Munx wrote:

Noticed what could be causing my V3 3000 to artifact […]
Show full quote

Noticed what could be causing my V3 3000 to artifact

P_20171206_183421[1].jpg

Gave it a vinegar treatment and then a gentle scrub with soda. Still artifacting. I believe the corrosion might have eaten away at the solder enough to not make good contact.

So afterwards I proceeded to give the contacts some taps with my soldering iron, however the solder refuses to soften up (I tried it on a different chip and it melted really quick). The contacts still have that white-grey rough surface from the vinegar treatment, despite the scrubbing.
Is there a good way to clean it so my soldering iron can do the job? Should I continue scrubbing?

Use Deoxit on it. That'll get rid of the crap that's on there.

Munx wrote:

Noticed what could be causing my V3 3000 to artifact […]
Show full quote

Noticed what could be causing my V3 3000 to artifact

P_20171206_183421[1].jpg

Gave it a vinegar treatment and then a gentle scrub with soda. Still artifacting. I believe the corrosion might have eaten away at the solder enough to not make good contact.

So afterwards I proceeded to give the contacts some taps with my soldering iron, however the solder refuses to soften up (I tried it on a different chip and it melted really quick). The contacts still have that white-grey rough surface from the vinegar treatment, despite the scrubbing.
Is there a good way to clean it so my soldering iron can do the job? Should I continue scrubbing?

Is there also a component missing at U14/C100?

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Is there also a component missing at U14/C100?

It doesn't look like there was anything there to begin with. I googled some V3's and it seems to be empty on all models.

bjwil1991 wrote:

Use Deoxit on it. That'll get rid of the crap that's on there.

Thanks. Will be doing a big shopping run with weekend so I'll be on the lookout for that or something similar.

Munx wrote:

It doesn't look like there was anything there to begin with. I googled some V3's and it seems to be empty on all models. […]
Show full quote

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Is there also a component missing at U14/C100?

It doesn't look like there was anything there to begin with. I googled some V3's and it seems to be empty on all models.

bjwil1991 wrote:

Use Deoxit on it. That'll get rid of the crap that's on there.

Thanks. Will be doing a big shopping run with weekend so I'll be on the lookout for that or something similar.

Speaking of Deoxit, the only store by me that had it was Radioshack, but one-by-one, they all closed down (sadly), and didn't have any. Same with the desoldering iron as well. Was about to get both online, but prices were ridiculous and overseas. However, the computer store (only one I go to for parts) that I go to sells Deoxit and desoldering stuff (after many years of searching) for good prices.

bjwil1991 wrote:

Munx wrote:

It doesn't look like there was anything there to begin with. I googled some V3's and it seems to be empty on all models. […]
Show full quote

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Is there also a component missing at U14/C100?

It doesn't look like there was anything there to begin with. I googled some V3's and it seems to be empty on all models.

bjwil1991 wrote:

Use Deoxit on it. That'll get rid of the crap that's on there.

Thanks. Will be doing a big shopping run with weekend so I'll be on the lookout for that or something similar.

Speaking of Deoxit, the only store by me that had it was Radioshack, but one-by-one, they all closed down (sadly), and didn't have any. Same with the desoldering iron as well. Was about to get both online, but prices were ridiculous and overseas. However, the computer store (only one I go to for parts) that I go to sells Deoxit and desoldering stuff (after many years of searching) for good prices.

If I can't get that I can always try a different brand. Deoxidizing cleaners don't sound like an obscure product.

I played Crysis on a Northwood Celeron overclocked to 3.357ghz. It's playable but not very enjoyable.

Munx wrote:

Noticed what could be causing my V3 3000 to artifact […]
Show full quote

Noticed what could be causing my V3 3000 to artifact

Gave it a vinegar treatment and then a gentle scrub with soda. Still artifacting. I believe the corrosion might have eaten away at the solder enough to not make good contact.

So afterwards I proceeded to give the contacts some taps with my soldering iron, however the solder refuses to soften up (I tried it on a different chip and it melted really quick). The contacts still have that white-grey rough surface from the vinegar treatment, despite the scrubbing.
Is there a good way to clean it so my soldering iron can do the job? Should I continue scrubbing?

It looks like that traces around U14 are gone, vias might be gone too 🤣

Been trying to fix a TRS 80 Model 4P I got recently, does anyone know why this disk drive would be doing this?

https://youtu.be/lN_5jQq3UfM

cj_reha wrote:

Been trying to fix a TRS 80 Model 4P I got recently, does anyone know why this disk drive would be doing this?

https://youtu.be/lN_5jQq3UfM

Head alignment? Have you opened it up and looked to see how dirty the drives are. May need to clean the heads and possibly realign them. Many articles out there of how to do it. I am running into similar issues with a Kaypro 4 CPM machine. The drives need lubricating and cleaning with some head realignment as well. Old floppy drives can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, but part of the fun... right?

I just finished to upgrade the graphics card in my Pentium 4.
From NVDIA GeForce 6200 AGP to NVIDA GeForce 7950GT.

I have been playing for 4 hours, to test it of course 😀 , with Doom III and Quake IV, both of them in Ultra Quality. Impressive. Is the first time that I can play these games smoothly.But the gameplay... I prefer classic Doom.

In any case with this graphics card I have a wide range of games to play.

After this installation I put in order all the wires, and this is the result:

Is not the best, but it seems clean and efficient.

And here a detail of CPU zone

I've spent the past two days experimenting on using my recently acquired Yamaha Audician 32 along with my Sound Blaster 16 WavEffects (CT4170) card as an attempt to get genuine OPL3 + no hanging notes MIDI + SB16 compatibility in one system. It was a total b***h trying to get both cards to play nice without causing havoc on both DOS and the Plug 'n' Play configuration system to the point where I gave up and decided to settle for the Yamaha card alone which meant the SB16 went back to storage in its original box.

Even for the sake of Windows NT 3.51 compatibility, a dual-card setup was pointless because the Yamaha card has drivers that are compatible with both NT3.51 and NT4.0. I was mind-boggled by getting an Out of Memory error after installing the Windows 3.1x drivers until I found this old forum post which helped me solve this issue, the next thing I had to do was manually create a MIDI Mapper profile to get MIDI playback to work with Windows 3.11's Media Player so now that's good to go.

Sure, I may have sacrificed SB16 compatibility for DOS games but that's not a big deal because this P1 build will now be focused on DOS games where OPL3 support is more important than SB16 support, my Celeron/Win95 build will be used for games that benefit from SB16/AWE audio. Next up on the list is to rebuild the MS-DOS 6.22/WfW 3.11 + NT 3.51 dual-boot setup on the main hard drive and test the RTL8139 card on my Win95 build.

Anaxagoras wrote:

I just finished to upgrade the graphics card in my Pentium 4.
From NVDIA GeForce 6200 AGP to NVIDA GeForce 7950GT.

I would recommend reversing that case fan, so that it blows hot air out of the case. Right now it would likely be pulling some of the PSU's warm exhaust back into the case.

There are also two unhealthy-looking capacitors next to your CPU cooler (their tops are domed, and one looks to have leaked electrolyte).

oeuvre wrote:

Finally got a chance to test 6 5.25" floppies I ordered. All of them formatted correctly and I made 2 MS-DOS boot disks to test. Works fine!

I'm pretty sure I saw this same GX1 posted in the comment section on Jalopnik. 🤣

Some days ago I have ordered a 1GB PC133 ECC SDRAM stick. The seller told me that he wasn't sure the module would be compatible with my computer, but I told him that it is, since my motherboard uses a VIA Apollo Pro 133T chipset. The module is full-height, so it has two rows of chips per side.

After I told him that my chipset is compatible, but I need the module in order to check out if my motherboard actually supports 1GB modules (theoretically, it should since many people here on VOGONS have successfully upgraded their VIA-chipset S370 motherboards to 3GB or even 4GB of RAM), he told me he can put another stick in the envelope for free and ship me two as long as I don't return them. To me it's a good deal for the price I paid for the stick.

I've also ordered a third full height module, a Micron, but from another seller, so I can bring my P3 to 3GB, and I'm in the middle of the talks with a local seller to buy an ATI Radeon HD3850. He said he's going to let me know the shipping costs and then it will be mine.

Hopefully, I'm going to push my "retro daily driver" to the maximum with these upgrades, unless someday SSD prices will drop dramatically. 🤣

I replaced the PSU on the P3 tower from my previous pictures.

After some fettling, it all booted up. It's so loud..

The GPU is a Voodoo 3! I didn't have one in my collection, now I have.

The machine is running Windows XP.

The SCSI CD Drive (4x4x16) seems a bit of a faff, adding to the boot time, but the SCSI PCI Card had a full feature set with CD Boot and some good visuals and diganostics. (I shouldn't, but I'll probably be on eBay later looking for SCSI drives).

I took the second hard drive out and am now using that in my WinChip 180 machine.

Tasks for this weekend:-
Image those disks as requested
Get a mouse working on my WinChip Machine.. (CTMouse doesn't recognise a working mouse on a 9pin serial port)
Get all the personal bits of the P3 and 386 HDD and return to the previous owner as discussed at sale time
Get the idea of installing OS2 Warp on the WinChip machine out of my head (it will be heartache and time that I'll never get back)

Anaxagoras wrote:

I just finished to upgrade the graphics card in my Pentium 4. From NVDIA GeForce 6200 AGP to NVIDA GeForce 7950GT. […]
Show full quote

I just finished to upgrade the graphics card in my Pentium 4.
From NVDIA GeForce 6200 AGP to NVIDA GeForce 7950GT.

I have been playing for 4 hours, to test it of course 😀 , with Doom III and Quake IV, both of them in Ultra Quality. Impressive. Is the first time that I can play these games smoothly.But the gameplay... I prefer classic Doom.

In any case with this graphics card I have a wide range of games to play.

After this installation I put in order all the wires, and this is the result:

20171206_191411.jpg

Is not the best, but it seems clean and efficient.

And here a detail of CPU zone

20171206_184338.jpg

Where did you manage to find an AGP 7950GT? That's probably the rarest NVIDIA AGP card out there. My best is my BFG 7800GS OC AGP (which is also rare)

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Anaxagoras wrote:

I just finished to upgrade the graphics card in my Pentium 4. From NVDIA GeForce 6200 AGP to NVIDA GeForce 7950GT. […]
Show full quote

I just finished to upgrade the graphics card in my Pentium 4.
From NVDIA GeForce 6200 AGP to NVIDA GeForce 7950GT.

I have been playing for 4 hours, to test it of course 😀 , with Doom III and Quake IV, both of them in Ultra Quality. Impressive. Is the first time that I can play these games smoothly.But the gameplay... I prefer classic Doom.

In any case with this graphics card I have a wide range of games to play.

After this installation I put in order all the wires, and this is the result:

20171206_191411.jpg

Is not the best, but it seems clean and efficient.

And here a detail of CPU zone

20171206_184338.jpg

Where did you manage to find an AGP 7950GT? That's probably the rarest NVIDIA AGP card out there. My best is my BFG 7800GS OC AGP (which is also rare)

The first of all I have no much idea about graphics cards, indeed I think that my previous card (GeForce 6200) was the last Nvidia card for AGP, but not.
Recently I have been searching about this question and finally I understood that this graphics card was the last AGP from Nvidia.
Since this I created a search in eBay. No results found in weeks, sometimes with high prices. But all changed the past week when the search results show me this

The price is not cheap, but is the lowest I saw. In this case I did an exception. 😊

SW-SSG wrote:

Anaxagoras wrote:

I just finished to upgrade the graphics card in my Pentium 4.
From NVDIA GeForce 6200 AGP to NVIDA GeForce 7950GT.

I would recommend reversing that case fan, so that it blows hot air out of the case. Right now it would likely be pulling some of the PSU's warm exhaust back into the case.

There are also two unhealthy-looking capacitors next to your CPU cooler (their tops are domed, and one looks to have leaked electrolyte).

Thank you very much, you have a good eye!
Is not the first time that I placed fan inside out. 🙄
About the capacitors, bad news, I've found other in similar condition. But is very extrange, this computer is only 14 years old, is not time yet. 😢

Started putting this together today. Saw this M-ATX Cheiftec case on ebay and it looked perfect for the build i wanted to put together. It really is a compact case.

This is housing my K6 III+ Timemachine. I'll start a thread on it when i get a chance.

I'm waiting for this bad boy to arrive to fit into the above machine. New in box old stock

A CD rom changer, never knew those existed! Wonder if there is a DVD-ROM version too.