Re: Nice Garage find. All was going fine until I connected the CDROM

Posted on 2018-12-30, 11:20

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The RAM seemed to be the primary culprit in all of this, and SOP is to just work with one stick at a time while testing everything else. MemTest86+ would be useful for checking the RAM. New PATA cables may help.

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Re: Can a 56k modem join an an ethernet network?

Posted on 2018-12-28, 00:16

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

PCMCIA ethernet cards should still be cheap, or failing that, parallel or serial networking isn't super hard, provided you have a system that still has those ports. The only thing my current system is lacking is ISA slots.

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Re: When do you format your hard drive?

Posted on 2018-12-27, 09:00

by

by Mister Xiado

in Milliways

in Milliways

Whenever the drive is going to be used as a boot drive in a different computer. For me, to do so for any other reason would be like stripping your car to repaint it.

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Re: A Christmas joke

Posted on 2018-12-26, 09:47

by

by Mister Xiado

in Milliways

in Milliways

Ah, but if people don't have trinkets and small luxuries to keep them distracted, they might start thinking with all of their newly-unscheduled free time.

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Re: Winter is coming (price hikes for hardware)

Posted on 2018-12-24, 18:40

by

by Mister Xiado

in Milliways

in Milliways

Hah, apparently I've already seen that un-researched ██it piece, because I still have a dislike indicator on it. Yeah, same as with video games, the only way to get a good deal is to buy from places where people don't know or care what they're selling. Harder and harder to do, since people have …

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

Posted on 2018-12-24, 10:05

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not me, not my video, not my channel. I don't advise doing this without removing the chip, as one slip will kill the motherboard. You can always buy Dallas chips, but old motherboards are worth their weight in gold, these days. This is the dumb kind of crap I do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- …

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Re: Winter is coming (price hikes for hardware)

Posted on 2018-12-24, 06:51

by

by Mister Xiado

in Milliways

in Milliways

eCelebs... The bane of the classic gaming community, as well. For instance, Earthbound was produced in absurd numbers, but it's priced as if it wasn't given a massive advertising campaign by Nintendo.

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

Posted on 2018-12-24, 06:48

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice site, I will definitely be transferring some background pics to my 386 and 486 machines ;) Thank you. Shame and a half that Cloudflare blocks old browsers, or you'd be able to download them directly. Really? What kind of battery is it? The leaking kind? Looks like a desolder job :/ It won't …

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Re: Cables hell help - tips for some markers or other solutions?

Posted on 2018-12-23, 21:03

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would use sharpies to mark light-colored cables if I had any real need to ID which equipment belonged to a particular cable. No decomposing adhesives becoming a gummy mess over the years.

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

Posted on 2018-12-23, 18:55

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally, I replaced the 486DLC motherboard from an M321 to a Magitronic board - full 256K cache, supports DLC, and (eventually) took all 32Mb of RAM. The crux was the soldered on 386DX/40 CPU. It would not take another CPU in the socket provided, so I took a big risk and took a heatgun to the …

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

Posted on 2018-12-22, 21:07

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Fixed a PS1 model SCPH-5552. Took me about 2 hours. Had to install a new BIOS chip and CD drive. Nice. My SCPH-1001 is in need of a new laser, buuuut I also have a PSIO.... which is in need of an x-ty GB MicroSD card. Mercifully, the laser replacement job will be MUCH easier than repairing my …

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

Posted on 2018-12-21, 10:55

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A few more icons, two at the request of St1ka (Dune and Kyndaria 2).

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

Posted on 2018-12-18, 11:13

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

appiah4 wrote: I sure wish these icons were available in the 90s. That would be nice for a great many reasons. canthearu wrote: test the PSU on another system before this one I would recommend testing it outside of a computer if possible, and load test it if you have some dead hard drives or …

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

Posted on 2018-12-18, 06:14

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This should be enough for now. https://www.geocities.ws/oldternet/icxw15.gif Older packs https://www.geocities.ws/oldternet/xiadoic1.gif https://www.geocities.ws/oldternet/xiadoic2.gif https://www.geocities.ws/oldternet/xiadoic3.gif https://www.geocities.ws/oldternet/xiadoic4.gif https://www. …

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Re: Rebuilding a Li-Ion laptop battery

Posted on 2018-12-18, 03:47

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There are guides for building a recharging circuit and fitting Li Ion cells into a casing. I haven't bothered to do it myself, as most of the things I have with rechargeable batteries are handheld game systems, and all of my older laptops are dead from physical trauma, like morons stepping on them …

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Re: Where do you guys find your parts?

Posted on 2018-12-16, 22:31

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ebay, Craigslist, yard/garage/rummage/sales and thrift stores. The last systems I got were a 33MHz 486 tower and and a 60 MHz Pentium 1 tower, IIRC, at a yard sale in a moderately affluent neighborhood. Each needs varying amounts of TLC. The 486 has no inboard IDE PATA ports, but a crapton of ISA …

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

Posted on 2018-12-16, 17:40

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Shipping companies in the US aren't subsidized by the government, as opposed to Chinese businesses. It costs a stupid amount of money now to send things to Canada, never mind Western Europe. Twenty years ago, I sent a box of random stuff (diskettes, VHS tapes, non-perishable snacks) to Australia for …

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Re: Old fart topic: What was your hardware specs in 1992?

Posted on 2018-12-15, 14:20

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

1.79MHz Ricoh 2A03, 2KB of RAM, variable ROM sizes. Didn't have a computer until I had my own apartment, and bought it with my own money in 1998. CD drive and video card failed almost immediately afterward.

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

Posted on 2018-12-15, 14:09

by

by Mister Xiado

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

it's getting to the point where this is all I do anymore.

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Re: Insanely good priced app bundle over @ Humble Bundle!

Posted on 2018-12-14, 05:01

by

by Mister Xiado

in Milliways

in Milliways

Unless I checked the box for "I understand that I will be....", the purchase option was locked for me in two browsers.

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