Retro donation = New toys for the odd geek

Last night I received a donation of obsolete computer junk from my sisters job..Nothing stands out... pretty ordinary stuff, but i was very pleased nonetheless.

I will list exactly what it was but for now I can say that the lot had:

• 7 IDE HDD's  from 20GB to 80GB (mostly 40GB)
• 4 Optical drives (one external from IOMEGA but without the PSU)
• 2 Pentium 4's CPU's socket 478
• 1 ATI Rage 128 AGP graphics card
• A bunch of DIMMS - from 256MB to 1GB (SDRAM and DDR)
• 2 DELL non standard ATX PSU's (one is faulty)
• Several Pata IDE and FDD cables.

The donation includes 4 unknown PC's that I haven't received yet.

:D

2 sick systems

Last night I pulled 2 of my PC's from the shelf: A generic 386DX40 I built some time ago and my 94' OSICOM Gold 486DX33. Both had issues.

The 386 refused to start. It turns on for a split second and then it goes away. I disconnected the power supply from the unit and verified that it does the same even when not connected... so, the problem is in the PSU. I have to check it out. Meanwhile, i ordered an ATX to AT adapter since i'm running out of AT power supplys really quick!

The 486 has a flat Dallas RTC chip. It does not retain the bios configurations. I ordered 3 chips from China because I know I have other boards with the same problem.

I also checked my 94 DELL Optiplex 560/L (Pentium 60MHz) - this one is working fine.

PS/1 2121 - new HDD and error 2401

I Exchanged the PS/1 40MB Hard Disk Drive with a newer (yet pretty old) 8 GB Samsung one. For three main reasons:

1. 40MB? Really?! I need much more to install all the software I want;
2. That's a really old drive and I want to save it;
3. Although i like its retro noise for a while, it tends to be annoying in the long run.

Since I choose to keep the original OS (PC-DOS 4.01) I'm limited to 2GB partitions, that's ok... l'll have four of them. 

Sometimes the computer shows odd symbols on the screen and gives code error 2401 at boot. That code is graphics card related. I also note that it runs slower when that happens. Since the HP PSU gets really hot... I hope the problem is related with that: the computer needs mode juice. I'll put it the "new" EPSON PSU in it and see if the problem goes away.

I created a MEGA Limited Cloud account to store my retro related software... drivers and such. That way things will be available everywhere I have Internet connection and serves as a backup place.

New External PSU for my PS/1

Searching through my junkyard i found the perfect PSU for my IBM PS/1 model 2121.
It's an old EPSON printer unit with the right amount of juice this computer needs,

EPSON PB-6510. / DC33V 1A
Just need to find the time to do the mod now!

IBM PS/1

I'm writing these words on my IBM PS/1 model 2121 computer. The past few days i've been playing around with this old machine and i thought it would be a nice idea to write this blog entry using the computer i'll be talking about. I got this old PC for 10 euros from a fellow enthusiast. He didn't knew if it was working or not because he didn't have the monitor, and the monitor has the PSU in it. So I improvised an old power suply from a HP printer I had laying around solding the cables directly to the motherboard. The computer is working like a charm.
I deeply cleaned it inside and outside. Formated the HDD, installed the original OS and software. I also installed some games and utilities. I am now in the process of testing it. In the next days I will be posting here some photos and describe with more detail all the process.

Fixing a 286 Motherboard

I'm in the process of (trying) to repair a 286 motherboard I have. The battery leaked and destroyed some of the fine traces near the cell.

LOG #2

Today I've been reading the history of computers and articles about notable machines and pesonalitys on a very interesting site: http://www.i-programmer.info/

I also created a Links page that I want to update on a regular basis. The i-programmer.info site will have the privilege of being the first one to arrive! :)