Been keeping a track of my 9800SE AIW's VRAM reflow.
Thankfully, it's still alive and kicking. I assume some RAMsinks will keep it as much alive as my 3D Prophet 9700 Pro which is still going.
I've also been given the suggestion to convert it to a Pro - something tells me that might not be a good idea, at least not without some RAMsinks and a bigger heatsink, assuming I can find one that fits without hitting the TV Tuner.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-06-04, 01:20:

Finished building my test bench platform. Routed a slot in the top for power cables, and added some edgebanding and anti-static mats.

that's really good, gives me an idea to try something similar now - cardboard just isn't long term !

gerry wrote on 2024-06-04, 12:02:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-06-04, 01:20:

Finished building my test bench platform. Routed a slot in the top for power cables, and added some edgebanding and anti-static mats.

that's really good, gives me an idea to try something similar now - cardboard just isn't long term !

Thank you! It took a little bit to build, but I think it will be worth it. 😀

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-06-04, 07:08:

He'll put an original Celeron and a Sound Blaster Vibra in it when it's time for some torture.

Is there something I'm missing or are you only referring specifically to the models of Sound Blaster Vibra which don't also mount a genuine OPL3?

Given that I've never noticed the ringing effects people say it's prone to on sudden cessation of sound, the CT2890 with OPL3 I tracked down is effectively perfect.

Decapped an EPM7032S by using the blowtorch method, then tried to take a die photo using ordinary camera gear. Result is not very good, unfortunately. This thing is roughly 2mm by 4mm.

Heat works quite well for decapping. This silicon is quite different from what is inside a EPM7128S (or maybe EPM7256S) that I decapped using heat from firewood furnace some years ago 🤣

EDIT: Found it !

ssokolow wrote on 2024-06-04, 15:40:

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-06-04, 07:08:

He'll put an original Celeron and a Sound Blaster Vibra in it when it's time for some torture.

Is there something I'm missing or are you only referring specifically to the models of Sound Blaster Vibra which don't also mount a genuine OPL3?

Given that I've never noticed the ringing effects people say it's prone to on sudden cessation of sound, the CT2890 with OPL3 I tracked down is effectively perfect.

Yes, I'm just joking about the ones with bad FM synth.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-06-04, 01:20:

Finished building my test bench platform. Routed a slot in the top for power cables, and added some edgebanding and anti-static mats.

Nice! What are you using for the matting? (I'm moving into a bigger place soon and will actually have room for a dedicated workspace 😁)

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-06-04, 17:23:

ssokolow wrote on 2024-06-04, 15:40:

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-06-04, 07:08:

He'll put an original Celeron and a Sound Blaster Vibra in it when it's time for some torture.

Is there something I'm missing or are you only referring specifically to the models of Sound Blaster Vibra which don't also mount a genuine OPL3?

Given that I've never noticed the ringing effects people say it's prone to on sudden cessation of sound, the CT2890 with OPL3 I tracked down is effectively perfect.

Yes, I'm just joking about the ones with bad FM synth.

*chuckle* Watch as I check if the Celeron 1.2GHz from my teenage years needs recapping and then put my spare CT2890 with OPL3 into it. 😜

(Maybe once my budget recovers from the thin clients I snatched up and save up for the Hakko FR301 I want. I don't trust myself to recap anything without better tools.)

Any ideas what would cause a system to take a while just trying to boot from cdrom?

Board in question is an Abit VH6-II. 1ghz P3 configured correctly in bios, 512mb of memory, and known working optical drive with good cables.

ssokolow wrote on 2024-06-04, 19:55:

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-06-04, 17:23:

ssokolow wrote on 2024-06-04, 15:40:

Is there something I'm missing or are you only referring specifically to the models of Sound Blaster Vibra which don't also mount a genuine OPL3?

Given that I've never noticed the ringing effects people say it's prone to on sudden cessation of sound, the CT2890 with OPL3 I tracked down is effectively perfect.

Yes, I'm just joking about the ones with bad FM synth.

*chuckle* Watch as I check if the Celeron 1.2GHz from my teenage years needs recapping and then put my spare CT2890 with OPL3 into it. 😜

(Maybe once my budget recovers from the thin clients I snatched up and save up for the Hakko FR301 I want. I don't trust myself to recap anything without better tools.)

Is pairing ISA soundcards with fast systems now a thing 🤣? I am fairly sure I have a 1GHz Duron that would love a CT2770A 🤣

ubiq wrote on 2024-06-04, 17:33:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-06-04, 01:20:

Finished building my test bench platform. Routed a slot in the top for power cables, and added some edgebanding and anti-static mats.

Nice! What are you using for the matting? (I'm moving into a bigger place soon and will actually have room for a dedicated workspace 😁)

I'm using a rubber anti-static soldering mat I bought from Amazon. I bought the mat for my main workbench and had some leftovers after cutting it to fit the length of the bench.

Here is a link to the mat I bought,, although it was about half the price when it got it a couple years ago: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01BMGBZV8/r … 00?ie=UTF8&th=1

PcBytes wrote on 2024-06-04, 20:31:

Is pairing ISA soundcards with fast systems now a thing 🤣? I am fairly sure I have a 1GHz Duron that would love a CT2770A 🤣

Running an ISA sound card on a mid 2000s Celeron is more about getting the broadest spectrum of compatibility as possible in a single machine. That's why I used an HP t5530's VESA mounting holes to hang it off the back of my home-made monitor arm, installed Windows 98SE on it, and then, with the aid of a ps2x2pico to retain access to things like the "hold F12 to netboot" (homebrew Apple Internet Restore for PCs), USB/VGA KVM'd it into the leftmost monitor on my triple-head Ryzen daily driver.

(For playing GOG offerings without having to fiddle with Wine, I've also got a Win7/Batocera dual-booter from 2012 hooked into it by chaining the USB from the USB/VGA KVM into a USB/DVI KVM that switches the central monitor... though, unless I'm doing something which tries to capture the mouse, I usually just use Barrier (formerly Synergy) and a second, direct link from the Win7 machine to the central monitor's HDMI port so I can transit the mouse between the two PCs just by moving it off the left edge of the left monitor.)

Gotta have a convenient way to retro-compute, even if you've only got a few minutes for a break.

EDIT: To be clear, the thing I'll probably spend the most time doing on the Win98SE machine once I get everything set up is playing around with Borland Delphi, InstallShield Express, and WinZip Self Extractor while listening to WinAMP. Games don't suffer as much from being divorced from "the authentic experience".

ssokolow wrote on 2024-06-04, 20:46:

Gotta have a convenient way to retro-compute, even if you've only got a few minutes for a break.

...though it does enable some visually interesting spreads.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-06-04, 20:32:

ubiq wrote on 2024-06-04, 17:33:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-06-04, 01:20:

Finished building my test bench platform. Routed a slot in the top for power cables, and added some edgebanding and anti-static mats.

Nice! What are you using for the matting? (I'm moving into a bigger place soon and will actually have room for a dedicated workspace 😁)

I'm using a rubber anti-static soldering mat I bought from Amazon. I bought the mat for my main workbench and had some leftovers after cutting it to fit the length of the bench.

Here is a link to the mat I bought,, although it was about half the price when it got it a couple years ago: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01BMGBZV8/r … 00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Wow, yeah that's pretty expensive! At that price, I might need to consider how big an ESD surface I really need.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-06-04, 01:20:

Finished building my test bench platform. Routed a slot in the top for power cables, and added some edgebanding and anti-static mats.

Very nice looking! And probably a good move with the ESD mat as well!

zuldan wrote on 2024-06-04, 11:39:

Veeb0rg wrote on 2024-06-03, 04:26:

Started to finally assemble a dual p3 system I've been collecting parts for. Still a few things left to do but so far looking good in my opinion. I did finally figure how to turn off the RGB.

Dual Pentium III 933mhz cpu's, 1gb PC-133 ECC Reg SDram, 146gb 15k SCSI hdd, Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS and one of the two Voodoo2 cards for SLI.
Still need to address the CPU fan wires I've ordered a batch of PCB's for the SLI bridge that was designed by a fellow Vogon member.

Is that a ASUS CUR-DLS? Great board.

Yeah it is. I actually ended up with 2 of em.

appiah4 wrote on 2024-05-31, 07:27:

Looking back at that preset, I think I could have gotten it to better match the real SC-55, but that would involve increasing the bass and reverb at the expense of making the overall sound significantly muddier.

Yes I use a little more reverb than your preset - I like the 'softer' sound of the original SC-55 over the super bright sound that the X2GS is capable of. It's always going to be a personal preference at the end of the day, my preset is based on my memory of how things sounded on my SCC-1 and examples on Youtube. My X2GS made the real thing redundant so it was sold long ago 😀

Today I finally put the majority of my bugs processors in to a display case.

I didn't include things like my original pentium that has a completely sealed on heatsink, or throw in my framed slot processors, but the extra space did let my show off my only loose Macintosh Processors as well. Nothing beats a 68030, 68040, and a G3.

Love the display case! What material is that (the white stuff) that the processors are on? Can you hang the case on the wall? I have been thinking of doing something like this for years but have yet to make one.