What retro things have you done today?

manisses · 3 Feb 2022 at 19:47

I got my Tiny keyboard too but it was in a really bad shape. I wish I took a picture with all the caps removed, it was awful. It ended really nice. It's not mechanical, but it does the job. I'll be using it as it matches the case and speakers.

You can find really good deals on CEX, recently I saw a 6600 GT and a 6800. I rushed to buy them, then I checked again for no reason and I saw that there's still a 6800 in stock. I added it to basked and I managed to buy it. Someone left two matching 6800 at CEX for pennies. At least it didn't ended up in a landfill and made me happy. In the end there were 3 Leadtek cards from CEX.

@phatboy I hope I didn't bought the other day one of the GTX 260 you wanted, I saw one for 6£ and couldn't help it. It was only one in stock..I haven't received it yet. I'm sure I got matching 260's somewhere, if I find them I'll let you know.

phatboy · 3 Feb 2022 at 20:46

That is insane!

My challenge this year is to find one 6800 at decent price let alone 3 lolol

Do keep me posted on the 260s

Retro6 · 4 Feb 2022 at 20:27

As we are on the subject of keyboards I was wondering if anybody could tell me anything at all about this keyboard? It has 5 din AT connector I have tried it on many old PC's but it doesn't function. It could be that it was made for a different kind of PC. Its made by FERRANTI Made in the U.S.A Key tronic. It has a U.S PAT no. 4277790 and has various things written on the inside of the case in ink "226-001 EM 0.3 DC"

I can't find any info on this keyboard and I don't think it be worth putting on ebay especially when I can't confirm its working condition.

I would like to use this on a 486 build. If I can find out exactly what computer this keyboard was for then I might be able to make it useful or if its a fault somewhere... It has two changeable eeproms....

Any ideas?

Armageus · 4 Feb 2022 at 21:14

It's probably a type 1 rather than xt/at

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_keyboard
https://vintagecomputer.ca/ibm-pc-model-f-keyboard-type-1-vs-type-2/

Kurgen · 4 Feb 2022 at 22:52

Got a new old Ball mouse, Elite Mouse mat, Monitor Stand, and i found a unwanted desk return at work. Its all powered from one 3 pin plug, the monitor uses a pass through on the PSU, speakers, white LED, Bottle lamp running off the rear usb ports. Soundblaster live 5.1 on the way, as the one i have sucks in dos mode

LewisRaz · 5 Feb 2022 at 11:17

For any fans of the "TIME" brand, this could be an amazing find:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234403005477?hash=item3693820425:g:LG0AAOSwrHNh-c7S

Retro6 · 5 Feb 2022 at 12:46

LewisRaz said:
For any fans of the "TIME" brand, this could be an amazing find:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234403005477?hash=item3693820425:g:LG0AAOSwrHNh-c7S

It looks alright and comes with the system restore CD and original mouse and keyboard and lots of cool software. I would bid on it myself but I know it wont stay at 40 quid plus I already have to many vintage PCs now. I wonder if it has an actual hard drive or just one of those dreaded CF to IDE drives?

Retro6 · 5 Feb 2022 at 12:57

I made a new top panel for the TINY PC but I wasn't happy with the look so I decided to remove the floppy and the nice looking Memorex CD ROM as it would be as shame to hide it under those plastic drive bezels. I put that aside for another PC and have put in a black DVD optical drive, seeing that its going to be hidden by a drive cover it wont be seen anyway and I will have the use of DVD disks in that machine which will be better than being limited to CD only. I put in a suitable floppy drive and clipped the original drive bezels back in place. I will need to find a middle drive bay cover for it or make one somehow. I wont put anymore photos up of the TINY PC until its finished.

Retro6 · 5 Feb 2022 at 13:18

Armageus said:
It's probably a type 1 rather than xt/at

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_keyboard
https://vintagecomputer.ca/ibm-pc-model-f-keyboard-type-1-vs-type-2/

Thanks man. I really appreciate it. Some useful info I may be able to convert it.

Retro6 · 5 Feb 2022 at 15:06

I got lucky in CEX with a couple of 512MB industrial CF cards 1.50 each I also bought a 16gb one but it got problems and will not format so that will be going back. The two 512MB CF cards are good. I've installed MS-DOS on to those two.

I've bought a quite a few CF cards from CEX which was mainly to use as hard drives on retro computers but after a short time I found they wasn't the best things to be using however still worth buying because I sell them on and make profit. I've stopped doing that now as a few got returned back to me. I don't think CEX really test things thoroughly. I must have bought many over the past year.

Guest2 · 5 Feb 2022 at 21:26

LewisRaz said:
For any fans of the "TIME" brand, this could be an amazing find:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234403005477?hash=item3693820425:g:LG0AAOSwrHNh-c7S

Nice for an avid Time pc collector but I fear this machines GPU and sound will be rather poor. Time was always a budget PC brand

I found this as im at my parents house. 16mb card still used by my dad for taking pics for ebay on a Canon A60

God i hate using imgur and this forum on a mobile. Trying to add a pic seems impossible. Link below

https://imgur.com/a/94TImie

manisses · 6 Feb 2022 at 09:17

LewisRaz said:
For any fans of the "TIME" brand, this could be an amazing find:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234403005477?hash=item3693820425:g:LG0AAOSwrHNh-c7S

This is is nice, I would want it, but I have enough units, enough is enough

. The only reason I would buy it would be as an investment if it won't sell for too much, but it will definitely sell for more.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...place_top_picks&referral_story_type=top_picks
Maybe someone is interested, check their other listings, they got two Compaq PIII units too.

Retro6 · 6 Feb 2022 at 12:34

manisses said:
This is is nice, I would want it, but I have enough units, enough is enough . The only reason I would buy it would be as an investment if it won't sell for too much, but it will definitely sell for more.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...place_top_picks&referral_story_type=top_picks
Maybe someone is interested, check their other listings, they got two Compaq PIII units too.

Most definitely... enough is enough. It can be very addictive buying vintage PCs. I only buy them if they look like they may work or are listed as working and less than 40 quid 35 quid is the most I have ever paid for a vintage PC. I had to stop myself buying another vintage PC the other day. In terms of investment I don't think there is much to be made in vintage PC investment. They are hard to sell locally and not the most practical things to ship, in my opinion its a lot of work for little return. Personally I'd invest in smaller items.

Retro6 · 6 Feb 2022 at 14:41

I've just been working on an old RM Pentium III machine that I've had for a while but I always had problems with it. I bought it off ebay for 20 quid back in 2017 it was listed as "buy it now" and had everything inside it so I bought it. I remember it having strange issues even tough it worked but has got worse over time. The first thing I noticed it that it ran very hot, the chips on the motherboard were hot to the touch way hotter than they should be but the CPU remained cool. After doing some tests with some software the voltages were a bit high. This would explain a lot. I got the multi meter on the PSU to measure the output voltages of the PSU.... all voltages read as they should. Another strange issue is that the computer will take a 256 MB RAM stick but will not post on anything lower making me think the Ram was bad but was fine.

I thought before ruling out an issue with the motherboard I wanted to check out the power supply further by removing it and opening up the PSU and making sure that none of the electrolytic capacitors are not bulging or leaking inside the PSU plus doing some further testing with the multi meter to make sure there are no faults inside the PSU. Well... not as simple because after removing the screws to release the PSU from the computer I find that it has been glued into place "there were some missing screws" so the PSU will not budge and I'm trying to think of a way to get it out without causing any damage to the case. There is a lot of glue, it looks like that no more nails stuff.

Kurgen · 6 Feb 2022 at 15:11

there are some HP "clicky" keyboards for sale on the bay factory sealed. part no C3757-60413

Retro6 · 6 Feb 2022 at 17:17

Kurgen said:
there are some HP "clicky" keyboards for sale on the bay factory sealed. part no C3757-60413

I have a clicky IBM one I bought from a boot fair a few years ago. I used to have more of them but no longer have them so the only clicky keyboard I have now is the IBM one which I used on my main PC as I liked the clicky feeling on my fingers. I ended up changing it tho because it drove the neighbor crazy when I typed on it at night.

Are they definitely the clicky kind and not the ones with rubber domes under the keys?

Kurgen · 6 Feb 2022 at 18:52

Retro6 said:
I have a clicky IBM one I bought from a boot fair a few years ago. I used to have more of them but no longer have them so the only clicky keyboard I have now is the IBM one which I used on my main PC as I liked the clicky feeling on my fingers. I ended up changing it tho because it drove the neighbor crazy when I typed on it at night.

Are they definitely the clicky kind and not the ones with rubber domes under the keys?

probably domed with a bit of tactile feedback

Retro6 · 6 Feb 2022 at 19:34

Kurgen said:
probably domed with a bit of tactile feedback

I think I'll give it a miss then. I've already got plenty of the rubber domed ones.

manisses · 6 Feb 2022 at 19:34

Retro6 said:
I have a clicky IBM one I bought from a boot fair a few years ago. I used to have more of them but no longer have them so the only clicky keyboard I have now is the IBM one which I used on my main PC as I liked the clicky feeling on my fingers. I ended up changing it tho because it drove the neighbor crazy when I typed on it at night.

Are they definitely the clicky kind and not the ones with rubber domes under the keys?

That's why I had to get non-mechanical keyboards, my wife "couldn't" sleep due to the noise. Of course it wasn't that, she didn't liked that I was still at the computer, but I had to shut her mouth somehow

Now the PC in in another room so I can clicky clicky as much as I want...

LewisRaz · 6 Feb 2022 at 19:37

Had a good hour or so on my main retro rig today. Only fired it up to test it was all still alright as it had been unplugged hastily to test another pc a while back. Played some TTDLX with TTDPatch. SW60XG still amazes me in that game.