Miscellaneous Operating Systems/Hardware

A "new" Gateway 2000 DX2 50 recently acquired from eBay was restored with Retr0brite. There is lots still to do with this system, but just two quick before/after pics for now:

Good work!

That looks fantastic. I love those classic PCs (yeah, 1990s is classic for me...). A 250 MB tape drive is pretty big considering the size of hard drives in that era. Do you have tapes to go along with it? Any plans for the system?

IMHO, these PCs look nicer and cleaner without the Intel / Windows stickers.

Thanks!

Lots of additional restoration pics from this project:

http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum ... -of-images )

Where I am right now is that I have POST, but a failed HDD. Since I don't have a small, old ide HDD and even a 256MB CF doesn't seem to work w this BIOS, the system is not booting into an OS atm. The previous owner also removed the cdu-33 controller/sound card, so the CD-ROM is unconnected.

My plan is to:

1) upgrade to 96mb RAM (max supported, I believe)
2) find a backup psu; this one seems unstable
3) get a sound blaster w Sony interface
4) get a 800mb-1.2gb ide HDD. I believe this BIOS supports a max of 1.2gb.
5) alternative to #4, get a compatible IDE controller and larger hard disk. XTIDE was presented as an option on VCF but I can't find any pre-assembled versions to purchase

In my aptiva, there is a 541dx installed. A ultra ata 66 20 gb Harddisk. Latest BIOS recognizes 8,4 GB, but NT 4.0 sees all the 20 gigs. So I have a PC-DOS / Win 3.1 Partition of 2 gigabytes and several NTFS partitions. Works well. -- you could give it a try on your Compaq.

Geoman, what controller are you using? The mobo controller or a plug-in ISA/PCI?

Mobo controller:

System board chipset: Opti Viper 82C557M / 953021IE (NB)
Opti Viper SMC FDC37C933 / C9525-C2513 / 6M76011-4 (SB)
Opti Viper 82C558M / 953221FE
Opti Viper 82C556M / 952500IE

http://www.motherboards.org/forums/view ... f=2&t=5644

those Sony low-cost CDROMs are unbearably slow, although they do seem reasonably reliable.

Excellent work. One of these days I really need to try Retr0brite; I just got a keyboard that looks like ornamental corn:

Ugh. Heartbreaking on a classic C128D.

Looks like they only used 21 keys... unless it was used in George Orwell's Time Machine in some bizarre way!

nekonoko wrote: Excellent work. One of these days I really need to try Retr0brite; I just got a keyboard that looks like ornamental corn:

Thanks Neko.

I am going to get a UV lamp for future applications. I used sunlight this time, but only because it was the weekend and hence I could start early. Also, it was a bright, sunny day. Especially as winter arrives, the always-available, uniform UV from a lamp will probably be best.

uunix wrote: Looks like they only used 21 keys... unless it was used in George Orwell's Time Machine in some bizarre way!

Perhaps! The only thing I can think of is that some of the keys were made with a different plastic formulation that's more resistant to UV discoloration. At first I thought maybe some of the keys had been replaced, but the keyboard was so universally filthy when I received it (took me two hours to clean) that seems less likely. It was like the thing had been stored in a barn for 20+ years.

nekonoko wrote: The only thing I can think of is that some of the keys were made with a different plastic formulation that's more resistant to UV discoloration.

Exactly. http://deskthority.net/wiki/Keycap_construction

sgifanatic wrote: Exactly. http://deskthority.net/wiki/Keycap_construction

Nice! Probably a combination of ABS and PBT keys then. Commodore was kind of a penny-pincher so it wouldn't surprise me if they used a mix of keys.

Congratulations! Retr0brite works really really well is some cases and that computer looks better than new I recently used it to restore an old calculator and the difference was also amazing. However, it took me 3 days to restore the "original" condition.