You could edit bios

giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-05, 16:25:

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-03-05, 15:07:

Ugh, that's a shame, I have seen the 3024 and 3044 fetch silly prices on eBay, perhaps because of this and other machines requiring them. There's a clamshell laptop takes them too I think. So you're probably gonna want to go the XTIDE route.

I see XT-IDE cards being sold on eBay, but they're network cards like this one. How does that work? I install it, it loads the XT-IDE BIOS on boot, then any HDD will work, even via the internal controller on the Olivetti motherboard?

you can use XUBDISK to check out if XT-IDE BIOS will work on the olivetti system , just install a CF and let it boot from the floppy and see what happens
XUBDisk - floppy disk XTIDE Universal BIOS booter

giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-05, 16:25:

it loads the XT-IDE BIOS on boot, then any HDD will work, even via the internal controller on the Olivetti motherboard?

There are dedicated expansion cards that already include the necessary controller and the XT-IDE BIOS (see here for a list), but if you go with the BIOS chip on a network card I believe you'll need a separate IDE controller card.

I scored a free toy today. It's USB MIDI capable. Works fine.

Prior owner broke the power cord. 12v DC barrel cables are a dime a dozen. Threw one on, and it works fine.

Comes WITH the stand.

keropi wrote on 2026-03-05, 17:55:

you can use XUBDISK to check out if XT-IDE BIOS will work on the olivetti system , just install a CF and let it boot from the floppy and see what happens
XUBDisk - floppy disk XTIDE Universal BIOS booter

Thanks, I'll definitely give that a try! Although I personally never use any form of flash memory in place of a HDD, convenience be damned. :^)

In other news, I also received an AST Bravo LC 4/33 in a rather sorry state after transit, but it had some interesting drives.

TEAC FD-55GFR and Creative CR-563-B. The latter is a 2x CD-ROM from 1993, which is apparently one of the few (or only?) drives compatible with some mythical "3DO Blaster" expansion card. It powers on and ejects, but doesn't work with regular IDE, so I'll have to test reading it with the SB16 in my 386 (don't have much hope). The TEAC also powers on, but I don't actually have a 5.25" floppy to test it. Shame on me.

Also, shame about the actual PC. Powered on, but black screen - could be a million and one reasons. The plastic on the rear is weak, warping, bits broken off everywhere. Soldered CMOS battery is an absolute joy. When I pulled out the AT power connector, one of the pins came off with it (corresponding to the orange wire, is this fixable?).

Hi

I just found this motherboard in the trash - DFI CA64-TC (Canyon CN-6XBAS-T)
Can anyone explain to me why people are asking insane amount of money for it on ebay ? 200-300 euro

Yes I know ebay is the den of the evil greedy ones but even the sold boards got a high price
Yes it is a Tualatin motherboard as it comes with a 1200 mhz celeron but is it any special ?

This particular board has many bulging capacitors as it is tradition with socket 370 mobos and there is also a concerning scratch on the south bridge bga

I gave it a big wash and am waiting for it to dry to test it (maybe on the weekend)

Thanx

giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-05, 21:52:

In other news, I also received an AST Bravo LC 4/33 in a rather sorry state after transit, but it had some interesting drives. […]
Show full quote

In other news, I also received an AST Bravo LC 4/33 in a rather sorry state after transit, but it had some interesting drives.

The attachment rip.jpg is no longer available

TEAC FD-55GFR and Creative CR-563-B. The latter is a 2x CD-ROM from 1993, which is apparently one of the few (or only?) drives compatible with some mythical "3DO Blaster" expansion card. It powers on and ejects, but doesn't work with regular IDE, so I'll have to test reading it with the SB16 in my 386 (don't have much hope). The TEAC also powers on, but I don't actually have a 5.25" floppy to test it. Shame on me.

Also, shame about the actual PC. Powered on, but black screen - could be a million and one reasons. The plastic on the rear is weak, warping, bits broken off everywhere. Soldered CMOS battery is an absolute joy. When I pulled out the AT power connector, one of the pins came off with it (corresponding to the orange wire, is this fixable?).

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OMG I think you are not suppose to plug those CD-ROMs to a IDE controller ! it can be damaged
That must be a panasonic ? Mitsumi ? interface standard and only sound cards (or dedicated board) can be used !
Please be careful !

Great find btw ! I also had a Bravo 4/33 computer but only came with a 3 1/2 floppy drive and a 120mb conner hard disk

Nunoalex wrote on 2026-03-05, 22:03:

OMG I think you are not suppose to plug those CD-ROMs to a IDE controller ! it can be damaged That must be a panasonic ? Mitsumi […]
Show full quote

OMG I think you are not suppose to plug those CD-ROMs to a IDE controller ! it can be damaged
That must be a panasonic ? Mitsumi ? interface standard and only sound cards (or dedicated board) can be used !
Please be careful !

Great find btw ! I also had a Bravo 4/33 computer but only came with a 3 1/2 floppy drive and a 120mb conner hard disk

The drive was already plugged into the mobo's IDE controller by whoever messed with this PC before me. So I suppose if that does indeed do any damage, it was already done. I will try it out with my SB16 tomorrow, which does have the correct MKE-Panasonic CD-ROM interface.

Nunoalex wrote on 2026-03-05, 21:59:

Hi […]
Show full quote

Hi

I just found this motherboard in the trash - DFI CA64-TC (Canyon CN-6XBAS-T)
Can anyone explain to me why people are asking insane amount of money for it on ebay ? 200-300 euro

Yes I know ebay is the den of the evil greedy ones but even the sold boards got a high price
Yes it is a Tualatin motherboard as it comes with a 1200 mhz celeron but is it any special ?

This particular board has many bulging capacitors as it is tradition with socket 370 mobos and there is also a concerning scratch on the south bridge bga

I gave it a big wash and am waiting for it to dry to test it (maybe on the weekend)

Thanx

The attachment 20260305_214122.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20260305_215415.jpg is no longer available

It's a Tualatin capable motherboard with a universal AGP slot AND an ISA slot, it's a pretty good board hence the ebay prices. Keep it.

giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-05, 22:21:

The drive was already plugged into the mobo's IDE controller by whoever messed with this PC before me. So I suppose if that does indeed do any damage, it was already done. I will try it out with my SB16 tomorrow, which does have the correct MKE-Panasonic CD-ROM interface.

That is definitely a MKE/Panasonic and needs the proprietary interface.

They usually survive being plugged into IDE. I have witnessed it more than once. Many of the later IDE/ATAPI Panasonic drives had an identical front bezel. You would find this model mixed in with cheap/free hardware up for grabs in mid-late 90's, and people see 40-pins and would put them on IDE. I learned to look at the jumper label - I believe it had ID 0-3 instead of M/S/CS.

Fazeshift wrote on 2026-03-05, 22:48:

That is definitely a MKE/Panasonic and needs the proprietary interface.

They usually survive being plugged into IDE. I have witnessed it more than once. Many of the later IDE/ATAPI Panasonic drives had an identical front bezel. You would find this model mixed in with cheap/free hardware up for grabs in mid-late 90's, and people see 40-pins and would put them on IDE. I learned to look at the jumper label - I believe it had ID 0-3 instead of M/S/CS.

Will a regular IDE cable work, or is the cable itself also proprietary?

giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-05, 22:52:

Fazeshift wrote on 2026-03-05, 22:48:

That is definitely a MKE/Panasonic and needs the proprietary interface.

They usually survive being plugged into IDE. I have witnessed it more than once. Many of the later IDE/ATAPI Panasonic drives had an identical front bezel. You would find this model mixed in with cheap/free hardware up for grabs in mid-late 90's, and people see 40-pins and would put them on IDE. I learned to look at the jumper label - I believe it had ID 0-3 instead of M/S/CS.

Will a regular IDE cable work, or is the cable itself also proprietary?

no, you can use a normal IDE cable (and respect the pin 1 orientation)

hope it is still alive, those drives are rare... good luck and keep us posted

giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-05, 22:52:

Will a regular IDE cable work, or is the cable itself also proprietary?

Yes - a regular IDE cable is fine. Just make sure it doesn't have the blocked pin-20 keying, and don't use a 80-pin grey/black/blue (cable select).

I just found several Panasonic drives in the bottom of my optical drive storage tote. Apparently I still have several, including the CR-563-B from our first family PC. I also have a CR-584-B (12x, ATAPI, 1997), CR-503-B (SCSI, unknown speed, 1995), and a Creative-branded 32X max ATAPI still installed in a tower, cannot see the model.

I just noticed some minute differences in the front bezels - the early drives (MKE and SCSI interface models) have the manual eject hole directly next to the eject button, and the later ATAPI drives have the holes to the left of the Compact Disc logo.

Hmmm, I really didn't realize I still had so many of these around. Perhaps I should take some decent photos - some of them I don't even see listed on TheRetroWeb or elsewhere.

Top: CR-563-B (MKE)
Middle: CR-503-B (SCSI)
Bottom: CR-584-B (ATAPI)

Please excuse the messy test setup - I was using the CR-584-B for some DOS tinkering.

Fazeshift wrote on Yesterday, 00:12:

Top: CR-563-B (MKE) Middle: CR-503-B (SCSI) Bottom: CR-584-B (ATAPI) […]
Show full quote

The attachment PXL_20260306_000325754.jpg is no longer available

Top: CR-563-B (MKE)
Middle: CR-503-B (SCSI)
Bottom: CR-584-B (ATAPI)

Please excuse the messy test setup - I was using the CR-584-B for some DOS tinkering.

very nice !

my first cd-rom was a mitsumi double speed that came with its dedicated controller card
I still have it but haven't tested it in more than 30 years... I need to get that guy out

appiah4 wrote on 2026-03-05, 22:40:

Nunoalex wrote on 2026-03-05, 21:59:

Hi […]
Show full quote

Hi

I just found this motherboard in the trash - DFI CA64-TC (Canyon CN-6XBAS-T)
Can anyone explain to me why people are asking insane amount of money for it on ebay ? 200-300 euro

Yes I know ebay is the den of the evil greedy ones but even the sold boards got a high price
Yes it is a Tualatin motherboard as it comes with a 1200 mhz celeron but is it any special ?

This particular board has many bulging capacitors as it is tradition with socket 370 mobos and there is also a concerning scratch on the south bridge bga

I gave it a big wash and am waiting for it to dry to test it (maybe on the weekend)

Thanx

The attachment 20260305_214122.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20260305_215415.jpg is no longer available

It's a Tualatin capable motherboard with a universal AGP slot AND an ISA slot, it's a pretty good board hence the ebay prices. Keep it.

It's also a DFI board, and DFI Boards have been detached from their actual value as retro hardware for as long as I can remember. Don't get me wrong, they made nice hardware but I dont understand the level of cult following they have all that being said.

EDIT: Who is the webmaster here these days? I get a 500 Internal Server Error every other time I post (the message always posts tho)

"DFI Lanparty" is probably the most overrated brand in retrogaming. A lot of people seem to have an emotional attachment due to their college day memories or something. LANparties and DFI were never things I cared about, so I don't get the pricing, but if they are dear enough for someone to pay the price, so be it. I have the same kind of soft spot for Voodoo cards and 486 hardware for example.

Nunoalex wrote on 2026-03-05, 21:59:

I just found this motherboard in the trash

thats where most VIA based motherboards belong in the first place 😀

Nunoalex wrote on 2026-03-05, 21:59:

DFI CA64-TC (Canyon CN-6XBAS-T)

except this one actually

Nunoalex wrote on 2026-03-05, 21:59:

Can anyone explain to me why people are asking insane amount of money for it on ebay ? 200-300 euro
Yes it is a Tualatin motherboard

This makes it special, its the first VIA chipset that didnt suck and was ~on par with 440BX while officially supporting 133MHz, agp x4 and afaik also 512MB PC133 dimms. Plus you get fcpga socket so no mods/converters necessary.

Nunoalex wrote on 2026-03-05, 21:59:

concerning scratch on the south bridge bga

ripperoni, recycler ripped $0.05 worth of aluminum with a screwdriver destroying the chipset

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on Yesterday, 00:48:

EDIT: Who is the webmaster here these days? I get a 500 Internal Server Error every other time I post (the message always posts tho)

logged in: OpenAI [Bot], OpenAI Search [Bot], Claude [Bot], DataForSeo [Bot], Baidu [Spider], Bing [Bot], Google [Bot], ChatGPT [Bot], Common Crawl [Bot], PetalBot [Bot], facebook external [Bot], Qihoo 360 [Bot], Google Docs [Bot], TikTok [Spider]

welcome to dead internet theory

Fazeshift wrote on 2026-03-05, 23:57:

Yes - a regular IDE cable is fine. Just make sure it doesn't have the blocked pin-20 keying, and don't use a 80-pin grey/black/blue (cable select).

This one is ok?