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RetroTech Chris

Aug 4 • 12 tweets • 7 min read • Read on X

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Okay, let's get some software installed on this "new" 486DX/50 PC of mine. As per usual, nothing was flawless here, so let's go over what went well and where I hit some snags! Time for a 🧵

To get the installers on the box, I decided to use MS LAN Manager and the network. I made a special LAN Manager boot disk with drivers for the Intel EtherExpress 16TP that you see in the bottom of the last picture here.

I've been very curious about how this machine would stack up, so I copied over SpeedSys to benchmark the system. And as we can see, it fell right in line with where it should be!

Next, I installed Windows for Workgroups 3.11. The network card actually got auto detected, which is nice! I did have the option to choose the transceiver type for this card, so I did!

After getting WFW3.11 installed, I decided to set up video card drivers for the Tseng Labs ET4000AX card. I set the resolution to 1024x768x256 colors. Oh, man, this didn't go well. I think this card only supports 1024x768 with 16 colors to use a non-interlaced mode.

I thought I would try another resolution, so I went with 800x600 with 32K colors. It failed too. I bumped it down to 256 colors and started up, and good, we are all ... HEY, WAIT A MINUTE! Where are my fonts?? 😂😂

Right, so those video card drivers were from 1992. I swapped them out for some drivers from 1994, and got 800x600x256 colors working. Yes, I did reinstall WFW3.11 to get to this point. Ah, the fun of this stuff 😂

Let's get the sound drivers installed. I decided to install a Labworks LABSOUND #503 card (see first picture, top card). Great! Let's go ahead and run the Win3.1x installer and.. ugh, here we go again 😂

So, per usual, I did some Internet sleuthing, and found a page that was a mirror for an old version of the ESS Technology website. I downloaded the drivers and had the same problem. But I found that if I ran the installer TWICE, the card would get detected. Sheesh!

With video and sound configured, let's play a little bit of Chip's Challenge to show it off! Apologies for the loud keyboard key presses!

Alright, let's get this thing online! With Netscape Navigator and ProtoWeb, we can browse the Netscape homepage like it's 1997. And this machine is nice and zippy doing that too!

You still here? Good! Well, this is the end of the thread. I'll leave you with a view of my Windows for Workgroups 3.11 Program Manager. Perhaps we'll get into some DOS fun on this system later, but hey, we now have a usable system! Thx for following!

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More from @RetroTechChris

RetroTech Chris

@RetroTechChris

Aug 3

My friend Bill gave me a bunch of case lock keys! Back in the days of the AT standard for cases, keylocks were pretty common on PC clones, and IBM systems as well. Let's see how many locks we can open today. Time for a silly 🧵

First, the Gateway 2000 you saw in the intro post. First key I tried worked 😂

Next, let's look at the PS/2 Model 30 286. Not today, not happening, this uses a "more regular looking" key.

Read 9 tweets

RetroTech Chris

@RetroTechChris

Aug 3

I already have too many PCs, but I had to have this cute little guy... and there is also a good nostalgic reason for having it! This 386 (now 486) PC needed a lot of work to get it running, let's talk about it in a 🧵 here!

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/1951100235561726359

First, in case you missed it, here's the nostalgic reason. Kehtron is a part of my childhood. And this PC was available locally. The weather was also PERFECT yesterday for making an hour drive to get it and rocking out to some 80s tunes on the way 😂

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/1951100235561726359

Okay, first order of business, I put this on the table and it was rocking back and forth. I soon discovered why! I didn't have a matching foot so I used a little bit of Goof Off to remove the adhesive. And PSA, like with most chemicals, always work in a ventilated area.

Read 19 tweets

RetroTech Chris

@RetroTechChris

Jul 28

In my haste yesterday, there are TWO THINGS that I forgot to do and post about for this "eMachines" system. One is more important than the other! Let's talk about it in a brief 🧵 here!

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/1949660599153041482

First of all, before we get too far, recall that this isn't actually an eMachines. The original motherboard failed, and a Pentium III Biostar motherboard was put in to replace it, in what I am calling a "reverse sleeper"

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/1949660599153041482

So, what did I forget? Well, the first thing was to showcase the Wake on LAN capability! I installed a 3Com network card with Wake on LAN support. If we know the Ethernet MAC address and have a program to send a "magic packet", and the BIOS settings are right, we can use it!

Read 6 tweets

RetroTech Chris

@RetroTechChris

Jul 28

I recently picked up this "eMachines" from my friend Bill to bring to the next local meetup and plop on the "free" table. I thought I'd spruce it up a little bit in the meantime, since, well, I enjoy doing just that 😂. Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here!

So, first and foremost, this isn't actually an eMachines. The original mobo died and it was replaced with a Biostar M6TWL and a Pentium III 600 MHz CPU. Does that makes this thing a "reverse sleeper"? 🤣

Given this, we have a little bit of work to do. First, unrelated, but the CMOS battery is dead. Also, there is a SATA Western Digital 120GB HDD installed, but that won't work without some sort of adapter, since the motherboard only supports IDE.

Read 17 tweets

RetroTech Chris

@RetroTechChris

Jul 27

I recently received this Dell Inspiron 700m from my friend Bill. Originally a Windows XP system. I thought "maybe I could make this a mean DOS/Windows For Workgroups 3.11 system." Let's give it a shot in a 🧵 here, I bet we can get pretty close!

First thing I did was to look in the BIOS. This system is a Pentium M 2.0 GHz with 512MB of memory. The optical is a CD-RW/DVD. Okay, this should be more than adequate for what we want to do here 😂. Oh... and look, we can boot from a USB floppy drive! Okay, let's do that.

First thing I thought I would do is to boot DOS 6.22. And... look at that, I even had the right drivers set up to detect the optical drive. Win!

Read 20 tweets

RetroTech Chris

@RetroTechChris

Jul 26

I got a few items in the mail for my Compaq LTE 5000 laptops! A power adapter... and a bunch of Cisco Aironet 350 wireless network cards from a friend who bought like 50+ of them 😂. Let's test out the network cards and go through how to set them up in MS-DOS!! Time for a 🧵

Before I get into the setup procedure, I wanted to inform that I do have a setup procedure for this on one of my old "crap film quality" videos (not that the newer ones were better 😂). If you want a video walkthrough, hosted by a younger RTC, go here!

To make these cards work in MS-DOS, we need an older firmware. It has become a bit scarce online, so I put it in my GitHub repo: github.com/cml37/dos-util…

Read 16 tweets

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