@Predator99

Well maybe I'm not using the proper word, basically it's the city organizing an evenment where streets are closed and hundreds of people can come to sell their crap there.
Nothing's advertised except the location and the estimation of people that will come to sell, the rest is pure random

Formulator wrote:

Nice case, found a similar one at a thrift store once too.

Thanks! Yours looks to be in a lot better shape than mine. I just finished restoring the inner case as there was a lot of rust on the front corners.

dionb wrote:

For that price the case alone is more than worth it, regardless of what's in it and whatever does or doesn't work. I'm finding AT cases a bigger challenge than pretty much anything to go in them or peripherals (CRTs and serial mice are everywhere, by comparision).

Yep, exactly why I bought it. I figured I could use it for my 586 build since it's on a test chassis right now, but there's a nice late socket 7 mobo in there that I managed to get working.

appiah4 wrote:

Go into the BIOS and try to see if HDD detection also locks up. That sounds like a case of motherboard not playing well with large HDD.

Thanks for the tip, it led me down the rabbit hole of BIOS settings to get it working now. The dead CMOS battery was causing the settings to reset to some configuration it didn't like.

On topic, got this Reveal SC400 Rev 2 brand new, already tested and works great. Came with the cheapest headphones I've ever seen.

Also this Aztech sound/modem card. Supposedly this model has an onboard wavetable.

And last is this Creative gamepad to try out.

Skyscraper wrote:

Good to see that a Vogons member got that one. It was a good deal at the price you got it. :) […]
Show full quote

Vegge wrote:

Not just from today, but the latest finds 😀

Evergreen AMD 5x86 133Mhz 😀

😀

Good to see that a Vogons member got that one. It was a good deal at the price you got it. 😀

I was the other bidder, I already have a couple though so I'm not the least sad. I find them much better value for money than the Intel DX4 Overdrives selling for at least as much.

I think that's a late one so it will probably work just fine without a fan but I would add a small one anyhow.

The second "green" motherboard with OPTi 493 chipset seems to lack a BIOS chiip.

Here is the MR BIOS for OPTi 493

OPTI 493 i486MRBS.zip

It seems to be a nice board with double the normal amount of cache sockets for cache interleaving, well worth saving.

It replaced a overdrive 100, a little bit faster on that computer. 😀 The plan is a intakefan just there in front of it.

Thanks, but i have the bioschip, just took it out in preparation for cleaning 😀 Hope the board works.

Deksor wrote:

Really nice ! A ThinkPad 380XD ! I've bought the same very recently :D […]
Show full quote

Really nice ! A ThinkPad 380XD ! I've bought the same very recently 😁

Just be aware that the drivers given by lenovo for the cardbus slots are WRONG. Use these instead

pcmcia.zip

Also, the audio drivers for the crystal chip aren't the latest on lenovo's website and they work terribly. The latest ones aren't really good, but they are already much better. (if you find a better driver, please tell me which you found ^^)

Thanks! Might come in handy. It’s running ME now, not sure what to think about that 🤣

Picked this up today 😀

Awesome unit, man. Won an nVidia GeForce2 MX400 clone card on eBay for $8.15 shipped (only bidder)!

Deksor wrote:

Well maybe I'm not using the proper word, basically it's the city organizing an evenment where streets are closed and hundreds of people can come to sell their crap there.
Nothing's advertised except the location and the estimation of people that will come to sell, the rest is pure random

Ah, that's more of a flea market. These are the thing in Germany, I have been to one or two. You can find all sorts of cool and weird stuff there.

I go to 1 or 2 each week-end during spring/summer/autumn ^^
These are the thing in france as well. You may have heared about the biggest one in Lille in september (though due to terrorism, it's not as good as it used to be). Like I said, it's pure randomness. You can either find nothing or find so much stuff you don't have enough room for it.

I got my first MT-32 today that came with a power supply. There is faint smell of tobacco on it. Since this is the first one I have ever had, Is there anything I should check out before connecting the power supply and trying to turn it on?

Check the capacitors, resistors, potentiometers, logic boards, and the IC chips, such as the CPU for leakage, cold/cracked solder joints, oxidation, and broken traces. Got one myself (my dad bought it brand new in 1987) and it's still functioning.

Vegge wrote:

Picked this up today 😀

6CA0338F-5858-4A04-9E5C-DE4D806D8FF2.jpeg

Someone should make a dongle for one of these external Yamaha units that translates between the unit's instructions and OPL2-ese. I've always found the OPL2 and OPL3's sound weak and thin, and this one is very rich by comparison. I like it.

So I did take a jump and bought defective Siemens-Nixdorf PCD-4ND. It's a very well done machine (GERMAN ENGINEERING, JA!) and fairly well preserved, the only flaw being the LCD display:

The only thing that bugs me is that despite having 486DX4@100MHz processor, there isn't any radiator on it. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Also, I thought that it would be a completely silent machine, given that most 486 processor had passive cooling. It is unexpectedly loud, though. There is something making a whirring noise inside. Sounds like a ventilator, but I can't see any! Perhaps under this mini-LCD panel on the left? But what for, especially if there is no air duct nor an opening in the chassis?

Mysteries of the old hardware...

Are you sure it isn't the hard drive making noise (bearings going out) ?

cyclone3d wrote:

Are you sure it isn't the hard drive making noise (bearings going out) ?

Could HDD be that loud? Wow.

I'll replace it with CF card and see.

what is the current resolution and refresh rate on that LCD display? Also - How do you control output to VGA? Does it have a Fn key that lets you cycle LCD, LCD+Monitor, Monitor?

Also - Are you running in 16 colors? Make sure device manager is happy.

That LCD screen doesn't seem to be really broken, normally broken LCD displays don't duplicate the picture like this, maybe this is some driver issue ?

CkRtech wrote:

what is the current resolution and refresh rate on that LCD display? Also - How do you control output to VGA? Does it have a Fn key that lets you cycle LCD, LCD+Monitor, Monitor?

Also - Are you running in 16 colors? Make sure device manager is happy.

Resolution and refresh - don't know, will check.

Control output - yes, FN key cycling LCD, LCD+Monitor, Monitor. But it is software & OS independent - works on start-up screen too.

The LCD problem is hardware-related, nothing to do with software and device manager.

Deksor wrote:

That LCD screen doesn't seem to be really broken, normally broken LCD displays don't duplicate the picture like this, maybe this is some driver issue ?

I suspect video signal cable, notLCD itself. But I don't know yet. It is not because of drivers - monitor shows like this in boot screens too.

OldCat wrote:

20180322_192705.jpg

Also, I thought that it would be a completely silent machine, given that most 486 processor had passive cooling. It is unexpectedly loud, though. There is something making a whirring noise inside. Sounds like a ventilator, but I can't see any! Perhaps under this mini-LCD panel on the left? But what for, especially if there is no air duct nor an opening in the chassis?

That raised center compartment with the ribbon cable taped to it likely hides an ancient HDD.

Yeah, as I said in my PM, the HDD is the likely culprit.

No disk drive then? If you do have it and need a new belt, they can be found on German eBay. I replaced the belt on mine, but it's still not 100% reliable. Some disks (?) make the drive just spin the disk (you can hear the belt kind squeaking in there) without the head or motor doing anything.

Anyway, kudos on the laptop!

OldCat wrote:

The only thing that bugs me is that despite having 486DX4@100MHz processor, there isn't any radiator on it.

That's fine. Those later embedded versions of the DX4 don't require any cooling.