New and old PC gear chat. [Archive]

onearmedbandit

27th March 2020, 14:26

On a different note. https://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/vintage/listing-2592164685.htm?rsqid=87f7212f2f084f10bb010b7f41a63 c1c-003

I have two of these in similar condition and $350 is what you'd get for one. Easy to test with a/v cables.

Our neighbours had the Vic20, was fantastic. Then I got a Commodore 64 (tape drive lol), thought I was the shit. Then another friend got the 500, don't think I played the 64 again.

Bonez

27th March 2020, 14:53

Our neighbours had the Vic20, was fantastic. Then I got a Commodore 64 (tape drive lol), thought I was the shit. Then another friend got the 500, don't think I played the 64 again.Kids had a couple of C64s. My brother had a really nice Amiga 500 set up. Hard drive. colour dot matrix printer and a few other goodies. Tons of games. Wished I'd snagged it when he got rid of it. Went on an Acorn RiscPC binge in 2012-2015(before I got seriously ill) and now have a shit load of Acorn related stuff. Always wanted an Acorn A600 when they were released. At that time I had a 486DX33 made up of hand me down parts as I'd decided very early on buying new was a waste of money. I eventually upgraded that to a 486DX2/66.

Blackbird

27th March 2020, 15:07

onearmedbandit

27th March 2020, 15:17

Kids had a couple of C64s. My brother had a really nice Amiga 500 set up. Hard drive. colour dot matrix printer and a few other goodies. Tons of games. Wished I'd snagged it when he got rid of it. Went on an Acorn RiscPC binge in 2012-2015(before I got seriously ill) and now have a shit load of Acorn related stuff. Always wanted an Acorn A600 when they were released. At that time I had a 486DX33 made up of hand me down parts as I'd decided very early on buying new was a waste of money. I eventually upgraded that to a 486DX2/66.

I still have a Sinclair Spectrum! Ditched the old case with rubber keys and bought the Spectrum Plus case. Built my own interface for the joystick so that I could play Tornado Low Level properly :facepalm: . Somewhere, I still have the high speed tape drive that Sinclair developed. Haven't seen it for years though.

All good gear in it's day. I'm glad I had to experience waiting an hour and a half for Gauntlet to load, 20% having to reload it. Now I'm running an i7 9700, 32GB ram and RTX2080 GPU. A system like that allows me to run VR at 90fps with the candy all turned up. What I have today is here thanks to systems like the C64 (yes more thanks to PC's but they didn't hook me in initially).

To keep some sort of relevance to the thread, the PC ran me close to $4k (the VR another $2500). I've seen people trying to sell PC's lower spec than mine for close to $5k, mostly because they have more flashing lights in their cases. And on a motorcycling note, damn I wish something like Isle Of Man 2 supported VR. I mostly drive cars and fly jets in VR.

george formby

27th March 2020, 15:29

And on a motorcycling note, damn I wish something like Isle Of Man 2 supported VR. I mostly drive cars and fly jets in VR.

I never thunk of that! Sat on the bike in the shed with latest Oculus wireless VR head set, at the TT. :banana:

Bonez

27th March 2020, 16:00

I still have a Sinclair Spectrum! Ditched the old case with rubber keys and bought the Spectrum Plus case. Built my own interface for the joystick so that I could play Tornado Low Level properly :facepalm: . Somewhere, I still have the high speed tape drive that Sinclair developed. Haven't seen it for years though.Still an avid following for those still.

All good gear in it's day. I'm glad I had to experience waiting an hour and a half for Gauntlet to load, 20% having to reload it. Now I'm running an i7 9700, 32GB ram and RTX2080 GPU. A system like that allows me to run VR at 90fps with the candy all turned up. What I have today is here thanks to systems like the C64 (yes more thanks to PC's but they didn't hook me in initially).

To keep some sort of relevance to the thread, the PC ran me close to $4k (the VR another $2500). I've seen people trying to sell PC's lower spec than mine for close to $5k, mostly because they have more flashing lights in their cases. And on a motorcycling note, damn I wish something like Isle Of Man 2 supported VR. I mostly drive cars and fly jets in VR.I'd imagine the kids would enjoy it as well. My first x86 system was a flip top 286/16 system, 1 meg of ram,256kvga card, 14" 28 dot pitch vga crt, 1meg of ram, a 40meg hdd, 101 key keyboard, joystick, 2 button mouse and a 9 pin dot matrix printer. Loaded it with DR Dos 6, GeoWorks Pro and various other software including games of course. Got updated over the years to have a sound card(first was a Activision Thunderboard), modem, nic and ended up as a Pentium 133 iirc and past on to a family mdember. Original configuration as a 286/16 was $2400 at the time and a meg of ram cost $100 a stick of 30 pin sipp/simm. Learnt a lot on that 286.

sugilite

27th March 2020, 17:34

I started on the mighty Sinclair ZX81, then upgraded to the BBC.
I remember hours of coding in games from magazines, then again, more hours looking for the bugs in said magazines code :laugh:

Bonez

27th March 2020, 18:15

I started on the mighty Sinclair ZX81, then upgraded to the BBC.
I remember hours of coding in games from magazines, then again, more hours looking for the bugs in said magazines code :laugh:A mate gave me the complete hard copy set of the UK mid '80s Marshall Cavendish INPUT magizines. These covered 8-bit computers of the period. You can get the pdfs with the program listings https://archive.org/details/inputmagazine

onearmedbandit

27th March 2020, 18:35

sugilite

27th March 2020, 20:22

A mate gave me the complete hard copy set of the UK mid '80s Marshall Cavendish INPUT magizines. These covered 8-bit computers of the period. You can get the pdfs with the program listings https://archive.org/details/inputmagazine
Cheers for the tip :yes:

lol been there done that. God it was torturous.
It sure was lol
Putting 20 cents in a slot never looked so tempting after a few of those sessions lol
Mame emulators are interesting for those ;)

Bonez

27th March 2020, 20:37

Cheers for the tip :yes:

It sure was lol
Putting 20 cents in a slot never looked so tempting after a few of those sessions lol
Mame emulators are interesting for those ;)No worries. I find the artwork on those mags fascinating as well. Well before I was interested in computers. More having to later on because of my job at Air Staff in Wellywood. Direct Acess was the menuing setup, Wordstar2000 was the primary word processor in the mob before we moved over to Word on Win 3.1. DBase III and Lotus123 being the other biggies before everything went MS Windows based..

The Raumai Aircraft Weapons Range was run by a 286 hooked up to some pretty fancy hi resolution recording gear. The young airman could bring out their trail bikes, on the back of the service Toyota Hi-Lux ute, for playing on the fire breaks between sorties. Used them for putting up and pulling down the boundry safety flags too. Had a Hino fire truck out there as well in case of the dry grass catching a light, which happened or for controlled burn offs around the target area.

sugilite

28th March 2020, 11:05

No worries. I find the artwork on those mags fascinating as well. Well before I was interested in computers. More having to later on because of my job at Air Staff in Wellywood. Direct Acess was the menuing setup, Wordstar2000 was the primary word processor in the mob before we moved over to Word on Win 3.1. DBase III and Lotus123 being the other biggies before everything went MS Windows based..

The Raumai Aircraft Weapons Range was run by a 286 hooked up to some pretty fancy hi resolution recording gear. The young airman could bring out their trail bikes, on the back of the service Toyota Hi-Lux ute, for playing on the fire breaks between sorties. Used them for putting up and pulling down the boundry safety flags too. Had a Hino fire truck out there as well in case of the dry grass catching a light, which happened or for controlled burn offs around the target area.
Sounds like your computer work got you out and about! I was largely trapped in a windowless (no pun intended) bunker with water cooled SNA driven IBM mainframes for company when working for the old GCS (Government Computing Services) as a Network Controller.
I remember all the software you mention, except DBase III. And ahhh yes, the venerable old 286, eye watering price, no wonder it inspired clone wars!

Bonez

28th March 2020, 13:42

Sounds like your computer work got you out and about! I was largely trapped in a windowless (no pun intended) bunker with water cooled SNA driven IBM mainframes for company when working for the old GCS (Government Computing Services) as a Network Controller.
I remember all the software you mention, except DBase III. And ahhh yes, the venerable old 286, eye watering price, no wonder it inspired clone wars!You generally got moved around every three years or so. Not bad if you stay on the same base. I picked up a 1990 Zenith Z286LP Plus (286/12) a while back in a car boot lot of basicly old computer crap for $20 just around the corner. Quite a nifty compact wee unit and designed from the outset to run Windows 3.0. It takes 8meg of ram which was quite unusual at the time and had the option of upgrade to a 386SX. I've maxed it out and replaced the dead hdd. Was given a Redstone XT Turbo from a mom and pop computer repair shop over in Hastings. The guy was an Amiga nut and had a lot of cool stuff. Anything he couldn't use or didn't want he'd just place by the front door for anyone to grab.

F5 Dave

28th March 2020, 13:56

No worries. I find the artwork on those mags fascinating as well. Well before I was interested in computers. More having to later on because of my job at Air Staff in Wellywood. Direct Acess was the menuing setup, Wordstar2000 was the primary word processor in the mob before we moved over to Word on Win 3.1. DBase III and Lotus123 being the other biggies before everything went MS Windows based..

The Raumai Aircraft Weapons Range was run by a 286 hooked up to some pretty fancy hi resolution recording gear. The young airman could bring out their trail bikes, on the back of the service Toyota Hi-Lux ute, for playing on the fire breaks between sorties. Used them for putting up and pulling down the boundry safety flags too. Had a Hino fire truck out there as well in case of the dry grass catching a light, which happened or for controlled burn offs around the target area.
Bullseye bombscoring, weird I had a dream about that the other day. We ended up with the spare cameras, think we gave them to the airforce.

Bonez

28th March 2020, 14:17

]Bullseye bombscoring, weird I had a dream about that the other day. We ended up with the spare cameras, think we gave them to the airforce.That's the one. Had a break in at the main tower (Master Quadrent) one weekend. Luckily they couldn't get to the the second floor to pinch the batteries or the cameras stored in their cases.We had three cameras (JVC iirc). With a back up spare held at Ohakea. One in the Slave Quadrent(tower) and two set up in the Master Quadrent to triagulate were the bombs and rockets hit the sand.. The recorder was a BETA type and the RSO(Range Safety Officer- gererally a young Flying Officer or Pilot Officer from 14 or 75 Squadron) would take the tape and score printout done on a 24 pin dot matrix printer back to Ohakea for debriefing.

Looking out at sea from Master Quadrent and seeing a couple of jets coming towards you below the top of the sand dunes was an eye opener. The Master tower would shake an rattle when they past by.

onearmedbandit

28th March 2020, 15:08

S
I'd imagine the kids would enjoy it as well. My first x86 system was a flip top 286/16 system, 1 meg of ram,256kvga card, 14" 28 dot pitch vga crt, 1meg of ram, a 40meg hdd, 101 key keyboard, joystick, 2 button mouse and a 9 pin dot matrix printer. Loaded it with DR Dos 6, GeoWorks Pro and various other software including games of course. Got updated over the years to have a sound card(first was a Activision Thunderboard), modem, nic and ended up as a Pentium 133 iirc and past on to a family mdember. Original configuration as a 286/16 was $2400 at the time and a meg of ram cost $100 a stick of 30 pin sipp/simm. Learnt a lot on that 286.

Yeah the kids love it, sleep overs always involve a lot of fun VR games.

Computer prices never come down huh, just we get better tech.

Bonez

28th March 2020, 15:37

Yeah the kids love it, sleep overs always involve a lot of fun VR games.

Computer prices never come down huh, just we get better tech.Basicly. The 286 was the only system I ever bought new. Connie bought this laptop and I've inherited her 7" Samsung tablet when she updated that. Got about an eighth of a double garage with so called legacy hardware and software. My main erea of interest is operating systems and graphical desktop enviroments used in the past(pior to 2001). Not really a gamer as such but have a lot of boxed Dos stuff. Got a Dec 486DX2/66 setup running OS/2 v3 with OS/2 Server v4 network client installed.

onearmedbandit

28th March 2020, 15:57

Basicly. The 286 was the only system I ever bought new. Connie bought this laptop and I've inherited her 7" Samsung tablet when she updated that. Got about an eighth of a double garage with so called legacy hardware and software. My main erea of interest is operating systems and graphical desktop enviroments used in the past(pior to 2001). Not really a gamer as such but have a lot of boxed Dos stuff. Got a Dec 486DX2/66 setup running OS/2 v3 with OS/2 Server v4 network client installed.

I've never been a big gamer, but a passing interest I guess. VR is quite interesting for me, I can definitely attest to it helping with my pain. It took a little for my brain to grasp the concept of seeing a left arm in action but while it still can affect me poorly sometimes for the most part it helps to lower the volume one or two notches.

Bonez

29th March 2020, 07:24

I've never been a big gamer, but a passing interest I guess. VR is quite interesting for me, I can definitely attest to it helping with my pain. It took a little for my brain to grasp the concept of seeing a left arm in action but while it still can affect me poorly sometimes for the most part it helps to lower the volume one or two notches.Good to see you are getting some benefif from it. Understand where you are comiing from wrt constant pain. Connie is in pain 24/7 due to arthritis but she still manages to do some fantastic art work on her scrollsaw. Once shes behind that she can be at it for hours without interruption or until I bring her out a cuppa.

Just fired my 286/12, loaded the nic packet driver, winpkt. fired up win 3.1 with Trumpet Winsock, loaded the pirch16 irc client and am chatting with a Discord channal over their irc bridge.. Or I could just load the nic packet driver and run the mTCP irc client in Dos to connect up..

pete376403

29th March 2020, 19:30

Yeah the kids love it, sleep overs always involve a lot of fun VR games.

Computer prices never come down huh, just we get better tech.

Oh I dunno. recall when a big plastics factory blew up in Japan about 20 or so years ago, they made something that was essential to computer RAM. Prices spiked at over $100/MEG - you could get 8Gig for that now

onearmedbandit

29th March 2020, 20:02

Oh I dunno. recall when a big plastics factory blew up in Japan about 20 or so years ago, they made something that was essential to computer RAM. Prices spiked at over $100/MEG - you could get 8Gig for that now

True but an anomaly.

TheDemonLord

30th March 2020, 08:07

"Put hand in pocket"

Now, let's see who knows what that is in reference to...

Bonez

30th March 2020, 08:56

"Put hand in pocket"

Now, let's see who knows what that is in reference to...The pocket you cut the insert out of? You dirty fucker.....:tugger:

Prevent static discharge or earthing yourself ZAP!!! KILL!! BOOM!!!!.....CRTs especially.

TheDemonLord

30th March 2020, 09:03

The pocket you cut the insert out of? You dirty fucker.....:tugger:

Nope.

think VERY old game.

And pissing difficult too.

Bonez

30th March 2020, 09:11

Nope.

think VERY old game.

And pissing difficult too.When you so VERY old '70s, 80s or '90s? I was never much of a gamer.

TheDemonLord

30th March 2020, 09:25

When you so VERY old '70s, 80s or '90s? I was never much of a gamer.

late 70s to early 80s I think.

The game is older than I am.

Bonez

31st March 2020, 08:28

Computer communication the old skool way. 286, Dos packet driver, Dos irc client, 10mps nic, 10/'100Mps switch connected to the isp router.:shifty:
345071

Jeeper

31st March 2020, 11:50

Our neighbours had the Vic20, was fantastic. Then I got a Commodore 64 (tape drive lol), thought I was the shit. Then another friend got the 500, don't think I played the 64 again.Commodore 64 with a tape drive was my first personal computer at home. Loading games from the tape was always hit and miss if the drive head was either dirty or slightly misaligned.

At university, we used IBM 5150s. They were fun, but could easily be used as a personal heating device.

pete376403

31st March 2020, 11:55

"Put hand in pocket"

Now, let's see who knows what that is in reference to...

Adventur? Entirely text based, I played in on IBM NZs mainframe system. Usually got hopelessly lost in the "maze of little twisty passages, all alike" or maybe it was the "maze of little twisty passages, all different"

TheDemonLord

31st March 2020, 12:06

Adventur? Entirely text based, I played in on IBM NZs mainframe system. Usually got hopelessly lost in the "maze of little twisty passages, all alike" or maybe it was the "maze of little twisty passages, all different"

Ooooooo Very Close, you're correct it's a Text Based game!

Bonez

31st March 2020, 12:16

Colossal Cave Adventure?

Should ask my vintage comp bubbies over at vcf,com or vogons.org. Vogons is more x86 orientated though. To a lot of them a P4 is vintage....

onearmedbandit

31st March 2020, 12:48

Commodore 64 with a tape drive was my first personal computer at home. Loading games from the tape was always hit and miss if the drive head was either dirty or slightly misaligned.

At university, we used IBM 5150s. They were fun, but could easily be used as a personal heating device.

Oh yeah, the tape drive...

90mins or thereabouts to load Gauntlet only for it to fail in the last couple minutes.

BuzzardNZ

31st March 2020, 13:15

Oh yeah, the tape drive...

90mins or thereabouts to load Gauntlet only for it to fail in the last couple minutes.

Late in the life of the C64, they developed something called turbo-load, which made the screen flash all kinds of weird colours while the program was loading off the tape. It speed up tape load times to the point where the same program loaded from tape loaded faster than the disk drive in some cases!

onearmedbandit

31st March 2020, 13:54

Late in the life of the C64, they developed something called turbo-load, which made the screen flash all kinds of weird colours while the program was loading off the tape. It speed up tape load times to the point where the same program loaded from tape loaded faster than the disk drive in some cases!

Damn Wish I had had that. Modern tech eh.

TheDemonLord

31st March 2020, 18:07

Colossal Cave Adventure?

Should ask my vintage comp bubbies over at vcf,com or vogons.org. Vogons is more x86 orientated though. To a lot of them a P4 is vintage....

Vogons ;)...

Bonez

31st March 2020, 19:08

Vogons ;)...Lol' Generally a bunch of good cunts. The resident Mac nut has been put in his place. Some interesting shit they come up with. Originated as an emulator support site and PIs ups were the go. A few of us older chaps put that right though.

Gremlin

31st March 2020, 21:07

Bonez

10th April 2020, 15:06

Fially got an area set up again for testing any old kit I get. Currently it has Super Socket 7 mobo with Pentium 166mmx, 128megs of ram, SiS vga card, Realtech network card, 2 port usb2 card and a 8gig ide harddrive with Xandros 3, alo early 2000 linux distro, loaded on it. Had to replace the 2032 cmos battery before everything behaved inself.:banana: Monitor is an lcd tv which takes standard ASUS laptop screens and has a large asortment of out put ports so I can test SAGA consols, old 8-bit systems and a lot more.

pritch

10th April 2020, 21:33

I'm guessing you young uns wouldn't have been around then?

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/08/business/coronavirus-cobol-programmers-new-jersey-trnd/index.html

Bonez

11th April 2020, 07:03

I'm guessing you young uns wouldn't have been around then?

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/08/business/coronavirus-cobol-programmers-new-jersey-trnd/index.htmlI was two in 1960. How old were you pritch?

slofox

11th April 2020, 14:05

I was two in 1960. How old were you pritch?

Dunno about Pritch but I was 12 in 1960.

In the late 1980's, I cut my computer teeth on an Amiga 500 which we boosted to 1000 with a "wonderful and highly advanced" memory pack...I learned a lot from that Amiga. Like how to navigate around faulty start up procedures, (turns out there is indeed more than one way to skin a cat) spread sheets that didn't add up correctly (it's true, I did have one such...which got me into trouble with IRD eventually). And various other workarounds. Like not to share software if you want to avoid a virus infection. I still use some of that experience today.

At present, on my latest machine, I am playing my way through all the old games I haven't played for ages. Like FEAR f'rinstance, and Doom and Quake etc etc etc. Beats reading books all the time.

I'm sure looking forward to a beer in a pub in a week or three...:apint:

pritch

11th April 2020, 16:21

Dunno about Pritch but I was 12 in 1960

I was old enough to have a motorbike licence.

It was surprising to read that so much infrastructure in "the greatest nation on earth" is still based on such an antiquated system.

Bonez

11th April 2020, 16:25

I was old enough to have a motorbike licence.

It was surprising to read that so much infrastructure in "the greatest nation on earth" is still based on such an antiquated system.Because it did what it was suppose to do... Most COBOL programmers are dead, retired or really don't give a shit. There's a few over at vcf.com

Bonez

11th April 2020, 17:14

Turned out the SiS vidio card was flakey on my test. All good now though. Down load some stuff I normally use in linux from the Debian Sarge archives.

FLUB

12th April 2020, 01:49

I've still got a ZX80, ZX81, Spectrum (original rubber keys), Spectrum (rehoused into a proper keyboard), Sinclair Microdrive and the Sinclair printer, that zapped off the surface metal layer to expose the black beneath. Lovely smell of ozone when that was running. I also remember that a friend bought the very expensive 16K (I think) memory pack for the ZX81. I gave him a pack of ciggies to borrow it for a week and then proceeded to reverse engineer it. I think I made and sold around 20 of them for half the price of new ones, still making a nice profit.

I also had a nice little sideline installing replacement ULA (uncommitted logic array) chips into Sinclairs. These basically drove the things and had a heat related problem where you had white letters on a white background. Spraying freezer on the ULA would bring the characters back until the chip heated back up. These chips were coded specifically for Sinclair and were unavailable. Unless you did work occasionally at the Ferranti Oldham factory where they were made [emoji6]

I also have an IBM 386 laptop, which although small for the time, had a power supply the size of a brick. This ran DOS 5 and Windows 3.0, the first version that was released to the public and was well suited to the limited memory of the time. I have the original set of disks for this, including the owners manual, from when they were still provided in book form.

Anyone remember IBM OS2 Warp? Arguably a much better operating system than Windows but unfotunately unable to break the Microsoft grip.

Sent from my CMR-W09 using Tapatalk

Bonez

12th April 2020, 05:37

I.
Anyone remember IBM OS2 Warp? Arguably a much better operating system than Windows but unfotunately unable to break the Microsoft grip.

Sent from my CMR-W09 using TapatalkYip. I have a 486 DECpc with OS/2 v3 and the network client from Warp Server v4 on it. Also have boxded copieis of various versions. Collecting early/old operating systems is a hobby of mine.

pete376403

12th April 2020, 20:25

One of the older items I have is a Microsoft Flight Simulator v1.0 on 3.5" diskette, was used by IBM sales people to prove how clone PCs (mainly those from Exzel - Ellis brothers) were not fully compatible , despite their completely pirated BIOS.

pzkpfw

13th April 2020, 13:19

... Anyone remember IBM OS2 Warp? Arguably a much better operating system than Windows but unfotunately unable to break the Microsoft grip. ...

Proper pre-emptive multitasking!

My first real programming job was for a small company that did industrial control type stuff. One thing I programmed was a pump controller for a rural water supply scheme. Sat on a water tank on a hill, and told the pumps down at the river how hard to work. There was a radio link back to the regional council so they could monitor it all.

486's were still very expensive then so they couldn't dedicate a PC, they wanted to still run Word and Excel * or whatever on it. "Well, you need OS/2 Warp" we said.

A few weeks after go-live they ring to complain it's stopped logging. "What did you change?" we ask. "Nothing!" they said.

Of course, "nothing" actually meant they didn't like OS/2 so had "only" installed Win 3.11 on the PC instead!

(* that was the damned if you do, damned if you don't part of OS/2 Warp. It could run "normal" Windows software. So few wrote anything that made you want OS/2.)

My old computer fun at the moment is messing with Commodore 64 stuff.

Anyone know the specs of the choke on the 9 VAC input? (One of my C-64's has a dodgy power circuit, and that's the one part I can't find on any schematic.)

Bonez

14th April 2020, 17:45

I used Dos/Windows 3.1x well in to the late 90s. Using the Calmira(win9x lookalike for 3.1x) shell near the end. Got Win3.1 loaded on my Zenith Z286LP Plus with 8megs of ram and is my main IRC client setup. The win9x thing just didn't interest me initially. Later I got a second IBM PC300GL mini tower with Windows 98, the original, on it. Served as the families ppp gateway untill we got broadband at home. Still have it in storage.

Just been going though my 2-8gig ide hard drives. Not one has any version of Dos or Windows on it but Linux and OS/2. The OS/2 v3 drives were used for networking by the POs. The Linux drives have various versions of from Turbo Linux 6.0(1999) through to Debian 8.1. It gives you an idea of the progress and non progress of Linux over the years. Some of the drives need reformating an reinstallation of an operating system of some sort.

Bonez

17th April 2020, 12:08

Just going through some random 3.3" floppy disks, remember those? :rolleyes: One had some old screen shots of mine on it. OS/2 v4 shots from 1999 and a Red Hat Linux 7.3 shot from 2014.:eek:

Got Xorg finally set up on my old RH 7.3 drive today. It's a bit like an old freind. Is was my first real serious foray in to getting to know the ins and outs of Linux for primary desktop use.

pete376403

17th April 2020, 15:53

I found some old DPT SmartCache RAID controller cards if anyone wants. Narrow/wide SCSI attach, Have the disks and manuals.

Bonez

19th April 2020, 20:02

Got 2 RiscPCs up and running, Rearrange my old computer test area and storage out in the shed. Tested some old ide drives on Acorn and x86 systems. On one I found DesqViewX, GeoWorks 2.0 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 loaded on it. I'll definitely clone/image that bugger

To give myself a bit of a reward I went for a ride....:innocent:

Gremlin

20th April 2020, 21:35

I got Server 2003 and XP running on HyperV 2016 in other news ;)

Bonez

19th July 2020, 23:39

Picked up a nice Super Socket 7 era AT case with PSU and 3.3" floppy drive. A bit of yellowing on top but that cleaned up well with suger soap, Jif and a scotchbrite pad. I'll transplant the 486 DX2/50 guts in to it so I can clean it's front panel up then sand blast and powder coat the steel top cover. It was used as a Workgroup server back in the day and has an ide interface card with cache ram on it to help speed up file transfers over the network. First one I've come across of that era.

Almost got another Acorn RiscPC sorted out as well.

Bonez

25th September 2020, 04:56

Just replaced Mint Linux 17.3 with Devuan Beowolf. Used the netinstall method. A far better experience. It's snappier by a long margin and a lot more stable. Using the LXQt desktop with is simple and easy to get at applications.

Bonez

26th September 2020, 07:55

Found a nice wifi IP surveillance camera software to use on my Linux system. It is called Xeoma and was very easy to set up. Picked or cap carport camera straight away. It is available for other computer operating systems as well.

https://felenasoft.com/xeoma/en/

Bonez

28th September 2020, 05:07

Found a great site with IP Camera administration logins and passwords.:psst:

https://www.a1securitycameras.com/technical-support/default-username-passwords-ip-addresses-for-surveillance-cameras/

Ordered a cheap one off Trademe and will test that out when we receive it.

Everything with the current set up is running well and even Connie is having a play with it on her 10" Samsung tablet. And I've set viewing /control software on a couple of ancient cheap 7" Android tablets:niceone:

Who said a couple of 61 year olds can't use modern teknowjelly?:shifty:

Just don't put it on my motorcycles.:bash:

Just saying...

Bonez

30th September 2020, 10:15

neels

30th September 2020, 12:41

Connies artheritis in her feet has gotten worse over the last six months so tidied up my hobby computer area so she is less likely to trip over something.

Also got an ol shitter back up and running for use in the shed so we can access the interweb with a decent sized monitor and keyboard.. It's running Linux Mint and is connected to the WLAN.

It's fun mucking around with old stuff, especially if you can put it to good use.

Just saying...

Looking at your pics, your garage would be an ideal new home for the box of stuff I've got sitting in the garage.... ISA/VESA/AGP cards various (sound, video, modem etc), old ram, IDE hard drives...

Must fire up the old P150 that's sitting in the corner and reacquaint myself with windows 98SE some time too.

Bonez

30th September 2020, 13:29

Looking at your pics, your garage would be an ideal new home for the box of stuff I've got sitting in the garage.... ISA/VESA/AGP cards various (sound, video, modem etc), old ram, IDE hard drives...

Must fire up the old P150 that's sitting in the corner and reacquaint myself with windows 98SE some time too.If you really want to get rid of that box of bits flick me a PM neels. I'm always on the hunt for old computer stuff.

Bonez

1st October 2020, 19:46

Quite a productive day setting up the wireless IP cameras today. Received a usb wireless IP camera this morning to set up in the kitchen facing the front of the section. The monitor software I am using on this linux system is called Xeoma. I'm using the free version which allows you to monitor four IP cameras. Set up was very straight forward. Run the basic search in the add camera menu and run the simple IP camera search. So far I've bought:

For under the car port: -10mtr power extention cable, 20 cable holders to fix the cord to the car port frame and a holder for the wireless psu/extention cable connection to protect then from the weather. The carport camera was given to us. Feed the ext cable though the shed after making a hole with a hole saw cutter on a power had drill. Once the cable was feed though the hole made a seal up out of an old frork dust seal with another seal insidnd power adapter.

Monotoring systems:- a couple of Android tablets running iCSee Pro software. Also this 3GHz P4 HP slim line desktop running Linux Mintrunning the MATE desktop enviroment and of course the Xeoma free edition surveillance software mentioned ealier. Works wonderfully well.

All up cost is $140 so far. We'll add anther wireless IP camera and locate it in the conservatory, It'll be the same type we fitted in the kitchen which cost $50 delivered from Auckland. No fancy box or ethernet cabling required. And best of all no MS Windows or MacOS

Bonez

22nd December 2020, 19:36

The idiot druggy/theiving bunch across the road have finally gone. They didn't clean up the house or property on leaving and left a lot of crap laying around. The owner is back from overseas organizing to get the rubbish removed and the house/property prepped for sale. There were two broken HP/Compaq Notebooks left on the drive way. Both had broken screens, one had no HDD or Ram and the other still had it's ram(12Gig and 320gig HDD. The house owner said I could have them so snatched them up.

A few hours later I had one monitorless system up and running with MS Windows 7 installation on i using an external lcd monitor.t. I restored the Win7 back to as sold using the restore partition image, pulled that and fitted a HDD with Linux Mint Debian Edition 4 on it. This system is now set up as my main computer in the lounge anlong with a nice HP LCD monitor I got from Cash Convertors for $10 and accessories I picked up in a NEC/Packard Bell P4 bundle I got off TradeMe. All up under $60 for the whole setup.

Bonez

5th January 2021, 15:50

I had a go at the second dud HP/Compaq CQ62. Pulled the busted lcd panel out, cracked open the system unit, added a new cmos battery, put in some ram and a small SATA hdd in it with a modified hdd holder from some unknown( long gone) system using a round and flat file. A family member gave me A Samsung notebook with the same size lcd panel as the CQ62 that was working but the Samsung system unit had far to many other issues to sort out. Pulled the DVD-RW from the Samsung then fitted it to the CQ62 system unit. Pulled out of the Samsung lcd panel and fitted it in the CQ62 lcd housing. It took a few mods-cut off fthe Samsung lcd mounting tags, a bit of filing and tweaking with a pair of long nose pliers to fit the CQ62 lcd mount attachments to the Samsung lcd panel. Then fitted th panel in to the CQ62 lcd housing.

I tested the CQ62 system unit prior to fitting the new lcd setup with an external lcd monitor. Apart from the wifi card, which I pulled due to the system set up routine not liking it. Fitted another wifi card which the system liked I had removed from another scrapped system. The system booted up just fine, then tested a few things in Linux Mint Debian Edition 4. All hardware was working as it should.

I shut down the system then fitted the lcd assy to the system unit. Fired it up and all was oaky dokey with the complete notebook assembled. I'm very happy with the result. A new computer for me for $nz0 and about 5 leisurely hours of my time.

I'll keep the Samsung notebook mobo for another project I have in mind in the future.

I love the way you can swap/mod these PC thingys.

Gremlin

5th January 2021, 16:44

I love the way you can swap/mod these PC thingys.
You'll love the new gear in a few years. My HP EliteBook X360 has memory soldered to the motherboard, no easy upgrade :lol: The price for portability, slimmer, less weight etc

Bonez

5th January 2021, 18:19

You'll love the new gear in a few years. My HP EliteBook X360 has memory soldered to the motherboard, no easy upgrade :lol: The price for portability, slimmer, less weight etcDoesn't sound good at all.l Using this setup saves 42% in power usage compared with my previous set up and it showed up on last months power bill. It's been a very good learning experience for this 61 year old. Found out there is a computer refurbish store that puts pre used system up for sale at very reasonable prices last month. So will be visiting that a lot for sure. The staff are nice and down to earth.

Getting a set of Workbench 2.1 disks and and manuals for one of my Amiga 600s so I'll be able to set one up with a hard drive ot set up on it because both weren't the A600HDD version the Workbench 2.05s never came with the hdd installation floppy.

Also think I'll update the 386DX33, that was dropped off under the cart port one day while I was at work, to a Cyrix 386DLC33 and Cyrix 387 FastMath math co-processor. The mobo is from 1989 so I don't think I can go up to 40Mhz without changing the board oscillator and I have the 33Mhz Cyrix cpu and math co-pro in a storage drew.

As for future systems I'm betting there will be gamer laptops in abundance I could swap bits around on because they are aways trying to keep will there fellow gamers want the latest and greatest. The equivalent to those bragging that their cock is better, bigger and faster. Bit like some KB members really ;). Or iPhone users queuing up at the latest iPone XYZ release..

Bonez

7th January 2021, 14:51

Popped in to town on Darky to get some rubber domes for on the bottem of the recent CQ62 build. Attached them with Husaberks favorate adhesive " Gorilla Grip" .

The portable behind it in the pic is one of the first laptops from the early '80, a NEC PC-8201A I got from a co-worker when I was at FieldAir. He worked for Telecom back in the day. He also gave me the related service/repair manuals. I just repacked the rechargable battery pack a month ago.

sugilite

7th January 2021, 15:04

Looks like you used a camera from the 80's to take that shot.

Bonez

7th January 2021, 15:26

I absolutely love ignoring KB members who falsely accuse me of posting I am threatening to physically assault them.

Indeed especially one who has been on numerous runs with me in the past.

Just saying...

Bonez

31st January 2021, 19:38

ITT EXTRA|Proffessional 10Mhz Series 8088 system from 1987.

Got ITT EXRA|Profession Series 10Mhz 8088 Model-No. 401470-007 system from 1987 this week. Smaller form factor than my Redstone XT-Turbo system. I really did n't what another XT class system but one was far to good a deal to pass up. It has a 8087 maths co-processor, 768kb of ram stock, a 720k 3.5" fdd with the controller is on the motherboard, the Microscribe HDD and controller which were removed because the hard drive is dead, mono/colour video, and this is icing on the cake-a Rev2 XT-IDE isa card along with CF adapter with 64meg CF with cost more than I paid for the entire system.

Swiiched video from mono to colour, inserted a PC Dos 5 .02 then MS Dos 5a boot disk and both booted up fine on the EGA monitor I have. There seems to be an issue with the XT-IDE set up. I suspect the problem is the mobo jumper settings. The jumpers on the XT-IDE card are set exactly the same as my Redstone Computers XT-Turbo system which boots up the 4gig bigfoot drive just fine.

minuszerodegrees.net has a service manual for an ITT 8088 system but it is for the 1985 model which has a bigger case and vertical ISA slots. He also has the later MS Dos 3.2. The MFM hdd has Dos 3.3 on written with a red permanent maker. If any one has info on the jumper settings or a pdf of the serviced would rapped to have a copy of it. Mobo part no. is 401452-01A

Any way in general in very happy with the purchase.

After quite a while(a few hours) I finally got all jumpers set up correctly. Booting up from a Maxtor 4.2gig IDE hard drive with IBM Dos 5.02 on it. GeoWorks picks up the video out as CGA..I've scibbled the jumper positions on a piece of A4 paper to refer to in future. I'll likely fit an 8-bit vga card in it. More monitor options. I have a high density floppy card,, Activision ThunderBoard sound card, an external SCSI card and a few other 8-bit cards to play about with.. I wont even bother with the CF card reader for the time being. Use the ISA slot it blocks out for something useful .

I'll keep the 720k fdd in it for now. I'm really surprise how quick it boot to the Dos prompt.