How to repair metal case screw holes

Posted on 2024-03-16, 23:27

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hello! My 486 Baby AT case's screw holes are mostly worn out. The screws don't hold well enough at all - some are completely not gripping, and a couple barely grip. Is there a way to either A) reform the holes, or B) use something like JB Weld to "re-thread" the holes? I don't want to risk the case …

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Re: In search of childhood 94 era PC

Posted on 2024-01-22, 01:15

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks so much for the brochure and link!! Now I just need to source one of these beauties one day. I saw Adrian (from Adrian’s Digital Basement) covered one (a bit worse for wear though). So cool.

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In search of childhood 94 era PC

Posted on 2024-01-19, 18:02

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hello everyone! My family used to have a PC that I am assuming was maybe a 386 (but possibly newer..?) from 94-99 ish. It was probably from a generic PC manufacturer, but I am not sure. I have hardly any photos, so I am posting a snip of a home movie. It has 4 drive bays, was a desktop form factor, …

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Re: Tried to plug an IDE CD-ROM into my486's controller, now not seeing HDD or Floppy

Posted on 2020-09-26, 13:31

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't think plugging the IDE cable in the wrong way would have caused any serious damage. Do you have a regular IDE hard drive you can use to test instead of the CF card? Reason: in the past I've experienced many strange issues when using CF cards on old (<=486) computers with ISA/VLB IDE …

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Re: Tried to plug an IDE CD-ROM into my486's controller, now not seeing HDD or Floppy

Posted on 2020-09-26, 06:56

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What brand model is the CD-ROM ? Are you sure is is IDE (ATAPI) ? Does the CF card still work in a USB card reader on another PC ? I'm not sure what brand this CD-Rom is.. I'll have to look a bit more closely, but it is a pretty generic drive. Nothing stands out at all as far as a brand. I'll check …

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Tried to plug an IDE CD-ROM into my486's controller, now not seeing HDD or Floppy

Posted on 2020-09-26, 03:55

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hey Vogons, So, today I decided to try to install a CD-Rom drive into my 486. I have a VLB controller card (Winbond chipset) with 2 IDE, 1 floppy, com, etc. Plugged in an identical ribbon cable to the second IDE pins open on the controller card, plugged it into CD ROM with Molex. Booted, and it …

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Re: Should I invest in a UPS for my 486?

Posted on 2020-09-14, 04:42

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank you everyone for the awesome replies! I went with a Triplitte surge protector for now, but I think I'm going to take some of the advice regarding checking thrift stores and businesses that get rid of old ones - try getting replacement batteries instead. Or maybe there will be a solid deal. I …

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Re: Vogons Driver Library Downloads throwing a 503 error

Posted on 2020-09-01, 20:41

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by Mattyice1994

in Milliways

in Milliways

I'm trialling some anti-abuse mechanisms, based on IP and some other client fingerprinting stuff. I've shortened the timeout and increased the number of downloads threshold. If you still can't download files, DM me your IP and I'll suss it out. Happened to me too. Pretty sure it's a quota thing, …

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Vogons Driver Library Downloads throwing a 503 error

Posted on 2020-09-01, 02:27

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by Mattyice1994

in Milliways

in Milliways

Hey Everyone, I feel a little guilty... I was downloading a bunch of soundblaster drivers last night, and on the 6th one, it went to a 503 error when I clicked download... Not sure if I made you guys hit a quota (I would feel horrible if I did). Anyways, you still cannot download anything from the …

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Should I invest in a UPS for my 486?

Posted on 2020-08-30, 06:44

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hey Vogons, I want to protect my pride and joy: my recently completed 486! I would hate for power surges, fluctuations, brownouts, etc. to harm these vintage components! Right now, I'm using a small Tripp-Lite surge protector, but I've been reading a lot about other surge protectors and UPS setups. …

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Re: Something wrong with AT PSU - hissing noise and not powering on

Posted on 2020-08-06, 19:32

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I read through all of your posts and the analysis, thank you everyone so far. This is truly an awesome community. I've been a bit busy, but I will write a better post tonight. So, I'll double check by opening it up, but it seems that the IC isn't cracked, that's good to hear. Just to clarify, the …

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Re: Something wrong with AT PSU - hissing noise and not powering on

Posted on 2020-08-04, 06:45

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hissing noise of an AT power supply is a very typical sign for a short circuit at the output. While other causes are possible, the first thing I would do in this case is checking the PSU and mainboard for shorts on all power rails. You can easily do it with your digital multimeter. Put it into …

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Re: Something wrong with AT PSU - hissing noise and not powering on

Posted on 2020-08-04, 06:38

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How about providing the brand and model number of the PSU along with some high resolution photos of its innards ? You may not see anything wrong, but someone with more experience might see something of interest and point you in the right direction . I will likely not be that person (not my field of …

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Re: Something wrong with AT PSU - hissing noise and not powering on

Posted on 2020-08-03, 03:13

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also.. I opened up the PSU, nothing jumps out as odd.. Nothing looks bulged, nothing looks like it leaked.. I'm a noob when it comes to diagnosing and testing electronics, but I do have a good digital multimeter, can anyone point me to what I could start doing if I want to diagnose this thing …

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Re: Something wrong with AT PSU - hissing noise and not powering on

Posted on 2020-08-03, 03:06

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Side note, how do you guys get the mobo connector off usually? I am always worried about damaging the board or connectors! The ATX ones come off easy, but these AT ones are insane... I'm probably gonna get yelled at by someone for suggesting this.....BUT: If you look at the power connectors. You …

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Re: Something wrong with AT PSU - hissing noise and not powering on

Posted on 2020-08-03, 02:37

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the advice so far everyone. I am leaning towards it coincidentally going out while testing the fan. It was the first time I booted it today, so I'm hoping it is just caps. I'll take it out and do a visual inspection, and then I'll test as you said, Horun. Side note, how do you guys get …

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Something wrong with AT PSU - hissing noise and not powering on

Posted on 2020-08-02, 20:51

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi Vogons, So, I just got a case fan in the mail, and I decided to go try it out. It has a molex connector, so I plugged it into an open molex, and plugged my 486 in, and turned it on. Nothing. When I clicked it off, it makes a little hissing / quiet crackle noise. Is it possible I broke it by …

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Re: Can you help me identify a DOS menu system.

Posted on 2020-07-25, 17:34

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

MenuWorks? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHY7kM-XN9I That actually looks familiar! I kind of don't think it was the one, but it's possible. Or, at least I think I've also seen that one. Either way, I'll probably end up trying it out, thank you! Maybe Automenu ? https://archive.org/details/ …

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Re: Installing Dos 6.22 - Multiple files couldn't be read, still installed and works?

Posted on 2020-07-25, 06:06

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by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It works because DOS needs only a few small files in order to boot, the rest are utilities and such installed under C:\DOS. Keep in mind that the MS-DOS installation may fail in a similar way if you have cache/memory issues (bad cache module or timings set too tight for example). So you may want to …

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Re: Installing Dos 6.22 - Multiple files couldn't be read, still installed and works?

Posted on 2020-07-25, 05:54

by

by Mattyice1994

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It works because DOS needs only a few small files in order to boot, the rest are utilities and such installed under C:\DOS. Keep in mind that the MS-DOS installation may fail in a similar way if you have cache/memory issues (bad cache module or timings set too tight for example). So you may want to …

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