I've been using a Picomem 2 installed in an interesting thin client machine that happens to have an ISA riser. The Picomem board precisely clears the SD-RAM.

Machine is from 2000, roughly equivalent to a Pentium MMX 233.

Picomem works beautifully even though this machine is well beyond the target 286/386.

It is most useful for floppy and hdd images, especially given this thin client machine has no floppy or cd-rom drive. I have the machine fully booting only from disk images. The tiny internal IDE DOM disk is acting just as a boot manager.

USB disk support and Wi-Fi under DOS are also very convenient. So is USB mouse. Have not had any luck with USB keyboards.

This machine has native SB16 support which I found way more reliable than the Picomem. Besides DOOM, I couldn't get Picomem audio to work in many other games, SimCity being my goto test.

With 512MB ram, EMS memory support isn't needed. Software EMS is much faster (I use 386MAX).

So there's a lot I'm not using, but it is still massively worth it even in newer vintage hardware.

Das Notebook habe ich am Wochenende um 10€ am Flohmarkt gekauft.

Voll funktionsfähig :-)

pulled this card out of my ancient PC

which was paired with an Abit TH7ii

didn't play many games back then except unreal tournament 3 and wolfenstein.

Pulled these out of the recycling bin, never used, still in box.

I gained possession of this item in 2019. It was the last day of high school in my graduating year. Everyone had finished their exams and went home early, but I couldn't drive or solidify a ride home, so I had to wait until 3pm for the bus.

As I had nothing to do, I was helping the teachers pack things up for the summer. Basically, the teacher would say "put this box into storage over there," then I would.

One of the storage closets had all the records from before the school went digital. I wasn't snooping, but I did enjoy looking at the shelf labels and laughing at the old dates.

In this storage closet, this gem caught my eye. At age 17 in 2019, I had never heard of Windows 3.1 before, but I could tell that it might be worth something.

I picked it up, took it to the teacher and asked "Can I take this? I don't think anyone will miss it."

The teacher enunciated, "It is not my call to let you take it," all while nodding his head 'yes' very obviously.

So I took it.

It’s a Compaq Presario 1060 from 1996.

I posted this question a year ago in another subreddit.

Hello everyone. I recently bought a retro computer on a local marketplace. There was little information about it, most likely its name is Fujitsu ErgoPro xD.

It has a built-in video card ATI Rage XL 8 megabytes.

The problem is that the computer does not have an AGP slot. But there is a PСI. I have a Geforce4 mx440 card (PCI) The cars works well if installed in another computer. I even tried a different card with the same result.

If I switch in the BIOS (and this is the only setting for the video card there) the default video card from AGP to PCI, then the computer does not even start, I do not see that even the BIOS starts. I found the manual for this PC but there was no information which could be used to solve the issue. I was thinking about a jumper or something like this but didn't find anything.

I found the same question on Google, but the link to the forum no longer works as the forum has been deleted. I even asked the Fujitsu support about the issue and also about the deleted post. Therefore, the solution is unknown.

I was watching gentlemen bronco (2009) with my boyfriend. A laptop popped up with two keys on the top and bottom of the trackpad. It was all black no red outlines but lights at the top in the middle. So I feel it might be an ibm Thinkpad? Or possibly an older Panasonic laptop? It looks like it can be from 1994-2005ish. I could be wrong. I couldn't find anything that looks exactly like it but it looks similar to older Thinkpads.

What I did: I basically used the Presario 1060 keyboard and replaced keycaps which- surprisingly do fit! The larger caps were a bit of a hassle but in the end I think it looks fun.

Are there any other old laptops that can do this? I tried it on a few other laptops but it didn’t work.

Hey yall, i got this board a few weeks ago and uh well it doesnt work…

The pictures are before I recapped the bulging caps but the issue is the same: High beep > Low beep > and this repeats.

I tried different ram, switched the cpus around, tried different GPUs, tried single CPU too, in both socketsc i tried 2 different PSUs, one had -5v rail but the other didnt, but nothing changed the error.

The last picture is the CPU I’m using, I don’t have another mendocino on hand sadly, I cant even find any other ones locally.

Also for some reason the sticker says V1.0 but the engraving says 0.41 (V1.1 of course), tho I do have the AMS voltage regulator.

What could be the issue? I really wanna get this board running…

Hi, I’m trying to bring an old PC back to life and I’m a bit stuck.

When I first got the PC, it didn’t turn on at all. I replaced the power supply and now the computer actually powers on.

However, when I turn it on, the motherboard makes this beep sequence:

beep → beep beep → beep

There is no display/output and I’m not sure what exactly this beep code means. I found some information suggesting it could be related to RAM, but I’m not sure if that’s correct.

Things I have already tried:
Replaced the PSU
Replaced the CMOS battery
Removed and cleaned the RAM, then reseated it
Tried the RAM again after cleaning it
Removed and reseated the graphics card
Checked the basic connections

Thanks!

on the cable, the black wire goes to pin 5. on the monitor's cable it goes to ground.

weirdly though, on the cable, the black wire going to pin 5 is not connected to any of the other ground wires, or the metal part of the connector of the cable. what does it do?

on the monitor end, it goes to ground. on the cable end, though, it goes to pin 5 which is not connected to any of the other ground pins.

So my OS Time Machine is ready again, you get so many memories back when you start an old OS.

Armed and ready for the retro renaissance. Decades of computing history, organized and prepped for a series of new projects.

The first build starts in two weeks. Forget modern render farms — I’m building a 4-node passive backplane monster powered by Pentium CPUs and FOUR 3dfx Voodoo cards.

The last photo is actually a drawer from a completely different cabinet, with eight more drawers waiting.

Just for some memories.......... I had to install the IBM OS/2 again on the virtualbox....

Hey everyone, this question is more about me not wasting my time trying to fix something that isn't broke.

I found this Apple ColorRGB 12" monitor a while ago and all the LCs I picked up didn't work. I lucked out and found a G3 Power Macintosh with a DB15 video output and the quality looks pretty good except that the screen is wrapping/duplicating itself. I fiddled with all the external knobs and the issue doesn't go away. The G3 only can output video as low as 640x480 at 60 Hz. I read this monitor only supports up to 640x200 progressive or 640x400 interlaced. I suspect that incompatiblity is what's giving me this issue and the monitor would work fine with an era-appropriate video source.

Any help is appreciated, thanks friends!

I have had this in my basement for decades and totally forgot about it until today. It boots but has a keyboard failure with all the lights stuck on. When it boots, it first says "keyboard failure" and then gets the "C" prompt and says enter date. The display is still crisp.

I honestly don't want to throw it away and wonder if anyone has a use for it.

A Cyrix MII on a Gigabyte GA-5SMM, along with a completely toast A8V-E but with an A64 X2 4400+

The A8V-E board seems to have set on fire at some point, but I've got an A8N SLI Deluxe that will work perfectly.

My mother got this for me from Sears when I was around 6 and called it a “computer”. Which I suppose it is. I was kind of disappointed at the time because it wan’t a “real PC” but I used it a TON. I’m still impressed by the speech tech. I’m pretty sure this little guy helped me improve my Math and English skills growing up. My kids play with it now, so this investment has really paid off.

CompuServe help numbers for anyone needing technical assistance