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    Can a Power Supply for an IBM 5170 be repaired if damaged by shipping carrier?

    I would think it would be OK, especially if it's a later 286 board with a chipset rather than discrete parts like the 5170 had. Though if it were me, I'd probably go with an IDE drive or better yet, compact flash, until I could get a 200W power supply. Then I'd copy the data over to the MFM...
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    Can a Power Supply for an IBM 5170 be repaired if damaged by shipping carrier?

    While 150 watts is on the low side for a 386, a 386 PC with 4 MB of RAM, a simple video card, and modern-ish IDE storage would probably be fine, especially if it's just a temporary arrangement until the repaired 200W unit comes back.
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    1541 Replacement PSU

    I'll second that. I have another hobby, vintage electric trains, and we routinely use transformers from the 1950s. Modernizing them with newer circuit breakers is common, but the transformer core itself is still the same 70-year-old part. And yes, it's normal for a transformer to hum, it's a...
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    1000EX not liking anything but 360K drives?

    Thanks for that! I'm using DOS 6.22. I will give driver.sys a try.
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    1000EX not liking anything but 360K drives?

    Question for everyone that's been stumping me for a few weeks. Has anyone ever encountered a 1000EX that just doesn't like anything but a 360K drive? I swapped in a 3.5" drive, and it wouldn't read good 720K disks. It would happily reformat them as 360K disks though. Swapping in a Gotek didn't...
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    Help with a 5170 type 3 motherboard

    So I got a so-called "untested" IBM 5170 type 3 motherboard. We all know what that means. I tested it for shorts and didn't find any, so I figured it would be safe to plug in a video card in and fire it up. The video card initialized and gave me a display right away, which was awesome, so I...
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    Help with a VLSI chipset/Award BIOS 286 clone board

    I'm hoping someone might be able to help me troubleshoot my 286 clone board. When I power it on, it doesn't display any video but it's giving me beep codes. I installed a POST card to try to help me debug it. It's giving me one long beep after code 18, then it runs through a few more sequences...
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    The villans Gould and Ali

    Information on Irving Gould and Mehdi Ali, the two men who did more to drive Commodore into bankruptcy than any others, isn't always easy to find. So I collected what I could find on the two men in one place, if you're interested in reading about them. Gould...
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    IBM 5155 that needs some TLC

    I have a coworker who's retiring and looking to sell his old IBM 5155 luggable. The video is non-functional, so at the very least it will need some attention in that area. I've seen the machine and it will need some cleanup, but it's in reasonable physical condition. He's looked into what 5155s...
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    Floppy port on a modern motherboard spotted!

    I'm shopping for a motherboard to build a low-midrange PC, and spotted the Biostar A780L3G. It has a floppy connector, and according to the manual, BIOS support for 360k, 720k, 1.2mb, and 1.44mb drives. I can't tell if it supports two floppies or not, but you could always install a 5.25" drive...
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    Twin Cities 128?

    Does anybody know of an online index anywhere of this old, obscure 128-specific publication? I published an article in it sometime near the end of its run, probably 1991 or 92, but can't find a listing anywhere, unlike most other Commodore magazines and newsletters. At one time I had a paper...
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    Dvorak and the $30,000 BBS scam

    John C Dvorak mentioned an old scam in his PC Mag column this week. I think he's mis-remembering, but want to run it past some other people who were around in the BBS era. Here's the money quote: Breaking this down, the best case scenario I can come up with is the following. The BBS would have...
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    Printers?

    I'm looking for some other people's thoughts on printers. I'll try not to make this ramble on too long. In 1996, I bought a lightly-used Lexmark 4039. It was a great printer for me for a very long time. It hated refilled toner cartridges, but I'd buy NOS toner for it when I could find it, and...
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    Happy anniversary, Amiga!

    Just in case you missed it (I sure did), yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the Amiga 1000 launch. Unbelievable. Unbelievable that it's been that long, that is, and that it took so long for the rest of the world to catch up. I upgraded from a Commodore 128 to an Amiga 2000 in 1991, when...
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    PCjr available in St. Louis this weekend, for you St. Louisans

    I found a PCjr at an estate sale this morning. Brentwood/Ladue area. Unfortunately I just don't have the time and resources to mess with it right now. It has a second 360K floppy, and an aftermarket Keytronic 101 key keyboard. I also spotted the books for DOS 2.1 that originally came with it. No...
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    Estate sales?

    Anyone here hunt vintage computers at estate sales? I'm on the prowl every Saturday, but there are a lot of things I look for. Today I got some computer gear, but it was modern stuff--a Logitech USB optical moose (I gave away my spare, so it was good to replace it) and a gigabit switch...
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