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! :)

LOG#1

Yesterday I:

• Played "Batman: The movie" on my ZX Spectrum +2 Grey
• Read "Upgrading and Repairing PCs (1st Edition)"
• Watched "Halt and catch fire - S1E2"

C64's Night #1

So I pulled my Breadbin out of his cardbox to play Double Dragon II: The Revenge. I managed to get to the boss of the second level (of 4 in total)... not to bad I guess! :) Have to try it now on my other machines that support it: Speccy, Amiga, DOS.... maybe the arcade version too on M.A.M.E.

My rates:
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 7/10
Playability: 8/10
TOTAL: 7/10

I also enjoyed seeing Second Reality Demo - The remake of the original PC Demo, this time on the C64...Very impressive!

Wait! A TV set?? Couldn't let it go!

A friend of mine was going to put this beautiful TV in the recycle center. Although my thing is old computers I couldn't let this happen! (maybe one day i connect one of my machines to this baby) :)

It sat for some days in the open! The sun and the rain made their best to destroy the case and some details of the gourgeous 1957 piece of technology were lost.
I don't know yet if it works (I really doubt it) maybe some of the components are missing and I cannot find substitutes... but for now I just love to look to this 58 year old Weltspiegel 853 52331!

New toy - Timex Computer 2068

Got my hands on a "new" 8 bit machine. A TC2068

Problems and to dos:

• Does not have a PSU
• DOA (garbage on the screen) - fixed! was a bad contact with the emulator cartridge. I cleaned the contacts and it works fine now. With and without the emulator! :D
• The "hinge" of the cartridge lit is broken. Don't know how to fix it yet.
• Something is loose inside (its a bit of the plastic hinge)
• Missing one rubber foot
• It's nasty... needs a good cleaning
• It has some scratches.
• OPQZ Keys are fading away
• Screws are in good condition. Don't know if it the unit was opened before.

The bridge!

I need a computer that bridges all the others. A machine that can copy software between the various systems and technologies. So that i can, for instance, copy files from a USB stick to a 5 1/4" floppy or from a DVD to a ZIP drive or a tape. The ideal system must have as many interfaces as possible. Latest systems lack some of the legacy interfaces that i want, like Floppy connectors, parallel port, etc... older computers don't have the new conectors i need, like USB or SATA. I figured then that maybe a pentium 4 class machine with a good motheboard would be ideal.
My choice was an ASROCK 775V88+ Pentium 4 LGA775 motherboard because it has many of the interfaces I want:

• 2 x SerialATA 1.5Gb/s connectors
• 2 x ATA 133/100/66 IDE connectors
• 1 x Floppy connector
• CD/AUX audio in header
• 8 x USB 2.0 port
• 1 x Serial port (COM1)
• 1 x Parallel port (LPT1)
• 1 x Audio port ( Line In/Out, Mic In)

It has also 5 PCI slots available, but no ISA of course. I'll use one of them to connect a wireless network card. The rest will be empty for now.

Some pictures:

Cleaning the case. The bottom is a little bit oxidated.

Shining new!

The box has an open game port cover plate. I will close it with a connector i have in stock. Good thing this planar has a game port too!

Nice!

The clean motherboard in the clean case. Pentium4 3.4Ghz + CPU FAN and 2+2GB of RAM instaled.

I don't have nothing better than this old GeForce4 440. It should be enough!

 

Graphics installed! Looks great I think!

Hardware testing session

I have recently assembled two mahines out of my electronics "garbage". The Osicom Gold 486 (this one has most of the original hardware) and a Generic Win98 era machine - a Pentium // 400Mhz.
In this session I used an old MS-DOS based diagnostics software (PC Diagnostics '95) to test both computers. All went good, but the pentium// needs a new CMOS battery.
Also, the 400MB HDD from the 486 sometimes has trouble to wake up! :/

The 486DX33 Osicom Desktop computer, working like a tower in this case to save space. I removed the stickers to apply retr0bright sometime soon.

Win98 bootdisk

PC Diagnostics 95 - Summary screen

Some CPU tests

The "failed" on the motherboard test was the PS/2 mouse. It wasn't connected.

All fine with the keyboard controler.

Direct Memory Addres controlers

Testing base memory

The extended memory. This system has an odd 20MB RAM. (16+4)

Testing Cache memory

I don't have an LPT loopback connector. It obviosly failed this test. That's fine!

Same for de serial ports.

Disk Controllers

Floppy

IRQ table. I can see IRQ11 on the network card. That will be useful!

The lazy Maxtor HDD passed all the tests! humm...

Network Card

Memory Map

The integrated Cirrus Logic Card. Only 512KB VRAM. That explains why I can't run WinNT3.1 at 800x600 256colors I guess! :(

Adicionar legenda

All Ok!! Lets go to Windows now! Booting...

Very important to password protect this dinossaur! LOL

This is how I used to arrange my desktop back in the early 90's! :D I used Windows 3.1 though!

The Pentium 2 - 400Mhz - In a Suprides Tower case from the late 90's. This one is in very good shape and color.

This software only detects 64MB of RAM. I guess it's to old. The computer has 192MB. The Bios detects them and Memtest86+ approves them!

All good with the MB!

The Bios is from 1999 - I don't know if it was updated somewhere in time or not.

The network card has no IRQ assigned to it. Got to fix that.

Memory Map

The graphics card is a Matrox Productiva G100

Levantamento de Motherboads disponíveis

Iniciei um trabalho de levantamento do hardware que possuo. Quem sabe um dia não faço uma base de dados! Seria interessante porque está tudo espalhado e desorganizado.
Ontem juntei todas as motherboards que tenho desmontadas e descarreguei todos os drivers e manuais que encontrei. De uma maneira geral consegui todos os drivers e documentação. Excepção feita às motherboards da era 386 e 486 que não precisavam de drivers.

Testing one of the boards. In this case a socket 462 with a 1Ghz AMD Duron installed. MB, processor and an 133Mhz 256MB SDRAM were all fine! Nice!

I used this old 8x CD-ROM drive from Goldstar to load Ultimate Boot CD for my tests. I remmeber buying this unit back in '96 for (I think) almost 150€!! :p

A nice Forex 486 Mobo. Got to remove that nasty battery!

Wait... there's an 8088 motherboard under your dust!! :p