What retro things have you done today?

paradigm said:
Well you know where to send it if it needs any soldering :p

Not had chance to test anything yet (the perks of a 2 year old). Will try and do that tomorrow (whilst "working" from home).
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Ah I am also locked down witha 2 (going on 18) year old! Shes actually really interested in the builds which isnt always a good thing.

Im fairly confident with the older stuff for soldering but the smaller/newer stuff not so much. Ive got a geforce 2 GTS that needs new caps but I think they are on a power plane as my iron just cannot heat them up enough to pull completely out. Tried solder sucker and braid but just cant clear them!
 
LewisRaz said:
Ah I am also locked down witha 2 (going on 18) year old! Shes actually really interested in the builds which isnt always a good thing.

Im fairly confident with the older stuff for soldering but the smaller/newer stuff not so much. Ive got a geforce 2 GTS that needs new caps but I think they are on a power plane as my iron just cannot heat them up enough to pull completely out. Tried solder sucker and braid but just cant clear them!
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Unfortunately my 2 year old is only interested in climbing things at the moment, literally nothing else!

I learnt a while ago that having good soldering equipment is key, even if mine isn’t great (I’d love a hakko/quick but as it’s only a hobby I can’t justify the cost), but my hot air station and my TS100 iron can cope with most situations (especially with a decent selection of tips - the TS100 is a great iron for the money), pre-heating the board with the hot air is a good way to help with stubborn components even if you plan on using an iron rather than air for the actual work. Couple that with some goot wick and my 80w weller and I can clean up most areas without needing a solder sucker. That reminds me, I need more solder. Oh and good flux helps too, like Amtech NC599.

I’ve recently been watching some of dosdude1’s old youtube videos about old mac upgrades and have been tempted to make a ghetto reballing and BGA rework station so I can do entire chip replacement (such as on my dead Geforce 6800GT, it needs a replacement PCI-Express/AGP bridge chip).
 
Ah I appreciate the need for good tools. I dont think I would use them enough for the investement to be worthwhile. Pre heating the board is a good idea tho! Might have another crack on it later
 
LewisRaz said:
The auctionn ended.

Won for £10.50!
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That's a great buy! Enjoy your AWE32! You've got me looking at these lots now! Not that there is anything interesting I can see at the moment....

Today is my Birthday and I spent a good few hours playing No One Lives Forever 2. My ESS 1869F that arrived today will be going into some kind of build and I am on the hunt for a decent DOS PCI soundcard!
 
almoststew1990 said:
That's a great buy! Enjoy your AWE32! You've got me looking at these lots now! Not that there is anything interesting I can see at the moment....

Today is my Birthday and I spent a good few hours playing No One Lives Forever 2. My ESS 1869F that arrived today will be going into some kind of build and I am on the hunt for a decent DOS PCI soundcard!
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Happy birthday!
I’ll start linking the lots I find in here. Every now and again good ones come up :)

is there such a thing as a good dos PCI soundcard?
 
paradigm said:
Same, I was ready to throw in a bid, but I don't want to be fighting OcUKers!

My bulk PCI and AGP bundle arrived. The video cards are a "Diamond Stealth 64" (S3 trio 64 DRAM PCI even has the upgrade RAM slots populated), an S3 Virge/DX (PCI), a Radeon 9200SE (AGP), a Rage 128 Pro Ultra, a Geforce2 MX200 64MB and a Geforce2 MX400 64MB. There's also the VIA VT6212L USB 2.0 card that I hope plays nice with my VIA MVP3 SS7 board. TWO terrible ES1373 chip based Compaq branded Sound Blaster PCI cards (the worst FM synth known to man), the Audigy 2 ZS, an SB Live 1024, and the ForteMedia FM801-AU based Terratec promedia.
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That's a decent enough bundle, MX200 obviously isn't worth using over the 400 though. Be interested to see what you think of the FM801-based sound card, my motherboard uses that for onboard audio and I think it's fairly good! Also has A3D and EAX support (albeit v1.0). Haven't tried the DOS side of things with it but reading around suggests it might be up to the task for that too.

@LewisRaz - Any sign of your card in the post yet? Think it's been about a week now.

@almoststew1990 - Happy Birthday!
 
Ah fair enough given the situation, should have just paid for second class then! Hopefully the AWE32 works alright, I've always been kinda interested in obtaining one but the price has put me off (plus I'd have to get a 64 instead really, the 32 is not going to fit in my M-ATX case!).
 
Getting into sound cards is a slippery slope hahaha :D:D:D:D

My main goto PCI card is the Aureal Vortex 2. Good Compatibility in DOS and functioning Wavetable header. ESS Solo-1 is also pretty good. You can find them with Wavetable header and SB-Link header both populated. There are also the Yamaha YMF724 cards. No midi in DOS but really great in Windows and you can get some nice extended banks for it also.
 
cee-S-dee said:
Getting into sound cards is a slippery slope hahaha :D:D:D:D

My main goto PCI card is the Aureal Vortex 2. Good Compatibility in DOS and functioning Wavetable header. ESS Solo-1 is also pretty good. You can find them with Wavetable header and SB-Link header both populated. There are also the Yamaha YMF724 cards. No midi in DOS but really great in Windows and you can get some nice extended banks for it also.
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It is! Now I am dead set on getting a something external for midi :P
 
I knew what video it was going to be before i even clicked on it :-)

If you want to get into midi, certainly get some form of Roland Sound Canvas. SC-55 is the de-facto module for a good majority of games. With MT-32 you either need some form of MPU-401 intelligent midi card or use softmpu.
 
Thought I'd post up a pic of my Tseng ET4000 based 16-bit ISA card, given it's pivotal role in troubleshooting my Voodoo 3 :p

tseng-et4000ax.jpg


Chip is from the 16th week of 1992.
 
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