TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Greenslade]

12 49 47 is even blurrier than 12 54 27

here it's how it look for me
View attachment 269665

Looking at it for a second time that one is blurry.

I had issues with Pulseaudio (I had to replug my headphones or fiddle with pavucontrol to get the audio to come out of my headphones after a cold boot) on my ProBook 645 G1 (I guess with a 2012 CPU it may borderline qualify for this thread) running Devuan and so I just got rid of it (I have always hated it anyway and it often uses up an unnecessary amount of CPU, which matters especially with this humble APU) and now I am using (user space) ALSA with alsamixer without any issues (except the audio in Seamonkey and Firefox does not work with apulse since they apparently only output to the default device, which cannot be changed but what is most important to me is that VLC, mplayer and spotifyd work). I love the retro keyboard-controlled TUI of alsamixer too!

View attachment 269717

As everyone knows i am not a very tech person, but slowly learning more.I put stuff outside of this Retro forum on here because i am more than likely to get an answer to sort a problem i am having with a PC .

 

[Audioave10]

A BEAST from 1982...

Adrian's system knowledge here is on full display. Impressive!

 

[Susquehannock]

Been looking at Abit IS7 lately. Great socket 478 boards. Saw this in an auction recently. Hooray for wood screws. Have seen this fan mounting technique crack motherboards, unfortunately. I would have used zip ties instead. Slide one down through the hole, and zip another onto the bottom end - trim extra.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Hooray for wood screws. Have seen this fan mounting technique crack motherboards, unfortunately.

Not if they're very short screws. I've done that. They work very well.

 

[budget_Optiplex]

I see a lot of people struggling to find affordable PCI cards for retro gaming PCs these days. While the cards I'm about to suggest aren't nearly as cheap as they were even a year ago (I paid $15 each for the ones I have), these still can be found reasonably cheap here and there if you are patient. Here is a suggestion that has worked for me:

The cards are the Nvidia Quadro NVS 55 PCI and 280 PCI. These are basically Geforce FX5200s with 64MB of DDR memory (64-bit bus), but I have found they can overclock quite well. They work great for Pentium 3/4 systems especially if you are using an OEM motherboard with no AGP slot. The NVS 55 has DVI-I out so it's the nicer of the two, and the NVS 280 uses DMS-59 out so you will need a splitter cable. I have found that on my Celeron 1400 (Tualatin) system this card can handle even something like UT2004 at reasonable settings with an overclock.

Here's an example: www.ebay.com/itm/265546281173

 

[GreiverBlade]

I see a lot of people struggling to find affordable PCI cards for retro gaming PCs these days. While the cards I'm about to suggest aren't nearly as cheap as they were even a year ago (I paid $15 each for the ones I have), these still can be found reasonably cheap here and there if you are patient. Here is a suggestion that has worked for me:

The cards are the Nvidia Quadro NVS 55 PCI and 280 PCI. These are basically Geforce FX5200s with 64MB of DDR memory (64-bit bus), but I have found they can overclock quite well. They work great for Pentium 3/4 systems especially if you are using an OEM motherboard with no AGP slot. The NVS 55 has DVI-I out so it's the nicer of the two, and the NVS 280 uses DMS-59 out so you will need a splitter cable. I have found that on my Celeron 1400 (Tualatin) system this card can handle even something like UT2004 at reasonable settings with an overclock.

Here's an example: www.ebay.com/itm/265546281173

View attachment 269909

hilarious coincidence, when i searched for a PCI GPU for a retro server build (first with MSI K8D Master3-133 / MS-9161 VER:2 which had only PCI-X and PCI slots but had an ATI Rage XL onboard, and then with a Arima HDAMA-I also only PCI-X, PCI and a Rage XL, later i managed to find a SuperMicro H8DCE) back in hum ... 2013/14 probably later ... but it was after 2013 when i moved home
ah, no not later 2014 exactly https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/tpus-nostalgic-hardware-club.108251/post-3108619

this is what i got ... (2chf, free shipping which was a loss for the seller since eco package is 7chf the NVS 280 with DMS-59 cable was 60chf second hand and the NVS 55 was 65 ) indeed it use a NV34B Rankine like the NV 55/280


nicer 128mb 128bit bus, less nice caps, VGA (well it's more retro than DVI nonetheless ) and TV out

also @lexluthermiester notice the missing screws on the fan shroud? i recycled them to fix a small fan on my Odroid C2 heatsink, since they served nothing else than just fix that shroud to the HSF


ah... ahahah ... well the K8D Master3-133 mobo i got her for less than 10$ with 1 Opteron 270 locally, the Arima HDAMA-I on Ebay ~45$ (or something, it was because the K8D had bent pins in some RAM slots) and then the H8DCE with 2 Opty 248 locally for less than 30$ (also got some more Opty 250/275 and 280 on Ebay and locally )
nowadays pricing?

H8DCE : https://www.ebay.com/itm/294712949050
K8D Master3-133 : https://www.ebay.com/itm/224844694865
HDAMA-I : www.ebay.com/itm/175370789931

 

[Audioave10]

An important big reason why we have such Nostalgic Hardware setting around our homes. Ken & Roberta Williams!

 

[Greenslade]

What do people think of this PC “Nice PC rebuilt from scratch using original components? I have upgraded the PSU to a more modern reliable unit. I have been building custom retro PCs for many years and this one is very nice. AMD Sempron 2800+ CPU, 80GB HDD, and 512MB ram means this is a very able Windows 98 SE PC. The PC has all the drivers, a Floppy Disk, and CD-Rom drives that have been cleaned and tested. USB Update has been installed so you can use USB Memory Drives, USB mice, etc” That looks like an old PSU though.

Looked up on a forum from the time about the Sempron,it is a bit confusion to me.
I guess there is not a lot in it.Apart from the Sempron having more instructions that the Athlon.I was a bit cheesed off that the Athlon had less instructions than other CPU,s that came out at the time. If i had known that at the time i would have got a PC with a better CPU.
with Sempron 2800+ (tbred core 256k cache) = 2000 MHz (166 x 12)
= AthlonXP 2400+ = 2000 MHz (133 x 15)
Sempr0n 3000+ is based off a barton core w/ full 512kb, and the 3100+ is based off A64 architecture, 256kb cache, no 64-bit
So think of every Sempron (except for 3000+ and 3100+) as an AthlonXP minus 400 PR points.

​

Oct 19, 2004





2000 MHz (166x12) is not equal to 2000 MHz (133 x 15)

£70shiped I was just thinking about it because my CPU is Athlon 2400 I see the Sempron 2800has a lot better gaming performance than 2400 is it that much better it says 17% more than 2400. What is the make of the case? I was thinking of buying a thin client with 98on it. which is all so 70 pounds. Is the Sempron 2800 better than the Athlon 2400?I am a bit confused to

IPA, isopropanol.
I have just tried to load a game on two XP machines on both PC refuse to load it.It stops at the same spot in the Photos.It is starting to work on this one .It said a couple of minutes ai will give it a tot more time know that i know. Just put the ATI 9600XT in there, which i bought some time ago.I like this guys videos

the guys cleaning the board with cheap after shave any one else use that.As he does not have any isopropyl alcohol.The game crashed

 

[Mr.Scott]

2000 MHz (166x12) is not equal to 2000 MHz (133 x 15)

£70shiped I was just thinking about it because my CPU is Athlon 2400 I see the Sempron 2800has a lot better gaming performance than 2400 is it that much better it says 17% more than 2400. What is the make of the case? I was thinking of buying a thin client with 98on it. which is all so 70 pounds. Is the Sempron 2800 better than the Athlon 2400?I am a bit confused to

Clock for clock, higher FSB will win out on socket A.

 

[lexluthermiester]

What do people think of this PC “Nice PC rebuilt from scratch using original components? I have upgraded the PSU to a more modern reliable unit. I have been building custom retro PCs for many years and this one is very nice. AMD Sempron 2800+ CPU, 80GB HDD, and 512MB ram means this is a very able Windows 98 SE PC. The PC has all the drivers, a Floppy Disk, and CD-Rom drives that have been cleaned and tested. USB Update has been installed so you can use USB Memory Drives, USB mice, etc” That looks like an old PSU though.View attachment 270083View attachment 270085
Looked up on a forum from the time about the Sempron,it is a bit confusion to me.
I guess there is not a lot in it.Apart from the Sempron having more instructions that the Athlon.I was a bit cheesed off that the Athlon had less instructions than other CPU,s that came out at the time. If i had known that at the time i would have got a PC with a better CPU.
with Sempron 2800+ (tbred core 256k cache) = 2000 MHz (166 x 12)
= AthlonXP 2400+ = 2000 MHz (133 x 15)
Sempr0n 3000+ is based off a barton core w/ full 512kb, and the 3100+ is based off A64 architecture, 256kb cache, no 64-bit
So think of every Sempron (except for 3000+ and 3100+) as an AthlonXP minus 400 PR points.

​

Oct 19, 2004





2000 MHz (166x12) is not equal to 2000 MHz (133 x 15)

£70shiped I was just thinking about it because my CPU is Athlon 2400 I see the Sempron 2800has a lot better gaming performance than 2400 is it that much better it says 17% more than 2400. What is the make of the case? I was thinking of buying a thin client with 98on it. which is all so 70 pounds. Is the Sempron 2800 better than the Athlon 2400?I am a bit confused to
View attachment 270084View attachment 270082View attachment 270081

IPA, isopropanol.
I have just tried to load a game on two XP machines on both PC refuse to load it.It stops at the same spot in the Photos.It is starting to work on this one .It said a couple of minutes ai will give it a tot more time know that i know. Just put the ATI 9600XT in there, which i bought some time ago.I like this guys videos

the guys cleaning the board with cheap after shave any one else use that.As he does not have any isopropyl alcohol.The game crashed

Nice case! Inexpensive but nice looking. I miss cases that were functional, looked good and were budget friendly.

 

[Greenslade]

PC keeps on crashing after i put a USB thumb drive in ?It turns off and on.It started after i put an Audergy soundcard in.See photo weird lines etc mouse and keyboard stoped working.Athlon 2400 PC.And no Windows sound at start up surely there should be the Windows start up sound?after all the sound card is working.
Why would a USB thumb drive crash the system? I am trying to install games two of them asked me to put in the code ,i have just done the second one and this has said*Invalid or missing CD code Owning PC games

big brother hits back again

 

[Mr.Scott]

PC keeps on crashing after i put a USB thumb drive in ?It turns off and on.It started after i put an Audergy soundcard in.See photo weird lines etc mouse and keyboard stoped working.Athlon 2400 PC.And no Windows sound at start up surely there should be the Windows start up sound?after all the sound card is working.
Why would a USB thumb drive crash the system?

Crappy 5v rail on the PSU.

 

[Greenslade]

Crappy 5v rail on the PSU.

It is an old PSU see photo.I tried my T5 and kept on clicking ,i will take the sound cars out and try it in my Pentium 4 pc i would think that would have the same problem. It keeps on coming up to set up utility, is there anything i can change in there to get USB to work?I have uninstalled the soundcard the USB,s are working again.

 

[lexluthermiester]

big brother hits back again

Yet another reason DRM-Free is right. GOG my friend. Alan Wake is on it.

Crappy 5v rail on the PSU.

That was my thought as well.

 

[s3thra]

Been looking at Abit IS7 lately. Great socket 478 boards. Saw this in an auction recently. Hooray for wood screws. Have seen this fan mounting technique crack motherboards, unfortunately. I would have used zip ties instead. Slide one down through the hole, and zip another onto the bottom end - trim extra.

View attachment 269810

Hell yeah. That was the board I used in the first computer I built back in '03. Great for overclocking those Northwood P4's.

The Northbridge fan on mine died a couple of years in; grinding sounds etc, so the bearing must have gone. I recall I ended up just taking the fan off and leaving the heatsink on. Ran fine for years after that.

 

[Trekkie4]

Blah, I REALLY hate these extension brackets!

After couple of hours with PS/2, Parallel & Serial port headers, it would seem that everything is hooked up as it should be ... I hope! Also, if any of you here also happen to have an old Asus board laying around & would want to hook up PS/2 mouse extension port, this here is the wiring diagram obtained from the Vogons forum.

Keep in mind however that the wiring color code doesn't mean anything and differs from one header to another. Therefore, if you really want to be 100% certain that you're not going to short or fry something you'll just have to probe each & every pin with the meter & confirm the correct layout.

To make things even more complicated, one (PS/2 mouse) header is being shared ... or rather, used in parallel with secondary IR and two USB ports, so you really have to be careful around these. It's like a really nasty front panel connection, where you can make a lot more damage than just reversing LEDs other way around.

As always, before ... and after!

Right guys, so here we are again. Once again, the same Celeron build from before, which I never finished due to several reasons. This time however it went through several major changes in the terms of concept & expectations, although it is still pretty much the same on the inside.


This time I'm running Celeron 333 (paired with the same mobo, Asus P2L-B), same GPU (for now, but this will change eventually) and the same RAM - 64MB PC100.

So, stay tuned for future updates, I got several plans for this particular build. By the way, this is going to be my final attempt for this particular system, so if the things go south once again (for whatever the reason) I'm officially giving up & moving on.

 

[Greenslade]

Crappy 5v rail on the PSU.

Unforynatly that seems the case Scotty. It is working fine on my£5 Pentium 4 plus the fact that the Pentium 4 is so quite as opposed to the nosey Athlon2400.I think i will have to work on the other Pentium 4 and replace the caps in there.

 

[Robert B]

Complicated ALPS switches are well ... compli ... needy type of switches!!!

 

[Greenslade]

Can anyone see any blown caps on the photo?

 

[68Olds]

I don't see any problem, but the image isn't very sharp. Here's random picture with 4 leaking & 4 swollen capacitors. You can see the domed top that happens before they burst.

 

[Greenslade]

I don't see any problem, but the image isn't very sharp. Here's random picture with 4 leaking & 4 swollen capacitors. You can see the domed top that happens before they burst.

View attachment 270527

I get your point. I am no David Baily sorry to say. Why does a PC make clicking
noises as if trying to connect? Does that prove that it is the PSU going bad?
Unless I had a PSU with the same connections I can,t try my other PSUs,s. Another thing is when I put a USB device in it takes time to load it, I clicked a USB device to remove it, and the PC lost the connection with Windows now going back to clicking and clicking not going back into windows. would the USB problem be to do with the motherboard? If the OS was on an IDE drive it might give me an idea of what is going on. The clicking could be to do with the SATA to IDE adapter. Clicking has stoped but
but nothing showing on the monitor.

 

[Deleted member 185158]

Can anyone see any blown caps on the photo?

That psu from earlier has a 10w 5v rail. Probably at peak.
I'd try a different psu also.

 

[Greenslade]

That psu from earlier has a 10w 5v rail. Probably at peak.
I'd try a different psu also.

I wish I could but all the other PSUs,s have different connections. And the one on this PC has weird ones for the power connections. if I was to buy one which one should i go for? And this one has just one connector to the board and no 4-pin one.?

 

[Deleted member 185158]

I wish I could but all the other PSUs,s have different connections. And the one on this PC has weird ones for the power connections.if i was to buy one which one should i go for?

Thats a darn good question. And why a lot of oem stuff hits the trash.

 

[68Olds]

Are you using a regular spinning hard drive with the sata to ide adapter? Hard drives click when they are failing.
Sometimes fans click when they are still spinning, but failing. Can you verify all the fans that should be spinning are spinning, including the PSU GPU CPU.