Miphee wrote on 2022-12-23, 16:34:

I'm about to give this hobby up. I specifically told the guy to pack it in a cardboard box and use tons of bubble wrap, ESPECIAL […]
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I'm about to give this hobby up.
I specifically told the guy to pack it in a cardboard box and use tons of bubble wrap, ESPECIALLY on the front bezel. I told him I'll pay extra and he told me I'm good.
Well I'm NOT FUCKING GOOD!
I have to lie down and get away from all this for a while. I'm done.

I'm sure the seller feels awful too. I destroyed a rare white TRS80 Model 3 by failing to pack it well enough even though the buyer said the same things that you did. I still feel bad about it.

douglar wrote on 2022-12-23, 19:50:

Miphee wrote on 2022-12-23, 16:34:

I'm about to give this hobby up. I specifically told the guy to pack it in a cardboard box and use tons of bubble wrap, ESPECIAL […]
Show full quote

I'm about to give this hobby up.
I specifically told the guy to pack it in a cardboard box and use tons of bubble wrap, ESPECIALLY on the front bezel. I told him I'll pay extra and he told me I'm good.
Well I'm NOT FUCKING GOOD!
I have to lie down and get away from all this for a while. I'm done.

I'm sure the seller feels awful too. I destroyed a rare white TRS80 Model 3 by failing to pack it well enough even though the buyer said the same things that you did. I still feel bad about it.

I mean, I've had rare monitors arrive to me cracked in every which direction because of terrible packing (how do people not get that peanuts aren't a replacement for thick/ protective layer of bubble wrap?). It's always best to pack presuming the shipping company's literally going to play basketball with your box.

Miphee wrote on 2022-12-23, 16:34:

I have to lie down and get away from all this for a while. I'm done.

Oh my... yeah, I know the feeling.

A few years back I had FedEx pack and ship a Sony GDM-FW900 to me and it ended up with a broken bezel because they only used three or four of those expanding foam bags... yes, in a 3d dimensional box with six sides, containing a nearly 100lb monitor. Thankfully it still worked and the screen was intact, but ugh... that involved much fighting with them to get the huge insurance payout for that. Very stressful.

Then, a couple years ago I got a fantastic deal on a Sony CPD- 1302 13" Multisync VGA\EGA monitor from the late '80s... absolutely beautiful little thing, capable of running pretty much any old computer due to the flexible switches and settings on the back. The seller ensured me he knew how to pack and ship a monitor... then proceeded to literally wrap it in a bubble wrap bag and shoved it in a single-walled cardboard box wedged between a few other items I purchased from him. The CRT neck was shattered and the entire metal frame inside the thing was bent. I still have it in storage because it's just such a rare monitor I haven't been able to get myself to junk it.

It is truly baffling just how bad some people's understanding of physics is.

underthebridge wrote on 2022-12-23, 20:10:

douglar wrote on 2022-12-23, 19:50:

Miphee wrote on 2022-12-23, 16:34:

I'm about to give this hobby up. I specifically told the guy to pack it in a cardboard box and use tons of bubble wrap, ESPECIAL […]
Show full quote

I'm about to give this hobby up.
I specifically told the guy to pack it in a cardboard box and use tons of bubble wrap, ESPECIALLY on the front bezel. I told him I'll pay extra and he told me I'm good.
Well I'm NOT FUCKING GOOD!
I have to lie down and get away from all this for a while. I'm done.

I'm sure the seller feels awful too. I destroyed a rare white TRS80 Model 3 by failing to pack it well enough even though the buyer said the same things that you did. I still feel bad about it.

I mean, I've had rare monitors arrive to me cracked in every which direction because of terrible packing (how do people not get that peanuts aren't a replacement for thick/ protective layer of bubble wrap?). It's always best to pack presuming the shipping company's literally going to play basketball with your box.

I've had a nice 15" LG studioworks come in the post with the internal PCB crack due to the strain from shipping. Internal damage is also possible

underthebridge wrote on 2022-12-23, 20:10:

I mean, I've had rare monitors arrive to me cracked in every which direction because of terrible packing (how do people not get that peanuts aren't a replacement for thick/ protective layer of bubble wrap?). It's always best to pack presuming the shipping company's literally going to play basketball with your box.

IMHO monitors and computer cases should be at minimum double boxed.

Threw a $60 offer at this thing and was accepted.

This thing seems to be INSANE going by the datasheet. It's a two-drive SCSI to PC card device that supports two PC card drives, each on a separate LUN under one ID. It can support them as fixed disks, removable disks or a DAT drive. It just takes PC cards, so supports CF cards in a PC card adapter. For systems that don't support multiple LUNs, it can apparently combine the drives into one, but I'm not sure how this is done.

In theory I should be able to use this device identically to a SCSI2SD, except this device does more and acts like two separate drives in one, so on some systems I could have one drive act as OS and another act like a zip drive containing other software. Then I could just move it between vintage platforms, swapping the CF cards for ones with different filesystems.

Finally got a working amiga monitor , I'm not as big of a fan of the look of the cm8833 mk2 vs the 1081 or the 1084 series ,
but they seem pretty reliable and have functional replacement flybacks in case anything goes wrong.

libby wrote on 2022-12-24, 03:14:

Threw a $60 offer at this thing and was accepted.

That looks like a seriously useful hardware
Please make a thread about it after you get the time to set it up and test it.
Do you have some Apple hardware to try it on?

Got these today. Soundcard and CPU Athlon 64 for my blue retro machine. SB16 came as a surprise buy, dont know what to use it but later 😀

libby wrote on 2022-12-24, 03:14:

This thing seems to be INSANE going by the datasheet. It's a two-drive SCSI to PC card device that supports two PC card drives, each on a separate LUN under one ID. It can support them as fixed disks, removable disks or a DAT drive. It just takes PC cards, so supports CF cards in a PC card adapter. For systems that don't support multiple LUNs, it can apparently combine the drives into one, but I'm not sure how this is done.

I think it could find a niche use though for a machine that doesn't have any USB 1.1 ports. I suspect that it would also be compatible with an ISA SCSI card.

They use the work "PC Card" exclusively in the advertisement, meaning that it's probably 16-bit (no CardBus). This also means that CompactFlash adapters will be painfully slow.

This would be useful for hot swappable storage for older operating systems without USB support though, such as DOS and Windows 3.1.

It is very interesting. Do you have a use for it in mind?

Yesterday I got finally a Toshiba Libretto 50M, the one with a touchscreen instead of mouse pointer, with no hdd but i had a couple of spare ones and I’m going to change it to a CF solution soon.

I struggled to have the touchscreen working on windows 98 but finally I got the “driver” and the instructions on how to make it work in a super old japanese “2 chan” thread and after a couple of blue screens it is working perfectly!

I’m very happy because i wanted a proper working one since long time ago and most of them have damaged screens or wirh vinegar syndrome. I paid 20,000 yens, expensive but ok for me.

Would it be worth to upload the driver (not exactly a driver but something called “Toshiba pen services”) to vogons drivers?

nach wrote on 2022-12-24, 14:37:

Yesterday I got finally a Toshiba Libretto 50M, the one with a touchscreen instead of mouse pointer, with no hdd but i had a cou […]
Show full quote

Yesterday I got finally a Toshiba Libretto 50M, the one with a touchscreen instead of mouse pointer, with no hdd but i had a couple of spare ones and I’m going to change it to a CF solution soon.

I struggled to have the touchscreen working on windows 98 but finally I got the “driver” and the instructions on how to make it work in a super old japanese “2 chan” thread and after a couple of blue screens it is working perfectly!

I’m very happy because i wanted a proper working one since long time ago and most of them have damaged screens or wirh vinegar syndrome. I paid 20,000 yens, expensive but ok for me.

Would it be worth to upload the driver (not exactly a driver but something called “Toshiba pen services”) to vogons drivers?

Nice! I have never seen a touch screen on a windows 9x system. I had very little laptop/mobile exposure until well into the 2000s.

I would definitely suggest uploading the software to vogons drivers if it's hard to find otherwise.

Had to share this in box NEC Multispin 6xi I recently purchased. Been wanting a caddy style optical drive and this is def a stylish one. Not seen in the photo but it has a speed indicator on the display, kinda neat.

Chadti99 wrote on 2022-12-24, 17:38:

Had to share this in box NEC Multispin 6xi I recently purchased. Been wanting a caddy style optical drive and this is def a stylish one. Not seen in the photo but it has a speed indicator on the display, kinda neat.

I can smell that new smell through the screen. Nice!

Got two vintage laptops in the mail yesterday, a Gateway Colorbook and a Bondwell B310. Naturally I can't use either of them because the Gateway uses an unobtainium proprietary supply (basically the same plug as a lot of Dells use, but keyed differently) and the Bondwell needs a 9VDC 1.5A power supply, which I don't have either.

Miphee wrote on 2022-12-23, 16:34:

I'm about to give this hobby up.
I specifically told the guy to pack it in a cardboard box and use tons of bubble wrap, ESPECIALLY on the front bezel. I told him I'll pay extra and he told me I'm good.

yeah, I told myself that multiple times already after having stuff arrive broken after specifically sending detailed packing instructions that get disregarded after all even though the sellers seem to reply as if they would be following them...

and yet here I am, still buying stuff... it's a vicious neverending cycle

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-12-24, 13:47:

I think it could find a niche use though for a machine that doesn't have any USB 1.1 ports. I suspect that it would also be comp […]
Show full quote

I think it could find a niche use though for a machine that doesn't have any USB 1.1 ports. I suspect that it would also be compatible with an ISA SCSI card.

They use the work "PC Card" exclusively in the advertisement, meaning that it's probably 16-bit (no CardBus). This also means that CompactFlash adapters will be painfully slow.

This would be useful for hot swappable storage for older operating systems without USB support though, such as DOS and Windows 3.1.

It is very interesting. Do you have a use for it in mind?

The datasheet indicated Adtron did testing with an IBM MicroDrive and a Toshiba 5GB flash card (highest tech available at the time) and transfer rates were up to 2.5/4.8MB/sec read/write burst doing 1 block transfers on a P200 with adaptec 2940UW.

For the purposes I'd be using this for, I can't forsee myself using CF cards larger than 512MB to 1GB, as the systems this would be used with are all quite old and have SCSI controllers that don't really exceed 5MB/sec sync transfers anyway. Things like an SGI Indy, Mac SE/30, Amiga 2000 etc. I don't require greater than Fast 10 speed. This would become a major toolkit item for me to run diagnostic software on such systems, update firmware etc.

libby wrote on 2022-12-24, 23:18:

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-12-24, 13:47:

I think it could find a niche use though for a machine that doesn't have any USB 1.1 ports. I suspect that it would also be comp […]
Show full quote

I think it could find a niche use though for a machine that doesn't have any USB 1.1 ports. I suspect that it would also be compatible with an ISA SCSI card.

They use the work "PC Card" exclusively in the advertisement, meaning that it's probably 16-bit (no CardBus). This also means that CompactFlash adapters will be painfully slow.

This would be useful for hot swappable storage for older operating systems without USB support though, such as DOS and Windows 3.1.

It is very interesting. Do you have a use for it in mind?

The datasheet indicated Adtron did testing with an IBM MicroDrive and a Toshiba 5GB flash card (highest tech available at the time) and transfer rates were up to 2.5/4.8MB/sec read/write burst doing 1 block transfers on a P200 with adaptec 2940UW.

For the purposes I'd be using this for, I can't forsee myself using CF cards larger than 512MB to 1GB, as the systems this would be used with are all quite old and have SCSI controllers that don't really exceed 5MB/sec sync transfers anyway. Things like an SGI Indy, Mac SE/30, Amiga 2000 etc. I don't require greater than Fast 10 speed. This would become a major toolkit item for me to run diagnostic software on such systems, update firmware etc. Primary use for me would be for an Atari Falcon 030 I own.

Bought a Radeon HD 2900XT for $70.

Not a mind blowing price but these are genuinely rare (didn't sell well, super noncompetitive compared to say, 8800GTX). Took me 2 years to find my 2900GT for $55 so I'm glad to finally have the real deal.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2022-12-25, 04:25:

Bought a Radeon HD 2900XT for $70.

Not a mind blowing price but these are genuinely rare (didn't sell well, super noncompetitive compared to say, 8800GTX). Took me 2 years to find my 2900GT for $55 so I'm glad to finally have the real deal.

I think it's a fair price. It took me a long time too to find mine. It was also in that range of price (it was an auction).
I think I never seen another one after that.
There is a quite cheap GT for sale in France (15€ +shipping) but I'm not really interested.
I would be interested by a 2900 Pro (the black one) but they are rare too. Or a second 2900 XT for a crossfire setup.

It's just a feeling I have, but think that high-end ATI cards are much harder to find than nVidia counterparts. (I'm mostly an ATI collector, so I may have a distorted feeling)

• Fury MAXX. Rare and hard to find at a good price (<$300)
• Radeon (7200). Easy to find SDR version. I never seen a lot of DDR versions.
• Radeon 8500. Hard to find a non LE / non DV / non AIW version. LE and non LE are exactly looking the same (try to spot the differences here : https://retro.user-unfriendly.net/Pictures/Ra … %20vs%208500LE/)
• Radeon 9700 pro are rare in working conditions because of their flawed cooling design. (I personally consider the 9700 more significant for a collection. But if you prefer a 9800xt, they don't die because of their cooling, but they were made in smaller quantities, so expensive as well)
• X850 XT. I see some quite often, so probably not super rare. (but the XT PE are hard to find)
• X1950 XT are probably not super rare either, but the XTX are not encountered often.
• HD2900 XT are difficult to find because GTX8800 were far better. So it was a commercial failure.
• HD3870x2 also rare also because of GTX8800
• HD4870x2 are less rare I think. Because they were better than nVidia 9xxx seriescand competitive with GTX2xx. Big ATI commercial success.
• HD 5970 can be found without much trouble because it's not retro yet (and also commercially successful because competitive with GTX2xx/4xx)
• HD 6xxx are AMD branded. So out of my collection scope.

I have the feeling that ATI is less collected by retro enthusiasts, but less available too. So instead of fighting with other potential Nvidia buyers, you just struggle to find the card itself.

Not sure if y feeling is correct. What do you think?