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

Posted on 2020-08-21, 01:25

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well that's good to hear, probably the first decent CRT I've had in a long time - the thing is an absolute beast size-wise, and my retro things are packed because we're finally moving to a house where I should have space to maybe set this thing up and make decent use of it.

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

Posted on 2020-08-21, 01:11

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pardon the definitely not-retro visual on screen (most of my retro things are packed, and was testing with the laptop I had available), but I just received an HP P910 19" monitor from a family member. Needs a clean up, but seems to work fairly well. Not sure what tube is in it - it's a flat-style …

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Re: AMD 5x86@160mhz., Media Vision PAS16.

Posted on 2020-08-06, 01:12

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I only use Liquid Wrench and WD40 to soak torqued rusty bolts overnight, in preparation for removal. I've heard of this fluid film stuff from a mechanic friend of mine. I've always wanted to find some and now I know the name. This the stuff? https://www.homehardware.ca/en/333g-fluid-film-multi- …

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Re: Were CD-ROMs common on 386 computers?

Posted on 2020-07-27, 23:34

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Those Vobis/Highscreen WFW 3.11 CDs are only in German and/or Dutch, right? Was there any other OEM that released Windows 3.1x on CD? That MS Dev Network stuff, being from 1996/97, obviously doesn't count when searching for the earliest OS (or OS-like product) CD-ROM. Pretty sure I have a Dell …

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Re: Little WinME/XP dual boot project

Posted on 2020-06-23, 20:05

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by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is is that it doesn't accept some Win9x drivers, or it accepts them but they conflict with other things? VxD drivers tend to cause issues in Windows ME - many of the changes made for ME were made with the WDM driver model in mind. And a lot of manufacturers didn't make great WDM drivers, or just …

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Re: Little WinME/XP dual boot project

Posted on 2020-06-23, 13:12

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

With decent drivers and the obvious changes made ME is plenty stable if you're working mostly in the Windows environment. Built-in USB flash drive support and native Zip folder support are also quite nice to have when setting up a machine. Basically., I find ME takes far less time to get set up than …

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Re: Turbo XT Dumpster Find

Posted on 2020-06-20, 17:34

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Alright, so the battery is finally off the floppy card (time has not been on my side lately) - Would I be correct to give it a bath in white vinegar, followed by cleaning with isopropyl alcohol?

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Re: Turbo XT Dumpster Find

Posted on 2020-06-10, 02:45

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you have a reference to the post in the Dumpster Find thread? https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=863438#p863438 Thanks. They reference this thread on geekhack: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=6916.0 and the claim that "the new XT BIOS supports AT keyboards" seems not be general …

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Re: Turbo XT Dumpster Find

Posted on 2020-06-10, 02:35

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

EDIT: Someone noted in the Dumpster Find thread that some later XT BIOS's had support for AT keyboards - figured it was worth a try anyways. That would be an impressive achievement. The AT keyboard protocol is supposed to be incompatible with the XT keyboard interface. It might still be possible ( …

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Re: Turbo XT Dumpster Find

Posted on 2020-06-10, 02:22

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You need a real XT keyboard (or an AT that has a switch for xt/at), there are no real good adapters for XT. Not quite correct. https://monotech.fwscart.com/PS2_to_XT_Keyboard_Converter/p6083514_19714002.aspx Thanks for the link - I also see at least one XT compatible keyboard on eBay for $25 CDN …

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Re: Turbo XT Dumpster Find

Posted on 2020-06-10, 02:17

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I took the card out of the machine - It was actually counting time on that launch screen with the floppy card not in the machine, which is what worried me. DOS is perfectly able to count time on an PC or XT without a clock card installed. It just looses time and date as soon as you power off the …

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Re: Turbo XT Dumpster Find

Posted on 2020-06-10, 02:03

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You need a real XT keyboard (or an AT that has a switch for xt/at), there are no real good adapters for XT. I do not see a cpu on the main board, was it hidden in your pictures ? The DTK PIM Turbo that was noted above looks to be what this board was a clone of - the 8088-2 is up on the top right …

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Re: Turbo XT Dumpster Find

Posted on 2020-06-10, 01:56

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That Vatra battery will be keeping time. The clock timer will be on the same ISA card. Swap out the battery for a coin cell holder and you are good to go. Congrats on getting the hdd running. I took the card out of the machine - It was actually counting time on that launch screen with the floppy …

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Re: Turbo XT Dumpster Find

Posted on 2020-06-10, 01:27

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Most likely the HD is dead, those old MFM/RLL just don't last 35 years.... Don't tell that to the ST-238R in my Turbo XT, please! It seems to have needed a little "warm-up" after more than 20 years in the attic, but it works fine again. There are ways to "revive" dead drives by oiling the stepper …

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Re: Turbo XT Dumpster Find

Posted on 2020-06-10, 00:31

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Cool dumpsters in your neighborhood :) This was definitely a rare find. Even when we had a decent accessible electronics drop-off spot it was largely P3/P4/later stuff, and a copius amount of random LCD panels and broken TVs. Edit: Dumpster is probably an exaggeration of this find in a way. "Skid …

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Re: Turbo XT Dumpster Find

Posted on 2020-06-10, 00:29

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Don't expect to hear that sound from an XT BIOS. It is completely normal for an XT trying to boot from a drive that is already track 0 to just turn on the drive LED for about a second, without any audible noises. Early XT BIOSes also only were meant for 360K drives, so they don't do the patented(!) …

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2020-06-09, 23:50

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'll have to give it a try with a TV. Any chance this would work with a PS/2 keyboard (like a Model M) through an AT compatible PS/2-DIN adapter? I don't think I have any XT compatible keyboards. Not without a special converter. You really need an XT protocol keyboard. Not necessarily . Later PC …

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Turbo XT Dumpster Find

Posted on 2020-06-09, 22:42

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I've decided to give this machine it's own thread - I salvaged this machine the other day and posted about it in the Dumpster Find thread, but now I've started trying it out, and I didn't want to flood that thread with my ramblings. Photos as it was found: IMG_20200608_214653.jpg IMG_20200608_ …

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2020-06-09, 19:40

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'll have to give it a try with a TV. Any chance this would work with a PS/2 keyboard (like a Model M) through an AT compatible PS/2-DIN adapter? I don't think I have any XT compatible keyboards.

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2020-06-09, 02:28

by

by LHN91

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The area I'm in used to have some easily accessible electronics dropoff locations. After some time, though, people basically started pulling up with minivans and cleaning the entire drop-off zone out on the regular, so they moved them to closely monitored locations. That is, except for one sketchy …

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