Re: DIDN'T buy this retro hardware today

Posted on 2019-02-19, 19:46

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Don't have any pictures readily available, but I've had to pass up quite a bit of old tech at an electronics-only Goodwill in Omaha, NE. -Passed on a last-gen Bernoulli drive (predecessor to the Zip drive) because it was SCSI only & I have no computers with SCSI...really kicking myself on that one. …

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Re: HP Pavilion 4509 AMD K6 3D 450 Desktop PC 081118 - Seeking Advice?

Posted on 2019-02-16, 15:09

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, even if it had been a different motherboard, it would have surprised me if it had an AGP slot because I highly doubt an AGP card could even fit in that case. It is VERY small...not low-profile, but it is significantly shorter front to back than typical ATX cases. Also, IIRC the power supply …

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Re: HP Pavilion 4509 AMD K6 3D 450 Desktop PC 081118 - Seeking Advice?

Posted on 2019-02-16, 04:58

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My family had an HP Pavilion 4530 when I was growing up. Same model line, exact same form factor, and I would guess most likely the same motherboard (Ours had a K6-2 350). IF it is the same motherboard, then it'll have three PCI slots, one ISA slot, and no AGP slot. I don't recall what chipset it …

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Re: Old platforms with 3.5" disks

Posted on 2019-02-14, 22:57

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you mean which systems only used 3.5" floppies for the OS install disks? yes! I know DOS did, I remember it well. MS-DOS did not ship exclusively on 3.5in disks. Far from it. The first several versions of MS-DOS were shipped solely on 5.25in disks, and several more versions shipped on both 5. …

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Re: What model is this Western Digital MFM hard drive

Posted on 2019-02-08, 17:31

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I unfortunately don't know the model off the top of my head, but that drive looks virtually identical to the drive mounted to the hard card bracket in my AT&T 6300. IIRC mine had some trouble with stiction and also needed low-level formatting to get working, so it wouldn't surprise me if yours has …

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Re: 486DX4-100 as a modern machine?

Posted on 2019-02-05, 17:48

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Probably not quite the spirit of what you had in mind since the 486 won't be doing any actual grunt work, but you could always use it to remote-desktop (VNC or other similar program) into a more modern system. Basically, you'd just be using the 486 as a dumb terminal to view and control the newer …

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Re: Fixing "Bad Cluster" ?

Posted on 2019-02-05, 08:43

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

No, a bad cluster/bad sector is a spot on the hard drive that has permanently lost the ability to hold data, most often through physical damage caused by dust, heat, physical shock, or simple loss of the ability for that spot on the surface to hold a magnetic signal due to age. Once this happens, …

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Re: Found the vintage PC motherlode...

Posted on 2019-02-02, 19:41

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by torindkflt

in Milliways

in Milliways

novasilisko wrote: This is like seeing those commercials of sad neglected puppies for me. ♫ In the aaaaarrrrrms of an angel... ♫ 🤣 But seriously, good find! I wish Texas wasn't so far away, I'd love some of that gear!

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Re: Windows 95 or 98 for 66mhz 486?

Posted on 2019-02-01, 19:55

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

We ran Win95 vanilla on a DX4-100 with 16MB RAM when I was a kid. I don't particularly remember it being slow, but that could be a combination of my young age and the fact that was the first "modern" computer my family ever owned, having had only an Apple II before then, thus I had no real concept …

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Re: Randomly scanned old hardware ads from 1987-2002

Posted on 2019-01-26, 21:15

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've got a few scanned ads from that time period. Just individual ads though, no full-page spreads. I'll go from oldest to newest. This modem ad actually wasn't scanned by me, it was sent to me by a friend back in 2002. Age unknown, I'd guess around ~1988 or so. 9600-wtf.jpg Again, not scanned by me …

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Re: Windows 98 SE Drag and drop error

Posted on 2019-01-26, 20:39

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A quick Google search suggests the following common causes for error 1026: -Not enough disk space (or the file is larger than 4GB) -The full filename, including the complete directory path to it, is too long (exceeds ~255 characters) -The file name contains a character that is not allowed by the …

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Re: 10 year cpu challenge

Posted on 2019-01-20, 06:32

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

January 2019: Intel Core i7-3632QM (Lenovo Ideapad P400 laptop, my current daily driver) January 2009: Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2060 (Lenovo 3000 C200 laptop, my daily driver at the time) I'll take it even further back, just for kicks! January 1999: Intel Pentium MMX 200 (CTX EzBook 770MS-XJ laptop, …

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Re: Randomly scanned old hardware ads from 1987-2002

Posted on 2019-01-10, 16:36

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

SpectriaForce wrote: mei 1997 a.jpg May 1997 Is that a wood-grain laptop I see? 🤣

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Re: Cables hell help - tips for some markers or other solutions?

Posted on 2018-12-23, 21:36

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Its good idea, how much for printer and tapes? Around $25-$50 for the label maker, depending on model and features, plus about $5 per roll of the M-Tape for plain white (I imagine different colors would be about the same). Also need batteries for it, some use AA while others use AAA, typically …

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Re: Cables hell help - tips for some markers?

Posted on 2018-12-23, 18:49

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a handheld electronic label printer similar to this: 81SL-vPTP4L._SL1500_.jpg It prints on plastic "M-Tape" that you peel off the back to expose some adhesive. M-Tape should be easy to find at any office supply website or store, and depending on the model of label maker you get, is available …

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Re: Anybody recognize this VLB controller?

Posted on 2018-12-06, 22:19

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't recognize it off-hand. Is there an FCC ID printed anywhere on the board? If so, it may be possible to find information by searching for that. EDIT: I searched Google for "Appian ADI2", which is what's printed on the large IC next to the "Made in USA" stamp, and came up with this page: …

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Re: From your experience, what have you found to be the most robust, reliable hardware to date?

Posted on 2018-12-04, 20:00

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Probably the most robust single piece of hardware I currently have in my collection would be the AMD 486DX4-100 CPU currently in my childhood 486 rebuild. Not only is it still working after nearly 24 years, it also survived after unknowingly being inserted backwards (rotated 180) and then powered on …

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Re: 486 era memory limitations

Posted on 2018-11-28, 17:33

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Back in about 1998 or so, I upgraded our family 486 to 64MB (2x32MB), which is the maximum it supported (Even though it had four slots, no more than two 32MB modules could be used, the motherboard manual specifically stated this). It had a QDI V4P895GRN/SMT motherboard running the Opti 895 chipset, …

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Your thoughts..."new" Athena AT PSUs from Amazon?

Posted on 2018-11-27, 17:57

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The PSU in my current 486 build is still working (Unknown brand and wattage, the system is currently in temporary storage), but I've been thinking about preemptively replacing it with something newer before it potentially blows up on me. I just happened by chance to find a couple Athena-branded AT …

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Re: Minor irritations

Posted on 2018-11-27, 17:40

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's very easy to modify IDE cables that have the missing key hole. Just heat up a push pin using a match or lighter, then press it into the connector on the cable where the hole should be. Takes all of 5-10 seconds per connector. Or, depending on how the cable was assembled, there may be a simple …

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