RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Feb 1, 2025 • 7 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
My latest purchase cost me a whopping $1.50 plus shipping. It's a Fast Media Remote Control for my new Packard Bell, and it's kindof neat! Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here!
First of all, here it is up close! I received an infrared receiver that connects via the serial port, as well the remote and a manual. And, yes, it really cost $1.50... plus $8 or so to ship. With this remote, you can control the mouse and multimedia applications. Image
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So, what inspired me to buy this? I saw it featured on the sticker on the front of the machine, and got curious! Image
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Before trying this out, I took the opportunity to install a clean copy of Windows 98 SE on the Packard Bell, and also adjust the default screen resolution. Looking good! Image
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From there, I found the "FMEDIA" directory on the Master CD that I used recently to install Windows '95 on this system, and installed it! This version worked pretty well, but didn't seem to want to control the volume. Wonder if we can fix that! Image
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Why... yes, we can.. in a very odd way. What did I do? I found a NEWER Packard Bell Master CD (I went with 170802-03 - Win95A (Sept 1996)) and copied the FMEDIA.EXE installer from it, and ran it. And, yes, I had to install this OVER TOP of the existing install for it to work. Image
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And with that, we arrived at the video you saw in the first post of the thread! Now, I do want to try a few other things, such as using this remote on my Compaq Armada. On first blush, it didn't work, but I will try again. Thanks for following along!

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More from @RetroTechChris

Feb 28
Oookay, the Compaq Presario 5528 is back on the desk! I wanted to spend some more time looking at the MPEG-1 decoder card under Windows 95 OSR 2.5. And I have good news! Time for a quick 🧵 Image
As some may recall, here was the next thing I was going to try: copying over the Windows 95A Media Player to Windows 95 OSR2.5. But as it ends up, that wasn't necessary!! I'll explain.
I noticed something on my Win95 OSR 2.5 install. It looks like the Internet Explorer desktop update installed ActiveMovie Control. And it looks like it is using a default Microsoft software decoder. HOWEVER, notice that standard Windows Media Player is also installed! Image
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Read 5 tweets
Feb 28
Okay, it's a new day, let's test some more interface cards. We'll use the Pacman PC again. Time for a 🧵 Image
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Let's start with the NVIDIA GeForce2 MX. Oh my.. maybe this card has bad caps. NEXT! Image
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Next let's test this Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet 10/100 Network Card. No drivers on The Retro Web? Uh oh. Image
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Read 10 tweets
Feb 28
Well, looks like we have some modems to test. We better get going šŸ˜‚. I'm not going to do a full "dial" test, but we will see if we can at least configure them! Time for a 🧵 Image
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First things first, just like they taught in science class, always start with a baseline! So, I am going to make a copy of my Windows 98 installation so that we don't foul up the main install, and we'll check out device manager. Looking good! Let's roll. Image
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First modem out the gate is this Creative Modem Blaster V.90 PCI DI5655. We are going to use the Pacman PC to do the testing since it has a very convenient shared ISA/PC slot. In it goes! Image
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Read 18 tweets
Feb 24
My new old stock Tandy 1000 SX is now all configured! As mentioned earlier, I'm going to made a video about it at SOME point. But let's talk about the fun I had today with getting it set up. Was setup 100% trouble free? No. But was it the Tandy's fault? Also, no. Time for a 🧵 Image
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The first thing I did was to populate this gorgeous motherboard with a full 640K RAM, and also popped in a NEC V20 processor for the 8088. Flawless! No issues whatsoever with this! Image
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Next up, I jammed in some cards. Network. XTIDE. Multi I/O. Real Time Clock. On boot, we see the XTIDE option ROM screen, so we are now cooking! Image
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Read 14 tweets
Feb 23
Well, after spending way too much time this weekend trying to get my MPEG-1 decoder working on the Presario 5528 from a fresh Windows 95 install, I finally was successful. Let's talk briefly about it in a 🧵 here! Image
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So, first some background: what's the story with MPEG-1 decoders? Well, back when PCs weren't quite powerful enough to play full-motion video, hardware options like this were popular. This machine has a S3 Scenic/MX2 (86C443) chip to do just that. Image
For this particular system, this chip pairs with an S3 Trio64V+ (8C765) via the S3 Scenic Highway bus. That said, it's fair to say that MOST S3 Trio64V+ cards did NOT pair with a Scenic/MX2, as this MPEG-1 option chip seemed to be FAIRLY short lived. Image
Read 16 tweets
Feb 16
Okay, let's play with this "new to me" Compaq Presario 5528 All In One that I picked up this morning. Going to build this thread as we go! But let's get this kicked off! 🧵 Image
As we saw from the first picture, this is a Pentium 75 system with 72MB RAM and a 1.0 GB HDD. As we look at the bezel, we can see it is not in perfect shape. But perhaps we can fix that up later! Image
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The first thing I did was run MemTest86+ which passed. From there, I got out my "good camera" because, as we can quickly see, we're going to need to be able to adjust shutter speed here šŸ˜‚ Image
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Read 34 tweets

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