I tried to set up a DTC7287 in my 286. The system hangs after the floppy seek, I think I need to disable the BIOS.
Also finally got my VGA card in. Trident TVGA8900C with 1MB is a bit overkill for a 286, I think, even at 20MHz.

Looking for a replacement LED speed display for my case. Any ideas?

Took apart an external modem to use it as a case for my Yamaha DB50XG and CHiLL board.

Did a bit of trimming in the rear and on top where the MIDI port is at so that the cable can be connected. Took 15 or so minutes as I used wire cutters, screwdriver, and hammer to do the trimming and make a slit for the top of the MIDI port so the top of the case can get screwed onto the bottom.

bjwil1991 wrote:

Took apart an external modem to use it as a case for my Yamaha DB50XG and CHiLL board.

That came out real well. Well done.

I love it! Now, for part 2, get some blinky lights for the front. I'd wager you can setup something via optocoupler on the midi line to get something to blink.

NIIIIIICE IDEA! Made me think of using a US Robotics 56k modem case for a rPi3.

I thought of making an external LCD to display which instrument is used on specific channels, use LEDs for the sound frequency from the audio portion, have a front power button to control the power to the board to be on and off, and connect a power LED on the side as well. Love the ideas.

Cured an old 3Gb HDD with MHDD software (DOS version, boot bisk). It had lots of bad blocks, would not function properly because of this, stuck up occasionally, etc. I ran Erase procedure, fdisked and formatted it afterwards. All BBs are gone. Works fine so far.

After buying what I thought were missing parts, figured out I already had everything I needed for this little baby. So broke out the soldering iron and got to work:

Sounds great, slightly deeper than my SnarkBarker SB1.0 replica. Now to find that backplate I had somewhere and drill some holes in it...

Received a 32GB SD card to properly test out the SD adapter for my Dreamcast. I'd previously tried a 32GB microSD card via an adapter and it worked for a while then would constantly fail to read. Those SD adapters for the Dreamcast really do not like microSD cards!

The 32GB card I received seems to work well enough, running DreamShell and running games from ISO Loader. Compatibility via this method is poor, out of 9 games I tested, only 1 ran flawlessly, with another 3 playable with slight issues - mostly FMV playback lag, due to the serial port. The rest were either unplayable due to the Serial port slowness or just plain wouldn't boot. Games with CDDA music are also an issue via this method, with no music present.

Also today, an old but not so retro hardware project - got given a broken laptop, nothing spectacular - HP G56, AMD Athlon II P320 Dual Core, 3GB RAM. Problem appeared to be a failing screen (flickering), but upon closer inspection is actually just a faulty connector inside. Got it working for now by pressing down hard on the plastic near where the connector is located inside, until the screen clears. This seems to keep the screen working properly for some time until the connector eventually loosens again. I'm going to have to open this laptop up at some point and attempt to fix it properly, but the temporary fix will do for now. 🤣

Additionally today, installed a new PSU in 1 of my systems and spotted a strange dangling cable inside and now I finally figured out why the front case power LED hasn't been working for over 1 year - the wire had simply detached from the connector on the motherboard. I thought the LED had failed and was planning to replace it, but nope such an obvious oversight and simple fix thankfully - just added a new connector to the wire.

Im not sure where to put this? ..i don't think it warrants starting a new thread about it and technically, i suppose it is a "retro activity", i goofed around with today so...a question for you guys then, do you think it possible this old USB card is fixable? My soldering skills are nowhere near jedi level, though i could get lucky and jag it. I emailed MacGyver and he suggested sourcing a fire extinguisher then cutting slim strips of ali flash tac, which ive got, and carefully stick the strips on but, surely that can't work would it?!? 😕

Thing is, i can plug it in with the win 98SE install and "one" of the USB ports works properly. Im happy for the lone USB port to work, this is my second last oldest USB card! 😐

Use a bit of ketchup.

not even joking.

I've had great luck taking the bracket off and letting it soak in a tub of white vinegar overnight. It saved a 486 motherboard whose battery completely exploded.

bandicoot67 wrote:

Im not sure where to put this? ..i don't think it warrants starting a new thread about it and technically, i suppose it is a "retro activity", i goofed around with today so...a question for you guys then, do you think it possible this old USB card is fixable? My soldering skills are nowhere near jedi level, though i could get lucky and jag it. I emailed MacGyver and he suggested sourcing a fire extinguisher then cutting slim strips of ali flash tac, which ive got, and carefully stick the strips on but, surely that can't work would it?!? 😕

Thing is, i can plug it in with the win 98SE install and "one" of the USB ports works properly. Im happy for the lone USB port to work, this is my second last oldest USB card! 😐

You can buy a trace pencil and see if that will give sufficient contact.

dionb wrote:

After buying what I thought were missing parts, figured out I already had everything I needed for this little baby. So broke out […]
Show full quote

After buying what I thought were missing parts, figured out I already had everything I needed for this little baby. So broke out the soldering iron and got to work:

Sounds great, slightly deeper than my SnarkBarker SB1.0 replica. Now to find that backplate I had somewhere and drill some holes in it...

Welcome to the TubeTime Adlib Club 😀

Finally got the darn 4.3GB Western Digital, and a 10GB Western Digital that I had in the system which never got recognized automatically with the jumper set to master, cable select, or slave (requires another HDD to get it detected or other media, such as a ZIP drive) by removing the jumpers to set the HDDs in single drive mode. I also got Civilization 1 to install from the 5.25" diskettes after figuring out the floppy cable for the tape drive was acting up and removed said cable to get the drive to work once again.

My Acumos AVGA 2 died so I replaced it with...

...another AVGA 2. It was by far the best price : performance ratio card on eBay for sensible money (£35). This one looks slightly different in that it has two socketed memory chips and two soldered chips; the old one was all soldered. Maybe this one has been upgraded to 512kb.

Anyway this means by 386SX machine is back from the dead and ready for slow gaming!

Almoststew1990 wrote:

My Acumos AVGA 2 died so I replaced it with... […]
Show full quote

My Acumos AVGA 2 died so I replaced it with...

...another AVGA 2. It was by far the best price : performance ratio card on eBay for sensible money (£35). This one looks slightly different in that it has two socketed memory chips and two soldered chips; the old one was all soldered. Maybe this one has been upgraded to 512kb.

Anyway this means by 386SX machine is back from the dead and ready for slow gaming!

Ha, nice.. I'll be replacing my SX25's TVGA9000B with a CL-GD5402 (AVGA2) tomorrow myself. Interesting coincidence.

appiah4 wrote:

[...]

Welcome to the TubeTime Adlib Club 😀

Nice club - with DIY fake unicorns 😉

This evening spent some time on another project, got my Lo-tech ISA XT CF (odd name for something with 40p IDE connector, not CF...) up and running. Not even sure I'm going to use it in my XT, but if its MFM drive dies or just irritates me enough with noise & small size, I have an alternative at hand.

Spent about an hour picking up an sorting computer screws off the floor because I forgot to seal the container lid and knocked it off the chair while reaching for something.

Caluser2000 wrote:

Spent about an hour picking up an sorting computer screws off the floor because I forgot to seal the container lid and knocked it off the chair while reaching for something.

This is terrible. I hope you managed to pick them all. I wouldn’t sleep if I had left one screw on the floor just waiting to pinch my foot... (and I tend to walk barefoot at home).