Got an AT&T 7300 Unix PC that is sadly missing it's keyboard cable and I'm very unsure what to do about a replacement, they seem to be unobtanium. The power supply also didn't respond to power so I'm going to have to clean it up and dig into it later to see what's up.

ALSO picked up a mystery beige box that turned out to be a socket 7 pc with a pentium 200mmx and rage II. Given that I have a pentium 200 non-mmx with 4mb S3 VIRGE DX system with no AGP just like this, I'm going to shuffle some parts around and get a socket A/462 motherboard and try to revive my dead socket 462 system, and hopefully get to use my Athlon XP 2400+ in it. I also have some new UV reactive fans and such to replace the noisy old ones so I'm going to be working part of the night getting things shuffled around as prep. Also cleaning components since everything is kinda dusty.

Since I'm aiming for windows xp with this system hopefully, I'm going to trade the 52x creative drive out of my 486 (it's way, way to fast for the disks the 486 uses and it's kinda scary) and install a loose DVD drive I also have. Going to take an unused HDD out of another XP PC I have (my partner's pentium 4 system) so that it has some storage ready to go and I can install that with the HDD air intake cooler thing I also picked up today.

I kind of hate to do this because it's existing and working as-is, but it overlaps so hard with my vectra ve series 3 that I can't really keep it as-is either. In the meantime, I have a gap in my collection with my old socket 462 system being dead by bios update making the early XP era open to a new candidate and I even have everything but a motherboard to make it happen.

I guess this is more an "I'm going to do" post, but if I don't put it down I'll forget 🤣

So I've got my K7 system up and running now that I got my CF2IDE in it and I'm able to bump up the bus to 105 stably, and I've had my Pentium II since like 2012 and it's still a trooper after all these years, which leaves me wondering what if anything to do with my 550 Pluto. I know that Voodoos are touchy above a certain core speed but I think 550 is above that, and the PII is the one they'd go in anyway if I ever have the money to get one of those cards (not like it can do much newer when it doesn't have AGP). I'd assume maybe speed sensitive games from specifically 1998-99 like Revenant and possibly Lego Island if that's not already too fast on a 550, and I'm interested in non-game software (e.g. 3D Studio Max) but I assume most of that works fine at any clock speed, but beyond that I'm trying to decide whether or not to hold onto it. I guess it could act as a spare if the 700 ends up dying for one reason or another (I intend not to do anything risky with it and have repasted it re: the overclock but it's only a matter of time regardless, entropy and all that), but I'm curious if there's other reasons to slot it in every so often for its own sake too besides just curiosity at how the two different speeds affect performance. I'd have said doing that for older graphics cards, I've kind of wanted to slip an i740 in there one day just out of curiosity, but there's really no reason that shouldn't work just as well at 700.

zuldan wrote on 2026-09-10, 04:44:

Brawndo wrote on 2026-09-10, 04:18:

I have a Google sheet I created to keep track of my inventory of PCs, the components in them, and the myriad of parts I have acquired waiting for a purpose. I spent some tonight and the past few days going through my boxes of video and sound cards to add them to the list. Still have a lot to go.

Have you got a list of your fully built machines with specs available for viewing? 😀

I actually do have tabs for that, but they're not finished yet. That's part of the inventory I need to finish, and how I plan to keep track of what components are in what PC.

Finished swapping/cleaning parts around with this new Pentium 200MMX machine and cleaned up the case and cables a bit. Swapped the IDE cables for some miss-matched 80 conductor IDE cables I had laying around. I think at this point I have everything set to convert it to an athlon XP machine when the time comes core components wise, aside from some mounting rails to add a DVD drive. I also swapped the really sad front 80MM fan for a better one that doesn't sound like a coffee grinder to boot. Seems to move way more air.

Airflow is going to be an issue, however, I'm going to try and jank mod it like I would have back in the day. The side of the case has a row of slots cut into it that I can line up 80mm UV reactive fans on which will help a bit. I have 27 feet of velcro and the willpower to do it non destructively/ugly at least externally. I may have to get a small fan controller to hook all that up. Sadly the front 5.25" drive bays NEED mounting rails to put anything in, and the blanking plates hook in on the *corners* which eliminates the possibility using any of of the period accurate 5.25" fan/hdd coolers that I've seen, including the one I got last night. They just don't clip in at all and are loose. Maybe I could work around this with velcro, but it would be annoying to get it off of the front plastic. I had planned on having 5.25" drive bay intakes with some sort of pci/expansion slot exhaust to help move air through the case as there isn't a provision for a rear exhaust fan. but seeing as heat rises, that too could become an issue if a hot pocket of air forms at the top of the case. I don't want to do anything destructive to the case as I might eventually find a more desirable case for the athlon parts and cycle this one back into a pentium 200MMX machine. If anyone has and ideas I would love to hear them.

Edit: I did just stumble upon some 5.25" drive bay blowers that blow air out. I guess I could position one in the top most 5.25" bay and pull air out of the top of the case that way, though that will probably make the airflow a mess.

This one might not be a normal activity, but it's definitely retro.

I have been bitten by an Apple bug this year, so I now own three different Mac Minis, all used off of Ebay. Also 3 Apple displays, also very old.
One of my Mac Minis is the 2010 Aluminum unibody Mac Mini. Since I upgraded the 320GB HDD to a 275GB SSD, I have the original HDD just sitting here, so I decided to make it an OOBE HDD.
So I opened up the Mini and put the HDD back inside, inserted my Restore disc and installed Mac OS X 10.6.3 Snow Leopard on it, then installed iWorks, then iLife. Then I fully updated it to 10.6.8, then installed any and all downloadable patches.
Then I installed PowerFox, Mac Fan Control, and X20 Benchmark software. Then I wiped the user profile and reset it to OOBE, so the next time I put it in the system and boot to it, it will play the intro Welcome video and go through the system setup process from the beginning, but will have all the software installed and ready to go.
Took a couple of hours this morning, but it was a fun project.
I have the SSD back inside and it's running 10.11.6 El Capitan.

FFXIhealer wrote on Yesterday, 01:09:

This one might not be a normal activity, but it's definitely retro. […]
Show full quote

This one might not be a normal activity, but it's definitely retro.

I have been bitten by an Apple bug this year, so I now own three different Mac Minis, all used off of Ebay. Also 3 Apple displays, also very old.
One of my Mac Minis is the 2010 Aluminum unibody Mac Mini. Since I upgraded the 320GB HDD to a 275GB SSD, I have the original HDD just sitting here, so I decided to make it an OOBE HDD.
So I opened up the Mini and put the HDD back inside, inserted my Restore disc and installed Mac OS X 10.6.3 Snow Leopard on it, then installed iWorks, then iLife. Then I fully updated it to 10.6.8, then installed any and all downloadable patches.
Then I installed PowerFox, Mac Fan Control, and X20 Benchmark software. Then I wiped the user profile and reset it to OOBE, so the next time I put it in the system and boot to it, it will play the intro Welcome video and go through the system setup process from the beginning, but will have all the software installed and ready to go.
Took a couple of hours this morning, but it was a fun project.
I have the SSD back inside and it's running 10.11.6 El Capitan.

I love the intro video for Snow Leopard. It's nice.

Can't say I like the compact form of Mac Minis, however.

I'm working on a Windows 9x VGA driver, been really fun little project.

My current goal is Hardware Direct3D support on an Intel GMA950 iGPU (Intel never released Windows 98 drivers).

It is all open source: https://github.com/michaeldale/velocity9x

I did a quick video of the setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6swaoT4oEs0

mwdmeyer wrote on Yesterday, 03:33:

I'm working on a Windows 9x VGA driver, been really fun little project.

My current goal is Hardware Direct3D support on an Intel GMA950 iGPU (Intel never released Windows 98 drivers).

insane and cool!
Why does your ATI Mach64 not support Hardware BitBLT/GDI acceleration? afaik its straight up register compatible 8514/A engine on the Ati card.

rasz_pl wrote on Yesterday, 06:10:

mwdmeyer wrote on Yesterday, 03:33:

I'm working on a Windows 9x VGA driver, been really fun little project.

My current goal is Hardware Direct3D support on an Intel GMA950 iGPU (Intel never released Windows 98 drivers).

insane and cool!
Why does your ATI Mach64 not support Hardware BitBLT/GDI acceleration? afaik its straight up register compatible 8514/A engine on the Ati card.

That is a really good question. The real reason is because I was lazy, that driver is useless and I should not have released it. The ATI drivers are actually not that bad, so I should have left it on the VBE driver path. I feel there are improvements I can make to the Rage II C/Pro and I have a laptop with that card, but I'm not sure yet but it makes sense to focus on that card because it isn't that bad, I'm working Intel GMA 950 at the moment, but the ATI is a great interest to me, the Rage II is open to real work in future and this driver is the place for it.

Took a trip back to 1981!

Just got my hands on a TI-99/4A, my very first PC!

Now I'm in the process of "upgrading" it. Building a PicoPEB sidecar to emulate the PEB (32K/Speech/Disks/GROM/Etc.). Also adding a Pico9918 to replace the VDP (adds F18A emulation as well), and an Atari joystick adapter.

Once it's all done, it will have greatly expanded capabilities that 1981 me could never have imagined!

Cleaned up the list of builds I want and decided on the hardware for each one.

I might take the chance to play around with a tape backup drive.

Edit: These are the things I have left to get, for anyone curious.

3Com 3C509-C+Modem
Joystick
2x Power supplies, cases.
3x 512mb PC133 memory sticks
3DLabs Wildcat VP880 Pro
Soundblaster AWE32(ISA)
GeForce 2(AGP)

RetroLizard wrote on Today, 03:38:

Cleaned up the list of builds I want and decided on the hardware for each one.

Done the same lately, not an easy task. Dreams are big but PC cases are limited 😀

RetroLizard wrote on Today, 03:38:

I might take the chance to play around with a tape backup drive.

I strongly advise you not to, it's a rabbit hole. It's very slow and serves no real purpose unless you want to have the experience.
Most have rubber around the capstan that moves the tape. It makes contact with a dial on the cartridge, if that rubber part is beyond chemical expiry date it'd have become a gooey slush and not making contact anymore. Like warm butter.
Check your tape unit beforehand.

Next year it'll be 30 years since I got my first PC. To celebrate, I first decided to rebuild said first PC (Pentium 133, 16 MB RAM, s3 Virge), but soon decided it's too much of a long shot, plus a fairly painful gaming experience even in games of that era.
So yeah, I've adjusted the plan and instead I'm building a PII/Voodoo2 dream machine from 1997/98. I already have the Voodoo2 in my Win98 rig, and I'm in the process of sourcing the other parts at the moment. PII parts are much easier to find and support the ATX standard - the Socket 7/Babu AT combo is way too much of a hassle.

Nexxen wrote on Today, 11:41:

I strongly advise you not to, it's a rabbit hole. It's very slow and serves no real purpose unless you want to have the experien […]
Show full quote

RetroLizard wrote on Today, 03:38:

I might take the chance to play around with a tape backup drive.

I strongly advise you not to, it's a rabbit hole. It's very slow and serves no real purpose unless you want to have the experience.
Most have rubber around the capstan that moves the tape. It makes contact with a dial on the cartridge, if that rubber part is beyond chemical expiry date it'd have become a gooey slush and not making contact anymore. Like warm butter.
Check your tape unit beforehand.

I went in that rabbit hole. 😀 Got a total of 3 QIC tape drives (very cheap/free). One was even NOS. But all 3 of them had that rubber problem. Tried to fix it by 3D printing new 'rubbers' but was unsuccessful in the end. There is someone in the US who can make new ones but it's too expensive outside the US.

In the end I went with a SCSI DAT tape drive which doesn't have rubbers. But they need a good cleaning from time to time to keep them operational.

Small inf update for w9x rage driver, now it has 15bit 555 / 16bit 565 option + OpenGL settings change shorcuts @ desktop with install. OpenGL MultiTexture enabled automatically + 2 color mode added.

revolstar wrote on Today, 12:10:

Next year it'll be 30 years since I got my first PC. To celebrate, I first decided to rebuild said first PC (Pentium 133, 16 MB RAM, s3 Virge), but soon decided it's too much of a long shot, plus a fairly painful gaming experience even in games of that era.
So yeah, I've adjusted the plan and instead I'm building a PII/Voodoo2 dream machine from 1997/98. I already have the Voodoo2 in my Win98 rig, and I'm in the process of sourcing the other parts at the moment. PII parts are much easier to find and support the ATX standard - the Socket 7/Babu AT combo is way too much of a hassle.

I am curious as to why that is a long shot, sounds easy so far. Was the motherboard an oddity or the case hard to identify and find? Sometimes our remembrances have a us putting machines against software that was 4 or 5 years past their release and thinking them slow, due to getting the machine when prices came down, at a couple of years past release for that spec, then late in it's lifecycle buying new tech games and getting frustrated. But if it don't vibe for you it don't vibe, not really like it's a sub $50 junkbox pick at recent prices.

Anyway, just musing because in my head a kickass 1995 machine is somewhere around a P133 with a Virge... leave 1996 to the MMX and better 3D.

StriderTR wrote on Yesterday, 21:23:

Took a trip back to 1981! […]
Show full quote

Took a trip back to 1981!

Just got my hands on a TI-99/4A, my very first PC!

Now I'm in the process of "upgrading" it. Building a PicoPEB sidecar to emulate the PEB (32K/Speech/Disks/GROM/Etc.). Also adding a Pico9918 to replace the VDP (adds F18A emulation as well), and an Atari joystick adapter.

Once it's all done, it will have greatly expanded capabilities that 1981 me could never have imagined!

Awesome. Was my first computer as well. I have already built a Pico Peb. I soldered up the SMD version. For the first time ever I can experience the speech synthesizer as well as
all the other goodies it offers. As You are probably aware there a quite a lot of decent new games for it now, probably more than there were originally.
I also have an F18A in mine, looks great on my LCD monitor.

Yoghoo wrote on Today, 12:24:

Nexxen wrote on Today, 11:41:

I strongly advise you not to, it's a rabbit hole. It's very slow and serves no real purpose unless you want to have the experien […]
Show full quote

RetroLizard wrote on Today, 03:38:

I might take the chance to play around with a tape backup drive.

I strongly advise you not to, it's a rabbit hole. It's very slow and serves no real purpose unless you want to have the experience.
Most have rubber around the capstan that moves the tape. It makes contact with a dial on the cartridge, if that rubber part is beyond chemical expiry date it'd have become a gooey slush and not making contact anymore. Like warm butter.
Check your tape unit beforehand.

I went in that rabbit hole. 😀 Got a total of 3 QIC tape drives (very cheap/free). One was even NOS. But all 3 of them had that rubber problem. Tried to fix it by 3D printing new 'rubbers' but was unsuccessful in the end. There is someone in the US who can make new ones but it's too expensive outside the US.

In the end I went with a SCSI DAT tape drive which doesn't have rubbers. But they need a good cleaning from time to time to keep them operational.

Same pain, same hurting. 🤣
I'm still looking for a solution, cheap and handy. My idea is to put a rubber tube that isn't like the one that failed.

DAT do not have the rubber part? Guess they weren't cheap at all.
I sincerely do not miss that part of the retro era of PCs. I wasted many hours for nothing.
Yes, it's too expensive shipped outside the US. 🙁

But we are happy with USB and LTOs! 😀 😀

Yoghoo wrote on Today, 12:24:

Nexxen wrote on Today, 11:41:

I strongly advise you not to, it's a rabbit hole. It's very slow and serves no real purpose unless you want to have the experien […]
Show full quote

RetroLizard wrote on Today, 03:38:

I might take the chance to play around with a tape backup drive.

I strongly advise you not to, it's a rabbit hole. It's very slow and serves no real purpose unless you want to have the experience.
Most have rubber around the capstan that moves the tape. It makes contact with a dial on the cartridge, if that rubber part is beyond chemical expiry date it'd have become a gooey slush and not making contact anymore. Like warm butter.
Check your tape unit beforehand.

I went in that rabbit hole. 😀 Got a total of 3 QIC tape drives (very cheap/free). One was even NOS. But all 3 of them had that rubber problem. Tried to fix it by 3D printing new 'rubbers' but was unsuccessful in the end. There is someone in the US who can make new ones but it's too expensive outside the US.

In the end I went with a SCSI DAT tape drive which doesn't have rubbers. But they need a good cleaning from time to time to keep them operational.

I been there too, late 90s when 1st gen PC tape backup was dirt cheap, the rubber 30 years younger, and yeah, it was a pig back then. Seemed actually that a full backup on one tape was a fantasy not reality, like you'd need 3 backups to get data reassembled where there were dropouts and corruption. I guess it worked often enough on brand new hardware for businesses to adopt. But at the mention of "restore from tape" PC IT types would get a really pained look, so I gotta guess that one shot recovery was a bit of a hail mary even with the good stuff.

With the 2 or 3 tape drives that are lurking around in my basement, the only thoughts I have to using them usually involve replacing mechanism with Automotive compact cassette transport, so it looks like a tape drive, but you can just stick a music cassette in there and play it.

Nexxen wrote on Today, 13:02:

Same pain, same hurting. LOL I'm still looking for a solution, cheap and handy. My idea is to put a rubber tube that isn't like […]
Show full quote

Yoghoo wrote on Today, 12:24:

Nexxen wrote on Today, 11:41:

I strongly advise you not to, it's a rabbit hole. It's very slow and serves no real purpose unless you want to have the experience.
Most have rubber around the capstan that moves the tape. It makes contact with a dial on the cartridge, if that rubber part is beyond chemical expiry date it'd have become a gooey slush and not making contact anymore. Like warm butter.
Check your tape unit beforehand.

I went in that rabbit hole. 😀 Got a total of 3 QIC tape drives (very cheap/free). One was even NOS. But all 3 of them had that rubber problem. Tried to fix it by 3D printing new 'rubbers' but was unsuccessful in the end. There is someone in the US who can make new ones but it's too expensive outside the US.

In the end I went with a SCSI DAT tape drive which doesn't have rubbers. But they need a good cleaning from time to time to keep them operational.

Same pain, same hurting. 🤣
I'm still looking for a solution, cheap and handy. My idea is to put a rubber tube that isn't like the one that failed.

DAT do not have the rubber part? Guess they weren't cheap at all.
I sincerely do not miss that part of the retro era of PCs. I wasted many hours for nothing.
Yes, it's too expensive shipped outside the US. 🙁

But we are happy with USB and LTOs! 😀 😀

Wasted a lot of hours too. 🤣 Couldn't find any rubber hose or whatever in the right size back than. I tried a silicone hose but that didn't work as well.

Don't know if all DAT streamers don't have rubber rollers but the ones I have (all from HP) don't have any rubber inside. Got a HP C1537A DDS-3 and two HP 35470A DDS-1 DAT drives for reference. They were expensive back then but they can be found quite cheap from time to time. But most of them are untested (who has SCSI nowadays 😀). So it can be a gamble.