Wait... no Skeletor? Jk... I have the 320LX version and it still works (my dad received that as a gift back in 1996 when he took a test), plus, I have the docking station and PSU (which doesn't work, or I might need to inspect it for damaged caps). Wish I can find the CE 2.0 upgrade for the 320LX, which would be nice.

testing Crunchbang++ on my dual Tualatin build. I was going to do a minimal debian install and then install fluxbox, but figured I could just as well try this ready to go "distro" (really its just debian with openbox and config files).

Yesterday and today some more progress to port Shadow Of The Beast (eerie forest level) to the Acorn Archimedes :
https://youtu.be/a73MQQO8-2w
https://youtu.be/aKZne7ottGQ

kaputnik wrote:

Finally got my first C64 back to working order, writing this to the Wizball title music :D [snip!] Now there's only one thing l […]
Show full quote

Finally got my first C64 back to working order, writing this to the Wizball title music 😁
[snip!]
Now there's only one thing left to do; trying to figure out why the text sometimes, seemingly at random, is replaced with "noise blocks" when booting the computer. It's always been like that, but back in the day, a simple reset would usually do the trick. Now it seems to be worse, got to power it off and let it sit for a while before powering it on again for it to show the text correctly. It looks like this:

IMG_20180416_170420.jpg

Any ideas?

I asked around and got two tips / investigation tracks for you:
* check CHARACTER ROM first for broken or cold solder joints - or simply resolder it altogether.
* try to load some games that use built-in fonts and some that use custom fonts - if only the first batch shows visual garbage, it's CHARACTER ROM for sure.

Otherwise, have a look at this post, it is very informational:
http://retro64.altervista.org/blog/commodore- … ired-to-fix-it/

And of course do let us know if you manage to pinpoint the issue. Good luck!

bjwil1991 wrote:

Wait... no Skeletor? Jk... I have the 320LX version and it still works (my dad received that as a gift back in 1996 when he took a test), plus, I have the docking station and PSU (which doesn't work, or I might need to inspect it for damaged caps). Wish I can find the CE 2.0 upgrade for the 320LX, which would be nice.

Awesome! I had an JP Jornada 690 with a CF card and PCMCIA slot around 10 years ago. It was a pretty neat device. Would use it for AIM and IRC with a Linksys PCMCIA 802.11abg WiFi card

also

the Compaq Prolinea 5100 came today! bad news, it needs a new CD drive since the one it came with doesn't like to eject. I opened up the power supply to remove the dust with an air compressor and now it doesn't turn on. Replacement ones are expensive and hard to find. Oops.

https://imgur.com/a/vdWh3

Received the Serial cable I ordered and set about trying XTIDE's Virtual Serial drive feature on my XT build.

Seems like an easy way to add extra storage to a system, though obviously not exactly the fastest in performance. I was able to communicate at 57.6K baud rate, it didn't like 115.2K.

Aside from additional HDD storage, the most useful aspect of this method is really the ability to boot floppy disk images without having to rely on actual disks and/or Gotek hardware.

I need to do more work on this PC though and try to enable COM2 somehow, so I can free up COM1 for my mouse. It's been refusing to co-operate, no matter what IRQ settings I choose for COM2.

I tried flossing the heatsink off my Pentium 60 after drenching it in alcohol, only to end up slightly bending the pins. Then I spent the next 10 minutes giving myself eyestrain as I gently fixed my mistake. So now its back in the socket, but the EVIL heatsink is still stuck to it.

I don't have a heat gun and thought the floss method I read about would be best... So now my only option is my blow dryer, or maybe run the CPU without a fan blowing on it and maybe its heat will be enough for me to wiggle this retched heatsink free.

cyclone3d wrote:

OldCat wrote:

Spent some time over weekend dismantling and examining my three Siemens-NIxdorf PCD-4NDs. [...] And the one that has best config has one broken screw and I cannot open it. Argh. Any protips on screws that won't budge?

Drill it out . Use a drill bit that should be the same diameter as the shaft itself. Then drill just enough so the head of the screw pops off. You can probably then use a pliers to extract the rest once you have the case off. If not, then it is drill and re-tap the hole time.

In order to keep the heat from drilling from melting the plastic, use a drop or two of liquid in the hole. It will also help it cut he metal easier as well.

THANK YOU! It worked flawlessly. I owe you one.

Installed a second generation black APC SMART-UPS 750VA from 2007 to my win9x build, changed battery to some no-name brand (the old ones were deformed to unrecognition and it was a challenge to get them out of the ups case, also i think this model is overcharging and slowly cooking the batteries. I guess I need to fix that at some point). Installed PowerChute Plus, a deprecated version of the management software, over serial connection to my win9x system. Gotta protect old hardware from surges and the once in a year power outage.

Gateway 2000 is done, just waiting for the new owner to let me know when he wants me to bring it over.

Now I'm looking at selling my Mac SE setup, and have the 486 hooked up to the brand spankin' new AOC LCD panel I bought for my main PC via VGA....hooly crap, with the scaling feature, this thing is quite comfortable to use that way, so once the move is done, we are working, and in a temporary apartment, I can set up the 486 and do stuff with that in tandem with the modern box.

Also found a thread on an oscilloscope application for WIndows 95 - might need to download that and put it on the 486 - would save me some money that's for sure (and space). Considering I have a second guitar pedal in development, and am debugging a M919 that's not POSTing, and plan once we have a house to obtain 2 more 14"-15" beige CRT monitors for my other two retro machines and keep those puppies alive as long as possible, I have a feeling the 486 just got even more useful. I'm also planning to throw an old console TV into the mix at some point too and I have a videokarma account and know what a SAMS is and have used one before.

Honestly I'm seriously thinking of enrolling in a college in Reno and looking into Electronics now rather than I.T. - it seems I have the same weird knack for it, plus I could make a small side business out of fixing everyone's vintage PC power supplies and monitors and whatnot. Keep that stuff out of China/Africa/Indonesian groundwater and put it into protection, keep the remaining supply happy and alive.

Today I finally received my 'new' ODIN RTC and immediately installed it in my Chaintech 586SLB-P102
Did a quick setup (videocard, motherboard and PSU) and it fired up.
I'm glad it's working because I didn't have the chance to test it.

Now I can move on with the build but not today since it's too warm 😀

Installed XP on my ThinkPad x20 which is a bit of a pain. It has no CD drives and won't boot from any form of USB device. So I had to resort to installing 2003 server in a VM, promote it to a PDC, set up DHCP and DNS before going through setting up RIS. Then use a RIS boot floppy to get the install running because the NIC on the X20 isn't fully PXE compliant.

A truly monumenal amount of fiddling to get a circa 1999 laptop just to installing an OS.

Upgraded the guts in my Socket 370 system to a Socket 754 motherboard combo, and it's running faster. I even installed the SB Live! 5.1 Platinum (SB 16 mode for DOS games is installed in Windows 98SE) with the I/O bay last night, and all of the drivers.

The only thing is, I still cannot get Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius to play with the GeForce2 MX400 card and I might have to install the VooDoo2 card to get the game to work in hardware mode (software mode works OK, but I prefer hardware mode for faster framerates).

As I made the TUV4X motherboard alive I found out there was a Tualatin 1266 installed yuy 😊
The Aopen build I posted some posts before has been altered a bit.

Case: AOpen HX95 + AOpen PSU
Motherboard: Asus TUV4X
CPU: P3-1266 (Tualatin)
RAM: 1,3GB
GPU: Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 (fan was dead so I put on a cheap Chinese one which I had to bubba a little bit)
Soundcard: SB128 PCI
Harddrive: 20GB Maxtor
Drives: floppy disk, ZIP drive and 2 CD ROM's/Writer
OS: Windows 2000 SP4

Any suggestions for GPU and Soundcard? Are these good? Main goal is to play NOLF 1&2, Tron 2.0, GTA 3 and maybe some other titles I forgot. GTA vice city will be tough it seems CPU wise.
I have some other options for the GPU but I believe they are not all period correct or not as good as the Prophet.

Grabbed two machines and 2 monitors at a yard sale today. Both are in beige full towers.

Machine 1: Custom build, MSI K4VM-V, Athlon XP 2500+ Barton 1.86GHz, 512MB RAM, S3 UniChrome IGP, 80GB IDE HDD, Biege DVD/CD-RW Drive, Windows XP.

Boots insanely fast. I'll keep it on XP, double the RAM, and install my 9800 Pro 256MB 128bit in it.

Machine 2: Gateway tower. Pentium III 800MHz, 192MB RAM, Diamond Stealth III S540 16MB (Savage 4), 2 20GB HDDs, Lite-On CD-RW, Zip Drive, Windows XP

RAM will be upgraded to 384MB and the OS switched to 98SE. I may also swap the CPU out for a Celeron 700MHZ. Whoever upgraded this to XP on 192MB RAM has earned a special place in techie hell. Ive never seen an XP machine boot so slowly.

The monitors were a Samsung SyncMaster 790DF (20MM dot pitch, 1280x1024@65Hz) and a 17" Komodo/Sceptre CRT from 1998 that I can't find specs on. The Samsung is supposedly a great monitor, I have no clue if Komodo monitors were anygood.

Installed an So7 CPU (OK, a K6-3+ 😜 ) into a motherboard, put an HSF on it, added a DIMM and screwed the motherboard into an ATX case and hooked up the LEDs and switches to the correct headers.

Not too special? Nope. Apart from the fact it wasn't me but my 5-year old son doing it 😁

He wants to learn about how to put together a PC so he can build one that will run the original Worms (and not Hedgewars like the Linux-box I gave him). That's a very achievable target, so we're going for it. We spent all this evening between dinner and (well past) bedtime getting to this point. He's very methodical and spotted CPU and DIMM keying straight away. At the current speed we should have the basic hardware done by tomorrow, and maybe even get DOS installed.

Then we'll add Worms, fire it up - and he'll probably notice he doesn't have any sound. Next lesson: sound cards 😎

Finally got around to cleaning and re-capping the IBM Model M2 keyboard I got a couple weeks ago. It actually worked fine and I was actually using it on a daily basis with my 486 already, but of course the caps were just inevitably going to die as they always do on these.

As you can kind of see, the caps had already started to leak out a bit. And while removing the bigger cap, I messed up a bit and pulled up the pad a little bit. Whoops.

To take it apart, I dnded up using spare expansion slot covers/brackets to wedge apart the plastic clips and then prying it open. Worked surprisingly well, didn't even break a single plastic clip in the process! And I actually had to take it apart twice (!) because after cleaning, re-capping and reassembling, all the keys worked except for 'W' which would register key presses if pressed just-so. Turned out the feet on the buckling spring was slightly crooked. So, had to take it apart again (was sure that I would break a plastic clip this time, but luckily did not) and reassemble being really super extra careful. Second time was the charm and the keyboard works fantastically now. 😁

lovely! Good work and nice find on a space saver M!

Also drilled some holes for the drive bays in the Compaq Prolinea (replacement PSU is on its way). I only have one set of 5.25" rails (using it with a 5.25" floppy drive) so some holes had to be measured and drilled to accommodate a 5.25" CD-ROM drive.

Also drilled a couple holes in the 3rd bay for an additional hard drive if I wanted.

Just managed to repair my Commodore PC10-III Board (312628) from this lot 😀
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

- installed a V20 and flashed both EPROMs - all were missing
- built a standard AT power adapter
- replaced a faulty RAM
- replaced faulty SN74S00N. Only had a HD74LS00P from a scrap controller, but seems to work
The replaced ICs were destroyed by the leaking battery...

_Very_ helpful was the Supersoft diagnostic ROM. The image "5150 or 5160 _ 27256 _ 32KB.BIN" worked...the default BIOS displayed nothing prior the repair...