Nexxen wrote on 2026-02-18, 23:57:

Have you opened it yet?
I'd like to see how it looks inside.
It's pretty handy as all the ports are on the front and not at the back.

Yes, this machine is very small and handy!

I remembered that I hadn't taken any photos of the inside, so I took a few. It appears to be configured with an MN5520 (+MN5521?) chipset. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have an L2 cache.
I think this machine is designed to be very easy to perform basic maintenance on. The ISA cage, which also serves as the top cover, can be easily removed by removing four M3 flat head screws.

they say after RAM and SSDs, the next things to go up in price are HDD and video cards, so I thought to start piling up 😀

Bought these, waiting to arrive on some of them.

- ASUS A7N8X-X Rev 2 + CPU (unidentified currently)
- Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 + Core 2 Quad (unknown which yet, seller claims Q8300 or a Q9xxx chip)
- Point of View Geforce 6800 128MB AGP - literally an ASUS V9999, on which PoV slapped their logo and beefier cooler. Unlocked fairly well to 16/6.
- Quadro FX3450 256MB PCI-E - basically a 6800GS for workstation needs. Will prolly flash it further to either GT or XT and figure how much can I push NV41.
- DFI Lanparty DK 790GX-M2RS - no POST, might be fun figuring why.
- SB Live! Drive - been looking for one for a good while now.
- ABIT BH7-E + P4 2.8GHz + Hynix D43 Kingmax 2x1GB sticks - came yesterday from Hungary (cbmfan2 😀 ) - runs great although I'm scared of pushing the NW on it largely due to SNDS.

kagura1050 wrote on 2026-02-19, 13:21:

Yes, this machine is very small and handy!
I remembered that I hadn't taken any photos of the inside, so I took a few. It appears to be configured with an MN5520 (+MN5521?) chipset. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have an L2 cache.
I think this machine is designed to be very easy to perform basic maintenance on. The ISA cage, which also serves as the top cover, can be easily removed by removing four M3 flat head screws.

Ok. THATS AWESOME.

Also, that is the first time i've seen a non-square QFP package. I feel like I just saw a unicorn.

kagura1050 wrote on 2026-02-19, 13:21:

Yes, this machine is very small and handy! […]
Show full quote

Nexxen wrote on 2026-02-18, 23:57:

Have you opened it yet?
I'd like to see how it looks inside.
It's pretty handy as all the ports are on the front and not at the back.

Yes, this machine is very small and handy!

I remembered that I hadn't taken any photos of the inside, so I took a few. It appears to be configured with an MN5520 (+MN5521?) chipset. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have an L2 cache.
I think this machine is designed to be very easy to perform basic maintenance on. The ISA cage, which also serves as the top cover, can be easily removed by removing four M3 flat head screws.

Industrial machines have in mind the ease of access.
In this case I think they did a good job 😀

Wow, inside it's clean.

Thanks for the pictures!

Just got this pretty neat external CD-ROM drive cheap, Panasonic KXL-783A:

Looks like NOS, but I don't actually think it is, because the plastic bag for drive was opened as well as PSU cable was loose. However, this smells like a situation in a company where "I need to get files from this CD to this laptop. Now" led to someone going to the nearest computer store, purchasing this drive and this drive was never used again after that. Everything is so minty.

Anyways, this is pretty cool and versatile drive. Drive itself has SCSI connector, so the PCMCIA adapter is just a SCSI controller too and you can use SCSI cable to attack this to your desktop machine. It has 3.5mm line in and out jacks as well as built in speakers. It can be powered by 6 x AA batteries so this can be your portable CD player too. What I'm not completely sure is if this has some true external audio capability at least for windows. I know that some Backpack drives did have ESS sound cards built in.

I also started to think that if there are drivers for Amiga for PCMCIA SCSI controllers, I might be able to get the controller and this drive working with my A1200. I don't know what chip this controller uses and this may be a long shot, but I definitely will investigate that too. If someone has any experience about these kind of PCMCIA SCSI controllers and storage devices with Amiga, please chime in.

Found a few items at thrift stores this past week:

Dell 2407WFPb, now in use as my new workshop PC display.

PowerBook 150

Thrustmaster Top Gun joystick

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2026-02-20, 18:28:

Just got this pretty neat external CD-ROM drive cheap, Panasonic KXL-783A: […]
Show full quote

Just got this pretty neat external CD-ROM drive cheap, Panasonic KXL-783A:

The attachment KXL783A_1.jpg is no longer available

The attachment KXL783A_2.jpg is no longer available

Looks like NOS, but I don't actually think it is, because the plastic bag for drive was opened as well as PSU cable was loose. However, this smells like a situation in a company where "I need to get files from this CD to this laptop. Now" led to someone going to the nearest computer store, purchasing this drive and this drive was never used again after that. Everything is so minty.

Anyways, this is pretty cool and versatile drive. Drive itself has SCSI connector, so the PCMCIA adapter is just a SCSI controller too and you can use SCSI cable to attack this to your desktop machine. It has 3.5mm line in and out jacks as well as built in speakers. It can be powered by 6 x AA batteries so this can be your portable CD player too. What I'm not completely sure is if this has some true external audio capability at least for windows. I know that some Backpack drives did have ESS sound cards built in.

I also started to think that if there are drivers for Amiga for PCMCIA SCSI controllers, I might be able to get the controller and this drive working with my A1200. I don't know what chip this controller uses and this may be a long shot, but I definitely will investigate that too. If someone has any experience about these kind of PCMCIA SCSI controllers and storage devices with Amiga, please chime in.

You unlocked a memory.

Well, this EGA monitor has indeed been a trip, it was probably a roadside rescue with all the water damage that was going on. I took it apart and cleaned it up as best as I could, then started checking all those Nichicons and Rubycons. It was a quality set in its prime but the heat did its part on the power and deflection panels so I had to replace most of those capacitors, some of them with an ESR of 15K<. It wasn’t too easy because the traces kept peeling off the board. After rewiring it fired right up but the colors were all messed up so I had to tweak the RGB cutoff pots on the neckboard for a few hours until I got it (somewhat) right. Some tweaking with the G2/focus pots and it was AOK. ALMOST OK. The pots on the back were hopelessly corroded so I had to replace them to stop the vertical jitter. I tested it with Street Rod and I just had to beat The King to get the girl.
Not a bad monitor for the price and it was a fun project.

I've bought a "Mouse 1300" made in China 3 button ball mouse with DB9 connector, which should be for PC (not ST or other). I figured it's a nice backup for my microsoft serial mouse which I need for my 486 which is devoid of any other type of mouse connector. And it was very cheap in the thrift store.

The same mouse is made under the brands Gees and Sysgration Soft.

Mandrew wrote on 2026-02-20, 21:20:

Well, this EGA monitor has indeed been a trip, it was probably a roadside rescue with all the water damage that was going on. I took it apart and cleaned it up as best as I could, then started checking all those Nichicons and Rubycons. It was a quality set in its prime but the heat did its part on the power and deflection panels so I had to replace most of those capacitors, some of them with an ESR of 15K<. It wasn’t too easy because the traces kept peeling off the board. After rewiring it fired right up but the colors were all messed up so I had to tweak the RGB cutoff pots on the neckboard for a few hours until I got it (somewhat) right. Some tweaking with the G2/focus pots and it was AOK. ALMOST OK. The pots on the back were hopelessly corroded so I had to replace them to stop the vertical jitter. I tested it with Street Rod and I just had to beat The King to get the girl.
Not a bad monitor for the price and it was a fun project.

Nice job! It's always a good day when someone gets an EGA monitor working again.

Also, how have I never heard of Street Rod? Even the DOS EGA version looks cool, of course, but the Amiga one looks amazing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8OxP2LmZcQ
It's too bad it didn't have a DOS VGA version that looked like that. Still, I will add this to my list of DOS games to play. I can't believe I've never seen or heard of this game before...

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-02-20, 21:41:

Also, how have I never heard of Street Rod? Even the DOS EGA version looks cool, of course, but the Amiga one looks amazing

That version looks like it was made on a supercomputer compared to the PC version. 😁

schmatzler wrote on 2026-02-15, 10:58:

Flare400 wrote on 2026-01-28, 19:52:

I had an A22m for a while and recently got myself a Thinkpad A22p as well, hoping it would be a great Windows 98 / DOS machine as well. The sound works just as well and I do see a big improvement in video with Windows games, but whenever I try to run DOS games (within Windows 98SE) I just get a flickering screen.

The latest BIOS has a bug which makes the screen go blank when you start a DOS game from within Windows 98. You can either boot into DOS mode and run them directly from there or downgrade to BIOS 1.09 (spsuiv67.exe).

Hope it helps!

Thank you, you seem to be on the right track (things work fine on an external display) but I am not sure if I found the correct file for the BIOS. The only file with this name that I could find was a 916KB file from http://ps-2.kev009.com/pccbbs/mobiles/

The adjacent text file with the same name mentioned this was the BIOS update utility for Thinkpad A20p (is it compatible across all A20p A21p and A22p models?) The diskette version is 1.09 and BIOS version is IVET67WW.

After I ran the program and it restarted the computer; it showed a blue IBM screen with the strange title of:
IBM ThinkPad
System Program Service Utility
Version 0.0

And then when I pressed Enter, a black screen with a message box in the lower right corner:

Message
The diskette in the default drive
will not run on this system.
Your system is now locked. To restart
your system, press Ctrl+Alt+Del.

When I do that, it restarts and the system loads as before. BIOS stays the same and same problem persists.

Is there any way you could point me to another source for the right file? Or somehow send/upload the one that you used?

Thanks again

Mandrew wrote on 2026-02-20, 21:55:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-02-20, 21:41:

Also, how have I never heard of Street Rod? Even the DOS EGA version looks cool, of course, but the Amiga one looks amazing

That version looks like it was made on a supercomputer compared to the PC version. 😁

Yeah, haha. It's funny how far behind the PC ports of some games were back then. I see that the PC version of Street Rod (1) only supports PC speaker audio as well, so maybe this is a good fit for my PC 5150. It has a Tiny Turbo 286 7MHz card, 640K of RAM and an EGA card, so I think it should run okay.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-02-20, 22:10:

Yeah, haha.

A hilarious side effect after playing SR on an EGA monitor for hours last night: when I look at dark objects I still see the EGA scanlines. It has literally burned into my brain. 😁
Wonder what the effects were when people stared at these screens at work every day...

Flare400 wrote on 2026-02-20, 22:18:

Thank you, you seem to be on the right track...

Looks like you are now familiar with the crashes that happen regularly when posting a new message. Welcome to Vogons 😆

Have done a lucky dip on an "untested" mystery box. Bets on what's going to be in this one?

A graphics card, a sound card and mom and dad's secret stuff.

Flare400 wrote on 2026-02-20, 22:06:

The adjacent text file with the same name mentioned this was the BIOS update utility for Thinkpad A20p (is it compatible across all A20p A21p and A22p models?) The diskette version is 1.09 and BIOS version is IVET67WW.

You are totally right, I got that filename wrong (and even put it into the German Thinkwiki years ago, what a stupid mistake!).
BIOS 1.09 for the Thinkpad A22p is spsuky36.exe.

This should definitely work (if I didn't get the version number wrong as well...)

PD2JK wrote on 2026-02-21, 21:59:

A graphics card, a sound card and mom and dad's secret stuff.

Ahh yeah, really secret stuff like their closely guarded recipes. Saucy.