r/retropc
▲ 36 r/retropc
Pentium III PC Recap & Rebuild
Finally done recapping my GA-6IEML! Also had to swap the old FSP 300W PSU to a Welton 350W, because the former started degrading rapidly (12V rail undervoltage, random squealing from time to time).
Specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-6IEML
CPU: Pentium III 1200 (Tualatin)
RAM: 320MB SDRAM
GPU: MSI FX5700
PCI1: VIA RAID Controller (for SATA HDD)
PCI2: Sound Blaster Live CT4830
HDD1: 2.5" 120GB Hitachi
HDD2: CF Card (Transcend 4GB)
ODD1: IDE DVD-RW
ODD1: IDE CD-ROM
Has a custom BIOS with VIA boot room and PLOP.
Has Win 98 SE and Win XP SP3 on different drives.
Thanks for reading!
u/CloudyShane — 1 day ago
▲ 4 r/retropc
an antient relic ( 8GB DDR3 ) For my I3 4th gen PC setup in Patna
anyone have one then help me
currently have only 8gb ram which is not enough for emulators or editing
u/Gold-Hedgehog-4439 — 2 days ago
Vintage pc doesn't show hdd in bios
I have an old machine with the following spec:
Motherboard — Intel OEM board, BIOS BF86510A.86A.0036.P07, Intel 865 chipset
RAM — 512 MB DDR333, single channel, in Channel A Slot 0. Three slots free.
Graphics — NVIDIA TNT2 Model 64, 32 MB, AGP 8x slot
Storage — Seagate ST320014A, 20 GB, Ultra ATA (currently not detected)
Expansion — AGP 8x plus several PCI slots
Ports — PS/2 keyboard and mouse, serial, parallel, USB, onboard audio and LAN
Era — roughly 2003
However despite the hdd spinning up it is not detected in bios.
u/Direct-Captain2678 — 2 days ago
▲ 17 r/retropc
Yellow PC is dead! Say hello to the new Yellow PC Mk2!
My friend gave me an FM2+ mobo + cpu + cooler for free, and I really didn't know what to do with it. However, after stealing a stick of RAM from my LGA775 "Yellow PC" and repalcing it with a crappy one, Yellow PC stopped being my "holy grail" system, haha.
Reasoning for the replacement:
- FM2+ is better than LGA775, duh. Even though I had a Xeon L5430 and replaced it with Athlon x4 840, the Athlon is still newer and better.
- There is still PCI. One of the main workflows for the Yellow PC is VHS capture. So I don't miss out.
- Native USB 3.0. GAMECHANGER. No more PCI-E x1 USB 3.0 madness. And that USB card can be put to a better use.
- RAM support. I could only get 1000MHz, now I can double that easily. 1600MHz CL11 for now, because crappy RAM sticks, but that's still leagues better.
And there is also 5 - no noise! I've installed a cool top-flow cooler I had laying around, changed the rear fan to a PWM one, and replaced the aging and crappy PSU (Ginzzu CB700 bought in 2020) for a much better (even if budget) CoolerMaster Elite NEX White 500W.
And... Almost forgor - 6. AHCI. That AsRock didn't have it... WHY??? It was such a modern LGA775 board with DDR3. yet no AHCI? My SSD was slowly degrading and I didn't even know. Now this is resolved.
Yellow PC is dead! Long live Yellow PC Mk.2!
Old specs:
Motherboard: AsRock G41M-GS3
CPU: Intel Xeon L5430 2666 MHz
RAM: 2x4Gb DDR3 1000 MHz
GPU: ATi Radeon HD6450
PCI-e x1 Add-On Card: Generic VIA VL805-Q6 USB3 Expansion Card
PCI Add-On Card: Behold TV 409 FM TV-Tuner
PSU: Ginzzu CB700
SSD: GoodRAM CL100 Gen.3 120 Gb
ODD1: SATA DVD-RW
ODD2: IDE CD-RW
New specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-S1 rev 1.1
CPU: AMD Athlon x4 840
RAM: 2x4Gb DDR3 1600 MHz
GPU: ATi Radeon HD6450
PCI Add-On Card: Behold TV 409 FM TV-Tuner
PSU: CoolerMaster ELITE NEX White W500
SSD: GoodRAM CL100 Gen.3 120 Gb
ODD1: SATA DVD-RW
ODD2: IDE CD-RW
P.S. Why is it called Yellow PC? I've painted the side panels yellow for some reason... Duh. Looks cool IMO, even though a little questionable. Definetly unique.
u/CloudyShane — 2 days ago
▲ 28 r/retropc
Phenom II x4 965 - am3 revival
Super feeling nostalgic lately, my first PC was an AM2+ build with an Athlon 9550, so I decided to come back and fully max out a proper AM3 system for fun.
The board is a Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3, which sits in that awesome transitional period with native IDE and Floppy headers right next to SATA ports.
Quick specs:
Phenom II X4 965 BE @ 3.6 GHz
16GB DDR3 (mixed HyperX/ValueRAM @ 1600MHz CL11)
Quadro K2000D (workstation GTX 650 Ti basically)
Vi550 SSD + HDD
Since Deneb lacks SSE4.2/AVX instructions, I focused on maxing raw throughput. Instead of just pushing CPU clock, I cranked the CPU-NB from 2000 to 2400 MHz (+0.100V offset to 1.20V) and bumped DRAM voltage to 1.60V for 4-slot stability. The boost in memory latency and system snappiness is great.
Testing Win 10 and Linux Mint now on ssd, but my first OS back in the day was late-stage XP. Plan is to eventually (when i see what it can do nowdays) , hook up those old IDE drives, and set up a proper XP/Win 7 dual boot (surprisingly they are in good health).
Anyone else still messing with this era?
u/mentallyblind3 — 3 days ago
▲ 6 r/retropc
486 PC Ground Bounce Problem
I have a Ground bounce problem with my 486 pc.
The issues I have:
- PC freezes suddenly and when the freeze happens weird things (bit floats) are happening: for example ome time when I type the command: "dir" the PC writes "¿dir" and freezes at the exact moment. Also the freezes depends on which cpu frequency I choose. 50mhz is more stable than 33mhz. 25mhz even worse (already freezes at the bios self check) but 16mhz is more stable.
Also when I use an isa graphic card instead of the onboard s3 graphic it also gets a bit more stable. Using a sound card however make the freezes even more worse. So it feelg like the more the bus activity the board is doing the worse it gets.
Visual issues:
Graphical Noise at the same time when activity on the board happens (for example when a memory test is running).
Blinking pixels (wrong pixel colors) when I use true color mode or high color mode also changing a higher resolution makes the issue worse. In 256 colors the issue doesnt appear. Also I can change this issue when I put my finger on some areas the board (make it worse or less worse). But its not the pressure of my fimger that cause the change its the capacity of my finger that works like a antenna.
Horizontal Lines that stays
Diagonal Lines that moves. I can change the direvtion of
When I use a isa card all of those issues are gone except the horizontal lines and 2. idk bc the ramdac of the isa card isnt good enough to display true color.
Sometimes the hdd controler doesnt work. It just dont boot into the system and also didnt display any error messages. So I think the hdd controller just freeze
sometimes the pc also freezes when the floppy controller is doing something
Data gets corrupted or file names get unamed. For example "edit.exe" suddenly have the name "edti.ex e"
I checked all the tantal capacitors all of them are fine but there is one weird thing: Almost all tantals are connected with 5v and gnd. However 1 capacitor is only connected with gnd and not with 5v. Also this capacitor have always 0v when I turn on the mainboard all others receives 5v from the power supply. First I thought this is normal but all 5v pins on the board have a mark. So seems like the trace or via maybe is broken here. The problem is the 5v traces are inside the board so I cant see them. So I tried conneced the capacitor to the 5v line. Now it recieves 5v but unfortionally it doesnt change the issue. Maybe its important where at the 5v line it is connected?
Ram, cpu, power supply and hdd is not the problem bc I already changed those and the problem doesnt go away.
What else could be the problem here? Maybe a bus-logic chip that doesnt work anymore? Or a problem with the gnd traces or maybe the clk generator for the cpu?
Also when I put the mainboard outside the pc case the freezes changes so seems like it is a gnd issue but I dont know what cause this.
u/Alert_Inevitable6316 — 3 days ago
Does anyone know the specifics of this Visual Studio pack ?
I was looking around for visual studio 6.0 on various websites as I was interested in windows 98 and 95 development for retro gamedev. And I found this on Yahoo auctions for only 56 bucks and *had* to buy it because, it felt legit insane as every disc is still sealed and the activation serial is included.
However this doesn't feel like a bundle people could simply buy at retail, it feels way too heavy in material for it. between the mostly blank box, the fact it includes both BackOffice Server developer edition and visual studio 6.0 plus pack...
I'm wondering if some people know more about it so that I can learn more about what I bought ? I was mostly interested in the VS 6.0 part but maybe there's some other interesting stuff to check out in there.
u/Seledreams — 4 days ago
▲ 25 r/retropc
Thought I had a bent pin on this EVGA NVIDIA LGA775 board, but could it just be thermal paste?
I was inspecting the LGA775 socket on this older EVGA NVIDIA board and initially thought I had found a bent pin. After looking at it under a USB microscope from a few different angles, I’m starting to think it may actually be a small bit of dried thermal paste stuck around the pins.
The surrounding pins seem to follow the same pattern, so I’m hesitant to touch anything until I’m sure. What do you guys think?
If it is thermal paste, what’s the safest way you’ve found to clean an LGA socket without risking bending any pins? I’m thinking 99% isopropyl alcohol and an extremely soft brush.
u/No_Morning_6292 — 4 days ago
Interesting Bit of History
Was going through the older laptop memory I have as I am working on a few laptops from way back when and I forgot I had this. This actually came out of an IBM Laptop from the late 90’s
u/nyghtdragon — 7 days ago
Happy 45th to the 5150
Almost didn't make this one in time! Like 20 mins to spare, I rushed home after work and resurrected my 5150 for "celebration"
11 bad DRAMs. ELEVEN.
u/FAMICOMASTER — 7 days ago
Suggestions on this 1999 PC?
Got this 1999 DELL Dimension XPS T500 from a thrift store for $15. Friend originally wanted me to make a sleeper build, but assuming the parts still function, it's actually a really nice build. Pentium 3 500MHz, 16MB NVIDIA RIVA TNT, Soundblaster Live! PCI sound card, 13.6GB 7200RPM Hard Drive, DVD-ROM (but no MPEG decoder PCI device?)
Very similar specs to my first PC, a Gateway Essental 450. So I already like the idea of installing Monster Truck Madness, Midtown Madness 1 and 2, Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit, Need for Speed 4: High Stakes, Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed.
The only thing missing is the Iomega Zip Drive so I have a missing slot door in front.
Any suggestions? Keep the case original, or should I sand/paint it like Voodoo/Alienware used to do theirs? I've got some 2004 1280x1024 DELL LCD monitors, though a CRT would be better, but I can't afford that.
u/Sleepykitty69 — 8 days ago
How much are my Laptops worth (COMPAQ Computer PP2040 and ACER TravelMate MS2181)
I found two very old Laptops in my attic and I wanted to sell them but when I search for listings of those, I can bearly find some. For info they do not have an HDD instaled and both work very well and are in a pretty well condition, they are just very dusty and they both have their charging cables, the ACER even has his original DVD drive extension with the cable.
u/Sp1kee_123 — 7 days ago
Socket 7 & Pentium MMX: 256MB SDRAM (uncached) vs 64MB limited / 32MB EDO?
Hey guys! I'm tweaking my retro PC build: it's a Pentium MMX on a Biostar M5ATA Super TX Rev 1.0 motherboard, running Windows 98 SE.
Right now I'm using 256MB SDRAM at 75MHz FSB. However, if I recall correctly, the L2 cacheable limit on this board is only 64MB.
I also happen to have 2x16MB (32MB total) EDO RAM lying around.
Quick questions for the retro experts:
Is keeping 256MB actually hurting my performance in games like Quake/Unreal because Windows accesses that uncached RAM past 64MB?
Is it better to just keep the 256MB SDRAM installed and limit Windows to 64MB using MaxPhysPage=10000 in SYSTEM.INI, or should I just swap it out for the 32MB EDO?
thanks!
u/Andrea243435 — 8 days ago
Show your age by validating your first wallpaper size.
u/thepartlow — 13 days ago
▲ 57 r/retropc
Found this in my garage is it worth anything?
So I was looking through my garage and found them , don’t know where the rest of the pc is but I remember using it 2008 and I thought I can sell it but don’t know for how much , can someone help?
u/hazardenjoyer — 11 days ago
▲ 5 r/retropc
Old computer not working.
When turned on the computers starts giving a error code sound of 2 shorts beeps then 1 Steady beep which goes on and on
The LEDS show a code of r.g.r.r
Computer is ~25-30 years old but components work fine
specs are pentium 3 .64mb sdram. agb connecter gpu from matrix
Mother board is msi 815ep pro ver:3
u/FlatwormRadiant6499 — 10 days ago
EPIC THRIFT FIND! 25$
Toshiba protege m200 tablet pc! With its two original batteries and stylus just need a charger to test
Beyond shocked that I even found this! It’s definitely my most cool laptop I got
u/liminalearth — 13 days ago
Help needed finding the CMOS Battery on an HP Vectra XP/60
I have a Hewlett-Packard Vectra XP/60 computer, but the hard drive isn't getting recognized, as well with the BIOS settings not being saved when I do change the hard drive configurations. This has led me to try to find the CMOS battery on the motherboard, but I just can't find it. I would like some help finding it, and if there isn't one, how can I get the drive to initialize on the computer?
EDIT: The BIOS settings do actually save, however it is specifically the hard drive configuration that throws out an error (error 8010 or 800E). When i put the settings in the BIOS, it gives the option to save and exit, but when the boot happens afterwards, the settings are reset and it throws out a hard drive initialization error.
u/AaronTheProtogen — 12 days ago