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Hi all, I'm in the market for a replacement 286 motherboard for a computer I am restoring. Unfortunately my current one has a damaged chipset and is beyond economical repair. Looked on eBay, but prices seem heavily inflated for 'untested boards' with catastrophic battery leakage. Figured I...

Well I found the problem, but I think I am out of luck.... I probed around some more on the board, and found multiple problems. The first is that a bi-directional buffer (74F245) which directly interfaces with the ISA bus exhibits the same basic symptoms as the 74F244 above. The outputs are...

Unfortunately I've been down this road before. It's a Vtech clone 286; who used their own in-house motherboards (not an off the shelf one used in many clones). I don't even know if they released a technical reference for it. I have found a problem though! I was working through the glue logic on...

It would make sense it it only impacts the ISA slots - that would explain why the Supersoft diagnostic manages to run. The board uses a number of ASIC's, I don't know if they are used as buffers or as bus arbitrators though. Unfortunately I don't have any technical data on this motherboard...

Hi all, I've got a restoration project on my hands, and I could use some advice on how to proceed.... Basically I have a 286 clone (Laser (Vtech) 286/3) which sat for many years. It worked when stored away, as I was the last to use it (circa 1999). It suffered the usual leaky battery, and also...

Ok, I removed the back cover of the display this afternoon. I was surprised to find it's actually made by Toshiba; a CDU1200 model. I did some googling to try to find a service manual, but came up empty. I don't know if anyone can find / has something similar? I have attached some photos of...

Awesome - Thanks for the replies. I was nervous to keep using the display for fear of burning it out; so I only ran it as long as needed to take those photos. Chuck - I thought it was a Hanatrex initially; but I can't line it up with a particular model. I'll take the cover off tonight and...

Hi all, After about 12 months I have finally found a free day to have a look at my Olivetti M24 (AT&T 6300) colour display. I bought the colour CRT (which is an Olivetti branded one) a while ago and only briefly tested it. At the time I noticed I couldn't adjust the brightness/contrast low...

Hi everyone, After a long break from working on old computers (built a house and took up rally driving) I finally have some free time to spend on this stuff again. Out of nowhere on eBay an M24 complete with color monitor appeared for sale which never happens in Australia.... Of course I had...

Hi all, Just thought I would share this one with everyone as it's a little bit unique. Many years ago I picked up a Wang PC 321/16s (386 SX). I think it came from a charity store of some kind; or possibly was being thrown out at the school I attended at the time. Anyway back in the 90's I...

Hi all, Does anyone know if the backup battery in the 380XD (little button cell with flying leads under the RAM cover) is just a primary lithium cell; or is it a rechargeable lithium cell? From the IBM maintenance manual it says 'do not recharge' which leads to me to believe it's just a...

Hi all, Long story but here's the short of it. I've got a Sun Ultra 5 running Debian 7.1. I installed the latest gcc precompiled from the Debian repositories which worked just fine for about 5 things I had to compile. On the 6th thing (eduke32) I ran into an issue with the gcc suite. The...

Since I'm a bit short on time part 2 will be coming a little later.... Until then here's a couple of (crummy) pictures....

Hi all, I've had a big-win of sorts with my Ultra 5. As some of you know I've started a few threads lately about the Ultra 5; mainly to do with installing Solaris and graphics card hardware. Well after spending about 30+hrs on Solaris 8 I decided that it just wasn't going to cut it. I had two...

Hi all, Sorry for all the Sun/Solaris related questions recently. I'm trying to get my Ultra 5 into a usable configuration and it's far more complex that I thought. My latest problem is Solaris 8 - I want to install some packages to compile software from source. This includes things like gcc...

Hi all, I'm looking into upgrading from the onboard graphics on my Sun Ultra 5 running Solaris 8. Basically the onboard ATI Rage chipset is pretty horrible and seems to be a bottleneck on the system. What sort of card will be compatible? According to Sun literature the only 'official' options...

Hi all, My Apple IIE has had an Appli-Card Z80 card in it for as long as I can remember. Years ago my father used it to run CP/M on the Apple IIE as he hated ProDos. I was too young to remember this (all I really recall is playing choplifter) so I would like to give it a try and see what it is...

Hi all, I've got an Apple IIE here which has been in the family since new. It has been stored indoors and isn't subject to moisture / excessive heat etc. Last time I used it (about 1 year ago) it worked just fine. As usual this is no longer the case..... When I turned it on this afternoon I...

Hi all, I've finally got my Taxan CGA monitor working again and I would like to use it with my Olivetti M24 / AT&T 6300. I did a quick search online and found the instructions for making a converter from the DB25 to VGA, but nothing about a converter for a CGA monitor. According to the...

Hi all, Thought I would tackle one of my 'rainy day' repair projects this weekend. Just thought I would post up what I have discovered; if anyone has any input it is quite welcome. I've got a Taxan Supervision 620 (CGA) monitor which failed a few years ago. I recall that when it failed it was...