Any retro PC enthusiasts / gamers?

[LordFerret]

Lol thanks. The Dell in the back is the newest (the N5050, no issues), the VAIO in pieces (NR-120e) also works fine aside from not having a screen, I um had an idea... The Librex has a bad HDD and external floppy, the Sharp (Win95) has a bad floppy drive, dodgy touchpad, and some dead areas in the screen... the Dell to the right (dont even know what it is right off) has a bad HDD, and the DECpc is perfectly functional. I did find the other laptop after I posted, its just an early XP era HP that functions fine aside from a few odd noises and being painfully slow. And that Bigfoot I forgot I had, it came out of an old Pentium II Compaq and technically should still work.

So you're right, a couple of those are just begging for a lightweight Linux install. I did that to the HP actually when a friend needed something to type up a few documents on, I forget which distro. I'd be on it if I just had a practical use for them besides making people ask questions (which is admittedly enough of a reason sometimes).

I've got a link saved on one of my other machines I'll have to dig up for you... it's a place that sells replacement laptop screens (anti-glare 'satin') with 100% no dead pixel guarantee. Most of them sell for around $125-$130 US. I've bought several from them, decent outfit to work with. Swapping out a screen isn't that difficult, just time-consuming.

[LordFerret]

Think you can sneak me a few? Wink wink... I'll help you back up the disks and everything! Lol.

Some of those old hard drives seem to be picky about what you hook them up to, I can't get any of mine to work over a USB-IDE adapter on my Win7 x64 machine. It'd really save me a lot of headache if I could image them or add software I need.

I'm crossing my fingers that the Dell I bought will accept my PCMCIA CF reader at least, because it has a handy removable hard drive caddy instead of having to disassemble the entire thing.

I've got this little gadget that I bought online which has proved a life-saver for me on several occasions - data recovery from drives where the computer went entirely belly-up. It's made by "Newer Technology", a USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter. Allows you to connect to almost any drive, plug it into your USB and suck the data off of it. They now have them for USB3 as well. Worth the investment if you fiddle/fix a lot of machines.

http://www.newertech.com/

[Duke23]

LordFerret, that sounds like what I have already? It's a USB 2.0 to SATA / 2.5 IDE / 3.5 IDE with power adapter. It would be nice to grab a USB 3.0 one though... I'll check the link out again tomorrow and see what they have. One of the drives is confirmed functional in the machine it belongs in, the others are untested but are "guaranteed"... Just bought them. They just won't do anything when I connect them to my main PC to image them. Tomorrow or Monday I'm going to slide one of them into the Dell's caddy and see if it will read them, I'm pretty confident it will. Then I should be able to use a DOS imaging program to transfer it all to a CF card.

As for the laptop screen, I'm not sure if the Sharp screen is worth replacing but I'll definitely bookmark that site for future reference, never know when I'll need one. Thanks in advance for that I was never too fond of that Sharp anyway... Unless you meant the VAIO? There's nothing wrong with the screen on that one. I guess I should have explained, but it sounds silly. I had this idea to slim it down as much as possible and stick it under the seat of my car running an FTP server and connected to a wireless router. I had planned to use it as a rolling media server because now I use my phone or a flash drive which are filled with other more important stuff, so space is limited. Anyway the idea didn't work, not because it wasn't possible but because the laptop draws just enough power to make my inverter uneasy and build up more heat in the wires than I'm comfortable with. No need to catch the car on fire, and it'd cost a few bucks to do it a more permanent way. Instead I went with an old Android phone running a hotspot (no SIM card) and FTP server. Much more eco friendly... Go ahead and laugh, it's okay.

Also... I wanted to check in and say my new laptop finally came in. I'm pretty excited. It immediately recognized the IDE-CF adapter (well, the master drive anyway) without any fiddling and I installed DOS on it just to make sure it was working properly. That's as far as I got because I really should be in bed right now. The CMOS battery is dead so no BIOS changes which means I can't activate the CF card reader yet to test it... and I'm assuming (read: hoping) the battery is a replaceable one this time so no sweat. I guess I'm making a lot of assumptions but I've gotta have some good luck at some point right? More on this once I get a chance to look it over properly, and I'm going to go out on a limb and leave it plugged up overnight to see if the main battery will hold any sort of charge. Not optimistic on that, but I guess it's worth a shot.

[steve_v]

All CMOS batteries are replaceable... if you have a soldering iron

As for the main battery, that age it's probably a) dead as a doornail and a NiCd, which means you can probably re-pack it with cheap cells

[LordFerret]

Duke23,

The laptop screen place I deal with is https://www.laptopscreen.com/

I'm sure there's plenty of others out there, but I've had good luck with this place so I've always stuck with it.

steve_v's correct about the CMOS batteries... just make sure you use a low wattage soldering iron (like maybe 4 watts) - and a good heat sink. Also there's plenty of sites out there that offer replacement batteries for the main battery... I was actually able to find one for my old Compaq Armada - cheap! Google.

[Duke23]

Lol yes I guess so. It looks like the one in the DECpc is spot welded to the connection not soldered but I could be wrong. I think you can see it pretty clearly in one of the pics in the OP, if not I'll find it and upload. I get a bit nervous on stuff like that anyway as my soldering skills are practically nonexistent. I have a battery operated soldering iron that may be low power enough to work, I'll have to check.

The main battery is pretty useless in the Dell.. The charge light went off and I tested it, had just enough time to boot to the command prompt and listen to a few frantic beeps before it shut off, lol. I have seen batteries for this one online but they aren't cheap ($100+) so I'll keep looking or dig up some info on making my own once I see what type it is. I literally took it out of the box, plugged it up, slapped a drive caddy in it and ran through a quick DOS install before going to bed so I don't have a lot of details yet. But it appears the case is only cracked in one spot not two and it looks like an easy fix. The rest of the computer looks pretty good aside from some rubbed areas on labels and needing a cleaning.

Thanks for the link, I'll keep that tucked away for a rainy day

[LordFerret]

Lol yes I guess so. It looks like the one in the DECpc is spot welded to the connection not soldered but I could be wrong. I think you can see it pretty clearly in one of the pics in the OP, if not I'll find it and upload. I get a bit nervous on stuff like that anyway as my soldering skills are practically nonexistent. I have a battery operated soldering iron that may be low power enough to work, I'll have to check.

The main battery is pretty useless in the Dell.. The charge light went off and I tested it, had just enough time to boot to the command prompt and listen to a few frantic beeps before it shut off, lol. I have seen batteries for this one online but they aren't cheap ($100+) so I'll keep looking or dig up some info on making my own once I see what type it is. I literally took it out of the box, plugged it up, slapped a drive caddy in it and ran through a quick DOS install before going to bed so I don't have a lot of details yet. But it appears the case is only cracked in one spot not two and it looks like an easy fix. The rest of the computer looks pretty good aside from some rubbed areas on labels and needing a cleaning.

Thanks for the link, I'll keep that tucked away for a rainy day

You're welcome.

If that connection is spot-welded, you could carefully try to pry/pop it off. Soldering the new one in place shouldn't be a problem were that the case, it's not like it's a 'structural' load-bearing component or anything lol!

I've many trials in the past with repairing broken laptop cases... the plastics used aren't very friendly to 'glue'. The two things I've tried that I've had success with were (don't laugh) Marine epoxy (has fiberglass fibers in it and is waterproof lol) and something called JB-Weld... another epoxy... stuff adheres to anything. You might also try scuffing the surfaces a little before apply epoxy, gives it more to grab onto. Good luck.

[Duke23]

Haha yes I know, I just don't want to ruin anything. It's working for now and doesn't "look" bad, so I might leave it alone. The Dell one is magically working now too but I need to check it for physical damage, last thing I need is for it to start leaking. That one should be an easy replace at least, I think I saw where it plugs in when I had it partially apart earlier.

Good old JB Weld... That stuff is amazing. It's actually what I used on the piece I broke in the DECpc after super glue didn't work. Should be able to put a little paint on it too so it blends in. I'm gonna try to get my hands on some sort of clamp to make that easier.

I'm happy with this Dell so far, the screen looks good and it's playing nicely with games. Best 25 bucks I spent this month... I had some sound driver trouble for a bit though. The "correct" drivers were causing a freeze in games and a broken record effect in Windows then freeze on shutdown. I eventually changed the IRQs (fixed the game freeze) and set it up as a generic SB Pro 1.5 compatible in Windows (its technically a 2.0) and it's working. Just in time too, I was starting to get frustrated lol.

[WinkAllKerb'']

I'm wondering if any of you recall what was out there before DOS? CP/M ring a bell? lol

That tone weight tons for sure Nice abstract object approach, and cool now we finnaly got a name for it.

[LordFerret]

Haha yes I know, I just don't want to ruin anything. It's working for now and doesn't "look" bad, so I might leave it alone. The Dell one is magically working now too but I need to check it for physical damage, last thing I need is for it to start leaking. That one should be an easy replace at least, I think I saw where it plugs in when I had it partially apart earlier.

Good old JB Weld... That stuff is amazing. It's actually what I used on the piece I broke in the DECpc after super glue didn't work. Should be able to put a little paint on it too so it blends in. I'm gonna try to get my hands on some sort of clamp to make that easier.

I'm happy with this Dell so far, the screen looks good and it's playing nicely with games. Best 25 bucks I spent this month... I had some sound driver trouble for a bit though. The "correct" drivers were causing a freeze in games and a broken record effect in Windows then freeze on shutdown. I eventually changed the IRQs (fixed the game freeze) and set it up as a generic SB Pro 1.5 compatible in Windows (its technically a 2.0) and it's working. Just in time too, I was starting to get frustrated lol.

As crazy as it sounds, I've rebuilt a number of decent laptops via the help of Ebay. For example, the Toshiba Satellite P105 I have sitting here beside me. It had taken a serious tumble off a friend's kitchen counter onto a stone tile floor - smash!!! She was going to throw it out after I recovered the data from the HD for her new MacBook Pro, so I took it off her hands. I bought a replacement screen for it (from that source I shared), as well as other various parts (broken casing, broken lid, broken DVD, etc) by buying up other broken "sold as-is" same model laptops CHEAP on Ebay... worthy only as parts.

[Duke23]

Sounds like a solid plan to me! It really pays off to not be scared of messing with a computer. People throw them out for the smallest things sometimes just because it'd cost more than a new one to bring it into a shop.

I was surprised at how high some of the prices are for a fully working computer with an OS on eBay, regardless of age. The "broken" ones are much more reasonable. They wanted I think $150-200 for one like my Dell (whether anyone paid that I don't know). Mine was missing the HDD and caddy and had the one crack, the rest of it looked better than most of the working ones. I picked up 3 unused caddies for 6 bucks on eBay and the CF-IDE adapter for about $15 on Amazon... Can't beat that.

I thought for a minute about buying up a bunch of newer broken computers to repair and resell, it'd probably be pretty easy to make a little play money.

[sal_vager]

Nice thread Duke23, stickied for December

[Duke23]

Nice thread Duke23, stickied for December

Wow, thanks Sal! Didn't expect that. Happy birthday to me, I guess. Lol

[Yarbrough08]

I had to pipe in...

My first personal computer was an IBM PS/2 - 386DX, 2MB RAM (Extended RAM - lol), and paid extra for a double sized 80 MB HDD (40MB on standard) as well as an 8 kB/s modem. It was still going strong in 2002 when an unfortunate house fire destroyed it.

I still have parts for computers between ~'92 and ~'03 from when I owned my own computer repair shop. Including a 386EX and a 486DX proc, a bunch of old RAM sticks of various speed and capacity, and several rebuilt computers ranging from mid '90s to early 2000's. I love those old computers for nostalgic reasons...

2 years ago I modeled my first computer:

Ignore the PS/1 texture, it was the only logo similar to mine that I could find....

Edited December 1, 2014 by Yarbrough08
typo

[sedativechunk]

I got my first computer in 1997 when I was 7 years old, a Windows 95 Gateway 2000 that is in my kitchen now. It still works but hasn't been played in several years. Also got one of the first AMD desktops ever made. Both of these machines I still have the original monitors/keyboard/microphones/speakers for and discs for installing Windows 95 and 2000. Prior to that, back in 95 or so in grade school, my elementary school had us play on very ancient Macintosh computers. If I recall correctly, they were difficult to navigate as a kid, everything had to be navigated via keyboard.

I'm in the IT business now for almost 10 years, started when I was still in high school doing programming. I grew up in the age where the internet and computers were exploding and there was the whole pre-cursor to the web 2.0 movement. I praise you people who save these old PCs and still play them. We take for granted the technology we have today. A modern day iPad alone is more powerful than some of the world's fastest super computers in the 1980s. No computer is really worth junk. If we took a cheap, Windows 95 computer back in time to the 60's, it would be a technological marvel that the world could benefit from! Sadly when houses get cluttered, it's easy to want to just smash and throw in the junk old computer parts.

One thing I don't mind doing away with is the old CRT monitors, however. I hate them big old dinosaurs. They take up a lot of space and they are heavy to transport. I'll happily take a good old LED/LCD monitor any day.

[Duke23]

Thanks for sharing guys! It's always good to see people who still remember the 90s computers. I know a lot of people don't think they're that old, but they have a place in my heart because it seems like that's when computers started to become commonplace and a lot of the major advances happened so quickly. That and I was born in '87 so these are things I saw back when they were the hot new thing. It really is easy to forget how far we've come in such a relatively short time.

That's a nice looking model, Yarbrough... And what a gigantic hard drive it had Sorry to hear about it being destroyed though. I don't remember what HDD my first (IBM compatible) computer had but I still have an old laptop hanging around that came with a 40mb one (the Librex) and I fondly remember taking apart a 540mb drive from an old Dell I had because I thought I could fix it. Needless to say it never worked again. And sedativechunk I don't miss those darned CRTs either. Except maybe the 17" flatscreen one I had. For years I wouldn't get rid of it because it looked so much better than the LCDs of the time, but it eventually died. That thing must have weighed 50lbs.

Oh, I recently got a 4gb CF card for my Dell XPi. I'm planning to use 2gb for DOS / Win3.1 and 2gb for Windows 95 if I can get them to play nice. I haven't had time yet because I have been messing with another toy I picked up for cheap (nothing in the scope of this thread, it's an HP Mini 1104).