pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-07-05, 02:27:

Xtree. Had this on old PCeazy.

Cheers,

🤣 I always like Xtree on my DOS machines. Upped the CT stuff to our library, only covers some 50 of the CT1320 thru CT3990 cards if someone needs them.

I received my Stealth 24 ISA video card a few days back.

Was very disappointed in the display output originally .... very dark.

After much research, I deduced that the RAMDAC wasn't getting the correct reference for creating the RGB signals. Generic comments on the internet suggested it was a voltage reference, but after working out that my RAMDAC - Diamond SS2410 is a rebaded MU9C1880 DAC, I was able to find the datasheet.

From the datasheet, I found that it actually is a current drain called IREF, rather than a voltage reference, and that it would typically connect to a regulator with a resistor across it's pins. I found the regulator hiding behind the VGA plug, and looked at the resistors nearby. Measuring the resistor behind the regulator resulted in a very high resistance. Not convinced at first that this was the problem, I decided to touch up the solder in case it was just a cracked pad. However, when touching up the solder the resistor fell apart, signalling that it might have been the problem.

To test this, I plugged it back in, and sure enough, the picture was still way dark.

Next step was to find what size the resistor was meant to be - 1820 seemed to be the code on the original from photos I could find online. That is 182 ohm.

To replace the broken resistor, I started testing out resistors on an old winmodem card with similarish size resistors. I found and started out with a 1k ohm resistor ... not too low, didn't want to cook anything incase I was wrong about the original's markings. It seemed a bit brighter when I plugged it in, but not really much difference. But there was no fire or bright sparks, so onward I went. After accidentally putting a 1.5k ohm resistor in I thought was 250 ohm, I found what I was after, a 180 ohm resistor. So I took it off the old winmodem and soldered it onto the Diamond Stealth 24 ISA card.

Now with a pretty close to correct resistor in (177ohm, within typical spec) place, the display output has been restored to pretty much correct brightness. No longer are whites a dark, muddy grey!

Admittedly, it is a pretty bodge install of that resistor ... but I don't have a hot air gun to even it out and don't really want to mess around with the pads too much otherwise it far too easy to start lifting them or start destroying the components!

Now to chase down the ebay seller for selling a junky card to me saying it worked perfectly!

Rebuilt 90% of a PCChips M577 mobo. Had missing caps, coils, RTC coin holder, missing AT P8+P9 connector, floppy and LPT headers.
Sadly no dice:

- ATX power doesn't work (won't turn on)
- AT power works but no POST
- CPU heats up (P233MMX)

If anyone has any ideas what to do next, please tell me.

PcBytes wrote on 2020-07-05, 17:40:

Rebuilt 90% of a PCChips M577 mobo. Had missing caps, coils, RTC coin holder, missing AT P8+P9 connector, floppy and LPT headers […]
Show full quote

Rebuilt 90% of a PCChips M577 mobo. Had missing caps, coils, RTC coin holder, missing AT P8+P9 connector, floppy and LPT headers.
Sadly no dice:

- ATX power doesn't work (won't turn on)
- AT power works but no POST
- CPU heats up (P233MMX)

If anyone has any ideas what to do next, please tell me.

Get a POST diagnostic card and see what it points to .

had some black scuffs on both sides of my dell xps m233s.
some magic eraser got most of them off. probably could have done better but, my arm got tired.

That case cleaned up beautifully and it doesn't look like it's yellowed at all. I've always liked the looks of those Dell XPS cases.

About cleaning those cases, beside the chemical classic UV treatment, are there any fast and easier things to make them just a bit brighter/cleaned, I don't say like new but at least removing the "darker" shades of white/yellow. In past I had good results with the usual oxigened water and sunlight but I'd need a lot of it to put into something outside and waiting. Any faster cleaning things?

Tested a Compaq LTE 5150 (P100-16MB ram-1MB VGA) and found it fully functional, apart from the battery which is, understandably, dead. Fairly snappy machine under Win95, no lock-ups and quite a good screen. I'm not into laptops, but this one might just stay.

Drilled through an RTC Dallas-like module, tomorrow I'll slap the battery holder on to it and hopefully it will revive my OptiALI 1451-based Socket 4 P60.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-07-05, 19:07:

That case cleaned up beautifully and it doesn't look like it's yellowed at all. I've always liked the looks of those Dell XPS cases.

after looking at the photos i posted, it occured to me that i have a brand new mitsumi floppy drive with a better beige than the alps floppy drive that was installed.
perfect match.

canthearu wrote on 2020-07-05, 11:01:

I received my Stealth 24 ISA video card a few days back. […]
Show full quote

I received my Stealth 24 ISA video card a few days back.

Was very disappointed in the display output originally .... very dark.

After much research, I deduced that the RAMDAC wasn't getting the correct reference for creating the RGB signals. Generic comments on the internet suggested it was a voltage reference, but after working out that my RAMDAC - Diamond SS2410 is a rebaded MU9C1880 DAC, I was able to find the datasheet.

From the datasheet, I found that it actually is a current drain called IREF, rather than a voltage reference, and that it would typically connect to a regulator with a resistor across it's pins. I found the regulator hiding behind the VGA plug, and looked at the resistors nearby. Measuring the resistor behind the regulator resulted in a very high resistance. Not convinced at first that this was the problem, I decided to touch up the solder in case it was just a cracked pad. However, when touching up the solder the resistor fell apart, signalling that it might have been the problem.

To test this, I plugged it back in, and sure enough, the picture was still way dark.

Next step was to find what size the resistor was meant to be - 1820 seemed to be the code on the original from photos I could find online. That is 182 ohm.

To replace the broken resistor, I started testing out resistors on an old winmodem card with similarish size resistors. I found and started out with a 1k ohm resistor ... not too low, didn't want to cook anything incase I was wrong about the original's markings. It seemed a bit brighter when I plugged it in, but not really much difference. But there was no fire or bright sparks, so onward I went. After accidentally putting a 1.5k ohm resistor in I thought was 250 ohm, I found what I was after, a 180 ohm resistor. So I took it off the old winmodem and soldered it onto the Diamond Stealth 24 ISA card.

Now with a pretty close to correct resistor in (177ohm, within typical spec) place, the display output has been restored to pretty much correct brightness. No longer are whites a dark, muddy grey!

s3diamond.jpg

Admittedly, it is a pretty bodge install of that resistor ... but I don't have a hot air gun to even it out and don't really want to mess around with the pads too much otherwise it far too easy to start lifting them or start destroying the components!

Now to chase down the ebay seller for selling a junky card to me saying it worked perfectly!

Great story. Somewhat recognizable with a Geforce256 I had, thus without luck. The card was missing some SMD capacitors around a memory chip and was giving artifacts, memory-like. Soldered some caps from a donor speedstar, but no avail...

wirerogue wrote on 2020-07-05, 20:32:

after looking at the photos i posted, it occured to me that i have a brand new mitsumi floppy drive with a better beige than the […]
Show full quote

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-07-05, 19:07:

That case cleaned up beautifully and it doesn't look like it's yellowed at all. I've always liked the looks of those Dell XPS cases.

after looking at the photos i posted, it occured to me that i have a brand new mitsumi floppy drive with a better beige than the alps floppy drive that was installed.
perfect match.
dell.xps.m233s.jpg

That drive really is a perfect match nice.

darry wrote on 2020-07-05, 17:49:

PcBytes wrote on 2020-07-05, 17:40:

Rebuilt 90% of a PCChips M577 mobo. Had missing caps, coils, RTC coin holder, missing AT P8+P9 connector, floppy and LPT headers […]
Show full quote

Rebuilt 90% of a PCChips M577 mobo. Had missing caps, coils, RTC coin holder, missing AT P8+P9 connector, floppy and LPT headers.
Sadly no dice:

- ATX power doesn't work (won't turn on)
- AT power works but no POST
- CPU heats up (P233MMX)

If anyone has any ideas what to do next, please tell me.

Get a POST diagnostic card and see what it points to .

And try a lessor cpu like Pentium CPU like P-100. With it missing all those parts would guess the original owner robbed it because it had issues and the parts were worth more to fix a different board than fixing that board.

flupke11 wrote on 2020-07-05, 20:08:

Drilled through an RTC Dallas-like module, tomorrow I'll slap the battery holder on to it and hopefully it will revive my OptiALI 1451-based Socket 4 P60.

Hope it works ok ! I always like "fixing" Dallas type RTC's with dead batteries. Very effective when done properly.

After playing a lot of Dark Forces II these last few days (Currently in level 19), today I decided to try again the original Dark Forces. I had it back in the day, but I remember the control was not awesome. I installed the GOG one (because somehow I no longer have my original CD) and tried it. Sure, I remembered correctly, the controls are not that good. I checked on the internet, and found that someone has recently made an open source utility ( ctpax-cheater.losthost.org/htmldocs/trouble.htm#df ) to patch the dark forces binary file to add some nice features, like mouselook, improved mouse sensitivity, etc. So, after getting the patch, and applying it to the game, it works beautifully. Now the control is very nice, with mouselook support that rivals the best ones available. Hopefully I will be completing this nice game soon.

Horun - I've tried a P-150 (had that from a long dead Soyo 5TF) , a Cyrix 6x86 non-MMX and still, nada.

What's interesting though is that I measured my caps, coils and regulators. I get all corresponding voltages on regulators and caps (2.8v and 3.3v, former was the MMX CPU VCore and the latter is the SDRAM voltage) but almost nothing on both coils - the highest voltage I've got on them was 0.75, way too low for any CPU related stuff.

I've had boards that had harvested MOSFETs come back to life (Azza PT-5VMD) so this isn't a problem for me. That's why I'm not stopping until I can get this M577 to POST.

Fixed my PVM's BNC video issue using a capacitor, some 22 AWG wire, alligator clips, and a reflow of the solder on the transistor and diode SMTs. Tested it with my Commodore 64 and it got a picture, but my Sony DCR-TRV260 wasn't working with the A/V cable it came with it, but I believe it's because the cable is either having issues or the jack is not working well on the camcorder. However, with the S-video to Composite (or vice versa) adapter works with it and both the camera and Commodore 64 displays a picture. I then connected the wire for the video lead to the BNC in jack, minus the capacitor, and it works.

On one of the Discord servers I go onto in a regular basis, one person pointed out that it could be either bad components or a DC offset and the DC offset must've been the issue this whole time (seller on eBay 4 years ago said it was working, then it stopped, so I bought it for half the price it was originally selling for and didn't bother with it). Also sprayed in some DeoxIt D5 and reflowed the BNC jack as well to play it safe (when I reflowed the diode and transistor that connects to the video jack).

My next step is to do an RGB mod on that unit so that I can connect my Genesis Model 1, SNES, PS1, and/or PS2 to the set, but it'll be complicated and I need to look at the schematics of the PVM's logic board to find the right traces and other items for the signaling for RGB and which ICs to solder to.

Installed Need for Speed: Porche Unleashed to my Pentium MMX 266MHz.
I have a bit overkill, GeForce 2 MX 400 PCI in it and the experience is interesting.

The more details i set it to have, the worse the performance. But screen resolution doesn't affect performance at all.
Obviously this computer is heavily CPU bottlenecked. 😜

I finally retired an old Lenovo Windows XP laptop I was holding on to because it handled writing images to USB Floppy and the drivers for my EFA Linker 512Mb properly. I set up a VirtualBox Windows XP Mode and set up the proper USB filters, so I can now do all of this from my Ryzen 2600 PC. So good.

Still fighting with my VLB IO controller. I think I finally have the beast tamed to where it's not forgetting my HDD every game launch.

Looks like it's jumpers where originally set for 50mhz bus speed. Changing that to 30mhz and one other jumper (1F0/170 to just 1F0 something like that? I forget already!) I *think* has tamed the beast.

I think... hopefully...

SodaSuccubus wrote on 2020-07-06, 20:44:

Still fighting with my VLB IO controller. I think I finally have the beast tamed to where it's not forgetting my HDD every game launch.

Looks like it's jumpers where originally set for 50mhz bus speed. Changing that to 30mhz and one other jumper (1F0/170 to just 1F0 something like that? I forget already!) I *think* has tamed the beast.

I think... hopefully...

1FO/170 are I/O addresses:

• 1FOh: primary IDE controller
• 170h: secondary IDE controller

So that jumper either sets the address of the IDE controller to primary/secondary (if the card only has one IDE connector) or enables/disables the secondary IDE controller (if the card has 2 IDE connectors).