TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[lexluthermiester]

I have formatted it as XFAT is that the right format for Windows 98/ME/2000?

FAT32.

Why is there no Fat32 option on the Windows formater, only EXFAT and of course NTFS? I use the PI Imager that does it to FAT32, it now shows on Crystal Disk mark. after a formatted, it to Fat32 But not showing in Crystal Discinfo?

If you're going to install Windows 98, use FDisk or a third party partitioning utility. Do not format from within Windows.

Sadly, while it is all brand new and spotless, it has several leaky caps. Will need a recap.

That shouldn't be difficult.

 

[RyzenMaster.sys]

The Elitebook isn't going to plan and I figured out why it was "for parts or not working"...


Stay tuned

That shouldn't be difficult.

I need to get some new soldering equipment. Any reccomendations for a soldering iron and/or desoldering gun?

 

[lexluthermiester]

It was built by Medion and quality was actually fine in my opinion.

Really? The one I saw, had to fix & upgrade was just crap. Perhaps it had been abused...

 

[RyzenMaster.sys]

Really? The one I saw, had to fix & upgrade was just crap. Perhaps it had been abused...

In what ways?

 

[lexluthermiester]

I need to get some new soldering equipment. Any reccomendations for a soldering iron and/or desoldering gun?

As long as you get a good 40w unit, rosin flux and rosin-core solder, you should be ok.
Here are a few example I would recommend:
Iron with station:

https://www.amazon.com/Weller-WLC100-40-Watt-Soldering-Station/dp/B000AS28UC

Soldering kit:

https://www.amazon.com/Weller-Soldering-Accessory-Kit-WCACCK2/dp/B09631HLB6

This should be everything you need to get a good start.

In what ways?

The plastics were flimzy and cheap looking. They were cracked all over and discoloured.

 

[Valantar]

I need to get some new soldering equipment. Any reccomendations for a soldering iron and/or desoldering gun?

I'm really enamored with my Pinecil soldering pen, which packs a serious punch for a small and very affordable iron. Though a proper soldering station might be more handy if you're doing more serious work. Fantastic for hobbyist use though.

 

[RyzenMaster.sys]

The plastics were flimzy and cheap looking. They were cracked all over and discoloured.

Thanks for the recommendation. Plastics might have just not aged well on yours. Plastics on mine weren't discolored or flimsy.

The back cover did break in shipping, but I blame that more on FedEx considering the shape of the box.

I'd like to say I knew what was wrong with the Elitebook but I would be lying.

Spoiler: Details about the issue

The main issue is that it simply doesn't want to power on. The power button does not function at all. You cannot turn it on by the button. The way I've gotten it to turn on was by clearing CMOS, draining all power from it, and then reconnecting to power. It will show power lights, turn off, then back on. 50% of the time it will display after that. Once it's booted it will work perfectly but cannot be turned off by the power button.

I removed this piece which contains capacitive controls for volume, WiFi, and some other things. It also just had a piece of plastic that pushes down on the power button soldered to the motherboard.

With this piece removed, the power button actually functions. The laptop turns on and off with the press of the button. However, it still doesn't post half of the time.

When I plugged this back in, the power button again doesn't work, but now the capacitive controls do not light up and the power led on the chassis or illuminating the power button do not light.

These issues seem very random and are confusing.

Does have some other issues, the screen latch is a common flaw on these and mine does not work. The left and right click buttons have a degraded rubber coating. The track point works but the rubber bit is missing. The keyboard illumination light at the top of the screen only works intermittently. The screen, although very nice in many ways, is very dim. Oh and the BIOS is locked with a password stored in ROM. Seller doesn't know it.

Overall I think the issue is either with the motherboard, the capacitive control bar, or both. I cleaned the motherboard and inner chassis with IPA as there are some signs of a liquid being spilled in here.

I overall really like this laptop when it works. Performance is decent for what I want, the chassis is sturdy, touchpad and keyboard are nice, screen is nice but dim, and it just overal feels very high quality.

Because of that, I will likely put some money into it to repair it. Looking at repair cost, a motherboard is about the same cost as a working donor laptop just with an obliterated screen.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Thanks for the recommendation. Plastics might have just not aged well on yours. Plastics on mine weren't discolored or flimsy.

It might also be due to variations in plastics manufacturing quality, which is a common problem on low volume, budget friendly product runs like those were. Who knows though...

EDIT:
Phil just did a very informative vid on VooDoo3 cards. For those that have them;

Many of these tips also apply to other VooDoo cards.

 

[framebuffer]

I'll leave one also.
On K8N-DRE

View attachment 258695

I guess vCore reading is for some reason double the real, right?

 

[Robert B]

Knowing Mr.Scott I think that the voltage is quite normal or CPU-Z reads it wrong.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I guess vCore reading is for some reason double the real, right?

CPU-z reads it wrong. Both sockets have the VID pin modded for 1.5v.

 

[framebuffer]

CPU-z reads it wrong. Both sockets have the VID pin modded for 1.5v.

OK

In these days I tested my Opt 185 (~FX60) but seems like I hit an hard wall at 3060MHz...

It seems quite stable with 1.42~1.45V at 3.00

but then, to go higher it requires almost immediately 1.5V and it stops at 3060

I'm using an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium which does not allow me to give more than 3.00V to the RAM (to use x12 multi with 1:1 FSB:RAM)
actually I'm quite surprised they can do 235 2-2-2-5 with just 3V

Will try again as soon as I recapp the DFI NF4 Ultra which should support memory voltage up to 3.4, maybe it will allow me to squeeze also a little bit more out of the CPU!

 

[framebuffer]

does anybody know which memory modules are used for those Athlon 64 FX rankings on hwbot with CL 1.5?
BH-5 on steroids?

 

[Greenslade]

I just turned on my HPZ230 i heard a pop and a burning smell I have a bug problem here could bugs have got in the power supply and caused the power supply to blow?Can,t get the bigger connector out. Can you see anything burnt out in there?

 

[AM4isGOD]

Boots fine. 2x256mb 1333 ram sticks, AMD thunderbird 1333, AGP Geforce 4 MX 64mb

 

[framebuffer]

Boots fine. 2x256mb 1333 ram sticks, AMD thunderbird 1333, AGP Geforce 4 MX 64mb
View attachment 259111

nais!

 

[Blaylock]

Hell ya! That was a powerhouse in its day.

 

[si-129]

copper thermalright era

 

[_JP_]

Back when copper was the quintessential bling of the enthusiasts. Sure, it was e-peen worthy to go over 3.5GHz, but to have it done on copper? You had to have it going for you!

 

[Robert B]

A bunch o' Hercs and some other miscellaneous stuff.

When it rains it pours!

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Back when copper was the quintessential bling of the enthusiasts. Sure, it was e-peen worthy to go over 3.5GHz, but to have it done on copper? You had to have it going for you!

Still irritates me that modern motherboards will throw a metric ton of aluminum for heat sinking and charge what they do for the boards, and won't do copper instead.

 

[Audioave10]

Retro Hardware is in the Czech Republic and he finds so much goodness there.

 

[stinger608]

I just turned on my HPZ230 i heard a pop and a burning smell I have a bug problem here could bugs have got in the power supply and caused the power supply to blow?Can,t get the bigger connector out. Can you see anything burnt out in there?

To bright of a picture. Can't see much of anything bro.

 

[Greenslade]

To bright of a picture. Can't see much of anything bro.

Sorry I am crap at taking pictures But have come to the conclusion that the PSU has died. Well someone else said that too.

 

[r9]

View attachment 258706
The Elitebook isn't going to plan and I figured out why it was "for parts or not working"...


Stay tuned


I need to get some new soldering equipment. Any reccomendations for a soldering iron and/or desoldering gun?

I have 852D+ for years does great job, just use quality solder/flux and keep the tip tinned before turning off to protect from corrosion.
For desoldering just use desoldering braid again with plenty quality flux.