best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Use anything you like as long as you properly rinse it afterwards.
I've used YES in the past, it's a simple washing detergent...
Board is working fine almost 10 years after so I'd call that a success

I've had the same results with Simple Green.... Long-term, my precision470 is the best example, it was a sludgy mess when I got it back around 06 (bad caps of course)...simple greened it, washed, air compressor dried, its still rock solid running paxvilles. It got wonky on me once, turns out I had a bad memory module.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I've had the same results with Simple Green.... Long-term, my precision470 is the best example, it was a sludgy mess when I got it back around 06 (bad caps of course)...simple greened it, washed, air compressor dried, its still rock solid running paxvilles. It got wonky on me once, turns out I had a bad memory module.

Thing is, I can't find Simple Green where I live, and neither "YES".

The only thing I have on hand is Bonux and Axion. (the former being used for washing clothes and the latter for dishes usually.)

Should I just bite the bullet then and buy some isopropyl and use that to clean it along with a hair dryer? I should mention I did actually clean some sections of the board using a cloth dipped in medical alcohol (spirit, it's blue in color) and to some extent the smell has diminished considerably. (you can only smell it if you're very very close to the board)

[hikaruichijo]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

I don't like to trow away any hardware if it's working.
and my second computer was a CPC 6128+ that died around 1998. And my previous find was an CPC 6128 with a green monitor, somebody cutted the wires but there's a lot of info and squematics of the CPCs so it was easy to rewire it and add a new 3 1/2 floppy, externally of course. Never modify old hardware unless it can be undone.
So for me it's Z80 all around latelly.
I'll keep the P5040 for sentimental reasons and the Z80s of course.
But someone more knowledgeable could do more with it, that's what hurts me.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

dish washing liquid - like fairy, and boiling water.

[Curious.George]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

I don't like to trow away any hardware if it's working.

There comes a point in time where all that it is doing is "working" -- but not getting much of anything "done"!

and my second computer was a CPC 6128+ that died around 1998.

I still have my first CP/M (actually, MP/M) machine -- with 512KB of RAM (oodles for that era). Complete with its 8" floppy drive. And, a box of virgin media if I ever opt to power it up, again.

But, once I rescued all of the files from the original system, it held little real value for me -- the data being more valuable than the machine used to create it.

Never modify old hardware unless it can be undone.

I'm not that much of a zealot. E.g., my Compaq Portable 386 has a 600MB disk drive installed; that was never a supported option for the machine. I had to burn a new set of BIOS EPROMs in order for the machine to recognize it (the machine predates "user defined drive geometries"). I didn't bother keeping an image of the ROMs' original contents.

But someone more knowledgeable could do more with it, that's what hurts me.

There will always be someone who could do more -- regardless of how much you can do with it! I only truly regret the machines that I have "collecting dust" with no real plans of ever powering up, again. This is the time of year I move that sort of cruft out -- to make room for new cruft!

[stj]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

there are people who would be *very* interested in that unit - even just borrowing it.
contact mamedev
http://www.mamedev.com/contact.html

[kc8adu]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

its probably mda.
rarely some were hercules.
both are 18.4 khz

[hikaruichijo]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

A mod that enhances the hardware but keeps all the original functions, is the perfect mod for me. I also have a Toshiba T2130CT that had a 520mb hdd and I've replaced it with a 6gb hdd so something more than the OS itself, but the original hdd is still working and togueder with the system in the case I want to put it like it was before. But to install an 3 1/2" floppy drive in a CPC 6128, you need to mod the case cutting it because it had an 3" drive.

I'm still waiting for a CGA monitor that my boos promised to lend me, but he's lazy when it comes to this things, so I'll have to wait, and remenber it to hin almoust every day.
Fron what I've read in the wiki about MDA,HERCULES and CGA, a CGA monitor should work if the P5040 has one of that interfaces.

I'll contact with mamedev to see if they have any intrest in the P5040 it could be the best destiny for the machine but is a wordprocesor not a gaming machine, what use could they have for it?

[Curious.George]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

A mod that enhances the hardware but keeps all the original functions, is the perfect mod for me. I also have a Toshiba T2130CT that had a 520mb hdd and I've replaced it with a 6gb hdd so something more than the OS itself, but the original hdd is still working and togueder with the system in the case I want to put it like it was before.

The Portable 386 uses a fair number of "custom" parts (designed to address it's unique "lunchbox" package style). The 5 inch floppy drive is an oddball. And, the 5" half height (internal) hard disk was "early IDE" -- relying on a disk parameter table (DPT) in the BIOS to initialize the controller in the drive to the correct geometry (C/H/S).

There was no setup mode -- nor diagnostics mode. These facilities were provided by separate bootable floppies. You selected a "disk type" from among those that Compaq had decided to support; the largest may have been 300MB (or maybe ~150MB -- note that's megabytes, not gigabytes... we're talking 1987, here)

So, getting a 600MB disk into the case meant mounting it in a 5" frame and then modifying the DPT to reflect the geometry of the drive in question. (Then, adjusting the checksum of the modified ROMs so the POST didn't complain of corrupted ROMs!)

But to install an 3 1/2" floppy drive in a CPC 6128, you need to mod the case cutting it because it had an 3" drive.

I have 3" floppies on several of my workstations party because my PROM programmer boots from a floppy -- so floppies are a convenient way of transferring ROM images.

Making (5") floppies for the Portable 386 is a bit more of an ordeal as I have to drag out a 5" drive and cobble it into one of the workstations, temporarily.

I'll contact with mamedev to see if they have any intrest in the P5040 it could be the best destiny for the machine but is a wordprocesor not a gaming machine, what use could they have for it?

What use could I have for a 30 year old 386?

[Ans: it gives me two ISA slots so I can support the few bits of legacy ISA hardware that are still important to me -- without having to keep a big desktop machine/keyboard/monitor lying around]

[stj]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

mame is now emulating old computers and even beyond.
if it has a cpu, they want to emulate it!

[martino]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Found today

I know it's an old post but just ran into it. Selling that?

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

not a bad day. Scored the following on the filthy cheap:

12 more 160gb velociraptors ($4.00 per drive)
3x 3ware 9650 4-port RAID controllers with BBU, batt, and miniSAS cables (free)
3x Quadro FX5800's for $25ea shipped. lowballed 'best offer', they accepted

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Some scores on New Year - box with a bunch of GPUs, a ISA audiocard and a 56K modem and a 320GB WDC Blue SATA.


GPU:

Palit FX5200 NPB (Lead free, that's what NPB means) 256MB AGP8x - both dead, knocked SMD caps in a few places - lytic donors since both come factory with Rubycon MBZs.

Winfast A6200TD - there's a short on the molex plug that prevents a PC to turn on - will turn on without it connected tho. Maybe one of the mosfets went south? None show any signs of being burned or anything.

Soltek Geforce 4 MX440-8x 64MB - works, only the fan is dead (but can be easily replaced since it's a generic 40mm fan)

Palit Geforce 2 MX400 64MB - recapped, works fine

3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP w/ VGA& S-Video - works fine, STB branded

Sapphire Radeon 9250 128MB AGP - works

ATI Rage IIC AGP - works

Avance Logic ALG2302 PCI - won't POST, I get the no GPU beep - no idea what's wrong though, PCB is in near perfect shape

Analog Devices ISA Soundcard - untested

Generic 56k Modem - untested

WDC 320GB Caviar Blue SATA, 8MB cache - works fine, installed in a Pentium 4 machine - runs XP Home Edition SP3.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Intel D845WN - i845 board, SDRAM. Didn't get it to POST yet, although removing RAM will result in "no RAM" POST beeps. Will have to search for my old Samsung and Transcend PC133 RAM sticks though, as these might work. (SDRAM boards were always picky about my RAM sticks to begin with and most of the times only these two Samsung and Transcend sticks would work) Otherwise it had 4 bad Nichicon HM, 2001 datecode, probably caused both by the bad batch formula and the PSU to begin with.

Likely just a bad batch from 2001-2004 (H01xx-H04xx)

I have this motherboard, and mine came with bad KZG on the CPU output. Haven't gotten a chance to use the board yet, but it looks well made otherwise. Takes only 400 MHz FSB CPUs, though. If you're using a Northwood core above 2 or 2.4 or 2.6 GHz (I don't remember which), you'll need a BIOS update. I had to do that to mine to use it with a 2.8 GHz Northwood (again, only 400 MHz FSB).

TEAC CD-ROM drive

CD-540E by any chance?

Oh, and there's no Simple Green here where I live, and I don't know what can I use instead.

Any phosphate-based detergent will likely do - i.e. liquid dish detergent or liquid laundry detergent will both work fine.

*AVOID*
- cleaners with Chlorine
- cleaners with Amonia
- anything with acid
All of these above may cause damage to the motherboard.

Anyone in the UK want some free kit that needs repair?

Asus a8v deluxe motherboard (leaky caps)
AMD Athlon 64 chip
Matrox GPU g55+mdha32db
Adapted 29160lp controller (physical damage to resisters)
2GB Kingston DDR 400
IDE dvd drive

If I lived closer, I would have taken you up on that offer. The prices of older AMD motherboards like socket 754 and 939 are starting to go up a bit on eBay. Also more rare to find working, especially with a decent AMD Athlon chip like 3000+ or better (at least for socket 754).

not a bad day. Scored the following on the filthy cheap:

12 more 160gb velociraptors ($4.00 per drive)
3x 3ware 9650 4-port RAID controllers with BBU, batt, and miniSAS cables (free)
3x Quadro FX5800's for $25ea shipped. lowballed 'best offer', they accepted

Nice work on the Best Offer. I tried it a few times (sometimes asking only for $1-2 off on a $20 item, and seller refused, lol).

Those old Velociraptors are nice. I never used one, but I've heard they are very reliable.

Palit FX5200 NPB (Lead free, that's what NPB means) 256MB AGP8x - both dead, knocked SMD caps in a few places - lytic donors since both come factory with Rubycon MBZs.

No big loss, IMO. FX5200 is just such a low-end video card, it's hardly useful for anything more than 2D work.

Winfast A6200TD - there's a short on the molex plug that prevents a PC to turn on - will turn on without it connected tho. Maybe one of the mosfets went south? None show any signs of being burned or anything.

Molex plug on a 6200? Sounds like a 6200 based on a 6600-die. If that's the case, it may be worth trying to fix it, especially if it's AGP.

And yes, it very likely does have a shorted MOSFET if the PSU shuts down - probably the upper MOSFET in the GPU V_core buck/VRM circuit.

3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP w/ VGA& S-Video - works fine, STB branded

Well now I am jealous!
I always wanted to try a 3DFX VooDoo card with my older games. Just not sure I want to pay the price people are asking for these video card nowadays.

ATI Rage IIC AGP - works

Good description. "Works"
As in, you'll only get super-basic video output. Forget about any games - that will only make you RAGE (and likely rage-quit ).

[goodpsusearch]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

momaka I think it's just a matter of time before you get a 3DFX VooDoo card to test its capabilities. I got 1 for free and I wasn't even looking for it.

On the other hand I love old ATI all in wonder cards. Too bad analog TV is dead here, so these cards can be used only for VIDEO IN / VIDEO OUT.

Happy new year

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Good description. "Works"
As in, you'll only get super-basic video output. Forget about any games - that will only make you RAGE (and likely rage-quit ).

Interestingly many server motherboards still used the Rage XL (a die-shrink of the Rage-Pro) for video until fairly recently. Of course on a server it only needs to be able to provide basic video output to a terminal, so a decades old 8mb-16mb video solution was fine for that.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nice work on the Best Offer. I tried it a few times (sometimes asking only for $1-2 off on a $20 item, and seller refused, lol).

Those old Velociraptors are nice. I never used one, but I've heard they are very reliable.

I've had about the same luck with best offers....but once in a while, I score a good deal. I have to LOL when someone gets butthurt & offended by a lowball....I mean seriously, grow a pair or don't put 'best offer' on your items! I can understand denying it, but I've had a few actually take the time to tell me what a cheapass I am....

I've got 2 dozen of these now. I found a bad one in the mix and removed the 2.5" drive from the adapter tray. I replaced it with a SSD I had on hand, which fits like a glove, which will allow a SSD to be used in a 3.5" SAS tray without having to buy the pricey icydock adapters, and worked fine.....but I discovered when I pulled the HDD out of the tray, the interior interface of the tray was keyed for SAS....which made my brain activate (dangerous sometimes).....there are 2.5" SAS HDD's that are 15k RPM, and CHEEEAAAAPPP! ...so my logic is to put a 2.5" 15k SAS drive into one of these trays and be able to mount internally without the need for SAS adapters (will work as long as the controller supports SAS), or would work with External SATA hotswap bays that arent keyed for SAS....again, as long as the controller supports SAS, it will be golden. A 15k RPM 2.5" spinner is screaming fast compared to the 3.5" counterpart....can be had cheap, and for stubborn old billygoats like me that like spinning drives, would make for a quite unusual setup... When I round up a couple things and thoroughly test it, I'll make a thread about it...

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A Lenovo Thinkpad T510 for $20, missing HDD and bad ODD (though I had an SSD laying around to put in it and a bunch of spare Lenovo Ultrabay ODDs), the battery only has 35% capacity, but it is one Lenovo recalled so they're sending me a brand new battery for it for free:




I Put Windows 10 on it to use to play around with/get used to it (since it looks like we'll be going to windows 10 at work by mid-2019):




Also got a brand new Lenovo 70++ 9-Cell battery (which fits both my T430 and the T510) for $10, with a chipped corner (which jammed the latch which is why I got it so cheap, but I was able to take it apart and free-up the latch, so not it just has a minor cosmetic chip in the bottom left corner):

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Likely just a bad batch from 2001-2004 (H01xx-H04xx)

I have this motherboard, and mine came with bad KZG on the CPU output. Haven't gotten a chance to use the board yet, but it looks well made otherwise. Takes only 400 MHz FSB CPUs, though. If you're using a Northwood core above 2 or 2.4 or 2.6 GHz (I don't remember which), you'll need a BIOS update. I had to do that to mine to use it with a 2.8 GHz Northwood (again, only 400 MHz FSB).

It was the bad batch of HMs and surprisingly two VRs near the RAM slot that prevented the board.

Still, no idea how useful a SD-RAM S478 board is, other than having it as a interesting item.

CD-540E by any chance?

Yes,it's a CD-540E. How did you know?

Any phosphate-based detergent will likely do - i.e. liquid dish detergent or liquid laundry detergent will both work fine.

*AVOID*
- cleaners with Chlorine
- cleaners with Amonia
- anything with acid
All of these above may cause damage to the motherboard.

Will try Fairy (it's been suggested by stj and I can easily find it) and see what results I have.

No big loss, IMO. FX5200 is just such a low-end video card, it's hardly useful for anything more than 2D work.

Funny thing - there was yet ANOTHER FX5200 card that I forgot mentioning - it's an ASUS V9520Magic/T. I had to replace an coil (which somebody literally ripped it off the board) near the GPU and two 470uF 16v polymer SMD caps that were also ripped. (I used some 470uF 25v Nichicon HD caps - thankfully the PCB was made so that if in any case the SMD caps are knocked off, you can instead solder thru-hole lytics.) While at it, I transplanted the VGA BIOS from a dead Winfast A340 card (also FX5200) onto it. Makes it at least nicer to see when booting. IIRC, there were also some old ATI cards that had a spinning ATI logo show up on the VGA BIOS before POST.

Molex plug on a 6200? Sounds like a 6200 based on a 6600-die. If that's the case, it may be worth trying to fix it, especially if it's AGP.

That's because it probably is a 6600 - I just happened to search the PCB up on google and most of the results for it were for the A6600 - a Geforce 6600 that looks similar to my card.

And yes, it very likely does have a shorted MOSFET if the PSU shuts down - probably the upper MOSFET in the GPU V_core buck/VRM circuit.

I suspect being a single mosfet near the molex connector - a PHm0501, which shows absolutely nothing on Google. I replaced it with a Anpec APM3055L, but have yet to power on to check if it works.

Well now I am jealous!
I always wanted to try a 3DFX VooDoo card with my older games. Just not sure I want to pay the price people are asking for these video card nowadays.

Y'know, I'm pretty new to the 3dfx stuff, so I gotta know how good this card is, other than the fairly good Conexant chip used for S-Video. Shame it's a 2x card though. Fortunately I have a AMD760 board (Gigabyte GA-7DXE) that has a universal 4x slot I can stick this Voodoo 3 3000 into. Might build a machine around it, but not sure if I should go with 98 or 2000 Server SP4 instead. (Server variants are a bit faster than the workstation counterparts - I have a nF2 retro gaming machine that runs 2000 Adv. Server on 256MB RAM and it's pretty fast compared to another machine with a VIA chipset running 2000 Pro.)

Good description. "Works"
As in, you'll only get super-basic video output. Forget about any games - that will only make you RAGE (and likely rage-quit ).

It actually runs a few games - NFS Porsche 2000, Oddworld and Beetle Crazy Cup being a few of them.


While at it, I also found a 7300GT, G73 VZ-N-A2 core ASUS card that surprisingly has a SLI goldfinger near the S-Video port. It has some weird stuff near a few RAM chips, I suspect it's a bit of corrosion, but don't know, since using medicinal spirit to clean the card (I frequently use it and had great results with it on PCBs and such.) actually wiped some of the gunk away. Otherwise it did POST on a Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3 board, although with small artefacts that strangely went away after a reset. I had a Geforce 8500 do the same at first, but after running it for 10 seconds without a heatsink proved to be a long-term fix, since it served me well as a temporary replacement for nearly a year for a GT210 that wouldn't work anymore.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

momaka I think it's just a matter of time before you get a 3DFX VooDoo card to test its capabilities. I got 1 for free and I wasn't even looking for it.

Maybe.
Happy New Year to you as well!

Interestingly many server motherboards still used the Rage XL (a die-shrink of the Rage-Pro) for video until fairly recently. Of course on a server it only needs to be able to provide basic video output to a terminal, so a decades old 8mb-16mb video solution was fine for that.

Ugh, I know. But the Rage XL was not good enough even for that, IMO. For example, my HP Netserver E-800 has Rage XL with 2 MB of VRAM on its motherboard. That thing is so slow that even scrolling down a page of files in Windows Explorer is extremely laggy - worse than when you have basic VGA drivers on a more powerful video card.

I've had about the same luck with best offers....but once in a while, I score a good deal. I have to LOL when someone gets butthurt & offended by a lowball....I mean seriously, grow a pair or don't put 'best offer' on your items! I can understand denying it, but I've had a few actually take the time to tell me what a cheapass I am....

Agreed.

I had worse, though. I was trying to buy a video card and a sound card from this one seller and asked (before bidding) if he could combine shipping (if I won the auction). The shipping for each item was like $10 each and the seller wasn't that far away (like a neighboring state or two away). Thus, taking the sound card and putting it together with the video card wouldn't even have raised the cost of the shipping. But when I asked, the seller gave me a disgruntled 'no', followed by a long explanation of how he's not going to bother repacking items as he though the starting bids for those items were already "so cheap" (they weren't, actually). Needless to say, I didn't bother replaying to that. And his items ended up getting un-bought, even though he re-listed them several times (and even slightly cheaper).

Still, no idea how useful a SD-RAM S478 board is, other than having it as a interesting item.

Indeed.
There's no shortage of "retro" parts from that era (not yet anyways... but maybe in 20 years, that motherboard could be worth a lot? ).

Yes,it's a CD-540E. How did you know?

Oh, I wrote this piece of software that hacks into the wireless/router of every badcaps.net user and then uses the WiFi airwaves to read their thoughts.
...
Okay, maybe not.

It was just a guess on my part. Every time I hear about someone owning a Teac CD-ROM drive for desktop, the CD-540E model immediately comes to mind, as there's a good chance that's what it is. The CD-540E is probably one of their most popular models from back in the day - like the Dell OptiPlex GX270 in offices and schools in the mid-2000's (at least here in the USA).

It's also pretty damn reliable: no belts in the drive tray to get loose or fail over time (it's all driven by gears, hence the loud eject noises it makes) and had overall a very good reading mechanism (rarely can't read even heavily scratched discs). I have two CD-540E drives, and they continue to serve me to this day. The first one we got with our first computer back in 1998. Back then, I didn't know about no-CD cracks for games, so the drive got used quite often when I was playing games on the PC (a few hours a day wasn't uncommon). This was going on all the way until 2003-2004 or so. And that drive never quit on me and still works like new.

That's because it probably is a 6600 - I just happened to search the PCB up on google and most of the results for it were for the A6600 - a Geforce 6600 that looks similar to my card.

That means you're very likely to be able to unlock it to a 6600 card. If this is an AGP card... well, then you have a pretty decent card on your hands there.

It's not as good as the GeForce 6800 GT, but close. Just a tad slower than the 6800 XT (lacking 1 vertex shader and only being 128-bit... but you can overclock it a ton probably! )

I suspect being a single mosfet near the molex connector - a PHm0501, which shows absolutely nothing on Google.

Rather than suspecting, just use your multimeter to see which MOSFET shows a low resistance between Source and Drain (and possibly Gate - that's a definite indication of a bad FET) that has traces going to the 12V rail on the Molex connector.

Y'know, I'm pretty new to the 3dfx stuff, so I gotta know how good this card is, other than the fairly good Conexant chip used for S-Video. Shame it's a 2x card though. Fortunately I have a AMD760 board (Gigabyte GA-7DXE) that has a universal 4x slot I can stick this Voodoo 3 3000 into. Might build a machine around it, but not sure if I should go with 98 or 2000 Server SP4 instead.

From what I hear, the VooDoo 3 is not the best VooDoo card, but still pretty decent (especially for its time).

If you're going to build a retro game PC, go with either Windows 95, 98, or 98SE (or if you are really experimental, then ME is what it should BE. )

Aside from drivers being easier to for Windows 9x, many games from that era were also designed with Windows 9x in mind (so you're less likely to get weird bugs).

Regarding the ATI Rage...

It actually runs a few games - NFS Porsche 2000, Oddworld and Beetle Crazy Cup being a few of them.

lol. 'runs NFS Porsche 2000'.
That game's graphics are so basic that it can run on virtually almost anything with 3D acceleration. Don't get me wrong, though - I love that game (and still play it occasionally by myself and with my nephew. )

But I ran it on an 16 MB S3 Savage 4 video card some 15 years ago with a Pentium II 400 MHz, and even that was okay. (Just FYI, when I hear something has an S3 video card, I immediately shiver ). So the Rage card running that is not very surprising.

Now try NFS Underground.
You'd probably get all kinds of "cool" dancing squares and rectangles.
It's a game I can run on a Radeon 7000 Pro with minimum settings (but at least it runs without "dancing polygons" ). And a Radeon 7200? Pshhh - that's classes above the Rage