chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-08, 03:40:

I've been using a two speed electric leaf blower for the past 15 years and it works great. I just keep it on it low setting and it get my computer's clean.

For those who don't know, only ever use the blow feature of a vacuum cleaner when near the inside of computer electronics. I read something about static electricity when you use the sucking action.

That being said, I do vaccum the front panels, expansion bays, and fan exhaust areas of computer cases without disassembling them and haven't had any problems.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-08, 19:09:

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-08, 03:40:

I've been using a two speed electric leaf blower for the past 15 years and it works great. I just keep it on it low setting and it get my computer's clean.

For those who don't know, only ever use the blow feature of a vacuum cleaner when near the inside of computer electronics. I read something about static electricity when you use the sucking action.

That being said, I do vaccum the front panels, expansion bays, and fan exhaust areas of computer cases without disassembling them and haven't had any problems.

I do the same with the crevice tool to my front vents if dog hair get built up but that's all. For regular cleaning I use my blower.

I also use compressed hair inside and on the circuit boards. But I always get the major dust buildup with the vacuum first. I don't want to just shoot it out into my apartment. If there is a lot of dust, I'll take it into the hallway or outside first.

I either go out on the back deck or the driveway to keep any of the dust from getting back inside the house.

Yah, I got that computer vacuum setup converted from a car vacuum, I was messing with, with dollar store flex/crack tube toys for hoses, that works pretty well for getting the rough off, though it looks like a plumbus ordered from wish. It's that packed/caked fine dust that's annoying me right now.

Spent approximately an hour attempting to get an external modem to be detected. Swapped modems, cables, tried umpteen configurations. Wondered how my teenage-self managed to ever get anything working on these machines.

Eventually discovered the serial port itself was disabled on the controller card. Moved one little jumper and suddenly everything worked.

Also, downgraded my 486 DX2-66 to a 486 DX-33. Who needs an extra 33 MHz anyway?

I was so proud that I managed to install a dual boot system with FreeDOS and XP on a small embedded PC from 2012-ish or so (Zotac Zbox ID80, Atom N2700 CPU, 2GB RAM) until I realized that I would never get sound in DOS from it... it has a Realtek AC97 sound chip and the only possible expansion is through USB ports. No internal ports at all, no serial/parallel... And to add insult to the injury, the manufacturer's driver download page has a DOS section, which goit my hopes up for a second until I realized that it was empty, nothing there. 🙁 My quest for the smallest possible retro machine continues.
(I got so desperate at one point that I even looked at old stuff like Virtual Sound Blaster, and realized what a pain it would be to get to work on this machine, only to get some simulated "soundblaster" sound out of the PC speaker; also it's likely that not even SoftMPU would work because of no serial ports, and I don't think there would be a way to coerce it to work with a USB/serial adapter)

stamasd wrote on 2023-03-09, 11:44:

I was so proud that I managed to install a dual boot system with FreeDOS and XP on a small embedded PC from 2012-ish or so (Zotac Zbox ID80, Atom N2700 CPU, 2GB RAM) until I realized that I would never get sound in DOS from it... it has a Realtek AC97 sound chip and the only possible expansion is through USB ports. No internal ports at all, no serial/parallel... And to add insult to the injury, the manufacturer's driver download page has a DOS section, which goit my hopes up for a second until I realized that it was empty, nothing there. 🙁 My quest for the smallest possible retro machine continues.
(I got so desperate at one point that I even looked at old stuff like Virtual Sound Blaster, and realized what a pain it would be to get to work on this machine, only to get some simulated "soundblaster" sound out of the PC speaker; also it's likely that not even SoftMPU would work because of no serial ports, and I don't think there would be a way to coerce it to work with a USB/serial adapter)

Did you spot this yet? Still in testing though, and not sure how much CPU it absorbs. SBEMU: Sound Blaster emulation on AC97

Debugged the "Fatal System Error" cs:eip of Beneath a Steel Sky with the dos debugger and found out that speech in BaSS on Dos 6.22 does not work when any himem or emm is configured.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-02-12, 21:35:

The issue I have with these large ground planes isn't so much removing the leads; those can just be heated up and pulled out. It's the solder that gets stuck in the hole. No amount of heat, suction, or even heated vacuum pumps will work for some holes, and overworking it often ends up damaging or lifting the pad.

May I suggest a mini drill bit set such as https://www.ebay.com/itm/353304814358

If I have a via on a ground plane that I simply can't get the solder out of, I will use a mini drill bit smaller then the via (typically a bit that is the same size as the leg of the new component) and carefully drill the solder out of the via so I can install the new component. Been doing this for years now, have never had a problem. And it beats putting a lot of heat into the board and possibly damaging it, making future repairs more difficult.

I also use one the these Engineer solder suckers made in Japan......they work great! https://www.ebay.com/itm/325175572327

Fired up a CP/M emulator and had a really great time playing LADDER.

386DX40 wrote on 2023-03-09, 19:52:

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-02-12, 21:35:

The issue I have with these large ground planes isn't so much removing the leads; those can just be heated up and pulled out. It's the solder that gets stuck in the hole. No amount of heat, suction, or even heated vacuum pumps will work for some holes, and overworking it often ends up damaging or lifting the pad.

May I suggest a mini drill bit set such as https://www.ebay.com/itm/353304814358

If I have a via on a ground plane that I simply can't get the solder out of, I will use a mini drill bit smaller then the via (typically a bit that is the same size as the leg of the new component) and carefully drill the solder out of the via so I can install the new component. Been doing this for years now, have never had a problem.

Ditto, drill them if they don't come out on a couple of attempts with the sucker. Though another trick I have is getting a stainless steel needle, heating it to glowing and stuffing that through the hole.

You will most likely destroy the via if you use a drill bit. This can have unintended consequences if the layout expects continuity along the traces on both sides of the board. Just heat up the component leg and push it through. No need to risk drilling anything.

Plating on the via is harder than solder you can feel your way down it real easy as long as you're using a bit that's small enough, cavemen who are gonna attack it at 5000 rpm with a 1/8 drill bit probably broke the board over their knee first.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-03-09, 15:35:

Did you spot this yet? Still in testing though, and not sure how much CPU it absorbs. SBEMU: Sound Blaster emulation on AC97

Oh wow, thank you. I'll have to try it. I don't know if it will work for me, because at first sight my case is not supported (Realtek AC97, not Intel). But it never hurts to try.

Actually it does install on the Realtek chip in the Zbox. It detects it as Intel HDA. But... none of the games I tried work with it. 🙁

Messing with a Mannesmann dot matrix someone gave me:

The ribbon's well used, but the printer works fine. Found a few replacement cartridges on ebay for a reasonable price, so I'll get to replacing it soon.
May actually have a use for this thing.

yourepicfailure wrote on 2023-03-10, 08:29:

Messing with a Mannesmann dot matrix someone gave me: printer.jpg […]
Show full quote

Messing with a Mannesmann dot matrix someone gave me:
printer.jpg

The ribbon's well used, but the printer works fine. Found a few replacement cartridges on ebay for a reasonable price, so I'll get to replacing it soon.
May actually have a use for this thing.

It is happily chirping away some characters. I know they are a manufacturer of tools (Mannesmann Werkzeuge), is this the same company?

It says "Mannesmann Tally" so I can't be sure they're related.

Also, is it normal for the printer to squeeze the print to a little over half the page? I made sure it's set to letter, 8.5x11.

I've been struggling A LOT with my MG-38606 motherboard with 486DLC. It has two problems: 1. RTC clock stops when powered of (i can live with that) 2. it gets unstable when warms up (i have swapped everything including cache-chips but nothing helps)

It has some Varta-stuff on one corner but nothing serious. But, I'll do full clean job any way to see if that helps. Yesterday I put the whole thing in vinegar overnight and today I'm gonna clean it as good as possible.