Marbo

Also get an old circuit board and practice desoldering and soldering. And pay close attention to preparing your iron and cleaning it after.

I've swapped out a dodgy Alienware master io. I hate to just throw away the old one. Is it worth recapping to see if that will kick start it back to life? I know there could any number of issues, but there is no visable damage. I'd say that 10 year old electrolytic caps are going to be a weak point.

Wasn't there an LTT video at a NASA museum? I recall the Apollo computers having liquid cooling. Edit: Found it

Replacement mio has arrived. We now have light Temps and fan speeds

Much better. Your copy of windows is genuine as is the key. The way look at it is similar to those multipacks that have a message that they're not for sale individually. Yet we'd all buy them individually from the corner shop if they were cheaper. P2p could be full of viruses especially with the activator.

Yep, volume keys. It seems most people have success with them. I've had on on mine for a couple years with no issues. As for having to set up again if it does get blocked, I'd guess you could just enter another key.

Back up their files, clean install 10 and put their files and apps back on. Then buy a cheap ebay key and suck up the $5 cost. Don't even tell then about the $5 Great neighbour, good karma.

They look OK atm. Obviously with no charge left in them after so long, they will need changing. I've believe they could be soldered on, so I'll take a chance that they'll not leak within the next few weeks.

First look at the Ast Bravos. I was told they have been in storage for over 20 years and were originally used to teach CAD. The CAD software should still be on them. Apart from the expected dust, they look in good shape. Has a cpu daughter board, so guessing 486dx2 Sound card as yet to be identified. Edit: Telesound DXLSK81 Label on the bottom says factory fitted with 8mb ram, but it seems 2 additional sticks have been added. Looking forward to this project, after I've finished the 2 others I have in the go.

I really don't know much about about them. I completely missed this era of computing. I went from 8 bit micros to Pentium. The 2 I've bought are being sold as untested, so it's a learning experience for me. Really hoping they both work so I can sell on one of them and look for a graphics card and sound card for the other. At the price I've agreed I should get a good return. First thing after checking the basics and cleaning will be finding out if they boot and getting a mouse and keyboard.

Picking up a couple of 486's tomorrow. Don't know much about them, specs or if they actually boot. They are Ast Bravo LC 4/66D"s I decided to go for the 2. If both are working then I'll keep one and move the other on. If not then I'll get the best running and use the other for spares. I will update when I've collected them.

You're always going to leave at least a small part of performance on the table no matter what combination you use. Personally I would prefer that headroom to be my cpu. Just my opinion but I like to base a system around my gpu. So I would choose the best gpu I could afford within my budget then pick a cpu that will comfortably utilise it. Because the programs I use are gpu heavy I like to know I can get 100% or as close as poss out of it. Prob 2 things I'd change with that. I'd use either the stock cooler or a better aftermarket one. There's not going to be $88 worth of difference between a wraith max and a prism. And I'd get a "grey" windows key from ebay for less than $10 Edit: getting my wraiths mixed up I think. Isn't the prism that is included better than the max?

Have you tried any at all? If not I'd recommend finding a store that has a demo of any headset first. If like me you get sick turning your office chair through 180 degrees, any of them would be a waste of money.

I'm currently working on a counter measure for this. My light bulb contains a small motor that vibrates the bulb. The amount of vibration is controlled by a sudo random algorithm. By the time anyone capable of listening have compensated for this, you have probably finished watching p0rn.

Return the card as faulty.

Agree, it doesn't have to be anything wonderful. Just a very basic output for troubleshooting.

I'm guessing the reason it won't fit in the other slot is because of the case. So as you don't have access to another pc my last 2 suggestions are. Take the pc out of the case and build it up using your mb box as a test bench. This way you can try the second pcie slot. Take it to a shop where they can try different components to find the problem.

It's a matter of trying different things to track down the which component(s) causing the issue. Try your Gpu in a different pcie slot Try it in a friend or relatives pc. Try a different gpu in your yours.

OK so that rules out the monitor and cable you used to connect the laptop. I was going to suggest putting your Gpu into another pc, but that's not going to work with a laptop.

I think your Internet connection is not really a priority atm. Do you have access to another pc that you could use to try and narrow down the issue?

+1 on try a different cable. If there's one thing I've learnt it's reseat components and try a different cable. It can save a lot of time trying to diagnose complicated issues that don't exist. Also maybe try a different monitor or plug into your TV.

Thanks for the help. I'll give it a go.

Thanks for the quick reply. So that will just mirror the drive then update the back up each time I add something new?

I have an m.2 drive that has win 10 install and all programs and a hdd for data. The data is mostly my Daz Studio library. This library is now getting quite large. If I lost that disk it would take an age to download those assets again especially as most are manually installed. What I want to do is add a second hdd to keep a back up. First off copy and paste what is already on there, but then as I add more to my library I'd like to automatically add those files to the back up. What is the easiest way to do this. I'm not interested in my ssd, apart from Windows and Daz there isn't a huge amount on there. Thanks

It does sound more like it had an acoustic coupler built in rather than a phone but who knows. A Pentium seems too late for an acoustic coupler. Could it have been a proprietary system built for a specific business need? Edit Something like this? Apparently it's a Teleguide terminal.