I went thru all my Creative and Media Vision sound cards and made a list of what I have. Yeah after a 10 hour work day that is all could do. Now enjoying a few beers and reading thru the topics here 😁

Fixed an LCD monitor I haven't used in a while (video board had dirty contacts and after spraying the contact cleaner on the board, everything works). Wish I had a CRT monitor since 1024x768 @ 87Hz is not working with my LCD monitor or even make an adapter to force it to 60Hz.

Disassembled my Compaq to give it a cleaning and managed to cut my finger on some plastic casing on the modem. Got angry and cut away half the plastic.
0/10 would not do again.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-05-02, 04:01:

Fixed an LCD monitor I haven't used in a while (video board had dirty contacts and after spraying the contact cleaner on the board, everything works). Wish I had a CRT monitor since 1024x768 @ 87Hz is not working with my LCD monitor or even make an adapter to force it to 60Hz.

I am not sure I understand, most LCDs operate natively at 60Hz, why would you need to force it to run at 60Hz (or an adapter for that matter) ?

Because the CL-GD5428 runs at only 87Hz for the resolution of 1024x768. I believe it's because the chips were only meant for CRT displays. I get an out of sync message and it shows the V sync as 87.1Hz on the display. Might install the drivers for the monitor and see if that clears that out.

aha2940 wrote on 2020-05-02, 02:04:

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-01, 09:16:

Finished Duke 3D atomic for the first time I think. Boy the stadium level is easier once you realize you can jump onto the ledge!

Duke 3D atomic ends when you kill the Queen at the end of the 4th episode, the stadium is the end of the 3rd episode, or the original Duke3D 1.3d. Anyway, cool that you made it, it's a fine game.

Oops. I should have realized that. Just started the Birth now 😁

Cleaned and fixed two Playstations, both SCPH-5502.

Installed a Modchip in the first one and re-calibrated the laser.

The second one needs a replacement laser. Have one that works, but does not physically fit inside, since it's for the 750x.

Sitting at work waiting to be called for my coronavirus test, so I soldered up some stuff for my Amiga 500. Floppy boot selector, gamepad/joystick adapter, and added some headers to a Gotek so I can easily jumper to flash it.

Edit, annnnd I just realized I accidentally have the two tiny surface mount resistors swapped on the boot selector. 🤣 Back to soldering..

derSammler wrote on 2020-05-02, 10:36:

Cleaned and fixed two Playstations, both SCPH-5502.

I remember when I found two of these in the trash about 20 years ag0 - apparently someone's lava lamp exploded all over them, everything was covered in waxy oil. After a cleanup 7 out of 8 controllers worked and I managed to get a working PS out of the two - I had to use the reading mechanism from one on the other, and that required modifying the case with a file. From the sale of the 5 controllers to Cash Converters, I was able to buy and have a mod chip installed, with money left over.

That Playstation only ever saw Gran Turismo II in it 😉 Hundreds of hours....

I played some Unreal today. I noticed that despite owning this game original since 1999, I have never completed it. I completed Half-life several times, Quake and Quake 2 even more times, RTCW a couple times but never Unreal. And I have never even played the expansion "Return to Na Pali". I'll try to fix both.

So I made the decision to modify my Biostar M5ATA to take the k6-3 400mhz.

On paper it was made to sound easy but if you see the jumpers for scale this was a tiny chip and an even smaller leg. I first used some desoldering braid to try and loosen the leg followed by sliding a tiny blade under it while tapping the soldering iron on the leg. I managed to loosen it off but coudnt tell if it was still making a connection or in some cases even touching the pins either side. I figured I had already done enough damage so made sure to clear the pin from bridging the others and then just cut the trace instead...

Now to power it on, I powered it on with no add in cards at first just in case things got sparky, all seemed good tho so time to connect some VGA and see what the bios thinks about it (if it even posts)

Big success! a post! and the worlds slowest MMX! I wasnt concerned about that as the guide said the bios would not know what it was dealing with but would work anyway.

Windows knows what is up!

The only benchmark that I could get my hands on in a hurry.
From comparing a few other results online it seems to be in the right ballpark!

Cant wait to put this system together now using the new case. Going to do a fresh install of windows and fit a bigger CF card as 1gb is limiting for a 400mhz system.

Sorted most of my ram. I won't need anymore soon.

wiretap wrote on 2020-05-02, 14:18:

Sitting at work waiting to be called for my coronavirus test, so I soldered up some stuff for my Amiga 500. Floppy boot selector […]
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Sitting at work waiting to be called for my coronavirus test, so I soldered up some stuff for my Amiga 500. Floppy boot selector, gamepad/joystick adapter, and added some headers to a Gotek so I can easily jumper to flash it.

Edit, annnnd I just realized I accidentally have the two tiny surface mount resistors swapped on the boot selector. 🤣 Back to soldering..

What does that Gampad/Joystick adapter do? I always plug my Mega Drive joypads directly to the ports..

Mega Drive pads can cause damage, because they don't fully follow the Atari standard. On a C64 for example, you'll kill the SID chip if you just connect it. That adapter protects from that and also allows configuring the two fire buttons you wish to use.

derSammler wrote on 2020-05-02, 19:07:

Mega Drive pads can cause damage, because they don't fully follow the Atari standard. On a C64 for example, you'll kill the SID chip if you just connect it. That adapter protects from that and also allows configuring the two fire buttons you wish to use.

I thought this was only an issue on C64 boards, and only if you use the Start (or Select?) button?

derSammler wrote on 2020-05-02, 10:36:

The second one needs a replacement laser. Have one that works, but does not physically fit inside, since it's for the 750x.

I just managed to fix the broken laser. There was a piece of broken plastic stuck at the end of one rail, causing the end-sensor not to get pushed in. 😀

You've reminded me, I really must work on my PS1 laser some day as it suffers from stuttering FMVs in some games. I've put it off for so long, as a simple door wedge under the back of the console solved the issue for the time being. 🤣

If it's a 100x or 300x, you need a replacement laser, there's no way to fix the existing one. You can use a laser for the PSOne, which has the critical part made of die-cast aluminium instead of plastic.

A friend of mine recently acquired a Voodoo 2 and found out that it was dead. So he asked me to look at it and mailed it to me. It has been sitting on my desk for a month now, so I thought I would check it out today. There were three issues with the card: Bent pins, missing oscillator and a blob of weird solder on one of the resistor arrays. Half an hour later, everything was in order.

And voila:

She works, so back to my friend she goes. In return for me troubles he will send me a dead Voodoo Rush PCI.. I can't wait to get it and see if I can fix that! It would be PERFECT for my 1997 Budget Build!

Excellent work getting that poor voodoo 2 up and running again!