Bought a 286! (the one I turned down a few weeks ago) Not entirely sure why yet. I don't even have a CGA monitor to plug it into, but it seemed liked a good a idea at the time. Also, it is pretty sweet. Came with a decent keyboard and 1.44mb and 1.2mb floppy drives! MFM drive is throwing an error, pretty sure it's no good. Surprisingly the BIOS actually has settings remembered in it, though the time has lost ~11 years.

CMOS battery had actually shed its outer blue shell (probably violently at some point in the past), but someone had hot-glued an external battery on the back. I removed it when I cleaned out the case.

Also bought 2x 512MB PC-133 sticks, since I've run out of any PC-66/100/133 sticks over 128MB in size...

probnot wrote:

Bought a 286! (the one I turned down a few weeks ago) Not entirely sure why yet. I don't even have a CGA monitor to plug it into […]
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Bought a 286! (the one I turned down a few weeks ago) Not entirely sure why yet. I don't even have a CGA monitor to plug it into, but it seemed liked a good a idea at the time. Also, it is pretty sweet. Came with a decent keyboard and 1.44mb and 1.2mb floppy drives! MFM drive is throwing an error, pretty sure it's no good. Surprisingly the BIOS actually has settings remembered in it, though the time has lost ~11 years.

CMOS battery had actually shed its outer blue shell (probably violently at some point in the past), but someone had hot-glued an external battery on the back. I removed it when I cleaned out the case.

Also bought 2x 512MB PC-133 sticks, since I've run out of any PC-66/100/133 sticks over 128MB in size...

286 machines in those cases are allways nice to see. Battery not so much, though the rest are in wonderfull shape.
For some reason, I now remember training on 286 machines in cases like that, back in 1992, at a tech college.
I think we were trained in quadro pro or something like that and wordperfect or wordstar or something. (memoires are vague)

probnot wrote:

Bought a 286! (the one I turned down a few weeks ago) Not entirely sure why yet. I don't even have a CGA monitor to plug it into […]
Show full quote

Bought a 286! (the one I turned down a few weeks ago) Not entirely sure why yet. I don't even have a CGA monitor to plug it into, but it seemed liked a good a idea at the time. Also, it is pretty sweet. Came with a decent keyboard and 1.44mb and 1.2mb floppy drives! MFM drive is throwing an error, pretty sure it's no good. Surprisingly the BIOS actually has settings remembered in it, though the time has lost ~11 years.

CMOS battery had actually shed its outer blue shell (probably violently at some point in the past), but someone had hot-glued an external battery on the back. I removed it when I cleaned out the case.

Also bought 2x 512MB PC-133 sticks, since I've run out of any PC-66/100/133 sticks over 128MB in size...

Interesting system. Looks like the IBM PC AT clone, except with the Nickel Leakium battery whereas the IBM PC AT used the Lithium battery on a 4-pin connector and easily replaceable with a 4x AA battery holder for alkaline or NiMH batteries. I'm surprised the original owner hooked up an external battery, but didn't take out the old battery and that it runs basically.

I found a Dell UltraScan P1110 21" Trinitron locally. The bezel is a little scuffed up but I think with a little work I can get it cleaned up. The picture is perfect though!

I've been looking for a good CRT to go with my Windows 98 and XP boxes, so I was really excited to see this beast available for local pickup. It's the same model my family had back in the mid 90s when we bought our first Dell, too. And as matter of fact, that Dell keyboard in the photograph is the actual specific keyboard that came with our Dell as well (the rest of the machine is long gone, unfortunately, but for some reason the keyboard stuck around. It's rubber dome, but I still tore it down and cleaned it all up for old time's sake).

toddfx wrote:

http://i.imgur.com/jBAmvoUl.jpg […]
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That is a sweet monitor. I used a similar Trinitron monitor (HP branded newer version) at work until like 2011 alongside a high end LCD, and it was great.

Paid 45 and got a whole bunch of stuff.

Intel Pentium overdrive boxed
Evergreen 200mhz upgrade boxed
PPro 180 boxed

TNT2 Ultra (creative) (missing heatsink)
i740 AGP
Rage 128 Pro
More cards, etc.

Mac LC III

NICE! #1 on that list paid for everything else 3x over!

My family's first computer was an LC3. Decent machines. Still have it tbh. ^.^

BTW - PULL THE BATTERY OUT NOW. Those little 1/2 AA bastards are little acid filled hand grenades.

luckybob wrote:

NICE! #1 on that list paid for everything else 3x over!

My family's first computer was an LC3. Decent machines. Still have it tbh. ^.^

BTW - PULL THE BATTERY OUT NOW. Those little 1/2 AA bastards are little acid filled hand grenades.

Thanks, will do. MB looks clean, has a few mod wires though. I'm hesitating on buying a vga adapter for it. Will it POST and "chime" without a monitor? I don't want to spend 20 on an adapter if I don't have to.

yes. mod wires is interesting, mine doesn't.

Anyway, drauga made a vid about the LC3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T31I8S1wGzM

edit: the little grey adapter on ebay is a decent one. its the one I use 99% of the time.

Keep your eyes open on "lot" auctions on ebay. 6 months ago I found SEVEN of these adapters with a scsi/usb adapter in a box of parts I got for literally $10. The LC3 also caps at 640x480 so your monitor will need to be able to run that. I personally have a nice 17 inch multisync that works on EVERYTHING.

luckybob wrote:

yes. mod wires is interesting, mine doesn't.

Anyway, drauga made a vid about the LC3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T31I8S1wGzM

😀 pretty much the only retro pc youtube channel i don't have a complaint with.

toddfx wrote:

I found a Dell UltraScan P1110 21" Trinitron locally... http://i.imgur.com/q7Bt4z5l.jpg […]
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I found a Dell UltraScan P1110 21" Trinitron locally...

Nice CRT! Be careful with the Hi-Fi speakers as they seem a bit close to the monitor. By the look of them I assume they are not shielded...

Good score on that P1110! It used the FD Trinitron G1 chassis, about the next best thing you'll get size-wise to the G1W (the legendary GDM-FW900 and its variants).

I found one locally myself, but it had some red color shift and popping/focus loss issues like the flyback was on its last legs, so it went to a friend. Common issue on those FD Trinitrons, I hate to say, given how my FW900 died and my GDM-5410 has similar symptoms.

Enjoy it while it lasts, but be mindful of any symptoms. These CRTs aren't getting any better with age, and few people know how to fix them up any more.

toddfx wrote:

that Dell keyboard in the photograph is the actual specific keyboard that came with our Dell as well (the rest of the machine is long gone, unfortunately, but for some reason the keyboard stuck around. It's rubber dome, but I still tore it down and cleaned it all up for old time's sake).

That looks like the Dell Quietkey keyboard I picked up at a goodwill about a year ago. I bought it because it seemed to be a match for the white P2 Dell XPS towers, of which I have one.
A few weeks ago I needed a keyboard so I grabbed it out of storage, and I like it surprisingly much. It has a light and tactile feel which I prefer. It's hard to explain because all rubber domes are light, but this one feels better than the others. For whatever reason I find I type better with it, it's given me back some confidence that I have not actually forgotten how to type.
With some rubber domes (like the later black Dell PS/2 keyboards) I mistype constantly, but this older white era Dell keyboard seems to agree with me.

toddfx wrote:

http://i.imgur.com/njGoeyml.jpg […]
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One of the best CRT monitors ever made!
I have mine for I think 10 years now and it has never let me down!
It even does 100Hz at 1280x1024! I think the maximum at 1600x1200 was 85Hz

The only thing that's sad about it, is the missing BNC connector! (I know 😁 )

toddfx wrote:

http://i.imgur.com/njGoeymm.jpg […]
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Trinitrons are where it's at. 😀

I have a Sony G200 that I bought new back in the day, loved it. I remember making it run 2048 x 1536. It's not officially supported and it would've been at 60hz ofcourse, but still pretty dang good for a 17 inch CRT.

I'm kinda hoping about when the last good CRTs are nearing the end of there lifetime OLED technology will have finally over taken them in quality. That more or less fixes black level issues, not resolution scaling though.

Had a bunch of Sony G500's that I picked out for work* (and one at home) - unfortunately there's a hardware bug (less bad/more correctable in the Dell version) that kills their contrast after a while. Too bad since they were really good CRT's before that...

(* - at least the Dell 2007FP's I chose to replace those mostly lasted well past their 5yr warranties 😉 )

That more or less fixes black level issues, not resolution scaling though.

Every technology have black level issues. CRT had horrible black under strong light.

Main advantage with CRT isn't black. Plasma had just as good black levels.

Main advantage is refresh rate (now with adaptive sync LCD's, that's moot) and input latency (LCD's are still just a bit higher).

incorrect, main advantage is scalling. Crt's dont have natave resolutions and to this day they are the only display tech that can display multiple resolutions without a need to scale the image.
As for input latency, that would depends on the crt, if you directly tapping the neck board like insome arcade rgb monitors then tge latency would be non existent. But sone CRT have a insane high latency and even screen ghosting do to how tge monitor picks up the image.