Vintage Computer Teardown and Test - '80s and '90s Systems! From the Franklin eWaste Haul.
Вставка
- Опубліковано 3 сер 2024
- If you'd like to support the channel and help me to produce more videos like this, you can find me on Patreon: / miketech
You have my eternal gratitude!
Here's some of the stuff I used in the video:
De-soldering alloy: amzn.to/3UcWwuD
De-soldering wick (I swear by this stuff): amzn.to/3VBrUnB
Solder flux: amzn.to/42qnodH
UV-curable solder mask: amzn.to/3HKTKrB
Anti-static brushes: amzn.to/3mb35Bw
Fiberglass scratch pens: amzn.to/3NDd7Xv
Let's teardown and test some of the oldest systems from the Franklin eWaste haul: Systems from the '80s and early '90s! Sure hope nothing explodes...
0:00 Intro
0:26 System 1
16:18 System 2
30:46 System 3
45:22 System 4
The ARC 286 was sold/imported by California Computer & Component Inc, suspended in 91, dissolved in 1992
Dude, you're 35?!? All this time I've figured you were in your mid 20's! Whatever you're doing, it's working, so keep doing it!! Do you have any plans to build a space where you can have key pieces of your collection setup and working? A combination display/lab/studio space would be sweet!
Yeah, not exactly a youngin. Figured I'd finally reveal that since people seemed quite confused as to how I could talk about systems of this age lol. Yeah I'm currently in the process of converting one of the spare bedrooms into a retro cave. Been a slow process because construction is not my most favorite thing, but it's coming along!
@@miketech1024 That's awesome! Can't wait to see how it turns out. Have you been filming the conversion process by any chance? I'm guessing not but I feel like there'd be value in that. I'd definitely watch... It wold be relevant to anyone with similar interests who are also not masters of construction. Maybe something to post on a secondary channel or as Patreon content if you're worried about it hurting the channel overall to have dissimilar content.
@@marcberm Yes, I’ll be posting a video on it to Patreon. Carpentry isn’t my strong-suit but the last patron-only construction video was pretty fun to make!
Ages like a fine bottle of wine, very well. i didn’t think you were more than 29.
That solves the mystery. I'm 41 and most of these stuff are my childhood, I thought "how is this kid in his mid 20s know all this?" LoL
Here's a good idea: Put your Franklin eWaste haul series in a playlist in case if someone wants to binge on them!
Great idea, thanks!
Done: ua-cam.com/play/PLk-afacna4Q895ZY0d6m5YyjeNLWzrO8g.html
I was an engineer back then and I helped develop the voice coil technology. I had a blast.
Wow that’s amazing! I bet you have some fascinating stories!
I love your enthusiasm in discovering all this old tech. To you it's archaeology. To us old folks with 20+ years on you, it's fond memories.
Thanks! These are the types of systems in my earliest memories of working with computers, so they're quite fond to me as well.
@@miketech1024 My PCjr is waving Hi at you! And winking alluringly. Oh, wait, that's me.
Me too. Such fun! Sending best wishes from the UK.
@@jovetj My first PC (if you want to call it that) was a PCjr. Mine had a Racore drive expansion kit on top. It also had had a memory expansion board along with a side car. The side car had a parallel port with a PC/jr toggle switch. The toggle switch appeared to do nothing but switch between 40 and 80 column mode on boot. I was able to boot PC-DOS 3.31 (albeit with multicolored ascii garbage about halfway through the boot--- nothing a CLS couldn't cure).
I once tore a trace trying to desolder one of the ram chips on the memory board. 16 year old me had horrible soldering skills (I still do!).
Looking back, having that Racore utility disk would have been helpful (had I known that existed).
The funny thing is that I actually wrote my high school term paper on my PCjr. I wrote it using WordStar. I hated that word processor. Electric Desk (from Alphaworks) would have been much better. But, I least had a Panasonic P-KX1123 24-pin dot matrix printer. That printer had some decent print quality.
Even an elder-geek like me can learn more tricks. I like your approach to these ancient beasts!
Someone was holding onto that last system for dear life. Seemingly upgraded it as far as it would go. I had a rage 128 (ATI rage fury) in 1999. Great card. I remember the thing about ATI cards at the time was they had built in hardware MPEG2 decoding for dvd playback. Makes me want to build a time machine and travel back 25 years to game on my old PC again.
I call it the Gun Show 💪
You are really making me want to get back into older tech. Used to love it years ago. Haven't played with it much since. And... 35? You look great!
It is really fun, though it can be quite an expensive hobby these days. Thanks!
I love it when you pull apart those antique hard drives... haven't seen those monsters since I was in High school back in the 80's..... what memories!
God ur killing me with that white shirt lol. Another great video. I love working on computers but right now my space is full and I’m trying to sell some off. Needing parts for some in order to sell.
Some of the things you say just crack me up, Mike!
"Sounds like a RATM song." 😆
This was a fun video! Thank you!
If I can't get that drive to work, it's definitely becoming a hard drive speaker that plays Bulls on Parade!
Hottest vintage PC UA-camr I've seen 😍
You had me at “Got some old boys on the bench today…”.
You'll find ads of ARC in late 1980s computer magazines. I have found one with the line: "ARC - the No-Problem Computer Company". They were located in Monterey Park, CA. The "PC Magazine", December 1986 shows an ad after page 257 with the ARC 286 Turbo at the top.
Thanks! You just gave me a new hobby: Flipping through old computer magazines!
Another great video! long enough to cover everything (I prefer 30-60 minute repair videos like this), great editing, great video/sound, just the right amount of commentary. Quickly becoming one of my favorites. Keep it up!
Thanks so much! I was a bit nervous about pushing to the 1-hour mark. I originally had 5 systems lined up for this video, but decided it might be too much. Glad to see people are liking the longer format!
Ah the memories. A K6-2 and rage 128 was my first gaming pc. Played the original Everquest on it for years!
You are a smoke show too ❤ another great video 😊
I had the 386SX version of the NEC PowerMate. Unfortunately it also only had 2 MB of RAM onboard with no way to expand it without NEC's proprietary RAM expansion board, which really limited its usefulness in Windows. I could've used an ISA card to increase the memory, but that's much slower because the ISA bus is only 8 MHz.
Wonder if the proprietary RAM expansion board would work with this system's 486 mod. Might have to create a new eBay saved search for that one. I imagine they're likely incredibly rare though.
56:30 A fellow Arch Linux enjoyer! I also started using Arch in 2004... but my original love was Slackware which I started using back in 1996.
You're looking good for 1988 vintage. I also especially like the use of the word 'cromulent'!
Love these old systems and the work you’re doing on them. Good stuff … keep it up!!
Thank you so much!!
Brilliant. A trip down memory lane. I’d totally forgotten about the Quantum Bigfoot drives 🤣
One of my favorite drives, just because of its shape. It sounds lovely too! Probably why I kept it for all these years.
25:00 - I cracked up. Perfect work tag there. 😂
you have a really good process with these old systems, love it. and your enthusiasm is so genuine, makes it really easy to get into watching these.
"To burn house down..." you're a trip! Loved the fireworks 🎆.
That one was so good, it deserved a screenshot, a definite keeper 😂
I like this channel, good editing not much talk and screwing around, keep up. Good job.
Nice shorts in the thumbnail. This vintage tech is exciting. ;)
Hi from Sydney, Australia. Awesome video!
You must get your massive guns from lifting around all these tanks! 👍
It definitely helps! 🤣
I'm from 1984 and you can't imagine how much I like these old thingies ! Man, late 80s ~ early 90s were the perfect era for PC tinkering and even gaming (now most of AAA games are crap).
You can really tell someone loved and had A lot of fun upgrading that last system!
These are definitely worthy memory vids from days gone by, I lost my stash a few years back now in an arson, I still get saddened from the recall, however, watching you breathe new life into these classics is remedial. Thanks for the memories.
I've used Loctite Rust Removal Naval Jelly to remove corrosion from hard-to-reach sockets and slots in-situ on circuit boards. It doesn't damage the surrounding components and can sit on areas liquids drain off of due to its thick viscocity. It would be perfect for a situation like your ISA slots.
Gonna have to try that on the next one. Thanks!
My first computer (mid 90s) came in that CenturyNet/Honeywell case (the second one). When I get it home, I felt that is very heavy but Ihad no idea that all that was the case, built like a tank. Inside it had a 486 DX2@66 with VLB (yes the original computer was removed) and I upgraded it further, preserving the motherboard until I replaced with a Pentium. I never ever had seen that case again until now. The only thing written was Olivetti instead CenturyNet and had no brand stickers in the back. Now I understand what the black velcro pieces in the back were for. I never had that plastic back panel and never knewt hat it existed..
Brings back memories, it was huge, all my table was filled with the computer, keyboard and mouse; the screen was sitting on top of that case.
Pretty boy!
Interesting content and very easy to watch and enjoy, thank you ☺️
I remember putting in the bootloaders for the hard drives in 286 and 386 and 486 machines
They were each specifically written CMOS for each motherboard and the company selling them.
The companies were all generic and they would get ATs like this and the motherboard would have a custom written CMOS specifically for the hard drives that company would sell with that board.
There were usually about 15 or 20 selections for the hard drive.
Some boards later on had the ability to enter how many cylinders and heads and tracks you had and you could custom set the size of the drive but many did not have this ability especially in the 286 days
Even the 386 has a lot of them did not have that ability yet
So hard drive manufacturers would sell a program that was on the floppy disk that you could run and it would write a boot loader into the CMOS
I don't remember which appeared first but I remember when I booted seeing the manufacturer of the CMOS like AMI and seeing the bootloader logo
I think it was the VGA card logo and then the bootloader and then the CMOS
The bootloader took over on top of the CMOS and ran as an interpreter between the hard drive and the system board
Those were incredible Days
I remember getting Windows 95 to run on a 286
I remember Microsoft telling me it would not work
But I installed and 80 MB IDE drive and an IDE card and 4 MB memory, which was the maximum the system could accept.
And I remember taking each floppy and copying the files off each floppy into a win95 directory off the C drive, and it was something like 23 floppies
And then running the setup from the C drive and when it was done it had filled 60 MB of the hard drive.
It was slow but it did work
And what I realized was something absolutely incredible
Had Microsoft written Windows 95 in 1985 it actually would have worked and it would have advanced computers by a full decade
Remembering everything was command line based DOS back in 85, and very few people owned a computer and even in 95 very few people owned a computer
I remember 99 when more people were getting on the Internet and the trouble that started because so many people were on that had no previous computer experience
I miss the old days
So many people were technologically adapt that were using computers in the 80s and early 90s and there was a lot of help in the tech community between all of us
And there wasn't any of the hate that exists now that literally anybody can get on the internet
I remember when the smartphone came out and I said this is single-handedly the greatest and the worst invention in the history of mankind
I likened it to giving everyone a nuclear bomb with a hair-trigger and a hammer and giving it to apes
I miss the old days so much because there was never a bad word among any of us
Even in the late 90s I don't remember there being any hate speech at all
But after smartphones came out I think around 2006 was the first time I saw so much hate speech just overnight it appeared and just kept getting worse and worse.
But these machines bring back a lot of memories of a lot of nights spent working and sleeping on the floor in the office
I worked two jobs most of my life and I can tell you it wasn't worth it
I am old and sick and bedridden and in pain and dying alone in a welfare apartment
My greatest regret is that I work so hard because it meant nothing
And no one ever appreciated it
it's good to see younger people interested in vintage computers for sure. collecting these heavy beasts is a young man's game for sure. I started fixing and collecting systems back in 1995, so have seen quite a number of them come and go over the years... and yes I committed the crime of not using thermal paste on a k6-2 400 system I built new in 1999. tbh I guess I wasn't aware of thermal paste being used on any system back in those days. but whatever the reason I didn't put it on mine, and that thing ran for YEARS. the best os I had on it was windows 2k, a rock solid OS. later I did do a dual boot with 98SE for a few games that didn't like windows 2000. The Zeos system is a good example of reusing an older case to build a newer system in, but many a time you would end up with a "Floating" board because the mounts were proprietary, and never lined up, in some cases on ones I tried that on I had to use electrical tape to prevent the board from shorting out.
I remember AOL sending floppies in the mail constantly. Then CDs
I remember the gateway that was actually owned by psinet that every dial-up service including AOL used to access the internet
I remember the day AOL bought all of the dial-up services
I remember the dial-up service I used first was a guy in his garage and when the email didn't work I would call and he would go reboot the Box
I remember when the cable companies were independent and they had the first high-speed service and I remember AOL buying them up one by one to get high-speed access
I don't think there is any dial-up left I think AOL shut all of it down
It is amazing how far we've come in just 30 years
Wow, you are as old as my Commodore Amiga that I still have and still works.
I really like how you do and handle everything; very calm and inspiring. Keep up the good vibes, Mike.
Just a thought on Amiga. I was thinking what Commodore was offering in 1985, as opposed to that Macintosh 128 or whatever it was.
I'd have bought the Amiga---- so SO FAST. That Mac with its parascope b&w screen was a real put-off, just looking at it. I thought 'who'd ****ing want this, when the Amiga has a big color screen (that you didn't need a microscope to look at. Imo, the Mac was *nothing* for Jobs to be proud of. The Amiga 500 had out-classed his heep by miles.
And my point is, why did people choose the Mac over the Amiga? True, more expensive... but I'd have found the money somehow. The original Mac was way overrated.
Cracking video! Really enjoyed that video, especially that second computer. Never seen a HDD like that before. Keep up the great work!
30:46 this brought back instant memories, my first PC "case", years later i had modified it so much the lid would no longer close lol
@MikeTech you can fall in love with them all! Save some for the rest of us!
Love these videos! Please do more :) also motherboard / psu repair videos would be great
That Maxtor sounded like it was sneezing for a quick second.
"We dont really scrap motherboards around this parts' Words of a retro messiah
No sheep is beyond redemption
No motherboard is left behind in this house!
@@miketech1024 good
4 great little systems you've rescued.
my fav retro PC channel : )
Thanks!
@@miketech1024 is possible to dump the bios?
Love the content sir! Keep it up. 😇
I love your content and big thanks for converting units to metric (its a timesaver for non US viewers :))
Awesome finds so far Mike and honestly, I've so far have enjoyed the journey so far and look forward to future discoveries. Also, your production quality improves with each upload especially the sound, can I make a small request however? I'm only speaking for myself of course but there may be a few others that agree timestamps in the description would help, I don't mind longer videos but most days I only have so much time to watch UA-cam videos and while most times I come back to finish these types of videos, it can be a PITA sometimes to get back where I last left off and that would help tremendously, outside of that great job and I hope you can hit at the very least 10k subscribers by the end of the year
Thanks! That is a good idea on the timestamps. I'm still kinda new to this whole UA-cam thing, so I'll certainly get that together. I really appreciate the suggestion!
No way you're 35/36, you look so much younger! ❤
Great video! Tip regarding 3.5" disks on modern systems: they CAN work with 360/720 formatting, but if you're using a modern HD disk (couldn't tell if you were) you need to tape over the density select hole, then it'll read and write no problem.
Thanks! Yeah I was using an HD disk. I had completely forgotten about the density select window until just this weekend, when I un-earthed a large cache of 3.5" disks (including many DD disks) at an estate sale. Pretty sure I felt the dust getting knocked off of those brain cells lol.
44:18 That Windows background image... *Y I K E S* lmao.
another amazing video, love the blue tape label on the power supply lol, burn baby burn!
I was tempted to write the phone number for the home insurance company on it, but figured that was too much. 🤣
Addictive viewing you are a genius i love how you explain things in detail as you progress with each machine i have been telling everyone about your channel 😊 soon all of england will be subbed ( just maybe lol) keep up the good work mike
Thanks so much!
What a score!
I've made my own SIP modules by soldering wires onto the end of SIMMs as both are pin compatible. I love collecting / restoring / repairing these old computers too.
That was definitely my backup plan! 🙂
Really impressed on the keyboard bios chip, I totally would’ve pulled one of those vias with my wick
A very deep dive into cyber archeology 😊
I didn't know a HD of that size exists lol and the sounds would drive me crazy using it ha
That's my first time seeing one in almost 30 years! The old 10MB Seagate drives (from the IBM XT systems) with stepper motor heads sound much better.
Fantastic as always Mike. I learn plenty each time I watch your vids. I love how tightly you edit your videos... it makes even a 1 hour video so easily watchable.
Those systems are beasts. And those massive HDD are just amazing... I remember having a full height one like this when I was a kid in an XT system (and back then even it was getting old), but I never even knew it was called an MFM drive.
Suggestion: For longer vids like this, it's kinda stretching the limit of what I like to watch in 1 session. Maybe you could split these into 2 videos, label them as a Part 1 and Part 2, and release them a few days apart? That would make it easier to watch, and also likely feed the YT algorithm better. About 20-30 min vids is I think easier.
Thanks! Yeah pushing the hour mark is kinda new to me, but there’s a lot I wanted to cover in this one.
ah a simpsons reference! perfectly cromulant
That little sound when you typed dir was so cute. Wish dir always made that sound
I've heard of ARC but that's only because I found one of their monitors out in the wild once
I remember infomercials from 1985 advertising home computers the first two might have been on those. Looking back those infomercials were a trip lol. That hard drive was HIUGE! Of all the computer parts I’ve seen I never saw a monster like that! It did sound like a Rage Against The Machine song. The NEC computer looks very familiar. I think we had one. It’s funny the one part was made in 1988. It would be a trip if it was made in the same month you were born. I look forward to your future videos digging into all the computers from your haul. This is a walk down memory lane for me.
Love your content - I get to see all these weird and wonderful machines without having to store them!
Just wanted to comment that touching a switching power supply's heatsink (see 37:37 ) is very dangerous, because a lot of TO-220 MOSFETs and diodes attach (usually the live) pins to the heat sink tab.
The Osborne-1's ASTEC power supply does this and it's not pleasant.
5:56 it's not every day that you get to see some SIPP slots! It's amazing that they put the values for components on that motherboard too, I wish it was more common!
That Watson card is half of a voicemail/answering machine setup if you can track down the software
Another very interesting and informative video. Greetings from Poland . Kolejny bardzo ciekawy film , pouczający . Pozdrawiam z Polski .🤔👍🤝
Bry
The sound card in the last machine is an OPTi MAD16. DOS drivers are easy to find.
Those tantalum capacitors are often just bypass caps. You may find that the board will run with a few missing if you wanted to test further before throwing down cash for replacements.
It's ok, I needed to stock up on MLCC caps anyway. They should arrive sometime this weekend.
Not as exciting to watch blow as the infamous RIFAs! LOL
"To burn down house, insert power here" lol.
Oh no, Sammy dies! 😅 I haven't heard those sounds and seen that screen in 30 years! I love it!
@24:30 that brown stuff that sticks to the board probably has to be removed, as it could be the kind that absorbs humidity and becomes slightly conductive over time causing shorts between components.
That kind of conductive glue can also be typically found in certain brands of monitors from the 80s, usually around CRT neck boards for vibration resistance, it's a real pain
Surprised you hadn’t heard of Zeos. They were the bomb in the early/mid 90s. We had a Zeos Pantera with a Pentium running at 90mhz back in ‘94. Came with Windows 3.1, but really unleashed the speed when we installed Win95 on it.
You are handsome!
Another great video. That "Honeywell" 286 with the system on a card is an NCR machine, in Europe, it would have been sold with Bull branding. NCR did things their own way until May 1991 when AT&T completed a merger with NCR creating AT&T Information Systems, it did not end well.
I want to find a nice AMD K6-2 PC like that one! Preferably one with the motherboard securely mounted to the case! A BIOS update might fix the PC133 RAM module not being detected. Keep up the great content on the channel!
Thanks! I'll give that a try. I did confirm the PC-133 stick does work in another K6-2 system.
You can make your desoldering wick a bit more absorbent by "spreading" it so the gaps between the braids have a bit more space, and it will give more area for wicked solder to adhere. To spread it hold one edge of the wick between your thumb and middle finger nails with one hand, then do the same on the other edge with your other hand, and gently pull a bit. The wick will widen horizontally, but shorten lengthwise, but will pick up more solder for big vias with large component leads.
I thought the same looking good sunshine
Another fantastic video
Love the content
Dave
London uk
I haven’t paid attention to your subscription levels are they going up??
I used to watch the 8 bit guy but his content just wasn’t worth watching anymore not in depth enough
Keep it up
That 286 NEC is cleaner than my house:D
Love the Y2K compliant Sticker over the Asus logo... Definite upgrade!
The second one is what i was talking about in a previous video of yours. It is an NCR PC8. Made in Germany. I have that too. Though mine is not an SBC, but also a fully loaded 286 12mhz with 2 65MB MFM Seagates.
That thing is built like a tank! High-gauge steel all around.
@@miketech1024 yes it's damn heavy. I've tried to post a link but doesn't work. Now you know what to look up on the net for. NCR PC8
I had Siemens Nixdorf: ua-cam.com/video/7KUJidkMn4w/v-deo.html
@@djpirtu2 That video is amazing. Thanks!
I am a simple man... I see a fire extinguisher next to vintage pcs .. I click
16:18 - I _really_ like the aesthetics of that CenturyNet. The rear plastic cover was a nice touch. I really like the look of the flush port covers. It's a shame the ISA covers have to be clipped off (or at least it looks like it does.) When I first saw it, I had imagined early Apple computers like the later //e, IIgs, or Macintosh II series with their color-matched port covers that clipped into the unused slots. Either way, a nice looking case. The front kinda looks like an early HP switch.
It's definitely my favorite case out of the four of them! Yeah the ISA covers need to be clipped unfortunately. Luckily, enough of them are already exposed for me to add the cards that I want.
19:15 BAHHHHH NAHHH BAH NAAHHHHH BEEP BEEP! Best RAM song ever!
That gray CenturyNet PC is so badass looking, an absolute monster.
That case is solid!
I had some of these. Same style.
The AT is one I had.
Very similar
This case was very common
That drive sounded OK at first
Then it went south
Those old drives were cool
Really sounded like it was working
You are good ! Cool videos, I give a sub and greetings from Poland.
This HDD is INSANE!
I have an old Kenwood handheld 2-If you want to see something incredible, I had a 9 GB SCSI drive that weighed about fifty pounds and was the size of that AT computer
It was the first SCSI drive I owned and I bought an SCSI card from symbiosis that had a 50 pin rear connection and 50 pin internal ribbon cable header and 68 pin internal connector
It replaced my 25-pin LPT to SCSI cable
I had a full-size legal size flatbed scanner and the hard drive and something else I can't remember that was hooked to the SCSI.
It may have been an optical disc as my third device
I remember the scanner had the pass through as did the hard drive and I think the optical drive did. I had a terminator block on the end device.
Those were the days
I remember starting out with an XT then an AT then a 386 40 MHz then a bunch of 486s and then a 586 and a 686
Then a bunch of pentiums.
I was short on cash for many years and kept limping my P4 along for a long time.
I used 2000 in 99 before it was released
I remember downloading it from the FTP over Christmas Eve and Christmas day in 98.
I ran XP from the very first version before SP1 and I remember how much of a difference SP1 made
I remember SP2 and the improvement and SP3, I loved SP3 and used XP until about 2017.
I really didn't want to part with it
I tried 7,8.1, 10 and I don't like them.
Like 11 even less
But the lack of programs supporting XP made me switch.
Now I use my smartphone because I am stuck in bed
Very depressing being sick
I'm bedridden because of a certain pandemic virus so it was nice to watch this while I can't go very far!
Oh that thing took me out twice… I hope you get better soon!
@@miketech1024 Cheers Mike, I'm definitely better than I was!
I vaguely remember the sound toggle on Commander Keen 1 is F2. Those NEC MFM drives are built like tanks too. Not surprised it still works. I've got an NEC PowerMate 1 Plus with one that's still going strong.
Everything on that machine seems to be of exceptionally high quality, even the case! NEC sure made some good stuff.
Fly on, little AD toaster!! 😀
@@miketech1024 NEC were a powerhouse in the 80's. First to develop a 256k bit DRAM, that sort of thing. Not sure what happened to them in the 90's... A pity.
You were asking in a former video about how to load test these power supplies better. Look into "USB load testers" They can typically run off of everything from 3-30V, so can test most rails on these power supplies. Might be worth building a rig with one for each voltage as well as accompanying "usb testers" typically used to look for spikes or drops in voltage from USB power supplies.
Ohh that’s a great idea. Thanks!
6:56 it'd be so nice if all PCBs did this. That motherboard is definitely repair friendly.
I love your videos, only fish you where in them mkre. 😜
EGA / VGA that takes me back
Orange and green monochrome