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

Posted on 2020-07-13, 20:54

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can anyone explain about FM music what I'll loose in terms of it on N600c? I didn't have this one and i'm not sure which sound card it has, probably ESS Allegro or ESS Maestro. I had ESS maestro for a while and it worked, but some notes in DOS music sounded out of tune or were skipped. Sound …

---

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

Posted on 2020-07-13, 20:41

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Here is my old post with good laptops https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=50438 - TFT screens, floppy drives, sound cards. 386 to Pentium 3. I think that that the laptop with best compatibility ever is Compaq Presario 1800 :) (upper right on the photo) model number 18XL481 - be sure to look for …

---

Re: Help save my 386 motherboard.

Posted on 2020-07-13, 19:36

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Probably 1/4 watt, exact value shouldn't be too important here. I had corrosion problem with exact same mainboard and didn't manage to fix it, but I was able to get some "beeps" (it was dead silent before). Here is the thread https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=45574. Desoldering memory sockets …

---

Re: Would you remove (break) plastic piece covering a port in 30-year old laptop?

Posted on 2020-07-13, 18:22

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

the first question to answer would be... is there even a connector behind it? ^^ Thanks for the answers, yes, there is a connector (photo attached), maybe I should stated that in the post :) If this ones is already modified a lot (ram upgrade, CF/SSD, hotel), it may be ok, since it's already been …

---

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

Posted on 2020-07-13, 10:37

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I wanted to connect external keyboard to my 30-year old Toshiba T3200SXC, and this is what I see. Would you break it, or not? 😉

---

Re: Rasberry Pi Zero on an ISA card?

Posted on 2018-02-05, 20:32

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Youtube-dl is a python script, so probably you could use it on a Windows 95, download a video, then play it with QuickView. Here is something about Win 95 version of Python 2.6 and 2.7 https://msfn.org/board/topic/162317-python-27-for-windows-95/ Win 95 would surely work better on a 486 than Win 2k. …

---

Re: Rasberry Pi Zero on an ISA card?

Posted on 2018-02-05, 19:50

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I did this. It works OK. The raspberry pi's wifi signal was TERRIBLE inside the case though. I ultimately just used an old wifi access point to bridge an actual ethernet connection, was a lot easier. The signal could probably be improved by soldering external wifi antenna connector. Doesn't the …

---

Re: Rasberry Pi Zero on an ISA card?

Posted on 2018-02-05, 11:07

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some ideas: - connect WiFi to old machine by using Raspberry Pi as a PPP server (nullmodem connection using serial port) (only 115200 baud max speed, but maybe someone could emulate Xircom PE3 LPT network card with GPIO in the Raspberry PI) - emulate MT32 with the same Rpi (use Munt) and these are …

---

Re: Ever Heard of a 'Flip Disk' ?

Posted on 2018-01-25, 00:17

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So, maybe try to clean it again, and after that spray some transparent, non-glossy varnish onto it? Maybe it would work, should block the air 😜

---

Re: Ever Heard of a 'Flip Disk' ?

Posted on 2018-01-24, 23:21

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Palmrest of my Presario 1800 notebook was covered with sticky rubber, but I was able to remove it with isopropyl alcohol. I rubbed it with a cloth with some alcohol, and the coating dissolved, it sticked to the cloth.

---

Re: Toshiba T5200 mods and upgrades

Posted on 2018-01-20, 01:22

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I wonder if such bios would work also with T3200SXC (the one I have). Mods I did here: replaced original, faulty TFT color screen (it is almost 100% white all the time, and that's a common issue; by the way it's really thick) with a new one, much newer, intended for use with industrial machines. Old …

---

Re: getting compents wet

Posted on 2018-01-20, 00:54

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

isopropanol That's a good idea. And it's better than water, because it removes grease (of course water with soap also does that), it also has the ability to remove some types of glue (and that's harder to do with water, some kinds of glue are just totally waterproof and you can only remove them …

---

Re: Let's see your pizzaboxes!

Posted on 2018-01-16, 23:35

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice Unisys, I also remember that Unisys had some really small CWD series PCs (Cwd4002). I would like to get one sometime. I once made a PC with Voodoo1 in an actual box, not pizza box but still 🤣

---

Re: Socket 3 heatsink - any place to get for cheap or should I make my own?

Posted on 2018-01-16, 23:12

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I made a "prototype" using some leftover plastic pieces, a knife and a file (white clip on the left photo). The tip of the clip needs to be made pretty accurately, but it's not too hard to make. A piece of ABS or polystyrene (DVD case) should be good to try. The plastic needs to have some elasticity …

---

Re: Socket 3 heatsink - any place to get for cheap or should I make my own?

Posted on 2018-01-16, 22:48

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I managed to create my own Socket 3 heatsinks, or, in fact, heatsinks attached directly to the CPU (because that's the way it usually worked), you just need a piece of plastic and cut it in a way that is shown on the image, so it will clip the heatsink to the CPU. Put some cheap thermal grease …

---

Re: The Cheap Windows 98 Laptop Recommendations Thread

Posted on 2018-01-14, 00:51

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Compaq Presario 1800 is great if you want excellent DOS/Windows compatibility :P : * it has Pentium 3, mine had 733MHz speed * Ati Rage Pro 128, you can play Half Life and even SVGA mode in Win 3.11 works, * Sound Blaster compatible ESS Solo-1 Card - full FM synth support (ESFM/OPL3 emulation) and …

---

Re: Smallest Socket 7 Motherboard

Posted on 2018-01-04, 02:12

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sadly you'd also need one with at least some of its cables and accessories, since it has onboard video and audio and only one PCI slot, but has no actual ports on the board itself. You can always buy some pin crimp connectors and make your own cables ;) I have a small S7 mainboard, not as small as …

---

Re: Dudes it is time to make a MOTHERBOARD, i know it wil cost dearly, but i will buy it!

Posted on 2018-01-03, 21:21

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I guess that it would be only possible (without extremely high costs) to make such a simple board, like this 386SX: https://www.recycledgoods.com/forcom-technologies-m396f-v2-6-386-motherboard/ https://www.philscomputerlab.com/forcom-m396f.html https://cdn6.bigcommerce.com/s-a1x7hg2jgk/images/ …

---

Re: [solved] How to run Steam without SSE2 (Pentium 3 + Win XP)

Posted on 2017-03-21, 14:29

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Tried the 2016 steam install succesfully! thanks for the share, can't locate the 2014 one at all, could a link be posted please? :-) Edit: Looking through my own backups I've found a backup of steam from 10/09/2013. Going to see how this one does for full functionality :) Oh, that's great :) if it …

---

Re: Reconditioning an old NiMH laptop battery pack

Posted on 2017-03-03, 07:40

by

by adalbert

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Gatewayuser200 wrote: temp sensor, MAKE SURE IT IS DIRECTLY TOUCHING ONE OF THE CELLS I used some thermal paste to make better contact.

---