Re: Good OS selectors ?
Posted on 2020-12-05, 15:39
I strongly suggest XOSL. It has a great interface and is very easy to setup. Since it was abandoned back in 2001, it's roughly from the era and probably was tested on 486 hardware.
DOS anti-virus recommendation
Posted on 2020-12-05, 15:38
Yes, I'm serious. I know the prevailing consensus is that you can't get a virus because DOS is dead and old. But that doesn't in my mind mean that one can't pick up a classic 1980s or 1990s virus off of an old FTP archive or BBS dump, used recyclable or program disks, or random "abandonware" …
Re: SATA to Micro SD adapter questions
Posted on 2020-12-05, 00:06
I did some reading up on this matter because I bought a Raspberry Pi, and those use a MicroSD for mass storage. Apparently normal consumer MicroSD drives, because of their firmware, are likely to get trashed if a system is turned off improperly/during a write operation. They also tend to have a …
Re: The quest for the perfect retro laptop: a saga
Posted on 2020-12-03, 03:25
I always thought Tandy computer prices were insane, but then I saw some old ads for mail order Tandy products from franchise Radio Shack dealers. About 30-40% less than MSRP across the board. I think Tandy did about the same in their stores with frequent megasales, not sure, wasn't around then. More …
Re: Great Accessories for building Retro PCs
Posted on 2020-12-02, 02:44
Did anyone mention band-aids and neosporin yet? And maybe some fine grit sandpaper so it doesn't happen again? On a more serious note, having spare cards, memory, a spare power supply .etc is really helpful. Sometimes it's easier to just swap components, see if you can get it to work, then figure …
Re: The quest for the perfect retro laptop: a saga
Posted on 2020-12-02, 02:42
The Lattitude C-series are a decent choice for a more modern laptop, not because they're well-built, but because they're well known and were made in huge numbers. Also, yes, the parts can be swapped between myriad models. I had one, really easy to work on. As for the 1400LT being extremely common, …
Re: Testing an AT PSU?
Posted on 2020-12-01, 20:43
I have a half dozen or more AT supplies still in service with no issues Good for you. But I don't see good reason to specifically buy old junk AT PSU, when new modern PSUs can be easily used via adapter, which is safer. This whole "safety" thing is what I object to. The chances of ANY AT/ATX power …
Re: The quest for the perfect retro laptop: a saga
Posted on 2020-12-01, 19:23
Just going to leave this here: I had the same idea, but then I realized that no such thing exists. Some machines lack sound, most lack it in DOS. Others have worse than average LCDs. Only a few support a joystick. Some have an abominable pointer. Some take weird RAM that will be hard to track down. …
Re: Should I build multiple PCs to play different era pc games or just one?
Posted on 2020-12-01, 19:10
The oldest hardware has a really distinct feel, sound, maybe even a certain smell. An XT keyboard layout, CGA color monitor, 80s CH Mach joystick, MFM drives and dual floppies .etc are a pretty unique experience though not to most people's taste. Even the later AT clones, 386s and 486s, have clicky …
Re: Testing an AT PSU?
Posted on 2020-12-01, 18:52
We're dealing with decades old hardware now, and it's an increasingly reasonable expectation that hardware will need board level servicing, lubrication, alignment .etc. Stuff that people into IBM XT hardware, CPM-era stuff .etc have long been doing. People into 8-bit home computers often have repair …
Re: History of a dump went wrong :cry:
Posted on 2020-10-12, 16:49
Yikes! Looks like the oxide came right off the media. Complete binder failure? This makes me think of old 1970s and 1980s open reel tape media and how the binders often break down gummy after a surprisingly short period of time.
Re: Isa sound card that can play back higher quality audio?
Posted on 2020-10-04, 21:55
Normal compression at the time was ADPCM, and shouldn't require much CPU time and achieves 50% compression by dropping the sound to 4-bits. It sounds less awful than it seems like it should. Wholly uncompressed audio was common too. 8kz is indeed awful, but 8bit/22khz mono is pretty okay outside of …
Re: Win311 will not start ?
Posted on 2020-10-02, 22:02
Try running setup and switching to the normal 640x480x16 VGA mode driver. I think you might just have an issue with your video driver. If there's any issue with it, Windows 3.1 will happily show garbage on the screen, or more likely, lock up before hitting the desktop or just show a black screen. …
Re: Alltronics has vintage computer parts cheap:
Posted on 2020-10-02, 21:42
They also have a IBM compatible add-in card (random) item on there. Probably all modems. lol Hahhaaa, yes it does say dealers choice :) I remember what I bought from them many years ago: heatsink+fans, got a few for 486, a few for soc 370, and some 30mm x 10mm 5v fans for very reasonable. Still …
Re: Newly made ISA CL-GD5434
Posted on 2020-10-02, 00:07
I'm in the process of restoring the 486DX-50 I had as a kid and would be very interested in one of your cards. I have no idea what happened to the ISA video card that used to be in that computer but during the restoration so far, I've been stuck under-clocking the processor at 33MHz and using a VLB …
Re: Running Windows 95 on CGA?
Posted on 2020-10-01, 23:45
I remember reading a blog post where someone messed around a good bit with this and came to the conclusion that it could not be done. They did get the 3.0 drivers to work in a Chicago beta, but parts of basic system dialog boxes were cut off because the 640x200 viewport was too small. Windows 95s UI …
Dreamblaster X2 Midi File Playback in Windows 95
Posted on 2020-10-01, 23:32
So, I just got my new Dreamblaster X2. So, thought I'd relive the 90s a bit and play some MIDI files I'd downloaded. Nope. I remember MIDI enough from the 90s not to have high expectations, but this sounds broken. The general sound is that of a department store Casio keyboard playing in demo mode, …
Re: Soldering struggle
Posted on 2020-10-01, 21:19
If you don't want to spend the money on a mechanical vacuum pump solder sucker, the only good manual one I've used is the "Engineer SS-02 Solder Sucker".. I use it all the time and it works extremely well. I even did an entire Socket 8 Pentium Pro CPU socket replacement with it. I bought one, and I …
Re: Soldering struggle
Posted on 2020-10-01, 21:16
Hmm. The temperature controlled irons really are pretty awesome. My Chinese Hakko T12 clone only cost $30, and tips are about $3 a piece from China. It heats up in less than 30 seconds and with its flexible cord and slender handle lets me manipulate it easily and get into tight places. My previous …
Re: Fixing/cleaning skipping optical drives
Posted on 2020-10-01, 20:54
Yeah. Just a tiny trimpot potentiometer like typically mounted onto a PCB for precision service adjustments. You can measure the resistance with a multimeter. This is a bit of a thing in the console community, where people can't just stick a cheap, generic 52X CD-ROM drive into their 3DO or Sega CD. …
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