at least they're laptops... they don't take up that much space ^^

imi wrote on 2020-09-03, 19:58:

at least they're laptops... they don't take up that much space ^^

True 😉 so... I plan to gather only desktop PC units from now on and stash it verticaly to spare some space 🤣

#10 ...... 286!

Well it seems that this #10 286 is a nice setup... some more pictures added

15EUR ..... I need to clean it very well now 😉 I have plenty of ISA cards, I wonder if it has any limitations. There is a SCSI controler but I have soundcard with IDE controler so I'll try to test it later. I was supprised about the weight... 27KG!!!

btw - if someone is keen on this PCs - let me know cause Im having some problems to makebit work properly 😉

Micropolis of this type will have sticky rubber bumper that arm rest against when shut down (automatic parking) means hard drive will not initialize in this condition. Only way is data recovery on your own by pushing arm away from that gooey rubber and copy the data off. I think this one is MFM.

Second, 286 needs a bootable disk with cmos setting editor to set motherboard's settings to know these parts like floppy type, hard drive type, memory size etc. etc.

Cheers,

I love that Bull Micral, and especially the keyboard.

pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-09-06, 20:02:

Micropolis of this type will have sticky rubber bumper that arm rest against when shut down (automatic parking) means hard drive will not initialize in this condition. Only way is data recovery on your own by pushing arm away from that gooey rubber and copy the data off. I think this one is MFM.

Second, 286 needs a bootable disk with cmos setting editor to set motherboard's settings to know these parts like floppy type, hard drive type, memory size etc. etc.

Cheers,

Which sticky rubber bumper do You mean because I can't localize any 😉 ok so there's another question, what type of floppy does it has, DD? HD? 720? 1.44? ... Previous owner had no clue as he stopped using it dozens years ago ... thanks for the tips btw.

The hard drive micropolis of this type designed was not smart to use real rubber bumper that voice coil rotary arm hits against when parking during power shut down process. Back in the day (!!), I discovered this when owner wanted me to find out why they don't come alive properly. Arm was too light to unstick from that degraded rubber bumper and cannot be solved by held with both hands and jerked in circular motion incidentally works best for unsticking stuck platters into motion.

Secondly, the sticky bumper was so sticky that arm couldn't pull itself away too.

That was around 92-93 or 97.

Later on, I thought I could fix a lot of Micropolis 3.5" 4GB drives but these screws were all loose due to badly manufactured process meant platters got shifted on their spindle motor. Hard to believe but true.

Cheers,

Oh dear.... That was so unpractical ... Still I need to find a way to boot this rig 😉

Weird things happens with this 286, after I've disconnected Floppy drive, HDD started to spin (???) I thought It was ON already.....

Managed to run bios and config something, still the drive is 100+ mb and utility let me choose some other not exactly matched types of HDD (cyl, heads, sectors are different) .... Hard stuff to fight with.

Guys,

I have build some low profie setup:
486dx2/80 AMD
24MB RAM
Trident 9000-I
Mobo ATC-1425B
ALS 120 Sound

and I have some problems. Altough all cache banks are filled I can manage to run it only on 128KB, not 512KB (it hangs) ... Ok but I tried to run DOOM (shareware) and in my opinion its very slooooow:

https://youtu.be/kGl0dMf1uDs

What do You think? I know that this Trident VGA is a bit slow and it has 512KB memory but still I think it should run much faster....

As for the case - its some modern SFS PCB format but I managed to make AT from it, there is no Turbo switch... This PCB has 3 pin layout for the switch - which pins should I join to make the turbo working? 1-2, 2-3 or 1-2-3?

Spitz wrote on 2020-07-20, 20:38:

[Hmmmm addiction? can't be!] […]
Show full quote

[Hmmmm addiction? can't be!]

There it is.. #3 PC, This time a Laptop Toshiba T4850CT.
Specs: https://usermanual.com/document/7530/toshiba- … cification.html
In short:
3.3V SL enhanced i486 DX4 75MHz (16KB internal cache; integrated math coprocessor)
10.4" full-color Active Matrix, Thin Film Transistor (TFT) color LCD that displays 640 x 480 pixels.
RAM memory: 8MB /(expandable to 40MB)
internal 2.5-inch 500 MB HDD.
supports 2 HD (1.44 MB) floppy disks and 2DD (720 KB) floppy disks.
Audio System 16 bit sound (Analog Devices AD1848KP & Yamaha OPL3)
2MB VGA GPU

Yes.... it's an 486 with (S)VGA and a soundcard ...... 😉

All in good shape (as for 25+yrs) The only issue is the "P10 error" displayed on the small lcd panel and You can't run it in normal way... So I'll have to dissasemble this rig and check out caps (P10 stands for too high voltage).

Managed to repair it... Finally! It took me all day ... Now everything seems to be working just fine 😀

I like how the Bull Micral is a full size desktop AT...and then they went ahead and made it even bulkier by adding those fenders that jut out at each side.

There's just something really satisfying about having a full sized AT desktop system, even though it's not exactly a practical design.

Playing Winamp on a DX4/75? Impressive! Had to overclock my x5/133 to 160 to avoid stuttering back in the day ..

H3nrik V! wrote on 2020-12-06, 07:09:

Playing Winamp on a DX4/75? Impressive! Had to overclock my x5/133 to 160 to avoid stuttering back in the day ..

Don't know how.... But it's working!

Spitz wrote on 2020-12-07, 08:01:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2020-12-06, 07:09:

Playing Winamp on a DX4/75? Impressive! Had to overclock my x5/133 to 160 to avoid stuttering back in the day ..

Don't know how.... But it's working!

That's pretty cool!

What bitrate, etc.?

H3nrik V! wrote on 2020-12-07, 10:46:

Spitz wrote on 2020-12-07, 08:01:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2020-12-06, 07:09:

Playing Winamp on a DX4/75? Impressive! Had to overclock my x5/133 to 160 to avoid stuttering back in the day ..

Don't know how.... But it's working!

That's pretty cool!

What bitrate, etc.?

Hmm it seems that it goes on 100Mhz Turbo mode (don't know exactly how it's turning on) - , bitrate 128kbps

Big Benchmark is coming soon