I made it through testing the rest of the ISA and PCI interface cards that I talked about yesterday... erm... at least as well as I could. I'd say things went pretty well! Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here!


We'll use Windows 98 SE for the testing again. And I'm starting out with a "freshly" copied partition again. It's for the best when installing a bunch of drivers.

A few weeks ago, I purchased a group of 17 ISA and PCI cards of all different types! I've had a chance to test out some of them and the results have been PRETTY good, despite an issue here and there. Let's talk about the first round of testing in a 🧵 here! So, first, this is the shipping box for the card. Eek! And, naturally none of the cards were in ESD bags. Oh well. Annnnyway, moving on, I stacked and sorted. 6 NICs (plus 2 bonus ones I bought), 5 sound, 1 IDE, 1 video capture, 3 misc interface, and... 1 MODEM 😂😂

I finally got around to testing out all of my new hard drives! Let's see how it went. Time for a 🧵
So, I decided to start testing with all of the Western Digitals. My eMachines is PERFECT for testing drives, I can pop them into the HDD cage like a piece of toast 😂. The BIOS picks up the drive, I give it a quick partition and format, and then it's SpinRite 6.1 time!

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 😂

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 😂

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!

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".

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/1921686824222629923

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!

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.

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/1916455568312541460

I picked up this $5 USB to Parallel adapter at the System Source Swap Meet. I thought it would be cool to print to my HP LaserJet 5L from a modern computer! Let's talk about it briefly in a 🧵 here!
So, here it is unboxed. Looks to be a decent length cable. Great!

I picked up a $5 SCSI CD-ROM drive (or two!) at the System Source Swap Meet in hopes of "righting" a "wrong" on this PC. Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here!
So, first, for those who didn't see it, here's everything I picked up at the swap meet. You can see the two CD-ROM drives I grabbed in the middle of the picture!

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/1916681393700012322

I bought this $20 PC at the System Source Swap Meet since I really wanted an Enlight ATX case! I didn't inspect it close enough, and thus didn't realize at the time I was buying a project 😅. But I think it worked out in the end. Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here!

So, as you saw from the initial picture, this thing has seen the elements. As I look inside, I also see leaves and other debris. Makes me wonder if this was stored in a shed or something of the sort.

I picked up a "new old stock" ATX case at the swap meet today. I moved my ITX Llama motherboard over to it. Time for a quick 🧵! Here's the back and inside of the case, and some included hardware. Look at that nice diagram that shows you where to use all of the screws and parts. Nice!

I picked up the 386SX/16 system and the Dell NetPlex 486DX2/50 systems you see here (I didn't pick up the machine on top of them). Let's have a VERY QUICK look at them in a 🧵 here!

https://twitter.com/RetroTechChris/status/1916479624923500792

So, first, the 386SX/16. It powers right up, and has a VERY OLD Award BIOS. This BIOS version doesn't even support custom HDD params. It appears that the Western Digital drive inside is dead. But hey, it powers up, so that is good, right? RIGHT!

I decided to build a retr0brite tub and try out a "test" project. It seemingly went pretty well. Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here!

Assembling the tub wasn't too hard. I used aluminum foil and spray adhesive to adhere it to the tub, or to adhere it to other pieces of aluminum foil. Shiny side out! After that, running the UV lights was easy since they had a sticky backing to them. Just plan ahead a bit 😂

I was recently doing some late night eBay shopping (which is always dangerous) and found this "SCSI hard card" for a GREAT price. I have a use case in mind, will it work for that? Let's have a look at it in a 🧵 here! So, anyway, this "hard card" has a Seagate ST01 controller card attached to a Seagate ST-138N 32 MB SCSI drive. It's a chonker! Pretty unreal to think they put this on a "hard card!"

My new 486 PCs are in need of a little bit of work. We won't accomplish it all tonight, but let's do a thing or two to tidy them up. Time for a 🧵.
First of all, for the PC on the left, there is no heatsink and fan! I happen to have one on hand, so that is an easy fix!

I recently picked up a BlueSCSI and also was gifted a 10,000 RPM Seagate Cheetah SCSI 4.5 GB hard drive. Let's test them out using the Rustbucket 2000 PC in a 🧵 here!
So, for continuity sake, a few weeks back after we picked up the Rustbucket PC, I added a SCSI controller and HDD to it. You can read all about that here!

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/1909436288903626987

I have a few ATX power supplies to test. Going to test them out on the Rustbucket 2000. We will see how this goes!
So far this Dell and FSP Group supplies have tested good. But the network card is misbehaving. Going to give it a shot of contact cleaner here in a minute. After all, this is the Rustbucket PC 😅

Time to connect this HP LaserJet 5L up to a Windows 3.11 PC and print something out! 🧵 After getting the software installed, I had a look at some of the options. Just look at the graphics representing 600 vs 300 DPI 😂. Alright, let's print a page from Windows Write.

Another new retro PC for me? Yes! Let's have a look at this beauty: a 486 DX/33 in a 🧵 here! First, here's a look at the front and back. The case is made by Enlight. These cases are SOLID! No turbo button or seven segment display, but all is forgiven. Also, I need to find a few slot covers... or put some cool cards in this PC 😂