• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Search results

  1. P

    5153 convergence and sharpness

    I've seen some sharp CGA images on these forums now and again while my 5153 doesn't look so good. I've tried adjusting the convergence and screen focus as best as I can, but I can see they need more work. Are there any other issues that might affect sharpness that should be corrected first...
  2. P

    Mac Plus, error after installing 6.05 on HD, "System file may be damaged"

    The Mac Plus in my collection has 4MB ram and a recently-added external SCSI drive, a 170 MB Connor I think, non-"Apple" in any case. It had System 7 on it which had some issues booting with extensions applied, but otherwise didn't exhibit any other problems. The Apple HD SC Setup Utility...
  3. P

    HP Apollo 9000 owners: ever found a sticky residue on the HIL keyboard cable?

    Everytime I unearth my 9000/735 to see if it still works I find the coiled-type keyboard cable is wet with an oily residue, no doubt leaching plasticizer from the vinyl. It's 25 years old now and seems have an endless supply of the oily stuff as I clean it just about every year and it just gets...
  4. P

    Collectors with ATs running on 230VAC mains may want to replace their EMI filter caps

    ... before they let loose in a cloud of acrid smoke ... My AT had not been run for about a year and has never been run on 230 VAC before. After setting the 115/230 switch correctly it booted and ran fine for about three minutes, then I heard what sounded like a loud grinding noise then a...
  5. P

    IBM 5153 (CGA monitor) line voltage range

    While investigating ways to convert my North American-procured 5153 from "120 VAC" over to 230 VAC, I noticed the design of the internal switching power supply may not actually preclude handling both input voltages. Looking further, I found this quote in the manual on minuszerodegrees.net...
  6. P

    Hidden hard disk in 5150

    Not sure if anyone's utilized this cubbyhole before but a 1" high 3.5" drive fits nicely under floppy drive B in a 5150 chassis without substantially ruining the standard appearance. I found a spare tray and glued it in place. The drive is a Conner 170 MB SCSI and the 8-bit controller is an...
  7. P

    Long-term survival strategies for my PC collection

    In the "IBM PC" category, for space reasons, I've kept just two complete 5150s and one 5170 system, selected from many over the last two decades. My interest is purely as a collector, not a "user." I did the "using" in the '80s and am mostly done with that! But my three examples are in...
  8. P

    Some general ramblings on my troubleshooting of the IBM 5153 CGA monitor

    It's the middle of winter now and with a cold, rainy day on hand, what better time to fire-up the old IBM PCs and see what catches alight? This year's failure is the 5153 CGA monitor, my only one. Since I have only three IBM monitors for three IBM computers, I would prefer not to lose it...
  9. P

    Artisoft NE-3 and NE-2 Ethernet cards, jumper settings needed

    Anyone have this info? I've reached the end of the internet looking for this. My cards are marked SC&S, who appear to be the manufacturer of the apparently-identical to Artisoft branded cards with the same part numbers. They are for thin coax or AUI media. The NE-3 is 8-bit while the NE-2 is...
  10. P

    Newark Electronics selling SCSI-2 external cables cheap US$4.65, NZ$6.45, AU$6.05

    This is the common 3-ft cable with 50-pin high-density connectors that nearly every mid-'90s workstation uses on the narrow, single-ended SCSI bus. They must have finally figured out that they are obsolete and have over 300 in stock. The minimum order quantity is (1) on the US site and (200)...
  11. P

    NYT video on collecting computers

    Interesting video from the NY Times today http://nyti.ms/1Gm1omE
  12. P

    Welcome to MS-DOS Mobile

    I did not see this posted elsewhere, apologies if it was: Welcome to MS-DOS Mobile
  13. P

    Dallas RTC DS1287 re-battery on Personal Decstation 5000/25

    After successful surgery re-batterying all the ST-brand RTCs on my (3) SUNs, I've attempted this on the Dallas part in the DEC, which is slightly more difficult due to the half-baked "bent pin" design, and being soldered in place. Bottom line is that the computer doesn't boot to firmware...
  14. P

    IBM 5151 monochrome monitor - how to convert to worldwide voltage

    Gidday people, My winter project has been to investigate if it's possible to convert several 110VAC-only items in my much-loved IBM collection to run on our country's unforgiving 230 VAC mains. I dislike modifying things from stock but will do so when the chance of an accident is significant...
  15. P

    Fake chips in IC catalogs

    Does anyone remember the fake chips that could be found in some IC catalogs? Other than the Signetics write-only memory that seems to be well-documented, I thought there were others, including some in the famous orange Texas Instruments TTL books.
  16. P

    Identify these quarter-inch tape drives..

    Can anyone identify the two drives at the rear of the photo ... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Vintage/auction-280502908.htm thanks ...
  17. P

    Irix 6.2 efs filesystem on HD - access from other OS's?

    I have the classic problem of how to delete the root password in /etc/passwd on my newly-acquired SGI Indy. It's my first SGI, running IRIX 6.2 with the efs filesystem. I don't have any IRIX media unfortunately. The machine runs perfectly otherwise and it's essential I don't damage the disk -...
  18. P

    New score today in NZ ... SGI Indy

    The SGI Indy made me drool when it first came out, I wanted one so bad. One showed up this week on our ebay-equivalent "TradeMe" and so I took a chance, bid to win it and got for the equivalent of about US$75. These, like any '90 unix workstations are very rare in this country and usually they...
  19. P

    Wanted: IBM AT 360KB beige floppy faceplate

    The one with the star * on the front. I just need the faceplate, preferably in excellent non-yellowed condition. Lower one in pic below:
  20. P

    Accessing a Windows XP Network under DOS

    After years of fussing around with external SCSI hard disks to back-up and move data to and from my nearly-stock 5170, I've finally managed to get the AT to recognize my home network and been able to mount (read/write) a shared folder on my daily-use WinXP machine. This will tremendously...
Back
Top