Sorting RAM! Nothing special.

Printing some simple low-profile trays, so far they work good for my limited supply. 😀

Sacrificed today mic in jack for clean EMU8K output.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2024-12-11, 23:21:

Also I tried installing Tombraider 2 on a Pentium MMX 200Mhz and a Pentium III 550Mhz. The 200Mhz machine could barely play it even at 320x200 resolution. The 550Mhz machine with 3D Rage Pro was far better. But still had periodic stutter.

Pentium3 550MHz should fly with Tomb Raider 2, Use Rage Pro Tweaker with Rage Pro and 8MB AGP card is faster than 4MB PCI.

G-X wrote on 2024-12-19, 19:08:

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-12-16, 19:13:

Updated one of my systems with a spare window side panel and cold cathode I got recently. Love it!

Mr. Lian-Li flexing his stuff again 😁 looks awesome and indeed takes you back to the Lanparty days!

CEO of Lian Li 😉

I have been having problems accessing my parts drawers for the last few weeks due to the large amount of additional/unnecessary cards getting added to the collection. I started sorting them out, but realized how AWESOME everything looks and want to share. I just unwrapped everything (mostly) and set it out at once. Quite the Sea of Retro. I can imagine the pile being wayyy too much if all the cards that are being used were in the pile as well.

Played and tested GTA Vice City speed with ATi RagePro (RageXL 8MB 2xAGP), bit slow but playable if vga memory overclock added.
Lowest 640x480x16,all on the screen not perfectly correct,but with latest d3d hal 4.13.1.2041 it works and looks greater than before.
It runs better than GTA 3, both games need vram patch and i am thinking already to try GTA San Andreas out with Win9x and Rage3.

Major Jackyl wrote on 2024-12-22, 18:39:

I have been having problems accessing my parts drawers for the last few weeks due to the large amount of additional/unnecessary cards getting added to the collection. I started sorting them out, but realized how AWESOME everything looks and want to share. I just unwrapped everything (mostly) and set it out at once. Quite the Sea of Retro. I can imagine the pile being wayyy too much if all the cards that are being used were in the pile as well.

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Always nice to see such a display. 😀
I relate to the "it can be passed on" and the "that was a mistake, let's store it better".

I usually put a A4 sheet with the basics of the motherboard (in the bag) and keep track of what has been done with it and when.
Vid cards it's harder and I don't do it except for those big one that have come out in the last years (dual/triple slot).
I always do it with repairs in progress.

Major Jackyl wrote on 2024-12-22, 18:39:

I have been having problems accessing my parts drawers for the last few weeks due to the large amount of additional/unnecessary cards getting added to the collection. I started sorting them out, but realized how AWESOME everything looks and want to share. I just unwrapped everything (mostly) and set it out at once. Quite the Sea of Retro. I can imagine the pile being wayyy too much if all the cards that are being used were in the pile as well.

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If you squint your eyes, its kinda like a xmas tree. 😀

Well I learned/discovered something interesting today. The GTX570 in one of my Win XP PCs has been flaky for a while - if I power it on and reset it 5 or 6 times I might get video out, so decided to switch it out.

I don't have anything on hand of comparable power (annoyingly I had a pair of HD6950s I sold a few years back, one of these would have been perfect, and would have kept up with my all ATI/AMD lineup).

I have a GTX690 in my collection, so decided to add that. Put it in, went off to get the drivers..... no drivers available. There are drivers for the GTX680 so I gave them a try, but no luck. Looks like there are no WinXP drivers for the GTX690. I thought I was in the clear as I have in my mind that there are XP drivers right up to the GTX9xx series. Looks like I'll be on the lookout for an HD69xx or HD 78xx/79xx for this PC now.

I ended up putting in a HD4870 512MB as that was the best I had on hand, however benchmarks show that it's not significantly faster that the QX9650/HD3870 PC.

Major Jackyl wrote on 2024-12-22, 18:39:

I have been having problems accessing my parts drawers for the last few weeks due to the large amount of additional/unnecessary cards getting added to the collection. I started sorting them out, but realized how AWESOME everything looks and want to share. I just unwrapped everything (mostly) and set it out at once. Quite the Sea of Retro. I can imagine the pile being wayyy too much if all the cards that are being used were in the pile as well.

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I've started labeling the anti-static bags like that, makes life so much easier. I've also been putting masking tape on the back of cards and using that to label - no sticky residue as yet.

Installed the ROM Xc on my //c. So far so good, everything working OK. I'll run some more tests tomorrow

Major Jackyl wrote on 2024-12-22, 18:39:

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This looks like typical stall at computer trade fair in Poland around 1996 😀 Giełda Komputerowa na Grzybowskiej History of Polish computer trade fair 1986-20xx. HD video/hires images from Giełda Komputerowa na Grzybowskiej (1993).

marxveix wrote on 2024-12-21, 13:12:

Pentium3 550MHz should fly with Tomb Raider 2, Use Rage Pro Tweaker with Rage Pro and 8MB AGP card is faster than 4MB PCI.

Thanks for the tip. But my intention isn't to keep the ATI card. That's just what the PC had in it when I bought it on ebay. I plan to put a TNT2 and Voodoo 2 SLI in it. Hopefully then it will fly. Haha.

I bought this case from my brother-in-law about three years ago. I worked on it for a little bit and put it aside, until two months ago. Kept only the case, power supply and the I/O card and replaced everything else. I had recapped all the cards and all the fake cache chips with 256KiB. Also made a cooler using a 50x50mm heatsink, and installed it using double-sided tape and thermal paste.

Specs

Motherboard: Aquarius Systems/BCOM MB-4DUVC MODEL 1
Processor: Intel 486DX-4 @ 100MHz
RAM: 12MiB (1MiBx4 + 4MiBx2)
Graphics: Trident TVGA9000C 512KiB
Sound Card: ESS ES1868F
HDD: Seagate Medalist 1.2GiB
FDD: YE Data 5¼ 720KiB / Chinon 3½ 1.2MiB

Funny thing. As I mentioned last month - I've been trying to digitize three tapes, unsuccessfully, because at random points in the middle of the playback all of them would become black and white, noisy, rippled and distorted.

Well, since then a friend asked me to digitize five old tapes of his with various family event recordings. All of them worked without a hitch. So I decided to give my tapes another spin, and guess what - two of them worked right off the bat, and the third exhibited a few defects during the first two playbacks, which went away on the third.

I wonder if using some better quality tapes somehow cleaned or realigned whatever was 'off' on the VCR, or whether it has something to do with ambient temperature (it is much colder here now than it was a month ago), or what not.

JayAlien wrote on 2024-12-23, 22:18:

I've started labeling the anti-static bags like that, makes life so much easier. I've also been putting masking tape on the back of cards and using that to label - no sticky residue as yet.

Almost everything that functions, got a bag and a label (sharpie/masking tape). Broken things are just taped/labeled and depending on what it is, cared for (for future repair) or thrown in "the pile"

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-12-24, 05:50:

This looks like typical stall at computer trade fair in Poland around 1996 😀 Giełda Komputerowa na Grzybowskiej History of Polish computer trade fair 1986-20xx. HD video/hires images from Giełda Komputerowa na Grzybowskiej (1993).

Duuude, that looks like such a fun time!

Today, I got a bunch of 2032s for various things. The first one didn't work in the computer (I'll have to try again now...) and in the time I was handling this new "test battery", a bunch of damn blue shit was getting EVERYWHERE. It was F$^@ing INK!!! I looked at the battery and it had these dots of ink all on the back. The bitterant is now a messy ink. Duuudes, this shit is PERMANENT!!

I watched a video about it from energizer revealing it's new "3x child protection" formula, and the video itself unintentionally revealed how to remove it. Soak a paper towel in hot (sink hot works) water and drop the battery on it. Wait a couple of seconds and move it over, then to a new spot. It's usually gone by then.

Hope I can save some white parts (any plastic, really) from the ink-of-doom with this PSA

Major Jackyl wrote on 2024-12-24, 21:31:

Today, I got a bunch of 2032s for various things. The first one didn't work in the computer (I'll have to try again now...) and […]
Show full quote

Today, I got a bunch of 2032s for various things. The first one didn't work in the computer (I'll have to try again now...) and in the time I was handling this new "test battery", a bunch of damn blue shit was getting EVERYWHERE. It was F$^@ing INK!!! I looked at the battery and it had these dots of ink all on the back. The bitterant is now a messy ink. Duuudes, this shit is PERMANENT!!

The attachment 20241224_150641.jpg is no longer available

I watched a video about it from energizer revealing it's new "3x child protection" formula, and the video itself unintentionally revealed how to remove it. Soak a paper towel in hot (sink hot works) water and drop the battery on it. Wait a couple of seconds and move it over, then to a new spot. It's usually gone by then.

The attachment 20241224_150747.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20241224_150808.jpg is no longer available

Hope I can save some white parts (any plastic, really) from the ink-of-doom with this PSA

What on earth!? I have never heard of this.

What are people doing that their kids are downing coin cell batteries enough to warrant this? People need to stop doom scrolling and watch their kids apparently.

Anyway, I bought a huge pack of Murata CR2032s from Digikey last year and I was a bit annoyed to see that lots of them had some crud around the edges, like the seal between the layers was bad and something brownish colored had leaked out. It was like this on most of the batteries in a pack of 50, then they replaced them and it was the exact same deal on those... I wonder if it was some kind of bitterant like this all along?? They do have a little picture of a parent holding something out of reach of a child... but I don't know. The datasheet makes no mention of a bitterant and I can't find anything online that says that Murata is doing this. It also doesn't look anything like what Durecell did, since it is around the edges, not on the negative terminal.

... and no, I'm not about to taste them.

I tend to buy my 2032s in bulk from China on eBay. I always inspect them before use because I have found some to be "leaking" slightly along the edge even though it's brand new, just out of the package.

It's strange to see the same occur from a DigiKey product.

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-12-25, 02:08:

I tend to buy my 2032s in bulk from China on eBay. I always inspect them before use because I have found some to be "leaking" slightly along the edge even though it's brand new, just out of the package.

It's strange to see the same occur from a DigiKey product.

Yeah, I thought so too. In the end I paid around $18 US for 100 name brand CR2032s in flat packs... So, I don't know. They seem to work fine... So it could just be some manufacturing quirk, and they aren't actually defective.

It does nag at me though since I don't know if they'll start leaking some day and ruin some vintage item. In hindsight I should have told Digikey about the second batch and just asked to have them refunded so I could buy batteries that didn't have that funky residue on them.

I would not use them if they're leaking. I always throw those away. My vintage gear is worth more than the cost of a CR2032.