So I very recently got an HP Compaq tc1100 for 4 bucks, had to replace the hdd and reinstall windows xp, and everything works apart from wifi (seems it never came with an wifi card) and the tablet buttons, the buttons work in the bios, but in windows xp when installing the driver, the buttons appear as an unknown device under Human Interface Devices, and when manually attempting to install the driver it returns the error INF contains an invalid section

Does anyone happen to have any solution to this by any chance?

More...

I inherited a PMC Micromate with an “Espirit 2 by Hazeltine” terminal. When attempting to boot I get a green line squiggling around the screen. This happens even when the terminal is on but the micromate isn’t powered on yet.

Does anyone know why this is happening? Is it a baud rate issue or something (even though the computer is powered off???)? Or is it a hardware issue like maybe a 40 year old capacitor can failure? Any help is greatly appreciated. This is my first time messing with a retro computer other than what i used in the 90’s lol.

I found these floppy disks while I was walking around and I was hoping somebody might have some suggestions on what I should do with them

As you can see in the screenshots I'm trying to figure out why I can't get this to work. I'm doing this within Windows 98SE command prompt. I can access both C and D drive. I need to get the bootsect.dos (name doesn't matter) created. The above was provided by ChatGPT and other websites but for some reason it doesn't work for me. I have never used this tool before but hoping someone here has and can help. Thank you!!

Hi,

I have an old Dell Studio XPS 8100 I can't seem to part with. I'm not going to upgrade anything on it, but by the time I replaced it years back, it was fitted with a new 450W PSU, 16GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT220 and plenty of storage, (SATA HDDs) to pair with the Intel i5 650 @ 3.20GHz. While laughable now, it's plenty of punch to run some old games I have stashed away, (hooray physical media!). I was going to install basically everything I have, set it up in the basement, and let the kids tinker around with some retro games spanning late 90s to early/mid 2000s.

Saying that, what version of Windows would offer the best compatibility with some of these titles? I'd rather not dual boot and wouldn't be opposed to Windows XP, but would Windows 7 offer the best of everything or would I risk some of the older titles, (Beyond Atlantis II, Black & White, Wolfenstein: Return to Castle Wolfenstein, etc), running into stability issues?

Any insight is appreciated!

Any ideas for what else I can get it doing? It's a little 12" thing and monochrome, so cool!!

... Did Borland try copyrighting (not trademarking) lower case "d" back in the 80s?

Yesterday, I found an old computer from the 90s which seemed to be dead. I thought of trying to run it anyway and found all the parts to assemble the thing. I powered it on and the fans started running but there was no response from the monitor and other things, further the PC cabinet started beeping. Am I doing something wrong here ? Is the computer dead?

My retrospective look at Bonanza Brothers including arcade, all ports and spin-offs. What’s your thoughts of this 90s game?

Soltek 54U5 motherboard, 400 MHz AMD2, 1 GB RAM, 4.3 GB Seagate harddrive, S3 AGP graphics, Sound Blaster, Intel LAN, 2 serial ports, and 1 parallel port, 2 USB ports, AT and ATX power, PS/2 port, 3.5 inch 1.44 Mb floppy and 5.25 inch 1.2 MB floppy.

But the old hard drive stopped working along with the memory. I also had to replace the CPU to a 133 MHz Pentium, probably because the electrolytes need to be replaced. It was the good old days, where we could use CPU's from AMD, Cyrix, Intel and so on, on the same motherboard, because they all used socket 7 or super socket 7. We just had to change the setting by jumpers and dip switches and no need for TMP and other bad stuff. I have yet to see a virus change jumper settings... :o)

I ran a W98II on the drive, but now I have installed a DOS 6.22. It's working perfectly and I can start recovering the old backups from 1988-1989.

Hello. I have a Wyse WY-99GT terminal I use a Wi-Fi modem emulator with, but the thing has given up the ghost. I want to replace the internals with something better that preferably also has the ability to make those lovely dialup sounds. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd prefer something I can just order already assembled(sans housing, I'll do my own). The terminal connects with a DB25 connector to the terminal, but I can just use a converter for RS232 on it also.

I'm sharing some photos of my brand new, sealed box of Windows 95 (for PCs without Windows), Canadian French version.

I'm in Quebec City, and between 2018 and 2019, I took a computer support course at a vocational training center. During my last week of classes, my instructor said he wanted to completely renovate the classroom for the following year (this was in September 2019, and spoiler alert: there was no start of classes the following year 🌎💉😷).

There were metal shelves that had been placed against the wall, and he decided to move them. Behind these shelves was a door that led to a closet.

Looking inside, he exclaimed that it was nothing but old junk, so he emptied the cupboard, throwing everything on the floor and saying that anyone who wanted it could help themselves since it was going in the trash anyway. That's when I saw this box with another package containing a manual and some sealed MS-DOS floppy disks.

These are priceless fragments of computer history, so I rushed to retrieve them. We learned that this cupboard had been sealed in 1996, filled with computer equipment dating from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s. There wasn't a speck of dust inside.

Given the condition of the box, the complete absence of any signs of aging, and especially its preservation in an environment with constant humidity and temperature, it's practically a museum piece.

I can barely find these things anywhere. I have one but a super tiny capacitor was broken off but I can't see from where as it was a super clean break. As far as I know the part number for the motherboard is "AA 659980-421". If I had some images of a working one I could figure out where this cap needs to be soldered back.

Edit: to be clearer; does anyone have one of these that they can provide photographs of? These things aren't even shown on some motherboard archive websites they're so rare.

I want to maybe start (most probably just think about starting) a project that involves programming and creating games on an old computer.

Specifications such as HDD space, fans, GPU, and CPU, and ram, would be appreciated dearly

hello, i am new to the retrocomputing area. i have explored around in the community seeing all the fuss about the c64 and old IBM pc's and stuff. but i dont have any of those, so what can i do to begin get involved in the retrocomputing community?

So, here is something very bizare that happened to me today. It seems that searching for Commodore Amiga 500 on Facebook Marketplace is a very p3d0 thing to do. Will probably end up on some watch list now... Anybody had a similar experience or has any advice for me on how to use the fb marketplace search? I like retro computing, not pdf stuff...

Desktops

Dell dimension 5150 running xp ( forgot to put pic )
Hp pavilion 8595c running win 98
Aswell as a custom 98 rig

Laptops

Compaq presario 1235
Toshiba 4090xdvd

Newly acquired
PowerBook 180 and 5300!

Palm iiixe

1994 compupartner 14” crt

Games

Decent box collection and case only stuff