Major Jackyl wrote on 2026-06-09, 00:00:

I can't even make a good guess on this one (aside from the fact that it is a cooler of some kind). Sealed system with a gas? The clear part is glass. The little nipple on the pipe looks like where it was sealed.

Just realized something. The unpainted portion of the metal flex tube seems to indicate that it pushed out at some point after being painted. Presumably it can go far enough into the glass tube that there is no gap in the paint (since there is a red ring on the glass).

Theory: Someone obtained this thing from a lab or machine at work or school, painted it with whatever paint that had around to hide what was probably fairly ugly looking bare metal, installed it in a PC and after years of use the radiator was clogged with dust and it was no longer capable of cooling a P4 (was it a Prescott by chance?), so it overpressured and caused the metal pipe to pop out of the glass bulb, releasing most of the cooling liquid\vapor\water. The corrosion could be from whatever moisture had been condensing in the radiator that eventually dripped down and dried\oxidized in the glass bulb.

Law212 wrote on 2026-06-09, 14:33:

rasz_pl wrote on 2026-06-09, 04:41:

sure looks like some sort of 3M Fluorinert system 😮

I have no idea and have never seen anything like it, but the end with the filter makes me think that it was attached to a fan and was meant to send cold air right to the CPU?
Interesting though

Fluorinert turns to gas at really low temperature, like 30-40C at the low end, and condenses back to liquid at the radiator.
Biggest advantage - no need for pumps. Most systems didnt even bother with condensers and ran hardware immersed in the stuff.
biggest drawbacks - cost, and its PFC and PFAS, a forever chemical. Not that great for environment.

3M NOVEC (pretty much same thing) cooling by DER8AUER 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPx4qyKPsw0
Earliest known and iconic computer cooled this way would probably be Cray-2, thats why it was round, not because they wanted a bench 😀

Fun fact: that mouse in The Abyss breathing liquid was real and the liquid was oxygenated Fluorinert 😮

rasz_pl wrote on 2026-06-09, 17:57:

Fluorinert turns to gas at really low temperature, like 30-40C at the low end, and condenses back to liquid at the radiator. Big […]
Show full quote

Law212 wrote on 2026-06-09, 14:33:

rasz_pl wrote on 2026-06-09, 04:41:

sure looks like some sort of 3M Fluorinert system 😮

I have no idea and have never seen anything like it, but the end with the filter makes me think that it was attached to a fan and was meant to send cold air right to the CPU?
Interesting though

Fluorinert turns to gas at really low temperature, like 30-40C at the low end, and condenses back to liquid at the radiator.
Biggest advantage - no need for pumps. Most systems didnt even bother with condensers and ran hardware immersed in the stuff.
biggest drawbacks - cost, and its PFC and PFAS, a forever chemical. Not that great for environment.

3M NOVEC (pretty much same thing) cooling by DER8AUER 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPx4qyKPsw0
Earliest known and iconic computer cooled this way would probably be Cray-2, thats why it was round, not because they wanted a bench 😀

Fun fact: that mouse in The Abyss breathing liquid was real and the liquid was oxygenated Fluorinert 😮

Insane!

Project 357575 case arrived last Friday:

Quite the troubleshooting lesson!
Defective turbo LED panel (gave up, now solid 66), keylock on (no key), and nearly 20 hours spent on power issues (turned out as wrong facing IDE cable).
Finally finished yesterday.

ET4000 ISA was unfortunately sent up in smoke after direct contact with NE2000 during test process and network troubleshooting.

Screwholes of m/b plate are misaligned, never seen this before.
Board has to be slightly slanted.
This makes the bottom ISA inaccessible, due to no room for a backplate.

CT3900 and ET4000/W32 arrived as well.
~7mm between CT and PC speaker housing 😁

As you may know I've been buying mystery boxes to try and get a decent ATX case. Previous attempts included £25 + £7. Those were disappointing due to exploding PSUs, dented panels, etc.

This time I bought a Thermaltake Soprano case for £15, missing the key.

Counted together £25 + £7 + £15 is pretty steep, but I finally have a suitable ATX case with no dents. It fits perfectly between my P180 and Z-Alien.

The Soprano is currently weighed down by being filled with a working system... seller said I paid more than it is worth. One man's junk is another man's treasure! 😀

I also received delivery of new 35mm fans from China, to replace original seized fans. The new fans physically attach to the old heatsinks, but they look cheaper than the old fans. I'm chalking these up as temporary replacements while the hunt for a permanent solution continues.

rasz_pl wrote on 2026-06-09, 04:41:

Major Jackyl wrote on 2026-06-08, 22:38:

I can't even make a good guess on this one (aside from the fact that it is a cooler of some kind). Sealed system with a gas? The clear part is glass. The little nipple on the pipe looks like where it was sealed.

The attachment 20260607_181612.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20260607_181547.jpg is no longer available

sure looks like some sort of 3M Fluorinert system 😮

Thank you! That does indeed put a name to it! Absolutely needs a liquid that has since drained-out. The staining on the outside/bottom of the case may support a leak-out. The motherboard that was in there looked clean...

New fluid is absolutely BONKERS in price and regulated, so sadly, no recharging the system.... Cool concept, though. Wish I could've tested how well it works. I'll hoard it and maybe someday, I'll come across some fluid. Can't take much more than a pint.

rasz_pl wrote on 2026-06-09, 17:57:

Fluorinert turns to gas at really low temperature, like 30-40C at the low end, and condenses back to liquid at the radiator. Big […]
Show full quote

Law212 wrote on 2026-06-09, 14:33:

rasz_pl wrote on 2026-06-09, 04:41:

sure looks like some sort of 3M Fluorinert system 😮

I have no idea and have never seen anything like it, but the end with the filter makes me think that it was attached to a fan and was meant to send cold air right to the CPU?
Interesting though

Fluorinert turns to gas at really low temperature, like 30-40C at the low end, and condenses back to liquid at the radiator.
Biggest advantage - no need for pumps. Most systems didnt even bother with condensers and ran hardware immersed in the stuff.
biggest drawbacks - cost, and its PFC and PFAS, a forever chemical. Not that great for environment.

3M NOVEC (pretty much same thing) cooling by DER8AUER 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPx4qyKPsw0
Earliest known and iconic computer cooled this way would probably be Cray-2, thats why it was round, not because they wanted a bench 😀

Fun fact: that mouse in The Abyss breathing liquid was real and the liquid was oxygenated Fluorinert 😮

Wow. Impressive! I feel smarter now, 🤣 I'll have to heat it to find out if anything is in it? I was thinking submersion, and check for leakage. My brother might've tried putting it on a hot-plate by now, haven't got the results from that yet.

Major Jackyl wrote on 2026-06-09, 22:22:

Wow. Impressive! I feel smarter now, 🤣 I'll have to heat it to find out if anything is in it? I was thinking submersion, and check for leakage. My brother might've tried putting it on a hot-plate by now, haven't got the results from that yet.

Oh its empty all right, and as you noticed useless due to 3M no longer selling the stuff. if you want to get rid of it Im sure DER8AUER (https://der8auer.com) will be interested, he likes covering old weird cooling hardware.

Got a Zenith Z-181-93. It seems to work, the NiCd battery even holds a bit of power over night and doesn't go hot while charging. (Though, i have no plans on keeping it. It's an old 40 years old battery that needs to be recycled.)
While it seems to be working and has a cool built-in monitor program, the floppy drives seem to be both busted. They make all the proper noises, but it never reads anything successfully.

I'll have to open this machine up, clean it and fix it up. That also includes a potential internal real-time clock battery, if it has one.

GigAHerZ wrote on 2026-06-10, 12:43:

Got a Zenith Z-181-93. It seems to work, the NiCd battery even holds a bit of power over night and doesn't go hot while charging. (Though, i have no plans on keeping it. It's an old 40 years old battery that needs to be recycled.)
While it seems to be working and has a cool built-in monitor program, the floppy drives seem to be both busted. They make all the proper noises, but it never reads anything successfully.

I'll have to open this machine up, clean it and fix it up. That also includes a potential internal real-time clock battery, if it has one.

that is interesting and yes - sound like you'll need to do some more serious restoration on those FDDs to get the machine working for you, they wont read a 720 formatted by dos?

gerry wrote on 2026-06-10, 15:56:

GigAHerZ wrote on 2026-06-10, 12:43:

Got a Zenith Z-181-93. It seems to work, the NiCd battery even holds a bit of power over night and doesn't go hot while charging. (Though, i have no plans on keeping it. It's an old 40 years old battery that needs to be recycled.)
While it seems to be working and has a cool built-in monitor program, the floppy drives seem to be both busted. They make all the proper noises, but it never reads anything successfully.

I'll have to open this machine up, clean it and fix it up. That also includes a potential internal real-time clock battery, if it has one.

that is interesting and yes - sound like you'll need to do some more serious restoration on those FDDs to get the machine working for you, they wont read a 720 formatted by dos?

I tried some DOS3.20 images, using raw .img files and wrote them on 720kB floppies using "dd" tool under linux. It should be the "purest" and "cleanest" way to put bits on magnetic media. I also tried multiple floppies, even though the "dd" tool does verify written data as it did fail on some floppies during write.
Machine didn't accept any of them...

GigAHerZ wrote on 2026-06-10, 12:43:

Got a Zenith Z-181-93. It seems to work, the NiCd battery even holds a bit of power over night and doesn't go hot while charging. (Though, i have no plans on keeping it. It's an old 40 years old battery that needs to be recycled.)
While it seems to be working and has a cool built-in monitor program, the floppy drives seem to be both busted. They make all the proper noises, but it never reads anything successfully.

I'll have to open this machine up, clean it and fix it up. That also includes a potential internal real-time clock battery, if it has one.

It's a really impressive collectible hardware... It looks like a perfect restoration project piece. I hope I manage to get something similar myself one day...

Meanwhile I ordered a pair of those ATX to AT PSU connector converters... I've read somewhere that they are perfectly fine to use as long as you have strong 3.3 and 5v rails... I guess I'll find out 😁

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:35:

Meanwhile I ordered a pair of those ATX to AT PSU connector converters... I've read somewhere that they are perfectly fine to us […]
Show full quote

Meanwhile I ordered a pair of those ATX to AT PSU connector converters... I've read somewhere that they are perfectly fine to use as long as you have strong 3.3 and 5v rails... I guess I'll find out 😁

Those converters are great. I use them in all my 386 and 486’s. Connect those 2 leads directly to the 4 pin power switch of your AT case. Also much safer than having mains (120v/240v) going to the power switch.

zuldan wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:56:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:35:

Meanwhile I ordered a pair of those ATX to AT PSU connector converters... I've read somewhere that they are perfectly fine to us […]
Show full quote

Meanwhile I ordered a pair of those ATX to AT PSU connector converters... I've read somewhere that they are perfectly fine to use as long as you have strong 3.3 and 5v rails... I guess I'll find out 😁

Those converters are great. I use them in all my 386 and 486’s. Connect those 2 leads directly to the 4 pin power switch of your AT case. Also much safer than having mains (120v/240v) going to the power switch.

Does the PSU still have to supply -5V for these to work correctly?

TheMLGladiator wrote on 2026-06-11, 00:16:

zuldan wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:56:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:35:

Meanwhile I ordered a pair of those ATX to AT PSU connector converters... I've read somewhere that they are perfectly fine to us […]
Show full quote

Meanwhile I ordered a pair of those ATX to AT PSU connector converters... I've read somewhere that they are perfectly fine to use as long as you have strong 3.3 and 5v rails... I guess I'll find out 😁

Those converters are great. I use them in all my 386 and 486’s. Connect those 2 leads directly to the 4 pin power switch of your AT case. Also much safer than having mains (120v/240v) going to the power switch.

Does the PSU still have to supply -5V for these to work correctly?

If you have a device that requires -5V, yes. And since the vast vast majority of PSUs that people will try to use do not supply -5v, you would be best served by adding a Voltage Blaster or something similar to your system if you have a free ISA slot.

~10 years ago there was a guy selling ATX to AT adapters that included -5v regulators in-line for power supplies that did not have them, but it doesn't seem like anyone is currently making anything like that as far as I can tell.

zuldan wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:56:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:35:

Meanwhile I ordered a pair of those ATX to AT PSU connector converters... I've read somewhere that they are perfectly fine to us […]
Show full quote

Meanwhile I ordered a pair of those ATX to AT PSU connector converters... I've read somewhere that they are perfectly fine to use as long as you have strong 3.3 and 5v rails... I guess I'll find out 😁

Those converters are great. I use them in all my 386 and 486’s. Connect those 2 leads directly to the 4 pin power switch of your AT case. Also much safer than having mains (120v/240v) going to the power switch.

I agree, I swear by them; I like to keep the hardware as period correct as possible but it's hard to trust a 35 year old PSU if it's not been recapped/refurbished lately.

The only problem with these, is that those four metal terminals behind the power switch can vary in size, I've had to modify the connectors on the adaptor to make them fit before.

TheMLGladiator wrote on 2026-06-11, 00:16:

Does the PSU still have to supply -5V for these to work correctly?

I use voltage blasters in my machines. They are so easy to build.

Ahrle wrote on 2026-06-09, 20:49:

Project 357575 case arrived last Friday: […]
Show full quote

Project 357575 case arrived last Friday:

Quite the troubleshooting lesson!
Defective turbo LED panel (gave up, now solid 66), keylock on (no key), and nearly 20 hours spent on power issues (turned out as wrong facing IDE cable).
Finally finished yesterday.

ET4000 ISA was unfortunately sent up in smoke after direct contact with NE2000 during test process and network troubleshooting.

The attachment IMG_20260609_030945269.jpg is no longer available

Screwholes of m/b plate are misaligned, never seen this before.
Board has to be slightly slanted.
This makes the bottom ISA inaccessible, due to no room for a backplate.

The attachment IMG_20260609_020314367.jpg is no longer available

CT3900 and ET4000/W32 arrived as well.
~7mm between CT and PC speaker housing 😁

The attachment IMG_20260609_180355075.jpg is no longer available

The attachment IMG_20260609_182536491.jpg is no longer available

The attachment IMG_20260609_223557648.jpg is no longer available

The screw on the sound card is a nice touch. But why not use a VLB HDD controller too?

- Opteron 1218He CPU
- MSI K9NGM4 motherboard
- Geforce 8800 GT

This should be fun.

HP Z420 Workstation (2014 model) , with E5-2697V2, 64 GB RAM 1866 MHz ECC, Geforce 980Ti and SB0880 for vintage XP gaming and a Linux distro for Wine, Lutris and etc. It's an overkill for XP era, but it has a PCI slot and I can add a USB 2.0 expansion card with internal connector to be able to connect internally a floppy adapter to USB. Yes it needs a floppy!
I like the case because it's small but spacious inside!

This is my second server PC, I bought two years ago the ΙBM netfinity 3500 with dual PII 233 MHz cpus and I love it!