Re: Anyone can identify this 286 motherboard?

Posted on 2020-07-24, 01:53

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

nzoomed wrote on 2020-07-24, 01:27: I can't get it to post. My power supply won't even power up like normal, no fan Maybe something is shorted on the motherboard and overcurrent protection in PSU kicks in, look for shorts to ground on power rails Check the orientation of chips, are they rotated …

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DIY AT DC-DC power supply (replacement for Toshiba T3200SXC and others)

Posted on 2020-07-22, 20:29

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Recently i had to build a new power supply for my Toshiba T3200SXC because all capacitors in original PSU had leaked and the PCB got toasted. It was an AC/DC power supply, I decided to replace it with DC-DC converters, so now I am using 19V laptop power brick. Or an USB-C PD powerbank (with PD 20V …

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Re: Powering old laptops and other stuff with USB-C PD powerbanks

Posted on 2020-07-22, 19:14

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

These are the ones I used, i just soldered screw terminals: https://aliexpress.com/item/4000124858649.html fixed voltage (I didn't test it) https://aliexpress.com/item/4000124529027.html If you want to be really safe and possibly waste some power and money :P you can use 15V PD module and step up/ …

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Re: Powering old laptops and other stuff with USB-C PD powerbanks

Posted on 2020-07-22, 17:36

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been toying with this idea before, how do you set the voltage on the PD trigger? There is a tiny switch on the side. It toggles between 15V and 20V, or 9V - 12V. It is a mechanical switch, so it "remembers" the setting. There are two versions of adapters and each toggles only between two …

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Powering old laptops and other stuff with USB-C PD powerbanks

Posted on 2020-07-22, 15:49

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Recently i had to replace the internals of my T3200SXC power supply and now it runs with modern DC-DC converters (Pololu) and laptop power brick instead of AC power. This is probably the first time that laptop got chance to get some real "portability", so I wondered if I could run it off battery. I …

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Re: 486 voltage converters

Posted on 2020-07-20, 19:11

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some time ago I made a direct 1:1 adapter because I needed to raise the CPU with a heatsink a bit. I saw the other thread with lots of bodge wires, but I created it by stacking and soldering top and bottom pin rows together (beacuse the pin count is the same here), installing one row at a time, from …

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Textured plastic labels on screw covers, battery packs, button panels – how are they made?

Posted on 2020-07-19, 12:27

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have bunch of old laptops and most of them have some labels damaged, especially the ones that are used to cover screws. They may or may not have texts printed. These labels are made of pretty thick plastic and are adhesive on the bottom. The plastic is rough and textured. They are also used in …

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Re: Official Licenses? (DOS, Win98, NC)

Posted on 2020-07-19, 10:44

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

It also depends on how by the book you want to be. As Jo22 said it's the COA that's important not the Disk/CD's. I'm not sure about this one (note that I'm from Europe), i think that it may be true for Win 9x and other software which requres a serial number to work. But MS-DOS works without a …

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Re: Installing battery holders (AAA) in Ni-mh laptop battery packs

Posted on 2020-07-19, 09:23

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hmm Waiting 5 years to power up and have rechargeables still having a good charge is a pipe dream (just my opinion). That's why I would like to install battery holders, i wouldn't put any batteries there and keep them empty, but if they would be needed at any point in the future, I would just open …

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Re: Installing battery holders (AAA) in Ni-mh laptop battery packs

Posted on 2020-07-19, 01:14

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pretty sure they originally used 18650 Li-ion batteries. I will clarify that this is about 1992-1996 486/P1 laptops which use about 20 watts, and had only ni-mh batteries. The format was originally 4/3A (17670). Modern AA batteries work very well because I'm already using them in one pack, but I …

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Installing battery holders (AAA) in Ni-mh laptop battery packs

Posted on 2020-07-19, 00:57

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been using AA ni-mh batteries for refurbishing old laptop battery packs. Most of them originally use 4/3A size but it is easier to fit a bit smaller batteries. The problem is that i'm not using these laptops a lot and putting new cells is a waste of resources and money. So i've been wondering …

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Re: 10 year cpu challenge

Posted on 2020-07-18, 09:22

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

2000: Celeron 633 2010: i7 870 2020: i7 6700k

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Re: Installing Windows on Libretto 50CT

Posted on 2020-07-16, 18:31

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Easiest way is to put the CF card in the machine, use a DOS 7 / Win9x DOS floppy to format as FAT32 with system files, and then use a USB adapter to plug it into your main computer and copy the contents of the Windows 95 disk to a folder called WIN95B or something. Then boot the laptop and run …

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Re: Need some advice replacing bad BIOS flash chip

Posted on 2020-07-16, 14:05

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's a great news, I'm glad it's working 😀

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Re: Need some advice replacing bad BIOS flash chip

Posted on 2020-07-15, 20:50

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I plan on using UNIBIOS since I can still boot from a floppy. The motherboard has the bootblock bios, and by using a fake modified version of AWDFLASH I could boot to a command prompt. But as per adalbert response I understood I need the exact same chip to be able to do that, other brands will …

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Re: Need some advice replacing bad BIOS flash chip

Posted on 2020-07-15, 20:26

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BTW how will you flash the new chip? If you don't have external programmer it is theoretically possible to hot swap chips after you boot into flash utility. But there is risk of damaging stuff.

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Re: The quest for the perfect retro laptop: a saga

Posted on 2020-07-15, 20:21

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You could in theory replace the CCFL tubes by taking the LCD panel out of the mountings and then unpeel the CCFL off the panels themselves, but considering how delicate they are, it's not something you really want to do. I personally wouldn't want to replace them until they are completely dead and …

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Re: Need some advice replacing bad BIOS flash chip

Posted on 2020-07-15, 19:39

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Find the datasheet for that chip and check what voltage it is, probably 5V. Find another chip and compare datasheets: is the voltage the same and is the pinout the same. You don't need to have exact same chip, but it needs to be programmed before you use it. Sometimes you can even use larger chip, …

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Re: Would you break a plastic piece covering a port in a 30-year old laptop? Does old hardware deserve "special" treatme

Posted on 2020-07-13, 23:15

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I already have a hole in ISA bracket because I desoldered BNC connector from network card (the plastic door wouldn't close with it), so I could try to put PS/2 connector there 😀

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Re: The quest for the perfect retro laptop: a saga

Posted on 2020-07-13, 21:29

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by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just booted into Windows 98 (battery still holds a charge so didn't have to look for power brick :)) and it has Mobility M3 installed (Mobility 128), driver dated 11-15-2001, ver. 4.13.7166. Maybe you will find the installer somewhere, I don't see it on the drive so I will need to check the …

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