mcobit wrote:

I finished the restauration of my compaq slt/286 today.
Has a modded Dallas RTC, SD Card to IDE interface in the battery bay etc. Also some really badly needed cleaning.

I have the same machine. I am planning do fix the Dallas battery soon. But i didn't think about using a SD Card.
Are you using a normal IDE cable directly to the motherboard? Did you do anything special in the BIOS. Please give a few hints on how to do this.

Errius wrote:

What map program is that?

I don't know, I didn't spend much time with it. I plan to get the stuff I don't have yet from the HD.

Thinking of which, I have 4 boxes of old floppies to sort out/archive.

PC Globe probably? Was a successful map software in the late 80's/early 90's.

Merovign wrote:

OldCat wrote:

Perhaps not exactly 100% retro activity, but I finally finished wooden compartments on my desk to reclaim some space (not sure what the actual word for this is - could any native speaker help out?). Parts of it are reserved for retro equipment: Tandon 286 already in place, DOS laptop - soon, possibly also ZX Spectrum (if I manage to convert the output to small crt TV I have - would land on the top right) or the original Game Boy with modded screen. Other than that, two slots are for my work laptop (bottom left) and my personal computer (X230T - bottom right).

20180805_171347.jpg

Also, I should soon have new monitor, more apt for retro things (spoiler alert).

I think technically that's a "hutch," though it might also be called a cubby or cubbies. Or a shelf.

I think a hutch is normally taller and a cubby shorter, so that would make this a cubby (sometimes that refers to the whole assembly and sometimes to each space in it, thus the plural).

"Triple monitor riser" or "triple monitor stand". That's what it'd be called if you found it in a catalogue.

Here are a couple of searches on big U.S. retailers so you can see what I mean:

https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/monitor-risers
https://www.amazon.com/monitor-riser/s?page=1 … monitor%20riser

...and here's one that they call a dual monitor stand/riser, though it's adjustable in a way which allows it to work for three of a small enough size.

https://www.amazon.com/Monitor-Adjustable-Com … s=monitor+riser

Tonight I had to fix a problem with the 486's AWE64 card, seemed to be having a problem with the PnP manager which I fixed by downloading and flashing the firmware. I also looked up the manual here on Vogons and found a little tidbit about FullDuplex enable......hmmm....I think I just might get Cakewalk 4.5 working in Windows For Workgroups yet!

Have been doing videos like mad for the last week - getting ready to build some somewhat "episodes" of sorts. Did some profiles of all my machines, what hardware they run, and whatnot.... But I also started work on a few other segments. I'm playing around with centered around the day of the week or whatever - "Tech Tuesday" or "Modern Monday"...have been up to mostly the not-so-retro FNaF games for MM until today after a few days of showing how to install and use DDO (including the cool Seagate one I use that add CD-ROM boot support to anything it's installed on - it's kind of cool to have a 486 that can boot off a DVD-RW drive). Did some footage of Retro City Rampage 486 DX as well as Yacht-Z (my favorite Yatzee clone for Win3x). And am toying with doing an "insomniac gamer" segment where I'm not on webcam and I do things like cheat at Sim City using my 486 DX4 CPU at full blast to build up huge piles of money and whatnot, that and doing violent games (Retro City Rampage, GTA/GTA London, maybe the original Postal to show how well it runs on a 486 - which is not THAT well, may also be trying DIABLO on there as well).

Merovign wrote:

I think technically that's a "hutch," though it might also be called a cubby or cubbies. Or a shelf.

I think a hutch is normally taller and a cubby shorter, so that would make this a cubby (sometimes that refers to the whole assembly and sometimes to each space in it, thus the plural).

ssokolow wrote:

"Triple monitor riser" or "triple monitor stand". That's what it'd be called if you found it in a catalogue. [...] ...and here's […]
Show full quote

"Triple monitor riser" or "triple monitor stand". That's what it'd be called if you found it in a catalogue.
[...]
...and here's one that they call a dual monitor stand/riser, though it's adjustable in a way which allows it to work for three of a small enough size.
[...]

Thanks a lot, gentlemen! Seems like I have made monitor stand (or riser), thus turning my good old desk into a hutch. 😀

In other news, I wrote a short post mentioning Yugoslavia in the context of countries that no longer exist (see thread on PC Globe) and it was deleted. Is there any particular reason for this? Any policy of not mentioning places where conflicts took place or something?

OldCat wrote:

In other news, I wrote a short post mentioning Yugoslavia in the context of countries that no longer exist (see thread on PC Globe) and it was deleted. Is there any particular reason for this? Any policy of not mentioning places where conflicts took place or something?

[OT] Here in this thread? I can imagine not wanting anything even remotely politics related here, but I would assume a mod/admin would send you a message also. [/OT]

Oh yes, I've seen other forums torn apart by that Balkan shit. Keep it out of here.

Roger dodger. I just mentioned that in the context of installing WIndows 95, noticing the now non-existent country and realising how much time has passed since then. I'll just shut up.

So anyways, retro activity - someone gave me old SCART switch (RGB/Composite).

derSammler wrote:

Quickly reassembled the Alcatel 8551 to see if everything still fits (added a 5.25" disk drive). Looking good. Added next are a CD-ROM, a sound card and a MPEG1 decoder card.

Added a sound card today and a dedicated 3 watt speaker, since the sound card as well as the case had support for it. Sound card is a Formosa SC-1630 with ESS 1688F.

derSammler wrote:

derSammler wrote:

Quickly reassembled the Alcatel 8551 to see if everything still fits (added a 5.25" disk drive). Looking good. Added next are a CD-ROM, a sound card and a MPEG1 decoder card.

Added a sound card today and a dedicated 3 watt speaker, since the sound card as well as the case had support for it. Sound card is a Formosa SC-1630 with ESS 1688F.

Great sound card choice.

Fixed a networking issue with my secondary system. Was it because it's running an old graphics card, OpenBSD on an encrypted partition, the flat network cable to downstairs has been degraded, or the system has a slightly duff soundcard in it?

No, it's because the network cable is broken.. started up the switch diagnostics and thought I'd check if it really was supposed to be running at 100Mb. Nope. New network cable, and gigabit.. Going to relocate it to on top of a 19" shelf I've made to hold my KVM.

Blew up my LianLi RH27 Mobile Rack today, never knew there were actual logic devices inside those things to turn the hard disk on and off. It appears something is wrong with the switching circuit - bad component of some sort, as it's not letting enough juice flow to startup the drive......so I just jury-rigged it all together until I have the time/$$ free to buy a replacement and put it in there. My stupid bad, was trying to do a video on how to setup WinXP on a 486 using the flip-flop method. I think I'll put that one on the back burner longer and focus on making game videos for now, that and if I want to do a hardware vid, I still have that SCSI/SoundCard conflict to fix in my 286 anyway.

derSammler wrote:

Added a sound card today and a dedicated 3 watt speaker, since the sound card as well as the case had support for it. Sound card is a Formosa SC-1630 with ESS 1688F.

Wouldn't that speaker be a little bit to close to the floppy and harddrive? 😕

No. Not only is it shielded, a hdd or floppy drive won't care about it, since they are enclosed in a metal case. Also, the case had a speaker mounting point there, so the place was not chosen randomly. 😉 The 3.5" floppy drive and the hard disk are actually mounted on the other side of the case anyway.

I've had issues with my Toshiba External FDD that I use with my Tecra 500CDT and Satellite Pro 430CDT. At first it was really picky about floppies, then I had to fiddle with it to get it to work, then nothing worked.

It seemed like a belt issue - essentially it just sounded like the motor was running but nothing was spinning.

So I pulled apart the drive, and pulled apart my spare 110CS to grab the drive from it, swapped it all around, put it back together, and..... Same problem.

I lifted the motor and the belt by all appearances seems fine. Not sure what else to check.

Already reported Benders Back to Qbix. I assume hes Jade Failure.. err.. i mean Falcon.

Anywho back on topic, I'm boycotting Nintendo for the disasterous effects their recent copyright suing and abuse has had on the retro community. Not only will I not be buying there games on there retro store, I wont be buying there platforms at all. This is bad for them because one of the things I was planning to do this year was buy either a 3DS or a Switch, but if they want to start suing certain sites out of existence screw them, I'll keep giving my money to Sony or Intel/NVIDIA for my gaming needs. I encourage you all to do the same, they've essentially decided they are too good for the DMCA system and have the right to attempt (hopefully unsuccessfully) to circumvent it.

To hell with any company that thinks they are above the law.

I don't know if giving your money to Intel and especially Nvidia is a much better option. They are just as consumer-unfriendly as Nintendo.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Anywho back on topic, I'm boycotting Nintendo for the disasterous effects their recent copyright suing and abuse has had on the retro community. [...] I encourage you all to do the same, they've essentially decided they are too good for the DMCA system and have the right to attempt (hopefully unsuccessfully) to circumvent it.

To hell with any company that thinks they are above the law.

Aren't retro websites that illegally offer downloading thousands of copyrighted and/or hacked games those who actually think they are above the law? I don't get your point. If you claim having bought games legally so far, you couldn't care less about such websites being closed, could you? Every company has the right to defend their copyrights and protect their IPs. We are not entitled to get other people's work for free.