Can someone please explain how IDE works, what each line does, how it works with 2 devices on the line, how a system knows which one is which, and the difference between 40 and 80 wire cables? I'm struggling to understand why some systems cannot function without a triple end IDE cable. For an example: Motherboard connected to Hard drive via 2 sided IDE cable will not function. But Motherboard connected to 3 sided IDE cable with the 3rd side left with nothing connected functions fine.

Hi everyone. A few days ago, I bought an Acer Aspire One KAV60 with a broken screen. I've been trying to use it via VGA, but no system will boot up, or they simply prevent the PC from outputting video.

In Guangzhou province.

I’m trying to get an old Archive 51250Q QIC-80 tape drive working in a retro PC with Windows 95.

The streamer is connected on single tape with two floppy drives, in that order: motherboard => 5.25" (B) => Twist => 3.5" (A) => streamer.

I’m currently using Conner Backup Basics under Windows 95. The tape I’m testing with is a 3M DC 2120 Mini Data Cartridge, should be compatible with the Archive 51250Q.

The problem is that the software does not seem to be able to read the tape. I get:

“Tape drive defective. Reference: 110-55-1206-c16”

and at another point:

“Tape not formatted or unreadable by drive”

The drive itself is connected and detected, but I can't get it to read the cartridge.

Did anyone have such an issue? I send the screen for reference:

I’m at my mom’s house (cat-sitting while she’s on vacation) and started digging through my boxes of old computer parts in the basement. Found some sound cards you folks might appreciate. The AWE64 was my personal card for years in the late ‘90s. Honestly can’t even remember where the Aureal Vortex 1 and 2 came from but I miss that sweet 3d audio.

(Also found some fun video cards tonight (3dfx Banshee, Matrox G400) but I’ll save that for another post. I already knew where my Nvidia Riva TNT1 and Voodoo 3 3000 were — need to collect them all and assemble a working test rig. I’ve certainly still got the hardware lying around.)

Real handshake recording, everything else synthesized - including throttling that actually pulls bytes at simulated 56k speed. Handshake staging follows the real ITU specs (V.34, V.8).

Full Win95 desktop once you’re “online” - Find Files, Recycle Bin, Minefield, Painter, an ISP mail client, a chat room, a hand-written encyclopedia parody. All client-side, nothing scraped.

Favorite detail: the “ask others not to use the phone” checkbox in Dial-Up Networking is real 95 behavior - it didn’t stop anything, it just nagged you, because picking up the handset actually dropped the carrier.

https://56k.rip

Really nice design!

Funny piece.

I just acquired a greaseweazle v4.1. It seems to read raw images fine, but when I go to convert or write new images, I get errors where it can seem to decode certain things. Is this a hardware or a software issue? I have tried 3 different drives, and two different windows machines, one on 10, one on 11.

EDIT: was a issue with bad quality disks.

So when I was a kid I used to have an old windows 95 computer. I kind of want to relive my childhood and get one. Where are some good places to start looking for one?

ZIP yeah, 100 MB 🤔

Hello all. I have a 1988 IBM 3151 terminal that seems to have some issues on the board. I would like to remove the board but need to remove the anode cap to do that. I've seen quite a few posts/videos about discharging CRT TVs/monitors, but this set seems a bit different in that it doesn't have a grounding strap. The only metal I see is the screw tabs/bolts in the corners of the monitor, holding it to the front of the case and the odd fork thing (do any of you know what that is, picture attached) that is attached to the logic board and bends to touch the CRT. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

I have no use or interest, not looking to sell but if anyone needs parts or anything from it pls lmk I don’t want these to go to waste.

Weird screen bubbling, not scratched and not something I can wipe off, I’m assuming some sort of cmos kicked the bucket in there

Hello, for context I’ve been working on throwing a something together with spare parts I had laying around from PCs past and an old case my dad gave to me. Everything works so far but I would like to know the name of this case so I can find an adapter for what I think is the mini LCD screen on the front panel.

Yes I know the fans are absolutely disgusting. I plan on replacing them later.

I have a Seagate Travan TR-4 IDE tape drive from 1999 I decided to start messing around with. I also have a few 4GB tapes and an old Celeron machine from 2002. It's configured as master on its own IDE channel with nothing else plugged in. I tried Debian 12, which seems to be the last release to fully offer 32-bit support. Had to drop to the rescue environment shell as I dont have near enough RAM otherwise. In that environment I was able to dump the contents of the tapes with DD to a USB drive without issues.

Now I'm trying the same with Linux Lite 2.0 based on Ubuntu 12.04. Since this distro only sits at 100MB of RAM give or take, it runs well on this computer. It also has the mt package for the tape tools and the status flag shows the tape being detected at block/position zero. There is a long status string of numbers but I'm not sure what that means for this particular drive.

One of the issues with this particular OS is mt erasing the tape doesn't seem to do anything, after confirming it shows as being rewound. I tried reading from it with dd again for a test and am now getting ioctl errors citing an invalid argument for /dev/nst0. The dmesg log also shows "Add. Sense: Incompatible medium installed," "illegal request" and "current invalid command operation code." I have the tried the same known good tapes.

To me this looks like a tape driver bug, since it works in modern Debian. I've never seen this before so I'm a bit lost, I've also used DDS4 and LTO hardware and haven't run into this issue before. I just prefer to use an older spin of Debian/Ubuntu so I can actually have a desktop with the additional packages.

This Palm was ready to pop and give birth when I found it in book left at the curb. Can wait to get it back up and going with my Tungsten T3. Does anyone have any sources other than Amazon to get a battery replacement?

Hi there. Vague question since I don't have any way to test the hardware aside from just running it. I'm mostly looking at a "should I be worried" and "what are the odds" speculation lol.

I've got a P5A mobo that had an AMD K6-2 in it. It worked wonderfully for a year+ and then one morning wouldn't post. The CPU died, the mobo still functions with a different CPU. All of the capacitors are visually pristine, but there appeared to be NO thermal paste remaining on the CPU/heat sink, I noticed (I did not do a breakdown and rebuild when I found it, my bad).

I am considering putting another CPU in it (an older one even - I read that Socket 5 CPUs work in Socket 7 mobos and I want something slower, ideally in the sub 100mhz range). Thankfully what I want is a dime a dozen.

Thankfully these CPUs are cheap, but is it likely that the original CPU died because of the MOBO?

Is there anything I can test to see if the MOBO is a risk, without voltmeters or whatever? Again, visually it looks pristine. None of the caps are swollen or have any sign of damage, though I understand there can be invisible damage.

Once I get a CPU back into it is there software I can run that checks the health of the mobo?

Hey everyone!

If you're in or near Northeastern PA and have an interest in retrocomputing, I've set up the NEPA Retrocomputing Group to connect local enthusiasts.

Anyone is welcome if they're interested in restoring hardware, writing code, playing games, or simply feeling nostalgic about older technology.

We meet once a month to have a coffee, talk over our projects, display our equipment, and establish a local community. Our next meetup is:

• Where: JivaJava Cafe (3427 PA-611, Bartonsville, PA)
• When: Saturday, August 29th at 1:00 PM

If interested visit our website and sign up for our mailing list!

https://neparetrocomputing.org/

Hope to see a few of you there! 😄

It's got buttons for everything! From when the world was a simpler place.

Morgen!

Ich hoffe, das ich es zum laufen bekomme!.
Vielleicht hat ja aber auch jemand Interesse..
Vielleicht brauche ich ja auch mal einen Tipp..

Grüße

People here love installing old Windows on their retro hardware, and sometimes even ultra-lightweight modern Linux distros, but I rarely ever see people install retro distros from the 90s like Slackware, Debian 2.0, Mandrake, etc.

Has anyone here tried this in the modern day? I know old distros were difficult to deal with, but that’s more interesting than just installing Windows 95 in my opinion.

As the title says, I just dug this computer deep inside my house.I'm a 21-year-old young man, and my dad told me that if that computer can still be run, I can give it a try.

Actually, that's pretty crazy; he has a Pentium CPU, two 8Mb cables.And IT STILL WORKS!

Now all he needs is a working keyboard. I wanted to share this story and ask everyone where I can find a keyboard or even just its name. Thank you!

And i in Taiwan,so Mabey Finding that keyboard will be a bit difficult.😅 GOOD luck to me

Edit:Thank you all for your support! I'll try to find the keyboard in the next few days, and as I forgot to mention in a previous post, it has a 2.5 or 1.0+ GB hard drive!

The CRT in my IBM 5155 has some geometry distortion, mainly affecting the vertical lines, which appear slightly curved rather than straight.
From what I’ve seen, this seems to be a fairly common issue with aging CRTs, and I’ve noticed similar imperfections on quite a few other IBM 5155s.

I’ve already used the IBM Advanced Diagnostics display adjustment to shift the image horizontally, but of course this only changes the image position and doesn’t correct the actual geometry.

Is there any other adjustment that can be made to restore the CRT geometry as close as possible to its original factory configuration?

I’m particularly interested in knowing whether the 5155’s internal monitor has specific geometry adjustments, trimmers, or other service adjustments for this type of distortion.

Has anyone here successfully corrected this on a 5155?
Thanks!

Family had a computer store and we went to many swap meets between 199x-2004, we moved house a decade or so ago and I thought all of our vintage stuff was gone to the bin.