Re: The Creeping Network (Creepingnet's) Retro PC Build Logs, Restorations, & Repairs

Posted on 2022-04-14, 23:29

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

one other thing, do you know what the hdd limitation of the bios is (it's not 504mb)? currently i have an 810mb hdd which the bios correctly autodetects (although there's no auto setting). it doesn't matter if i select custom or randomly select any bios type the hdd is detected correctly and the …

---

Re: Market value for popular or rare classic computer hardware

Posted on 2022-04-14, 20:27

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

I dunno why everybodys having so much trouble with old HDD....seems my apartment is a spawning ground for them..... So thats where all the working hard drives went! They get worm hole'd into your living room. Way to go! Truth be told: I haven't actually touched a hard drive outside of retro …

---

Re: Market value for popular or rare classic computer hardware

Posted on 2022-04-14, 18:14

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

I dunno why everybodys having so much trouble with old HDD....seems my apartment is a spawning ground for them..... This is what I have all still working ATM... 100MB 2.5" IDE 44 pin Seagate = Tandy 1000A - came out of NEC Ultralite Versa 250MB 2.5" IDE 44 pin IBM = loose - came out of my Versa 40EC …

---

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

Posted on 2022-04-14, 16:39

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Life's been heck lately outside of retro-technology.....working third shift, still getting my hours right going back to day shift....so my sleeping patterns are screwed....leading me to late night/early morning experiments, last nights experiments....after a 30 minute round trip drive to fix a …

---

Re: Is Pentium 1 too fast for early 90s DOS games?

Posted on 2022-04-13, 19:30

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

From my experience, some of the earlier "golden age of DOS gaming" stuff - particularly late EGA/early VGA era stuff (think 1987-1990) can crash out with a "divide by Zero" error at t he prompt if the machine is too fast for it. Ultima VI comes to mind. Anything from 1991 onward, especially …

---

Re: The Creeping Network (Creepingnet's) Retro PC Build Logs, Restorations, & Repairs

Posted on 2022-04-13, 19:28

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

i was able to dig up the 65540/5 data sheet and it's somewhat explicit about the color depth limitations: - True-color and Hi-color display capability with flat panels and CRT monitors up to 640x480 resolution the supported video modes chart (attached) appears to bear this out. 1mb is a lot of …

---

Re: A list of all Toshiba laptops computers with a Yamaha DOS compatible soundcard ?

Posted on 2022-04-13, 18:59

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Toshiba Portege 3020CT has YMF719 in it and works good in DOS. Sound quality is ass though, lot of "thinking" noises. Sure it is not a "aging issue" ? "Old lady Toshiba sits there, hanging onto those Midi Notes from Monkey Island like some kind of long forgotten tune from her youth! (because it is …

---

Re: Old laptop with a long battery life competition

Posted on 2022-04-13, 18:52

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

First, the tLDR version because this WILL get long... TLDR - I basically check the NiMH batteries in my 486 notebooks for shorts, zap em' with a disused Skil cordless drill battery charger to break up shorts and put some power on the cells, then try to "excercise" them back to health by running it …

---

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

Posted on 2022-04-13, 16:53

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Switching back to Day shift from Night over the course of yesterday, so sleeping was weird and sporadic. Finally cleaned up the "Lab/Computer Den/Game Room/Guitar Shop/PC Shop/Whateveryouwantocallit" a good bit, and pulled out Creeping Net 486 and the Versa M/75 (my classic "duo" of vintage machines …

---

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

Posted on 2022-04-12, 07:37

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Setting up Development Software on the Versa V/50 while handling a bloody firesale of DOS games on e-bay.

---

Re: Recording PC Speaker?

Posted on 2022-04-12, 02:21

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I've been known to capture it by routing through a sound card like a SoundBlaster and using the mixer to mix it with the signal. I also have made my own simple mono cables too for PC's without. Sometimes to try and reproduce/make it sound more authentic I use a guitar effects processor with just a …

---

Re: Market value for popular or rare classic computer hardware

Posted on 2022-04-11, 03:22

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

my current approach from a reseller perspective has been "acquire everything out of ewaste and estate sales that's possible" because inflation is hovering around 5-7% annual here if not more, and is probably going to be that way through next year too. pricing for premium boxed/sealed items like …

---

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

Posted on 2022-04-11, 03:03

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well...never thought I'd be busy with computers outside of work given the weather......I did replace the shocks in my 93' Explorer last weekend, this week+weekend though....so Auto season has started.... Latest events? - Bought a DFI MediaBook (NanTan 9200M) for $55 on evil-bay, bought a $15.00 …

---

Re: pc cases by year

Posted on 2022-04-10, 08:45

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

IMG_20160822_221652.jpg I have the mid-tower version of this case, but it does not have the MHz displayer or turbo switch. It's pretty sturdy, and plenty of room for cable management. This is the closest picture I could find that matches my first *real* PC back in 1998. It originally started it's …

---

Re: Members of Vogons, what shows do you currently watch?

Posted on 2022-04-10, 08:31

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

With the Wife we watch a lot of different stuff, and tend to get stuck on one or two shows for awhile. For awhile it was Castlevania, The Witcher, and BIg Mouth, now were moving on to H.R.. I really liked F is for Family (I really identify with cranky Paternal figures a lot despite not being a dad), …

---

Re: Hotdog Linux..

Posted on 2022-04-10, 08:16

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

Well...I guess I know what I'm doing with some HDDs I have laying around. Might have to try this out.

---

Re: Would you fix an old Power supply? or just buy a brand new one?

Posted on 2022-04-10, 08:12

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

At this point, for desktops, I'd attempt to fix them. Same for large scale docks like my Versa Dock (which I'm fixing - hence why the Versas have not been docked in months). AT/XT/Baby AT PSU's are getting harder to get, and most of my machines are AT/XT based machines in older cases. For laptops, I …

---

Re: The Creeping Network (Creepingnet's) Retro PC Build Logs, Restorations, & Repairs

Posted on 2022-04-10, 07:31

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

creepingnet, i wanted to message you directly, but i'm still unable to pm. i've taken notice that you've written extensively about the nec versa ultralite line of laptops on this and other posts. (i also obtained driver floppies from one of your old websites...thanks!) i owned a couple of these …

---

Re: Upgrading a DSTN display to a TFT in a laptop - is it possible?

Posted on 2022-04-10, 07:02

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Funny I found this today researching about doing the same sort of idea to my DFI MediaBook (NanTan 9200). Anyway, I make NO claim to be an electronics expert. That said, I love tinkering with electronics and one of the reasons I play with old PC's like these...is because it's fun to see what I can …

---

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

Posted on 2022-04-03, 05:46

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Picked up another laptop - one I'm quite familiar with....as I've had 2 other ones (a color one and a monochrome one. This was the most anemic one I've had so far: 25MHz 486 SX, 8MB RAM, Casio 10" DTSN Monochrome LCD with a scratch in it, but I got to hand it to them, NanTan could actually make a …

---