oldGPU wrote on Yesterday, 16:53:

RetroAddict wrote on 2026-11-05, 23:19:

Another arrival today, I wasn't even aware these existed when they were current but it's a sweet little box that should make a good dos gamer!

Oh I love these.

If you have any idea where the hard drive is meant to sit I'm all ears! I can find nowhere, so my best guess is that it sits in an expansion slot mounted bracket!

I had another machine arrive today, If anyone is UK based and has a Tiny Computers Millennium recovery disc, I'd really appreciate it if you could upload it to the IA! I have two 98 restore discs but one of the latest machines shipped with ME, so I'd like to put it back to that!

MattRocks wrote on Yesterday, 21:28:

You're my hero! Congrats on saving the card 😀

Do you have a photo of a muddy card so we can see the before and after? It could help me estimate odds when discovering dirty cards in the wild. I have a dirty motherboard/cpu/ram that I've not yet dared to clean/power..

Thanks 😁 I didn't take a picture before cleaning unfortunately, because I didn't have any hope it would work and that I would write about it 🤣. I guess it's a lesson for further cases 😀

But I can tell you what I think increases the odds. This card was heavily "armored" just as 9800 GX2, there is little to no PCB exposed to possible mechanical damage. Any sludge and dirt that found it's way in there must have got there while it was powered off, so theoretically there couldn't be any damage, and now when I think about it, washing it was probably the best possible course of action, because dirt can cause short circuit if it has any conductive particles, or if it draws dampness from anywhere. If you decide to do this with your hardware, just make sure it dries very well. Water can find it's way under chips, memory, etc. and it's difficult to get it out. Patience is the key. 😀

Shader_BiH wrote on Yesterday, 17:20:

Today I had a seriously lucky day... I went to the flea market and found a very dirty XFX 5870 Radeon... When I looked at it, my […]
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Today I had a seriously lucky day... I went to the flea market and found a very dirty XFX 5870 Radeon... When I looked at it, my immediate thought was, there is no chance this works. There was sand... and mud in it... on the PCB and outside... So I gave 3 USD for it, and I planed to remove the heatsink and present a nice big PCB with Cypress XT core as display. When I got home I disassembled it and started cleaning it with isopropyl pads and spray cans, but it was so bad... that those didn't help. So in the end I decided, for the first time in my life, to wash a PCB, with water and soap... in the sink... and I did 🤣

After that I dried it for about 4 hours in front of fan, with mild temperature, and then I decided to take a risk and try it in my PC. I plugged everything in and kept my hand on the switch to turn everything off if things start burning or exploding. And then, it just booted... it just booted, went into Windows 10, took the drivers, and ran 3D mark, Tomb Raider Underworld, Blades of time, like a champ.... with perfect voltages, temps and stability... No hitches, no stutters, no graphical corruptions, absolutely 0 issues....

To be honest I am still shocked by this result. I never got to wash a graphics card... or any PCB for that matter, I just couldn't get over that somehow. As Jensen says, "It just works".

I also grabed a 9800 GX2 EVGA for same money, didn't wash it yet though... it's in the same mud and sand condition. Both cards actually look like they were in a flood or something...

People think electronics are magical.
They're mostly just metal, rock and plastic.
Without a current running through them they're practically as inert as anything else in the kitchen.
Obviously they corrode, but corrosion is something that happens in hours minimum.
Even the trace amounts of crap in normal water isn't much.
They use PURE water in fabs/mfg.

Dryness certainly matters after the wash.

Glad it worked for you!

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on Yesterday, 10:44:

Finally got this to my collection. Not that I had been super actively searching, but occasionally checking if somewhat reasonabl […]
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Finally got this to my collection. Not that I had been super actively searching, but occasionally checking if somewhat reasonably priced units would pop up:

The attachment BatmanRevenge.jpg is no longer available

This is of course the Intel Premiere PCI/ED aka "Batman's Revenge" and with the just "Batman" among the first Socket 4 Pentium motherboards from 1993. It came with 32MB RAM, IO cables/brackets and above all with Pentium 60 SX835 CPU which still carries the infamous FDIV bug. Both the nature and where this motherboard stood on the marketplace and the CPU with a bug makes this combo IMO historically interesting.

It should be in fully working condition sans the empty Dallas. I might swap this combo with my Zida 4DPS mobo and AMD 486DX4-120 CPU in one of my builds at somepoint, but I more or less bought this because of what it is and as of now I have no serious plans what I'm going to do with it.

What an amazing find !

I still lack a socket 4 mobo in my collection, though I already have a Pentium 60