I installed Windows 2000 on the eMachines T2341 since, well, I guess I didn't have enough OSes on here already😂. In true "me" fashion, I made it harder than I had to, naturally. Let's talk about it (briefly) in a 🧵 here!
So, after creating a dedicated partition in my boot manager, I popped my Windows 2000 CD into the drive. And I got a bunch of errors. On closer inspection, I see why, this CD is a MESS!
Rather than even TRY to clean it, I just burned a new one. Okay, now we are in business.
From there, I allowed Windows 2000 to format the partition. I should know better: it ended up wiping out all of my partitions 😂. When using this boot manager, it's best to leave the partition intact. Fortunately, I was able to recover the other partitions and start over.
Okay, now we are cooking! What do you think about the Computer name I chose? 😂
Driver installation was pretty straight forward. We needed drivers for sound, video, and the modem.
And with that, we are all set. No yellow exclamation marks, and you can see the hardware installed in this system below.
Anyway, mission accomplished, with some foolish detours. Hope you enjoyed the thread, thanks for following along!
@threadreaderapp unroll
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Several days ago, I started a journey of exploring a very unique CPU in my "new" 486 system. It's a Green CPU U5S-SUPER33, and it is REALLY cool... and FAST. Let's talk about it, and why it took me so long to get this thread out, in a 🧵 here!
So, first, if you aren't familiar with the UMC Green CPUs, it might be because they were not available in the US (and perhaps other countries) after a lawsuit with Intel. The CPU itself has the marking "Not for US sale or import". Good thing I didn't buy this CPU 😂
Let's get it installed. My Shuttle HOT-443 (Ver 4.0) motherboard has native support for it. I set the jumpers, powered up the system, and it got detected! This CPU detects as a UMC 486 "SX" CPU, but don't let that fool you... it's FAST! Let's talk about that.
I decided to try and retr0brite the Rustbucket PC a bit. I think it looks a little bit better now! Let's have a quick 🧵 to look at the method used!
I removed the front panel and separated out the drive blanks and gave them a wash. PC looks a little funny without its face 😂
From there, it was more 40 volume developer applied with a paintbrush and into the retr0brite bin! I applied the 40 volume developer yesterday afternoon, last night, and then again this morning.. and finally took the pieces out around midday.
A few days back, I ordered a bunch of hard disk drives. The first one, a Seagate ST32342A (Medalist) 4.3 GB IDE drive, arrived today. Let's check it out in a 🧵 here!
First thing I did was create a 2.0 GB DOS partition and format it. No issues so far!
I then fired up SpinRite 6.1. For some reason, it didn't want to run on this 486DX4/100, it froze on the intro screen. So I swapped that out for the Rustbucket Pentium II 350 MHz, and it fired right up!
Oookay, I have an update on my 486 DX/33 from earlier where I was trying to do a simple memory upgrade. After some review, I honestly can't imagine that this computer was EVER stable. Say what??? Yeah.. it's bad 😂. Let's discuss in a 🧵 here
If you missed my earlier thread, it's here. I had the thread all put together and thought I was done. I figured I would run a quick MemTest and be on my way. Not quite! Disabling the cache "seemed" to fix things, and so I concluded "must be bad cache".
In that thread, we got all sorts of interesting screens. I thought, "well the CPU must be good, it's gotta be L2 cache causing these problems. We even saw "cache is bad" on one POST cycle. But NOTHING was consistent.
A few weeks ago, I bought this "ReSound" computer for its lovely Enlight AT case, but fell in love with the computer! The memory is more than a little anemic though at 2MB. Let's upgrade it. Time for a 🧵.
So, given how terribly anemic this is, let's pop in a 16MB chip. I believe that it takes Fast Page memory. This should bring our total up to 18MB or so. I was lazy, so I just put it in any old bank!
Okay, this looks good. Let's keep going. I'm going to jam two more SIMMs in, 4MB a piece. By the way, all of this memory is very much so odd pair, which is probably a bad idea. And.. yes.. still only 18MB detected on power on. Okay, confirmed bad idea 😂.
I think it's about time we have a look at this Comtrade computer I picked up at the System Source Swap Meet a few weeks back! I did a Windows 98 SE install on it today and encountered a lot of trouble before I made one critical change. Let's explore all of this and more in a 🧵
First, some context on the purchase. At the System Source Swap Meet in Hunt Valley, MD last month, System Source had a bunch of PCs for sale, priced as marked. I snagged this one for $20 with LOTS of interest in its 5.25" floppy drive.
First thing I did today was to give this computer some feet! I didn't want it scratching the desk any worse than it already was 😂. I had three styles to choose from, and went with the little "squares" you see here, because, well, why not!