Figuring out if its some stupid undocumented PIN or software switch, or if its just malfunctioning.

I have a Solo 9100 laptop, and its SUPPOSE to have both adlib and soundblaster compatibility, but I can ONLY get adlib to work.

Jumpers (my long nails), heavy/metai cases (my long nails again), IDE ribbon loop planning+fitting and replacing AT powersupplies

I don't get frustrated by old computers a lot, but here are a few things that make my kettle boil:

When hardware doesn't do as it is supposed to. Broken gear, kit, DOA stuff, that really pisses me off.

When software or software guides don't do as they are supposed to. If I follow a guide on the internet for something and it breaks along the way with nothing documenting the issue.

I understand these are pretty vague issues. Mostly DOA hardware and broken software is my issue.

1. Double-checking PSU connections to make sure everything's plugged in the right way. I lost a beige Teac floppy drive when I made the mistake of incorrectly plugging in the power cable, I was wondering why the computer was constantly beeping until it smoked, turned out to be the floppy drive!

2. Sourcing replacement parts for systems that are old or obscure. I have a Compaq Presario 2100 desktop whose front panel got damaged during the shipment, due to the rarity of those '97 black Compaqs, I couldn't find a spare front panel for sale anywhere so I ended up repairing the damaged one with a 3D pen.

3. Figuring out why hardware doesn't work even though it's supposed to, you know, when a computer keeps beeping until you reseat the graphics card or a CPU, simply because what's causing the problem is not obvious most of the time.

4. Plugging cables in cramped spaces.

Modern power supplies on old ATX boards. Even a beefy one might not have enough power to drive the hardware.

1) Reinstalling Windows and setting up everything afterward
2) Juggling of available hard drives to do a reinstall without having to wipe the previous install at the outset
3) Replacing power supplies
4) Dell clamshell cases
5) Beaten up second hand Dell clamshell cases
6) DVI-VGA adapters
7) Sloppy physical tolerances causing things not to fit properly
8) "Tool-less" cases
Honorable Mention) Forum software that by default replaces 8) with a smilie

A few days ago I wanted to rearrange video cables to work better with dual monitors. A simple task.
Found that one of them was using a DVI-VGA adapter. Couldn't get the adapter off the card, because the screws were nearly impossible to get a grip on. Found that one of the adapter's screws wouldn't turn even with pliers. Noticed that the entire video card was loose in the slot. Had to open the case. The case latch was jammed (Dell clamshell) in spite of a previous effort to keep it from latching. After getting it open, I broke off the metal hook on the offending side so I can be sure it won't find a way to latch ever again. I hope.
The loose video card wouldn't seat properly into it's slot because of bad physical tolerances somewhere. After getting it into an acceptable position, tried to latch the card down with the plastic retaining latch that Dell uses in lieu of actual screws. Found that it wasn't doing the job of actual screws, instead it was actually popping loose. Found that the plastic retainer was damaged and useless. Noticed that there were screw threads available, so I went through my bag of PC screws trying to find one that fit. Nothing fit, because Dell doesn't use the same thread as everybody else. The motherboard tray fell out.
I shoved the pile of trash into a corner, took a PC from another room and hooked that up in it's place.

It's having power issues. Not all the time, just enough to be annoying.
It's Windows install (XP64) is incompatible with a couple pieces of obscure software that are required to support the devices I need it to run in this position. One is for a legacy device that works with XP32 at maximum. The other is for a modern device that works with XP32 at minimum, but has migrated to new middleware that doesn't work with XP64. I would guess I'm the only user to have noticed. I need to install XP32 on it. Logistical complications with drive allocation between machines. All I wanted was to rearrange video cables.

This probably would have been fun when I was a teenager. Now it's annoying me.

Brittle plastics that can snap if you look at them funny. Unobtanium parts and drivers, the older the system is before the internet was popular the easier drivers are to be lost forever.

Pricing for old parts when you do find them. Nothing like spending $20 on a machine only to find out the parts needed to complete them are many times more then that.

Dust, I clean everything and major dust deposits and dead bugs get tiring.

Lack of space, we all run out eventually even with lots of shelving and containers.

Pabloz wrote:

most frustrating part is […]
Show full quote

most frustrating part is

turning ON...and wont post
turning ON again...and it posts

turning ON with a videocard installed...wont post
using another motherboard with same video card..and it posts.

Oh yes. Having to manually push/tease parts in their sockets to get them to work properly. I recently had this issue with a computer I hadn't powered on for a year. Had to open it up and slightly adjust all the components/connectors to get proper electrical contact. Worked fine then.

Only frustrating thing is space constraints. And free time. Everything else is so fun.

Maybe i have a limited timeframe for my obsession. 486 to Pentium 2/3.

Getting elbows deep into a project, having it fully dissected all over my work table, and realizing I'm going to need a $5 replacement widget that will take a minimum of 4 weeks to track down, buy, and ship. Then having the stupid dilemma AGAIN of whether to spend an hour carefully putting it back together only to repeat all the work when Replacement Widget finally arrives, or just leaving it there to occupy my workspace for god knows how long. Or maybe just wholesale the lot out my 4th floor window into the dumpsters below. Blaaaagh.

(Refer to: Shuttle XPC (PSU), Thinkpad i1460 (tiny ribbon cable), PowerMac 7200 (may-as-well-be-proprietary Apple RAM), Mac LC630 (hell if I know what that one needed!), G4 Cube (one-off Apple PSU), Apple II+ (ROMs), Commodore 64C (PSU - again!!), current/ongoing Cacheless Wonder 386 (keyboard controller & BIOS), etc. etc.)

Parts that were last working just dying for no reason and having to determine if there is a weird incompatibility with what you are trying to use it with. Then you have to struggle through the process of testing everything on other platforms to make sure the part is actually dead and not faking.

I think I speak for everybody here.

The most frustrating thing is money.

EoS.

CkRtech wrote:

Working on them before access to the Internet. 😎 😉

How did we get anything done before the internet?? Word of mouth and days of experimentation I guess - I don't remember the guys in the local computer shops being much help.

Yellowed plastic makes me sad, and I have a decent sized scar from the razor sharp edges of an el-cheapo case.

Ampera wrote:

I think I speak for everybody here.

Nar it's lack of time that I struggle with more so - I have to get my retro fixes in micro bursts b/w real life priorities.

badmojo wrote:

I don't remember the guys in the local computer shops being much help.

This.

I once asked someone in a local computer shop if an AT motherboard would work with an ATX case. He said it would work fine and as a result of that I bought an ATX case for an AT motherboard. Luckily, since there was an AT PSU that was dead in the ATX case my motherboard didn't short. Still, $75 wasted on an ATX case with a dead AT PSU, only to have to spend another $65 on an actual AT case.

This is before I knew Vogons existed.

Broken simm slots. What a stupid design choice -> expecting humans to bend something before yanking out their RAM.

blood sacrifice. Anything but modern cases has razor sharp edges, but I've recently discovered the equivalent of cutting your knuckles to shreds whilst trying to manoeuvre cables into an SAS enclosure, when it's directly next to the CPU cooler with sharp fins..

leileilol wrote:

Jumpers (my long nails), heavy/metai cases (my long nails again), IDE ribbon loop planning+fitting and replacing AT powersupplies

Are you playing guitar? 😊

Mine is like this:

You just finished a project. After days after days of working (collecting parts, making neccessary repairs, finding more parts, finding all the drivers, then finding better parts and also their drivers, installing everything and troubleshooting along the way), everything is shipshape and working as expected or better. Just then, as a stupid impulse, you think you need to "improve" some trivial thing. Like a Geforce 4400, instead of a 4200, or a SB AWE64 pro instead of a SB AWE64 value. While trying to make your absolutely needed(?) "improvement", something essential dies....

I hate it.

Dismantling the whole laptop (HP Pavilion N3350) just to re-insert the rechargeable Lithium 3V CMOS battery. A pain in the ass at best, especially installing Windows 98SE with a memory chip that I thought would work, but mysteriously stopped working (thankfully, I still had the other one that works in there). That, and the picture stretching when booting into Windows 98SE (should not be stretched), and the stretch picture checkbox gets re-enabled after rebooting Windows or starting Windows 98SE (cold start).

Another thing, trying to install a 30GB or higher HDD into my Packard Bell Pack-Mate 28 Plus (CF-IDE causes major sluggishness) (HDD never gets detected probably because my SB16 CT2740 needs the CD channel disabled). Another old PC that's a PITA to work on is my K6-2/300 system when I install Windows on it, that, and the case is shitty (I have to remove the whole thing off just to access the inside, the screws won't stay on, and it's literally falling apart), so my fix for that would be to cut the metal pieces for the sides of the case to make life easier to access the inside, but I have to drill holes at the top and back of the metal case to put in new screw holes.

Definitely the sharp cases. I still have a slight scar from an encounter with the edge of a side panel of a PC built in the early 2000s. Older ones can be even more lethal.

Also the ticking timebomb of old hardware failure rates. I spent hours setting up a PC once only for the Graphics Card to decide it was time to die. Another system I had just successfully cloned a hard drive only for the donor drive to give up the ghost almost immediately afterwards.

Things working *almost* perfectly.

I have a lovely Toshiba Satellite 430CDT.

Active Matrix screen, Pentium 120, SB-compatible ESS chipset, decent Chips and Technologies video.

The headphone jack doesn't work and the left Shift key binds sometimes for some reason.

😒 😠