steberg wrote on 2026-09-11, 15:43:

Just got bought a Compaq LTE Elite 75/CX, Here it's next to my 50E. The screen of the monochrome 50E is so much nicer than the color screen of the 75CX

Absolutely stunning, and surprised the plastic color has held up so well.

Made impulse purchases.

I bought an apparently new AGP FireGL X3 when the listing said nearly all gone, and the next day +20 were added to the available stock! They've sold hundreds of them and I wonder where they are restocking from? Anyway, an original supply chain included HP who sold these for UNIX CAD workstations. However, I've not done CAD so not sure where I'm going with this..

I then bought the last release of PS2 three button Logitech mouse, because UNIX (along with its wider family of operating system) was specifically designed to make use of three buttons. The same shape of mouse was supplied with HP UNIX workstations. However, I am a fan of trackballs so not sure where I'm going with that..

Separately, I picked up a free pre-ACPI post-ATX PS2 Lite-On keyboard, which is kind of a late rendition of the IBM Model 3 but weirder because Print Screen/Scroll Lock/Break are replaced with Power/Wake/Sleep. HP did not stock these, and a previous owner removed the switches under the keys that would trigger power off! The travel on the keys is quite long, and I am a fan of low profile minimally moving keys so not sure where I'm going with this either..

But, as my gut acquired the three on a whim it must be right..

A Chicony PC-286GE (Rabbit 286) portable system with
including a manual and a service manual
- a NEAT 286 motherboard: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ecs-286-neat
including a manual
- 4 MB of DIP memory in 2 banks
- an 211 MB ST1239A HDD
- a Super EGA graphics card with connection to the Plasma display
- a Chicony CH-101B Super-IO-controller https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/chicony-ch-101b
including a manual
- an Adaptec SDS-3 system with software on the HDD
which is the SCSI Development and Test System
(that particular version does support narrow scsi up to sync with 5 mb/s. it consists of 2 full length 8 bit ISA cards.)

That machine is a SCSI Analyzer and was used to develop cdrecord for Linux.

I will look at this machine in detail in a few weeks.

Current condition:
Plasma PC works, Varta had been removed already.
SCSI components not tested yet.
HDD came with software and likely with some test data.
HDD contents have been cloned by me.

Next steps: Putting suitable HDD into that computer, reinstalling the software and test it.

I had an extra passenger today, his name was 5153.

The man I got it from had a nice story going with it. Back in the day he said to his boss he needed a color display for his 5150 to do his job. When the entire machine was replaced, he ultimately only needed the colors to play some Tetris. Apparently the software didn't support different colors.

Got this Abit AN7 board for cheap, I would say. Was sold as for parts not working. Was missing the bios chip and all the jumpers. Booted right up after swaping in a new bios chip.

I always wanted AN7, it was a black sheep.

I sometimes wondered what that shiny sticker was for, near the socket. Now I think it could function as a mirror, to check if the HSF clip is mounted correctly?

PD2JK wrote on Yesterday, 06:36:

I sometimes wondered what that shiny sticker was for, near the socket. Now I think it could function as a mirror, to check if the HSF clip is mounted correctly?

That's a damn good guess, and its likely exactly what it was used for.

Or it was to protect the board from the HSF clip if it .. slipped.

Likely both.

PD2JK wrote on Yesterday, 06:36:

I sometimes wondered what that shiny sticker was for, near the socket. Now I think it could function as a mirror, to check if the HSF clip is mounted correctly?

I think it's there to protect the board from scratches from the clip or screwdrivers when mounting/unmounting the heatsink

Complete IBM PS/2 Model 35 SX with Colour Monitor and Model M Keyboard...

unfortuantely the power supply in the PC is dead (apparantely a common problem) so will need some work.

NeilKnows wrote on Yesterday, 08:28:

Complete IBM PS/2 Model 35 SX with Colour Monitor and Model M Keyboard...

unfortuantely the power supply in the PC is dead (apparantely a common problem) so will need some work.

If it is a Magnetek PSU like it often is, they tend go so that they are notoriously difficult or practically impossible to repair. They were built woefully underspecced and often they failed already after few years of use. I also have 35SX and it has had its PSU replaced in late 90s with a Taiwanese unit, which was a nice thing. If it is a fried Magnetek PSU, the best option might be to just replace everything with something like PicoATX unit instead of trying to hunt a working replacement PSU. Even if it is not irrepairabe now, it will be as the main fault of the unit is underspecced design. It is not simplu a capacitor or some regulator problem.

You also should be prepared to recap the floppy drive, it has most likely also failed. If the electrolyte hasn't corroded other components, it isn't a difficult job. There are posts about the drive repairs here in vogons, I also wrote something about it on this thread that was about my unit few years ago:
My IBM PS/2 model 35SX build [updated 2023-6-22]

About the floppy, you will need one as if the Dallas battery has died, which most likely has, you can't boot this thing without a setup floppy disk. Floppy interface isn't standard one, it has a 34 pin cable, but it also delivers power. So plugging a standard drive there just may get the drive and floppy controller killed. And do not plug another PS/2 floppy drive on that cable if it isn't FRU compatible with the system, you may again fry the floppy controller. There are cable adapters available so you can plug in a standard drive, but it may be janky to match the drive with the front plate and eject button hole. But at least you will be able to boot the system.

Otherwise 35SX and 40SX are probably the easiest PS/2s out there as they do have IDE controllers as well as ISA, so they are easy to expand with standard hardware unlike ESDI/MCA systems. In general these are IMO rather underwhelming systems. Original hard disks are extremely slow and loud and these computers have a lackluster performance compared to many comparable systems. For exampple, the graphics chip is just your run of the mill slow VGA on 16-bit bus, so no SVGA resolutions there. Otherwise they have many of the same reliability issues as other PS/2 models. These are painfully annoying systems, but 35/40SX are probably the easiest models thanks to least proprietary shenanigans.

And one more IBM thing still, regular 72-pin SIMMs don't work with these systems at least without modifications, you can find information about these too. If you want to expand RAM, don't focus on that until you get the system running otherwise, these kind of things are the least of worries at the point where you are.

Good luck!

I've picked this up as a part of my anniversary Dream 97-98 PC Build project that I'm currently working on. There's a seller here who has a dozen of these NOS OEM Pentium II 400 Mhz. They're around $18 a piece. Never had a Slot 1 machine, so I'm pretty excited for this 😁

A quick acquisition on local OLX market. Got it for $15 untested, but it's almost new condition and just tested it... works great 😀

revolstar wrote on Yesterday, 12:23:

I've picked this up as a part of my anniversary Dream 97-98 PC Build project that I'm currently working on. There's a seller her […]
Show full quote

I've picked this up as a part of my anniversary Dream 97-98 PC Build project that I'm currently working on. There's a seller here who has a dozen of these NOS OEM Pentium II 400 Mhz. They're around $18 a piece. Never had a Slot 1 machine, so I'm pretty excited for this 😁

I'm also working on a 97-98 build; although mine is more a software dream to get everything working together, and mine is Socket 7 MMX.

I actually had a Pentium II 233MHz CPU but by the time I bought a Slot 1 motherboard things had moved onto Slocket, so the CPU was never put to work. However, your post/pictures of a Pentium II CPU reminded me of my (unused) Pentium II and released cascading recollections of how I used (or failed to use) my Pentium MMX!

I actually tried very hard to make *NIX run well on that MMX. Due to 56K dial-up constraints I purchased the full retail SuSE Linux Desktop boxed set with Cross Office (it installed but didn't launch). I downloaded several BSDs (insufficient driver support). I also tried BEOS from a magazine CD (it worked but had insufficient applications). The closest that I came to realising my dream on the MMX may have been MacOS 7.6 on an M68K emulator (I had the BIOS and 3.25" disks from an older machine). Despite my many efforts, my daily PC configuration was only Windows BSOD with Cygwin and Litestep - the dream now is to get it working the way it should have worked!

And, looking at the actual hardware stack, it appears even today the path to *NIX is non-trivial. It took years for drivers to emerge so my failures were not entirely my fault (and some drivers appear to still be missing) meaning complete success may require software development. That hybridisation is part of the character of my MMX because at its core it was always a hybrid: USB ports controlled by a firmware that doesn't know what USB devices are, AT keyboard and serial mouse in PS2 era, rebuilt using an ATX PSU with an AT button button, and now completed by a funky early-ATX keyboard that replaces the always useful PrintScreen button with Power Off!

What could go wrong? 😉

Just 3 more brand new graphics cards for my Wall of Graphics. The PNY 4ti comes with 3d glasses that I'd love to try.

[...]

ldeveraux wrote on Today, 13:14:

Remember when this thread was about showing off your retro hardware?

Plan B is to cheat by swapping the Dxr2 with this later Dxr3 (found on eBay), assuming it works, and back porting Dxr3 drivers to an older Linux. I won't deny it - this is the solution AI suggested because nothing I tried worked.

I have cleaned the thread, people please stay on topic , thanks! 😀