TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Apocalypsee]

I found old dusty HP laptop my father left it under a desk for a couple of years, its a HP 6910p business laptop

At first it was unable to boot few months ago when I tinker with it. But I found a very silly solution, remove battery and hold power button for half a minute. Surprisingly this very simple method works and it boot right off!

Everything is yellow though, the screen is very yellow. I have a spare screen but don't have time to replace it yet. I just adjust color and reduce red and green for the time being.

My father upgraded the harddisk to reasonable 500GB but kept the rest of hardware stock, with 2GB DDR2 and Core2Duo T9300, this CPU is really fast with 2.5GHz and 6MB L2 cache, it is a promising start for some good old gaming.
But I can't seem to install any sort of Intel GMA X3100 driver, modded or stock driver. After some quick Hardware ID google I found out it doesn't have Intel X3100 but it have a dedicated ATi Mobility X2300! It isn't a speed demon but a dedicated GPU is better than nothing. It runs MoHAA and NoLF2 at native resolution no problem at all, NoLF2 test it could reach 70+fps and drop to 37fps at highest setting. Not too shabby at all.

I currently run on Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit because I lost my XP disk and ISO, I'll download all XP driver and ISO. But to be honest even with 2GB RAM Windows 7 runs like a dream with no slowdown

 

[Bungz]

Few repairs this evening

PSU done

Took all the HM caps off that PS533-E board as one was bloating and was getting worse over the last couple of days gaming.

 

[Trekkie4]

Speaking of the previously mentioned "talking" Asus boards, here's the one I referred to in one of my previous posts - P4B.

The board itself was given to me for free in non-working condition, it kept reporting RAM error(s) regardless of what & how you would plug them into the slot(s). To be completely honest, I don't quite understand what happened there, I remember fiddling with the board, cleaning the RAM memory banks & replacing the CMOS battery and the next thing I knew the system booted up perfectly fine. But it does tend to go "crazy" from time to time, like that last time for example (only few months ago) when it didn't want to boot up and/or recognize the Iomega ZIP drive *shrug* Then the next thing I knew, hard drive suddenly "blew up", as the heads smashed into the rotating platter but that was due to drive itself & not related to the Asus motherboard - I hope!


As for the Iomega ZIP issue, this turned out to be the problem within the IDE cables, so I replaced both just to be on a safe side. Haven't tried to boot it up since then, but I figure it would (most likely) boot up OK. Here's the cable management "before" and "after" the whole maintenance & repair procedure:
Before:


After:


It's a funny story actually, because this entire P4B system holds a special value to me. I never had one of these before, but I DID have P4T system that I've bought in 2001. It was a Socket 423 Pentium 4 system, running at 1.4GHz from what I remember. It had 128MB of RIMM Rambus memory, in 2x 64MB configuration. Now that I think about it, I feel kinda bad for selling it, because it would have been quite a rare (and nostalgic) thing to have nowdays. On a bright side, I did keep everything else though, so I still have the original DVD-ROM drive, Hauppauge TV tuner & Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead cards, along with identical (but not the same) Teac floppy drive, Iomega ZIP100 & Teac CD-RW so I used all of those with P4B system.
Here are couple of pics from back in a day, of my actual P4T system. As you can see, these pics are all from 2005, so they're truly a flashback from the past


Take a good look at all the 3.5 & 5.25 drives... You'll see they're all the same, except for the BenQ CD-ROM which replaced the original "Teac", since I moved the CD-RW unit to my other, Pentium II system


And here's the pic of Pentium II with previously mentioned Teac CD-RW unit... Originally, this one came with P4 system (and just a standard, beige/white case with silver accents) but then I replaced both when I modded the case with that fancy black one & side panel window

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

Speaking of the previously mentioned "talking" Asus boards, here's the one I referred to in one of my previous posts - P4B.

The board itself was given to me for free in non-working condition, it kept reporting RAM error(s) regardless of what & how you would plug them into the slot(s). To be completely honest, I don't quite understand what happened there, I remember fiddling with the board, cleaning the RAM memory banks & replacing the CMOS battery and the next thing I knew the system booted up perfectly fine. But it does tend to go "crazy" from time to time, like that last time for example (only few months ago) when it didn't want to boot up and/or recognize the Iomega ZIP drive *shrug* Then the next thing I knew, hard drive suddenly "blew up", as the heads smashed into the rotating platter but that was due to drive itself & not related to the Asus motherboard - I hope!


As for the Iomega ZIP issue, this turned out to be the problem within the IDE cables, so I replaced both just to be on a safe side. Haven't tried to boot it up since then, but I figure it would (most likely) boot up OK. Here's the cable management "before" and "after" the whole maintenance & repair procedure:
Before:


After:


It's a funny story actually, because this entire P4B system holds a special value to me. I never had one of these before, but I DID have P4T system that I've bought in 2001. It was a Socket 423 Pentium 4 system, running at 1.4GHz from what I remember. It had 128MB of RIMM Rambus memory, in 2x 64MB configuration. Now that I think about it, I feel kinda bad for selling it, because it would have been quite a rare (and nostalgic) thing to have nowdays. On a bright side, I did keep everything else though, so I still have the original DVD-ROM drive, Hauppauge TV tuner & Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead cards, along with identical (but not the same) Teac floppy drive, Iomega ZIP100 & Teac CD-RW so I used all of those with P4B system.
Here are couple of pics from back in a day, of my actual P4T system. As you can see, these pics are all from 2005, so they're truly a flashback from the past


Take a good look at all the 3.5 & 5.25 drives... You'll see they're all the same, except for the BenQ CD-ROM which replaced the original "Teac", since I moved the CD-RW unit to my other, Pentium II system


And here's the pic of Pentium II with previously mentioned Teac CD-RW unit... Originally, this one came with P4 system (and just a standard, beige/white case with silver accents) but then I replaced both when I modded the case with that fancy black one & side panel window

Oh man, that case with the BenQ CD ROM, I love it! The feelings that it brings back... Thank you!

 

[Trekkie4]

It was made by the company called Codegen ... that's about all I can remember *sigh* On a side note, wish I hadn't give it away It would had been so cool to build a retro system in one of these... But then again, I feel the same way about my Pentium II case with sliding door, I literally searched the entire world to find one but came up empty

 

[Bungz]

We all have a bit of kit we regret selling.

I've been looking for a Epox 8K3A for about 4 years

Nada.

 

[Trekkie4]

Oh and by the way @uuuaaaaaa check out THIS post for more pics on the cool-looking case with the side panel window...

 

[SniperHF]

I've been looking for a Epox 8K3A for about 4 years

My original first purchased with my own money motherboard was the Epox 4G4A+. Died 3 years ago.

Good boards, don't seem to be as often fondly remembered as other manufacturers gone by.

 

[Red_Machine]

DUUUUUUUUUDE! The first computer I ever built used this case!

 

[Trekkie4]

DUUUUUUUUUDE! The first computer I ever built used this case!

Yup, that's the one! Extremely heavy (and durable, high-quality) case, but it wasn't the original choice for P4B system.

It came with one of those cheap, beige (more like yellowish) cases that I've re-purposed for some other project, where this one had a S370 Pentium III system running at 866MHz & Radeon 9100. So by the time I removed (& salvaged) all the S370 stuff for other projects, I've ended with empty case which turned out to be the perfect choice for a P4 system! Originally, I had P4B configured to do the speech thing though the internal speaker (real one, not a buzzer) but it was just too quiet for my personal taste, so I eventually reconfigured the board to route the speech diagnostics through the speaker output jack

 

[Ahhzz]

Just sent these little jewels to the happy hunting ground..

 

[Trekkie4]

Wait ... you threw these AWAY?!?

 

[Ahhzz]

Wait ... you threw these AWAY?!?

Yup. well, technically, they're in the cardboard bag for recycling

 

[dorsetknob]

Yup. well, technically, they're in the cardboard bag for recycling

Some people like throwing money away

Better place for them would be a goodwill/charity Shop...........or a grateful member here

 

[Ahhzz]

Well, if someone here wants to pay shipping, I'd be glad to pass them their direction, at least until I get to recycling

 

[Trekkie4]

Yup. well, technically, they're in the cardboard bag for recycling

No comment...

 

[INSTG8R]

Kinda getting vintage? Still sexy regardless

 

[Trekkie4]

Nah, no way that's vintage. I'm still using 8800GT and Q6600 as "daily runner" (can't really afford anything better at the moment) and I personally consider GeForce 8 series to be "fairly modern"

Nevertheless, that Radeon is one attractive-looking piece of hardware, that's for sure

 

[Ahhzz]

No comment...

If you want them, they're yours for the low, low price of shipping

 

[Apocalypsee]

Finally have time to replace my yellow-ish screen on my laptop. Sorry for the blurry picture I didn't check when I snap that. The original one is at the bottom.



The new screen is glossy and not matte, I'm not fond of glossy screen but since that's the only thing I have it'll do. I found out there is a backlight controller for this old CCFL backlight screens, newer ones that use LED backlight integrates to the LCD PCB itself. Interesting. The swap goes without problem.

Here's me playing GTA III with a solid 30fps No more yellow screen yay!

 

[GreiverBlade]

Nah, no way that's vintage. I'm still using 8800GT and Q6600 as "daily runner" (can't really afford anything better at the moment) and I personally consider GeForce 8 series to be "fairly modern"

Nevertheless, that Radeon is one attractive-looking piece of hardware, that's for sure

WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG'O (although a matter of personal opinion .... we are going by my standard on the "2008 hardware will be vintage soon enough" as i consider 10yrs to be the norm and 8800 are soooo 2006 , tho, nonetheless, i can be nostalgic of something that got out in 2015 also, which doesn't equal to vintage ofc)

my 4870/3870/3650/8800GTX/8800Ultra on my shelf beg to differ

Kinda getting vintage? Still sexy regardless

yep ... plenty qualified .... for me ....

 

[Durvelle27]

Found this in the closet

Putting it back together

 

[dorsetknob]

Found this in the closet

Asus P5? something
i see duel ATA and a Floppy Connector ( Single 12v ATX CPU power supply connector )

 

[Durvelle27]

Asus P5? something
i see duel ATA and a Floppy Connector ( Single 12v ATX CPU power supply connector )

ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe, Athlon 64 FX X2, and a Nvidia 9400GT

 

[dorsetknob]

ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe

Still a nice Board