Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2015-08-31, 16:45

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I got some stuff from Ukraine today :) The first two packages from Ukraine slipped through the net, the package with battery holders, simm sockets and other stuff from the US aaaand A diddnt. The hosting site Im using is moving to new servers today, thats why the images loads slowly. It should be …

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

Posted on 2015-08-31, 15:39

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Im testing old HDDs I had a big box with ~30 old HDDs that took a 1 meter* nose dive down on my parquet floor half a year ago. Im now testing to see which drives survived and which drives sounds like waste shredders. The HDDs were just stacked in the box without any protection at all so I will be …

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

Posted on 2015-08-30, 17:51

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Im testing old HDDs I had a big box with ~30 old HDDs that took a 1 meter* nose dive down on my parquet floor half a year ago. Im now testing to see which drives survived and which drives sounds like waste shredders. The HDDs were just stacked in the box without any protection at all so I will be …

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Re: The Nostalgia Bug

Posted on 2015-08-30, 17:31

by

by Skyscraper

in Milliways

in Milliways

The key when it comes to not getting bored with computers is to work with something else! When I was in "the business" I often felt that I did not want to see a computer when I got home, now when I work in a different field thats not the case at all :). I still find new computers lackluster though …

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

Posted on 2015-08-30, 15:12

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Im testing old HDDs I had a big box with ~30 old HDDs that took a 1 meter* nose dive down on my parquet floor half a year ago. Im now testing to see which drives survived and which drives sounds like waste shredders. The HDDs were just stacked in the box without any protection at all so I will be …

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Re: building old 386/486 systems.. AT form factor vs ATX

Posted on 2015-08-30, 11:23

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Might have to check my boards, but I never noticed any :blush: Often the headers dosnt look like USB headers as the standard for the headers wasnt finished and sometimes they were special small USB cards conneced with a ribbon cable to a special larger header on the motherboard. PC Chips Socket-7 …

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

Posted on 2015-08-30, 11:11

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Im testing old HDDs I had a big box with ~30 old HDDs that took a 1 meter* nose dive down on my parquet floor half a year ago. Im now testing to see which drives survived and which drives sounds like waste shredders. The HDDs were just stacked in the box without any protection at all so I will be …

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Re: building old 386/486 systems.. AT form factor vs ATX

Posted on 2015-08-30, 10:52

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

philscomputerlab wrote: USB headers on the motherboard? I've got an Acer S370 board with i815 chipset which has a USB header. I believe this is my earliest board with one. Pretty much all Socket-7 boards from Intel 430HX and forward have USB headers, the 430FX was the last Intel chipset which …

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Re: Suntac 286 saved from the dump (now with pictures!)

Posted on 2015-08-30, 09:45

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Yeah, for testing I removed EVERYTHING except the video card and the CF card to eliminate all possible errors. I tried two different VGA cards. Desolder and save the crystals and other useful stuff, I would even desolder and save the CPU as 16 MHz 286 CPUs are starting to become rare. You can use a …

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Re: Freetech 586F52 motherboard thread

Posted on 2015-08-29, 18:49

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I can confirm the jumper settings, they are exactly the same on my board with the only difference that I have two jumpers for multiplier selection so I can choose 1.5x, 2x, 2.5x and 3x multiplier. The 2x75 = 150 MHz setting vetz listed is actually 2x80 MHz for my board even if the speed is reported …

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Re: Freetech 586F52 motherboard thread

Posted on 2015-08-29, 12:02

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This turned out to be a rather short advanture for now. I started the day with removing the dead battery from the ODIN RTC but I could not find a CR2032 battery holder although I know I have one somewhere so I did not finish the battery mod. I have three 2032 battery holders in transit from jameco. …

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Re: Freetech 586F52 motherboard thread

Posted on 2015-08-28, 21:13

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So far I have found out that the board works. It booted DOS from my 2.5 GB Western Digital 2.5Gb disk at first power on. The CPU Im using is a P133@1.5x66, the memory 2x8 MB FPM and the Video card a Voodoo 3 PCI. The battery in the ODIN RTC is more or less dead so the board gets a BIOS checksum …

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Re: Freetech 586F52 motherboard thread

Posted on 2015-08-28, 16:00

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That socket 7 586F52 is made by freetech.. http://www.tacktech.com/download.cfm?file=manuals/586f52.txt http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/manuals/Freetech/586F52/ forum user `VETZ` as also one.. I never got it running until today :) Apparently it is a bit picky with RAM. I have an earlier revision …

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Re: Cleaning up old kit

Posted on 2015-08-28, 13:53

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

^^ This ^^. Isopropyl alcohol is the way to go. It's cheap and commonly available in most electronics stores. Gently brush as much dust as possible of a board (dry brush), then clean what's left with alcohol. It gives the PCB a nice shine. It doesn't corrode contacts, it evaporates really fast ( …

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Re: Suntac 286P

Posted on 2015-08-27, 18:05

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As this motherboard was available with a 20 MHz CPU it should be a late 286 board so the floppy controller and BIOS will probably work with a 1.44MB floppy drive and the IDE interface will probably support the standrad disks type 1 to 46 and with luck a user defined setting. If the CPU is in a …

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Re: Cleaning up old kit

Posted on 2015-08-27, 17:34

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For people in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Russia there is a hardware retailer called K-rauta. K-rauta sells the Nitor brand of White Gas which I find the best solvent for cleaning computer stuff, it leaves no residue at all. Im sure other retailers in other countries also sell the Nitor …

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Re: Cleaning up old kit

Posted on 2015-08-27, 06:35

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Don't use pure alcohol unless it's somewhere that look's like someone spilled what was left from cooking. It will remove stuff like writing on labels and will leave some white cloudy color. This is the reason why I prefer "White Gas" also known as "cleaner's naphtha". It leaves no traces at all but …

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Re: Cleaning up old kit

Posted on 2015-08-26, 21:08

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I like the way nobody actually called me out for making the suggestion in the first place. Then again, if it wasn't for the Quote feature, I'd have thought I spent most of my days here in Coventry. Never had problems with it, but I understand the concerns. I think its depends on what type of person …

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Re: Cleaning up old kit

Posted on 2015-08-26, 20:54

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Dishwasher. Seriously? I hold this site in such high esteem that it almost makes sense. I have to admit I wasn't expecting trolls. When people are trying to help dont call them trolls or that will be the last help you get, seriously. Hey I know I'm new here but I'm not new to forums nor computers. …

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Re: Cleaning up old kit

Posted on 2015-08-26, 20:35

by

by Skyscraper

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Throwing a PCB in the dishwasher seems really stupid. You'll risk corossion from the dishwashing detergent and risk getting water in places where it shouldn't have been in the first place. I personally use isopropyl alcohol, it's great for cleaning everything! I also prefer to use a solvent when …

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