d printing isn't strong enough or able to make the hinge tension bit.

Here's my method for repairing it on my LTE Elite where the hinges were very broken, in the LCD area: Re: What retro activity did you get up to today? - this is holding up
And this for the part that mounts to the laptop base: Bought these (retro) hardware today - this wasn't good enough because the clear epoxy is too brittle. JB weld would probably hold up for this job though.

Good luck with your one, the Citizen W1D can often be fixed with a belt replacement too 😀

Wow thank you. That’s exactly what I needed to know. My hinge looks just like that. Have to find Blu-tack and resin.

This was a pretty interesting find. I don't know how common these are but I have never come across one before and I got it for a good price.

It is an MP-878S Avance Logic ALS4000 MiniPCI Sound Card with the connector panel\module, software and original box. A bit of googling led me to this one made by Commell. I recall Commell selling lots of compact or unusual form factor boards and systems back in the early 2000s, so this makes sense as an accessory for one of those systems.

The ALS4000 is actually a pretty great PCI card for DOS\9x gaming from what I can tell, so it is not only an interesting curiosity, it could actually allow a board with a miniPCI slot to have functional DOS compatible audio, assuming the chipset cooperates with it.

Interestingly, the same PCB seems to have been used for multiple devices and has unpopulated, but labeled, spots on the PCB. The BT879 is an A/V capture chip, and the ALC201A is an AC97 compatible audio chip. I think the DOS-compatible ALS4000 chip is by far the most interesting thing they could have put on this. 😁

(sellers pictures, not mine)

Does anyone know of any specific computers that the little audio connector panel would have been designed to attach to?

Terratec Phono PreAmp Studio USB still sealed. The box is a bit warped though. Bought it for just under €2.

Bought this boards:
1. Intel Batman's revenge for Socket 4 CPU
2. DataExpert EXP8054 also for Socket 4 CPU and VLB support
3. AHA-2940UW, PCI SCSI adapter, nothing special

Today I got an ISA video card for my PCs from 286 to 486, since it is a fairly cheap model, I think I will use it on the older ones, but a lot depends on what 😨 I will have to resurrect, in any case this video card could be used in all motherboards with ISA slots, mainly to perform operating tests, then later if there is no problem, you can switch to more modern video cards.

Interesting week for me...3x boxed CPU's and a pile of larger capacity IDE drives (200/250/300GB)

PC@LIVE wrote on Yesterday, 18:13:

Today I got an ISA video card for my PCs from 286 to 486, since it is a fairly cheap model, I think I will use it on the older ones, but a lot depends on what 😨 I will have to resurrect, in any case this video card could be used in all motherboards with ISA slots, mainly to perform operating tests, then later if there is no problem, you can switch to more modern video cards.

I have this exact card! It's actually kinda terrible, and 8-bit only. Mine also happens to be kinda non-operational...

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-05-11, 00:52:

This was a pretty interesting find. I don't know how common these are but I have never come across one before and I got it for a […]
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This was a pretty interesting find. I don't know how common these are but I have never come across one before and I got it for a good price.

It is an MP-878S Avance Logic ALS4000 MiniPCI Sound Card with the connector panel\module, software and original box. A bit of googling led me to this one made by Commell. I recall Commell selling lots of compact or unusual form factor boards and systems back in the early 2000s, so this makes sense as an accessory for one of those systems.

The ALS4000 is actually a pretty great PCI card for DOS\9x gaming from what I can tell, so it is not only an interesting curiosity, it could actually allow a board with a miniPCI slot to have functional DOS compatible audio, assuming the chipset cooperates with it.

Interestingly, the same PCB seems to have been used for multiple devices and has unpopulated, but labeled, spots on the PCB. The BT879 is an A/V capture chip, and the ALC201A is an AC97 compatible audio chip. I think the DOS-compatible ALS4000 chip is by far the most interesting thing they could have put on this. 😁

(sellers pictures, not mine)

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Does anyone know of any specific computers that the little audio connector panel would have been designed to attach to?

Huh, never seen any of these before. Only Wi-Fi cards.

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-05-09, 17:22:

Happy to hear you got lucky :D Keep it safe and cool now 😎 The furthest I got to fast AGP mobo was 4Core Dual SATA 2, but there […]
Show full quote

Jackal1983 wrote on 2026-05-09, 16:35:

Gotta love it when you stumble onto a good deal before the scalpers can get it. The board is a Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775-RH. Seller didn't post any pics that showed the revision. The hint that this was one of the revisions (3.9 in this case) that support 45nm CPUs with a modded bios was the seller stating it booted and was being sold with a "1.2 GHZ Core 2 CPU." I figured it was worth the gamble (around 50 bucks shipped) and it paid off. Flashed the modded bios off of the retro web (Q flash was being difficult so I wound up having to use a floppy) and it recognized the 45nm C2D that was included correctly. Swapped in the Pentium Dual Core E5800 I was planning to use and that worked nicely! Looks like I have a replacement for the much less capable Foxconn board I was using for fast AGP stuff!!!

Happy to hear you got lucky 😁 Keep it safe and cool now 😎 The furthest I got to fast AGP mobo was 4Core Dual SATA 2, but there is one faster board for AMD CPU... can't remember the model. I just know it's hell expensive and it doesn't come up often.

ubiq wrote on 2026-05-09, 17:18:

Old news to most I'm sure, but I had no idea there were any nVidia cards done up in that very "ATI red"-coloured PCB. Cheeky!

It's a Gainward card... they made a lot of red cards back in the day. Interesting thing is, this exact card was made by Gainward in both Red and Green PCB.

Yeah, I also had a GeForce 7600 by them about a decade ago, but it was bumpgated. Got it working by 'reflowing', but of course that didn't last for more than a month.