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fatwizard

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2012
Messages
525
Location
Indiana, USA
Hello everyone. My research on my own vintage systems had led me here so many times, it just seemed I should go ahead and join up. My friends and family all just look at me strange, so maybe I can find someone to discuss my interests with on this forum. I am a computer dinosaur, having been working on and with systems since 1981. I still run a PC service shop in a small town, and in the course of cleaning out the shop I rediscovered my oldest systems. It's been on ever since.

With the exception of my very first computer, an Atari 800, my collection so far includes PC's from the 80's and 90's. My current favorites are my IBM 5150 and 5160. These machines are from just before I started servicing PC's, so I had never really worked on the hardware from that time. I love learning all of their quirks, and listening to them operate.

I am in a state of endless restoration and reconfiguration with these two machines. I with buy a nonworking component off of Ebay, then repair it and test it out my little Juko 8bit motherboard setup as a bench mule for the PC and XT. The XT has currently the 640K motherboard fully populated, full length PC Craft mutlti I/O card with clock, Adaptec 2010 MFM hard drive controller mated to a Rodime 204E full height 40 meg hard drive, CGA graphics with an IBM 5153 monitor, Soundblaster 2.0, Seagate ST01 8bit SCSI controller mated to an external 250 meg hard drive, and one half height 360K 5.25" floppy drive.

The 5150 has the 256K motherboard and two full height 360K floppy drives, a CMS 21 meg hard card fitted with a 31 meg Seagate RLL 3.5" hard drive, CGA with 5153 monitor, Quadboard with 384K ram.

That's how they stand today. I am having a blast with these old machines, and I look forward to a community of like minded folks. I mean you just haven't lived until you've had a 25 year old tantalum capacitor blow up in your face.

Thanks for having me,

fatwizard
 
Well, an official welcome to the forums! With each new system comes the fun of searching through it and repairing. And it seems you're quite experienced in that. I don't know when my "to fix" list will see light at the end of the tunnel.

Most people think that vintage computers is an out-of-the-ordinary hobby to be in. Some of my friends find it neat and obscure at the same time of the concept of vintage computer collecting. They'll go for the newer XP and vista desktops, while at the E-Waste event, I'll say, "If it has 300mb or less hard drives, I'l take it!"
The only thing I've had "poom" in my face is a power supply when I connected it to a shorted-out hard drive. Boy did that thing spew out the magic smoke.

Anyway, enjoy it here and hae fun with your vintage computers.
 
Howdy. When I was a kid, a friend of mine got a kick out of popping electrolytic caps. I kinda put up with it, since he had the computer, and I didn't.
fatwizard said
My friends and family all just look at me strange,
Click to expand...
Hey, I work with a bunch of Dr. Who-loving geeks, and I get strange looks.
patscc
 
patscc said:
Hey, I work with a bunch of Dr. Who-loving geeks, and I get strange looks.
Click to expand...
I sometimes and sometimes don't get the same reactions for watching the British comedy lineup on PBS on Saturday nights. When "Are You Being Served?" comes on, it brings the remarks of, "Now how old is this show?"
 
I'd never, seeing as how she's your daughter :)
I respect my elders, even multiple generations removed.
Seriously, though, I just don't think I could ever measure up, seeing as how I dropped the glass of water I was bringing Mr. Granger all over Mrs. Slocum's pussy, which was already wet from the aftermath of Mr. Harmon's wellie display, which ...
patscc
 
Welcome to the forums! Glad you're enjoying the spirit of the hobby :) Sounds like you'll be a good fit here.
 
Rick Ethridge said:
You haven't lived until you've let the vacuum out of a green-screen TRS-80 Model 4 picture tube :-( .
Click to expand...

You may have been working with too much dark. If you had some more dark suckers, you probably wouldn't have let the vacuum out.
 
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