TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Trekkie4]

Hmm, good point!

 

[Athlonite]

Time for 3.5" floppy upgrade Trekkie4

 

[Robert B]

Today I went to the flea market to buy some "garbage" of my own

Abit SA6 V1.1 - I dont know what CPU is on the board. Monday I'll take a look. ~ 2.2 EUR / 2.6 USD
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV (64 MB AGP) ~ 2.2EUR / 2.6 USD



gallery: https://postimg.org/gallery/179g5gf30/

The DALLAS DS1287 RTC was modified this week.



gallery: https://postimg.org/gallery/2lfbpczfg/

More later.

 

[Trekkie4]

He who shall not be named

 

[stinger608]

He who shall not be named

Old ISA modem?

 

[Trekkie4]

Lol, nope! And I thought it couldn't get more obvious...

It's a modem alright, except that's (in)famous CNR card. You know, that funny-looking, good for nothing slot usually found on 478 and 462 boards, from around early 2000s

 

[Athlonite]

erm mer gerd that little shitty slot that looks like a x1 PCIe slot from many many years ago I never thought I'd actually see a CNR slot based card ever nice find Trekkie4

 

[dorsetknob]

Had many a motherboard (and still got a couple) with that CNR slot but never seen or possessed a CNR modem always considered it as a wasted space/slot

 

[Trekkie4]

Actually this is my 2nd CNR modem ... the first one was (even) weirder, as it had a PCB entirely housed inside some plastic box. So not only it made it look bulky & out of place, but it was entirely covered up & you couldn't really see anything.

Don't remember what happened to it, but I either gave it away or scrapped it. This one, on the other hand is here to stay, as it looks like a "real thing", genuine expansion card. It's most likely in working condition, since I've only just removed it from a working system couple of days ago, some crappy mATX S462 system with on-board graphics running 256MB of RAM & Duron chip. I'm going to salvage the CPU (the only decent component left standing) & give it to a friend of mine, where the mobo is most likely going to bin. It has a bulging cap, and even if I do recap the thing, it's still going to be a low-grade mATX system with not much else to it. The model number reads "PC Chips M825"

 

[Red_Machine]

Is that a COM interface? I used to see them on older systems, but never saw the slot populated with anything.

 

[Trekkie4]

Is that a COM interface? I used to see them on older systems, but never saw the slot populated with anything.

Are you referring to the actual interface? Nope, that's CNR, as I already pointed out before As in "Communications and Networking Riser". It was a failed attempt to design software-controlled networking hardware, which would significantly cut down production costs & make it faster, allow more units to be mass-produced. But due to several reasons it never lived up to its expectations, and the entire CNR thing was scrapped only few years later.

Besides, DialUp modems were on their way out & DSL was massively taking over the market, so ppl no longer had use for fax modems (PCI ones or therwise) As for the ethernet, it was slowly becoming a standard, featured on pretty much every motherboard as a built-in feature so the CNR was left unused & forgotten.

Jeez, now I sound like LGR

 

[Athlonite]

Can you also remember the AMR slot (Audio Modem Riser) where they tried jimmying an Audio card and a Modem together looked just like the CNR slot but totally incompatible with each other and was mainly used in OEM PC's like Compaq and HP or Acer oh and don't forget the ACR slot either all of which were total fails

 

[Apocalypsee]

I never thought I've seen the day I saw one of those actual CNR cards, more surprisingly in 2018!

I'm about to post about AMR slot but Athlonite posti it first haha.

 

[Trekkie4]

Can you also remember the AMR slot (Audio Modem Riser) where they tried jimmying an Audio card and a Modem together looked just like the CNR slot but totally incompatible with each other and was mainly used in OEM PC's like Compaq and HP or Acer oh and don't forget the ACR slot either all of which were total fails

I've heard about AMR hardware before, but never actually got to see one in person... But who knows, maybe I'll get lucky some day

I never thought I've seen the day I saw one of those actual CNR cards, more surprisingly in 2018!

I'm about to post about AMR slot but Athlonite posti it first haha.

I know, right...? But that's always the case with old(er) hardware, it tends to "surface" every once in a while lol

By the way, I've tried to dig out the picture of my other CNR modem, the one with plastic housing around the PCB but couldn't find anything... And since I gave it away, it's too late to take one now, but it's pretty much identical to the one I got now, except it looks weird. Which was the only reason I gave it away, to begin with.

It looked a lot like this card, here except mine had a white (beige) housing, and was only partially covered where this one is entirely boxed in:

I'm guessing all this extra housing shielded the CNR card(s) from EM interference, for whatever the reason. Really, I don't see any other obvious explanation *shrug*

Edit
Here's somewhat better example:

 

[dorsetknob]

I'm guessing all this extra housing shielded the CNR card(s) from EM interference, for whatever the reason. Really, I don't see any other obvious explanation *shrug*

Highly unlightly the plastic is there for EM shielding.
Its probably only cosmetic to hide how little is on the Card so as to help hide how little the card cost to make v its retail Cost

 

[Trekkie4]

Highly unlightly the plastic is there for EM shielding.
Its probably only cosmetic to hide how little is on the Card so as to help hide how little the card cost to make v its retail Cost

Right, I see your point. But what I meant to say is that perhaps they've used plastic housing to hold, grip down some sort of shield or material which would remove or filter EM interference. Because let's face it, a full metal box would be far more expensive to produce than just a small plastic one, so they might have used the plastic guard to hold a very thin metal sheet, plate instead

 

[dorsetknob]

Right, I see your point. But what I meant to say is that perhaps they've used plastic housing to hold, grip down some sort of shield or material which would remove or filter EM interference. Because let's face it, a full metal box would be far more expensive to produce than just a small plastic one, so they might have used the plastic guard to hold a very thin metal sheet, plate instead

Based my opinion on Past Experence on similar bog standard PCI modems where its been necessary to "Remove the Plastic to Identify"
Brand/chips/maker so as to download Drivers and Software from the Web for those Cards you inevitable acquire Used with no software or Drivers

 

[Trekkie4]

So, I took the liberty of recapping & straightening out that junk mobo, PC Chips M825 v7.2A... Honestly, don't really know why, and besides it wasn't a proper recapping either. Simply pulled out that one, bulging cap & replaced it with brand new one. I know the board works OK, (it even worked with the old one) because I used it to boot into Win XP, but apart from that it doesn't have any obvious use and/or interest *shrug* Oh well, now I got yet another mATX board in my collection

I might take a pic or two if anyone's interested but really, apart from the onboard graphics (ProSavage8), it doesn't have anything unusual and/or worth mentioning. Just your standard mATX S462 board, capable of running two DDR266 sticks & AGP 4X graphics. I got something way more cooler that's been sitting inside the original box for ages, Chaintech Summit 7NIF-2 think it's called. Also mATX factor, capable of running DDR400 & AGP 8x cards. The onboard graphics is shot (I'm getting the artifacts all over the screen), but as I already pointed out it's capable of AGP 8x, and seems to be working perfectly fine with external video adapter. The only real downside is that I'm missing the I/O Shield, and can't seem to find it anywhere

 

[Trekkie4]

Finally, got some time to actually buy a new 1/2 inch headshell for my LP120, along with double set of aluminum, non-magnetic mounting screws, nuts & washers. Will post a pic or two once I receive the shipment, along with (hopefully) properly mounted Shure M94E

Even though Audio Technica originally used the silver headshell on all their models (including earlier gens of LP120), I picked the black one instead to make it resemble Technics SL1200, which originally came with identical, black headshell (pics retrieved from the Google search)
LP120

SL1200

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

 

[Trekkie4]

Question guys - do you think it would be worth cashing out just over 16 USD on a small-factor AT case with the power supply, two floppy drives and some of the other loose bits & pieces inside. Mobo is in non-working condition, Socket 3 system with 4x86 and VESA graphics.

 

[stinger608]

That's a tough call man. $16 isn't that much, but not having a working motherboard would make me hesitant.

 

[dorsetknob]

depends how much you could use an AT Case
Most of them probably been scrapped and turned into baked bean tins by now so one in reasonable condition may be worth aquiring for a Vintage Build
PSU by now probably of Dubious quality/use if it works floppy drives have no value ( you cannot usually give them away )

 

[Trekkie4]

I know, likewise... TBH, I actually DO have a working VESA mobo in my collection, it was one of those projects which never lived up, remained entirely on the drawing board so to speak. Especially since I've managed to source alternative (and fully working) 4x86 DX4 unit from another source. But that's not the question, having a blown mobo inside the case can mean a lot of things. Blown PSU is probably the most obvious one, and let's face it - AT factor PSU & appropriate case are probably the most important factors in this story. Exactly what @dorsetknob just said!

The guy who's selling these didn't have a picture of the case, but he claims it to be in non-damaged and/or cracked condition except for yellowed plastic due to old age.

 

[lexluthermiester]

The guy who's selling these didn't have a picture of the case, but he claims it to be in non-damaged and/or cracked condition except for yellowed plastic due to old age.

Invite him to this forum and have him post pictures here. Just a thought.