Recent content by retro-pc_user

I confirmed the inside was cleaned and lubricated. I found out the VReg IC and two of the 74 ICs went bad because of corrosion that destroyed them. I ordered new parts and I'll see if I can get the system to work again.

When I try to format, I get the initialization failed! message and when I try to copy a word document over to the diskette, it'll say the file "file" couldn't be verified because a disk error occurred. Do you want to continue copying? (Stop) (Continue).

Floppy drive issues left and right. The original would only read diskettes, but it refuses to format or write to diskettes. Not sure if the logic board is having more issues than I thought or I'm having bad luck with floppy drives. I got a replacement one and it does the same thing. Not getting...

That's for connecting hard drives over a COM port, but I'm not sure how that works either. https://minuszerodegrees.net/xtide/Serial%20drive/Serial%20drive.htm Edit: this guide will give you all the deets you need.

I think it looks a bit better. The neck board was slightly tilted (probably because the glue that was on it fell apart or something). It's not an eyesore or anything since I'm not super anal with that. If it was a color TV set, then I'm anal.

Wonderful idea.

I removed all of the capacitors, cleaned the board, patched a dead trace (the multimeter is a wonderful tool to have for checking for bad traces), checked and removed excess solder (I bridged 2 pins on the SCSI controller chip), cleaned the board again with vinegar and 99.9% Isopropyl Alcohol...

I got a Macintosh Classic M1420 from an auction site that had the sad Max error code 0010 and 0014 with pixelated (like a video card with bad VRAM). I decided to power it in and it showed vertical stripes and about a few seconds later, it booted to the Mac System OS (not sure which version) and...

The laptop I was using to diagnose the hard drive had the boot sector virus option enabled and when I ran fdisk /mbr, it reported the drive had a possible virus. After repairing the MBR and running NDD, it sprung to life (mostly). I found a website that could translate those files and a lot of...

I checked the hard drive with Norton Disk Doctor for DOS after I fixed the MBR (had a boot sector virus) and it worked great until it got to the point where it put files into either FILE000X._DD (Norton Disk Doctor file format) or DIR0000X (those have actual files inside of the directories...

Here's an idea: for laptops that have no option for XT-IDE via (E)EPROM chips or a working floppy drive, how about a DOS driver such as XTIDE.SYS before the HIMEM and EMM386? I have a Zenith Data Systems Z-Note 325Lc that has a 2400 baud modem, but no 32-pin EPROMs and I don't know where my...

Tested it with 86Box as a 386DX-25 system and standard IDE controller and it worked. Is there a way that this can be fabricated for hard drive boot sectors? I have a Zenith Data Systems Z-Note 325Lc that lacks a working floppy drive (currently dead and I don't have a spare or a USB floppy drive...

Well, much like my FMA7600 laptops that had dead CMOS batteries, you'll need to enter the actual BIOS password to get in after you replace the clock battery and clear it. Panasonic probably could use the CMOS battery removal, however, if that doesn't work, there might be a list out there for...

This here is what the caddy looks like. I cannot recall if I still have the other one or if I tossed it out. It's been a long time since I've seen it. And if my memory serves for the laptop charger, it's 25VDC 1.6A for charge (pins 1 and 2), and 20VDC 2A for standard input (pin 3 - gnd, pin 4 -...