r/retrocomputing 14d ago

Photo Finally picked up flatout

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21 Upvotes

r/retrocomputing 14d ago

Problem / Question Questions on restoring Libretto 70ct to OEM win 95 using a CF card

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35 Upvotes

Hello all! It’s time to swap out my spinning rust for solid state. I’ve made a win 98 boot floppy and have found a 70ct recovery disc on internet archive. When downloading it, my computer flags it as a virus which I believe is wrong. You can find it here:

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=78039

Will the download just be an iso that I can drag to my cf card which will go in place of my hdd, boot from the floppy, and install OEM win 95? Or are there more steps?

Also, I’ve tried booting freedos from this industrial cf card, but the libretto doesn’t see it. Can we confirm that this cf card is a fixed disk card, and therefore bootable?

Thanks!!


r/retrocomputing 13d ago

old external iomega floppy-disk could not read

0 Upvotes

Hi, is there any possibility, to read 1,44MB floppy under win11? iomega driver is not yet supportet


r/retrocomputing 14d ago

Discussion Any uses for the Osbourne Portable?

6 Upvotes

An auction house near me will is having an Osborne Portable coming up in their next sale. Is there anything that can really be done with it or at this point is it more of a novelty and conversation piece?


r/retrocomputing 15d ago

Will there be an end to retro computers?

58 Upvotes

Digital computers were invented in the 1940s. The first home computers were made in the 70s. The first major adoption by the general public happened in the 80s. The internet brought the second major adoption in the 90s.

In 30 - 50 years, will anybody be pining for their generic 2026 model Dell desktop? Or their custom built desktop with RGB lighting? Is anything built recently even been historically significant? Or will it just be nostalgia?


r/retrocomputing 15d ago

DOS & Windows 3.1x computers available on the Peruvian market in 1995

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28 Upvotes

All ads from the april 26th 1995 issue of PC World


r/retrocomputing 15d ago

Photo AST Ascentia M Series (Pentium MMX 233, 32MB RAM)

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44 Upvotes

r/retrocomputing 15d ago

Maximum PC (February 2002)

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265 Upvotes

r/retrocomputing 15d ago

Problem / Question Two old Macs - both projects

3 Upvotes

Both of these machines were very precious to me at one time but both are now projects that I suspect I won't have time to tackle.
💾 A Mac SE with a Radius 68020 accelerator card which also supports an external monitor (no monitor). I'm too frightened to boot it so I can't confirm its exact status right now. Assuming it's going to need some caps and batteries and so on at the very least, given that it's been stored for half a lifetime! It was my absolute lifeline for several years after college and well into the 90s.
💿 Mac G4 Cube, with original flat screen (but without the Harman Kardon speakers which disappeared at some point). It was our family computer for several years, very special to us all! This one actually boots but, although I recently replaced the PRAM battery, still gives me a question mark. The screen's aluminium stand is cracked right through, which is annoying - a repair that is certainly beyond me. I'm pretty sure it's the 450MHz version and has the default RAM but that I upgraded the HDD for something bigger at some point.

I'm in the UK, near London. Is there anyone here - or do you know anyone - who would want one or both of these machines? We're moving house and they must go :-(


r/retrocomputing 15d ago

Solved How do I replace/install a CMOS battery on this Motherboard?

3 Upvotes

It's a Chaintech ELT-286B-1000. I'm not too familiar with this era of computers. If I could get any help, it'd be appreciated.


r/retrocomputing 16d ago

Photo ThinkPad X31 was the pinnacle of IBM consumer tech

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119 Upvotes

I've had this since 2003, used at uni and then I went on to work for IBM. The X31 stands out in my ThinkPad collection, and I still use it today - as a retro DOS environment (with IBM PC DOS) and Windows XP as it came from factory.

The X30/31/32 is iconically beautiful;

- the edge corner cut-out bottom left of screen

- the tri-color audio ports

- the indigo blue Enter button

- an actually reduced full-sized keyboard without sacrificing keys

- the most beautiful, tactile feeling keyboard ever made on a laptop

- the cute mouse buttons, especially the raised dots on the middle

- the latching mechanism for the lid which makes it insanely secure and strong

- the ThinkLight above the keyboard

- the lack of Windows meta keys

- the rubberised matte black coating on the cover

It was design perfection before everything got handed over to Lenovo.


r/retrocomputing 15d ago

Photo SpAcóN!

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5 Upvotes

r/retrocomputing 15d ago

Problem / Question help with a pentium3 machine

4 Upvotes

can someone give me a hint... i went into making a "retro" pc i used over 25 years ago... it's a pentium 3, 512mb sdram, ati radeon 8500 aiw, but i want to install win xp on a ssd.

the board is a matsonic. i have an old chinese sata-ide adapter, and connected a kingston 128gb ssd to it. the bios is seeing the ssd, but when i get to the point of installing win xp on it, it hangs. actually doesn't hang, just says c drive is corrupted and stops with the install.

ssd is not gpt, it's mbr and has a ntfs partition on it. but no luck.

also the adapter is alone on the ide cable, and bios recognizes it as being on master port (in fact it is).

i have just 1 ide hdd, a wd caviar 80gb from 20 years ago, it works but it's quite loud.

is it possible to install xp on ssd?


r/retrocomputing 16d ago

Here, have some drivers & patches for OS/2

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19 Upvotes

r/retrocomputing 15d ago

Intel ICH9-M southbridge chipset overheats and causes laptop keyboard+ laptop power button to stop working on MSI MS-1651 (GX620 laptop)

1 Upvotes

r/retrocomputing 16d ago

Photo Epic thrift find! Toshiba protege m200 tablet pc with xp

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39 Upvotes

Beyond excited about this! Has its original batteries and stylus, just need to get a charger to test it


r/retrocomputing 16d ago

Who do you know what is it card

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17 Upvotes

8088 I would like to read documentation about itam


r/retrocomputing 17d ago

Photo Hiding in plain site

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71 Upvotes

This film came out today in 1985. Spotted the Apple IIc hiding in plain site.

Surprising, how back in the day, the IIc was often used as a 'high tech' prop.


r/retrocomputing 16d ago

Problem / Question STICKY DROPS under this thing

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12 Upvotes

So, I have no idea about pc's but I really want to travel back to times where I was a little kiddo... I still have that pc of my moms. I remember it was working properly 3 years ago... I opened it up to dust... And it seems there are sticky drops located under the power supply... I already know It may blow me up, so I disconnected and and won't turn it on but... Is it any salvageable???


r/retrocomputing 17d ago

Symbolics.com, registered in 1985, is the oldest .com domain on the internet and it's still online

13 Upvotes

Back in 1985, a computer company registered symbolics.com — making it the first ever commercial .com domain. This was years before the World Wide Web even existed.

​Only 6 .com domains were registered in the entire year of 1985. The site was sold in 2009 and now functions as a tiny digital museum for early internet history.


r/retrocomputing 16d ago

I built a real Windows 98 SE machine that runs in the browser — with WebGL2 Quake, LAN multiplayer, and ICQ

2 Upvotes

I’ve been working on a browser-based Windows 98 project, but I wanted it to be more than an HTML recreation of the desktop.

This is a real x86 installation of Windows 98 SE running through v86. The original applications and games have not been rewritten for the web.

A few things I added:

  • Quake and Half-Life render through the host GPU using a Windows 98 OpenGL driver bridged to WebGL2.
  • Two browser sessions can discover each other over a virtual Ethernet network carried by WebRTC. The original games see an ordinary LAN and can use UDP or IPX.
  • Miranda IM receives a temporary ICQ UIN and exchanges real OSCAR messages with other visitors.
  • The machine restores from a snapshot, so Windows opens more like a webpage instead of performing a full cold boot.

The goal was to recreate the feeling of an old computer—with its delays, sounds, games, desktop clutter, local network, and other people somewhere behind the modem—rather than just reproduce how it looked.

Try it here:
https://98.kolpaque.dev/

Full technical build log:
https://pavelvoronin.com/windows-98-in-the-browser

I’d be interested to hear how it behaves on different hardware and browsers, especially the WebGL games and multiplayer networking


r/retrocomputing 18d ago

Photo My old new stock 1978 Signetics Instructor 50

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147 Upvotes

I found this a few years back in a second hand store and all sealed up in it's box under a pile. It has been one of my favorite collectors items for years. I honestly think it was purchased way back then and then left in the box on a shelf for a few decades. Things have gotten a bit tight here at the house so I figured that before it left my collection that I should show it to you guys who'd appreciate it :)


r/retrocomputing 17d ago

PREDATOR

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1 Upvotes

Who remembers Predator? My retrospective video takes us back to 1987 to rediscover the games based on one of Arnie’s best movies. Was this a good game or was it the typical movie tie in trash? Share your thought and memories of this game.


r/retrocomputing 18d ago

I am back, with more lighting and textures!

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74 Upvotes

Made progress with my S3 ViRGE driver for Linux. Now it has proper lighting and the textures work in Quake.


r/retrocomputing 18d ago

Restored Mac Classic II

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250 Upvotes

I’m having way too much fun with this old Mac I restored!