Re: Compaq Presario 2286 Looking for OEM Quick Restore Disk

Posted on 2023-01-15, 00:46

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I haven't tried it, but the picture of the CD here matches the CD that came with my 2286: https://archive.org/details/u-3115-cd-1-q-27 I might have made an image of my exact disc, but I don't know where to upload it in case that one is wrong. As I mentioned in another thread, be careful after the …

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Re: Manufacturing amount of large 17,3" laptop models ?

Posted on 2023-01-14, 21:04

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Back when the standard aspect ratio changed from 16:10 to 16:9, 17" laptops were the only low-end/midrange options available with a usable screen resolution. For some incredibly stupid reason, 15.6" displays with a higher resolution than 1366x768 were only available on workstation-class laptops, and …

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Re: which aureal vortex 2 is this? what company made?

Posted on 2023-01-08, 00:01

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I remember some "new" cards popping up on eBay (and maybe Aliexpress) that looked like that a few years ago. I think they were actually new cards made with old stock chips.

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

Posted on 2023-01-02, 01:01

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Wonder does someone here using HDDs with bad sectors ? For example a drive have bad sectors, but when they are isolated the drive works. So does someone uses some drives with isolated bad sectors from years to tell how do they perform, and are there any problems, as i wonder.. I did never do that, …

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Re: The Retro Web submissions thread: suggest edits and/or add new boards here

Posted on 2023-01-01, 21:22

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/compaq-desertstorm CPU support: Pentium P55C, Cyrix MII, AMD K6-2 FSB support: 50MHz, 60MHz, 66MHz, 68.5MHz, 75MHz, 83MHz PSU connector: Proprietary (not AT-style - 5VSB and PS-ON are present in the P8/P9 connectors) I/O: 1x serial, 2x USB, no RJ45, audio (line …

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Re: Audigy 2 ZS Crackle Fix

Posted on 2023-01-01, 00:39

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Those 1117 type regulators actually have a minimum ESR requirement, but it's hard to violate that with only 47uF. Some manufacturers of those regulators even recommend 100uF caps. In that case, I'd suggest just a long-life series instead of low ESR, although even cheap 105°C caps like Rubycon PX …

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Re: PIII - Socket 370 board - ZERO cooler clearance. Ideas? (& cpu compatibility)

Posted on 2022-12-24, 20:53

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Maybe a StarTech FAN370PRO would fit. The base is smaller than the top (where the fan mounts), but it might not clear the caps.

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Re: Panasonic Caddy CD ROM drive

Posted on 2022-12-18, 01:48

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Those caps are leaking, and I see some corroded vias. From this angle, it doesn't look like it would be that hard to fix, though. Those are low-profile caps (5mm or 7mm tall), so make sure you get caps that will clear the mechanism above them.

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Re: CMOS NiMH button cells are leaking inside of laptops

Posted on 2022-12-17, 22:58

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I still need to remove the battery from my Gateway Solo 2500. It hasn't leaked yet (but it will), and it's only the standby battery (the one that lets you change the main battery without fully shutting the computer down). The CMOS battery is a VL1220 soldered to the motherboard, which I already …

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Re: Incorrect dimensions on slimline IDE optical drive connector?

Posted on 2022-11-27, 01:01

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I realized that I got the connector manufacturer wrong. It's JAE, not Hirose. I decided to take these laptops apart again and compare the connectors. The spacing between rows is slightly wider on the older drive from the Gateway, but the two drives actually did physically interchange this time. I …

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Re: Hardware you wish you'd never bought.

Posted on 2022-11-20, 00:18

by

by lti

in Milliways

in Milliways

Since this got revived, I guess this is another forum where I talk about the Toshiba Satellite L750 laptop I bought 11 years ago. At least I missed the Intel chipset bug (early Sandy Bridge), but every single part of that laptop either performed horribly or failed unusually quickly. The CPU was a …

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Re: Retro confessions. What are yours?

Posted on 2022-11-11, 05:43

by

by lti

in Milliways

in Milliways

I might make a lot of people mad with mine. I actually don't like Compaq. It comes from running into a bunch of unstable ones in the late 1990s (mostly locking up, but also weird application crashes and disk corruption). From what little troubleshooting I did, it seemed like certain models had …

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Re: How's everyone doing these days?

Posted on 2022-11-04, 03:52

by

by lti

in Milliways

in Milliways

I lost interest in games a few years ago, so I haven't actually done much with my old computers recently. I don't have much else to use them for besides games, and I haven't felt like buying better hardware just for games. For now, my "collection" is going to stay two ultra-low-end computers, one …

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Re: Troubleshooting an ESS Solo-1

Posted on 2022-10-31, 03:12

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The op-amp won't cause this problem, but it might cause the distorted sound from one of your other cards. This card also needs 3.3V from the PCI slot, but if you tested all of those cards on the same motherboard, that won't be the problem. I also think the ESS chip is dead.

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Re: Asus P5A SS7 Mobo - Stable w/ Pentium CPU, Unstable w/ K6-2's ???

Posted on 2022-10-30, 23:34

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A P5A should be stable with a K6-2 (I had one many years ago, but I think mine was revision 1.04), and the VRM problem would prevent it from working at all (the 2.0V setting would totally disable the VRM). I'd also suggest swapping all of the components with the working system (CPU, RAM, power …

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Re: Troubleshooting an ESS Solo-1

Posted on 2022-10-30, 23:04

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I can't tell if C22 and C24 are in series with the output or connected to ground. I hope they're in series because there will be a DC offset on the ESS chip's output. The op-amp circuit (U4) looks a little weird as well because it appears to be configured for a split supply. I guess it's using +12V …

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Re: Sony Trinitron CPD-15SX1 with weird dynamic pincushion

Posted on 2022-10-01, 22:16

by

by lti

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

It's a shame that the service manual (at least the low-quality scan above, which is the best I've found online) doesn't have a schematic or any explanation of what the adjustment pots are for. I have one of these monitors with different problems (and more minor, except for convergence around the …

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Re: Crowbar on power supply

Posted on 2022-10-01, 16:09

by

by lti

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've discovered that some cheap power supplies will run with the +5V rail shorted at a 4-pin drive power connector until the insulation melts off the wires (even if they had 18AWG wire). A crowbar circuit would have to be internal to the power supply because of that.

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Re: Stadia shutting down

Posted on 2022-10-01, 15:51

by

by lti

in Milliways

in Milliways

I didn't know that Stadia was still around.

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Re: Getting Ensoniq Audio Soundscape (1370) to work in Dos 6.22

Posted on 2022-09-19, 01:25

by

by lti

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The DOS drivers uploaded by Phil to the ensoniq section in vogonsdrivers were fake, those were creative drivers for ES1371. I wouldn't call them fake drivers. Offering the Creative drivers for Ensoniq cards was pretty common, even back when these cards were still in regular use. I would guess that …

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