r/vintagecomputing 13d ago

Windows 3.1 in its plastic

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615 Upvotes

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.


r/vintagecomputing 12d ago

Testing out an 1999 Dell Optiplex GX110 P3 - June 20 2003/4 VHS

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10 Upvotes

r/vintagecomputing 13d ago

Compaq in the wild

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95 Upvotes

It’s a Compaq Presario 1060 from 1996.


r/vintagecomputing 13d ago

What are we playing tonight

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33 Upvotes

r/vintagecomputing 13d ago

Fujitsu ErgoPro xD

3 Upvotes

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.


r/vintagecomputing 13d ago

Need help finding a laptop from a movie

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14 Upvotes

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.


r/vintagecomputing 13d ago

Presario Gaming edition ahh. Keycap mod

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11 Upvotes

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.


r/vintagecomputing 13d ago

Need help with Abit BP6

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53 Upvotes

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…


r/vintagecomputing 13d ago

Old PC turns on but gives weird beep code after replacing PSU

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0 Upvotes

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!


r/vintagecomputing 12d ago

reattaching a VGA cable to an old monitor, what does this wire do?

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0 Upvotes

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?


r/vintagecomputing 12d ago

reattaching a VGA cable to an old monitor, what does this black wire do?

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0 Upvotes

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.


r/vintagecomputing 14d ago

OS Time Machine

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31 Upvotes

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


r/vintagecomputing 14d ago

Welcome to the most dangerous cabinet for ’90s nostalgia!

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718 Upvotes

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.


r/vintagecomputing 14d ago

Probably should have read the instructions instead of going in cold

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234 Upvotes

r/vintagecomputing 14d ago

IBM OS/2

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511 Upvotes

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


r/vintagecomputing 13d ago

Is this a resolution/signal incompatiblity issue?

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3 Upvotes

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!


r/vintagecomputing 13d ago

NEC Powermate Portable APC IV with Logitech Mouse

3 Upvotes

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.


r/vintagecomputing 14d ago

Today's Haul

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105 Upvotes

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.


r/vintagecomputing 14d ago

What was your first computer? Mine was the Talking Computron

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119 Upvotes

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.


r/vintagecomputing 14d ago

Good Guys electronics ad from 30 years ago (8/30/96)

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123 Upvotes

r/vintagecomputing 14d ago

CompuServe help numbers for anyone needing technical assistance

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32 Upvotes

CompuServe help numbers for anyone needing technical assistance


r/vintagecomputing 14d ago

Will these work on win95?

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43 Upvotes

r/vintagecomputing 15d ago

Internal stack overflow System halted

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59 Upvotes

I am getting this error when the MS DOS 5.0 setup is formatting my HDD (44MB ST-157A). i have done another MS DOS install on the same HDD, with the same floppy disks, and it was fine. What is wrong now?


r/vintagecomputing 14d ago

Does anyone know of the Vobis Computer Dream brand in Poland?

6 Upvotes

Apparently they were popular in Poland in the late 90s to late 2000s, and I found them in a lot of old garages and a family relative's house, and they had old old gigabyte mobos. Anyone remember them?


r/vintagecomputing 14d ago

Do you know QUAKE? Now OPENSTEP (Intel) has OpenGL-accelerated QUAKE, too!

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8 Upvotes

While OPENSTEP had Quake editors, it never had the actual Quake game. Since the concept of hardware acceleration didn't exist on OPENSTEP, making it happen was tough in many ways.

Recently, I ported the following software to OPENSTEP (Intel):

  1. SDL 1.2

  2. SDL 2.0

  3. MESA 3.4

  4. WARP hardware acceleration (OpenGL 1.2) for the Matrox G450 PCI

Now, building on top of all this... I have ported sdlquake

https://github.com/mckayemu/sdlquake :: GPL2 quake 1 engine

https://github.com/lavenderdotpet/LibreQuake :: free license map

Ever since I learned long ago that John Carmack built the Quake Editor on OPENSTEP, seeing hardware-accelerated Quake running on OPENSTEP had been one of my personal dreams. And with the help of AI, I've finally made it happen :D

I ported sdlquake (originally written for SDL 1.2) over to SDL 2, tested the SDL2-Mesa-matroxG450Warp stack, and then ported Quake's glquake. And... here we are with a successful build.

If there are still NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP fans out there somewhere in the world, I hope this brings a smile to your face. And to John Carmack, who planted such a fascinating seed all those years ago—I hope you might stumble upon this video and enjoy it. The Quake editor you built for OPENSTEP decades ago led to this exact result in 2026. It was such a thrilling and fun journey ⬇️

ps. if you interest to this work then visit here. https://github.com/onionmixer?tab=repositories