New Members - please post your introductions here

[petabyte]

As this is a brand new forum, I thought I'd open up a thread to encourage new members to introduce themselves a bit.. now hey.. let's not get too personal.. ok ?

And if you wouldn't mind to keep this thread \"clean\" let's try to keep the the chitchat (i.e. even the welcome to the board replies) to a minimum or this thread may get to 100 pages fast

So I'll start things off :

My name is petabyte and I'm a forum junkie. :oops: I've been off the wagon for a number of years and countless times I've tried to stop but it's useless.. I need to feed my learning addiction.. :!:

Now just a bit about me.. I'm a fairly secretive guy in terms of privacy on the net.. especially when the things you write are visable to anyone with a net connection. But I love to share the info and knowledge I have, so that's why I'm here, to share and learn.

my formal education is that of an electronic engineer and I held a field service position with a firm for over 20 years.. that job is gone now along with company car and laptop <cry> oh well..
So needless to say (but i will) I've always tinkered with things.. yes, a hacker.. (too bad that term lost it's orignal meaning) a hardware hacker mostly.. hacking fixes in whatever I find that breaks.. (except for cars, I have friends for that) I got started a little late into the computers, my first box was an ibm pc-xt with a whopping 10meg HD,blazing fast 4.66mhz 8086 processor, 640k mem running dos 3.3.. man was I cool back then.. :roll: nevermind..

so these days, I'm forced to be a software guy as well.. as I fix pc's for friends and that usually means cleaning virus/trojan/adware and reinstalling OS's.. yeah hardware breaks but not that often :cry: so as a result, I keep up on my software knowledge by visting a few security forums.. and trolling around a few hardware forums as well.

now I found this place from a thread at motherboards.org/forums
where I've been hanging out lately.. it's a nice friendly place with some pretty smart people.. mostly, of course, it's about mobo's.. So this person mentioned badcaps.net and I recalled reading articles a year or so ago about the faulty caps and was curious as to what you guys were up to.. and I said \"w00t.. they have a forum\"..

and so now.. you're stuck with me :P

so what's your story ? come on.. give it up..

[Topcat]

A WELCOME to everyone that joins in!!

Peta, ofcourse some advertising would always be helpful to making this a success.... This forum has existed since October 6th 2003, online the first time at about 9:00PM CST. Being a couple days old, atleast there's traffic...

I don't know if this forum will be a huge success or not, I created it out of requests from viewers, so we'll see how many actually join... If it takes off, I'll be tickled pink!! If it flops, I'll simply remove it.

A little about me?!?

HMMM I'll give a little info... I've been in the electronics field since 1991, with experience ranging from TV/VCR repair all the way to industrial electronics for a very large and well known manufacturer. I started in computers in 1994, just for a change and something I thought would be more challenging.... First of all, in the computer field, I AM NOT a number cruncher (programmer) YUK!!!!! I'm a hardware/network guy... I can install any OS, repair and make it work, but sitting and typing code is more boring than watching flies mate!! So I stick to hardware!! I get the 'thrill' from coming up with cures for problems, creative and USEFUL mods (this DOES NOT include neon lights and corny batman windows in my cases)...

Before the VP6 was around, Abit's poster child was the BP6, dual celeron board... Being one of the pioneers to run dual Coppermines in my BP6 was quite a thrill... Then came the VP6, and the dreaded crap cap problem... Thus was born PROJECT:VP6, which is over a year old... It can be viewed at www.kabalsrealm.com/systems/projects/vp6/. That single article ultimately led to badcaps.net and this forum... I was shocked at the publicity it drew...

A little inside info?!?
Well, age?! I'll say late 20's and that's close enough... I enjoy dealing with the computers, all of this is just a hobby these days, so if it did flop, it's no loss... I'm also a car nut... (300ZX!!!)... I also enjoy flying immencely, although, no I don't own an airplane... YET!!! Maybe if I sell off all this computer junk, I could afford one... HEH I own 3 domain names, and host sites for a few friends on this array... Of course they pay me nothing... HMMM Ohh well... Money isn't all... That's about all I think needs to be revealed... If there's something you really need to know about me, ask... The answer all depends on the question you asked...

Anyhow,
Peta, and everyone else that has joined, Welcome to the forums!! Bring some friends with ya!! :roll:

[dustoff]

I guess I'll throw my hat into the ring now.

I go back a way with Topcat, while he was still in the electronics biz, when a 200 mhz processor was a sight to behold. I've been using computers since the late 80's (first machine was an 8 mhz 286 with a 20 meg hardcard) and am mostly a networking guy with a helping of programming and a side of hardware.

Most of my involvement around here is behind-the-scene stuff, mostly setting up different services, and as always, needling topcat for still running windows.

Anything else you want to know, feel free to ask.

[zia]

Well, I'l follow the leader lol. I'm a student of the master. I had some computer experience back in '86. It was all DOS. Not to long ago, I thought it was something just to do minor things like reformat and replacing drives. I'm learning hardware mainly. Though I am dabbling in site building.
Personal about me, I'm a nurse. Doing some serious research on becoming a PRN/midwife. Yes some would say it's foolish to go back to school now, but with \"someones\" support I will be in the top of my class. I hope to minor in some type of technology. I love to read, ride mtn bikes and want to learn to fly.
My age, thirty-something, this monday I might add.

[stretch0069]

Oh...what the hey.....

Since everyone is being so social, I guess I can adapt...

Started in electronics doing ATC maintenance in the USMC for 10 years. Did four and half years with a company out in Oregon. Did a bit of traveling there.

I like tinkering with anything electronic. Mostly the hardware side. Jack of all trades, master of none. First PC was a 386 in '91-ish. (too many parties cause CRS ) Built first PC in 99-ish based on the ol' VP6. Thanks to a lot of help, I have two now.

Hoping to relocate to the Leesburg, VA area soon. I need gainful employment. ND is toooooo quiet. :o

Gee...other than that, I'm just you average mid-thirties guy with too many ideas and not enough money.

[Topcat]

HMMM Well... OK... For the record, my first system was back in 1985, being a Commodore-64 with the kick-ass 1541 5.25 floppy drive set up on an ancient 19\" tube-type color TV... Now that was the kitty cat's meow back then!! DOS nothin!! That system had 64k RAM, runnin BASIC!! Didn't cut my teeth on a DOS-based machine till 1988, that was a Tandy EX-1000... WOOHOO!! My first homebuilt was back in 1994, being a Pentium 90 (overclocked to 100) with 64MB RAM and a 170MB EIDE HDD, a 4x Mitsumi CD drive, a Hercules 1MB video card, and an SB16... YEAH BABY!!

[stretch0069]

DOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I completely forgot about my C64!!! How sacrilegious of me!!! :oops: I beat ya Topcat.....I had the tape drive... Do you know what its like loading BC's Quest for Tires from tape???? It wasn't long before I got my first 1541 though.

Ahhhh...the memories......

I still have two C64s. I think I'll go looking for them. Maybe play some Mail Order Monsters or M.U.L.E.. :roll:

[PAULWILSON]

I've been repairing/using PC's since the Commodore PET..hehe..just has a flashback<G>. I'm only now realizing the scope of this whole bad cap thing...scary.

[Michael]

Hello!

Just noticed this original “introduction” forum. I find it nice to know other members better, so let's introduce myself too. But first I want to mention my old computer junk hanging out somewhere in the house. My first computer was a Philips P2000. This was a robust reliable machine and my exemplar was a limited edition with 512 Kb memory (64 was standard). I tried some assembler programming and that was YUK! I agree 100% with Topcat if it is about machine code or 3GL programming languages. My second computer was a Philips MSX-II. Played with Turbo Pascal, Basic, but still YUK… Switched from XT to Pentium 60 MHz, PIII 500 MHz and my actual computer a HP Pavilion t370. This computer is the only one so far that broke down (4 months), so I ended up here!
Programming was YUK, I found computers boring, so I got a Masters Degree in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology, but no (paid) work available in Europe. I work nowadays as Oracle Software Engineer and that is NOT YUK! I enjoy my work as long I have regularly contact with customers and 4GL Case Tools are much nicer than 3GL tools. So, I know a lot about databases, learned a lot about viruses and have quite much knowledge about Sun Solaris and Windows.
I enjoy driving (2,5 hours/day), hanging out with friends, searching and consuming good wines and travelling. I'm 34 years old, living in the South of Holland, as far ‘South' bears any meaning in this small country, and I'm married with a Romanian. I hope too that this forum will be a success and I'll try to contribute.

Greeting,

Michael

[willawake]

I guess I should introduce myself also. I am 29, English and have lived in Greece for 24 years. My first computer was a sinclair spectrum (never will forget when we connected two via modem and could TYPE MESSAGES over the telephone lines!!!)

Have been employed at a shipping company for 6 years. I do technical drawings, studies using navigational charting software, design the company website, research information for clients, support the network and frustratingly spend a lot of my day helping people do simple tasks with the pc :roll: or fix their mistakes . Also fixing anything which requires tools. Currently i am struggling with win2k server (but learning fast) and hope to soon have installed a new network with adsl, mailserver, firewall and my first rackmount server equipment experience (yay )

I would like to find a better job doing networking at a higher level and not having to deal with users all day . I guess I will have to motivate and get some certs. In my spare time I like more computers, dvd movies, digital photography, alcohol, cats, rock/electronic music and spend way too much time on the net. I like installing things whether DIY or technology and like the achievement when a project is successful.

Here is my small site
http://users.otenet.gr/~wwalsh/

Here is my company site
http://www.overseasmaritime.com

[noorman]

my intro

hi guys,

I 'm a 50 y old who studied electronics in his younger days and worked in that sector for a long time; different jobs, the latest one was R&D and production control for a firm that made car alarm systems with microcontollers in their products ...
even created some testing equipement for the production lines we had.
after that, it seemed like electrtonics makers had left my country (or at least my region of it) ...
I eventually got in to ITC through a schooling program after I had started playing with the PC, privately, in september 1997. My son was going to do IT in school and had requested we finally get our own PC. It was through my son too, that I got in to PC games.
Anyway, I 've worked in professional ITC for nearly 4 years when I got made redundant.
I am still without work now, but from time to time I work on private people's PC's and I 'm going to try to get with a firm that does this for a living ...

So, in short, I have extensive electronics knowledge, also with Surface Mounted Devices (I 've soldered thousands of them by hand in R&D, pre-production testing work and repairs). I bought components for the firm too.
I 've worked in pro ITC long enough to get by.

That 's it (for now). If anyone wants to know more, drop me a message.

P.S.: I live in Belgium, Brussels is the capital, where a large piece of NATO does its business, with a large airport etc..
I live about 45 kilometers north of our capital, near the port of Antwerp through which many an American soldier passed on his way to Germany for the 'Reforger' manoeuvers with other NATO troups in years passed.

[MoonShadow]

Hi from MoonShadow

Hi peoples,

I'm from Sydney Australia and have been in the software development side of computers for 15 years now. Along the way I have build a few machines, for work and home, but don't think I should be given a soldering iron even if my life depended on it .

I am not sure how happy I am to find this forum as I have a VP6 with system freeze issues so I guess I will be replacing my mobo. I had been getting HDD failures as well, so I bought 2 new HDD to replace the RAID array with issues and the problem went away .... until I finished installing all my software, then another freeze.

Are there any thread around with lists of SAFE mobos that do not have cap issues? I am looking but have not found any yet.

Ideally I need a mobo with 4 ATA/100 channels so that I can attach the 5HDD and 2 Optical drives from my VP6 (raid or not I need the space).

Welcome any help.

[bushytails]

Ah hell, I might as well post here. I'll probably check in from time to time, as the pile of recapped boards grows.

Generic jack(al)-of-all-trades, doing a little bit of everything from raytracer design to marine diesels. Not excellent at much, but can feign a passing knowlegde of just about anything. Started with computers on a Trash-80, and used just about everything since. Current primary interests are raytracing, 2-stroke engine design, building microcontroller-based water treatment systems, and attempting to get in touch with my creative side, which even though I've yet to see any sign of it, everyone insists I must have somewhere.

Did my first recapping about 3 years ago, and have done a number since... All of them have been mine or friends', as soldering isn't one of my favorite activities. (even with a good filter fan, still not healthy, plus it's just not a very interesting job...) Current projects are a MSI 694D Pro V1.0 (see other posting) and a FIC KA11 (Mostly "I.Q." caps, all of which look toasted, with three leaking, and one splattered all over the board. A few Teapos that look ok, and a few "S.I.(r)" (registered symbol) caps that look ok. I'll post on it in the "other motherboards" section at some point)

Male, 6'0", mostly grey wolf with a few other things thrown in (do a wikipedia for "furry" if that seems a little odd to anyone), straight... oh, this is an introduction, not a personals ad.

Current real job is the rather repetitive task of installing directv systems... mostly pays the bills. sometimes. Past jobs have included two years teaching computer engineering to college students (ended with me getting fired, for refusing to dumb-down my class into a new-world-order approved little robot training center), installing security cameras, carpentry, general electrical, plumbing, av/hifi repair (mostly silver-era receivers... mmm, discrete output stages...), web design and programming (mostly database-backed web sites), toy store owner, putting microcontrollers into new and interesting places, linux sysadmin, and just about anything else that was available when bills needed paying.

Current spare-time projects are a raytracer, a 1/4 scale petrol r/c car, putting together enough working boxes to build a rendering farm (if anyone has any p3 >600mhz cpus, or boards to put them in, feel free to send them my way. , ranting about the sad state of {world, politics, humanity, education, capitalism}, and on the back burner, designing a programming language with unique OO semantics (started on the reference compiler, but haven't had the time to do much more).

GNU/Linux user, with a bit of freebsd and openbsd thrown in. Can't stand windows. Don't see how anyone uses windows.

Music tastes are mostly classic rock, with quite a distaste for the crap that's called "rock/pop" these days. TV tastes are pretty close to non-existant (probably the only directv installer without a TV), but include Red Dwarf, Blackadder, Father of the Pride, and a few random sci-fi shows. Political tastes tend towards utopianist, with a quite depressing view of most people as selfish, greedy, unthinking, unintelligent, and uncaring, making any attempt at peace or happiness pretty close to impossible.

Present recapping equipment is a weller soldering iron, sylvania vacuum desoldering system, and a TDS210 'scope for testing.

Oh, and I have a habit of rambling on forums, resulting in posts that are way longer than they need to be.


Nice to be here,
--Randy

[denyu]

Re: New Members - please post your introductions here

Hai I'm new
my first system was 286 AT with 21Mhz processor
I'm not hardware guy but I crazy about computer wares.

Guess what
Now Mmmm I worked on one of Capacitor Mfg dough, not spying :p
I'm only interested how good is my company compare to others, if good I want a salary increase this year

[termnlyIll]

Re: New Members - please post your introductions here

HEH...HEH...HEH..........Well you guys seem swell and I hope that you can take this news well...........I have to admit that I missed the computer bandwagon, just a tool to me. Anyways I am new and will be probing your brains for applicable and possibly sometimes controversy ridden discussions, I am a fu;ll on experimenter if there is a way that I can truly learn anything about computers good luck!I guess that's an intro I kinda feel some out of place my first computer was 5 mo ago e-machine(sitting in storageO NOT ASK!!!!) ANd a dell x-70 someting likre that in college7yrs ago DIDn't use that one much either NO MIDI. OH Personal:Alright don't twist my arm since I don't have much beef UGUYS are more tech Im more ART Two degrees Assoc. Arts and Science FINE ART and Assoc. Applied Science Horticultural Technology CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR AN INCOME I want to Project, make holograms blow up speakers(or at least make them do somethinge xtrodinary. OH

Please accept me into your ranks AS I want to learn.

[Oreynid]

Re: New Members - please post your introductions here

Hi guys, just decided to join your lovely forums. I found this place when I was searching for capacitors for replacing the bad GSCs that are on a board that a buddy from work gave me.

Hope to have some fun here as well as learn more about computer electronics and sharpen my electronics skills.

[willawake]

Re: New Members - please post your introductions here

welcome feel free to ask any question or just have fun...

[MD Willington]

Re: New Members - please post your introductions here

Names Matthew David
30 - Birthday 10 January 1976.
Married, we have 2 children - not kids, kids are baby goats, I have children.

MO:
I am a firmware/software engineering technician, I test embedded firmware, it is somewhat similar to the bios you find on your motherboard. Also test software, both leaning towards hardware side.

Firmware, software, hardware, cover all 3 pretty much... build test fixtures for Firmware engineers, compose and run functional tests.

I graduated from college in Canada with a Diploma in Industrial Electronics and Process Control. In the USA it is the equivalent of an Associated Degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. I'm no BEE or MEE but I get by with what I know, and someone liked what I knew enough to move me to the USA and sponsor me for a greencard... Not sure what 10 years of experience adds to my credentials, but thats how long I've been doing this.



I hold Citizenships in Canada & UK, working on US too - collect them like Hockey cards!!

[stretch0069]

Re: New Members - please post your introductions here

Welcome oreynid. we like to have fun here.

we also manage to answer questions too.

[Fizzycapola]

Re: New Members - please post your introductions here

Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Amstrad 464, Commodore 64, Amiga 500, Atari STFM,
Amiga 600, Amiga 1200 (probably the best affordable all round home
computer imo)

Well that was my childhood. Needless to say school teachers hadn't a clue
what I was writing about when they asked for essays on home life.

With money I was able to afford my first PC computer. I briefly had
an 8086 which helped in learning DOS but it was mis-sold to us as a much
higher rated PC. Not making the same mistake twice we bought a brand
new system from a premium retailer for £1500 ($2859.45). It was a brand
new on the market Pentium 75Mhz, a whopping 8Mb RAM, with 16bit sound
and a top end Diamond Stealth 2Mb PCI graphics card.

Hooked on the need for high performance to do more things quicker, after
winning a few thousand on the lottery. I self built myself a brand new on
the market Pentium Pro system ($1500 just for the CPU itself). Back then
nearly everyone I spoke to thought I had just a 200Mhz Pentium and hadn't
heard about Pentium Pro in their local stores, it was frustrating explaining
how it was hugely more powerful than their 'home user' systems. People
wouldn't sell me games and software cos they'd say my system wasn't as
powerful as a 233Mhz MMX - minimum spec to run etc grrr.

After that I kind of incrementally upgraded, mainly been with AMD and learnt
the benefit of large heavy copper blocks and giant noisy fans. But more
recently I've been investing in quiet PC components, such as thermally speed
controlled fans and most importantly a quiet hard drive and quiet enclosure,
anyone looking to reduce PC noise I strongly suggest enclosing your drives
in Silentmaxx enclosures, they have mixed reviews, but I find with a modern
low noise drive placed inside they virtually eliminate all HD noise completely.

I'm currently running an Athlon 1800 with a Radeon 9800XT for games, last
few years it was a 3200XP with a GF6800 but it blew itself apart just like
most high end equipment seems to. My home business system is a Dual Core
X2 3800+. My next purchase will most likely be a Quad Core Processor, AMD
or Intel depending on reviews and if the old A1800 survives that long.

My portable system is a WiFi Sempron 2800+ (latest 2006 revision) with ATI
graphics and is kind of the benchmark of quiteness that I hope my desktop
systems will eventually aspire to.