put the finishing touches on my pentium 4, 5950 ultra build.
installed all the fans and added another dvd burner just because.
and of course, the most important part, the pentium 4 sticker 😎
this ones all ready to go back in the box.

I just used Wineskin Winery again to play another favorite of late 90's / early 2000's: Championship Manager 3. This time running "natively" on macOS Catalina thanks to wine!

I'm looking forward to porting more of my old games from my Windows 2000 VM to my mac. I just ported CM3 and and also got Counter-Strike 1.6 as well as GTR Evolution (RACE07) working, the last two came from a Steam app for windows I ported too.

I only failed with rFactor 2 - I can get to the game launcher, but it crashes when I try to run the game from there. I bet I can get rFactor 1 working.

Next on my list should definitely be Flight Simulator 98. I could try 2000 or 2004, but I don't remember playing them (maybe 2000, I remember having the box).

And I've also got Grand Prix 4 working (and faster than my Windows 7 VM!!!!), but only in its "pure" condition. I also want to play the mods of past F1 seasons I have, but the editors for the game aren't working thanks to stupid Apple and its notarization of apps. I've left it to the VM for now. This can be the end of gaming on virtual machines for me! yay.

dionb wrote on 2020-05-05, 22:43:

So dragged the system back home, thoroughly cleaned it (filthy :r ), replaced the old T2300 and interesting So479 motherboard with a Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L.

It may be 12 years old, but with aforementioned Core2Quad and 4GB of RAM it should be more than capable of handling the occasional word processing and frequent Facebook trolling that my brother gets up to. Then inserted a trusty old Intel 120GB SSD, stuck in a freshly-made official Windows 10 boot USB and... no boot. Turns out UEFI support is compulsory now for the USB media. Shit. Then set about migrating the existing Windows 7 install to the SSD. Pain in the rear-end, but managed that. So tried to upgrade (still possible from Windows 7 to 10). After a lot of mess, complete fail - the infamous 0xc1900101-0x30017 error. Something went wrong before boot. After ruling out various other software things, what's left sounds like BIOS issues (possible lack of UEFI, GPT or secure boot) again.

Yep, a C2Q system is now too old to be allowed to run Windows 10, so despite multiple cores and RAM support still outclassing low-end new stuff, it's officially retro in the nastiest way 🙁

So, you got youself a nice SO479 motherboard from that 😁

A friend of mine runs Win10 on a C2Q, all though a 9550. The 8200 does not support Virtualization it seems. Might this be an issue for Win10?

Quite a productive day today. Dusted out the Zenith Z286LP Plus. Got the lpt port BackPack CDROM drive functioning and to my surprise it handles CD-RWs. Found a suitable network card to fit in my Restone XT Turbo system. Tested a few older hard drives on my K6-2 266 test rig.

Got the Gotek working as an external boot drive on my A500. I put the selector switch in my trap door area. It works! Motherboard is Rev 6A, first time it has been opened -- I broke the warranty seal. The only issue I see so far is the mouse only wants to move horizontal.. have to troubleshoot that next.

Next step: Order an expensive accelerator.

Haha, I was looking into that, or building one. I ordered an optical assembly for replacing the tank mouse innards. I was very tempted to do the accelerator as well. 😜

Started cleaning all the Playstation controllers from the lot I got lately. Not that much fun, really.

Recapped my MAXI Studio. The original caps were damaged when I got it, and they were from GSC.
It took about 4 months to finish this as everything had to be done in spare time.

Few tips for those looking into recapping the maxi.

• A Hotair station is your best friend. Few through-holes holding some critical caps have the largest ground plate I've ever seen so far. Daymn.
• I used Nichicon KT series which happens to be 5mm in diameter (1mm larger than the original) and 12.5mm in height (2.5mm taller). It fits right in w/o any problem whatsoever. Other caps in the similar size are... well, you just need to look it up.
• C82 needs to be bent in 90 deg. It interferes with memory.

Here's my capacitor map.

The final difference in sound? Not so much other than the fact that the new caps would last forever.

* EDIT : The old GSC cap is 10mm tall, and Nichicon is 12.5mm in height.

wiretap wrote on 2020-05-06, 12:28:

Got the Gotek working as an external boot drive on my A500. I put the selector switch in my trap door area. It works! Motherboard is Rev 6A, first time it has been opened -- I broke the warranty seal. The only issue I see so far is the mouse only wants to move horizontal.. have to troubleshoot that next.

I'm having that same mouse movement problem intermitantly with my A1200. Pushing down on a connector plugged into the mouse port or joystick port allows its use correctly. Also when disassembled putting some pressure where those 3 stickers are on the motherboard near the connectors allows its proper function as well. I tried to resolder the connector to the port but that didn't work. Let me know if you discover what the issue is as it might help me fix my issue. On the 500 you can swap the CIA chips around to see if its a problem with the CIA chips, but the 1200 doesn't have the same configuration to do that...

Today's retro activity was just cleaning & fixing a 3rd party SNES controller, which had an erratic D-PAD.

Opened it all up and cleaned with isopropyl alcohol.

And now back together and working fine, being tested on Fifa International Soccer.

It's not a great controller by any means, but it's functioning correctly now and will suffice as a 2nd player pad. It's certainly easier on the hands than those cheap Trixes SNES controllers that are all over eBay.

Shagittarius wrote on 2020-05-06, 14:37:

I'm having that same mouse movement problem intermitantly with my A1200. Pushing down on a connector plugged into the mouse port or joystick port allows its use correctly. Also when disassembled putting some pressure where those 3 stickers are on the motherboard near the connectors allows its proper function as well. I tried to resolder the connector to the port but that didn't work. Let me know if you discover what the issue is as it might help me fix my issue. On the 500 you can swap the CIA chips around to see if its a problem with the CIA chips, but the 1200 doesn't have the same configuration to do that...

I think mine is an issue with the mouse itself. If I move the y-axis wheel, it will move about 2 pixels and bounce back. Likely the photo diodes in the mouse failing, which is pretty common. Jiggling the port or pressing on the board/connector does nothing. I can test the serial port with a serial->ps2 Amiga adapter I have. Regardless, I ordered a tank mouse optical conversion kit.

brownk wrote on 2020-05-06, 14:30:

Maxi_Studio_Recapped.jpg Recapped my MAXI Studio. The original caps were damaged when I got it, and they were from GSC. It took […]
Show full quote

Maxi_Studio_Recapped.jpg
Recapped my MAXI Studio. The original caps were damaged when I got it, and they were from GSC.
It took about 4 months to finish this as everything had to be done in spare time.

Few tips for those looking for recap the maxi.

• A Hotair station is your best friend. Few through-holes holding some critical caps have the largest ground plate I've ever seen so far. Daymn.
• I used Nichicon KT series which happens to be 5mm in diameter (1mm larger than the original) and 12mm in height (5mm taller). It fits right in w/o any problem whatsoever. Other caps in the similar size are... well, you just need to look it up.
• C82 needs to be bent in 90 deg. It interferes with memory.

Here's my capacitor map.
capacitor-map.png

The final difference in sound? Not so much other than the fact that the new caps would last forever.

thank you :3
I'll keep that info in case I ever need it as I just got one of these ^^ Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

appiah4 wrote on 2020-05-06, 13:11:

Next step: Order an expensive accelerator.

TF-534 or VampireV2 are two good ones.

brostenen wrote on 2020-05-06, 15:52:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-05-06, 13:11:

Next step: Order an expensive accelerator.

TF-534 or VampireV2 are two good ones.

I am an ACA500Plus guy myself..

Cleaned up my GA-6BXC motherboard, removed the CPU retainer clips. Will flash the Powerleap upgraded BIOS later and install my newly-bought VIA C3 CPU to see if it works.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-05-06, 16:46:

brostenen wrote on 2020-05-06, 15:52:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-05-06, 13:11:

Next step: Order an expensive accelerator.

TF-534 or VampireV2 are two good ones.

I am an ACA500Plus guy myself..

They are cool as well. They can be upgraded with an 1200 accelerator, however that would mean a costly affair. And then there are the Classic-520. I think that delivers a nice result for the price. I mean. It is a bit like the Furia-020 in some ways. And then just a bit extra. I have seen these angled zorro extenders, that allow some zorro accelerators, to be mounted upside down inside an Amiga500.

wiretap wrote on 2020-05-06, 15:15:

Shagittarius wrote on 2020-05-06, 14:37:

I'm having that same mouse movement problem intermitantly with my A1200. Pushing down on a connector plugged into the mouse port or joystick port allows its use correctly. Also when disassembled putting some pressure where those 3 stickers are on the motherboard near the connectors allows its proper function as well. I tried to resolder the connector to the port but that didn't work. Let me know if you discover what the issue is as it might help me fix my issue. On the 500 you can swap the CIA chips around to see if its a problem with the CIA chips, but the 1200 doesn't have the same configuration to do that...

I think mine is an issue with the mouse itself. If I move the y-axis wheel, it will move about 2 pixels and bounce back. Likely the photo diodes in the mouse failing, which is pretty common. Jiggling the port or pressing on the board/connector does nothing. I can test the serial port with a serial->ps2 Amiga adapter I have. Regardless, I ordered a tank mouse optical conversion kit.

The bounce back sounds exactly like what i see on the amiga 1200. I bought a new laser mouse thinking also that it was the mouse, which turned out to be incorrect. Please keep me updated on this.

darry wrote on 2020-05-06, 00:06:

[...]

I just created a Build 1909 Windows 10 installation USB flash drive using the Media Creation Tool that I just downloaded from Microsoft on my non-UEFI x58 based system (Supermicro X8SAX with x5675) and it booted just fine from USB (tried both 32-bot and 64-bit version) . UEFI support is definitely NOT compulsory for Windows 10 USB installation media . I also have an XW4600 Core 2 Quad (Q9400S) machine (obviously non UEFI) which I wiped and fresh installed Windows 10 x64 on through USB install media about 4 months ago (whatever build was current then) without any issues .

H3nrik V! wrote on 2020-05-06, 06:39:

[...]

So, you got youself a nice SO479 motherboard from that 😁

A friend of mine runs Win10 on a C2Q, all though a 9550. The 8200 does not support Virtualization it seems. Might this be an issue for Win10?

Nope. Today I managed to get it working at last. It took a BIOS update to a 2009-era beta BIOS and physically burning a DVD ISO. Upgrade from Win7 still kept failing, and no matter what I did to that USB stick with Rufus, the system refused to boot from it (where it happily starts from any Linux USB stick). But a clean install from DVD onto the SSD worked nicely with the new BIOS. Of course, the new BIOS screwed up fan control, so needed to solve that in software (Speedfan), and not upgrading meant messing around to get the install properly activated again. Joy. I suddenly remember why I vowed never to do a current Windows install again. Linux can certainly give you headaches, but this is next-level crap.

Still, I do now have a very nice little So479 board. Shame I don't really have anything sensible to do with it...

dionb wrote on 2020-05-06, 18:28:

Nope. Today I managed to get it working at last. It took a BIOS update to a 2009-era beta BIOS and physically burning a DVD ISO. […]
Show full quote

darry wrote on 2020-05-06, 00:06:

[...]

I just created a Build 1909 Windows 10 installation USB flash drive using the Media Creation Tool that I just downloaded from Microsoft on my non-UEFI x58 based system (Supermicro X8SAX with x5675) and it booted just fine from USB (tried both 32-bot and 64-bit version) . UEFI support is definitely NOT compulsory for Windows 10 USB installation media . I also have an XW4600 Core 2 Quad (Q9400S) machine (obviously non UEFI) which I wiped and fresh installed Windows 10 x64 on through USB install media about 4 months ago (whatever build was current then) without any issues .

H3nrik V! wrote on 2020-05-06, 06:39:

[...]

So, you got youself a nice SO479 motherboard from that 😁

A friend of mine runs Win10 on a C2Q, all though a 9550. The 8200 does not support Virtualization it seems. Might this be an issue for Win10?

Nope. Today I managed to get it working at last. It took a BIOS update to a 2009-era beta BIOS and physically burning a DVD ISO. Upgrade from Win7 still kept failing, and no matter what I did to that USB stick with Rufus, the system refused to boot from it (where it happily starts from any Linux USB stick). But a clean install from DVD onto the SSD worked nicely with the new BIOS. Of course, the new BIOS screwed up fan control, so needed to solve that in software (Speedfan), and not upgrading meant messing around to get the install properly activated again. Joy. I suddenly remember why I vowed never to do a current Windows install again. Linux can certainly give you headaches, but this is next-level crap.

Still, I do now have a very nice little So479 board. Shame I don't really have anything sensible to do with it...

Happy you got it work in the end . I have been much luckier in my Windows 7 to 10 upgrades and fresh installs .

The only serious issue I had once when running an upgrade was having to use an older Windows 10 build as update media and then updating to the current build without issue rather than using the Microsoft update tool . That was on a fairly recent UEFI equipped (but running in legacy CSM mode) Dell E5430 laptop .

That said, I tend to create the USB install media directly using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool rather than Rufus (I think I used Rufus to create a USB installer from the old build ISO, though) .