digitaldrifter wrote:

I already got my NEW Evergreen 133 in the mail last week, so that'll be the first thing going into it.

I'm pretty sure the Evergreen is explicitly known to be incompatible with certain models of Valuepoint. I do not recall the explicit details, though.

It seems to me that introducing relatively exotic parts like a Valuepoint and an Evergreen increases the likelihood that you're going to run into obscure, frustrating compatibility problems.

digitaldrifter wrote:

These will compliment my other two retro systems nicely!

How many do you need, exactly..?

I'm pretty sure the Evergreen is explicitly known to be incompatible with certain models of Valuepoint.

Hmmm, I wasn't aware of that. A cursory Google shows that several people have ran the Evergreen with no issues. I got the chip pretty cheap, though, so if there is a problem I can just hock it on E-Bay and get a genuine Intel Overdrive.

How many do you need, exactly..?

6.37653!

Seriously, as an addict, can you ever have too many?

digitaldrifter wrote:

A cursory Google shows that several people have ran the Evergreen with no issues.

The problem would be with the Valuepoint, specifically. I recall reading about it in Evergreen's official documentation, which might be on archive.org somewhere at this point.

digitaldrifter wrote:

Seriously, as an addict, can you ever have too many?

If you don't have sufficient storage space for them or if you ever have to move them, then yes, you can very easily have too many.

Well, so much for the Tandy. I got it in the mail today, plugged it in and turned it on. It emitted a terrible squealing noise from the modem, and I heard a few faint popping noises too. No video. I quickly shut it off, but started smelling something burning. I decided to give it a few more tries, though. I opened the case up, took out the expansion cards, and tried it again. Same thing, faint popping noises and no video, so I turned it off. So I decided to disconnect everything but the floppy, and tried it one last time. Same thing, faint pops, but this time I noticed some smoke rising from one of the socketed chips. Thing is toast. Hopefully the e-bay seller will be accommodating.

Wow, what a disaster. The Tandy is fried, and the IBM 486 I got in the mail was damaged. The plastic rod on the power supply switch snapped off, but I was able to push the switch in (to be on) and have been using a power strip to turn it on and off. Luckily it looks like a standard AT power supply, so I'll just have to find a replacement switch or power supply.

Of course, that's not all wrong. I bought some ram for the IBM from ebay, but it looks like it doesn't like it. I got some generic 70ns 8mb parity simms (they were 60ns when I got them in) but still my computer doesn't work with them. The seller said they'd refund my money, though, and I don't have to send them back. Looks like I'll have to source some genuine IBM ram. Also, I bought one of those new Kouwell KW-560D VLB IDE controllers from ebay as well, and THAT doesn't seem to work in my system. When I have it in with the buses enabled, it just seems to do a soft reset just before it gets to the point where it's supposed to boot up. Even when I disable all of the buses on the board stuff doesn't act right. Of course, the IBM bios leaves much to be desired, and it won't let me disable the onboard IDE controller, even after flashing to the newest bios. I'm think it's either an IRQ or address space conflict, but I don't know for sure. Gotta love trying to get all of this crap working together!

What DID work in the IBM was the Evergreen 586. Even with only 4mb of ram, Windows 3.1 FLIES!

Man that sucks, I can feel for you. All the best.

Yeah, that's how it goes with old hardware. The guy with the Tandy refunded my money less shipping. Not ideal, but stuff happens. Really, the IBM runs really well for what it is. I don't know if I'll be able to run a HD off of the VLB, but I think with a few extra parts I can have an excellent retro system.

That sucks 🙁 I have an extra AT power switch that came with a case I have. If you want it I can send it your way, so PM me if you'd like it.

digitaldrifter wrote:

Luckily it looks like a standard AT power supply

Heh. Don't count on it. Even if the connector and voltages are the same, for IBM I would think it entirely likely that they've rearranged the screw holes or otherwise cut the hole in the rear of the case to make it difficult to insert a generic replacement supply.

But replacing the case switch, at least, should be straightforward.

Perhaps you can make the IBM computer recognize the RAM by soldering together the last four detection pins in the same order as on the proprietary SIMMs. There should be four solder pads at the edge of the SIMM that represent the four pins. At least I could make my own proprietary RAM for my HP printer that way.

I went ahead and got legit IBM ram for it. I made sure the FRU numbers matched, and now I'm running 24mb just fine. It was a little expensive for the simms though (about $10 a simm).