Just inspected it thoroughly. Unfortunately no missing or damaged components. One track looked suspicious until getting under the microscope - it was just fine. Cleaned slot contacts with IPA but still nothing. POST code card reads C4. Calling it ... 🙁

Ran fdisk /mbr on a 122MB HDD and Norton Disk Doctor to see if I can get it to restore. Eventually, the hard drive sprang to life, however, Norton Disk Doctor put files into DIR0000X directories and 17 _DD files that are mysterious, but I'm looking for a way to convert those files to the actual files they were since my Zenith laptop needs a particular software to get the LAN ID set once again.

You can also use a tool like GetDataBack Pro, to try and recover data from the FAT filesystem. This software has saved me many times in the past.

Fixed a dead MSI K7T Turbo2 motherboard which was missing the tinniest SMS capacitor I ever had to solder. Major pain to find the problem and even more painful to fix but it's working now.

Also added an ISA slot to the motherboard which is always nice to have for DOS games. And then it was time to transfer it from my workbench to a case I recently bought and always wanted to have (a Cooler Master Wave Master).

At first everything seems to work but then I saw that the ISA slot was not working (sound card was not detected anymore). As I thought it was a bad solder job I disassembled the motherboard from the case and tested it again on the workbench where it worked again. So after some more testing the motherboard with some other PSU's it seems it didn't like the Enermax Modu 82+ 625W PSU which was in the case. Before using it I checked, cleaned, and tested it and a everything seems alright (voltages were in range, no leaking, bloated caps etc).

Still a bit baffled why it didn't work with this PSU but will use another PSU for now. Fitted the replacement PSU with a new fan though as the old sleeve bearing fan was making too much noise even after cleaning and lubricating it.

After buying my Roland Sound Canvas SC-55ST, I was missing a pair of good speakers to really enjoy its sound quality. I decided to retrieve from my stock of old junk a Phillips FR731 Hi-Fi amplifier (50 W) and connected it to 2 x Pioneer full size speakers (under the table, not visible on the picture). The whole thing sounds amazing.

Still need to rearrange things because it looks very messy at the moment. The whole setup is made of stuff from 1994-2001.

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-04-27, 09:57:

You can also use a tool like GetDataBack Pro, to try and recover data from the FAT filesystem. This software has saved me many times in the past.

Well, that's the only problem. I don't have a system with an IDE bus and my main laptop and MacBook won't detect the drive for some reason.

Today I broke my garden hose valve. To stop the water from flowing I had to turn another valve located inside a closet in the house.

This closet is normally full of boxes but also (on the back, behind the mess) computer parts !

Since i was forced to remove everything to access the cutoff valve I sorted the mess and stored the retro parts on the front.

I'm sure there are parts inside I totally forgot I had. Can't wait to dig inside !

The commemorative Doom disk I won arrived today. Will take it out and display it when I have space to do that. Looks cool!

Yoghoo wrote on 2024-04-27, 12:09:

Fixed a dead MSI K7T Turbo2 motherboard which was missing the tinniest SMS capacitor I ever had to solder. Major pain to find th […]
Show full quote

Fixed a dead MSI K7T Turbo2 motherboard which was missing the tinniest SMS capacitor I ever had to solder. Major pain to find the problem and even more painful to fix but it's working now.

Also added an ISA slot to the motherboard which is always nice to have for DOS games. And then it was time to transfer it from my workbench to a case I recently bought and always wanted to have (a Cooler Master Wave Master).

At first everything seems to work but then I saw that the ISA slot was not working (sound card was not detected anymore). As I thought it was a bad solder job I disassembled the motherboard from the case and tested it again on the workbench where it worked again. So after some more testing the motherboard with some other PSU's it seems it didn't like the Enermax Modu 82+ 625W PSU which was in the case. Before using it I checked, cleaned, and tested it and a everything seems alright (voltages were in range, no leaking, bloated caps etc).

Still a bit baffled why it didn't work with this PSU but will use another PSU for now. Fitted the replacement PSU with a new fan though as the old sleeve bearing fan was making too much noise even after cleaning and lubricating it.

Nice work ! Some older boards (mostly in athlon or early p2/p3) do not like the newer ATX12v spec PSU's. Have run into it my self and keep a few older ATX12v 2.01 to 2.03 around for those picky boards that do not like 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 etc 😀
Checked the Enermax and it is a ATX12v 2.3. Which PSU does work ? curious so I can check it's spec to see if it is the spec version issue.

Swapped my Slot A build from a Lian Li PC-7 USB on the right, into a Lian Li PC-7 USB B2 on the left. The B2 is basically a second revision and gains a fan location in the roof, but trades the the larger HDD cage from the original for a smaller one, and loses two USB ports on the front. I'm trying not to have any duplicate Lian Li cases with builds in (which is getting tricky now I've got 9 of the things) so since I already have another system in a PC-7 USB, and I have the original box etc for this particular one, it can go in the loft for a while until I decide what to do with it.

I'm on my quest finding out good flexible babyAT mATX format motherboard with integrated graphics for DOS/Win3.1 box. So ASUS P5-99VM popped up on local auction suite. With optimal configuration (missing audio part - well noone cares about ES1371 sound in DOS) Fortunately no one else was interested so I got it for €10.
Well few caps were damaged, chipset heatsink and battery holder were missing. It turned out to be perfectly working motherboard. Biggest mechanical hurdle was to compensate broken center retaining clip holder for CPU heatsink. So I "MacGyverd" DIY contraption from paperclip 😀. Socket 7 CPUs do not need high pressure so it seems to be good enough after few days of testing.

Another disappointment was lack of out of the box K6+ mobile CPU support. Fortunately patched bios version exists. Biggest confusion was however with voltage jumpers. 2.0V which is "stock" voltage for "+" CPUs did not work. I measured VCORE CPU pin with multimeter and it showed 0v. 2.1V setting with K6-2+ 500 however turned out to be working just fine. No overheating. All in all I'm quite happy with MB.

PS! In case anyone is searching about Windows 3.1 iGPU support for this MB I'm happy to report that ASUS MES-VM SiS 620 VGA driver for Windows 3.1 v.1.02 works for this MB. It seems that SIS 620 and 530 iGPUs are very similar.

I am confused, that is not Baby AT it is mATX?

@appiah4 Yes you are correct - it's mATX

Horun wrote on 2024-04-28, 02:00:

Yoghoo wrote on 2024-04-27, 12:09:

Fixed a dead MSI K7T Turbo2 motherboard which was missing the tinniest SMS capacitor I ever had to solder. Major pain to find th […]
Show full quote

Fixed a dead MSI K7T Turbo2 motherboard which was missing the tinniest SMS capacitor I ever had to solder. Major pain to find the problem and even more painful to fix but it's working now.

Also added an ISA slot to the motherboard which is always nice to have for DOS games. And then it was time to transfer it from my workbench to a case I recently bought and always wanted to have (a Cooler Master Wave Master).

At first everything seems to work but then I saw that the ISA slot was not working (sound card was not detected anymore). As I thought it was a bad solder job I disassembled the motherboard from the case and tested it again on the workbench where it worked again. So after some more testing the motherboard with some other PSU's it seems it didn't like the Enermax Modu 82+ 625W PSU which was in the case. Before using it I checked, cleaned, and tested it and a everything seems alright (voltages were in range, no leaking, bloated caps etc).

Still a bit baffled why it didn't work with this PSU but will use another PSU for now. Fitted the replacement PSU with a new fan though as the old sleeve bearing fan was making too much noise even after cleaning and lubricating it.

Nice work ! Some older boards (mostly in athlon or early p2/p3) do not like the newer ATX12v spec PSU's. Have run into it my self and keep a few older ATX12v 2.01 to 2.03 around for those picky boards that do not like 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 etc 😀
Checked the Enermax and it is a ATX12v 2.3. Which PSU does work ? curious so I can check it's spec to see if it is the spec version issue.

Tested it with a couple of other PSU's which all worked. The newest of them was a Fortron Source FSP350-60APN. Which is ATX version 2.3 I believe. Still don't understand the problem as the only issue was the ISA port. Which mostly uses 5V and that checked out stable and perfectly in spec. Also as this motherboard has a 12V CPU connector the load on 5V should not be too high. Also tested a couple of other ISA sound cards but none of them worked with this PSU.

After fighting trying to get windows ME to install on a PCI controller SATA drive for weeks I got an ALi controller and it just works. Turns out there is something weird going on with Silicon Image and VIA controllers. I will have to troubleshoot more, but I can only assume it is due to SATA3. Even OP ROM updates to the SIL controllers didn't help. It just hangs when trying to boot Windows ME after install. Some VXD causes a hang that hangs hard.

Got Ultima VII running on a Pentium 4 651 (Cedar Mill).

I disabled both L1 & L2 cache and set the multiplier to 12x. With L1 & L2 cache disabled, it seems Ultima VII can't re-enable them for whatever reason.

It's a bit faster than my native 486 DX-33; probably closer to a 486 DX-40. Faster than optimal, but still playable.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-28, 21:28:

Got Ultima VII running on a Pentium 4 651 (Cedar Mill). […]
Show full quote

Got Ultima VII running on a Pentium 4 651 (Cedar Mill).

Ultima VII - Pentium 4.jpg

I disabled both L1 & L2 cache and set the multiplier to 12x. With L1 & L2 cache disabled, it seems Ultima VII can't re-enable them for whatever reason.

It's a bit faster than my native 486 DX-33; probably closer to a 486 DX-40. Faster than optimal, but still playable.

I've always avoided P4s like the plague, but I might be underestimating their use for retrogaming. Given the ever increasing cost of old hardware, they might be a good option for some people. Getting 486 performance would be really useful for DOS gaming.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-04-28, 23:56:

I've always avoided P4s like the plague, but I might be underestimating their use for retrogaming. Given the ever increasing cost of old hardware, they might be a good option for some people. Getting 486 performance would be really useful for DOS gaming.

I've been pleasantly surprised with this P4 build. My original expectations was to use it for non-speed sensitive games in DOS. Finding out it can turn into a mid-range 486 with a single command has been the icing on the cake.

The trick has been pairing it with a motherboard with working ISA slots. The availability of such motherboards is likely to be the bigger barrier when it comes to these builds.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-29, 01:15:

The trick has been pairing it with a motherboard with working ISA slots. The availability of such motherboards is likely to be the bigger barrier when it comes to these builds.

Please elaborate ?! 😲
(which mobo/models ?)
865 chipset?

Edit: oh, nevermind, found it in your signature!
We're talking about them elusive ITOX boards I see.

bestemor wrote on 2024-04-29, 03:12:

Please elaborate ?! 😲 (which mobo/models ?) 865 chipset? […]
Show full quote

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-29, 01:15:

The trick has been pairing it with a motherboard with working ISA slots. The availability of such motherboards is likely to be the bigger barrier when it comes to these builds.

Please elaborate ?! 😲
(which mobo/models ?)
865 chipset?

Edit: oh, nevermind, found it in your signature!
We're talking about them elusive ITOX boards I see.

Yup, the DFI ITOX G7S620-N-G.

There were some available on Ebay about a month ago. But after Karl's Retro Channel (KITR) published a build video using that same board, looks like the remaining ones got picked up.

There are also Socket 478 boards with ISA slots like the Advantech AIMB-742 or MSI MS-6551. Haven't tried either of those boards, but that might be something for a future build...