King_Corduroy wrote:

Cool eh? Well it would be if I didn't need some weird Compaq drivers, the 4402 is nearly working properly but I'm having some weird sound issue that seems to be connected to one of the unknown devices. I'm guessing it's the controls on the front of the machine fucking things up. Also have a small other problem with the CRT going out of focus as the machine heats up. 😒

Anyone who can help with the driver situation would be greatly appreciated! 😁

If that Compaq CRT can't be fixed I am betting with a little work that would be a great candidate for a LCD mod.

Nah the CRT can be focused manually. Most likely if nothing else it's caps that need replacing.

Focus drift can be caused by a bad CRT socket (corroded contacts - very likely particularly in humid climates or if stored in damp environments), flyback transformer (bad focus/screen divider - not very likely but some of these do fail every once in a while) or failure of the CRT itself (internal electrode shorts - unlikely).

This tower:

The friend of mine that saved it from certain death told me it's a 486 DX-33, not sure about it... I have not opened it yet.

Oh, that tower is nice. It is a win, even if empty.

Thanks mate, I'll let you know for sure what I'll find inside.

Kadath wrote:

Thanks mate, I'll let you know for sure what I'll find inside.

Here you are, what I've kept:

In the first one, a nice and never found before adapter for older floppy-flats to 'newer' one, with pins... strange; two CDRoms by Creative, maybe part of a kit? One of them was attached to the SoundBlaster 16 integrated IDE; the CPU is a 486 DX-33, the friend of mine was right. Nice those mini-speakers to fit the bigger bay of the case, 'Soundisk'.

The top Creative Labs CD-ROM is for the Sound Blaster 16 that has the Panasonic/Creative Labs IDE port (not ATAPI), and the one below is for standard IDE (hence the 8-speed). The desktop looks pretty good (the parts). Also, I've never seen the speakers that mount on the inside of the case (the 5.25" bay).

bjwil1991 wrote:

The top Creative Labs CD-ROM is for the Sound Blaster 16 that has the Panasonic/Creative Labs IDE port (not ATAPI), and the one below is for standard IDE (hence the 8-speed). The desktop looks pretty good (the parts). Also, I've never seen the speakers that mount on the inside of the case (the 5.25" bay).

Yes. I've never seen it too, but it can be useful - thanks for the info about the drives 😉

Kadath wrote:

This tower: […]
Show full quote

This tower:

The friend of mine that saved it from certain death told me it's a 486 DX-33, not sure about it... I have not opened it yet.

You didnt keep the super nice full size tower case?

Kadath wrote:

In the first one, a nice and never found before adapter for older floppy-flats to 'newer' one, with pins... strange; two CDRoms by Creative, maybe part of a kit? One of them was attached to the SoundBlaster 16 integrated IDE; the CPU is a 486 DX-33, the friend of mine was right. Nice those mini-speakers to fit the bigger bay of the case, 'Soundisk'.

Very nice stuff! That little floppy adapter is super handy. I managed to end up with a few over the last couple years and I actually had a perfect use for one. Adding a 3.5" floppy to my IBM 5150 while also keeping the original 5 1/4 floppy installed. Finding a floppy cable that had the correct spacing and connectors proved to be impossible since it needs to have one of the large 5 1/4 type connectors on the driver controller end (5150 has a floppy card). I couldn't just use a standard cable backward because the twist has to be between the drives (moving a connector or moving the twist proved to be very unreliable). After cobbling together many things, I eventually got my hands on one of those little adapters and all I had to do was use the original floppy cable for this system with 3x 5 1/4 type connectors, stick the adapter on one end and use that for my 3.5". Wonderful little things. 😀

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Kadath wrote:

This tower: […]
Show full quote

This tower:

The friend of mine that saved it from certain death told me it's a 486 DX-33, not sure about it... I have not opened it yet.

You didnt keep the super nice full size tower case?

omg, if i'm reading his post right, he didn't. and that really triggers me. The internals are WORTHLESS compared to the case. Jesus tapdancing christ, I'll be in my angry dome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiCZP09F6FQ

And.....

No. I just have no space to keep another tower... Sorry. I had to make a choice, and I kept the other 486 tower case I just had in my bunker.

*sad bagpipe music*

So, you trash a tower that by the sound of it another member would gladly have taken off your hands? Nice...

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Kadath wrote:

This tower: […]
Show full quote

This tower:

The friend of mine that saved it from certain death told me it's a 486 DX-33, not sure about it... I have not opened it yet.

You didnt keep the super nice full size tower case?

I noticed this too and it super-triggered me. I would pay good money for such a nice full tower case and people trash these things. I didn't want to upset the poster so I kept all the RAAAAAAAGE to myself..

appiah4 wrote:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Kadath wrote:

This tower: […]
Show full quote

This tower:

The friend of mine that saved it from certain death told me it's a 486 DX-33, not sure about it... I have not opened it yet.

You didnt keep the super nice full size tower case?

I noticed this too and it super-triggered me. I would pay good money for such a nice full tower case and people trash these things. I didn't want to upset the poster so I kept all the RAAAAAAAGE to myself..

Selfish people will be selfish I guess.

it wasn't selfish, just shortsighted.

So if I collected a couple hundred vintage PC cases and turned them into an art installation at Burning Man would you all still be my bros? 🤣

In the past I've passed on similar cases at garage sales knowing damn well they were headed to the scrap heap. I have also thrown out software and parts in the past only to find out they were fairly uncommon and regretted it deeply later. I've made my fair share of mistakes for sure.

I don't throw away anything, I keep it all. That is why my computer room looks like a dumpster... I need a bigger house. There are places where the floor is full of stuff and I only have a path to walk by.