Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-06-24, 18:04

by

by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

of course x3 tl;dr: I bought an Amiga. I've had an Amiga 1200 for like three years and I never use it because it's a PAL 1200 and I don't want to pay 180 dollars for a flicker fixer or take my chances that I can find a compatible LCD monitor to use with an adapter. Why not get one of those …

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Removed CMOS battery from laptop but BIOS is still locked

Posted on 2020-06-24, 17:39

by

by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently acquired a Compaq Armada M700 laptop, and it's really cool, but right now it's basically unusable because it complains about bad BIOS settings and the BIOS is locked. Naturally, I removed the CMOS battery but was shocked to find that even without the battery installed the BIOS is still …

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-06-24, 13:40

by

by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

rant: when you buy something really expensive, and now that you've done that you need to follow up and spend even more money on it to make it really worthwhile x3 That's more of a rant against oneself of course x3 tl;dr: I bought an Amiga. I've had an Amiga 1200 for like three years and I never use …

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Re: What is your weirdest troubleshooting experience when dealing with retro computers/hardware?

Posted on 2020-06-24, 13:35

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This isn't a PC, but I have a Power Mac 9600 that, for the longest time, would just freeze in the middle of trying to boot off an OS install CD, with no real explanation as to why. It turned out that, of all things, the rubber on the CD spindle had turned sticky and must have been affecting the …

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-06-24, 01:53

by

by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I dunno if this really applies to this thread but I can't stand when you throw a build together after gathering all the parts you want and it just...doesn't work, like when I put my Athlon XP build together and then the board blew a mosfet on the first power up.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-06-22, 17:50

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pentium III 1GHz, what seems to be 320MB of RAM, and I believe it originally came with a 10GB hard drive but said drive is no longer present. Also the BIOS is password locked and I don't know where the CMOS battery or password jumper are.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-06-22, 17:29

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Probably my last retro computer pickup for a while, scored this Compaq Armada M700 off eBay for pretty cheap, with a charger even. The fact that this 20 year old laptop is of similar thickness and weight to Core2 based laptops from several years later is genuinely amazing. https://pbs.twimg.com/ …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-06-21, 03:47

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got this Zenith TurboSport 386 with power supply pretty cheaply off eBay, but like the seller advertised it just doesn't turn on. There's an "External Power" LED lit up but that's it.

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Re: Help me identify these COAST modules

Posted on 2020-06-20, 17:03

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nope, 168 pin EDO was used in Power Macintosh computers and I think also some Pentium I and II machines.

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2020-06-20, 13:58

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

They're probably EDO memory specific to certain Pentium I era laptops. Before the SODIMM standard laptop RAM was whatever the manufacturer wanted it to be.

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Re: PS/2 optical mouse compatibility issues on older boards? (Logitech M-SBF96)

Posted on 2020-06-20, 05:49

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've used a HP PS/2 optical mouse (don't know the model) with machines as old as a late 1994 486 without any issues, myself. If my 386DX-33 box could be booted into something that uses a mouse I'd try it on that too.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-06-18, 22:34

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That right one seems to have been rather common with OEMs, I've had multiple machines with it (specifically very late 486/early Pentium stuff). Have yet to have one fail on me, which is more than can be said for the awful Apple CD-ROM drives from the mid-90s. Do you know if it works on IDE or it …

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-06-18, 20:20

by

by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh man, that hurts, that hurts a lot...I can't imagine those are very common computers so finding replacement parts is likely a no go.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-06-18, 20:17

by

by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That right one seems to have been rather common with OEMs, I've had multiple machines with it (specifically very late 486/early Pentium stuff). Have yet to have one fail on me, which is more than can be said for the awful Apple CD-ROM drives from the mid-90s.

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-06-17, 19:41

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Part of the problem with parting things out is that cases seem to be scrapped in a disproportionate amount due to their higher shipping costs, causing a shortage of vintage PC cases. To follow the junkyard analogy, imagine if you went to the junkyard and couldn't get a door, hood, or trunk lid …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-06-17, 19:04

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Found a Tandy "Power Switching System" at the thrift store for 4 dollars to add to my Tandy 1000SX/CM11 monitor setup.

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Re: When do you throw in the towel on an old piece of hw?

Posted on 2020-06-17, 01:59

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My "throw in the towel" point is when something just will not work no matter what I try and then I find it on eBay for a low price/less than I paid for the non-working one.

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Re: Collecting rants

Posted on 2020-06-12, 14:40

by

by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Mine is a simple rant. Hate ebay sellers that offer best offer and then reply to any best offer request with a $3 discount (on things $50 or more) or something equally stupid. I mean, WTF. Why even bother with best offer if you are going to make an insulting counter-offer like that. $3 is just …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-06-10, 02:26

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by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh no, low triple digits is fine, I'm talking $200 and up silliness. "Low" triple digits for a V3 is just crazy talk. Pretty sure I never spent over about $35 for any of my V3 cards. The only 3DFX card I spent triple digits for was a V5-5500 and that was $100 even if I remember correctly. The only …

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Re: Cyrix/Texas Instruments 386 to 486 upgrade chip question

Posted on 2020-06-09, 23:18

by

by EvieSigma

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I need to get the battery off that board anyway, it wasn't leaking a few months ago but that was a few months ago.

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