Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2016-12-14, 02:43

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Was given a couple NOS WYSE keyboards by a friend. New in box never used, although the boxes themselves are fairly beat up from being repeatedly moved in storage since the 80s. 20161212_192846.jpg 20161212_192855.jpg 20161212_192851.jpg 20161212_192924.jpg The lighter colored keyboard is identical …

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Re: Gigabyte LGA 775 board - RAM

Posted on 2016-08-30, 21:47

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

krivulak wrote: They literally say Kit of 2 so I am not sure they can run alone This just means that both modules are identical and will work in Dual Channel mode for faster performance. You can still insert only one of them and it'll work, just in a slightly-slower Single Channel mode.

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

Posted on 2016-08-09, 15:02

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Crystal Pepsi ? :O You could buy them all over the northern part of Germany in the 80's. For those outside the US or who are too young and don't know the story...Crystal Pepsi was released here in America back in 1992. It flopped big time. New Coke (Albeit under a different name) lasted longer than …

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

Posted on 2016-08-09, 13:57

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does drinking this count as a retro activity? :lol: CrystalPepsi.jpg As a more serious retro activity, I recorded a video showing how I made my own homemade dialup internet server for my 486 rebuild and other vintage computers that lack a network connection. I need to edit it down before posting it …

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Re: What's the hardest part of building a retro rig for yourself?

Posted on 2016-07-16, 14:10

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How do you feel about the PCs you've used in your 20s? Do you feel any need to preserve those systems? In this regard, I really only feel the need to preserve the two computers I custom-built, only one of which I still have, thus another recreation is in the works assuming I can ever find the …

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Re: Keyboard is locked... unlock it..?

Posted on 2016-07-16, 13:22

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I wonder if these locks were in fact keyed, or if you could just pick up any similar key and it'd work. Like these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/311522147769 I can't say this is true for ALL keyboard lock switches, but from my experiences a good number of them use the same key. I recall once using a key …

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Re: What's the hardest part of building a retro rig for yourself?

Posted on 2016-07-15, 19:24

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For me, the hardest part is finding the parts I want. This is difficult because, with most of my retro builds, I'm not just wanting to build any old vintage computer...rather, I'm attempting to recreate a computer from my childhood. My nostalgia suffers from severe OCD, which demands that the …

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Re: Largest IDE hard drives

Posted on 2016-06-28, 16:12

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Admittedly uncommon, but one potential situation in which a SATA drive with a PATA adapter simply will not work is that where a drive with a converter won't physically fit in the drive bay. I encountered this exact problem with a security camera DVR at work. The way this particular DVR was designed …

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Re: Makeshift Dialup Internet Server - Advice?

Posted on 2016-06-16, 05:40

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I managed to snag one of those Viking phone line simulators off eBay for a good price, and it arrived today. 20160616_002415.jpg My Fujitsu C500 tablet has both a modem and wifi, so I set it up as a dial-up server and connected the two computers together using the Viking box. 20160616_002333. …

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Re: AMI 286 BIOS dead?

Posted on 2016-06-13, 04:00

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Other thoughts that come to mind could be faulty or poorly-seated RAM (Try removing and then re-inserting it) or a bad power supply. Leaning more towards bad power supply, because even with faulty RAM you should theoretically still be receiving a POST beep error code. If the power supply is bad, …

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

Posted on 2016-06-09, 03:17

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Managed to connect my 486 retro rebuild to the internet using a serial crossover cable and an XP laptop as a bridge to my wifi. In fact...this exact post was made on said 486 using Netscape Navigator Gold 3.0. Absolutely no images are loading, there are Java errors every four seconds, and the layout …

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Re: Makeshift Dialup Internet Server - Advice?

Posted on 2016-06-09, 01:42

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's entirely possible to fake a local dial up connection. You'll need to disable carrier detect on both ends, and using hyperterminal manually call a phone number on the client, and then manually answer on the server. I used that mechanism for a Windows 95 or 98 local area network for a good year …

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Re: Makeshift Dialup Internet Server - Advice?

Posted on 2016-06-08, 13:57

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Alright, this is looking to be a bit more complicated than I was anticipating. Last night, I tried to at least get the modems talking to each other using HyperTerminal as I have done in the past. Unfortunately, this failed, neither of them would detect the carrier. I am presuming one or both of the …

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Re: Retro keepsakes that you don't actually use (and know you won't ever)

Posted on 2016-06-07, 03:24

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It is currently in storage, but I have one of those translucent blue Sony Memory Stick Pro cards (The full-size one, not the Duo). I never have and likely never will own a device that uses them. Instead, I grabbed it for the sole reason that it most closely resembles the Isolinear Chips from Star …

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Re: What was the coolest looking vintage computer?

Posted on 2016-06-06, 15:42

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't own one nor have I ever seen one in person, but the Apricot Portable PC from 1984 is sure quite snazzy looking IMO, especially with the wireless keyboard and the fact that it includes voice command functionality. Not my picture. apricotportable2small.jpg Amstrad PPC 512 is one cool looking …

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Re: Makeshift Dialup Internet Server - Advice?

Posted on 2016-06-03, 21:14

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Rhuwyn wrote: Some internet providers still provide dialup as a backup service to their broadband complimentary. You might check with yours. I no longer have landline phone service, so this option (As well as NetZero) would not be available to me.

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

Posted on 2016-06-03, 13:52

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Worked on my Dream 486 rebuild some more, including installing a port bracket with 25-pin serial and game ports (Which actually came from the original childhood 486 system I am recreating!) and installing some software I recall being on the system within the first year of receiving it (Works …

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Re: Makeshift Dialup Internet Server - Advice?

Posted on 2016-06-03, 05:42

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I HAVE done direct modem-to-modem connections between two computers before. But, this was while using terminal programs on both ends where I could manually command the receiving modem to answer with no incoming ring signal. The most I was able to do with that setup though was transfer files from one …

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Makeshift Dialup Internet Server - Advice? (Solved!)

Posted on 2016-06-03, 05:18

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Alright, I have an idea that I am wanting to try which I am assuming is possible, I just don't know what is required to achieve this. Just for shiggles, I want to try connecting my Dream 486 computer to the internet. It does not have a NIC, nor do I desire installing one as doing so would make the …

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Re: Read/Write speeds for floppy alternatives.

Posted on 2016-05-19, 17:01

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by torindkflt

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've never encountered one in the wild, but there used to be "Floptical" drives that connected via SCSI and used special 21MB disks that were otherwise identical in physical format to standard floppies, in fact the drive could also read/write standard floppies. I can't seem to find any numbers …

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