TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[lexluthermiester]

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Latest find

I haven't seen one of those in more than a decade! LOVED those cases. Wish they still made them!

Damn you Bungz! I soooo want my old Clear Acrylic case back... The things we could do with those cases and modern hardware with RGB lighting! Hell yeah!!

 

[seth1911]

Im Nostalgic with my A8 3800 IGP @ OC, its is a Monster it rules everthing to the A10 7870K

A8 3800 IGP @ OC = 748 GFLOPs ( DDR3 2467)
A8 7600 IGP @ OC = 697 GFOPs ( DDR3 2216)

But the 6550D can only work till DX 11 and OpenGL, no Vulkan or DX 12 support

 

[Arrakis9]

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Latest find

Were did you pick that case up from?

 

[Trekkie4]

So anyhow, over the last couple of days I've been working on these...


Yes, two more BTC (XH Series) CD-ROM drives! They were kindly donated to me, and even though none of the two units worked on first try, I'm happy to report that BCD 40XH was successfully fixed, simply by taking the case apart & gently wiping the lens.


Unfortunately, the same thing couldn't be said for the other (36XH) unit, which seems to exhibit odd ... or rather unusual behavior. Although everything seemed to look normal at first, things got weird when it tried to spin up the actual CD inside. Instead of rotating clockwise as it should, it tried to spin up other way around, in the opposite direction. Then decided to pull the "emergency brake", and spin the motor the right way. But then soon after changed its mind again and tried anticlockwise. And so on, it kept on going and going until it eventually gave up & declared that the tray was "empty".

@r0x here believes that the problem is due to motor controller (or at least something to do with voltages), and I even tried alternative mechanism entirely - just to make sure that it's not something with the motor, laser pickup or one of the sensors.


But no - even with entirely different mech, the problem was still pretty much the same. And just when I was about to give it up entirely, I gave it another try earlier today and manually spun the motor clockwise, as soon as the tray closed. I'll let you be the judge of what happened next


It looks as if everything's working normal ... but from what I can tell, something is still very much causing issues. Either one of the solder pads are cracked, shorted or damaged OR the actual motor controller is indeed damaged somehow and is causing issues. Furthermore, I tried to play a standard Audio CD through the internal controls and external speakers, hooked onto the headphone jack. Again - nothing! I can hear crackling, almost static-like noise for couple of seconds as it tries to play, but then rejects & stops entirely. Oddly enough, the actual drive does seem to recognize between "audio" and "data" CDs, as the audio will spin at much lower rate, where on the other hand data will spin at max. RPM. Most importantly, in both cases the actual CD is being recognized, as you can tell by the LED.


Just for the sake of reference, LED Off = No Disc inside (or detected), LED On = Disc Inside, drive is in idle state & Blinking LED = Reading/accessing data

 

[Bungz]

Were did you pick that case up from?

A localish FB listing.


Wanted it mainly for the 6800gs agp but the case is immaculate which is unusual for acrylics, they usually have cracks.

 

[AlwaysHope]

Ok, I figured out what was going wrong with installing Win2K Pro or XP onto the MSI KT4V board. Seems these operating systems need an IDE filter driver preloaded when prompted via the F6 key during install. XP sp1 fixed that but none of my copies of XP sp1 want to boot properly although the original XP MS disc does. Freaking optical drives!!!
Problem is the only as far as I know at this point working floppy drive is in that box, although I have several other boxes here circa 2000 era, with floppy drives in them but they haven't been booted up in over a decade.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Ok, I figured out what was going wrong with installing Win2K Pro or XP onto the MSI KT4V board. Seems these operating systems need an IDE filter driver preloaded when prompted via the F6 key during install. XP sp1 fixed that but none of my copies of XP sp1 want to boot properly although the original XP MS disc does. Freaking optical drives!!!
Problem is the only as far as I know at this point working floppy drive is in that box, although I have several other boxes here circa 2000 era, with floppy drives in them but they haven't been booted up in over a decade.

Nah. XP will load on that board without anything at f6 at all. Your install media is messing with you.

 

[AlwaysHope]

Nah. XP will load on that board without anything at f6 at all. Your install media is messing with you.

Ok, but I posted a screenshot yesterday of the error msg I'm getting when using the MS original XP install disc. This is with a VIA SB remember.

 

[stinger608]

That works. If it's nostalgic to you and you want to share it, feel free. Most(All?) of us who frequent this thread try hard to keep it a welcoming place. If you have something that is only 7 years old and you feel nostalgic about it, post it! It's all good! It's fun to see what other people have fond and good memories of!

my HW is to young oldest is from the Year 2008

As @lexluthermiester just stated, there really isn't a hardware date to make it "nostalgic." If it's something that brings back fond memories for you, that would be nostalgic for you man!

That is pretty much what this thread has been about since it's beginning in 2009. So, by all means, post anything you wish man.

Nah. XP will load on that board without anything at f6 at all. Your install media is messing with you.

Oh yeah, I remember that old prompt! Man, that takes me back.

 

[lexluthermiester]

XP sp1 fixed that but none of my copies of XP sp1 want to boot properly although the original XP MS disc does. Freaking optical drives!!!

Ok, but I posted a screenshot yesterday of the error msg I'm getting when using the MS original XP install disc. This is with a VIA SB remember.

It's not the optical drive. That was a known problem with SP1. Get an ISO for XP SP2 or SP3 and your problem will be solved.

 

[Trekkie4]

@AlwaysHope You're not using a self-ejecting, anti-clockwise, shaky & crackling BTC CD-ROM drive ... are you?!

Because in all the seriousness, this is one of the common issues with BTC drives...

 

[Robert B]

The Trunk O' Loot!

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/prw-2021-310-jpg.221085/

I couldn't edit the post so the Trunk O' Loot is looking something like this:

1. Chaintech CT-5RSA2 - Super Socket 7 + AMD K6-2 500MHz - to this date just the 3rd SS7 motherboard that I own.
2. AMAX / A-Trend LX-440B with Pentium 2 233MHz/66 - slow and steady wins the race!
3. MSI MS-6156 - 440ZX + Pentium 3 450MHz - back in the day I had an MS-6154 S370 board so this is as close as it gets to rebuilding my 2nd ever PC!
4. ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe + AXP 2500+ Arctic Cooling Copper Silent - Sk. A while still overlooked now, will get pretty rare over the following years. My 3rd A7N8X class motherboard.
5. ASUS GF2 GTS 32MB V7700 - my 3rd or 4th? I lost count. - I have plenty of GF2 GTS cards of all kinds and shapes.
6. P3 500MHz Slot 1 - a little slow but it was free so why not?
7. 2x Matrox Millennium 2 PCI - these beg for V2 SLI action and I got this covered!
8. Trident 3D Image 9750 AGP - just a curiosity for me.
9. Creative Sound Blaster 32 CT3620 with two SIMM memory sockets - unnecessarily long card is long but I LIKE IT!
10. Creative Sound Blaster 32 PnP CT3670 with two SIMM memory sockets - long card is long but you've guessed it I LIKE IT!
11. Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 CT4520 - hmmm AWE64 value or whatever, still an AWE64
12. ELSA WINNER 1000 S3 Trio64V+ 2MB SDRAM PCI - the "humble" S3 Trio from a reputable manufacturer.
13. STB SYSTEMS NITRO 3D/GX 4MB PCI S3 VIRGE/GX - this also wants some V2 SLI action and I also got this covered.
14. MSI MS 8806 - Graphics adapter - TNT2 Pro - AGP 4x - 32 MB SDRAM - a fully fledged TNT2? OH yeah!
15. Diamond SpeedStar A90, S3 Savage4 Pro+ at 110 MHz 16MB AGP - another out of the ordinary card.

As it is always the case with flea market loot, they have some wear and tear but have no fear as I'll rip an tear through all of them and eventually each and one of them will have its story told. As it should.

Also I will need to make an investment in some desoldering/soldering tools as I want to take things further and I want to make my life easier and also safer for the components that I'll restore.

All of the above stuff will be kept for the time being. None will be sold for the quick and easy $$$.

This year was ludicrous in regards to the quantity and quality of the stuff I got and by the looks of it there are no signs that things will be slowing down.

Another reorganization of my stuff is looming over my head but I'm not complaining.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Ok, but I posted a screenshot yesterday of the error msg I'm getting when using the MS original XP install disc. This is with a VIA SB remember.

Chipset makes no difference on install. Drivers are installed after the OS. In your case, you'll be installing the VIA 4in1 drivers. Only thing that ever gets installed at f6 if you need it is SATA controller driver.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/prw-2021-310-jpg.221085/

I couldn't edit the post so the Trunk O' Loot is looking something like this:

1. Chaintech CT-5RSA2 - Super Socket 7 + AMD K6-2 500MHz - to this date just the 3rd SS7 motherboard that I own.
2. AMAX / A-Trend LX-440B with Pentium 2 233MHz/66 - slow and steady wins the race!
3. MSI MS-6156 - 440ZX + Pentium 3 450MHz - back in the day I had an MS-6154 S370 board so this is as close as it gets to rebuilding my 2nd ever PC!
4. ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe + AXP 2500+ Arctic Cooling Copper Silent - Sk. A while still overlooked now, will get pretty rare over the following years. My 3rd A7N8X class motherboard.
5. ASUS GF2 GTS 32MB V7700 - my 3rd or 4th? I lost count. - I have plenty of GF2 GTS cards of all kinds and shapes.
6. P3 500MHz Slot 1 - a little slow but it was free so why not?
7. 2x Matrox Millennium 2 PCI - these beg for V2 SLI action and I got this covered!
8. Trident 3D Image 9750 AGP - just a curiosity for me.
9. Creative Sound Blaster 32 CT3620 with two SIMM memory sockets - unnecessarily long card is long but I LIKE IT!
10. Creative Sound Blaster 32 PnP CT3670 with two SIMM memory sockets - long card is long but you've guessed it I LIKE IT!
11. Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 CT4520 - hmmm AWE64 value or whatever, still an AWE64
12. ELSA WINNER 1000 S3 Trio64V+ 2MB SDRAM PCI - the "humble" S3 Trio from a reputable manufacturer.
13. STB SYSTEMS NITRO 3D/GX 4MB PCI S3 VIRGE/GX - this also wants some V2 SLI action and I also got this covered.
14. MSI MS 8806 - Graphics adapter - TNT2 Pro - AGP 4x - 32 MB SDRAM - a fully fledged TNT2? OH yeah!
15. Diamond SpeedStar A90, S3 Savage4 Pro+ at 110 MHz 16MB AGP - another out of the ordinary card.

As it is always the case with flea market loot, they have some wear and tear but have no fear as I'll rip an tear through all of them and eventually each and one of them will have its story told. As it should.

Also I will need to make an investment in some desoldering/soldering tools as I want to take things further and I want to make my life easier and also safer for the components that I'll restore.

All of the above stuff will be kept for the time being. None will be sold for the quick and easy $$$.

This year was ludicrous in regards to the quantity and quality of the stuff I got and by the looks of it there are no signs that things will be slowing down.

Another reorganization of my stuff is looming over my head but I'm not complaining.

I am so glad that we don't have the flee markets that you have there. My wife would shoot me dead. I'm already a hoarder.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I am so glad that we don't have the flee markets that you have there. My wife would shoot me dead. I'm already a hoarder.

While that's a good reason for it, it's still a shame you don't. I remember the local "flea market" that operated in a drive-in theater during the day when I lived in SoCal. Good grief do I miss that place!

 

[Robert B]

I am so glad that we don't have the flee markets that you have there. My wife would shoot me dead. I'm already a hoarder.

Not yet a hoarder in the true meaning of the word but I know where this is going. Also it is perfectly clear that I'm way past the point of no return. When the parts come in, by the dozen, you really start thinking about your "problem". I can stop anytime I want, I just choose not to.

What I am also aware is the fact that this trend is not sustainable and at some point in time getting these parts will be just a distant memory. For now I'm just happy and grateful that I am still able to find them. Also if needed I will have to enforce a stronger filter and buy only the best stuff. This will be kind of hard as I want to save them all! I'd better check myself ...

One guy that comes to the flea market, once a year in summer, told me about a huge warehouse in Italy that is full of computers destined for recycling. The stories he told me were close to those of the Aladdin 's cave. I bought some nice components from him and I have no doubts that he was speaking the truth. He brought here, tens of fully built PCs that were also dismembered and recycled. He got bored of how many screws he had to remove. His neighbors were hearing only the zip zip of the electric screwdriver.

At this point in time my whole stash can be stored in a drawer with a width of 70 cm, length of 300 cm and a height of about 220 cm. In reality they are scattered on three separate shelves at a location other that my apartment. This is a good thing as otherwise I would be all over them all the time.

I have in plan a huge reorganization that I want to do IKEA style, in the sense that no space will be wasted in any of the storing boxes, like it is the case now. This will make my stash even easier to handle. At some point in the near future I will have to move the whole lot and I don't want to deal with this headache only then.

Getting them was the easy part. Dealing with the logistical aspect will be a PITA but I'm not complaining. Also, this year I got my first taste of selling some of the parts and I got over this quite nicely. I have no regrets.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Not yet a hoarder in the true meaning of the word but I know where this is going. Also it is perfectly clear that I'm way past the point of no return. When the parts come in, by the dozen, you really start thinking about your "problem". I can stop anytime I want, I just choose not to.

What I am also aware is the fact that this trend is not sustainable and at some point in time getting these parts will be just a distant memory. For now I'm just happy and grateful that I am still able to find them. Also if needed I will have to enforce a stronger filter and buy only the best stuff. This will be kind of hard as I want to save them all! I'd better check myself ...

One guy that comes to the flea market, once a year in summer, told me about a huge warehouse in Italy that is full of computers destined for recycling. The stories he told me were close to those of the Aladdin 's cave. I bought some nice components from him and I have no doubts that he was speaking the truth. He brought here, tens of fully built PCs that were also dismembered and recycled. He got bored of how many screws he had to remove. His neighbors were hearing only the zip zip of the electric screwdriver.

At this point in time my whole stash can be stored in a drawer with a width of 70 cm, length of 300 cm and a height of about 220 cm. In reality they are scattered on three separate shelves at a location other that my apartment. This is a good thing as otherwise I would be all over them all the time.

I have in plan a huge reorganization that I want to do IKEA style, in the sense that no space will be wasted in any of the storing boxes, like it is the case now. This will make my stash even easier to handle. At some point in the near future I will have to move the whole lot and I don't want to deal with this headache only then.

Getting them was the easy part. Dealing with the logistical aspect will be a PITA but I'm not complaining. Also, this year I got my first taste of selling some of the parts and I got over this quite nicely. I have no regrets.

I have 2 large walk-in closets packed floor to ceiling.

 

[Yukikaze]

So, this might not be as old as some of the stuff in this thread, but it is fairly interesting nonetheless. I've had these for a while, but forgot this thread existed!

This is an Atto Thunderlink unit (TLFC-1082-D00). It is a Thunderbolt1 to PCIe enclosure which originally came with a 8Gb Fibre Channel SAN card. These used to cost thousands of dollars back in the day. I have three of them I picked up over the last few years for the total cost of 120$ off ebay.

The reason why this is nostalgic for me is that I am an eGPU (external GPU) enthusiast, and these Thunderbolt1 devices are from the earliest days of Thunderbolt eGPUs. Specifically, if we look under the hood, we will find this:

Now searching for Z145I001L and L145IA03 doesn't lead anywhere, but the year marking is 2010. There is only one Thunderbolt controller from 2010 that I could find: This one. So, if I am not mistaken: This is the very first officially launched Light Ridge Thunderbolt controller! This is Thunderbolt history right there

And yes, it works as an eGPU in 2021, with a 2012 Mac mini (unfortunately, I don't have a 2011 Mac with Thunderbolt, which would've been the oldest system where this could've been possible). Note that you need some way to enable eGPU support on pre-Thunderbolt3 Macs. I used Kryptonite.

I did have to butcher one of the boxes to make this a reality, but I have two more in the original condition and this one was scratched to hell anyway (plus, ebay has plenty more). The end result is quite nice, if you're into the industrial look:

 

[AlwaysHope]

It's not the optical drive. That was a known problem with SP1. Get an ISO for XP SP2 or SP3 and your problem will be solved.

I have several XP discs with SP1, SP2 & SP3 on them, but now the problem is the silly bios or optical drive are not synchronising in time when indicated to boot from CD prompt appears on screen. I mean I see the optical drive's green light coming on but only for a few secs when the bios sequence approaches that point, then the bios moves on to alternate boot options... It is inconsistent with booting from optical discs this board bios & its the latest version I could find.

@AlwaysHope You're not using a self-ejecting, anti-clockwise, shaky & crackling BTC CD-ROM drive ... are you?!

Because in all the seriousness, this is one of the common issues with BTC drives...

No, as can be seen in my previous posts, only HP or LIte-On optical drives from approximately around the same era as the board.

Chipset makes no difference on install. Drivers are installed after the OS. In your case, you'll be installing the VIA 4in1 drivers. Only thing that ever gets installed at f6 if you need it is SATA controller driver.


I am so glad that we don't have the flee markets that you have there. My wife would shoot me dead. I'm already a hoarder.

There is a pointer on majorgeeks.com about an IDE filter driver needed by Win 2K during install with VIA chipsets.

 

[Fouquin]

Nine. Years.

I have been looking for one of these boards for almost a decade. Who would have thought Goodwill would have one incorrectly listed on eBay of all places? I've been through half a dozen Aladdin Vs, all great fun to build with, but not exactly novel.


PowerColor P561A, ALi Aladdin 7 ArtX



Novel graphics engine, early integrated TnL, dual channel SDRAM. My kind of weird.

 

[Robert B]

Nice years? WOW! That's commitment!

Nice board! Never saw one around here. Not even back in the day.

Also please don't forget to change those caps. A few are bulging.

 

[Trekkie4]

No, as can be seen in my previous posts, only HP or LIte-On optical drives from approximately around the same era as the board.

I know, it was meant as a joke... But seriously, one of the most common issues with BTC drives are read/access difficulties.

Sometimes it works flawlessly and sometimes it works up to a certain point and then freezes everything, or ejects CD entirely. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting that most of you never experienced its uhh ... charms, or at least "quirky personality", so the whole joke was kinda misplaced in the end.

Nine. Years.

I have been looking for one of these boards for almost a decade. Who would have thought Goodwill would have one incorrectly listed on eBay of all places? I've been through half a dozen Aladdin Vs, all great fun to build with, but not exactly novel.


PowerColor P561A, ALi Aladdin 7 ArtX

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Novel graphics engine, early integrated TnL, dual channel SDRAM. My kind of weird.

Nine years, you say? Nice one, Junior

As some of you here already know (because I always end up repeating myself, over and over lol), it took me 15 years to find my "Adison" case. Yes, fifteen years... Then I found one, followed by yet another one. Then one more (this time mATX) and then couple of months later - yup, onother one! So now I got 5 of them in total, but each one has a story to tell!

Unfortunately, I also had to pay the "ultimate price" for each and every case I found. We had a devastating earthquake right after the first one, then just as I was debating on whenever I should spend money into that pile of rust OR send it to a very close friend of mine who was very sick at the time, she made me promise that I'm going to finish what I started. And so I did - and she lived long enough for me to tell her about it, but unfortunately died soon after.

Ironically ... and oddly enough, I found all those cases only a day or two before she died, and then found the last case about a month or so after, in late January. In either case, sorry to disappoint but nine years is nothing compared to 15 (14 and a half to be exact) ... you just have to be stubborn enough and never give up

Nice years? WOW! That's commitment!

Nice board! Never saw one around here. Not even back in the day.

Also please don't forget to change those caps. A few are bulging.

Nah... Couple of months, maybe up to a year - that's a commitment. But nine years (and more) is a strong determination. As in "I'm going to find (Item name here) no matter what, and no matter how long it will take!"

Edit
Found the original post from 2016, where someone (under the name of @mmx_91) found me one of those cases in Barcelona, Spain. Since this was my first encounter with that particular case since 2006, I was even willing to pay extra and have the whole thing shipped to my address. Unfortunately, after talking to the seller he or she backed off, because it seemed like too much work, and too much of a risk.

I found this exact same case advertised in Wallapop today!! Sadly, it's in Spain but it's the same model, and no more information is shown. I can send you the link if you want to

OH MY GOD!! Yes, that's the one!! Wow, I've been searching for this thing for years & nothing! Yes, please send me the link & I'll see what I can do...

Edit
@mmx_91 I've been browsing through Wallapop & can't seem to find it anywhere So yeah, if you would be so kind to send me a link... I want to know how much they're asking for it, at this point I'd even be willing to buy it & have it shipped to Croatia (if possible)

Edit2
I got in touch with the seller & asked if they would be willing to have it shipped. Which they WOULD, but it's going to cost me a lot of money Something which I don't have at the moment, so I'll have to be super creative... But I'm not letting this one slip through my fingers!

Sadly, it would also seem that mmx_91 never posted again, he (or she) apparently registered here jus to tell me about Wallapop ad...

 

[Fouquin]

In either case, sorry to disappoint but nine years is nothing compared to 15 (14 and a half to be exact) ... you just have to be stubborn enough and never give up

Appreciate that your accomplishment was somehow more impressive than mine, but I don't see any podium nor medals around here to suggest this is a competition. I've got long yearnings too, but most of what's on my list has been scarce or long been stuck with private collectors.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Appreciate that your accomplishment was somehow more impressive than mine, but I don't see any podium nor medals around here to suggest this is a competition. I've got long yearnings too, but most of what's on my list has been scarce or long been stuck with private collectors.

Hey, we're all friends here. No worries.

 

[AugeK]

Stumbled upon this thread by accident, inspiring me to browse the very back of my cellar.
Here is the results
Dual Slot I Board with 2 Pentium III 600 installed:



Pentium III Dual Board with 2 933 CPU installed:

 

[agent_x007]

Just a TNT :