GigAHerZ wrote on 2022-05-25, 14:18:

As i just got the Infinity Multipro-9000 machine fully cleaned up and working, i took out the next "disaster" from the cellar. This time a known brand machine. 😀

If i remember correctly, many years ago, when i got it, the PSU did start, but nothing came out from the machine itself - was completely dead.
Wish me luck on bringing this machine to life! 😀

That case came out pretty nice. It has few botches of pen ink or something on it, but otherwise no rust at all. I was quite afraid that the brown dots it had, were rust. But thankfully it's all good.
Now let's hope i get the insides also working. 😀

That's the computer from my childhood! It's so nice to see it again. 😀

I got a 120GB IDE HDD for THIS so I can dualboot Windows 98 SE and XP. My first time attempting to dual boot these. At first nothing wanted to work with the drive. The Windows 98 installer failed, the Windows 2000 installer failed, Partition Magic failed. Then I added it as a secondary disk, initialized it and made a 40GB and a 72GB partition. HDSentinel detected is as having a 100/100 condition. Then both OS installed without issue (other than for some reason the HDD was disabled in the BIOS and I didn't know why it didn't want to boot from there).

Edit:
Btw. the new optical drive works well with the case:

I also ended up replacing the floppy drive, since it didn't read. I'll check later if cleaning the heads helps.

A work in progress, the damaged PCB could make for some cool wall art in future. 😀
This was soundcard #1 back in the day. These days I already have an SB 2.0 clone, but these things are getting a bit rare now and it's a fun challenge.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2022-06-03, 02:48:

A work in progress, the damaged PCB could make for some cool wall art in future. 😀
This was soundcard #1 back in the day. These days I already have an SB 2.0 clone, but these things are getting a bit rare now and it's a fun challenge.

Wait, what? You actually desoldered everything from the board? To move them onto a clone board?

Was the original board damaged somehow?

appiah4 wrote on 2022-06-03, 05:59:

Thermalwrong wrote on 2022-06-03, 02:48:

A work in progress, the damaged PCB could make for some cool wall art in future. 😀
This was soundcard #1 back in the day. These days I already have an SB 2.0 clone, but these things are getting a bit rare now and it's a fun challenge.

Wait, what? You actually desoldered everything from the board? To move them onto a clone board?

Was the original board damaged somehow?

Missing the ISA slot. Was chopped off by some asshole gold scrapper.

canthearu wrote on 2022-06-03, 11:46:

appiah4 wrote on 2022-06-03, 05:59:

Thermalwrong wrote on 2022-06-03, 02:48:

A work in progress, the damaged PCB could make for some cool wall art in future. 😀
This was soundcard #1 back in the day. These days I already have an SB 2.0 clone, but these things are getting a bit rare now and it's a fun challenge.

Wait, what? You actually desoldered everything from the board? To move them onto a clone board?

Was the original board damaged somehow?

Missing the ISA slot. Was chopped off by some asshole gold scrapper.

I just notices. How barbaric. Why? For gold? The card would sell for more than its gold scrap value..

Thermalwrong wrote on 2022-06-03, 02:48:

A work in progress, the damaged PCB could make for some cool wall art in future. 😀
This was soundcard #1 back in the day. These days I already have an SB 2.0 clone, but these things are getting a bit rare now and it's a fun challenge.

My eyes hurt. 🙁
Not even worth trying, too much time and effort.

Finally got around to properly aestheticizing Windows 3.1 on the Tandy 1000 RLX setup (oh, boy). Despite an 800x600x16 video chipset constraint, the error-diffused, 8-color wallpaper produces a decent illusory effect of greater color depth.

Nexxen wrote on 2022-06-03, 12:10:

Thermalwrong wrote on 2022-06-03, 02:48:

A work in progress, the damaged PCB could make for some cool wall art in future. 😀
This was soundcard #1 back in the day. These days I already have an SB 2.0 clone, but these things are getting a bit rare now and it's a fun challenge.

My eyes hurt. 🙁
Not even worth trying, too much time and effort.

Nah, it's worth it to me 😀 It also gave a good reason to use the Quick 861DA hot air station and in the end, it should result in a PCB design that others can use to repair the CT1350B PCBs

appiah4 wrote on 2022-06-03, 12:02:

I just notices. How barbaric. Why? For gold? The card would sell for more than its gold scrap value..

I'm not sure I've seen an example of gold scrappers (perhaps not copper) where the cost to extract the material plus the cost of the material was lower than the return.

I did the math on some auctions out of curiosity and the auction alone was more than the value of the gold estimated to be in the lots.

I think maybe a lot of the people that publicize the idea get free parts and basically free energy for melting down (not to mention they shovel the waste products into a hole and pretend they legitimately disposed of it).

Also some of the sales are probably like the people who sell their old bitmining rigs when they can no longer make enough to exceed the cost of the electricity.

+ world's a big place, with a lot of (by our standards) incredibly-low income people. Those of us who gather here at luxury hobby forums like Vogons are likely mostly in the top 1% of the world's wealth. Most of the rest of humanity isn't so privileged that they can afford to 'mourn' the loss of a niche luxury computer card from 3 decades ago, VS a day's food on the table for the family.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2022-06-04, 03:27:

Nexxen wrote on 2022-06-03, 12:10:

Thermalwrong wrote on 2022-06-03, 02:48:

A work in progress, the damaged PCB could make for some cool wall art in future. 😀
This was soundcard #1 back in the day. These days I already have an SB 2.0 clone, but these things are getting a bit rare now and it's a fun challenge.

My eyes hurt. 🙁
Not even worth trying, too much time and effort.

Nah, it's worth it to me 😀 It also gave a good reason to use the Quick 861DA hot air station and in the end, it should result in a PCB design that others can use to repair the CT1350B PCBs

You got it wrong because I wrote it badly, I meant repairing the ISA slot. Too damaged to make the effort.
Salvaging components is the only thing to do.

I've seen other posts with cards damaged for gold recovery. As a collector it always hurts...

Cloudschatze wrote on 2022-06-04, 00:59:

Finally got around to properly aestheticizing Windows 3.1 on the Tandy 1000 RLX setup (oh, boy). Despite an 800x600x16 video ch […]
Show full quote

Finally got around to properly aestheticizing Windows 3.1 on the Tandy 1000 RLX setup (oh, boy). Despite an 800x600x16 video chipset constraint, the error-diffused, 8-color wallpaper produces a decent illusory effect of greater color depth.

These definitely look nice! I couldn't even tell the true color depth till you mentioned it 😋
My personal favorite would be the first one. It seems almost as if it's somewhat holographic or something 😜

appiah4 wrote on 2022-06-03, 12:02:

I just notices. How barbaric. Why? For gold? The card would sell for more than its gold scrap value..

Most scrappers don't think that far.
When they see gold, their brain kinda shuts down. Would have taken a minute to research the value of this piece. 100 bucks wasted.

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-06-04, 18:20:

appiah4 wrote on 2022-06-03, 12:02:

I just notices. How barbaric. Why? For gold? The card would sell for more than its gold scrap value..

Most scrappers don't think that far.
When they see gold, their brain kinda shuts down. Would have taken a minute to research the value of this piece. 100 bucks wasted.

Indeed, a valuable sound card that didn't deserve such fate.

I completely fixed a ThinkPad A30p. It had some broken fuses on the mainboard because of a mangled USB connector and a loose connection on the LCD that went to the CCFL.

I replaced the USB connector with hot air and replaced the fuses and now it works flawlessly. 🥰

schmatzler wrote on 2022-06-04, 21:06:

I completely fixed a ThinkPad A30p. It had some broken fuses on the mainboard because of a mangled USB connector and a loose connection on the LCD that went to the CCFL.

I replaced the USB connector with hot air and replaced the fuses and now it works flawlessly. 🥰

That is awesome!

I love hearing people resurrect hardware with simple problems that others would simply toss!

appiah4 wrote on 2022-06-03, 12:02:

canthearu wrote on 2022-06-03, 11:46:

appiah4 wrote on 2022-06-03, 05:59:

Wait, what? You actually desoldered everything from the board? To move them onto a clone board?

Was the original board damaged somehow?

Missing the ISA slot. Was chopped off by some asshole gold scrapper.

I just notices. How barbaric. Why? For gold? The card would sell for more than its gold scrap value..

That is what the dummies at recycle yards do. Probably about 0.1gram of gold at best, at $1800+/- Troy Ounce be about $6... probably more like $3 after using a natural gas or electric kiln to melt it down ;p
edit Actually probably much less. Gold top Pentium Pro's have about 0.2-0.3g gold which is many times more than the old gold plated fingers.....

AKA 1-2 days of the average wage for literally billions of the world's people.

Frankly that's a lot more of a tragedy as far as I'm concerned. Rather than complaining about how somebody is so desperate that they need to suckle off the dregs (or goldfingers) of luxury society's leavings.