Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-11-30, 19:37

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today I was repairing some old joysticks for the Commodore Plus/4. I bought 3 broken original Commodore-branded joysticks from eBay with the hope of at least fixing 1 of them and I've ended up fixing 2 out of the 3 which is a bonus. The 3rd needs a new plug, as the pin for the "up" direction snapped …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-11-28, 19:58

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally got myself a working Commodore Plus/4 yesterday. The keyboard wasn't working correctly, several keys not working and other keys doing things they shouldn't. So I opened it up and found the culprit - a deteriorating keyboard ribbon cable. But I did manage to get it working again by reseating …

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Re: Best HDD Controller for PC/XT?

Posted on 2020-11-27, 15:09

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I have a PC/XT that works pretty well, except for the hard disk controller card. It's the original IBM one and apparently the error it gives during the PC test means its dead (I forget exactly which error) What's the best HDD controller? There's a hard disk in this PC XT that looks original, and …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-11-26, 14:41

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

An old/not really retro activity today, but it's all I've done this week - recently bought myself a fat PlayStation 3 to add to the collection, so I've been jailbreaking it and installing Rebug etc. All working nicely. I just need to wait for some proper security torx screwdrivers to arrive, so I …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-11-26, 14:03

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not really retro, just old, but I bought an old rackmount server cheap, which arrived today - https://i.imgur.com/VEw03Etl.jpg An Intel Server System R1304BTSSFAN, with Intel Server Board S1200BTS. Socket LGA1155, Intel C202 Chipset. Installed CPU is Intel Xeon E3-1220, Quad Core 3.40GHz. Currently …

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Re: What is the loudest hard drive you have???

Posted on 2020-11-25, 22:38

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Cobra42898 wrote on 2020-11-25, 20:39: Seagate ST-225 20mb MFM . This for me too, definitely the loudest in my collection. It would be hard to beat!

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-11-23, 19:12

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Playing the retro hardware lottery again and bought one of these again - stock internet image: https://i.imgur.com/YWKKITRl.jpg I bought a Commodore Plus/4 a couple of weeks back, supposedly working, but alas it was dead with the famous black screen. I have no spare parts for the C16 or Plus/4, so …

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Re: Show us your retro computer cases

Posted on 2020-11-19, 11:23

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This one I added to my collection only a few months back: https://i.imgur.com/8Z4VN5Pl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/0eNJVqBl.jpg It's normally home to my IBM 5160 build, hence the fake stuck on IBM logo I attached. :lol: If I can ever find another suitable AT case for the XT motherboard, I'll probably …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-11-17, 17:19

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Played the retro hardware lottery and lost this time - bought a Commodore Plus/4 which arrived today and... it's dead, famous black screen. Getting packaged up and returned to the seller tomorrow. :( I probably could have fixed it, but having no spare parts to hand would have meant this becoming a …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-11-16, 13:58

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today I found time to test a 386 motherboard that I recently purchased, with a 386SX 25MHz CPU. Inserted a couple of 30-pin SIMMs and powered it up and happily it POSTs ok - https://i.imgur.com/TTTyLw7l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/lUM6zvEl.jpg Motherboard seems to be from some kind of Ambra-branded LPX …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-11-15, 19:03

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today I found time to test a 386 motherboard that I recently purchased, with a 386SX 25MHz CPU. Inserted a couple of 30-pin SIMMs and powered it up and happily it POSTs ok - https://i.imgur.com/TTTyLw7l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/lUM6zvEl.jpg Motherboard seems to be from some kind of Ambra-branded LPX …

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Re: Sony Playstation Classic gamepad works perfect on WIN98!!!

Posted on 2020-11-14, 14:52

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm not sure what you mean when you say people don't know how to use a keyboard. They may both be digital but a dpad provides much better control than arrow keys for platformers and the like. Controling Lara in Tomb Raider feels much more intuitive with face and shoulder buttons as well. I've never …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-11-13, 19:49

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got a few bits, which arrived today - First up a RealTek RTG3105 ISA Graphics Card. Which should hopefully pair nicely with my recently repaired 8088 10MHz XT Clone motherboard: https://i.imgur.com/mlG4XIVh.jpg Next, a motherboard with a 386SX 25MHz CPU: https://i.imgur.com/TTTyLw7h.jpg This …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-11-07, 20:42

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today I've been playing around more with my recently revived 8088 motherboard. It's fully functional now, after being a dead motherboard for about 22 years. So I've just been playing some 80s DOS games on it to put it through it's paces. The 10MHz Siemens 8088 CPU handles stuff like After Burner II …

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Re: 8088/XT Clone Motherboard - Keyboard Not Working

Posted on 2020-11-07, 11:21

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just for reference, as it may be useful if anybody searches for info on this motherboard, the pins & jumper settings I discovered: J2 = PC Speaker J5 = Keylock (pins open = keyboard locked) J3 = Turbo Switch (4.77MHz & 10MHz operation) J1 = Turbo LED J4 = Reset Button (at least I presume it is, my …

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Re: 8088/XT Clone Motherboard - Keyboard Not Working

Posted on 2020-11-07, 10:58

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Good job ! You should put some electrical tape on that EPROM window or else it could get messed up. Yeah I intend to. First though I'm probably going to erase it and flash the Turbo XT BIOS instead, for 720K floppy support & faster POST time. Might even program a 2nd EPROM with a BASIC ROM, to fill …

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Re: 8088/XT Clone Motherboard - Keyboard Not Working

Posted on 2020-11-06, 21:54

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Haha nevermind, I figured it out thanks to a post found on vcfed from a google search - it was keylock! I'll put the info here in case it's useful to anyone in the future - Not having any info about the jumper settings, I used trial & error and found J5 was keylock. Put a jumper on it and hey presto …

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8088/XT Clone Motherboard - Keyboard Not Working

Posted on 2020-11-06, 20:04

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I recently revived an old dead motherboard, which had been in storage for around 15 years due to no POST. I made a few repairs - resoldered a tantalum that had snapped off and fixed a 256K SIPP memory chip with a broken leg. I tracked down the not POSTing issue to a burnt chip on the board - the …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-11-06, 18:56

by

by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The 8088 can address up to 1MB. Doesn't mean the motherboard will actually support it though. Couldn't find any exact info about the motherboard, but it does indeed regcognise 640KB with the 4 chips installed and apparently there may be a jumper to allow the remaining RAM to be used in some …

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Re: PII 333 won't boot

Posted on 2020-11-05, 16:14

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just a suggestion on the off-chance, have you tried removing the BIOS battery and/or clearing CMOS settings inbetween changing from the PIII to the PII? I had a motherboard that would refuse to POST with a PII after previously booting with a PIII, until I removed the battery and reset the BIOS …

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