Re: Toshiba Satellite Pro 410CDT Won't Boot - Caps Lock Indicator Flashes Repeatedly

Posted on 2023-01-21, 03:53

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it's flashing the caps lock key repeatedly, that should be a repeating reboot. To see where it's failing you can either use a parallel post code reader or LEDs wired to the data pins of a parallel port like this one: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=1107658#p1107658 Since it's restarting …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-01-20, 20:26

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's a very nice case, I think that's probably one of the most space efficient regular ATX cases? I was trying to fix my Toshiba T2130CT and something went wrong, the board no longer powers up and a replacement board is £22. So it's time for a new board rather than troubleshooting further (I think …

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Re: Amazing website for MIDI music...

Posted on 2023-01-20, 19:42

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

That's a shame, it'd be good if someone backed it up but I don't think there are often backups of a site without prior notification of it going down? You can use a wayback link with "*" set for the time and a "*" at the end to get a full listing of what the wayback machine *did* get and when: …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-01-20, 19:22

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's a nice tidy mod 😀 Makes me consider doing something like that with my CT3670 / CT3620 - you got it for a great price too.

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Re: Vital MF002BR 8-bit sound card

Posted on 2023-01-19, 00:53

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

And the firmware attached to the Snark Barker project should work with your J98-MF002BR card. I confirmed a while ago that my J98-MF002 card - a less small version of yours - has the same bits for 99% of the firmware, only a couple of very minor differences like two hex values different. So if you …

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Re: DigiPOS adventures!

Posted on 2023-01-19, 00:34

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The limiting factor is that PicoPSU is meant for later hardware that puts most of the CPU power source to 12 volts. With 5 volts it could hit the limit rather quickly and especially with recently made ones or the cheap chinese clones, since 5v isn't a priority with modern hardware. BTW, the CPU …

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Re: Help with obscure Toshiba docking station

Posted on 2023-01-19, 00:28

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Although some time has passed since the last post here, I'd like to post this chart which I created. I think it will be useful to people who google this topic. I own or have owned most of these so the info is tested and verified. My main interest is music production with vintage software so this …

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Re: Compaq LTE Lite 4/25C clear BIOS Password

Posted on 2023-01-14, 02:56

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hmm, actually the CR2430 isn't soldered into place and it's got a little clip-in holder on the underside of the mainboard - you can get to it just by removing the aluminium mainboard 'box' from the plastic casing and it's accessible underneath. To get to that you have to unclip the top case ( …

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Re: Riser cards as backplanes for single board computers

Posted on 2023-01-14, 00:39

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's all 3d printed with some wooden dowels to give some strength to it, since I had those laying around at the time. I didn't share the designs because the PCB design has a couple of flaws, specifically in that it didn't need to be 2 boards and the ATX connector is too close to the cards. If you're …

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Re: Compaq LTE Lite 4/25C clear BIOS Password

Posted on 2023-01-12, 22:15

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It should be cleared by pulling the CMOS battery, that requires pulling out the mainboard which is one big aluminium shell. The CMOS battery is a CR2430 on the underside that's soldered in and probably needs replacing at this point. If you temporarily disconnect that, I think it would clear the CMOS …

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Re: Toshiba 210CS not booting anymore

Posted on 2023-01-12, 13:54

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have and do recommend trying that out. You can either get a parallel port post code reader or stick some LEDs onto the data pins of the parallel port like I have here: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=1107658#p1107658 It'll run through different LED combinations which I think is a binary …

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Re: Riser cards as backplanes for single board computers

Posted on 2023-01-12, 02:32

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've done this and it works, this particular SBC has super I/O and video integrated so the extra port is for the sound card. I got an ISA single port angler, soldered another ISA connector onto the edge connector - along with the ATX connector from one of those 24pin to 20 pin ATX connectors that I …

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Re: Toshiba 210CS not booting anymore

Posted on 2023-01-11, 00:15

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The memory is a board accessible from the underside of the laptop, there's a panel you can remove and the expansion RAM is fitted there. That's a good suggestion, I've come across more than one system that wouldn't boot up with extra RAM fitted, but there's usually RAM built into the laptop's …

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Re: failed memory channels in 486 motherboards

Posted on 2023-01-04, 12:52

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've seen actual dead RAM slots on at least 2 PC Chips M919 boards - they have a 1.2mm thick PCB so are susceptible to flexing. The UM8881F QFP that sits by the fake cache chips and the memory slots that seems to be the memory controller, some of the pins on the QFP weren't making good contact …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-12-29, 03:27

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bought 2 sub-notenooks from a collector. Toshiba libretto 70 Pentium MMX 120MHz, 64M RAM, Yamaha OPL3 SAx DSC_0338.JPG Fujitsu FMV-biblo NCIII 13. DSC_0337.JPG It has a ESS sound card on the isa bus. I think I'm done, won't buy more notebooks, got about 10 of them. Ooh really nice, what's the …

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Re: Creating a voltage regulated 386 BL3 module from existing parts

Posted on 2022-12-28, 01:15

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm not going to take the CPU off my Blue Lightning board, but I would like to say that you've done a great job with remodelling that PCB to accomodate the voltage regulator. That's excellent that it works with the AM1117 too, does make me wonder why my board has such a powerful regulator instead. …

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Re: Finding pinout for Compaq 50-pin HDD connector on Armada 7300 series

Posted on 2022-12-08, 02:56

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

To follow this up, I now have this working with the following pinout - this is verified working for both the Armada 73xx and 7400 series laptops since I found the 73xx and 7400 series use the same adapter, with the 7400 having some extra caddy components to make it quick release-able. DMA works with …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2022-12-08, 02:50

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Since I don't plan on frying eggs I made a bracket for an additional 50mm fan next to cpu cooler, for cooling the voltage regulator. Screw holes are too small at 4mm, of course. Will be fixed tomorrow. 760.jpg Nice, I've got the same board I think TC430HX? That regulator gets toasty so the extra …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2022-11-28, 04:24

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice setup, seems odd to see Mac OS on a Dell (monitor) :) It looks like the case may have been made by the same manufacturer as Dell's ATX systems from that era, lotsa plastic but really nicely made. I've got this Thinkpad 240 laptop that I put back together from all the remaining parts and got it …

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Re: Help Toshiba 210CS no boot

Posted on 2022-11-28, 02:35

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it's getting that far, it's probably all working apart from the HD detection. I'm not sure why the floppy drive wouldn't be reading but HD detection is quite integral to the Toshiba BIOS working so best to resolve that first. First thing is wait 5 minutes from that blinking cursor and you'll see …

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