Alice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
it probably doesn't help that my CPU fan died.
it's for a pentium 1, so it's slightly old
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️
OH MAYBE THIS IS WHY
this is not how 3 pin fan connectors work! This is going to try to undervolt your fan backwards while putting +12v down the tach-out pin
Jan 22, 2023 at 3:36amWeb
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
amazingly it turns out I didn't fry my fan. after adapting to the Weird Pinout here, it works fine.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
well, relatively "works fine". the fan spins.
I still haven't managed to get this computer to respond to any keyboards and when I boot it, it's started looking like this:
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
yeah there's maybe a problem with the VGA chip or the VRAM
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
the weird part is that this wasn't doing this prior to the whole fan issue.
So... did I somehow damage the RAM trying to get my fan working?
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023

but the PS/2 pinout in the manual (both of them) seems to be wrong, since the voltages are in the wrong places and it doesn't work.

theoretically this motherboard has early USB keyboard support, but, uh... it's a non-standard header. and I don't trust it in the slightest

Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
you'd think I could use one of my many scratch keyboards, but unfortunately they've all gone missing in my last attempt at cleaning my office
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023

you should count your blessings every day that you don't have to live with Foone. I do.

That is my crime, it is also my punishment.

Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
after testing the voltage polarity, I risked a real keyboard on it.
no luck.
I think I'm gonna have to just mark this board as "totally fucked" and give up on it.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
FAREWELL, PCM-5894!
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
I tried switching to this WinSystems SAT-DX, but it's got no VGA out (and I don't have a PC/104 VGA card on hand) and it's beeping an impossible pattern for the award BIOS it supposedly has.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
WHY DO NONE OF MY QUARTER-CENTURY OLD ELECTRONICS WORK
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023

Fuck it, go big or go home.

So, two things about this you may notice:
1. it doesn't seem to have a CPU
2. it seems to be slightly floating off my desk.

These two things are related.

Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
The silliest era of SBCs, the time we just bolted Slot 1 Pentium IIs to the back!
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
It lives! Although it won't boot, because I didn't attach a SCSI drive.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
oh hello Y2K bug, fancy meeting you here.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023

wait
this BIOS is from 1998

what kind of complete fool ships a BIOS with a y2k bug IN 1998?

Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 23, 2023
BTW if that slot-1 SBC isn't massive enough, I've got a DUAL SLOT-1 SBC!
Sadly it's one that's reportedly broken, according to the card attached.
Show threadI love this, so IJan 23, 2023
@foone the legendary 440BX chipset
Show thread💀 𝓕airchild 💀Jan 22, 2023
@foone
Show threadDrKikiJan 22, 2023
@tankgrrl @foone 💜💜💜
Show threadFélixJan 22, 2023
@foone i feel like we’re going to find out in 2036
Show thread0xEmmy Jan 22, 2023
@foone A company with a less-than-two-year warranty and a pile of old stock, of course.
Show threadI love this, so IJan 22, 2023
@foone cheap ones
Show threadjack the nonabrasiveJan 22, 2023
@foone a product manager with one foot out the door
Show threadAlan PurdomJan 22, 2023

@foone I know one of the first mitigations for y2k was to keep 2 digit years and assume anything less than 20 was 2000+ - basically kicking the problem 20 years down the road.

I know that because I implemented it on an entire accounting system that had a fixed byte database format in 1998.

Show threadMartin WhitakerJan 22, 2023
@modrup @foone why not put the cutoff at 1950, or even later, to buy plenty more time?
Show threadAlan PurdomJan 22, 2023
@martin @foone in my case it was because the same processing did dates of birth and we didn’t have many 80 year olds but lots of 50 year olds. Once the concept was implemented moving the cut off along was trivial. For a bios though who knows - the only good reason to limit the scope is to limit the testing the6 have to do but it’s a bit tenuous.
Show threadJeanne MastodonJan 22, 2023
@foone Maybe it's how a lot of bank software did two-digit years, representing like 1921-2020?
Show threadKevin Boyd (he/him) 🇨🇦Jan 22, 2023
@foone a twice-paid fool
Show threadcpwJan 22, 2023
@foone a lot of the Y2K fixes just "botched" 1900-1920 as 2000-2020. It's 2023, that fix would no longer apply..
Show threadPier FumagalliJan 22, 2023
@foone apparently that “American Megatrends Intl. LLC” is that complete fool!
Show threadDuncanWatsonJan 23, 2023
@foone Umm, most of them if I recall correctly
Show threadPolychrome Jan 23, 2023
@foone apparently, American Megatrends 
Show threadroot42Jan 22, 2023
@foone I have an MR BIOS 486 from 1991 without y2k bug. This is really astonishing to see.
Show threadSuperIluJan 22, 2023
@root42 @foone If I had to guess, I'd say: industrial customers insisted on an unchanged version for "compatibility" 😩
Show threadSylvia Jan 22, 2023
@foone nightmare fuel
Show threadKevin Karhan Jan 22, 2023

@foone What a chunky boi!

You may want to check the fan pinouts and voltages tho and maybe swap that noisy 40mm with dried-up and greasy oil for some NF-A4x10 or similar...

Show threadKevin Karhan Jan 22, 2023

@foone CPU socket is on the backside, isn't it?

You really go with industrial PCI+ISA backplane now?

Show threadAthena L.M.Jan 22, 2023
@foone the CPU is on the bottom?
Show thread tonic Jan 22, 2023
@foone oh dear
Show threadKevin Karhan Jan 22, 2023

@foone have you recapped them?

Cuz there are japanese solid caps that are designed to be drop-in replacements for old electrolyte condensators...

Show threadKevin Karhan Jan 22, 2023
@foone #Anthony from #LinusTech had to #recap really old boards...
Show threadStudio 8502 Jan 22, 2023
@foone what unholy contrapulation is this?
Show threadThatKomputerKat Jan 22, 2023
@mos_8502 @foone USB over RCA?
Show threadmauvedeityJan 23, 2023
@mos_8502 @foone steals for the word “contrapulation”, which deserves a place in the dictionary.
Show threadverb (printfJess) 🦄Jan 22, 2023
@foone Is this art? 🦋
Show threadHATER420Jan 22, 2023
@verb @foone 💯 Absolutely it's art.
Show threadPyxaronJan 22, 2023

@foone

They sell RCA to S-Video adapters.

S-Video and ADB have the same connector.

They sell ADB to USB adapters.

This can work!

Show threadPiškvor🇨🇿 🇺🇦Jan 23, 2023
@Pyxaron @foone "Can" in the meaning of "if you're capable of making it work, you ought to know that you shouldn't."
Show threadZarkyJan 22, 2023
@foone Oh no.....
Show threadRafael Pérez Jan 22, 2023
@foone Hit F1!
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
@rperez I WAS TRYING, but I have no keyboard yet!
Show threadZarkyJan 22, 2023
@foone @rperez Is the kbd fuse still good?
Show threadRafael Pérez Jan 22, 2023
@foone LOL. Just short the pins! 😄
Show threadKevin Karhan Jan 22, 2023

@foone wow... Either this board says "Get f**ked!" or it literally predates 3- & 4-pin fan connector standards....

Tho this means you can - theoretically - adapt a 5V Noctua to it or undervolt a massive cooler...

Show threadTorazChryxJan 22, 2023
@kkarhan @foone Any pentium 1 should run passively with any remotely modern tower heatsink on it I'd have thought? 200Mhz non-MMX or 233Mhz MMX Pentium both have a TDP that's sub 20w IIRC? (of course there's the issue of attaching a modern cooler with appropriate mounting pressure but still though.)
Show threadKevin Karhan Jan 22, 2023

@Torazchryx @foone that's why I'd look at the original mounting hardware and find some off-the-shelf heatsinks and cut that to size and get modern thermal paste on it.

AFAIK the original Pentium does have a ceramic body like the Motorola 68040 and thus it doesn't have like an exposed die that could crack or short out.

Show threadKevin Karhan Jan 22, 2023
@Torazchryx @foone
But in the end you're correct: Even the shitty #LGA775 / #LGA1155 Intel Boxed Coolers with plastic push pins will likely even have enough surface to work "semi-passive" if the case is some ATX-style with somewhat airflow of the power-supply exhausting the warm air to the rear.
Show threadKevin Karhan Jan 22, 2023

@Torazchryx @foone it's ~ 17W TDP according to both INtel and CPU World...

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/49967/intel-pentium-processor-with-mmx-technology-233-mhz-66-mhz-fsb.html
https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentium/Intel-Pentium%20MMX%20233%20-%20BP80503233.html

Product Specifications

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