Using NIC Bootrom socket for OS?

Posted on 2022-05-03, 21:55

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I know that some have used the rom socket on 3Com 3c905b ethernet adapters to add XTIDE capability to a PC. I was wondering if it could also be used to enable a PC to boot into DOS (or other OS) from ROM? How much storage can such a ROM have? Even better would be a boot menu, letting you select from …

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Re: Awe32 RAM Expansion

Posted on 2022-04-29, 22:32

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

ah, thanks for the info, everyone! A couple years ago I broke the latches on the ram sockets of my Awe32, and I'm about to solder in new sockets (with metal clips!) and I was wondering if I should max out the memory once I start using it again. (I actually bought another one since breaking that one, …

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Awe32 RAM Expansion

Posted on 2022-04-29, 20:00

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

is there any real advantage to having a full 32mb in an Awe32? what is to be gained by having that much ram on the card? (debating between using current 1 or 4mb memory sticks or buying a couple 16mb)

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Re: Zip Plus power supply?

Posted on 2022-04-02, 14:01

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So, can I use any of them so long as they're center positive and the output is 5v, 1a? In short, yes. As long as it's center positive and output is 5V and >=1A it's going to be fine. There are also usb->dc jack cables which you could then use with any beefier (>1A) usb charger. So with that adapter …

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Zip Plus power supply?

Posted on 2022-04-02, 02:40

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I got a Zip Plus as part of a Mac SE/30 bundle... but I didn't get a power supply for it. I was hoping to back up the HD in the mac to a zip disk (80mb drive) before I install a bluescsi or scsi2sd. I went looking for a power supply on ebay, and there's a variety of them for the various …

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Re: New Repair Information Wiki by Tech Tangents

Posted on 2022-02-13, 22:35

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Here's a follow-up video on the wiki. Bear in mind, the Caps wiki is NOT just about capacitors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfzzsbmyDSg

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Re: Hardware Troubleshooting / Repair With "Cheap" Tools (Adrian's Digital Basement)

Posted on 2022-02-12, 23:52

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

stamasd wrote on 2022-02-12, 23:35: With only a little more money, you can get a scope that's actually useful for PC stuff (60-70MHz bandwidth, mine was about $120). Can you suggest one? I don't know anything about oscilloscopes, but I'd like to learn.

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Hardware Troubleshooting / Repair With "Cheap" Tools (Adrian's Digital Basement)

Posted on 2022-02-12, 22:33

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I was just watching a YouTube video on Adrian's Digital Basement's channel, and in this episode he forewent his $3k oscilloscope and $350 multimeter and substituted comparatively cheap tools. Obviously the "cheap" tools ($60 oscilloscope and $25 multimeter) weren't as capable as his expensive ones, …

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Re: Repurposing Retro Hardware

Posted on 2022-02-12, 05:38

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nothing is wrong if it feels right for you. You might want to check out http://www.evercase.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=63 and see if their cases suit you. If they don't ship to wherever you are, I reship items for a few people, and would be happy to help. Pretty sure they ship …

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Repurposing Retro Hardware

Posted on 2022-02-12, 02:44

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been trying to find horizontal desktop ATX and AT cases, and haven't had much luck. Sure, horizontal ATX cases exist; almost always black, almost always lacking drive bays, almost always meant for entertainment centers, not PC computing. And genuinely old computers anymore are insanely …

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New Repair Information Wiki by Tech Tangents

Posted on 2022-02-08, 20:44

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just came across this YouTube video by Tech Tangents announcing a new information website. It's called "caps.wiki" https://caps.wiki and it's meant to be a database of information for parts and methods used for repairing electronics. It's called that because the most common problem with old …

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Downgrade Psion Netbook Pro to Netbook or 7?

Posted on 2022-01-21, 00:39

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Really esoteric question here, but it would be possible to replace the roms in a Psion Netbook Pro in order to "downgrade" it back to a Netbook or Psion 7, and have it run EPOC, instead? I periodically see Netbook Pros for sale on ebay, but very very rarely see Netbooks or Psion 7s. I'd probably get …

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Re: New Video: Will It Play ? Budokan with S2P (MT32) on the HP 200LX Palmtop

Posted on 2022-01-21, 00:35

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just saw that video a little bit ago. Way cool. Funny thing is, when you mentioned "Eye of the Beholder" near the end, my brain heard "Shadow of the Beast" and you suddenly had my full attention 🤣

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Re: Intrest in new ISA cards?

Posted on 2022-01-21, 00:28

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Another ISA card idea, a lot more esoteric... would be an Amiga bridge adapter. It could be anything from a bridge that connects zorro side to the isa side, like a "dumb" Bridgeboard, so you could, for example, stick an ISA vga or ethernet card in an Amiga 2k,3k,4k. Or it could be very smart, with …

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Re: Intrest in new ISA cards?

Posted on 2022-01-21, 00:24

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I like the idea of ISA cards. I don't know if it's possible, but the VGA/EGA/CGA/Herc video card would be exceptionally cool from my point of view... especially if you could manage Voodoo-compatible acceleration. I know the ISA bus is very slow, but still, it would be cool, imo, to be able to …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-01-09, 23:46

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hardware is meant to be used like cars are meant to be driven. Again - those are not museum-grade unique pieces. Old hardware dies just from lying on the shelf (applies to HDDs too) - I recently had a machine which I wanted to sell - it was working couple months ago but when I finally decided to …

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DOS PC with Toggle Switches / LEDs?

Posted on 2022-01-09, 02:01

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been doing a little reading / viewing videos about the Altair 8800 and Imsai 8080. I know there are expensive replicas out there, but that's not what I have in mind. Since AT cases are so hard to come by anymore (especially desktop formfactor, rather than tower), I've been thinking of neat ways …

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Re: Eye of the Beholder I on HP200LX Palmtop Review

Posted on 2022-01-05, 12:46

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Speaking of serial ports and MIDI... I came across this video "Mini MIDI Gaming with the HP 200LX and Serdaco MPU-232" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtOAXqwvkIU The idea of hooking my 100LX up to my MT32 tempts me so much lol I also have a Roland PMA-5... which is battery powered... so …

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Re: New video: Running Minix 2.0.2, a UNIX-like OS on the HP 200LX Palmtop.

Posted on 2022-01-05, 12:40

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I spotted a US Psion 5 on ebay, but at $180... owich. Not saying it's not worth it, just that my budget is a bit tight for that much. It'd be neat running X11 on a Psion 5, then sshing onto my Linux phone with it! (I'd need a USB-C to RS232 converter). I wonder if one could run Desqview/X on the …

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Re: 16 bit ethernet card in 8 bit ISA

Posted on 2022-01-05, 12:36

by

by Hamby

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a 16-bit ethernet card in the 8-bit slot of my Toshiba T5200. IIRC it's a 3com

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