Like many people I regret not saving all the computers I pieced together growing up, so now I'm trying to get back into things. I can't do this all in one go, so I'm looking to pick things up a piece at a time when I can find them cheap (risky I know). old XT/AT cases seem especially hard or …

I work IT. People break these things all the time. I even have to replace network cables because people jam their computers up against the wall that hard, even when I repeatedly tell them to stop doing so. I've had other people in my home and have had them break things by bumping into stuff. And I …

The SMB/CIFS protocol has a lot of overhead and is quite slow especially with older Windows OS that don't support more modern SMB 3.x. XP and before only support SMB 1.x which was extremely slow. If you prefer a bit of convenience over speed then go for it. I certainly wouldn't call it "the right …

Never, ever, EVER use hard adapters like that. Doubling the length of the plug on the connector means that there will be MUCH more force on the connector if you tug even slightly on the wire, or if you (or someone else) pushes the machine too close to the wall. If you so much as look at the thing …

I also think this sounds like a bad solder joint. When you replug it, it moves the connection around a bit and causes it to work temporarily.

http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/bioslim.htm perhaps try a disk manager like OnTrack if the info on that site (not my site) doesn't help

I assume the bottom pin is connected on the other side? If only two pins of this device are wired up, it's a just a diode. Otherwise I'd need to know what it connects to. Got a multimeter handy? Have at it with a continuity tester. Otherwise, with a heatsink like that, I'm guessing voltage regulator …

I had a couple cases with this many years ago. They were just set with jumpers. They had inputs from the turbo switch and when that sensed voltage it would just change to a different setting. The actual jumper settings varied based on the case - not really a standard. They did not actually detect …