Show off your old and retro computer parts

[Skiiwee29]

@GhostSix I have merged your thread into the Old/Retro computer hardware mega thread that already existed. 

[GhostSix]

4 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

@GhostSix I have merged your thread into the Old/Retro computer hardware mega thread that already existed. 

Apologies @Skiiwee29 I tried searching for something like this and didnt see it! Thanks for merging

 

[Desktopstu]

Here is my old AST that still gets used on occasion by my 11 year old son.

 

AST Advantage Pentium 1 233Mhz, 64mb 72 pin SIMM, 10gb BigFoot hard drive, S3 ViRGE graphics. Monitor is an AST 14" and even still uses the AST keyboard and mouse.

[BrianTheElectrician]

10 hours ago, Desktopstu said:

Here is my old AST that still gets used on occasion by my 11 year old son.

 

AST Advantage Pentium 1 233Mhz, 64mb 72 pin SIMM, 10gb BigFoot hard drive, S3 ViRGE graphics. Monitor is an AST 14" and even still uses the AST keyboard and mouse.

Does the motherboard have L2 cache? If memory serves some of the AST systems didn't have any on the mb, though I think that was the older earlier p1 systems. Looks like it's in great shape! Those old bigfoot drives are neat too, though they are slow compared to similar size 3.5" drives.

[da na]

Weird one here. Wyse Cx0 thin client. 1000mhz VIA Eden CPU, 256MB DDR2, 128MB SSD. Oddly enough, this system has 640K base memory with the DIMM slot as extended.

The system is rather small, fitting in the palm of one's hand easily. The CPU lies under the large copper heatsink, the DIMM below (with tiny memory chips, I may add) also has a nice heatsink below it. Blue board, left side is the IDE flash module, with the large WLAN card to its right. And that's the entire machine. 

Came loaded with ThinOS (which to no one's surprise is stripped down Linux). There is very little one can do in here, which is not surprising either. From this interface, the user can remotely connect to other computers, view system information, perform troubleshooting, and choose a screensaver. That's it.

@8tg, don't you have a similar system with an odd VIA CPU? 

 

[8tg]

1 minute ago, da na said:

Weird one here. Wyse Cx0 thin client. 1000mhz VIA Eden CPU, 256MB DDR2, 128MB SSD. Oddly enough, this system has 640K base memory with the DIMM slot as extended.

The system is rather small, fitting in the palm of one's hand easily. The CPU lies under the large copper heatsink, the DIMM below (with tiny memory chips, I may add) also has a nice heatsink below it. Blue board, left side is the IDE flash module, with the large WLAN card to its right. And that's the entire machine. 

Came loaded with ThinOS (which to no one's surprise is stripped down Linux). There is very little one can do in here, which is not surprising either. From this interface, the user can remotely connect to other computers, view system information, perform troubleshooting, and choose a screensaver. That's it.

@8tg, don't you have a similar system with an odd VIA CPU? 

 

Yes, another via Eden x2 dual core

A via Artigo A1200

This has 2gb of ddr3 and a 32gb ssd. This machine was less of a thin client and more of a POS or embedded application machine, it has a locking cfast card slot, 2.5” sata, multiple display outputs, two 1gb Ethernet ports, and an optional usb 3.0 upgrade card which I don’t have 

 

the cpu and chrome9 graphics are actually really good for old games, UT99 and Halo 1 run great on it.

Though it is very slow for basically anything else, it’s below the threshold of daily usability even with a light Linux distro on it.

[da na]

5 minutes ago, 8tg said:

Yes, another via Eden x2 dual core

A via Artigo A1200

This has 2gb of ddr3 and a 32gb ssd. This machine was less of a thin client and more of a POS or embedded application machine, it has a locking cfast card slot, 2.5” sata, multiple display outputs, two 1gb Ethernet ports, and an optional usb 3.0 upgrade card which I don’t have 

 

the cpu and chrome9 graphics are actually really good for old games, UT99 and Halo 1 run great on it.

Though it is very slow for basically anything else, it’s below the threshold of daily usability even with a light Linux distro on it.

Dual core, neat. 

[BrianTheElectrician]

Well, when I was in town for LTX I had a chance to swing by Disappearing Inc and got my hands on a Thinkpad T23 parts machine with a good screen which I needed for my T22. Got the LCD panel swapped over (Backlight in the old one was dead, swapped with one from another panel and still dead), backlight didn't work, though it did in the T23 when we tested. Swapped the inverter board and still nothing... swapped the display cable and it all came to life, so perhaps the lamp I have in the other display is still OK so I'll still be keeping it for a spare. Have the machine all back together and it's working great now! Good to know that the LCD, inverter and LCD cable are all the exact same between the T22 and T23, and I suspect I could actually swap the motherboard over as well (T23 lower case isn't in the greatest shape) but that's an eventual maybe. I'll be keeping the T22's old LCD, the T23's keyboard and motherboard for spare parts and realistically likely scrap the rest.

 

T22 Specs:

Intel Pentium III - 900Mhz, 256mb SD Ram, 20Gb HDD, S3 Savage IX Graphics (8Mb), Intel Pro/100 Ethernet and Crystal Sound. I've installed Windows 2000 Professional with SP4 on it, as I already have several newer Thinkpads that are all running Windows XP and I really wanted a Win2k laptop. This fits the bill nicely and is really a quick machine with Win2k. I've still got install the last couple drivers but just about all done getting it set back up. Judging by the Windows 98SE COA on the underside, I presume this was originally a Windows 98 system.

 

Maybe one day I'll see if I can find a replacement battery for it, or maybe look at rebuilding the one that's in it. It, not surprisingly, doesn't hold a charge at all haha.

 

[Kilrah]

7 minutes ago, BrianTheElectrician said:

 

Interesting, looks almost the same as my P3 800 X21, with the difference that the X is the "slim" version, no built-in drives or serial/parallel ports, that's in the docking station...

 

Got the dock and a working aftermarket battery with it

 

It was also a win98 system initially, but for some reason 98 actually runs like crap with weird stutters, XP is perfectly fine. Maybe some strange driver would be needed that was in the original install, but never found anything.

 

[sub68]

19 minutes ago, BrianTheElectrician said:

Well, when I was in town for LTX I had a chance to swing by Disappearing Inc and got my hands on a Thinkpad T23 parts machine with a good screen which I needed for my T22. Got the LCD panel swapped over (Backlight in the old one was dead, swapped with one from another panel and still dead), backlight didn't work, though it did in the T23 when we tested. Swapped the inverter board and still nothing... swapped the display cable and it all came to life, so perhaps the lamp I have in the other display is still OK so I'll still be keeping it for a spare. Have the machine all back together and it's working great now! Good to know that the LCD, inverter and LCD cable are all the exact same between the T22 and T23, and I suspect I could actually swap the motherboard over as well (T23 lower case isn't in the greatest shape) but that's an eventual maybe. I'll be keeping the T22's old LCD, the T23's keyboard and motherboard for spare parts and realistically likely scrap the rest.

 

T22 Specs:

Intel Pentium III - 900Mhz, 256mb SD Ram, 20Gb HDD, S3 Savage IX Graphics (8Mb), Intel Pro/100 Ethernet and Crystal Sound. I've installed Windows 2000 Professional with SP4 on it, as I already have several newer Thinkpads that are all running Windows XP and I really wanted a Win2k laptop. This fits the bill nicely and is really a quick machine with Win2k. I've still got install the last couple drivers but just about all done getting it set back up. Judging by the Windows 98SE COA on the underside, I presume this was originally a Windows 98 system.

 

Maybe one day I'll see if I can find a replacement battery for it, or maybe look at rebuilding the one that's in it. It, not surprisingly, doesn't hold a charge at all haha.

 

Dude I wanting to get my moms aencient T23 working again.

But man those T23 are absolute TANKS.

It was retired after:

 

[BrianTheElectrician]

18 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Interesting, looks almost the same as my P3 800 X21, with the difference that the X is the "slim" version, no built-in drives or serial/parallel ports, that's in the docking station...

 

Got the dock and a working aftermarket battery with it

 

It was also a win98 system initially, but for some reason 98 actually runs like crap with weird stutters, XP is perfectly fine. Maybe some strange driver would be needed that was in the original install, but never found anything.

 

Nice! I do know that the power management drivers seem to be needed on these old Thinkpads, I've had quite a few "unknown" devices suddenly become known after installing the PM drivers. I suspect maybe there's chipset drivers that are installed as well at that point, but not 100% on that.

 

For XP I've generally found that 512mb is my bare minimum for running it acceptably, along with generally much faster cpus (Min. 1ghz, usually use with P4 or Athlon 64+). This is partly due to the fact that I ran Win2k until the end of service before I actually switched to XP, and find 2k runs much faster (Plus, you know... nostalgia and all that).

16 minutes ago, sub68 said:

Dude I wanting to get my moms aencient T23 working again.

But man those T23 are absolute TANKS.

It was retired after:

 

The T22/T23 laptops are actually quite serviceable, I don't think it would be too hard to get it back together and workable again as long as you still have all the parts. They're great machines!

[sub68]

2 minutes ago, BrianTheElectrician said:

The T22/T23 laptops are actually quite serviceable, I don't think it would be too hard to get it back together and workable again as long as you still have all the parts. They're great machines!

Yeah I broke the wrist rest while servicing it (stripped screw) and broke the plastic to get it out.

But that thing is easy to fix, Alot of thinkpads are awesom in the regard.

[BrianTheElectrician]

3 hours ago, sub68 said:

Yeah I broke the wrist rest while servicing it (stripped screw) and broke the plastic to get it out.

But that thing is easy to fix, Alot of thinkpads are awesom in the regard.

It shouldn't be too hard to track down the pieces you need. I'd offer mine up but the ones off my T23 are also broken. I do know that Disappearing Inc has a lot more T23 laptops as well, so depending on where you're located he may be a good source.

[sub68]

10 minutes ago, BrianTheElectrician said:

It shouldn't be too hard to track down the pieces you need. I'd offer mine up but the ones off my T23 are also broken. I do know that Disappearing Inc has a lot more T23 laptops as well, so depending on where you're located he may be a good source.

eBay is selling only complete laptops going around 400-600.

Thanks for the lead.

I know where the parts are fortunately.

[8tg]

Thinkpad discussion

post thinkpads 

[iHardware Shelden]

24 minutes ago, 8tg said:

Thinkpad discussion

post thinkpads 

I love it, I'm curious what the oldest system someone has used to post on the forum or this thread to be more specific 

[8tg]

29 minutes ago, iHardware Shelden said:

I love it, I'm curious what the oldest system someone has used to post on the forum or this thread to be more specific 

Kinda depends on what you consider to be “using” the system. One could use some pretty ancient hardware as a serial terminal to another pc using a text web browser and easily browse LTT from like, a commodore PET.

As far as browsing this forum on the actual hardware goes, basically anything that can run some form of web browser. I’ve posted to this board before from a Cyrix MII 233, a super socket 7 machine with 256mb of pc100 and an s3 trio 64 running windows xp. And that’s really nothing crazy, you could run windows 98 on a particularly high end 486 machine and that would be capable of running a web browser that you could use this forum from. 

[Bitter]

Oldest I've done is a Pentium 4 running Linux to post in this thread, 3.something Ghz Northwood with 4GB ram in it.

[SimplyChunk]

8 hours ago, 8tg said:

And that’s really nothing crazy, you could run windows 98

 

8 hours ago, Bitter said:

Oldest I've done is a Pentium 4 running Linux to post in this thread, 3.something Ghz Northwood with 4GB ram in it.

Might have a go from the slot 1 machine at some point

[Bitter]

I believe that there's definitely some software issues running very old Windows to get onto websites as browsers that'll run on them are going to lack some bits and bobbles to access and render the site. Under Linux you can run new enough versions of FireFox or Chromium that they'll work on modern sites without too much trouble, although I think there's still some minimum hardware needed for some modern browsers to even launch, like SSE?

[SimplyChunk]

Quick question guys,  When my tiny little cooler gets here for my V3 3000.  What type of paste should i use?.  I'm not worried about keeping the card/die looking pretty.  Would a dollop of MX4 be enough?  I'm only asking cause they're not bare die are they like modern GPUs?  It's got that plasticky cover top to it. 

This is the one i'm getting.  I think it's coated or painted aluminium

[Bitter]

2 hours ago, ChonkerFox said:

Quick question guys,  When my tiny little cooler gets here for my V3 3000.  What type of paste should i use?.  I'm not worried about keeping the card/die looking pretty.  Would a dollop of MX4 be enough?  I'm only asking cause they're not bare die are they like modern GPUs?  It's got that plasticky cover top to it. 

This is the one i'm getting.  I think it's coated or painted aluminium

It's anodized.

Mx4 would be fine.

[SimplyChunk]

26 minutes ago, Bitter said:

It's anodized.

Mx4 would be fine.

Excellent.  Thank you

[SimplyChunk]

Got my home made Floppy cable measured and done!  I'm not sure if it works yet but have very carefully made sure that Pin 1 on each connector matches with the brown wire in the ribbon

 

This cable will make the 5.25" Floppy Drive A:\ and the 3.5" Drive B:\ Which is what I wanted.  (I shall then 'Swap' them with the option to in the BIOS) It all loops around the back of the drives nice and keeps it out of the way of all the other stuff that's got to go in there.  

This is what it looks like fitted.  Nice, Neat and out of the way!

[Dabombinable]

5 hours ago, ChonkerFox said:

Quick question guys,  When my tiny little cooler gets here for my V3 3000.  What type of paste should i use?.  I'm not worried about keeping the card/die looking pretty.  Would a dollop of MX4 be enough?  I'm only asking cause they're not bare die are they like modern GPUs?  It's got that plasticky cover top to it. 

This is the one i'm getting.  I think it's coated or painted aluminium

Any modern thermal paste is better than the old thermal epoxy or paste used by manufacturers back in the 90's/early 2000's. With that being said, if you end up doing a lot of tinkering, the same/similar type of generic silicon thermal compound can be had in 50g tubes (the brand of my stuff: Chemtools CT-R001-SI-S30-PT). I've only gone through 1/3 of mine, and it does a good enough job with low power or exposed die parts.