Last week, I disabled the CMOS battery charging circuit in a shitty laptop so I could use a CR1220 instead of the original (no longer available) ML1220. I got the cheapest single CR1220 I could find, and it just arrived today. It took a strangely long time to boot, but it should keep the date and time now (Windows doesn't like the clock rolling back from the current year to 2000 - both 98 and XP will lock up while booting).

Today I tried (for the fist time) to use Word Perfect (5.1). While I was able to just write along (i.e. just put one word after the next) I could NOT AT ALL figure out how this was ever a usefull piece of software. I may as well also just write along at the Dosprompt and print whats on the screen. While there are a lot of "options" such as textbox etc - they just made no sense in any way. Definitively had a lot of fun - while at the same time I am sooo gratefull for Office 2025...
There is some "Learn" tutorial available but that always crashes because of a missing path. I will keep trying again later...

Thinking a bit more abou this, why was WP51 so user unfriendly (and yet so popular ?) Comparing this with Macwrite introduced with the Mac in 1984 it feels extremely crude. Even Win 2.0 was around by this time, so why didnt they release a more userfriendly version? I guess on a more general level I may as well ask why was there no Windows 85 with a GUI but instead additional 11 years before this happened...

Aui wrote on 2025-03-14, 07:13:

while at the same time I am sooo gratefull for Office 2025...

MS Office peaked in 2003. After that it was just useless features and a more confusing interface. Haha. Give me back the menus over the ribbon interface any day. 😀

Aui wrote on 2025-03-14, 08:19:

Thinking a bit more abou this, why was WP51 so user unfriendly (and yet so popular ?)

It was popular because it was basically freeware. Anybody who had bought the program was free to share it with the rest of the world.

Aui wrote on 2025-03-14, 08:19:

Thinking a bit more abou this, why was WP51 so user unfriendly (and yet so popular ?) Comparing this with Macwrite introduced with the Mac in 1984 it feels extremely crude. Even Win 2.0 was around by this time, so why didnt they release a more userfriendly version? I guess on a more general level I may as well ask why was there no Windows 85 with a GUI but instead additional 11 years before this happened...

a lot of ms dos software of the time - word processors, spreadsheets, database programs and more had that kind of interface

it was normal to go on a quick training course to learn how best to use them, and often supported by a card showing all the keyboard shortcuts and functions and a manual for deeper how to guides

It can be daunting to see an almost blank screen without much of a prompt - but start using it and you'll get used to it. "wysiwyg" gui has been around for so long now than i think someone needs to be either over 40 or an avid linux/unix user to feel at home in a CLI now. Even though i was used to it back then i'v grown very accustomed to gui and wouldn't want to go back now

a huge amount of functionality is still available via keyboard in up to date MS Office now, some people don't want to leave the keyboard to use the mouse 😀

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-03-14, 08:48:

MS Office peaked in 2003. After that it was just useless features and a more confusing interface. Haha. Give me back the menus over the ribbon interface any day. 😀

while 2003 is a favourite (especially as it has such modest requirements) and is the "ultimate" version of old office, i grew to appreciate later versions, even the 'ribbon'

the bigger move, imo, with office type software, and one that's more jarring odd to go back on, is from 4:3 to various wide screen layouts

that said the "everything online" quality of newer software is also a huge step away from how things were

It can be tiresome to have to do everything via keyboard. But there is oftentimes great convenience to utilizing hot keys and such. As long as you are willing and able to ascend that tall hill. A mouse most always lends more convenience. To have to rely on it for everything seems inefficient at times though. It also can break, you get stuck w/o one, and back up keyboard only functionality should always be on option IMHO.

Today I've installed a decade's worth of updates for my WinXP rig via legacyupdate. It has taken a while too 😉

revolstar wrote on 2025-03-14, 15:37:

Today I've installed a decade's worth of updates for my WinXP rig via legacyupdate. It has taken a while too 😉

Just like the old days! Near the end of XP's life, I remembered the "joy" of a fresh install slowly updating to the latest patch level. Reboot a couple times, check for more updates, reboot, and that final satisfying message of no additional updates available.

These days I use unofficial SP4, it bundles all the updates offline, just one .exe and reboot and done (not recommended for slow XP machines). Though a small part of me misses the rigamarole of the official updater.

I just got this nice Compaq:
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

This evening I started to fiddle with it, installed the stupid setup partition and DOS on the HDD. I just threw in ISA NIC and will continue with MTCP. I've networked all my DOS systems, I simply refuse to use a DOS system without one as I particularly don't like the floppy or CD hassle, so I want to minimize it.

This is probably all I'm going to do with it this weekend, I need to get a 3xAA battery holder and set up external CMOS battery to this. The onboard battery is dead and it is one of those soldered type of packages (typical for Compaq in this era). Soldering is not a problem for me, but the motherboard has a header for external battery, so using it saves a little bit hassle.

Besides setting up the system and most likely CDROM or 5.25" drive, I will finally test my PicoGUS V2 with this.

Currently upgrading my GX1's HDD as the 10GB seems to have quite little health left. Dug out a 80GB WD originally used on a Soyo SY-6BA+IV and am currently in process of getting it setup. Already did a SYS C:\ to ease my life.

I'm very pleased with how this 486 turned out 😁.

With Trident VESA installed.

Without Trident VESA installed.

I found out today that ThrottleStop 6.0 is compatible with Windows 2000 and my Ivy Bridge-based Xeon. The system had some weird behavior where the CPU's first Core would downclock to 1.6 GHz at random regardless if the CPU had a load or not. I had to disable C1E power management in ThrottleStop to force the Core into full speed mode all the time.

ThrottleStop also allowed me to run all of the Cores in Turbo mode (3.7 GHz) under Windows 2000, which the OS wouldn't do on its own. The speed boost from 3.5 GHz is good for a couple of percentage points in benchmarks.

I played https://h4plo.itch.io/tenebra on my Maxdata Artist Brighton notebook.

Took out the DFI K6BV3+/66 I got from the scrapper lot out for a spin.

'twas fun although I'm a bit concerned that the PCI Voodoo 3 2000 runs quite slow than I remember, even when OC'd at 3000 speeds. I'll check if the same behaviour happens with an AGP 3000, just to rule out the card being the culprit.

And, to my shame, I admit to 3com's 3C905 being a great NIC. Better than the Intel 82558 at any rate - the 82558 has a rather weird and annoying issue where anytime I try to download something, it'll slowly crawl to a stop. Even the 82559, the 3C905 or any others had that happen.

Traveled 80kms to pick several CRT monitors for free.
Unfortunately, the bottom one, a 21 or 22", turns on but doesn't display anything.

You've probably done that already... but have you tried connecting it to a video source? I've bought a CRT that was initially deemed broken (AOC 7K+), only to find it literally lacked a implementation of the "CONNECT VIDEO CABLE/CHECK VIDEO CABLE" notification. Plugging it to a Athlon 700 build I had at the time fixed the "issue".

Set a port to 100 on a 2.5GB switch so that it could talk to an old AT&T cell router , otherwise no link. This link is only necessary if the opnsense firewall has an issue.
Funnily enough two weeks ago it stopped working and the tech told my Parents to unplug power to the Cell antenna which got it working but then it happened again this week and the tech said they don't support this service anymore and it will be shut down. AT&T Air (the replacement) isn't supported here.
They only get two bars of cell reception with the Cell antenna and barely a bar on a regular cell phone so setting up a custom cell router wouldn't work out well.
The only other option in this area is Satellite and the only realistic option is Skylink. So my retired parents will have to pay $120 per month instead of $60. At least until/if the Skylink $80 plan is supported here.
2025 and Internet is still shit.

You can always try the "big slab of metal the other side of the antenna to the source" approach, well "slab" meaning anything from mesh, through a 20" foil baking pan, to any actual slabs of metal that are otherwise doing nothing. Also getting it as high as possible tends to help. As well as reflectors, "ground planes" improve performance by effectively mirroring the antenna in the vertical plane.... that's where you just have a relatively large grounded piece of metal under it.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-03-15, 21:31:

You've probably done that already... but have you tried connecting it to a video source? I've bought a CRT that was initially deemed broken (AOC 7K+), only to find it literally lacked a implementation of the "CONNECT VIDEO CABLE/CHECK VIDEO CABLE" notification. Plugging it to a Athlon 700 build I had at the time fixed the "issue".

Yes, I don't rely only on the monitor's interface. Thank you for the advice anyways.