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

Posted on 2021-10-22, 12:14

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm mulling over the decision on whether or not to replace the Am5x86 in this tower with my actual 486SX-25 ODwilly wrote on 2021-10-17, 11:34: Popped open a fresh stack of Memorex CD-R's. Is life? No, Demorez!

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

Posted on 2021-10-16, 00:35

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

wink Do any of you have one? lol MMaximus: it's an ST-251 Used to have a bunch. New old stock even, but MMaximus got my last one. He would have had extras, but my first shipment got lost in Europe somewhere when France closed its borders abruptly towards the beginning of the brexit + covid crap. …

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

Posted on 2021-10-15, 20:38

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

oh look, a 486 with an MFM hard drive in it running Windows 95 And if you're wondering, yes, the case's HDD LED is connected to the MFM controller in a display of redundancy. IMG_20211015_120047.jpg Heh, I seem to remember doing that in the mid-late 90s, think it was very much "for the lulz" though …

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

Posted on 2021-10-15, 20:16

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

liqmat wrote on 2021-10-15, 19:41: MMaximus wrote on 2021-10-15, 19:38: Now you just need a beige drive bay faceplate 😄 wink Do any of you have one? 🤣 MMaximus: it's an ST-251

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Re: 6800gt blue tinted

Posted on 2021-10-15, 17:21

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

L511 and L514 have 4 soldering pads each, I think they are transformers - or double-inductors. They have been removed by force - let´s hope no traces have been damaged. unfortunately both missing components have pulled one trace each off of the board. 511 took the lower right and 514 took the upper …

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Re: 6800gt blue tinted

Posted on 2021-10-15, 17:01

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think I found the problem. look at image 68004, there's something missing near the marking that reads "L514" and then in another photo the same component is missing near the marking "L511" I'm assuming they're both inductors

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

Posted on 2021-10-15, 16:02

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

oh look, a 486 with an MFM hard drive in it running Windows 95 And if you're wondering, yes, the case's HDD LED is connected to the MFM controller in a display of redundancy. Filename IMG_20211015_120047.jpg File size 1.46 MiB Views 1587 views

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

Posted on 2021-10-15, 00:58

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Even with EOL products, they should not be available, or else common people will attempt to do the repairs without skills/training to do them. I mantain that only certified/trained professionals should have access to them. We'll just have to agree to disagree there If the parts are soldered, what's …

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

Posted on 2021-10-15, 00:16

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So, I repeat, only shops with technicians certified and trained by the manufacturer should have access to the parts and documentation. This way the customer is protected when something goes wrong or breaks. And this is the thing that RtoR fails to address. I partially agree with this. Yes, the …

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

Posted on 2021-10-14, 23:37

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In other words, you want the documentation to try and fix it yourself, without being certified and/or trained to do that. Still is a very wrong thing. In my opinion, this right to repair fight is more about getting manufacturers to actually distribute parts/documentation so even third party …

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

Posted on 2021-10-14, 21:49

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bruninho wrote on 2021-10-14, 21:16: I'm also against Right To Repair. How come?

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

Posted on 2021-10-14, 18:07

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

well didn't this take a different turn :p

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

Posted on 2021-10-14, 16:43

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just finished repairing the cable for a Mouse Systems serial mouse

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

Posted on 2021-10-14, 03:40

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-10-14, 03:34: Well maybe, unless you're finding PCIe MFM controllers somewhere. I might just be trying to defy my age, but part of me still doesn't see Pentium 3s and 4s as retro

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

Posted on 2021-10-14, 03:32

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does installing an MFM hard drive + controller into an ALR 8300 server count as retro? :p

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Re: My Windows 95 486 build

Posted on 2021-07-12, 02:56

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Everyone is really saying "stick a heatsink on it and see if your problems go away." because nobody really wants to put in troubleshooting time on something where there seems to be a glaringly obvious problem unaddressed. The use of a heatsink compound, thermal paste, wasn't actually terribly …

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Re: My Windows 95 486 build

Posted on 2021-07-12, 01:35

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

that cpu will overheat and die without a heatsink, you need a heatsink since it's a 5x86. it clearly says "Heatsink & Fan Req'd" on some of those CPUs. get one of these https://www.ebay.com/itm/324631500115?hash=item4b958b9553:g:E1gAAOSwISdgpDJU, to better be save than sorry. I didn't put this …

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2021-07-05, 23:29

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Why though? :smile: Assuming this reply was for me, just because lol. I like to make up little challenges for myself to keep my computer knowledge on the up and up, and making different eras of hardware work together is challenging :-p Making systems do what they are not suppose to do is great fun …

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2021-07-05, 01:03

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

devius wrote on 2021-07-04, 18:23: Why though? 😄 Assuming this reply was for me, just because 🤣. I like to make up little challenges for myself to keep my computer knowledge on the up and up, and making different eras of hardware work together is challenging :-p

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Re: My Windows 95 486 build

Posted on 2021-07-04, 17:28

by

by ST251

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I think you need a bigger drive for '95, 40MB is a real squeeze, plus I'm not sure if it even likes MFM controllers. Edit: you do have a heatsink for the DX5 right? DX-2 up need them, DX4 up need a fan. Oh, Windows is already installed on that drive :p It's very slow but it was done, I'm at the …

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