I had originally hopes I was done after the laptop. I just got the Cisco WaveLAN card drivers from VCFED and got them working like a champ. Now I'm using that card more than the Lucent WaveLAN Silver.

So the wife gets this cool idea to make a "Technology" christmas tree this year because, well, it seems cool. VHS Tapes, Atari Carts, old 1.2M Floppy Diskettes for xmas ornaments, and some vintage PC's under the tree......

Only thing is one of the more ignored machines in my collection, a Macintosh SE FDHD, got brought back into action and it's been a royal B****** to get that thing up and going happily.....

Here's that mess I've had to deal with. This is why I don't like vintage Apple or even any Apple that much to be honest, just too much fiddling around to deal with the proprietary archetecture.

So I decided to reformat and reinstall to Mac OS 6.0.8 from Mac OS 6.0.3. I did this because I've been running an Everett Washington School District install I've been unable to replace since 2007 when I bought this thing at Value Village for $10. And bits of the O/S were missing, and control panel applets were missing, and certain files were no longer there - it was a real pain in the rear just to write out *.dsk files in Linux using the DD command - whole new box of "recycled" floppies, not a single one even workable after DD, then a green resonably new one marked windows 95 worked JUST well enough to do the job.

I decided to also only install games I enjoy playing, which on a Mac, is actually very few (Tetris, Sim City, Wheel of Fortune, Hot Air Balloon - small stuff).Tried finding xmas software, but Lemmings Holidays requires color & OS 7, and well, more focusing on making it a X-mas tree display.

But the biggest mess is getting these darn games on here. Thankfully I'm using Linux Mint as my primary O/S currently but good god - Stuffit files holding disk images, then stuffit files holding the plain files (I remember way way back when I felt like I'd finally conquered sneakernet file xfer on Macintosh, only to find out resource forks were missing/busted). So I've been shuffling the same probalby 10-15 year old floppy diskette back and fourth between a USB floppy drive on my Lenovo T61 and that bloody Mac SE.

Geting Stuffit for a Mac SE was not too hard, but I did yet again have to DD another diskette image to get the program ON the mac. Once it was on there, works pretty well, when my floppy drive is not getting errors.

Then came the long long search for File Exchange for Mac - only to find version 2.0 that works on Mac OS 7.0 and up - only to then later find out Mac OS 6.0.8 COMES WITH File Exchange - so all this time I was jamming Stuffit Files with full EXES onto HFS formatted floppies I had to use DD to write/format and then wipe off the contents then copy the files over as root, then copy the files to the Mac and HOPE they are not corrupted so Stuffit or the installer will work (sheesh).

Either way, seven hours later of tedious file copying and I'm starting to just wish I'd finished up the Tandy 1000 over FTP first because at least ONE of the display units would be churning away cool demos under the x-mas tree - instead of sitting on my desk being spoon-fed questionable games and demo files via floppy diskette and praying to the computer gods it's going to work.

Honestly, I'm thinking about selling the Mac once Xmas is over, I don't really use it much, it's a PITA to setup, LAN cards for it cost a small fortune and require discharging the CRT anyway to install. The RAM's maxxed out, the screen is B&W, and it's still running on it's 30+ year old SCSI hard disk that sounds like R2-D2 having a seizure but is still healthy (go figure). And I don't have a long enough TORX to do any hardware stuff with it anyway. Kind of a shame because it is a nice setup - including a spare mouse, trackball, 800K external floppy, and the original keyboard and the manual for it.

Compared to the Tandy, which will be just power on, plug into LAN, fire up FTP client on the T61, and go to town copying what probably will end up just being 500MB in the end of data to the 3GB HDD it has now (I needed the 8GB it had in it for my 486 to replace my failing MS-DOS WFWG 15GG drive that would detect but fail to start up unless on usb External device - that data xfer went over without a single issue).

So things on the docket for right now

- Get some cool stuff on this bleegin Mac, then prep to sell to someone who has more paitience/time for it than I do at this point in my life.

- Restore the Tandy 1000's installation onto it's new/old 3GB HDD (which came out of the NEC Ready 9522 tower that has an 80GB runnin Win98SE now)

- Take a break and work on some music stuff for awhile.

Was working on more images for my site, but the image editor crashed as I was saving what I had made, corrupting the files. Maybe I'll try again next year, as my motivation is about as plentiful as ice in the Mojave.

Upgrades for all!

My Siemens-Nixdorf got a DX/4 upgrade - I bought a 3/3.45v adapter from a Polish auction site, that for some reason came with a DX2/66 CPU. I pulled it out and put in a DX/4 - 100 MHz CPU I picked up yesterday (by chance).

Works very well - noticeably faster.

The other upgrade was to my 233 MMX system - I put in a 15000 RPM UltraStar 18.4 gig SCSI 2 drive in there. I already had the controller.

The drive is LOUD and gets really hot - so hot, I added a cooling fan:

This, of course, adds noise.

Specs for the new hard disk:

Average Seek Time
3.4 ms
Max Seek Time
6.7 ms
Track-to-Track Seek Time
0.65 ms
Average Latency
2 ms
Data Transfer Rate
160 MBps

The old Samsung 4Gb IDE had only 512k of cache - this thing has 4Mb. It's very noticeably faster.

The CPU has a 10,000 RPM server-grade cooling fan (as does the 486), further making this system noisy.

Since the slot-CDROM did not read burned disks, I threw in this period-correct Mitsumi 4x4x24 CDROM: Thanks to the SCSI system, I can run the two CDROMS, the ZIP100 drive, and a CF-to-IDE adapter.

Now all that's left is to find SDRAM for it, I'm currently running 2 32Mb EDO SIMMS - I have 4x64 32Mb double sided (VX chipset limitation) so if I can get another one, I'll top them out at 64Mb. That should be plenty for Windows 98SE.

^^ That is a REALLY cool looking case. Looks purpose-build. Sweet rig!

Thanks! I got it from an old professor where I work (also a sweeeet ass 386 SX 16 from 1989) and it was originally a P100 with something like 16 Mb RAM and a 1 Gb hard disk. Everything was swapped out - VX motherboard, 233MMX, 3dFX (8Mb I think?) AWE 32, ATI Rage 2 DVD 4Mb video card, the CDROMS (I think it had a Creative branded Quad Speed that's in my 486 now), ZIP100 drive, and now this noisy but fast SCSI drive... and a card in every slot, just the way I like it!

I think the only original parts left are the case itself, the power supply (I'm thinking of swapping it over to an ATX), the floppy drive and the 56k modem (which I don't use - it seems happy to occupy an IRQ though 😉 ).

Aside from getting more SDRAM, I'm actually done modding it - now I can go ahead and play on it!

Edit: here's both of them (I'm just using the 386's VGA monitor for installation purposes - it has a nice Gateway 19 inch 4:3 LCD normally)

After days fighting to get Windows 98SE to do all the things I wanted it to do (including web browsing and youtube access), I gave up and decided instead to do a shootout between Windows 2000 and Windows XP to choose one OS for my basic tasks and some gaming. I'm right now in the process of doing VMs for them. I believe Win 2000 should "win" (pun intended) it easily...

Obviously I have a Win 10 VM, but I am not a fan of Win 10 modern theme and some of the bloatware that comes with it (Cortana for example).

Doing some motherboard diagnostics on why it's not POSTing on powerup. It'll do C1C0, then 00C1 (bad stick of RAM), 0880 (CPU initialization), 0A09, and some other random codes. The board in question is an ASUS P2B-F that has a Celeron 400/66 installed (might change the jumper settings to see what would happen).

Changed the CPU speed settings to 100FSB 4x multiplier, AGP set to 2/3 speed (66MHz) and 66FSB 6x multiplier, AGP set to 1:1 speed (66MHz) and I get 00C1 on there with every stick of RAM I throw in there, even though they work in my Socket 370 system without issues. Could be capacitor issues or SD-RAM slot malfunctions.

bjwil1991 wrote:

Doing some motherboard diagnostics on why it's not POSTing on powerup. It'll do C1C0, then 00C1 (bad stick of RAM), 0880 (CPU initialization), 0A09, and some other random codes. The board in question is an ASUS P2B-F that has a Celeron 400/66 installed (might change the jumper settings to see what would happen).

Changed the CPU speed settings to 100FSB 4x multiplier, AGP set to 2/3 speed (66MHz) and 66FSB 6x multiplier, AGP set to 1:1 speed (66MHz) and I get 00C1 on there with every stick of RAM I throw in there, even though they work in my Socket 370 system without issues. Could be capacitor issues or SD-RAM slot malfunctions.

At least you're getting codes - I got a late model 386 and a PCI 486 board that are not even initializing the POST card. No codes at all.

I tried a little decoration project today.
On the left, an Athlon XP 1800+ AX1800MT3C, just like I used to have in my first "gaming" PC in early 2000's
On the right, a Pentium 166Mhz FV80502166, THE actual CPU that was in my first own PC
Both of them fully working

nice, I'd add some subtle text with descriptions 😀

Nice idea! I thought about doing a key ring with an old processor, just for my dad. I asked him if he has any malfunctioning processor so I could make one (ofc I didn't tell him what I am going to do).

assasincz wrote:

I tried a little decoration project today. On the left, an Athlon XP 1800+ AX1800MT3C, just like I used to have in my first "gam […]
Show full quote

I tried a little decoration project today.
On the left, an Athlon XP 1800+ AX1800MT3C, just like I used to have in my first "gaming" PC in early 2000's
On the right, a Pentium 166Mhz FV80502166, THE actual CPU that was in my first own PC

74178228_989794711390682_9137783732466352128_n.jpg

Neat. I have some core memory board(s? not sure if I have two of them) which would make for an excellent framing. Though I'd need quite a large frame and the real estate in my home has become limited as of late.

bjwil1991 wrote:

Doing some motherboard diagnostics on why it's not POSTing on powerup. It'll do C1C0, then 00C1 (bad stick of RAM), 0880 (CPU initialization), 0A09, and some other random codes. The board in question is an ASUS P2B-F that has a Celeron 400/66 installed (might change the jumper settings to see what would happen).

Changed the CPU speed settings to 100FSB 4x multiplier, AGP set to 2/3 speed (66MHz) and 66FSB 6x multiplier, AGP set to 1:1 speed (66MHz) and I get 00C1 on there with every stick of RAM I throw in there, even though they work in my Socket 370 system without issues. Could be capacitor issues or SD-RAM slot malfunctions.

Keep in mind that celerons are multiplier locked, it would try to run at 600 Mhz, which is borderline at best, especially without raising Vcore.
Try reflashing the bios or cleaning the CPU slot (folded piece of paper plus alcool or contact cleaner).

I did that multiple times already. I'd flash the BIOS again, but, the cheap Chinese EEPROM programming tool broke.

bfcastello wrote:

Nice idea! I thought about doing a key ring with an old processor, just for my dad. I asked him if he has any malfunctioning processor so I could make one (ofc I didn't tell him what I am going to do).

Here's mine 😉

Really cute. Heheheh

Honestly, that looks amazing.

Last night a started to strip a system that was inside a rather nice Antec SX635 case. The system was nothing fancy, low end 478 system with a matx Asus board. I ended up tossing the crap old fans, some cables and the CPU. I'll strip the motherboard for parts, scrap or reuse the heatsinks and scrap failgate IDE hard drive.
It had a nice 300w SPI PSU, Asus optic drive, FDD that I'll be keeping if they work.

dan86 wrote:

system with a matx Asus board. I ended up tossing the crap old fans, some cables and the CPU. I'll strip the motherboard for parts, scrap or reuse the heatsinks and .

WAIT ! Which Asus mobo ? Am looking for a low end 478 mobo and if you live in USA would gladly pay something for it, assuming it boots up...

Yesterday I recapped the floppy drive of my T3200 and now the drive works once more ~
I could copy out the stuff it had on it and later I'll prep it for installation of new DOS and games etc. I have already installed a sound card and a LAN card, mTCP will be put to use on that thing since floppies are inconvenient 🤣