Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-03-12, 14:48

by

by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

January, "Last purchase of the Chinese year" March "Last purchase of the fiscal year" early April "Last purchase of the Hindu year" August "Last purchase of the Hebrew year" .... lol And it is better to buy it now if available, because next year you might not find the item anymore or prices …

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Re: Compaq presario 425 no boot!!

Posted on 2023-03-12, 14:06

by

by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

thanks aui, yes i think the same , the original hdd died , and the second hdd i try to created a small partition there but fdisk not save de changes I'm quite certain that the system bios itself doesn't support a lot bigger HDDs than roughly 500MB. At least that is the case with one of my Compaq …

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Re: IBM Model M Keyboard (1391401): 1990s or 1980's?

Posted on 2023-03-12, 13:06

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think there were a few blue labels made by IBM. These ones should be identical to the white ones. For Lexmark ones, i don't have first hand experience with them, but I've heard that the plastic and metal backplate are thiner. (But I can be wrong) If you're correct and the white and blue are …

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Re: IBM Model M Keyboard (1391401): 1990s or 1980's?

Posted on 2023-03-12, 11:00

by

by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've incidently read a lot about different Model Ms recently, and what I've gathered there is no difference at least between the white and blue labels. They are the same keyboard, IBM at some point just transferred keyboard manufacturing to Lexmark division. They were made with same tooling in same …

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Re: Old netbook as a DOS gaming powerhouse

Posted on 2023-03-11, 17:46

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is there any USB gamepad/joystick which works in DOS like Gravis gamepad? The first thing to worry is your USB device support in DOS. There are no drivers for controller in DOS, games accessed joysticks and gamepads directly which is not the way modern USB stuff works. Afaik there are drivers like …

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Re: percentage of old PCs and components that are saved?

Posted on 2023-03-11, 17:03

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Milliways

in Milliways

I am thinking it's going to be like that with the main part of Unix WS, they will get enthusiasts who want to give them modern storage interfaces and run some linux or freeBSD variant on them. Sure, that can happen and people are doing that. I also tested BSD and latest Solaris 10 (11 doesn't …

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Re: Help IBM PS/2 model 8556 wiring 1.44MB floppy

Posted on 2023-03-11, 15:10

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I checked the PSU label from my 35, and interestingly date code was 9726, so that is definitely not the original PSU and has been replaced by sometime after that. This also explains, why there was so little dust inside the unit when I opened it, it probably has seen very little hours after replacing …

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Re: Help IBM PS/2 model 8556 wiring 1.44MB floppy

Posted on 2023-03-11, 13:12

by

by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, based on the images the PSU on my system is exactly the same unit, so PSU mod may be something I need to do at some point. I did open the PSU when I cleaned the system and checked it visually and it looked brand spanking new (even very little dust, machine was overall very clean). I wonder if …

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Re: percentage of old PCs and components that are saved?

Posted on 2023-03-11, 09:53

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Milliways

in Milliways

Yah the dotcom boom did them no favors, overleveraged buyers/users of them and overconfident suppliers of them. The big names with fingers in multiple pies clung on, but it killed everyone else. High prices are the symptom not the disease, like temperature rising when you've got an infection, it's …

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Re: Help IBM PS/2 model 8556 wiring 1.44MB floppy

Posted on 2023-03-11, 09:13

by

by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just now saw your thread and it was very interesting read, like pretty much everything with these IBM machines. IBMs design shenanigans can make these challenging to work with, but otherwise they are beautiful machines. Floppy issues are a major problem getting these machines to work, because of …

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Re: percentage of old PCs and components that are saved?

Posted on 2023-03-10, 22:30

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Milliways

in Milliways

This is an interesting topic. As many have said, only small percentage gets "saved" and I believe that fraction is only getting smaller because the total volume of manufactured units is just so huge. Reasons for throwing away fully working equipment are many, but one factor is undeniably the fact …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-03-10, 18:41

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Seeing stuff cheap is my weakness, even at the grocery store, donuts 50% off, that means they're half the calories right? Current most tempting thing is a PC Chips weird old pentium board, can't actually get a firm ID from Ultimate Retro, that is sitting in a town some ways away, that some of my …

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

Posted on 2023-03-10, 18:23

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I tested my model 35SX how it supports larger HDDs. Machine was originally sold with 40MB and 80MB HDDs and I was a bit afraid that IBM included some artificial limits to the HDD support. However, starter disk and auto configuration correctly recognized the 256MB CF card, so I'm pretty positive that …

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Re: Fake Yamaha OPL3-SAx, old stock or modern take?

Posted on 2023-03-10, 15:18

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That indeed doesn’t look like Yamaha chip just based on size and shape. I do think it’s some kind of audio chip and that is a legit cheapo sound card. Based on the shape of the chip, it could be some Opti chip or even just Analog Devices Soundport/etc. Windows Sound System chip. It is quite …

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Re: IBM PS/2 floppy disk drive restore / repair

Posted on 2023-03-10, 14:31

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Attached a photo - try not to laugh too hard at amateur soldering I don’t think that is bad at all. It just looks messy because of the through hole caps used, but it is same for me. Solder joints look just fine! I think you should take a photo of the control board, because problem is there most …

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Re: IBM PS/2 floppy disk drive restore / repair

Posted on 2023-03-09, 22:08

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So we must be talking about the same drive models. Mine also had those three nonpolarized capacitors - I actually started replacing them with polarized ones before I caught myself and had to order a bag of nonpolarized. I used electrolytic caps as well. I did through hole ones on the motor board …

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Re: Let's fix some PS/2 floppy drives!

Posted on 2023-03-08, 20:07

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I truly admire your perseverance with that floppy drive! If there are IBM gods out there somewhere, you surely have proven yourself to them. It is interesting stuff to read. I just recently fixed a floppy from my model 35SX, an ALPS drive (34 pin, media sense). I’m so glad that I got it fixed with …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-03-08, 16:43

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by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Double check that top 5.25 faceplate floppy, the eject button is same shape as LS120s Will do. I admit that I didn't look those through that carefully so it is possible, but I'm 99% sure that it is just a regular floppy. Some Compaqs had those oval shaped floppy drive buttons and for example, I …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-03-08, 16:18

by

by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just got this haul today. Nothing superduper interesting, but some "nice to have" type of stuff: Two 3COM Etherlink III ISA network cards. I have already one in of my 486s, and they are really good for DOS networking IMO. Card below is a VLB IO card. IMG_1517_2.jpg This one has various IO cards …

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Re: IBM PS/2 floppy disk drive restore / repair

Posted on 2023-03-08, 15:54

by

by CharlieFoxtrot

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have two 1.44mb ALPS drives and can’t get either to work. Both had ugly capacitor leakage One ended up having some torn pads on the motor board so that one is hopeless. The other the LED lights up and the disc spins, but no movement from the heads whatsoever. The worm shaft moves easily so not …

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