Re: Refurbishing old hardware batteries

Posted on 2022-01-20, 15:00

by

by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That Omnibook 425 appears to have 4.8v NIMH for the battery, so using the 4x eneloop batteries is just fine and you should be able to charge those in the laptop. If it was lithium, it gets more complicated since the early lithium packs hadn't yet standardised on 18650 li-ion cells. The Battery …

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Re: Is it possible to mount a small Baby AT motherboard in a mATX case?

Posted on 2022-01-18, 22:39

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The DIN plug has lots of clearance to work with either position 😁

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Re: Is it possible to mount a small Baby AT motherboard in a mATX case?

Posted on 2022-01-18, 20:25

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ah I didn't realise that I'd shared both types. The 3mm version is for use where the standoffs can't be removed, so the ATX to AT adapter will sit on top of those standoffs, raising the motherboard in the case by 3mm. Then the 3mm card bracket riser is needed to screw the cards in securely. The …

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Re: Is it possible to mount a small Baby AT motherboard in a mATX case?

Posted on 2022-01-17, 21:36

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This is something I thought of too :) It's one of the things I spent time on since I got my 3d printer a couple of years ago. I've successfully fit a 486 and 386 baby AT motherboards into two different mATX cases. You can see pictures of my adapters here: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p= …

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Re: ATX I/O shield models for 3D printing

Posted on 2022-01-12, 23:29

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This one's for a modern-ish computer rather than an old one, but I had to make up an I/O shield again. It's printed in PETG so it won't melt easily. And now it has 50mm copper tape stuck onto it. The copper tape goes a bit past the left/right edges so it can fold over and contact the case. It gives …

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

Posted on 2022-01-12, 21:43

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Quoting myself here for context. Yesterday, the moment before I applied the hot glue, I had noticed that one solder joint had come loose. So I soldered it back in place quickly, without doing any testing afterwards. Today I decided to double-check the adapter and this solder joint in particular, so …

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Re: Reviving a 486 MB

Posted on 2022-01-12, 21:37

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nicely done, it's really great that you got it working again :) Those wires definitely look a bit risky, maybe you could use some hot glue to hold them in place, or tape. How did you work out that those two lines weren't working? Did they just show no activity when probing around with the …

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

Posted on 2022-01-11, 00:22

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I replaced a floppy drive belt in the Panasonic CF-150B (aka Tandy 1100 FD) that I was given for free the other day. It wasn't a real success yet, since the "DIR" command results in errors pretty often and trying to open any file on the disk always gives read errors only. Since the floppy drive is …

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Re: The quest for the perfect retro laptop: a saga

Posted on 2022-01-10, 03:03

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's looking good. The exterior is worn but the internals look fresh, including the pins and traces around the two internal NIMH batteries - you should pull those out ASAP. Working 4xxCDT laptops are becoming more and more rare because those leak and destroy the board. That has a minor upside for …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-01-10, 02:55

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm looking at possibly getting one or both of these Laptops, I feel that having both would give me a complete setup with the worst of the two being a spare parts machine. Toshiba Tecra 520-CDT (Pentium 166 MMX, 32 meg, 4gb HDD, TFT, Yamaha OPL3) This one comes with the external floppy. Toshiba …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-01-09, 02:10

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

but for true and real 'retrocomputing' or 'retrogaming' experience I simply need and want hardware which is from the same "era". Loud fans, slow ass HDD's and unreliable PSU's are no things I need to re-experience. It's all part of the experience. :) For me, enjoyment of old hardware pretty much …

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Re: Pentium III + Voodoo3 mini PC (MS-6168 based) [build log]

Posted on 2022-01-09, 00:50

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Definitely put a cooler on that V3 chip! I did a similar project a couple of years ago - put an MS6168 into an Avance H100 half-height MATX case with a Katmai P3-550 and a YMF719 ISA soundcard with a 3d printed bracket (I was just cutting my teeth on 3d printing at the time, that was fun)

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

Posted on 2022-01-09, 00:37

by

by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I replaced a floppy drive belt in the Panasonic CF-150B (aka Tandy 1100 FD) that I was given for free the other day. It wasn't a real success yet, since the "DIR" command results in errors pretty often and trying to open any file on the disk always gives read errors only. Since the floppy drive is …

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Re: Help with obscure Toshiba docking station

Posted on 2022-01-08, 05:12

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ooh, that's the portege 610CT, I didn't notice this thread got bumped. I was thinking of doing the same thing but keep getting stuck into other projects. That mockup of the adapter looks really good! For how it hooks up, I took apart the Libretto 100CT's minidock a while ago and it's got these on …

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Re: Market value for popular or rare classic computer hardware

Posted on 2022-01-08, 02:51

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by Thermalwrong

in Milliways

in Milliways

Just found one that really stands out - this used MSI 6905 slotket sold for £90? https://www.ebay.com/itm/224777861175 I think I got 3x of these NIB a few years back from a seller in germany, for around £25? I hope that's covering up a generous best offer price. But each time an item like this sells …

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Re: WD 90c33-zz no video output on known good 486. Possibly jumper settings?

Posted on 2022-01-04, 20:02

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Ah, I did notice that the solder points looked too similar to the rest of the board. How do you tell it's using the VLB port's clock? Connected pins? Since that is probably not it, check if the ROM is correct for the card. Reseating just the ROM has helped me get a card working before now. The gold …

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Re: WD 90c33-zz no video output on known good 486. Possibly jumper settings?

Posted on 2022-01-03, 19:35

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The crystal oscillator has been pilfered 😀 Check out some of the WD90C33-ZZ cards here, they all have 14.318MHz crystals on them. The big gold area by the RAM chips is where it's meant to go. http://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item/ … ital-wd90c33-zz

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Re: The quest for the perfect retro laptop: a saga

Posted on 2022-01-03, 17:08

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The T2150CDT is one of the best DOS laptops there is in my opinion: 640x480 TFT screen Integrated CD-ROM drive ES-688 soundcard like the later 4xxCDT pentium laptops It's got a Real OPL3 on the laptop's soundcard. (I don't have one, but I've seen pictures of its soundcard) Easy to use an external …

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Re: Newly made Gravis Ultrasound compatible cards ... what's the degree of interest?

Posted on 2022-01-02, 21:58

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Another day spent on GUSt :D GUSt Progress 2nd January 2022.png I've partly dismantled my card to figure out what each voltage regulator does and how it hooks up. The 7905 negative voltage seems to be only for the Mic input? That's going to be optional I think. Here are front & back scans from my …

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Re: The quest for the perfect retro laptop: a saga

Posted on 2022-01-02, 16:25

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by Thermalwrong

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The doubling up / overlap of the image suggests to me that it's more likely an LCD panel fault. See how it behaves with VGA output. If VGA output is fine when check whether the LCD cable is making a good connection, then try out an alternative panel. I've got a Tecra 750CDT with damaged video memory …

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