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 🧵 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.

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/2025813885014384996

Okay, it's a new day, let's test some more interface cards. We'll use the Pacman PC again. Time for a 🧵

Let's start with the NVIDIA GeForce2 MX. Oh my.. maybe this card has bad caps. NEXT!

Well, looks like we have some modems to test. We better get going 😂. I'm not going to do a full "dial" test, but we will see if we can at least configure them! Time for a 🧵
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.

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 🧵
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!

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!
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.

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! 🧵 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!

I got a few optical drives in the mail today. Let's get them tested. Time for a quick 🧵
Okay, here we go. First up is a Toshiba XM-5302B. This is a 4X IDE drive! I loaded a Microsoft Money '99 CD into the drive, and this drive works GREAT!!

Let's talk about my newest PC acquisition, which might be the most budget build ever 🤣. But there was a reason for buying it. I'll cover that... along with a Windows 95 installation, in a 🧵. Let's go! First, why did I buy this? Well, the plan was to do a case swap with another system I had, which had some strange "fit" issues. However, that planned got smashed... literally. So, I thought we might as well explore what's left of this PC!

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/2020019740803260862

I just watched a video where YouTuber Action Retro set up a web server on a floppy disk using ELKS (the Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset). I thought, I have to try this for myself! Let's talk about it briefly in a 🧵
So, first of all, what is ELKS? It's the Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset, and it will run on a wide range of hardware, including 8088 systems. Pretty wild for a modern product! If you want to read more or try it out, GitHub repo is here: github.com/ghaerr/elks

I got a new DOS file transfer toy! Now, these have been around since the dawn of time, but let's talk about it: a MicroSD to LPT Printer Port Adapter. We'll give it a test on my Compaq LTE 5400. Time for a 🧵
First, if you are interested in reading about these, there is a thread on Vogons! Included in that thread is where I found the DOS drivers for it, you can go here for that, and to read about this device! vogons.org/viewtopic.php?…

I got some Xircom PC Cards in the mail today! Let's test them out and see if they work! 🧵 time!

First, if you missed it, a few days ago I posted this. Given what I have paid for these in the past, I was very pleased!

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/2011310243528229239

My holiday break is quickly coming to an end. So, I think it's time to power on the retro PCs that I have yet to power on recently. I am sure this will go flawlessly 😂. Let's do most of this, in real time, in a 🧵 here!

Alright, you've already seen the first three. My trusty, original 486DX4/100 powered right up, as did the Packard Bell Multimedia 601 Pentium 233 MMX

The challenges and solutions in retro computing never cease to amaze me, and today's project is no different. Today's goal was getting working storage in this AST Premium Exec 386 laptop. And fortunately, somewhat against the odds, I found one! Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here!
So, anyway, the issue I had with this laptop is that the original 20MB 3.5" IDE hard drive had died. I thought "no problem, I'll pop on eBay and get one." Except they are scarce and expensive. I picked up two 120MB drives and one 40MB drive. None of them worked.

Has anyone ever worked with GEOS, GeoWorks, New Deal Office, or Breadbox Ensemble on a PC? Well, I decided to load it up on one of my 486 systems today and take it for a spin... including getting online! Let's talk about what I discovered in a 🧵 here!
I decided to install Breadbox Ensemble 4.1.3, which was originally released in 2009. Keep in mind that this would be late in the cycle for, say, a 486 PC, that does give some perspective! Install was text based an a cinch!

Yesterday, I talked about a few systems I had that were not Intel/AMD/Cyrix based. Well, here's another one: my Gateway 2000 tower has a UMC processor in it! I haven't powered it on in a hot minute, so let's talk about it briefly in a 🧵 here!
As we saw from the intro photo, this system has a UMC Green CPU US5-SUPER33 in it. And, indeed, it is super! It's almost as fast as a 486 DX2/50! These CPUs were subject to a legal dispute, and thus were not sold in the USA

I thought I'd power up and inventory my systems that don't have CPUs made by Intel/AMD/Cyrix, but are x86 compatible. I do have a few! Let's have a quick look at them in a 🧵 here! Let's start with the system on the far left, the tower. It happens to be an ITX Llama system, built around the Vortex86EX CPU. It's similar in performance to a 486 or Pentium system. I did make a custom BIOS build to play the Nokia tune 😂

I thought I'd take some time today and "assemble" the new additions to my Compaq LTE 5000 series fleet! Each machine got a battery, hard drive, and either a floppy or CD-ROM drive. Let's talk about it briefly in a 🧵 here!

First, I started with the batteries. The cells have been removed, so we just have plastic shells. They all needed a cleaning, but this one was THE WORST. Some Goo Gone took care of it, and some elbow grease. Also, I was one battery short, so I pulled one from my spares!

I just made a 10 cent improvement to this Compaq LTE Elite 4/75 laptop. Anyone want to guess what it is? Let's talk about it in a brief 🧵 here! Did you make your guess? Yep! It was the screen latches! For 10 cents, my local library's makerspace printed these for me today!

Sometimes curiosity gets the best of us, and that happened when I saw this Xircom Parallel Port Multiplexor III for sale. What does it do? It lets you use a printer and Xircom parallel port Ethernet adapter at the same time. Does it do it "well"? Let's find out! 🧵 time!

As you might have seen from the intro pic, I'm going to use my AST Premium Exec 386SX/25 to test this out. This machine doesn't have any PCMCIA slots, so I do use a Xircom Pocket Ethernet III to get it online!

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/1744878614410101158

I've got these two cute little Compaq LTE Elite 4/75 systems. I'm just about done setting up one of them.. how about we set up the other one here, in real time! Time for a 🧵
So, first off, we are going to have a minor complication. These laptops have a near 100% failure of their floppy drives, the dreaded Citizen W1D drive. Fortunately, I've installed an OpenFlops W1D to replace it.. basically a Gotek replacement for the Citizen W1D!

It's been a little while since we have had the Dell Precision 220 Workstation on the desk. I've had several requests to install Haiku on this Dual Pentium III beast. Let's get it done! Time for a 🧵 So, first, this PC already has a lot of OSes! We'll create a 4GB BeOS partition to install Haiku, and add it to the list of OSes to boot!