oerk wrote:

OldCat wrote:

Dismantled my Toshiba T3200sx in order to replace Conner drive with CF card. Turned out more challenging than I thought, so it is still in progress.

20171108_151025.jpg

The 5200 has a BIOS limitation where you can only put in a Conner drive of the same size than the one the computer originally came with. Doesn't the T3200 have that limitation too?

Had to use a XTIDE CF in mine - which can only do 8-bit transfers, but the non-existent seek time makes up for it.

Yes, but it's still feasible. I have T5100 running off CF card and the gentleman who taught me much about retro computers has T3100 done the same way. I hope that in couple days / weeks I will be able to show you working T3200SX as a proof. 😀

Did some more solder work on my Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro by jumpering some more wires to the corresponding solder points.

However, 2 traces go to a small hole, which then goes to another spot (Line-In and one of the pins for the potentiometer) and I had to guess where to jumper the wires to the appropriate traces (where it goes to) by looking above the card where the caps are at and find that exact trace, flip the card around, and found the exact spot to solder a wire to. For the Line-In, I twisted 2 pieces of the wire for the trace, put it through the hole, and soldered it, and as for the one pin for the potentiometer, I had to solder the wire to the exact capacitor where the trace led to.

Later on, I'm going to test the card again and see what happens. Plus, another picture will be posted on here as well.

bjwil1991 wrote:

Did some more solder work on my Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro by jumpering some more wires to the corresponding solder points.

However, 2 traces go to a small hole, which then goes to another spot (Line-In and one of the pins for the potentiometer) and I had to guess where to jumper the wires to the appropriate traces (where it goes to) by looking above the card where the caps are at and find that exact trace, flip the card around, and found the exact spot to solder a wire to. For the Line-In, I twisted 2 pieces of the wire for the trace, put it through the hole, and soldered it, and as for the one pin for the potentiometer, I had to solder the wire to the exact capacitor where the trace led to.

Later on, I'm going to test the card again and see what happens. Plus, another picture will be posted on here as well.

Sounds like a lot of work, I hope it will have good results! Picture would be cool 😀

Cyrix200+ wrote:

bjwil1991 wrote:

Did some more solder work on my Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro by jumpering some more wires to the corresponding solder points.

However, 2 traces go to a small hole, which then goes to another spot (Line-In and one of the pins for the potentiometer) and I had to guess where to jumper the wires to the appropriate traces (where it goes to) by looking above the card where the caps are at and find that exact trace, flip the card around, and found the exact spot to solder a wire to. For the Line-In, I twisted 2 pieces of the wire for the trace, put it through the hole, and soldered it, and as for the one pin for the potentiometer, I had to solder the wire to the exact capacitor where the trace led to.

Later on, I'm going to test the card again and see what happens. Plus, another picture will be posted on here as well.

Sounds like a lot of work, I hope it will have good results! Picture would be cool 😀

The previous job on the card was almost successful (volume was perfect, but the input jacks were jacked). Also, this is the 7th soldering job I did altogether (JBL Platinum headphone jack died, 4 keyless entries for 3 cars needed work, 2 sound card repairs <-- one wasn't successful, but the other one is).

I'm also working on a pair of headphones that the jack stopped working.

Well its late ill fix this post latter

Still struggling with that Toshiba T3200SX. Put a couple hours into it, mostly experimenting with partition size / CF geometry but no luck just yet.

OldCat wrote:

Still struggling with that Toshiba T3200SX. Put a couple hours into it, mostly experimenting with partition size / CF geometry but no luck just yet.

Toshiba_z_CF.jpg

Hook up the CF card to another computer, such as a Desktop, go to the HDD detect settings on the right-hand side of the BIOS screen, and it'll show the corresponding parameters (sectors, heads, compz, etc).

OldCat wrote:

Still struggling with that Toshiba T3200SX. Put a couple hours into it, mostly experimenting with partition size / CF geometry but no luck just yet.

Toshiba_z_CF.jpg

Oh, I see your problem right there.... it has assploded all over your dining table.

bjwil1991 wrote:

OldCat wrote:

Still struggling with that Toshiba T3200SX. Put a couple hours into it, mostly experimenting with partition size / CF geometry but no luck just yet.

Toshiba_z_CF.jpg

Hook up the CF card to another computer, such as a Desktop, go to the HDD detect settings on the right-hand side of the BIOS screen, and it'll show the corresponding parameters (sectors, heads, compz, etc).

I'm using a weird combination of MiniTool Partition Wizard on modern laptop and old Pentium laptop with DOS that already has CF slot and pretty much accepts anything. Repartition using MiniTool, double check with fdisk and format, make sure Pentium boots up and then I put it in Toshiba slot. So far each time only to see - No Drive in BIOS.

The trick is Conner disk has a bit of strange geometry and what data on the internet can be found is different to what BIOS shows and chkdsk says. I am therefore experimenting with various partition sizes and am starting to think I should try another CF card too. Don't want to hijack this thread, but if you think this is interesting and would like to chip in, let me know and I will start a separate thread in hardware section.

BitWrangler wrote:

OldCat wrote:

Still struggling with that Toshiba T3200SX. Put a couple hours into it, mostly experimenting with partition size / CF geometry but no luck just yet.

Toshiba_z_CF.jpg

Oh, I see your problem right there.... it has assploded all over your dining table.

Well, I don't have a garage or a mancave where I could dabble in my perverted retro magic, so dining table it is. No wonder my wife gets fussy about it. 😵

It has it's advantages, like motivation to get projects actually finished, and greater need to stay organised.

BitWrangler wrote:

Oh, I see your problem right there.... it has assploded all over your dining table.

🤣

Took a Pentium 133, tried to insert it into a Socket 7 board.

Then spent the whole night trying to straighten its pins with a flat blade.

It finally fit into the board ten minutes ago. Not zero force insertion, that much is for sure, but it's in there and I don't have any intention of pulling out anytime soon...

Cranking the lever back and forward a few times on a ZIF socket usually gets them all that last bit straight.

It's easy to overdo it picking at them one by one with a knife or screwdriver, knock them off one way to the other way. You can comb them straight a bit with things like double stacked credit cards that just fit between rows, or even an actual comb if you find one with just right spacing. For single pin adjustments, a narrow tube that only just fits the pin is great, you slip that over, move to perpendicular position, and the pin is straight. Sometimes mechanical pencils with no lead in work for that.

Finally popped the top on a 386 I picked up at an estate sale a year ago. AMI BIOS gives 3 short beeps shortly after boot. Provided the codes were still the same back then (BIOS is 1986), there is a failure in the first 64k of RAM.

Sad because it is a monster baby AT mobo crammed into the case. PSU is on a riser. RAM is under the riser. Tons of socketed chips as well. Can't get any info from the mobo without disassembly (assuming the mobo has printed information)

If the system is stock, the back of it has a large sticker - "EMPaC 386"

It had a replacement 4xAA battery pack (that was corroded) that I pulled out when I got it. Am hoping to boot without a battery if possible. Man! Was really hoping to at least get the BIOS up.

Jade Falcon wrote:

Most goodwill's don't know what everything is worth that they are selling, they do a quick look online and put a tag on it and h […]
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Most goodwill's don't know what everything is worth that they are selling, they do a quick look online and put a tag on it and hope its sells. Come back latter and the price will be lower if the item does not sell. I seen items priced at 40$ end up selling for 5$. Also there is alot of things goodwill does they most outsiders do not know. We are non non profit so we can't keep anything after pay/experiences and so on. So alot of it goes back into the community.

For instances most working cell phones we get go to homeless shelters. Some goodwill's have grants they give out to under privileged students, not to mention all the outreach and career services we offer.

EDIT:
I'll remember you when you want a etower that was tossed out of a moving tuck 🤣 no really most of the computers we get look like they been tossed out of a window. 90+% is not even worth saving. I even seen a system brought in with a mice nest in it. Only time we ever get anything good is when a local school of business dumps everything on us at once. Although some goodwill's do get nice stuff like the one in Seattle. We aren't going to scrap something we can more more on selling.

I happen to agree that the Seattle Goodwill does get some good stuff. I managed to get a working Toshiba DVD recorder with remote for $7 when they usually go for $50+ online. The only overpriced item I remember was a 17" ADC Apple Studio Display that was $70 which was pretty excessive since they go for less on CL, it was on sale for $35 on that day but I didn't get it because I actually don't need it. I also remember finding three black computer towers (some of them may have been just cases) for sale (again, had no use for them), so that pretty much reflects to your point of view.

A coworker gave me an IBM KB-8923 keyboard yesterday. Rubber dome but pretty good. It was pretty dirty though. Nothing some water, magic eraser, and isopropyl alcohol couldn't fix.

Success is my name and soldering's not my game. Here's the picture of the card after doing the repair:

Mic input is perfect, and the Line-In jack needs its volume raised up, and the output is perfect.

for rubber dome keyboards, those ibms are pretty decent.

OldCat wrote:

Still struggling with that Toshiba T3200SX. Put a couple hours into it, mostly experimenting with partition size / CF geometry but no luck just yet.

In that state that either looks like a Voight-Kampff machine or an Esper Photo Analysis machine. Either way, you are now a Blade Runner.