Hello.
Here i will post my newest addition to my collection.
The motherboard seems to be identified as "4SGS-3VL".
An old 486 socket 3 motherboard, that needs repairs and troubleshooting.
Bought online, and it's quite obvious that something is quite wrong with it.
The motherboard is a generic socket 3 motherboard, but that has a CR-2032 holder for the CMOS battery, the problem is that seems someone had tried to solder a Ni-Cd rechargeable barrel battery, and the battery has leaked.
The person that made the modification, didn't check that there was no circuitry to recharge the battery, there's no resistor nor diode to the + battery pole.
There's rust in some points, but in good condition otherwise.
JP-17 is broken, and i have no idea what it does.
From the jumpers, it seems that originally this motherboard housed a 486DX2-50.
The motherboard seems to have received bad repairs, as there's a loose capacitor soldered near the CPU that is about to fall, and the traces near it seem damaged by a unexpert handiwork.
Also the barrel battery has clearly been added later by the same hand only to be removed later, as there are huge solder points where the barrel battery used to be.
The trace under the battery was completely green, but cleaning with vinegar and alcohol show that the damage isn't bad as i thought, as the trace seem to be still there under the gunk.
Cleaning isn't done yet, but is looking way much better than at the start.

Hezus wrote on 2023-03-19, 10:23:

And even better: A Philips 107T4 CRT with a nice flat screen. Awesome picture quality. https://i.imgur.com/Tk0pO05.jpg […]
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And even better: A Philips 107T4 CRT with a nice flat screen. Awesome picture quality.

Really wonder if there's a difference between the T4 and P4. I have a similar one that reads 107P4.

PcBytes wrote on 2023-03-19, 18:56:

Hezus wrote on 2023-03-19, 10:23:

And even better: A Philips 107T4 CRT with a nice flat screen. Awesome picture quality. https://i.imgur.com/Tk0pO05.jpg […]
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And even better: A Philips 107T4 CRT with a nice flat screen. Awesome picture quality.

Really wonder if there's a difference between the T4 and P4. I have a similar one that reads 107P4.

Could just be slightly different specs, as in different max refresh rate, bandwidth, Hs, Vs.
Good luck in finding that out 😀

Is it young enough to be in the era of large chain store special purchases, where they'd get a deal from the manufacturer on a large order with a slightly different model number so their regular channels wouldn't have to price match?

PcBytes wrote on 2023-03-19, 18:56:

Hezus wrote on 2023-03-19, 10:23:

And even better: A Philips 107T4 CRT with a nice flat screen. Awesome picture quality. https://i.imgur.com/Tk0pO05.jpg […]
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And even better: A Philips 107T4 CRT with a nice flat screen. Awesome picture quality.

Really wonder if there's a difference between the T4 and P4. I have a similar one that reads 107P4.

I own 107 S too, so there were quite a bunch of variants, it seems. There might be manuals explaining the different specs.

Hezus wrote on 2023-03-19, 10:23:

Didn't really find this in the trash but it seems it fits this topic. […]
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Didn't really find this in the trash but it seems it fits this topic.

I was looking for a small LCD screen that would be handy to use when testing old hardware because lugging CRTs around isn't very practical. I found this online ad where someone was giving away this small BenQ monitor (FP731) for free, which just seemed perfect for my use case. It was closeby, so I got into the car and drove over.

When I arrived, this wasn't a residential home but an old office building. Apparently they were clearing it out and there was way more hidden in the back of the office.

For instance, three Dell 1701fp monitors. I've briefly tested them but the image quality is so terrible that I'm probably going to trash them. One of them doesn't even show any image anymore, the other one's VGA port is bust and only shows DVI.

But then the good stuff came! This Tulip branded 17" inch CRT for instance, which worked just fine.

And even better: A Philips 107T4 CRT with a nice flat screen. Awesome picture quality.

Lastly, this awesome NEC MultiSync FE700+ flatscreen CRT. Very nice screen. Also cool to have it in black, since all my other CRTs are beige.

I also got a bunch of PS2 keyboards and mice, plus some VGA and power cables.

So overall a great haul! The guy said he would otherwise have it all thrown out and/or recycled, so I saved a bunch of great hardware 😀

Hell of a surprise haul. Lucky you didn't ride a bicycle there.

That NEC MultiSync FE700+ looks fantastic. Also, what's wrong with the Dell monitors that even the DVI signal is bad? Is the panel old or the CFL bulb going bad?

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-19, 21:19:

That NEC MultiSync FE700+ looks fantastic. Also, what's wrong with the Dell monitors that even the DVI signal is bad? Is the panel old or the CFL bulb going bad?

Not sure, but the image is wobbly and there are artifacts around the edges of explorer windows. These were made in 2001, a time in which there were so many cheap panels. I guess it's just worn out. Good thing I didn't really care about those screens in the first place. Even when new the image quality would have been mediocre and they are quite bulky for LCD panels.

My latest finds:
- Dell mainboard with 486 CPU and a stange cache upgrade
- Truevision Targa+ capture? board
- 2x NE1000 Ethernet boards
- Netware 3.12 disks set looking complete
- Dell branded DOS5 and Windows 3.1 disks set
- HP-IL mouse looking unused
some weeks ago allready
- Atlon X2 computer with bulging electrolytics, HDD and side panel missing
- XP home CD still stuck in the drive
- Philips widescreen monitor VGA with only

eisapc wrote on 2023-03-20, 11:39:

- Dell mainboard with 486 CPU and a stange cache upgrade

What? Like "piggy back chips" ?

That's an incredible photo. Is there any more history behind it?

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-20, 15:06:

That's an incredible photo. Is there any more history behind it?

Back in the day with some old 8 bit systems, you could expand the system ram by soldering more chips on top of the existing chips

That picture is from an atari 400.
https://forums.atariage.com/topic/220105-expa … -piggy-backing/

People used to do it on the Radioshack Color Computer too.

That's very interesting. I guess because various pins had to go elsewhere, it was easier to piggyback them and bend the pins outward for easy access. Although I suspect he could have done the same by bending those pins upwards, out of the through holes.

Isn't a proper piggyback done by matching all the pins, or does this still count? It feels more like a "piggyhack" than what I've read about before.

The buses all use the same pins but the chip select and addressing go to different places. On some 8 bits, crippled chips were used for economy in that half the chip was unused due to die errors, so twice the apparent capacity was installed. Thus in some of those instances, a full chip soldered on top would double the memory, where it wasn't wanted to risk the board by depopulating the originals, and the patch wires may have been applied elsewhere, under PCB maybe.

Went to a larger recycling center today. Unlike the other e-waste I frequented that had PCB in different baskets (MB, video, audio, NIC), this place had all types of PCB piled up in two bulk bags, with sizes of about 2 cubic meters each.

There were many old and interesting cards, including 8-bit floppy controllers, ET4000, SiS 6326 (I had never seen an independent physical card using SiS 6326 until today), Chinese font cards, etc. A big problem of those bulk bags was that digging more than the top surface would be extremely troublesome. 🙁

In the end I took only a PATA DVD-ROM with 2-pin digital audio out, along with a photographic light stand in its carrying bag, for NT$100 (US$3.27). Maybe I'll bring a pair of thick working gloves next time.

dormcat wrote on 2023-03-20, 20:29:

Went to a larger recycling center today. Unlike the other e-waste I frequented that had PCB in different baskets (MB, video, aud […]
Show full quote

Went to a larger recycling center today. Unlike the other e-waste I frequented that had PCB in different baskets (MB, video, audio, NIC), this place had all types of PCB piled up in two bulk bags, with sizes of about 2 cubic meters each.

pile_of_cards.jpg

There were many old and interesting cards, including 8-bit floppy controllers, ET4000, SiS 6326 (I had never seen an independent physical card using SiS 6326 until today), Chinese font cards, etc. A big problem of those bulk bags was that digging more than the top surface would be extremely troublesome. 🙁

In the end I took only a PATA DVD-ROM with 2-pin digital audio out, along with a photographic light stand in its carrying bag, for NT$100 (US$3.27). Maybe I'll bring a pair of thick working gloves next time.

it would take some time to go through all that, though you seem to seen quite a few things!

just think - every board will have a schematic, documentation, would have taken thinking through, prototyping and testing (even if some just in cad), a testament to electronics and all the learning that was needed to make it possible - it's really a pile of human genius!

I recently got this from Grid Choice:

https://gridchoice.com/shop/other/8599-used-c … asm-310156.html

It's a "International Memories Incorporated" hard drive servo controller. To me it's a ready built Z-80. 😀

douglar wrote on 2023-03-20, 14:27:

eisapc wrote on 2023-03-20, 11:39:

- Dell mainboard with 486 CPU and a stange cache upgrade

What? Like "piggy back chips" ?

post-4709-0-98722500-1388044540.jpg

No, different,
is has a PCI like connector with an ISA style expansion.

These kind of hardwiring I know from vorious IBM PS/2 boards and cards, but not as extensinsive as on your photo.

I want to order (save) Job-lot of around 700 cpu's from scrapper , but have little funds , don't know what to do.
I live in Estrn' Europe so I could ship around EU if need-bee(*and I can short-test sk4(maybe5)/7,skA,478,lga771/775/754/AM2/LGA1155 and most of older laptop stuff)
but should I invest or no in such a thing. I don't know... Any suggestions? The spring Macintosh failed , 2 mbp mb-s had oxidation probably from w/damages so not sure if it's fixable.

(photo of the supposed lot - not sure of the autenticity of photo).

ediflorianUS wrote on 2023-03-21, 09:20:

I want to order (save) Job-lot of around 700 cpu's from scrapper , but have little funds , don't know what to do. I live in Estr […]
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I want to order (save) Job-lot of around 700 cpu's from scrapper , but have little funds , don't know what to do.
I live in Estrn' Europe so I could ship around EU if need-bee(*and I can short-test sk4(maybe5)/7,skA,478,lga771/775/754/AM2/LGA1155 and most of older laptop stuff)
but should I invest or no in such a thing. I don't know... Any suggestions? The spring Macintosh failed , 2 mbp mb-s had oxidation probably from w/damages so not sure if it's fixable.

(photo of the supposed lot - not sure of the autenticity of photo).

Doubt it's worth the risk.
I'm currently selling off spare CPU's, all middle of the road mostly S478 or above. You know the CPU's that come with a bit of hardware and first thing you do is upgrade the CPU because it's cheap.
I've a matched Pair Xeon SLAG9 CPU's that haven't sold in months with only a £1 starting price.
I was surprised the I managed to sell a matched pair of Xeon 2400's for £10.
Checking prices for a lower speed S478 shows people selling them for cheaper then could post the item even if free.