Search results

  1. helmetguy

    Helmetguy's Finds

    More fixer-up acquisitions from the past couple of weeks: Power Mac G5 (Dual 2.0GHz) (Was non-operational) Because having a working G5 wasn't interesting enough. In all seriousness it was bought for being more suited to DAW usage than my dual 1.8GHz, as this has PCI-X slots and twice the max...
  2. helmetguy

    Toshiba Satellite 480CDT with a bad case of acid reflux

    No luck with rejoining traces, unfortunately. I'll have to check the vias a lot more thoroughly than I did at first, then probably get the bodge wire out. I've also got a Tecra 740CDT that was saved from being dissolved by battery juice, but I still want to try and resurrect this one. EDIT...
  3. helmetguy

    New Toy: Dell Latitude D630 (Windows 7 Pro)

    Well look what just got listed for sale near me 😅
  4. helmetguy

    MDD 1.42GHz CPU Board Suddenly Lost 1GHz (False Alarm)

    Brilliant! Many thanks for this. Although I did update the boot ROM to 4.4.8f2, thinking it might fix the odd CPU speed reporting: It did :D
  5. helmetguy

    New Toy: Dell Latitude D630 (Windows 7 Pro)

    It's almost definitely the trackpoint stick. Can it be disabled in Windows device manager or the BIOS? Nice G-Shock, by the way 😀
  6. helmetguy

    MDD 1.42GHz CPU Board Suddenly Lost 1GHz (False Alarm)

    This thread has some really useful info in it, thanks for sharing! The table that was linked, showing the resistor configs on the CPU board that set the multiplier, is useful in particular: It turns out that the multiplier config for 417MHz and 1.42GHz is the same!!! Further proof that...
  7. helmetguy

    Narcoleptic MDD Diagnosis (Solved)

    Last weekend I got a chance to go down to the e-waste recycler with my MDD. No, not to drop it off (though that was tempting), but to experiment with another MDD that they had. This other MDD had a dual 867MHz CPU board, which I chucked into my MDD to see if it would reproduce the sleep issue...
  8. helmetguy

    MDD 1.42GHz CPU Board Suddenly Lost 1GHz (False Alarm)

    Well this is embarrassing. It's a good thing that I thought to run a benchmark before messing with the CPU board. Here's the machine's Geekbench 2.20 result: Benchmark Summary Integer Score 1579 |||||||||||||||||||| Floating Point Score 1368 |||||||||||||||||| Memory...
  9. helmetguy

    MDD 1.42GHz CPU Board Suddenly Lost 1GHz (False Alarm)

    This is a new one: This dual 1.42GHz CPU board has suddenly turned into a dual 417MHz board. My immediate thought is that something has happened to the resistors that set the FSB multiplier, which has caused it to go from 8.5x to 2.5x. The resistors are still present, on the correct pads...
  10. helmetguy

    Helmetguy's Finds

    Considering the sheer frequency of me acquiring retro gear, I may as well document it all in one thread: The latest - AlBook 12" This one is a bottom-of-the-range 867MHz with mini-VGA. Despite the photo, it's not in great shape. The exterior of the chassis is particularly beaten up, down to...
  11. helmetguy

    Toshiba Satellite 480CDT with a bad case of acid reflux

    You're absolutely right, I missed the "6/V110H" on the battery 😁 Thankfully 90s Toshibas usually have their RTC and suspend batteries a reasonable distance away from anything vital. There's a good chance that this laptop can be saved.
  12. helmetguy

    Any interest in Palm Pilots?

    Currently have one Palm and three interlopers. Family photo: Left to right: 3Com Palm V, Sony Clie NR70V, HP iPAQ 211, Psion Revo. The Clie and the iPAQ are operational. The Palm V needs its battery replaced - the thing is glued together like a smartphone so I haven't been motivated enough...
  13. helmetguy

    Toshiba Satellite 480CDT with a bad case of acid reflux

    This week I picked up a 1998 Toshiba Satellite 480CDT with a docking station included. I got it for next to nothing, surprising considering that anything with a Yamaha OPL3 chip seems to be popular with buyers. The seller stated "screen does not turn on" and posted a photo of the laptop...
  14. helmetguy

    I Need Help Getting A Video Signal To My G4 MDD Using An ATX Power Supply.

    Fair enough, I know from experience that it isn't a simple swap..... No chime and the CPU fan going into Lamborghini mode seem to be new issues. A few things you could try: - re-seating the video card (AGP is really finicky, issues could be caused by the card being on a fraction-of-an-inch...
  15. helmetguy

    I Need Help Getting A Video Signal To My G4 MDD Using An ATX Power Supply.

    Are you able to try the new video card with the original MDD power supply?
  16. helmetguy

    Narcoleptic MDD Diagnosis (Solved)

    Good thought. The local recycler has one that I could hopefully grab in the weekend. Meanwhile, further testing has caused my rapid overheating theory to go out the window. Granted the bow in the CPU board seems enough to cause a contact difference on the heatsink: But the "overtemp" sleep...
  17. helmetguy

    Narcoleptic MDD Diagnosis (Solved)

    This post is more to document my attempts at stopping my MDD from randomly going into sleep mode. This MDD was bought from a seller who mentioned in passing that it sometimes took "a few attempts" to boot up. OK, so it has PSU issues (what else is new with MDDs). Those issues have now been...
  18. helmetguy

    I Need Help Getting A Video Signal To My G4 MDD Using An ATX Power Supply.

    I just realized that I have a number of old video cards that could potentially work with my own MDD, if flashed with a Mac ROM (they're all PC ROM video cards). So I dug out a Geforce2 MX and proceeded to flash it. After ages of bashing my head against nvflash: Finally, something went right...
  19. helmetguy

    I Need Help Getting A Video Signal To My G4 MDD Using An ATX Power Supply.

    Admittedly I've never watched Action Retro's video, but I've now noted that he had the exact same issue - chime but no video - with his MDD's original video card and the same ATX PSU that you're using. Aaaaaaaaaand no prizes for guessing what the original video card was: (a Radeon 9000)...
  20. helmetguy

    I Need Help Getting A Video Signal To My G4 MDD Using An ATX Power Supply.

    Nice. Hopefully that gives you a working, quiet(ish) MDD. I'm still trying to figure out why one of the ATX PSUs I tried in my MDD worked while the other two (one had better wattage ratings) didn't.