Well I managed to pick up three more systems for free today from a guy who was cleaning out his house. I got one from him a few days ago, and he said he might have more. Sure enough, he did! So, In the course of 5 days, I went from having 3 old computers to 10. YIKES. What have I started??

I'll try to check the obvious stuff with the power supply, but there are a number of things that I'm unsure how to test with my multimeter. I'd love to at least get it to post, but considering the rarity of this machine and my inexperience, I may just pass this along to another enthusiast, since my new acquisitions are more in my era of experience.

black goes to black, and then you can touch everything with the red probe, as long as you don't short things out. it will happen. But the power supply looks like it will be standard connector and voltages.

power supply troubleshooting is a massive undertaking if you have zero knowledge of electronics. My advice is to look up your local hackerspace, and go there. Bring a cold 6-pack and there will definitely be someone there that can get you going. Or maybe if you lived close to someone here?

Luckybob, those both sound like good idea. I do have some electrical knowledge, but it's mostly automotive stuff. I'm interested to learn though, I just don't want to shock myself.

I live in Sacramento CA, not sure if anyone else is in this area. I may try to find a hackerspace, too. Thanks!

hell, there should be one on every corner in that city.

And make sure that 6-pack is gluten free.

tizzdizz wrote:

Hey guys, I came across this machine at the Salvation Army for $15, and I'd love to get it going. It's an Acer Smith Corona PC220, 286, built Circa 1991.

Have you managed to find a system diskette for the system? I'm new to this era of computing as well and I'm unsure if I need the exact img in order to restore the BIOS to defaults after I replace the RTC and whatever should be powering the CMOS.

Note that such modifications/repairs are only necessary if letting what might be a super capacitor in the PSU charge doesn't work. That solution was offered on a TechRepublic post.