Finding a Long Lost Computer from my Youth! (Almost...)
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- Опубліковано 12 лип 2015
- Even though I couldn't really afford it, and it's not exactly what I had, this was the closest thing I'd seen in 15+ years of looking. That was all the justification I needed, and I bought it.
One of the adapter cards is part of a data acquisition system (multi-channel analog to digital converter). The Harris/Intersil IC is a general purpose programmable I/O controller and seemingly a very old design as well. It looks to have been in production from the 1980s until sometime in 2006 and was intended primarily for use with ISA buses in 8086/88 PCs.
Plans for this system include a moderate RAM upgrade, possibly a larger hard drive and installation of the sound card and CD-ROM drive mentioned in the video (provided I can find a suitable cable for the CD-ROM).
Software plans include Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Microsoft Works 2.0 Multimedia Edition, Compton's Encyclopedia on CD-ROM, maybe Microsoft Office and (if I can find it) a suite of Voyetra multimedia programs including a presentation program. A lot depends upon how easy these things are to find.
It seems that I don't have the remains of my original Dell Precision 4/33 Si any longer. I guess whatever was left either got pitched or recycled when my bedroom was remodeled. Nor could I put hands on the original Dell diagnostics floppy diskette, despite seeing it a few months ago. - Наука та технологія
Bill, from the bottom of my heart, congratulations on this find. I hope I'm not embarrassing you by saying that you're one of my biggest UA-cam inspirations and if it wasn't for your entertaining videos, I wouldn't have the inspiration to make the videos I make. As always, keep up the good work and I hope to see more of this Dell soon! I haven't seen too many Dells this old before, especially in person.
Roadgeek same here
***** I'll always watch and enjoy your videos because you're such a genuine guy, Bill. I think that we need more people like you in our communities these days.
Roadgeek Same here :)
***** You in someway have been an inspiration to me Bill, you sure know how to make a 24 going on 25 year old man feel old.
+Roadgeek OMG its you, IM YOUR BIGGEST FAN
United Parcel Smashers. Very clever.
***** Very true though. Anything I get via them arrives with the box damaged and tattered. Stuff sent via USPS or FedEX usually arrives in good condition.
Errata: despite the "DX4" moniker, the 486DX4-100 is actually clock-tripled (33.3 MHz x 3), not clock-quadrupled.
One of the computer labs in my high school had a fleet of Dells in the same case style as this, although they were various 386SX and 486SX models, and maybe even a handful of late 286's. Many of them had Dell-branded Model M keyboards. They were alongside some then-new Pentium-133 Dells, but since they were used for QBASIC and Turbo Pascal programming in DOS, CPU speed was not terribly important.
United Parcel Smashers... I nearly died when i heard that
ReCkLeSsErr0r Me too.
not as bad as usps
"Off to points as yet unexplored." Such clever turns of phrase and colorful narration always keeps me coming back to watch and re-watch these IBM-compatible deep-dives. Pure gold.
Where is the...
"SMOKE TEST?!?!?!"
MusicHaven2012 He was very exited to get this system, I can see how he would have forgotten to say it. for those of us who collect and work on older systems, coming across one from our childhood (Or close to it) can be indeed an emotional experience.
MusicHaven2012
would have been so ironic if a capacitor suddenly started to vent and smoke actually came out.
Robert Frederick True :)
That's awesome Bill. I can see how much receiving this and seeing it power on for the first time means to you. I can't wait to see what you do with this machine.
I am seriously jealous of your electronics cave Bill!
This was quite entertaining to watch, as you know I love my Dells. Love your enthusiasm, great video as always Bill.
William, your's is the standard all UA-cam channels should follow. Thank You for being genuine, descent and professional in all the videos you post !
Congratulations on finding a near match of your first Multi Media PC! I am still on the hunt for my first. It was an odd Packard Bell that I for the life of me can't find the model number of! Again congratulations!
Bill, you are so awesome, and so is your channel! I love all your videos, and I think they are all totally awesome. Keep up the great work!
It seems the Mini-16 card was a "ISA card with 8 differential 16-bit analog inputs" used for some sort of "Measurement Computing Data Acquisition"
I really liked the story at the beginning. Good job uxwbill.
Once a Dell fan, always a Dell fan. Huh? :P
Interesting comments on the Dell phoenix BIOS. I actually came across a post by you on a forum when I was trying to find out if the Inspiron 8500 supported 48bit LBA (It doesn't). I find it interesting to think that Dell used to take an old BIOS and tailor it to any hardware they wanted to use it on. Reminds me of the coreboot project, basically an extremely bare bones BIOS designed for a fast POST.
I definitely think there's something elegant about a simple BIOS UI. Ever since I saw the new fancy Dell BIOS, I've preferred the old one, especially the one with the blue interface that they used from ~2005 onwards.
***** Don't get me started on Apple and their shenanigans. We'll be here all night...
You won't be surprised when I say that I think HP is the holding the "decently build brand name PC" torch nowadays. They've done a lot better of a job in continuing on with Compaq's legacy, compared to how Lenovo has done with IBM's legacy.
In fact, Lenovo ruined the ThinkPad line badly enough that they're now considering making a "retro ThinkPad". It's not really retro, as in 2 inches thick with a floppy drive, they're just reinstating some of the features and design characteristics that they decided to abandon so they could compete with Apple. Of course they're only considering the idea because so many ThinkPad diehards have complained loud enough.
Heater fan or cooling fan
I go more with the cooling fans 👉
Woah, Quantum. I remember that company now. I had several of their drives over the years, but they were always SCSI interface drives.
Absolutely love that sound of the floppy drives doing the POST seek. On this particular machine it comes incredibly close to the sound a computer of mine once made. (An Amiga 2000)
Love it, Bill! Good for you. My 1st computer that was properly my own was I believe a Maxtor 386. I may or may not be mistaken on the Maxtor part. I recall DOS w/ Windows 3.1. After that, I received a hand me down from my dad (as I always did with computers) which was an INFINITI 486 DX2 running 3.11 and later Windows 95. I totally understand them feels you described about software such as the encyclopedia programs during the 95/98 eras. It was a whole world to get lost in as a kid. I hope to see more with this machine soon. Cheers, Bill! =)
That's darn cool! I may be too young to remember these machines, but when I first got my hands on an ISO of DOS, I thought that it was really neat...
I wouldn't blame you for being a little nervous to start the PC, because it'd make me a little discouraged if it didn't start up.
You could actually be right about people who don't read the description, but I'm one of those who read the description! Unlike (some) people, I read the description just to see what's there...
all 486 cpus had a mathco, some were failed as you said but some were fuse-disabled to meet market needs. small error I figured I would help you learn and correct you on, +uxwbill .
I am very close to rebuilding my first *NEW* computer ever, a 486 133mhz, and I am about as excited as you in this video. Congrats!
Thermal calibration. I've learned something new today.
fireballs really did live up to their name. Chips on the PCB would overheat causing a fire. Although maxtor bought them and then made the d740x and d540x series which were basically quantums
i understand ya lust for that sorta stuff lol, i used to love ripping parts outta stuff when i was younger!!
Saw a Kaypro at an estate sale and had to look up what it was....a real 'Lugg-able' computer.... the key board was cool though...solid steel cased. ...kinda amazing that you got a computer from your grandma. Must be a techie family
Nice PC. Love seeing 486 computers still running strong!!
I know this feeling, it is wonderful :) thanks for sharing!!!!
The Mini-16 board is some kind of analog acquisition board, looking at the opamp's and the round, white voltage reference in the corner of the board. Quite specialised board!
This is so sweet, and I know exactly the feeling.
Over 15 years ago, my father worked at an office and had his personal computer there. It was my world too, accompanying him to work just so I could play Doom, MDK, Fallout 2 and Quake, as well as listen to my CDs and write school assignments. The company went bankrupt in 2004, and just 2 weeks ago we visited the abandoned office and there it still was, dusty and yellow!
I carried it over home and cracked it open. Found a Pentium P54C 100mhz, 8MB of EDO RAM and a Cirrus Logic 2D accelerator inside. Obviously, back then I had no knowledge of anything hardware to realise the relevance of the parts.
It must be amazing to build all these PCs and feel the nostalgic pleasure that only sincere memories can awaken.
Another awesome video! :-)
Great video as always! The Dell Precision 433si computers are pretty rare. I thought i'd do a eBay search for one, and found nothing. But i'll let you know if i find anything.
I understand how you feel about that computer, i feel the same way about my Dell Dimension 4700 (My first decent computer)
Who needs classic metal from Cuba, give me classic computers any day. Great video Bill.
Glad it worked out for you!
About that 386 sticker - perhaps the case was a leftover from another model they produced, or even a reconditioned part?
Dell (like many PC manufacturers in those days) often put used parts in their new machines. Perhaps they resused cases too?
The LT399 is a temp stabilized voltage reference. Pretty stable and has and actual heater incorporated in the chip design to maintain stability. So clearly identifies that as an A to D data acquisition system and using a 399 I would think pretty high accuracy...perhaps 12 bit or even 16 bit.
Enjoyed this video as it reflects my own interests and a room full of "toys" I hope to play with a lot more of if time allows.
The unidentified Linear Technology chip is an LM399 high precision ovenized Zener diode, originally introduced by National Semiconductor, second sourced by Linear Technology, and deprecated by Texas Instruments (but not LT) after they bought NS.
Those chips have a 2% guaranteed initial tolerance but a extremely low 0.5ppm per Kelvin temperature coefficient and typically 8ppm per square root of kilohour and long term drift decreases over time. Those are mainly used in metrology grade electronic test equipments now.
If the chip you found on that board still works, send it to a calibration lab and find out its exact output voltage, and you can use it as a transfer standard for a very long time.
Damn, a Dell Precision 433si looks even harder to find than the Olivetti M380-40 I'm looking for. Well good luck on finding one. I'll let you know if I ever see one for sale...
Still haven't found one... I did find a 466i though, which is very very close to your description of the 433si that you had... It doesn't have a key lock, and it has a different-looking Dell sticker that's in the same place that you said the one on your 433si was. It also has a 2x CD-ROM drive and a sound card... It can be seen on ebay here: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301835665813
Does this look similar to the 433si that you had?
Before you said that I just kept thinking "that BIOS setup looks just like the setup in my Latitude C610" I guess you're right, some things never change. By the way I just love the sound that those old Quantum hard drives made during their seek test.
Awsome find.. So nice to see a 486 These Days...
A trip down Memory Lane. Sweet :-)
I (still) own my very first computer, a 80286 by DTK of 6 MHz (or 12 in "turbo mode"), with MS-DOS on it. It hasn't run for decades, but it's still lying around here.
Bill is being a kid again today and having fun.
I have had that feeling multiple times. Still trying to get my grubby mitts on an IBM Selectric II Correcting typewriter, of which my grandparents had one when I was young.
And I finally did get one
You forgot to say smoke test when you powered it on
I still know that sound and those drive parameters by heart...that's a Quantum LPS120AT (aka LP120AT). I had one of those years ago and it still worked, but one of the flex boards got torn.
United parcel smashers! LMAO
Never having used a 486 era Dell computer, I was a bit surprised that they were using that style of BIOS even back then. I think it is possible at least that the top cover may have been replaced at some point from a 386 model, and the original 486 front cover put back on. Hard to say since Dell was still selling 386 models back in 92. I do like how Dell stamps everything during assembly. Gateway did that too, with stickers anyway and probably some others I would imagine. This must have been built during their transition period to the slanted E since the motherboard just has a plan E on it for DELL.
I did a video of an Acer Aspire P166 machine I bought for very similar reasons as you did this one. And I had someone say " what is so special about this? " and ya there isn't anything terribly special I suppose, except to those of us that get it and find certain small things interesting I suppose, and that have some special reason for wanting a particular machine. I would ask you if you ever come across an old Acer Aspire tower, P75 - P166 era, black or the two tone grey, I would also be very interested since the one I got has a broken front. Very hard to find machine apparently. I will keep an eye out for one of those Precision 433si for you. I could have sworn that I saw one on ebay a couple months back. EDIT - There is a Dell 433/L on ebay at the moment. I think the guy wants way to much for it but he does have a B.O. I am just wondering if the case looks the same as what you remember of the Precision 433si. www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Vintage-Intel-486DX-33-Computer-1MB-VGA-Video-16MB-RAM-3-5-Floppy-DES0003-/151724817362?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item235380fbd2
Looks cool! And what did you found after investigating CMOS battery "upgrade"?
Strawberry Tree was a lil company making various things (eg. dac cards) and they were bought out by IOtech
I had a Dell with the same case, just a 386 model. Had WDC video onboard too. The only weird thing about that machine is that it required parity 72-pin SIMMs.
Enjoy your Blast from the Past. Congrats
Love the old computers my fav was the classic Commodore C64. I use to run a BBS off of a 20 meg L.T kernal hard drive and Darkstar 88 in the mid 80's to late 90's
The Strawberry Tree card is an analog-to-digital converter.
Definitely data acquisition.
I can appreciate buying something from one's past regardless the price, memories are priceless. I did the samething not too long ago, I had purchased a radio my father gifted to me, I have no recollection whatever became of it, ) I have a video of it on my UA-cam channel) and just like you, I too was very excited to have it back in my collection.
Cool little system there, now it just needs windows 3.1.1 and some requisite software from there era and you should have a great time with it.
I once had a cute little KLH 386sx-16 computer that was about an inch and a half high, I used it when I was in High school (late 1994-95). I got rid of it many years ago and have been looking for one for the past 10 years or so. I had GEOS on it at one time but then put windows 3.1 on it and an 8 bit sound card from Radio Shack.
Even though you're not supposed to you might be able to find some of the card software by running photorec on the drive and adding your own extensions for .com, .sys, etc.
Sometimes works for finding unobtanium drivers, sometimes not.
I can confirm what he said about Dell OptiPlex 780 model having that kind of BIOS copyright from the 1980s, I used an Dell OptiPlex GX1 back in the early 200s right up to 2007.
ahh the memories.. I'm a bit older than you, started out on an 8mhz PC lone.
I used to have an original IBM PC with the staggeringly huge 10mb hard drive and imbedded BASIC and single sided 5-1/4 drive. I also remember overclocking my xt pc by physically replacing the clock crystal on the motherboard, that's just how it was done back then..Doubled the clock rate..
I think I still have a box or two of double sided floppy disk DOS software around here from the early 90's, including a 7 disk version of Pc tools system tool software and a few games and such like the old Ultima from origin and other apps but I have no disk drive to read them with any more. I tossed some last time i moved but if I remember right I saved a couple of boxes of them.
I don't think i have any windows 3 disks but I might. I can look if you like and see if there's anything you might want from the stuff I still have.
Those data acquisition cards are worth a lot to the poor engineers out there that need to keep some legacy system running.
you recorded this on my birthday!
RE: Strawberry Tree mini-16 peripheral card w/37-pin external male D-connector(reference video starting at 11:32)
The card is a Strawberry Tree mini-16 data acquisition and control card (available from Strawberry Tree, Calif., USA).
It would seem that there were/are specs for specific machines (PC's); the one in the video is a "An analysis and control computer 46" as spec'd out in a US Patent(US 5838008 A) for "Method and apparatus for measuring gas concentrations and isotope ratios in gases".
Here's an excerpt of the text from the patent:
-----
An analysis and control computer 46 was utilised which comprised an IBM
PC-compatible type machine utilising a 486 Intel Processor. The supplied
Bomen interface card was utilized to allow for communication 47 between
the computer 46 and spectrometer 21 for data acquisition of the
spectrum. Also, the computer 46 had installed a conventional Strawberry
Tree mini-16 data acquisition and control card (available from
Strawberry Tree, Calif., USA). The data acquisition and control card
allowed the automatic acquisition of pressure and temperature data
through its analogue input channels and also allowed the opening and
closing of the solenoid valves in the sampling manifold through its
digital output channels.
-----
The card was likely driven by proprietary laboratory software that dumps the data into an organized format like a spreadsheet and graph; then operate switches, valves, etc.; via the multi-port serial card in the slot next to the mini-16. Even if the drive had been wiped there is open-source or free trial forensic software that can recover it.
I hope my input is interesting if not helpful.
Patent: US 5838008 A
www.google.com/patents/US5838008
Bill, I swear on my honor that if I come into owning a Precision 4-33si, that I will send it on to you for no charge. I'm the same way about my Gateway Pentium II machine. Its something I had growing up.
Here 8 years later, I'm still having trouble finding anything usable on the DAQ board other than the fact that it existed (trying brand specific searching brings up stuff on the McDonalds Strawberry McFlurry for some reason 🤣).
I was reminded of this video when I found a 1991 Dell monitor in the recycle bin at work. Sadly, it did not power on when plugged in and thus went back into the bin. :( I did take a 1994 Dell monitor that must have been recycled at the same time home with me, however.
I wish I had kept my first PC for the sake of nostalgia. It was a Northgate Slimline 386dx-20mhz with 2 megs RAM and 40 mb hard drive.
That Strawberry Tree Mini-16 board is used for taking temperature measurements from thermocouples in case you didn't already have this info. pubs.usgs.gov/of/1994/0703/report.pdf
Interesting
I remember in computer school my teaching talking about the 486 DX4 and how fast it is.
You forgot the Yell smoke test, lol
I was able to find that MINI-16 card listed as an “ISA card with 8 differential 16-bit analog inputs.” So yeah, data acquisition.
The Second date stamp on the case is my birthday :)
I love your vids U.X.
I love getting holy grail computers
What aftermarket upgrades did you do to your Dell Precision 433si? (ex. Windows 95, a means to connect to the internet?) And will you attempt to make this similar to what you had or make it what you wish you could have had outside of what you mentioned in the video description?
As best I remember, the only upgrades I ever performed were a RAM upgrade, Windows 95 and a parallel port Zip drive.
Although I have the multimedia hardware (sound card and CD-ROM) from the original 433Si, and probably its telephone modem as well, I plan to leave this system pretty much as-is.
I used to have a Dell 433/L (I think) with a 486sx at 33mhz. It quit working and was recycled, but I did part out most of the case components and parts that worked at the time. The only thing I still have from that computer that still works to this day is its Maxtor (how times change) 540mb hard drive.
Low and behold,I have the twin to the knife you used to cut open the box.
hmm, I have parts from one of these things in my bedroom someplace. I'm gonna have to look for it because it looks eerily similar to that one, and I know for a fact it's newer in that it did come with a DX2-66. hmmmmm. since dismantled but still.
grabbed some popcorn and some pajamas.. its story time! :D
ooh
You could jump into BIOS from Windows 9x on Dells right up until the mid/late Pentium 3 era, although the key shortcut doesn't work in NT-based OSes.
*****
It's amazing just how long some of the really legacy stuff was left in there. In earlier revisions of the Latitude CP BIOS, you actually had to boot into Windows 9x or DOS before you could get into the BIOS setup (using Fn and F1 if I remember correctly), unless you had no boot device installed or the system lost its CMOS settings.
My first computer was an IBM PCjr, good graphics and sound bad everything else. Then had an AST 486DX 33mghz in 1994. Got 10 years out of the jr, only 4 years out of the AST.
I have a Dell NetPlex 433/P
I also have a Packard Bell corner PC kicking around, when I can get to it I'm going to post up a video and it might be up for sale.
The Strawberry Tree Mini-16 is an ISC card.
Wouldnt it be period correct on useing a sound blaster 16 on a windows 3.1 486dx machine?
Yes.
Hi William, I watched this video a few days ago and I guess my memory is in some ways better than I give it credit for but not entirely. I came across this machine on my travels around ebay and although it's not exactly what you say you wanted it's close enough that I thought I'd point it out. I'll leave this comment, and then comment on my own comment with the link in case it ends up in the spam box never to be found.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Retro-Vintage-Dell-Dimension-433si-Very-Rare-i486sx-33/324232391878?hash=item4b7dc1acc6:g:cvQAAOSwjiNfEUCw
If that were on the "right side" of the pond, I'd probably be all over it.
@@uxwbill Yeah the boat ride would be a little pricey.
@@uxwbill Hi William, it's kinda pricey, but came across this on ebay. I think this is the one you are after and it's on the 'right' side of the pond this time.
You can calculate the disk size from it's geometry values using this formula. Helpful if the manufacturer did not write the actual size on the label.
Size [in Bytes] = 512Bytes/Sector * Cylinders * Heads * Sectors
That's why I use a calculator for this :)
strawberry tree mini-16 is a data acquisition card, they were acquired by IOTech in 1999, IOTech still make data acquisition devices
thats all I can find about it
Mini 16 - kb.mccdaq.com/ExportPDF50339.aspx (downloads PDF file)
ISA card with 8 differential 16-bit analog inputs for Measurement Computing Data Acquisition. Was supported until December 2006.
What became of this system in the nearly 5 years it's been since this video was uploaded?
It remains a valued part of my collection.
can't that Service tag actually returned something!
Here's one for you... Dell had another line of computers for a little bit, the Omniplex. I saw an Omniplex Dual Pentium 166 computer many years ago.
For those who are interested dell still has this in their system but not much is on their support page. www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/servicetag/1pryb/manuals
Rip. It's gone now. Wish Dell would quit removing things from their site.
my first computer was a white box clone 486 dx4 100... I have been trying to find another one for ever.
I found a blank pdf of the strawberry tree called "Strawberry Tree Measurement computing data accusation..." But other than the eBay auction and the blank 2 page pdf nothing. But there was a solar energy device on Wikipedia…
I recognize that "STOP" Paper. Did you happen to buy this computer from Sunnking (Seller) on eBay?
***** Cool!
What exactly was wrong with the Quantum Fireballs? I got a 6.4GB Fireball in my previously repaired Windows 98 gaming PC and haven't had any issues with it. In fact, it's been wonderful using the drive. Its pretty fast for its age and seems pretty reliable for the most part.
You'll get to find out. :-)
So back up a LOT.
I was wondering the same thing. I have a quantum fireball hard drive in an HP Vectra Pentium II 333mhz for about 10 years and its hard drive has never given me any problems at all.
I just got an dell pc for free and it came with all the instructions,disks,keyboard, 20" crt and looks to be not used a lot. The are about 20 disks that came with it
I want to find the Packard Bell My Parents had, it was a 1994 Packard Bell Legend 15CD, at least that's what comes up in my head.
Look what I found that you might want to see picclick.com/Packard-Bell-Legend-15CD-Vintage-ComputerIntel-486SX2-50MHz-323368544080.html
I own A KayPro 2X system
I think the July 16 date actually says '93', not 92.
hi bill i have a dell laptop which is a 325 n i think its a 386 or may be a 486 not sure i saved it from being scarpped i use it for dos games and some old software will try and get a video off it for you as i can remember my grandad having one of these laptop hense my love of computers. i found a picture on line off it but will try and make a video of it up and running in the near furture.
good see that you finnaly found a computer from your child hood im on the hunt for a packard bell 486 desktop as i had one of these when i was a kid and used it way in to the 2006 when it finnally gave up the ghost and went to the big old computer shop in the sky that computer got me though high school and college
No Smoke Test ?
You sound a little bit like Bill Nye and Kermit the Frog.
Surface mount components on the MB? That's not old!
So real computers have floppy drives, so what happens in a computer has a SuperDisk 120 drive?
I had that exact same machine :) and also a clone by Phillips