Today I found out that not all VGA manual switches are created equal.
I have used Nedis branded 2:1 VGA switch for long time. Well until button physically broke. Thought that why not get 4 port "Aliexpress" one next. Well there is reason why branded one cost 15EUR in local shop compared to Aliexpress 4EUR one.
4port one is not broken, but it does not pass info for Win98 PnP. I had manually force Monitor drivers. It flickers whenever I open display properties.
Do those boxes contain chips? They do not need power...

Anyways ended up buying Nedis again. Happy with it despite potential button reliability issue.

I bought this same switch earlier this year and found it to be completely useless. I connected four computers, but if I booted any of them without the switch being toggled for it, the system thinks that it is headless and might not initialize the display (requiring a reboot to do so). Even when I booted a system like this, the display flickered and had a horizontal line on it.

These cheap switches are complete garbage. Do not buy them, even for entertainment purposes. I don't know in what obtuse configuration that these are actually functional.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-06-18, 17:26:

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-in […]
Show full quote

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 think you replaced or reflashed the BIOS as well at this point. A POST diagnostic card plays dead as well?
Do the processor(s) warm up?

CPU warms up, yes - I'm using a single Celeron 566 for the time being.
The only thing I can notice out of the ordinary is constant flashing on the keyboard leds.
Don't have an POST card yet. (only been finding that cheap card that has a useless ISA header.)
As for the BIOS chips - they've been reflashed already, by Topcat @ BCN, with his custom BIOS (which deletes the RAID BIOS, as far as I remember.). Both are the latest DR release, and have a yellow thunderbolt as their EPA logo.

(image is from the second mobo, which I need to desolder the 2nd socket from and solder in a good one - both lugs on one side of it were broken...)

Performed the ACPI-MP fix on my ASUS P2B-DS rev. 1.05 today. Did it under the microscope - not that I need it to see, but for documentation purposes 😀

https://web.archive.org/web/20160819073828/ht … CPI_dual-mb.htm

Hopefully I'll have time to test it this afternoon.

vutt wrote on 2024-06-18, 19:24:

Today I found out that not all VGA manual switches are created equal. I have used Nedis branded 2:1 VGA switch for long time. We […]
Show full quote

Today I found out that not all VGA manual switches are created equal.
I have used Nedis branded 2:1 VGA switch for long time. Well until button physically broke. Thought that why not get 4 port "Aliexpress" one next. Well there is reason why branded one cost 15EUR in local shop compared to Aliexpress 4EUR one.
4port one is not broken, but it does not pass info for Win98 PnP. I had manually force Monitor drivers. It flickers whenever I open display properties.
Do those boxes contain chips? They do not need power...

I use those cheap ~$15 CAD eBay/Aliexpress 4-port USB/VGA KVM switches for that role with ps2x2pico where necessary. They're not smart enough to keep my Power Mac G4 from refusing to initialize video unless the KVM is pointed at it on boot, but it's a huge anomaly on that front and, aside from discovering one bad VGA cable in my bin of hand-me-downs, I haven't had a problem with degraded video signal or missing EDID for my Windows 9x and Windows XP machines on the same switch.

Also, yesterday and today's retro activity, memtesting the RAM upgrades I ordered for my thin clients and upgrading the remaining ones to 8GB storage to prepare for DOS or Windows 98SE.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-06-18, 21:53:

CPU warms up, yes - I'm using a single Celeron 566 for the time being. The only thing I can notice out of the ordinary is consta […]
Show full quote

CPU warms up, yes - I'm using a single Celeron 566 for the time being.
The only thing I can notice out of the ordinary is constant flashing on the keyboard leds.
Don't have an POST card yet. (only been finding that cheap card that has a useless ISA header.)
As for the BIOS chips - they've been reflashed already, by Topcat @ BCN, with his custom BIOS (which deletes the RAID BIOS, as far as I remember.). Both are the latest DR release, and have a yellow thunderbolt as their EPA logo.

(image is from the second mobo, which I need to desolder the 2nd socket from and solder in a good one - both lugs on one side of it were broken...)

Check PCI and/or ISA reset signals. They can be probed directly on the slots (pin A15 for PCI and B2 for ISA).
They should toggle when pressing the power-on switch and are inverted between ISA and PCI.
If they don't work correctly the system won't boot.

I've been working on fixing up my Pentium 1. Its not that easy. The display on the front didnt work. It was burnt out. Luckily I had another one from another old computer. Getting it set to display 233 was a fun trial and error .

The IDE LED does not work, so I will have to grab one from the other computer case.
I havent had the floppy drives working in this computer, so thats another thing I need to fix. I also want a flash card reader in this one.

I wanted to do away with the flat IDE cables. I found ONE rounded IDE cable at a local store, but I wish I had more. For now I will have to deal with what I have.
I also want a couple case badges. one 3dfx and one mmx intel pentium sticker.

the motherboard is an asus P5A-B , it has a 233 Mhz mmx CPU. A 12 MB voodoo 2. I have an empty PCI slot under the voodoo for when I get another voodoo 2 I want this machine to run an sli setup.

I did have a 128 meg 133mhz dimm in this machine, but I took that out and put in a 32 meg 100 mhz dimm, which I feel is more appropriate for the machine.

It was missing a PC speaker, but I got one from another case and put it in this one.
This is more trouble than I thought but fun to work on. Last time it booted up , it would freeze every 15 seconds for a good 15 seconds . The computer didnt do that before, so i hope to figure that one out as well.

Dorunkāku wrote on 2024-06-18, 17:39:

I made a ISA PS2 mouse card from AliExpress parts.

that's cool! PS2 mice finding new homes via isa 😀

ChrisK wrote on 2024-06-19, 13:10:

Check PCI and/or ISA reset signals. They can be probed directly on the slots (pin A15 for PCI and B2 for ISA). They should toggl […]
Show full quote

PcBytes wrote on 2024-06-18, 21:53:

CPU warms up, yes - I'm using a single Celeron 566 for the time being. The only thing I can notice out of the ordinary is consta […]
Show full quote

CPU warms up, yes - I'm using a single Celeron 566 for the time being.
The only thing I can notice out of the ordinary is constant flashing on the keyboard leds.
Don't have an POST card yet. (only been finding that cheap card that has a useless ISA header.)
As for the BIOS chips - they've been reflashed already, by Topcat @ BCN, with his custom BIOS (which deletes the RAID BIOS, as far as I remember.). Both are the latest DR release, and have a yellow thunderbolt as their EPA logo.

(image is from the second mobo, which I need to desolder the 2nd socket from and solder in a good one - both lugs on one side of it were broken...)

Check PCI and/or ISA reset signals. They can be probed directly on the slots (pin A15 for PCI and B2 for ISA).
They should toggle when pressing the power-on switch and are inverted between ISA and PCI.
If they don't work correctly the system won't boot.

Well, that's something. I get 2.25V instead of 3.3v. No ISA slots present on the VP6.

EDIT: Yup, there's something going on with the 3v3 line of the mainboard - probing directly on the PSU gives 2.81V, and testing the PSU alone on the 3v3 rail gives 3.4v (since it has a 3v3 sense, these tend to run a tad higher on that line.)

PcBytes wrote on 2024-06-19, 13:54:

ChrisK wrote on 2024-06-19, 13:10:

Check PCI and/or ISA reset signals. They can be probed directly on the slots (pin A15 for PCI and B2 for ISA). They should toggl […]
Show full quote

PcBytes wrote on 2024-06-18, 21:53:

CPU warms up, yes - I'm using a single Celeron 566 for the time being. The only thing I can notice out of the ordinary is consta […]
Show full quote

CPU warms up, yes - I'm using a single Celeron 566 for the time being.
The only thing I can notice out of the ordinary is constant flashing on the keyboard leds.
Don't have an POST card yet. (only been finding that cheap card that has a useless ISA header.)
As for the BIOS chips - they've been reflashed already, by Topcat @ BCN, with his custom BIOS (which deletes the RAID BIOS, as far as I remember.). Both are the latest DR release, and have a yellow thunderbolt as their EPA logo.

(image is from the second mobo, which I need to desolder the 2nd socket from and solder in a good one - both lugs on one side of it were broken...)

Check PCI and/or ISA reset signals. They can be probed directly on the slots (pin A15 for PCI and B2 for ISA).
They should toggle when pressing the power-on switch and are inverted between ISA and PCI.
If they don't work correctly the system won't boot.

Well, that's something. I get 2.25V instead of 3.3v. No ISA slots present on the VP6.

EDIT: Yup, there's something going on with the 3v3 line of the mainboard - probing directly on the PSU gives 2.81V, and testing the PSU alone on the 3v3 rail gives 3.4v (since it has a 3v3 sense, these tend to run a tad higher on that line.)

Maybe something on the board is semi-shorted and bringing down the 3.3V rail, likely generating extraneous heat in the process ?

If so, a thermal imager, IR thermometer or a touch test might help find the culprit .

I've got my dedicated DOS gaming machine set up on a tiny printer stand in the corner of my office, and as I've added stuff over the years, it's just become a mess of wires. Beyond the normal stuff that you'd expect with a desktop PC, I've also got a 2.1 speaker setup with annoyingly long cables, my two Roland synths, and a flightstick permanently connected.

It was getting pretty bad, so I finally cleaned things up a bit. I replaced some of my audio cables with shorter ones, tied up some of the longer cables, and reran the cables so that they were cleaner and made more sense. It helped a lot, and things look quite nicer now.

-----

A year ago, I discovered that my failing CD-ROM drive finally died. I got this used on auction for cheap, and while it worked fine for about a year, the tray mechanism started failing and then I was forced to use the old "paper clip in the hole" method to get the tray to eject. That worked for a while, but then the drive stopped reading discs completely.

I ordered another used drive on auction, untested but cheap, and I was immediately disappointed. The tray mechanism did not work at all, but I could do the paper clip thing and get it to eject. It at least reads discs once I manage to get them in there!

I don't really need a working CD-ROM drive on this machine because I'm using an easily accessible compact flash card as my hard drive. I can just install games on DOSBOX on my main PC, and copy the directory over to the card. However, there are some DOS games I want to play that rely on having a CD in the drive, either for redbook audio or just because there's not a good way to play the game totally off the hard disk.

So with that in mind, I ordered yet another used CD-ROM drive. These things are not expensive, but here in Japan anyway, they aren't cheap enough to keep doing this in the hopes of finally getting one that works. Hopefully this one will work fine and I won't have to worry for a year or two.

I really wish someone would develop an ODE for these old machines that supports redbook audio!!!

I spent several hours trying and failing to diagnose a faulty Voodoo 2, only to eventually discover that it just plain didn't like my test setup and worked perfectly in another machine first try. A productive use of my afternoon.

darry wrote on 2024-06-19, 15:53:

PcBytes wrote on 2024-06-19, 13:54:

ChrisK wrote on 2024-06-19, 13:10:

Check PCI and/or ISA reset signals. They can be probed directly on the slots (pin A15 for PCI and B2 for ISA).
They should toggle when pressing the power-on switch and are inverted between ISA and PCI.
If they don't work correctly the system won't boot.

Well, that's something. I get 2.25V instead of 3.3v. No ISA slots present on the VP6.

EDIT: Yup, there's something going on with the 3v3 line of the mainboard - probing directly on the PSU gives 2.81V, and testing the PSU alone on the 3v3 rail gives 3.4v (since it has a 3v3 sense, these tend to run a tad higher on that line.)

Maybe something on the board is semi-shorted and bringing down the 3.3V rail, likely generating extraneous heat in the process ?

If so, a thermal imager, IR thermometer or a touch test might help find the culprit .

Touched every component I could for extra heat. Nothing heats up out of the ordinary.

Nothing exciting, just an update to my post from a few weeks back...
OK, so I finished Retr0brite'ing the Amstrad PCW8256 & Packard Bell monitor speakers a while ago. Both turned out great, especially the Amstrad, with only parts of the rear still showing some yellowing. You'll remember I didn't have to de-case, so not ideal, and unfortunately, the peroxide got on the Drive B logo cover, and totally ruined the metal print (it was perfect). I took dimensions, and recreated as close as possible in MS Paint, then printed on gloss paper.
Meanwhile, new amp IC and 101 caps arrived, so installed on the PB Speakers PCB, and reassembled, and now have < Stereo > sound at last. Up until now, only the right channel worked, a bit like the problem on my gen1 A1UP Street Fighter cab. I'd sprayed the grills with light grey primer, as they were stained/rusty, so now retrobrited, they look almost like new.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2024-06-19, 05:47:

Performed the ACPI-MP fix on my ASUS P2B-DS rev. 1.05 today. Did it under the microscope - not that I need it to see, but for documentation purposes 😀

https://web.archive.org/web/20160819073828/ht … CPI_dual-mb.htm

Hopefully I'll have time to test it this afternoon.

Success! Windows 2000 no longer loads appx. 50% when idle and Windows XP install could actually start rather than throwing an "IQRL_NOT blah-blah" error when trying to. Now I just need to find out how to activate it ..

Installed a Tandy "PC/TV Adapter" in the Tandy 1000 SL recently. The board is essentially a rebadged STB TV/GRX, and while fairly rudimentary (switched, full-screen-only output), it has a serviceable DOS and Windows 3.x control-panel utility and produces an acceptable image for a 1991 product, even on an anachronistic LCD display.

Brief YouTube demonstration:
https://youtu.be/q4ttIn5kAts?quality=high

Took an old Qnap TS-453 Pro:
Replaced rear fan with a Qnap fan
Replaced 2x4GB DDR3L with 2x8GB DDR3L
Removed the DOM containing QTS
Replaced with external USB3 to m.2 USB adapter containing a 950 Pro 512GB NVME SSD
Installed TrueNAS Scale to it
Added a USB3 Sabrent 5GB NIC
Replaced the 10TB drives from 2016 with 16TB drives.

Currently running some test replications to verify network stability. If successfull I'll add it to my backup rotation, may need to buy some larger drives.

Not PC hardware, but I was able to add RGB Scart to an old JVC Monitor (with lots of guidance!)

vutt wrote on 2024-06-18, 19:24:

Today I found out that not all VGA manual switches are created equal. I have used Nedis branded 2:1 VGA switch for long time. We […]
Show full quote

Today I found out that not all VGA manual switches are created equal.
I have used Nedis branded 2:1 VGA switch for long time. Well until button physically broke. Thought that why not get 4 port "Aliexpress" one next. Well there is reason why branded one cost 15EUR in local shop compared to Aliexpress 4EUR one.
4port one is not broken, but it does not pass info for Win98 PnP. I had manually force Monitor drivers. It flickers whenever I open display properties.
Do those boxes contain chips? They do not need power...

Anyways ended up buying Nedis again. Happy with it despite potential button reliability issue.

Wouldn't replacing the button switches on the broken Nedis one be an option ?