How old is "old"? That determines both type and tolerance for parts like this. For late 199os you're talking mainly 6.3v-15V 1000-2200uF electrolytic low-ESR caps. Early 1990s would be tantalums, and I still need to figure out whatever the big flimy thing sparking all over the place in my mid 1980s Olivetti M24 exactly is, although was probably a cap and is now thoroughly dead.

dionb wrote on 2022-06-18, 20:42:

How old is "old"? That determines both type and tolerance for parts like this. For late 199os you're talking mainly 6.3v-15V 1000-2200uF electrolytic low-ESR caps. Early 1990s would be tantalums, and I still need to figure out whatever the big flimy thing sparking all over the place in my mid 1980s Olivetti M24 exactly is, although was probably a cap and is now thoroughly dead.

Don't want to hijack the thread... But, since you are based in Amsterdam, are you the original owner of the M24? We used to have an M24 in the house in the late 80's, my dad worked for the bank (ABN) and they did a project at the bank to give emplyees the opportinuty to get a PC in the house (the bank was "modernising" and was rolling out PCs across all branches, all Olivetti).

The reason I am asking. The PC came with a bunch of software, a word processor and a spreadsheet but also a graphical introduction program that showed you how the PC worked, all done in GW-BASIC (I think it was 2 disks, not sure). I am looking for the software that came with M24 and was wondering if you would mind sharing a copy of it (if you have it).

Mainly 286/386/486 type of motherboards. My 286 has bad zener diodes and well i cant read them 😀 Checking and ordering the caps and tomorrow i notice that i need some other cap for another project to fix. Its a totall mess of ordering parts. Iam now ordering 100nf and 470uf caps for my tape drive from that era, so it would be good to stock some more.

Is that filmy thing in your Olivetti in power supply? Refa's come to my mind if it is.

pan069 wrote on 2022-06-18, 21:00:

dionb wrote on 2022-06-18, 20:42:

How old is "old"? That determines both type and tolerance for parts like this. For late 199os you're talking mainly 6.3v-15V 1000-2200uF electrolytic low-ESR caps. Early 1990s would be tantalums, and I still need to figure out whatever the big flimy thing sparking all over the place in my mid 1980s Olivetti M24 exactly is, although was probably a cap and is now thoroughly dead.

Don't want to hijack the thread... But, since you are based in Amsterdam, are you the original owner of the M24? We used to have an M24 in the house in the late 80's, my dad worked for the bank (ABN) and they did a project at the bank to give emplyees the opportinuty to get a PC in the house (the bank was "modernising" and was rolling out PCs across all branches, all Olivetti).

The reason I am asking. The PC came with a bunch of software, a word processor and a spreadsheet but also a graphical introduction program that showed you how the PC worked, all done in GW-BASIC (I think it was 2 disks, not sure). I am looking for the software that came with M24 and was wondering if you would mind sharing a copy of it (if you have it).

I don't want to continue to hijack the thread, but my father was a developer/consultant for Olivetti and did a lot of work for them doing the kinds of rollouts you describe. I've recently inherited the family home and have found countless boxes of floppy disks that I'm working through. Anything of interest I'm going to archive assuming the disks read properly!

pan069 wrote on 2022-06-18, 21:00:

[...]

Don't want to hijack the thread... But, since you are based in Amsterdam, are you the original owner of the M24? We used to have an M24 in the house in the late 80's, my dad worked for the bank (ABN) and they did a project at the bank to give emplyees the opportinuty to get a PC in the house (the bank was "modernising" and was rolling out PCs across all branches, all Olivetti).

The reason I am asking. The PC came with a bunch of software, a word processor and a spreadsheet but also a graphical introduction program that showed you how the PC worked, all done in GW-BASIC (I think it was 2 disks, not sure). I am looking for the software that came with M24 and was wondering if you would mind sharing a copy of it (if you have it).

Afraid not, I picked it up a few years ago as-is, dead with missing keyboard and no disks. If the HDD still works, I'd need to get it running (as it's MFM, chance of getting the data off with a different controller is minimal) and then see if there was anything left on it.

I know they have two at the Home Computer Museum in Helmond, one of which I donated (unfortunately dead too), and a second one on display which wasn't working either when I was there yesterday. I'm not aware of any software they have, but you could ask just in case.

Thanks to both @paradigital and @dionb.