The Retrocomputing Thread

[Chocofreak13]

....jealous. but happy for you. ^^

hmm, that adapter for the ibm looks like the one i had for it (untill fricken russel's condo ATE it >___< ), perhaps it's too new (my ibm's a 98/99)?

[Aurora Borealis]

Each of your new finds gets more and more awesome, Bella!

[NejinOniwa]

DAT NEKO :W:

[Dr. Kraus]

Dat 3.1 with da NEKO.

[Krizonar]

I don't really have that many 'awesome' stories with my computers, I'm more like an adoption agency people going to throw them out and I say I'll take it.
A lot of them are from my past too, since I keep pretty much everything.

[Bella]

Me too, I run a homeless computer shelter. XD

Though I'd like to think I've some pretty interesting acquisition stories; finding a VIC-20 at a festival in VT and having to carry it mile back to my car in 90+ degree heat, finding another VIC-20 at an antique shop, a working eMac at a dump and having to make a 60-mile dash to the border of Mass to buy my iMac while it was still on sale...

Actually, all of them have interesting stories. If only I had the time to tell them.

[Krizonar]

Wow, those are cool o3o

Oh, but you DO have time to tell them!

...please? /waterey-kitten eyes

[Bella]

Gah, who can resist sad kitten eyes? I guess I'll try jotting some of them down when I get the chance... for posterity's sake. =v=

[stewartsage]

As we speak it would appear that my PowerBook 165 has a busted hard drive.  The extreme helpfulness of the school's network in facilitating my creating floppy images is to be commended.  By commended of course I mean I haven't been more irritated since I couldn't read Dominic Deegan after 8AM in high school.

Further plans: Seek out the Mac loving tech guy and see if he has a real Disk Tools floppy he's willing to let me use.  Or, you know, mad Mac skills and a willingness to let me format a disk in his Mac Classic.

[Bella]

If you can get your hands on a USB floppy drive you might be able to do your disk-making work from within an emulator (didn't you say it's System 7 you need to use?)

I wish I could be of more help... :,\

[stewartsage]

I've looked for a USB floppy drive for years now; they either cost an arm and a leg or don't exist.  Charity time!

[Bella]

The prices I found doing a quick search didn't seem so bad...

[stewartsage]

I seem to have a different definition of reasonable pricing then the rest of the world.

[Bella]

Cue the tiny violins, it's time for a new installment of...

Heaps and Heaps of Misfortune in Computing!

K8 is dead. Or I should say dying again, two months after being fixed. Same overheating -> spontaneous shutdown issues, probably originating in the mobo. God clearly doesn't want me ever using a Linuxbox, I suppose I'll concede and won't.

I fished my Performa 6115 out of cold storage along with a keyboard, mouse and monitor, only to find that none of the peripherals will attach due to freaky incompatible Apple ports.

Guess I won't be able to use any of my old Macs until I find an Apple monitor, mouse and keyboard, or find + order converters. = =

I suspect the Bondwell's HD is dead... judging by its ability to start up, but not boot. Also, the monitor is on the fritz. I wonder if it just isn't getting enough power or something... maybe if I put some batteries in and let it charge it'll work.

Speaking of batteries, I did exploratory surgery on the unturnonable Aptiva, the latest in a series of OH GOD WHY CAN'T WE HAVE NICE IBM THINGS computers. What I found:

-dust
-dust bunnies
-rust
-rust bunnies

The Power of (IBM) Love compels me to try everything I can to get this computer running, so I'm going to try to find a 3v lithium coin battery for the CMOS and see if that doesn't make it less... brick-like.

[stewartsage]

If only I could ship these old Mac parts to you D: