Today I am trying to get a working Java programming environment running on my Pentium 3 rig, it's kinda fun testing old IDEs and old versions of languages. I have working Visual Basic, Python 2, and PowerShell 2.0 running on XP SP3 so far but Java will be a new one. Going to try out JBuilder 6 as the IDE.

Trying to get one of the two BCN specials ABIT VP6 fixed myself. It has a full recap (every single cap on it is either a Rubycon or a Samxon), but will not POST at all, or emit any beep for that matter.

Anyone got any clue?

Fully recapped the Mac Classic logic board, patched a dead trace, fixed the SCSI issue (idiot me put a small blob of solder on the chip by accident), removed almost all of the rust from the right side of the metal bracket where the logic board slides into, and buttoned it back up.

It runs without issues and the sound works once again. Gotta fix the yoke since it's tilted a smidge to the left.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-06-14, 17:42:

I recently got this Micronics 386 ISA board from another member because it was dead from battery damage, he had performed repair […]
Show full quote

I recently got this Micronics 386 ISA board from another member because it was dead from battery damage, he had performed repairs but it still wouldn't POST. I believe the board matches this one.

I have tinkered with it a bit, I have tried a different BIOS, reseated many chips and done an assortment of other things. I am able to get POST codes out of it on my diagnostic cards, and some things I have done have gotten the numbers to go higher but I can't really make sense of what it's doing beyond that.

From the speaker I get what seems like 4 short beeps (they blend together) followed by 2 more beeps spaced out evenly.

Anyway, I'm not going to expect anyone to diagnose it for me, but I have discovered a questionable component on the board that I don't have a lot of experience troubleshooting.

I was using my Fluke75 meter in diode test mode (it should beep once in one direction on diodes, with no beep going the other direction), and one of these diodes gives no beep at all. It also seems like it might be cracked around the middle (I can feel it with my fingernail, and through a magnifier it looks cracked), which seems strange. I have marked it with a red arrow.
20240614_132420 (Custom).jpg

EDIT: Confirmed, it is totally cracked in half! When I poke and prod the poor thing the ends move independently, so it definitely needs replaced.

I'm clueless about identifying diodes, but I have these on hand that look similar: 1N4148 and 1N4733A

If anyone can help me identify that diode and whether the ones I have on hand will replace it that would be a huge help.

Also, I have checked for continuity and shorts involving the repairs the previous owner made and they seem fine, so I don't believe that is what is preventing the board from booting.

My knowledge of electronics is extremely limited to say the least, but if I remember correctly, since I've had to replace one myself, a zener diode like that is commonly used in a voltage regulation capacity, and designed to act like a sort of fuse, so it's probably had an input of over voltage from perhaps a bad capacitor or something. It should have a number indicated on it, by looks of it on the underside, so if you remove it, which you'll have to anyway, and then look up on one of the manufacturer sites, you should be able to compare if either of those you have would works as a replacement. The 1N4148 you have I think is one of the most common, but I guess the real issue is, just like a fuse, what caused it to blow in the first place?
Hopefully someone with more experience can offer some better advice 😉

Today, I tested the DVI output capabilities of the Windows XP thin client pretending to be Windows 98SE... unfortunately, I only corrected "My Network Places" to "Network Neighborhood" after taking the photo.

Childhood me would probably have exploded with glee at seeing that on a big-screen TV.

(Now if only the boxes for injecting analog audio from the 3.5mm jack into HDMI didn't cost at least twice as much as I paid for the thin client itself so I could use the TV's own speakers instead of external ones. Oh well. The TV scales 800x600 games to its 4K panel surprisingly nicely once I deal with how it seems to forget the letterboxing setting every time it's turned off.)

BigDave wrote on 2024-06-15, 19:25:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-06-14, 17:42:

I recently got this Micronics 386 ISA board from another member because it was dead from battery damage, he had performed repair […]
Show full quote

I recently got this Micronics 386 ISA board from another member because it was dead from battery damage, he had performed repairs but it still wouldn't POST. I believe the board matches this one.

I have tinkered with it a bit, I have tried a different BIOS, reseated many chips and done an assortment of other things. I am able to get POST codes out of it on my diagnostic cards, and some things I have done have gotten the numbers to go higher but I can't really make sense of what it's doing beyond that.

From the speaker I get what seems like 4 short beeps (they blend together) followed by 2 more beeps spaced out evenly.

Anyway, I'm not going to expect anyone to diagnose it for me, but I have discovered a questionable component on the board that I don't have a lot of experience troubleshooting.

I was using my Fluke75 meter in diode test mode (it should beep once in one direction on diodes, with no beep going the other direction), and one of these diodes gives no beep at all. It also seems like it might be cracked around the middle (I can feel it with my fingernail, and through a magnifier it looks cracked), which seems strange. I have marked it with a red arrow.
20240614_132420 (Custom).jpg

EDIT: Confirmed, it is totally cracked in half! When I poke and prod the poor thing the ends move independently, so it definitely needs replaced.

I'm clueless about identifying diodes, but I have these on hand that look similar: 1N4148 and 1N4733A

If anyone can help me identify that diode and whether the ones I have on hand will replace it that would be a huge help.

Also, I have checked for continuity and shorts involving the repairs the previous owner made and they seem fine, so I don't believe that is what is preventing the board from booting.

My knowledge of electronics is extremely limited to say the least, but if I remember correctly, since I've had to replace one myself, a zener diode like that is commonly used in a voltage regulation capacity, and designed to act like a sort of fuse, so it's probably had an input of over voltage from perhaps a bad capacitor or something. It should have a number indicated on it, by looks of it on the underside, so if you remove it, which you'll have to anyway, and then look up on one of the manufacturer sites, you should be able to compare if either of those you have would works as a replacement. The 1N4148 you have I think is one of the most common, but I guess the real issue is, just like a fuse, what caused it to blow in the first place?
Hopefully someone with more experience can offer some better advice 😉

It is 1N4148. Super common as stated, you can find them a bit evrywhere.

Decided to played some BF1942 again tonight (singleplayer), not really vintage hardware related but gave me excuse to fire up the old XP box 😀.
Found that a few new/old maps listed as SP mode are not, but the Lib of Caen v2 works very well in single player mode.
Other than that spent time with my 88 year old mom (now that is Vintage 🤣) because it is Fathers day here and he passed in 2017 🙁

I cooked (and by cooked, I mean let the magical pixie smoke out) a core two duo because I was yelling at the FF post code on my ASUS P5NT WS without a heat sink. I forgot to turn it off when my kid was being a brown star and wasn't supposed to be anywhere near me.

Nexxen wrote on 2024-06-16, 15:15:

BigDave wrote on 2024-06-15, 19:25:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-06-14, 17:42:

I recently got this Micronics 386 ISA board from another member because it was dead from battery damage, he had performed repair […]
Show full quote

I recently got this Micronics 386 ISA board from another member because it was dead from battery damage, he had performed repairs but it still wouldn't POST. I believe the board matches this one.

I have tinkered with it a bit, I have tried a different BIOS, reseated many chips and done an assortment of other things. I am able to get POST codes out of it on my diagnostic cards, and some things I have done have gotten the numbers to go higher but I can't really make sense of what it's doing beyond that.

From the speaker I get what seems like 4 short beeps (they blend together) followed by 2 more beeps spaced out evenly.

Anyway, I'm not going to expect anyone to diagnose it for me, but I have discovered a questionable component on the board that I don't have a lot of experience troubleshooting.

I was using my Fluke75 meter in diode test mode (it should beep once in one direction on diodes, with no beep going the other direction), and one of these diodes gives no beep at all. It also seems like it might be cracked around the middle (I can feel it with my fingernail, and through a magnifier it looks cracked), which seems strange. I have marked it with a red arrow.
20240614_132420 (Custom).jpg

EDIT: Confirmed, it is totally cracked in half! When I poke and prod the poor thing the ends move independently, so it definitely needs replaced.

I'm clueless about identifying diodes, but I have these on hand that look similar: 1N4148 and 1N4733A

If anyone can help me identify that diode and whether the ones I have on hand will replace it that would be a huge help.

Also, I have checked for continuity and shorts involving the repairs the previous owner made and they seem fine, so I don't believe that is what is preventing the board from booting.

My knowledge of electronics is extremely limited to say the least, but if I remember correctly, since I've had to replace one myself, a zener diode like that is commonly used in a voltage regulation capacity, and designed to act like a sort of fuse, so it's probably had an input of over voltage from perhaps a bad capacitor or something. It should have a number indicated on it, by looks of it on the underside, so if you remove it, which you'll have to anyway, and then look up on one of the manufacturer sites, you should be able to compare if either of those you have would works as a replacement. The 1N4148 you have I think is one of the most common, but I guess the real issue is, just like a fuse, what caused it to blow in the first place?
Hopefully someone with more experience can offer some better advice 😉

It is 1N4148. Super common as stated, you can find them a bit evrywhere.

BigDave wrote on 2024-06-15, 19:25:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-06-14, 17:42:

I recently got this Micronics 386 ISA board from another member because it was dead from battery damage, he had performed repair […]
Show full quote

I recently got this Micronics 386 ISA board from another member because it was dead from battery damage, he had performed repairs but it still wouldn't POST. I believe the board matches this one.

I have tinkered with it a bit, I have tried a different BIOS, reseated many chips and done an assortment of other things. I am able to get POST codes out of it on my diagnostic cards, and some things I have done have gotten the numbers to go higher but I can't really make sense of what it's doing beyond that.

From the speaker I get what seems like 4 short beeps (they blend together) followed by 2 more beeps spaced out evenly.

Anyway, I'm not going to expect anyone to diagnose it for me, but I have discovered a questionable component on the board that I don't have a lot of experience troubleshooting.

I was using my Fluke75 meter in diode test mode (it should beep once in one direction on diodes, with no beep going the other direction), and one of these diodes gives no beep at all. It also seems like it might be cracked around the middle (I can feel it with my fingernail, and through a magnifier it looks cracked), which seems strange. I have marked it with a red arrow.
20240614_132420 (Custom).jpg

EDIT: Confirmed, it is totally cracked in half! When I poke and prod the poor thing the ends move independently, so it definitely needs replaced.

I'm clueless about identifying diodes, but I have these on hand that look similar: 1N4148 and 1N4733A

If anyone can help me identify that diode and whether the ones I have on hand will replace it that would be a huge help.

Also, I have checked for continuity and shorts involving the repairs the previous owner made and they seem fine, so I don't believe that is what is preventing the board from booting.

My knowledge of electronics is extremely limited to say the least, but if I remember correctly, since I've had to replace one myself, a zener diode like that is commonly used in a voltage regulation capacity, and designed to act like a sort of fuse, so it's probably had an input of over voltage from perhaps a bad capacitor or something. It should have a number indicated on it, by looks of it on the underside, so if you remove it, which you'll have to anyway, and then look up on one of the manufacturer sites, you should be able to compare if either of those you have would works as a replacement. The 1N4148 you have I think is one of the most common, but I guess the real issue is, just like a fuse, what caused it to blow in the first place?
Hopefully someone with more experience can offer some better advice 😉

Woohoo! Got it!

I replaced the diode (thank you for the input about the 1N4148!) and it didn't fix the problems I was having, but after carefully inspecting the board again I noticed one of the pins on the large Chips erm... chip... above the keyboard controller had some white corrosion on it. When I cleaned that pin and reseated the chip the crazy "beebeebeebee...beep" that was happening immediately on power-on went away. It did come back later but after reseating that chip a few more times it went away and hasn't returned.

My POST code reader was showing the system progressing all the way to 9F which I believe is related to drive detection (even with the crazy power-on beep it was getting this far), and the system would give two beeps at that point. I could CTRL-ALT-DEL and it would restart, so I figured at this point I was just dealing with a lack of display output, or a general lack of ISA cards being detected properly.

After probing out the pins from the top ISA slot (the slot itself had been removed by the previous owner because of battery corrosion damage and a few traces were already re-run), I found that two pins on the socket actually did not continue past the first slot . So, I figured out where the pins on the first slot were supposed to go to, ran bodge wires from those locations to the matching pins on the second slot and VOILA... it works! The system POSTs and displays the BIOS messages in a couple of seconds. Memory test detects 8MB with no problem and with a 3xAAA battery holder attached to the external battery connector it seems to be holding time, date and settings.

I need to do a few things to clean up the repairs that have been done and make it more "finished", but right now it seems I've got a 33Mhz 386DX ISA board with 64KB cache and 8MB of RAM ready to use now. It took a bunch of tinkering but I'm happy to have it up and running. 😀

If only suitable cases for PCs like this were easier to find!

Upgraded from K6 2+ 500 to K6 2+ 550. Nice little boost.

Before

After

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-06-17, 06:08:

If only suitable cases for PCs like this were easier to find!

Good you found the issue!

Yeah, they are around but cost a bit.

zuldan wrote on 2024-06-17, 06:28:

Upgraded from K6 2+ 500 to K6 2+ 550. Nice little boost. […]
Show full quote

Upgraded from K6 2+ 500 to K6 2+ 550. Nice little boost.

Before

Benchmark_500.JPG

After

Benchmark_550.JPG

Did you actually upgrade or overclock it. All K6-2+ cpus can do 600Mhz.

supercordo wrote on 2024-06-17, 10:38:

Did you actually upgrade or overclock it. All K6-2+ cpus can do 600Mhz.

I did an actual upgrade. I worry about overclocking retro hardware.

Cleaned the IBM 586VE SBC with Deoxit (socket and dipswitches), now the K6-III+ 400 is recognized correctly, even an OC to 6*83=500 was feasible.

Unfortunately, voltage cannot be set, 100 MHz with any multiplier will POST, but won't boot an OS. Could also be a limit of the SiS 5598 chip'set'.

Not sure if it's more retro than modern, but I set up my new Canon MF3010 printer this evening AND I tested printing from Windows 98 SE.

Granted, the MF3010 has been on the market for a few years, but it is still available new at retail locations and is still being advertised by Canon (as is the VP variant which is the same except that it comes bundled with more toner, AFAIU).

Anyway, once set up in a small QEMU KVM virtual machine (had to pass through one of the onboard PCIE USB host controllers as USB device passthrough proved unreliable), with CUPS (and saned for scanning), it was accessible over the network as an IPP printer (printer's native native protocol is Canon's UFR-II LT), it just works.

- Windows 10 sees it as a Canon MF3010 over IPP and installs the manufacturer's driver (prints just fine)
- My phone's print service see is as CUPS/IPP and works with either PostScript or PDF selected as an output format
- Windows 98 SE, once the 25-year old IPP client driver support package from Microsoft has been installed, prints just fine with the bundled HP LaserJet 5/5M PostScript driver installed ( Of course, I could have used an old version of SAMBA instead, but I didn't bother as IPP worked).

download/file.php?id=195467&mode=view

Cool.... speaking of vintage printing, I was staring at a BJ-5 for ages on Saturday wondering whether to drag it home. I decided I'm gonna hold out for a BJ-10EX or nuffing.

Anyone know why cachechk would just kind of "stop" during the test on a 386 board with an Intel 386DX 33Mhz and 64KB of external cache? It works fine and scores well in speedsys, and I just played Paku Paku for several rounds without issues (it is quick to load from a floppy, I know it isn't intensive... 🤣).

The board is similar to this one: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/micron … -33-09-00086-xx

I'm hoping one of the cache chips isn't bad because I don't think I have any more of this type. All of the cache I have is for newer systems.

EDIT: Duh... I just ran cachechk again directly after playing Paku Paku and it seems to be working fine? Previously it froze three different times after the first "0: ... ... us/KB" line of the test. Now it detects 64KB and says the speed of the cache is 22.6MB\sec. I guess I will have to keep an eye out for stability issues, but it's good to see the cache working properly.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-06-17, 20:32:

Cool.... speaking of vintage printing, I was staring at a BJ-5 for ages on Saturday wondering whether to drag it home. I decided I'm gonna hold out for a BJ-10EX or nuffing.

I used to have a BJC-4000 or BJC-4100 back in the day. That was my last inkjet printer. A friend of mine had a BJ-200E.

To quote Poe's raven, nevermore (for me at least) and my friend would likely agree. Both of us have used laser printers exclusively since then.

Admittedly modern inkjet are surely more reliable and have use cases such as photo printing, but for what I use mine for, black and white (dithered grayscale) works fine. And monochrome laser printers are both very low maintenance and cost very little per page.

135 CAN$ (155.78$ with taxes) for a printer/scanner/copier combo is very affordable. Third party toner sweetens the deal.

Welp, pretty much ready to throw in the towel with one of the VP6s. I did absolutely everything I can think of to get it POST-ing and none worked:

- tested every FET
- replaced RTC quartz
- replaced 14.3MHz quartz for PLL
- replaced CPU thermistors
- replaced 2x 74F245 inverters as the ones it had looked suspect.

Nothing yielded as much as a beep or POST. Dead silent, just fans running.

I made a ISA PS2 mouse card from AliExpress parts.