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

Posted on 2018-11-19, 17:57

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

20181117_180810.jpg 20181117_180826.jpg After receiving and replacing the CMOS battery from Mouser, I successfully backed up the Vendex Headstart III 32MB MFM drive to a compact flash card. Updated to DOS 6.22. The CF boots with no issues now. Disregard my NESPI providing strain relief on the …

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SB Pro 2 CT1600 causing system to hang?

Posted on 2018-11-07, 01:24

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Hi everyone, I am running a CT1600 in my 486DX4 system 4MB RAM. When running DOOM, the system will freeze after ~30 seconds or so only when the music and sound effects are set to Sound Blaster. Does anyone have some diagnostic tips to help me narrow down the cause? A visual inspection of the card …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-11-06, 14:55

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A bit of regret and wonder over the weekend. I visited an estate sale and picked up an Amiga 1000 (will post photos later) and it works. Or rather, boots to the screen asking for a workbench disk. I am not sure what to do with it. The case needs some cleaning, but I might simply resell it. I want to …

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

Posted on 2018-10-30, 14:02

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Took some photos and delved deeper into the workings of this guy. 20181029_072707.jpg 20181029_214728.jpg 20181029_214747.jpg 20181029_214810.jpg The battery has no damage and looks like it may have been replaced before. Not sure if velcro/hook and loop is standard practice to hold the battery on. I …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-10-29, 14:24

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I won the auction for a Vendex Headstart III. 1576_resize.JPG I could not resist the urge to power it up when it got home. BIOS battery was toast but in its own shell. I was able to look up the HDD parameters and get it booted to the HDD! It mostly appears fine. More photos to come. I need to get an …

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

Posted on 2018-07-14, 01:01

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I put on my archivist hat today and digitized the infamous PCChips M919 manual as well as the one for the Number Nine Motion 531. Both are unfortunately too large to upload to the forum at ~8MB. Does anyone have any tips for getthing them on the Driver page?

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

Posted on 2018-07-12, 23:34

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Found out my 256kb COAST module is toast. Received all the components to recap a different board. Since the COAST modules are rare, hopefully the recap will fix the other board.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-07-12, 03:05

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Warning! NOT retro computers, but VERY retro still: https://imgur.com/a/pj3FdfM This is #3 for me, I'm really starting to go down the rabbit hole with these things. Good Work keeping the old stuff going. I have console stereo from Telefunken that is my baby. Check 12voltvids on YouTube. He repairs …

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Re: Have you opened your SC-55 to check the battery inside?

Posted on 2018-07-11, 19:44

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I am glad this topic is high up. Should be stickied. I saved my SC-155 from death thanks to this thread. Filename battery.jpg File size 434.55 KiB Views 4038 views

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-07-11, 17:39

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This hobby is very fun, but getting costly. I think I paid way too much, but I will let you be the judge. These items for $100. 2001.jpg Focus FK-2001 keyboard, work status: Unknown. ibm1.jpg ibmpart.jpg IBM Model M keyboard, work status: Unknown. m919v34.jpg m919Manual.jpg PCChips M919 v3.4: …

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

Posted on 2018-07-09, 19:05

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just borrowed a Micro 2000 Post Probe card to help diagnose my failing-to-post PCChips M919 v1.4 motherboard. I got the manual too, but this is going to be a learning exercise to figure out. Any tips are welcome. I also ordered new caps and diodes for the board or any future projects.

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Re: 486 killer of CMOS

Posted on 2018-07-07, 14:16

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There is also a series resistor to limit the charging current, so the circuit could be as follows: (+5v)-----|>|------|===|-----(battery+) Where the first thing is a diode and the second a resistor. You can remove either/both. I believe I have found the resistor and the diode. I removed both and …

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Re: 486 killer of CMOS

Posted on 2018-07-07, 02:51

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I desoldered a single pin of D4 on the left side of the board after tracing the negative line that way... The cmos recharge voltage dropped from 4.7v to ~1.4v. Am I heading in the right direction? Should the cmos voltage drop to 0?

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Re: 486 killer of CMOS

Posted on 2018-07-06, 02:26

by

by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Correct you both are. Looks like I have work to do this weekend. I powered up the board on the bench and the battery terminal was pushing out 4.7v. As you said, I got really lucky that things did not get explosive. I will get the terminal out and clean the board up. As far as Diodes go, I can see …

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486 killer of CMOS

Posted on 2018-07-06, 00:44

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I chose this motherboard for a variety of reasons. VLB slots, CMOS replaced, WINbios, etc. mobo1.jpg However, since booting up an using the thing, it appears to have a serious flaw. It kills any CMOS battery I have in it. After a day or so, the CMOS will drain well below 1.5v and the motherboard …

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Re: Something old and Something new (386 build)

Posted on 2018-07-03, 13:30

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Phido wrote: All will be revealed shortly. Just soldering the turbo and AT power switch and some cable management. Its a tight case, so much stuff. I have some benchmark results too. Not heaps. Pics or it did not happen.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-06-29, 12:47

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

:? What sort of drivers do you think you need? Unless you're using weird multi-chip accelerators (Diamond Viper VLB...) you don't need drivers under DOS for any VGA card. The only thing that might be handy is VESA stuff, but with an S3 86x you're covered for almost all VESA out-of-the-box, and if …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-06-28, 02:04

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Part two of my most recent haul. We start off with a PC I purchased from a local surplus auction. S7Pentium.jpg monitor.jpg Monitor and Tower. AT case with an unknown processor when I saw it. I noticed it in one of the auction photos and figured I had nothing to lose to go check it out. Had to wait …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-06-27, 02:38

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Too many photos, so I will need to split this between two posts. Probably the more interesting bit will be in the second. First up is the entire haul from a Craigslist deal. allCards.jpg The seller claimed everything was working when it was pulled from the systems. I am burying the lead here because …

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Re: CF-IDE not working

Posted on 2018-04-24, 15:31

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by twilliamc

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does this PC recognize normal/mechanical 32GB HDDs? I doubt it. The symptom you're having is typical for a HDD larger than what the BIOS can recognize. Now about fixing it, assuming that's the case: try updating the BIOS or get a smaller CF -of a capacity that you're certain the BIOS does work with …

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