Well, continuing the Great Catalog Project, just did photos on a bunch of laptops from 8086 to i7.

Came across and old Centrino Sony Vaio with an *excellent* screen, I had a failed OS/2 install on it, so I fixed it (mostly). Still have a couple of errors COM.SYS and another file missing.

And I have to see if I can figure out wide screen resolutions (or more likely if someone else already has).

I've tried like 5 times to start a catalog of my collection, no idea why it seems to be working this time. Probably 700 items in, and only cut myself twice! 😀

I sold a monitor today, and in addition to cash I got a CH Flightstick, some C64 disks, A 9-pin joystick, and a Composite Video cable for the C64. I was supposed to just be selling things...

Ordered a Diamond Viper V770, Voodoo 2 and AWE32. Both cards have been shipped, AWE32 should arrive early next week.

Tried my two 22-years-old Zip drives (both internal ATAPI; one 250 MB and one 100 MB) but neither can read any Zip disk. The front bezel of the 250 MB Zip drive has become extremely brittle; both clips snapped off when I merely TOUCHED them.

I don't think those two drives are salvageable as magnetic heads of Zip drives are known to be unreliable, let alone sitting in a closet for more than two decades. Not sure if those 7 disks (5x 250 MB and 2x 100 MB) have any remaining value.

My dad gave me his old Jaz drives and disks a few years ago and asked me to recover the data from them, since they used an external SCSI interface he could no longer connect to.

Most of the disks I inserted exploded inside the drive as they tried to spin up. What had happened was the plastic housing of the disk cartridges had become brittle and the force of the platters spinning up caused them to detach and ricochet around inside. I think out of a dozen or so disks maybe one or two were recoverable.

My mom gave me a stack of Zip disks to recover as well, but they are in a box somewhere. Maybe they will explode as well?

I grew up with Zip disks and have fond memories of them. But I would be afraid to use them for anything retro that was not considered volatile. It's a shame, really. They were great technology for the time. I wish LS-120 had become a thing instead, since the drives were backwards compatible with floppy disks. In all my years of computing, I have never actually encountered an LS-120 drive in the wild.

I needed to install a PCI card that has a fan on it next to an ISA slot with a Sound Blaser. Unfortunately, this particular Sound Blaster has a very large capacitor that interferes perfectly with the fan blades. So I removed the capacitor and added a new one that I've laid down on its side.

The original capacitor is labeled as an "SMG" series, which I think is an original Nippon Chemi-Con. I just used a cheap Chinese capacitor as a replacement. Does anyone know if there is any reason to use a more expensive cap here? I feel like even a cheap capacitor from today should be just as good or better than a good capacitor from the early 90s.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-18, 17:22:

I wish LS-120 had become a thing instead, since the drives were backwards compatible with floppy disks. In all my years of computing, I have never actually encountered an LS-120 drive in the wild.

I just got my first one a couple of weeks ago. Almost missed it, because it was installed in a generic P4 machine.

Ahh, here's the post, apparently "couple of weeks" is BitWranglerese for a month... Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-18, 17:22:

My dad gave me his old Jaz drives and disks a few years ago and asked me to recover the data from them, since they used an exter […]
Show full quote

My dad gave me his old Jaz drives and disks a few years ago and asked me to recover the data from them, since they used an external SCSI interface he could no longer connect to.

Most of the disks I inserted exploded inside the drive as they tried to spin up. What had happened was the plastic housing of the disk cartridges had become brittle and the force of the platters spinning up caused them to detach and ricochet around inside. I think out of a dozen or so disks maybe one or two were recoverable.

My mom gave me a stack of Zip disks to recover as well, but they are in a box somewhere. Maybe they will explode as well?

I grew up with Zip disks and have fond memories of them. But I would be afraid to use them for anything retro that was not considered volatile. It's a shame, really. They were great technology for the time. I wish LS-120 had become a thing instead, since the drives were backwards compatible with floppy disks. In all my years of computing, I have never actually encountered an LS-120 drive in the wild.

Yikes! I'll have to remember that if I do anything with my Jazz drive in the future.

LS-120 drives are kind of great. I've only ever used them for imaging floppy disks - more often than not where a regular floppy drive fails the LS-120 will read the entire disk just fine. Sadly both of my LS-120 drives are now effectively dead because there is no way to clean them in 2022. They require a special LS-120 cleaning disk which is made of unobtanium and using a regular floppy drive cleaning disk destroys the heads. Trying to clean the heads by hand will likely have the same result.

CrFr wrote on 2022-03-13, 18:02:

Story continues. When I got this monitor, it was dead (power led lit, no image). I revivied it by recapping the neckboard. It di […]
Show full quote

CrFr wrote on 2022-02-14, 08:57:

First 3D-printed spare part I've ever made :) Repair part for my IBM monitor control door hinge. I only replaced left side, but […]
Show full quote

First 3D-printed spare part I've ever made 😀 Repair part for my IBM monitor control door hinge. I only replaced left side, but right side might need some attention too. It is cracked, but still hanging in there, so I left it alone this time.

Glued in place.
1.jpg

Overview. I think the door lines up quite nicely. Gaps are even.
2.jpg

Door open. I considered painting the part, but decided not to. It would just get scratched and look worse.
3.jpg

Story continues. When I got this monitor, it was dead (power led lit, no image). I revivied it by recapping the neckboard. It didn't fix all the issues. Image was still brighter on the left side of the screen, but good enough for use.

I guess that calls for recapping the main board too. Back then I was happy just to get it working, and didn't bother with complete teardown to access the larger pcb. Now I started working on it. It took 26 screws to take it apart. It has 45 capacitors. I assume they are all equally bad or going bad soon, so I'm replacing them all.

IMGP2168_.jpg

And after recapping, it was a pleasant surprise to see it still works and the annoying glow on the left side is gone. Took me two evenings to do it. Most laborous recapping I've ever done, but worth it 😀

I wasn't very optimistic this would do anything at all, because all the caps looked ok and they were all good brands (Nichicon, Rubycon etc.). Top of every capacitor was intact and flat. When removing them from the board, I noticed some of them had bursted downwards. Now this monitor has all brand new caps, and hopefully long life ahead of it.

I suspect this monitor wasn't used for very long. It was so clean inside with only minimal dust, and the tube seems like new. Assembled November 1994 in Scotland.

That looks really good

davidrg wrote on 2022-03-18, 19:42:

LS-120 drives are kind of great. I've only ever used them for imaging floppy disks - more often than not where a regular floppy drive fails the LS-120 will read the entire disk just fine. Sadly both of my LS-120 drives are now effectively dead because there is no way to clean them in 2022. They require a special LS-120 cleaning disk which is made of unobtanium and using a regular floppy drive cleaning disk destroys the heads. Trying to clean the heads by hand will likely have the same result.

Can you explain this? I would imagine that a cotton swab with some isopropyl alcohol would work just as well as on a regular floppy drive. How else could a LS-120 cleaning disk be anything special?

CrFr wrote on 2022-03-18, 23:53:

And after recapping, it was a pleasant surprise to see it still works and the annoying glow on the left side is gone. Took me tw […]
Show full quote

CrFr wrote on 2022-03-13, 18:02:

Story continues. When I got this monitor, it was dead (power led lit, no image). I revivied it by recapping the neckboard. It di […]
Show full quote

CrFr wrote on 2022-02-14, 08:57:

First 3D-printed spare part I've ever made :) Repair part for my IBM monitor control door hinge. I only replaced left side, but […]
Show full quote

First 3D-printed spare part I've ever made 😀 Repair part for my IBM monitor control door hinge. I only replaced left side, but right side might need some attention too. It is cracked, but still hanging in there, so I left it alone this time.

Glued in place.
1.jpg

Overview. I think the door lines up quite nicely. Gaps are even.
2.jpg

Door open. I considered painting the part, but decided not to. It would just get scratched and look worse.
3.jpg

Story continues. When I got this monitor, it was dead (power led lit, no image). I revivied it by recapping the neckboard. It didn't fix all the issues. Image was still brighter on the left side of the screen, but good enough for use.

I guess that calls for recapping the main board too. Back then I was happy just to get it working, and didn't bother with complete teardown to access the larger pcb. Now I started working on it. It took 26 screws to take it apart. It has 45 capacitors. I assume they are all equally bad or going bad soon, so I'm replacing them all.

IMGP2168_.jpg

And after recapping, it was a pleasant surprise to see it still works and the annoying glow on the left side is gone. Took me two evenings to do it. Most laborous recapping I've ever done, but worth it 😀

I wasn't very optimistic this would do anything at all, because all the caps looked ok and they were all good brands (Nichicon, Rubycon etc.). Top of every capacitor was intact and flat. When removing them from the board, I noticed some of them had bursted downwards. Now this monitor has all brand new caps, and hopefully long life ahead of it.

I suspect this monitor wasn't used for very long. It was so clean inside with only minimal dust, and the tube seems like new. Assembled November 1994 in Scotland.

IMGP2169_.jpg

Nice job saving that monitor. From the picture it looks like it has a nice bright and crisp image.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-19, 00:49:

davidrg wrote on 2022-03-18, 19:42:

LS-120 drives are kind of great. I've only ever used them for imaging floppy disks - more often than not where a regular floppy drive fails the LS-120 will read the entire disk just fine. Sadly both of my LS-120 drives are now effectively dead because there is no way to clean them in 2022. They require a special LS-120 cleaning disk which is made of unobtanium and using a regular floppy drive cleaning disk destroys the heads. Trying to clean the heads by hand will likely have the same result.

Can you explain this? I would imagine that a cotton swab with some isopropyl alcohol would work just as well as on a regular floppy drive. How else could a LS-120 cleaning disk be anything special?

The relatively high data density of an LS-120 disk (compared with a regular floppy) may mean increased risk of head misalignment caused by physical contact.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-19, 00:49:

davidrg wrote on 2022-03-18, 19:42:

LS-120 drives are kind of great. I've only ever used them for imaging floppy disks - more often than not where a regular floppy drive fails the LS-120 will read the entire disk just fine. Sadly both of my LS-120 drives are now effectively dead because there is no way to clean them in 2022. They require a special LS-120 cleaning disk which is made of unobtanium and using a regular floppy drive cleaning disk destroys the heads. Trying to clean the heads by hand will likely have the same result.

Can you explain this? I would imagine that a cotton swab with some isopropyl alcohol would work just as well as on a regular floppy drive. How else could a LS-120 cleaning disk be anything special?

What I heard was that it was dry disk, no fluids permitted.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-18, 17:34:

I needed to install a PCI card that has a fan on it next to an ISA slot with a Sound Blaser. Unfortunately, this particular Sound Blaster has a very large capacitor that interferes perfectly with the fan blades. So I removed the capacitor and added a new one that I've laid down on its side.

The original capacitor is labeled as an "SMG" series, which I think is an original Nippon Chemi-Con. I just used a cheap Chinese capacitor as a replacement. Does anyone know if there is any reason to use a more expensive cap here? I feel like even a cheap capacitor from today should be just as good or better than a good capacitor from the early 90s.

20220318_131825_resize_66.jpg

I wonder, has anyone ever tried recapping one of those ISA Sound Blaster 16s with audio-grade capacitors, like Nichicon FW series? I feel like those cards have a lot of potential.

All of my Sound Blasters are working and none of the capacitors are bulging. There may be improvement to be had, but generally the samples they play are poor enough that I think it would be hard to tell.

Outside of DOS, I always pair this card with a PCI card for Windows, so it's never truly an issue for my use case.

Not retro just old hardware:
Installed TrueNAS on my QNAP TS-670 Pro. (Purchased in 2015)
Replaced the USB DOM with a usb cable and a usb drive.
Added a pci-express card with 2x m.2 SSD
Now both my TS-670 and TVS-671 will be able to run TrueNAS (BSD) w/ZFS.
Still need to transfer 60+TB of data to both. Sigh.

Not sure if it count as a retro activity, or if it fits here but, here goes.
As it is well known, all modern web browsers need the CPU to support SSE2 instructions.
Sick of not being able to securely browse the web on my athlon xp (which does not have SSE2) running devuan linux, I downloaded the source code and natively compiled the latest version of seamonkey.

Today I realised my son(almost 4 years old now) is ready for the game.

I think that's the perfect age for LucasArts and Sierra games. Lots of fun to be had there. 😀

I also loved the Putt-Putt, Oregon Trail, and Freddi Fish games.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-20, 19:11:

I think that's the perfect age for LucasArts and Sierra games. Lots of fun to be had there. 😀

I also loved the Putt-Putt, Oregon Trail, and Freddi Fish games.

Yeah, I'm already teaching him 😀
He's got his own win XP c2d laptop, and already is addicted to Need For Speed 2 SE! He still can't really drive, forgets to steer and does not really compete in the races... But slot mode cheat helps driving 😜