New Toys!

[SpidersWeb]

So on the XT-286....
Just sent a friendly email to Concord NZ
Also found a guy who was working there from 1985 onwards, will email him if I don't get any luck with Concord.

History + Questions. Fingers crossed.

[SpidersWeb]

Was about to go to bed and noticed two boxes in my longe that I hadn't seen before.

Was my 5150 mainboard, and my T5200

Can't do much with the mainboard until I get the monitor fixed, as I only have one
But started up the T5200 - hard disc doesn't even spin up, I may get lucky and find a dry joint on the power cable or maybe the motor has just gone.
Annoying thing with it though (I was always prepared to replace the HD) is the floppy wont boot either on a tested DOS 5 disk was written by it's sister the T3200SX, and tested on a Compaq Presario, so I know it's good.

Also have some IDE drives coming soon-ish and a ROM burner + eraser + DIP40 adaptor + IC removal tool (proper squeeze type) on their way. Tempted to just buy it the original HD replacement and FD replacement though, these things are awesome. Also has a network card in it, but it's Coax + AUI and no idea if it works.

Floppy might just need a clean but I'm not holding my breath.

Edit: ugh might have no choice but to go external http://www.ebay.com/itm/Citizen-OSDA-30 ... 2ebb28cadb
Not cheap!

[tezza]

Floppy might just need a clean but I'm not holding my breath.

Edit: ugh might have no choice but to go external http://www.ebay.com/itm/Citizen-OSDA-30 ... 2ebb28cadb
Not cheap!

Before you go spending money, I do have an laptop floppy drive I'm about to throw away (see viewtopic.php?f=2&t=555)
However, it's for an NEC 486 laptop. I'm not sure how generic these things are: It may not be suitable. It's yours for the price of postage if you want it.

[SpidersWeb]

Let me open her up, I need to see what the plug on the back of the actual drive (rather than just the connector) looks like. Cheers for the heads up.
If it was a match that would be epic, if not I'm just going to have to make a external floppy cable for it. I should probably also make a parallel cable for transfers with FastLynx or at least get a parallel Zip100.

Just learned about the AT BIOS from the XT-IDE project, pretty much completely hands-down solves my hard disc issues.

[SpidersWeb]

Ok, so floppy has to have a flying lead with a 26 pin connector on the end, normal size etc - so Tez if you have one with the 26 pin connector let me know! Looks like the lead is clamped directly on to the board of the FDD but these were apparently a little common with Compaq and Toshiba's etc. Same interface was on the PCW's apparently as well? I've got a null modem cable just in case anywho, and can make an external connector.

Hard disc was fine.
It wasn't spinning up, so I disassemble laptop, plug in to another PSU and it fires up, plug it back in to laptop and it fires up - no errors just 'Non system disk'!!

Threw it in the Compaq and found it was fine and paritioned, it'd just been whiped. So just put DOS and a bunch of utilities on it now, also did a full sector by sector format and no problems.

Machine turns out to be a 386DX/20 with i387DX co-processor and 4Mb memory.
Quite impressed how easy it is to work with when apart. Even with the drive caddy removed, the screen removed and the keyboard attached only by a ribbon - it'll behave just like a normal desktop would - and all the leads have enough give that you can reposition things without having to unplug everything. Just wish the floppy was 36 pin

Today's deliverys: 16/8 bit 10Base2 ethernet adaptor in original box, 10 x 41256 chips (unused), and an impressively huge collection of 30 pin SIMMs courtesy of recycled!

[tezza]

Ok, so floppy has to have a flying lead with a 26 pin connector on the end, normal size etc - so Tez if you have one with the 26 pin connector let me know!

Nope, unfortunately not. Looks like its completely different. Oh well, worth a look.

[SpidersWeb]

Bugger, I was somewhat hoping for a miracle! Thanks for checking!
If anyone finds a Citizen OSDA 3.5" drive please tell me

It may be fixable, not actually a disk read problem, its just not sending the drive ready signal. So possibly a loose wire which isn't a suprise, the 26 wires are basically crimped in to the back of the drive. Doesn't look like a terribly fun task to repair though.

In other T5200/100 news:

- installed drive in Compaq, no worries 99.8Mb
- installed OS + tools
- put back in laptop, and when it goes to boot it crashes the machine throwing up vomit like TTTTT55555522222200000000 and random characters.
- put back in Compaq and now it's having issues reading it
- repeat process like an insane man, same result
- setup 386 and it booted fine, redid the system files etc
- installed in laptop 'missing operating system'

Turns out, that the "Type 9 Conner" is natively Type 38.
It gave the Type 9 settings to my Compaq on auto-detect, and happily played along when I set it to Type 9 on the 386 desktop. But Type 9 on the Toshiba actually matches AT Type 38 - and is a much more logical match - e.g. 5 heads instead of 15 heads - it even fooled Norton Calibrate which thought it was a 6000rpm beast with 900 tracks and it passed the seek test! (it only has 733). I might be daft, but I didn't think hard discs (even IDE) of that era played translation games.

What was odd, is on the 386 desktop, after changing it to type 38 it still operated unlike the laptop, but I formatted/fdisked it again anyway and reinstlaled in the laptop - which is now a happy camper and booting like a pro. MS DOS version 5 (it came with 4.01 (DOS Vista) or optional backward 3.3 (DOS XP), but I like 5 - not too modern but functional).

Null modem cable coming tomorrow so I can copy goodies to it via it's sister the T3200SX (which has network access, kind of handy). Plus will grab a DB25 connector at DSE tomorrow to make an external floppy adaptor. Need to remove floppy and install new CMOS battery as well (got two coming, one for it and one for the T3200SX).

Today's mail suprise: adaptor that lets you use 26C256 chips on a 5150/60, expecting MSDOS622 + null modem cable tomorrow.

[SpidersWeb]

Still waiting on my chinese ROM burner, and the 286 is with Unitec for testing my IBM 5151 which is in for repairs, so no work on that.
May work on the RAM card for the 386 tomorrow, as I have replacement chips just sitting there.

Anywho reason I'm posting is because I did the 'Newtown Fair Garage Sale' thing, and browsed some other second hand stores and got/spotted some goodies.

For $10 I got a Toshiba T2000, T2200, docking station etc in a 'as parts' condition - the power supply is funky in both of them. They're both Pentium III's with Wifi/Ethernet/DVD built in, and one even came with a brand new battery in it's bag.
You plug either of them in, and they light up, then you hit the power switch and get a quick flash and it's done. On the T2200 you get the HDD light with LONG SHORT, which I guess is a diagnostics code. The guy explained what was wrong with them, and it came with a spare (but fauly also) PSU board. So gonna have to do some research on those. Issue is the same thing my boss had with his HP tablet, too much pressure on the wrong spot for too long and the SMD components eventually lose a good connection, so you have to push on a certain spot (usually the opposite to where you'd rest your hands in normal use) to get them to start - but these ones just don't start anymore - but one was like that as his daughter explained to me about the 'push'. Power board on these is right below where your right hand would rest and is a tiny SMD board.

For $3 I got a HP Pavilion Pentium 233MMX 32Mb 3Gb in perfect working condition. Oddly running a stable version of Windows 95B with the USB supplement. Connected a PnP network card, detected, installed, on network. Much much easier than tha Presario was on Windows 95. So I've decided to leave it as it is rather than convert it in to a 'work hack', although I do wish I had a purpose for it.

Next to Abel Traders in central Wellington, there is a garage sale place that is only open weekends.
He was not even midly interested in parting with a few pieces until he'd catalogged/tested/assembled complete machines. It was in piles but from what I could see:
- Commodore 64 disk drive
- Commodore Datacassete
- Amiga 2000 (tower or a really wide desktop)
- 3 keyboards, one was clearly a computer also - but without poking around couldn't determine if it was Amiga, 64, or 128. Was a classic yellow and not a breadbin though.
- Two random PCs, P2-P4 era I suspect, one has $10 on it
- SNES (but no attachments?) and a huge pile of Playstation's.

Also the next store on that road (between sallies and abel) has a NES in original box with laser guns etc - $195 though

[SpidersWeb]

Came home to another, flatmate dragged home a stray.

P3-833
384Mb RAM
2 x 20Gb hard drives
nVidia TNT2 64 with 32Mb
4 port USB PCI card, CD-RW, modem etc
1.44 floppy in 5.25 shell but it was 1/3 height curses Compaq.

Works except for two things:
- someone took the heatsink off and I can't work out how to resecure it properly
- original Fujitsu 20Gb has the click of death

Maxtor 20Gb is good but was the D drive so no boot. Also someone left the CAPLIMIT jumper on it, so it only registers as 2Gb. Wonder if the owner knew this or not :/ Was a 1530Mb FAT32 parition on it.

Likely to be used for parts and case/motherboard put to one side in case I feel I need a P3 in the future. I think there is another couple of P3 or early Athlon's at work I could tax too though.

[Carcenomy]

With that description I'd say that you sir, have a Deskpro. They didn't change the drive arrangements over the Deskpro's lifespan - I have a really early one that's freaking huge, it's a 486SX33 machine, has a 2/3 height 5.25" drive with pushbutton eject that clips under the 1/3 height 3.5" drive. Would probably bracket straight into your P3!

Heatsink retention on the Deskpro Pentium IIIs is as per standard - if it's a Socket370, it's front/rear hooks. Often though Compaq used big passive sinks, and when people try pry them free, they break one of the hooks off the socket.

[SpidersWeb]

You're bang on, Deskpro but in a rather large tower format. It's missing the plastic piece that clips on with the Compaq logo and model though, hence why I didn't restore and store it.
It's been stripped to motherboard + case + PSU, The heatsink is large with a big fan. It has two clip pieces and one side was obvious but the side with the handle I couldn't work out. I booted it off floppy and formatted the Maxtor 20Gb (well 8Gb of it anyway!), appears to work fine.

I've got two P3 laptops to fix, and another DLink DE220 turned up to go in my T5200/100, so that should keep me amused for a while.
Laptops look easy to fix after doing some research. I also may have a Compaq Portable 486C coming for repairs... loving it

[SpidersWeb]

ROM burner turned up, and it works Although "default is 12V" apparently translates to "default is 4.3V which wont program anything" - took me about an hour to work out that Vpp was incorrect. Also the ROM chip was 00 instead of FF in every byte, so had to be erased first (which took twice as long as the chinese advert said).... ahhhh ebay

In bad news, my T5200 has stopped responding, and will not POST even with a minimial configuration - I beleive it's a bad SMD contact on the board. Quite sad about this to be honest, will be holding on to it in case I get a friend who gets a thrill out of reflowing SMD components or if I find a replacement mainboard.

In brighter news, I have everything I need to get my 386 desktop cranking/built and a nice IBM PS/2 VGA to match it with on it's way soon. I spliced on some additional power connectors to the PSU, and aquired a 5.25 to 3.5 bay adaptor, so it'll be living with a 1.44Mb A drive nicely setup.

I have everything to get my 286XT sorted as well, except I still haven't got it or my 5151 back from the repair agent.
I can also make a diagnostic ROM for my 5150 board, and have the ROM adaptor, but without the 5151 this is rather pointless.
Hurry up that man!

I've also aquired a perfectly working 486DX2/66 with 16Mb and a 504Mb hard disc, which is completely faultless, and a tidy IBM G51 monitor. Had a 3Com Etherlink III which was really handy. Happily browsing the network like a pro and Creative Labs 8 speed CDROM still working. Came with a rather large 14.4 external modem (which I know works but haven't used). It appears to be an Acer rebadged as Data General. Best keyboard ever, 101 key enhanced with clicky keys. It was running Windows 95 suprisingly well, but I've installed DOS 6.22 and WIndows for Workgroups 3.11 and added a sound card. Stoked for $30, especially being so complete, it doesn't need anything.

[tezza]

ROM burner turned up, and it works Although "default is 12V" apparently translates to "default is 4.3V which wont program anything" - took me about an hour to work out that Vpp was incorrect. Also the ROM chip was 00 instead of FF in every byte, so had to be erased first (which took twice as long as the chinese advert said).... ahhhh ebay

I've got one of these chinese ROM burners. In the main it works well (apart from not burning 27C16 ICs for some reason). I found the main thing is to go by the lables stamped on the circuit board when moving jumpers. The position of these jumpers and what they do bear little relation to the manual, which (in my case) had a slightly different layout.

[SpidersWeb]

Cheers for that, I'll double check before I change anything.

Rather stoked at the moment, with a C000 offset I burnt the AT LONG version of the XTIDE universal BIOS to a 27C512, installed in a preconfigured D-Link DE-220, and am now formatting a 4.3Gb Seagate on my 386SX only annoying thing is, with the DE220 in there, the VGA card thinks its hilarious to flick to black and white - most of the time.

Saving the BIOS settings or doing a CTRL+ALT+DEL sometimes gets colour mode back. Removing the DE220 and doing two power boots and it changes to colour and maintains it - this is even without the boot ROM in place. Don't have a spare ISA VGA but may switch network cards from other machines as this card is reliable without the network card sticking it's nose in. I have tried setting the ROM to different locations, turning off PnP etc etc

Anywho making use of my MS-DOS install disks. Made a 500Mb partition for booting, and split the rest in to two partitions. I formatted C but now the DOS 6.22 install program is forcing me to format D and probably E drive as well :/ blah

I was expecting to need to replace a few chips on the ISA memory board (Everex EV-135 with 108 41256 chips!) as it errored last time, but this time it was perfect, possibly just a bad connection? I have ten spare chips waiting as donors but apparently not needed, machine is booting up with 4Mb RAM total and no complaints.

[SpidersWeb]

Ordered a replacement board for that T5200/100.
"Pulled from a working system" - Cost me around $100 delivered, so I hope like hell that it works.
Comes with a peripheral board (VGA/COM/LPT etc is a plug in module) and CPU too.

Edit: Also just ordered an IBM CGA card in original box, sealed. Add a local Commodore 1084S, and that is one more machine that doesn't need to borrow the 5151.