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

Posted on 2018-09-15, 06:21

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There are plenty of machines I regret selling and it's part of the love, hate relationship I have with this hobby. I also restored a Kaypro 4 and their floppy drives can be a challenge sometimes. Here's a pic when I was done: I must say, though, Commodore PET machines I mostly want to avoid as they …

Re: Retrofitting SSD to Older Computer?

Posted on 2018-09-15, 03:52

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Other World Computing also makes new IDE SSDs, primarily for older Macs though obviously they work with PCs. It's exactly the same high-end SSD and their SATA model, just with an IDE interface (they brag up all the features, but seriously it's better than most IDE SSDs, but more expensive). It's up …

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

Posted on 2018-09-15, 01:24

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Glad you like it. I don't need love from others to justify my hobby. It's all good. Desoldered the dead retrofitted lithium battery so the board will stay pristine. I don't know much about 286 boards since I skipped that generation so it was fun to explore. I went from 8088 to 68000 (Amiga/Atari ST …

Re: Retro OSes for retro computers

Posted on 2018-09-12, 11:15

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Someone mentioned NextStep, but OpenStep officially runs on x86 hardware (though only retro hardware, not modern hardware): http://toastytech.com/guis/openstep.html It's picky about hardware in the 486/early pentium range, particularly with IDE drives, and takes research. I have a plan to load BeOS …

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

Posted on 2018-09-11, 22:32

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

appiah4 wrote: Ok, I just had to post this. That poor, poor AT case on the desk, on the far left, hanging on by the skin of its teeth.. 🤣 Think of it as the Vintage/Retro computing version of the "hang in there, baby" poster. 😀

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

Posted on 2018-09-11, 10:28

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ahh. You won't see that from me. I have a very "do unto others..." approach to things and the closest I come to trying to haggle is occasionally asking an eBay seller if they'd be willing to enable a less expensive shipping option. I practically beg people to tell me about less expensive shipping …

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

Posted on 2018-09-11, 05:17

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it still smells, use some fabreeze on it and it should take care of it. I have found that cigarette smell + febreeze = cigarette smell + febreeze. Scrub Free with Bleach or Scrubbing Bubbles with Bleach will remove the smell, just don't wear nice clothes because the bleach *will* get on them. I …

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

Posted on 2018-09-11, 01:22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Speaking of which, as fellow enthusiasts who probably collect things, there's something I've never really been clear on. What's a good heuristic for determining when "I look at my collection of X and want to share some fraction of that glee" might come across as tactless and/or bragging? I think I …

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

Posted on 2018-09-09, 11:04

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been mostly sourcing out an 8/16-bit multi-I/O card so that I can add a serial port and maybe a parallel port to my 486 build. The PC Chips motherboard has these onboard but I have no idea what the pinouts are and the three backplane connectors I have don't work, so it's not whatever they're …

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

Posted on 2018-09-08, 11:04

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, since it's 486 day: 486day2.jpg Hailing from: 486day1.jpg Mostly I've ben working on a 386, though: ZeosSample.jpg Who has a hard drive that's at least problematic (I have at least one other working compatible one), and whose backlight won't come on - so far I *think* the CCFL is okay (but I …

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

Posted on 2018-09-04, 10:09

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I tried cleaning the card's contacts with some isopropyl-alcohol-tipped Q-tips and re-seating the card, to no avail. Is the poor thing truly dying, and if so, is there anything I could do? :( I'm guessing VRAM, though it could be software. I mean, if you can test it in another machine, that would …

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

Posted on 2018-09-01, 05:49

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I'm trying to get started on this Zeos 386 laptop whose power supply's cable was chewed by rats: ZeosPS-2.jpg Which is pretty bad. The cable is an 8-pin DIN which I initially meant to replace with a CAT 5 cable, because 8 conductors and handy, so I grabbed a Cat 5 cable out of a box and cut the …

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

Posted on 2018-08-31, 23:18

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just trying out a few OSes on an old IGEL thin client (VIA Nano U3500 @ 1GHz, 1GB RAM and a 44pin IDE->SD card adapter as I only have 1GB CF cards). I will have access to loads of these soon as we're replacing them all at work :) DOS worked a treat, but of course no audio - the Via chipset doesn't …

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

Posted on 2018-08-31, 10:23

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My Teac 5.25/3.25 combo drive (which sadly doesn't respond) has the same front panel layout and the button to eject the 5.25" disk. The surround plate on the back looks different. I'm not actually very nostalgic, my older gear isn't really much based on what I had or used, often it's stuff I never …

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

Posted on 2018-08-27, 01:10

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I got an IDE-mini IDE adapter recently that had the extra pin. It was kind of annoying. I did find a cable in the pile that had open pin holes, but the adapter is just plain made wrong, so I may still cut the pin off. For now I'm keeping that cable with the adapter. It was just lazy design, as a …

Re: QUESTIONS ABOUT: Shipping a CRT

Posted on 2018-08-24, 09:51

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

People hate packing peanuts because they're worthless for heavy items. They move out of the way, especially if there's vibration. You end up with a monitor against the box with peanuts behind it. The only way I would use them is in medium-sized bags, taped shut. Even then... CRT monitors are just …

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

Posted on 2018-08-18, 01:10

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The danger is acid getting under the outer layer and eroding your traces. It doesn't look like that's happened yet, but corrosion should be neutralized ASAP to prevent it. I am wondering how urgently I need to clean this and what the damage of it is like, the seller's picture is from before this …

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

Posted on 2018-08-16, 23:41

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The thing that surprises me is that no one (me included) routed the cables behind the motherboard or indeed the motherboard plate. Started doing it a few (10 or so...) years back on my modern builds, now also doing it retro. Works like a charm. Agreed that airflow doesn't really matter so much in a …

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

Posted on 2018-08-16, 20:37

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Will create a new thread when it's fully complete, but for the time being, here's a pic of the cable management on my favourite PIII build. I found a couple of SCSI 50 to SCSI 68 adapters and a nice cable to make the CD burner cable that much neater! IMG_0048.jpg Good job, so many people don't …

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

Posted on 2018-08-16, 10:21

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just got a copy of Hollywood Hijinx. It is the Apple II version, but I will play it either on the 286 or on my iPad using Frotz... I started by reading through the extra material, which is quite a lot in this game! :) The game is a treasure hunt of some sorts: your eccentric, rich aunt has died …

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