Free to a good home

[Tetrium]

Wow, I didn't know they actually made those, update then, all serial mice have no scroll wheels and are db 9

Also have an unmarked motherboard in a gigabyte box with a IBM 6x86 in it Intrest

Yes, I used to have one. Bought it because I wanted 1 new one. Didn't know scrollwheels were that special at the time, it was the only serial mouse for sale at the time. Later I lend it and never got it back. It was only years later I found out how uncommon such mice realy were -_-
Atleast I still have one old PS/2 scrollmouse that works in a serial port with an adapter...

 

[Raven]

I have a nice brand new IBM mouse w/ a scroll wheel that works with a serial adapter - I don't find much use for a scroll wheel on older machines, though, and if the machine is new enough that you're hurting for a scroll wheel, it usually has a PS/2 port.

 

[wmmullaney]

I have a nice brand new IBM mouse w/ a scroll wheel that works with a serial adapter - I don't find much use for a scroll wheel on older machines, though, and if the machine is new enough that you're hurting for a scroll wheel, it usually has a PS/2 port.

I do have several ps/2 to serial adapters if anyone needs one.

 

[mbbrutman]

I do have several ps/2 to serial adapters if anyone needs one.

Caution, those do not work on generic PS/2 mice. The mouse has to be capable of detecting what port it is plugged into and adapting to it. Those adapters have no electronics in them, and thus they just change the pinout - they don't do the protocol conversion required for a real 'PS/2 to serial' conversion.

Also, people, please don't reply and say "I'm sending a PM" or "PM sent". That kind of defeats the purpose of the private message system.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Real converters do exist, but they're not cheap

 

[Druid6900]

Real 9-pin serial mouses with scrollwheels do exist as I have one.

It's the Microsoft Intellimouse 1.1A serial and it's a two button mouse with a scrollwheel between them.

 

[Tetrium]

I have a nice brand new IBM mouse w/ a scroll wheel that works with a serial adapter - I don't find much use for a scroll wheel on older machines, though, and if the machine is new enough that you're hurting for a scroll wheel, it usually has a PS/2 port.

Well, when I was browsing in Windows 95 on my 486 rig using a non-scrollwheel mouse, I noticed I wanted to use the scrollwheel more then I originally thought. I have plenty 'normal' serial mice so having to have something shipped to me which'll probably only ly in a corner of my attic collecting dust isn't realy gonna help me with anything.

Real 9-pin serial mouses with scrollwheels do exist as I have one.....

Now I miss my serial scrollwheel mouse even more lol!


And I found out the hard way those adapters don't work on most PS/2 mice...after I'd already bought like 5 of them! Good thing they were very cheap...and now I know why! *cries*

I did find a way to easilly test wether a PS/2 mouse was compatible with the serial protocol. Plug it in a motherboard (with the cheap serial adapter) with that AMI windows BIOS and see if the cursor moves. Faster then letting windows detect drivers etc. Also I can't remember serial ports being hotswap-compatible, so I'd rather not try (having only serial on a motherboard isn't so good...having no mouse atall...*shivers* ).

 

[Lutiana]

It's a PCChips board... M559 VXPro II, to be exact. I'm not too familiar with the second series one, but I know the first series "VXPro" boards were just about the worst motherboards ever made. So, approach that one with caution.

I personally think that ECS makes the worst boards. The worst I ever had to use was an ECS K7S5A.

Now back the your regular scheduled post...

 

[Unknown_K]

I personally think that ECS makes the worst boards. The worst I ever had to use was an ECS K7S5A.

Now back the your regular scheduled post...

Really? My first Athlon board was a K7S5A with DDR and it was rock stable from the day I got it (new) untill last year when I got rid of it.

 

[Lutiana]

Really? My first Athlon board was a K7S5A with DDR and it was rock stable from the day I got it (new) untill last year when I got rid of it.

Wow you got lucky. I owned about 3 of them. They basically started not turning on, no beep codes or anything. The research told me that quite a few people were having similar issues, and it had to do with the capacitors. I think the newer versions of the board were ok.

I have used a few other ECS boards in my time, and for various reasons I just don't like them and find them unreliable.

 

[Raven]

My ASUS A7V8X-X had that problem! I'm to this day unable to fix it.

I had an ECS board at one point too, Socket 775 Pentium D, board sucked but it functioned..

In my experience ASUS is complete garbage, especially if you try to flash a BIOS. Parts of mine are always dead when I get them new (my P5B-E would freeze trying to initialize USB once every few boots) and god forbid you flash the BIOS - they won't turn back on. I know they have a good reputation, but that can only carry you through so many dead motherboards, in my case 5 - I hate ASUS mobos now.

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

They basically started not turning on, no beep codes or anything. The research told me that quite a few people were having similar issues, and it had to do with the capacitors. I think the newer versions of the board were ok.

That was hardly limited to ECS boards, though. The vast majority of Socket A and S478 boards, including the high-end ones, had the same problem. While ECS certainly isn't blameless in the matter, that point alone doesn't make 'em any worse than the "name brand" boards. And with a capacitor replacement, the K7S5A was rock stable and quite fast.

 

[Raven]

That was hardly limited to ECS boards, though. The vast majority of Socket A and S478 boards, including the high-end ones, had the same problem. While ECS certainly isn't blameless in the matter, that point alone doesn't make 'em any worse than the "name brand" boards. And with a capacitor replacement, the K7S5A was rock stable and quite fast.

Does this mean I can fix my A7V8X-X by replacing a capacitor somewhere? What kind of capacitor failure should I be seeing?

 

[SpicyChronos]

Tried to send a PM, states mailbox is full. I'll try later.

 

[Tetrium]

.....In my experience ASUS is complete garbage.....

The ASUS P2B I own for over 10 years is rock solid though
But I have to agree, ASUS is basically better then average, but always too expensive AND theres always strange rotten apples in between. ASUS is a bit like a lottery what that is concerned.
I like MSI more now. Relatively cheap, not too many expensive features I'll never use and so far had no problems with them (just avoid their socket A's, capacitor plague)

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

Does this mean I can fix my A7V8X-X by replacing a capacitor somewhere? What kind of capacitor failure should I be seeing?

Usually when capacitors fail, you'll see the top of the can bulged... but not always, some capacitors fail without visible signs. IIRC, though, not POSTing was pretty standard practice for the A7V8X, and it wasn't necessarily a capacitor problem... that thing was just a PITA to begin with.

As far as Asus quality, I've noticed that the cutoff seems to be around mid-2000. Anything made before then tends to be pretty decent (K7V, P2B, P55T2P4, etc.), but anything newer I wouldn't even take for free.

 

[Tetrium]

I've seen several failing MSI socket A motherboards that looked just_fine but they had problems booting up. Only when I used an overly powerfull PSU would they boot up and voltages were WAY off! 12V was more then 13V, can't remember the other lines but it was bad alright.
The capacitors looked perfectly fine but my guess is it's failed capacitors that don't bulge.
I've never had any problems with other MSI motherboards though, neither their 64 bit AMD ones nor their super 7 boards.

Btw, I noticed the same about ASUS boards, though it's still hit & miss. The ASUS A7V333 I had never had any problems until I killed it but the ASUS A7V series were very picky to get stable.
ASUS also has a strange habbit of having unique problems with their boards like their older P5A's supporting the K6+ generation CPU's, but their newer ones don't?!?


Anyway, ASUS seems to still have strange unique problems, like this one I came across last week:
http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/01/18/mystery-rusty-chokes-part-deux/

 

[mikerm]

I just want to put IMHO up just to balance things out.

All the computers I have ever built since the 2000's have used Asus boards, and I love them. The one problem I had with one was a manufacturing defect and Newegg took care of that for me easily. I always recommend Asus.