Search results

I am doing right now the same job on the top lid of my HP 712. Unfortunately, the plastic got brittle and fragile and there’s a crack at one corner of the floppy slit. I am using epoxy, but alone it won’t suffice, so I am skinning the case from the inside with a thin steel sheet.

On the Toshiba MX5701B CD ROM drive unit. Eventually, I found out that the drive is actually in perfectly working condition. Reasons for apparent mulfunctioning (tray (b)locked and yellow light steady on): 1) there’s switch in the back that is purposely designed for disabiling the front panel...

Yes, of course. A scorching sun. Took a few days. The lettering on the keys got slightly washed out, too, so I guess I should have paid more attention. Anyhow, I am not a fan of retrobrighting, so I consider it a one off trial. As I wrote, surprisingly enough, plain exposure to direct sunlight...

I recently tried hydrogen peroxide mixed approx 1:5 with demineralized water for whitening some super yellowed keyboard and MO drive case. It works, but getting uniform treatment for complex shapes requires continuous attention for avoiding over / under exposure of some areas. I don’t think I...

I recently swapped a SWIM on my SE/30 board. Donor was a busted LC. Used hot air for pulling from the donor as I didn’t want to damage the chip, but I clipped the damaged one, as I didn’t want to lift any pad on the destination board. I then carefully soldered it using a lot of flux and a fine...

I used to refer to these instructions https://www.jagshouse.com/classicrepair.html

@Melkhior I also believe local offer might have seen more acceptance than foreign hardware. Even though US commercial interests have always been very strong, for sure Japan did not lack local high end manufactures. Talking about Sun, I know for sure that some Sparcstation models were sold by...

My two cents. The point shall not be where it is safer to discharge without a resistor. The point shall be whether it is safe to discharge without a resistor or not. And the answer is no, it is not safe. If you have a proper resistor, any chassis point is OK for grounding. Safest and most...

Thanks a lot for your lines. I checked again and both the 712 and the external CD ROM unit are labeled as SE compatible. I must say I like seeing machines built like tanks (at least the internals, the plastic top lid almost crumbled in my hands after being initially damaged during...

Thanks a lot for the feedback, I really appreciate. I am new to PA-RISC, I have some vague memories about HP-UX from the times when I was using HP workstation in combination with some LMS Scadas front end at university. Back at time, at my alma mater we had really a fancy mix of machines...

So, the CD ROM seems to be damaged at some point in the logic board. The voltage out of the driver IC that should be driving all the motors (tray, spindle and pick up) is too low (around 2 volts). I have the feeling that some IC upstream the driver is busted, but it’s hard for me to tell which...

Honestly, I don’t remember all that many issues with Mac video signal. Mac to VGA converter will do the job. A good multi sync lcd panel will do the rest. I have a couple of Eizo 19” displays, they work just fine. https://www.codesrc.com/mediawiki/index.php/Macintosh_VGA

Hi all, Maybe there’s someone who can help… Some time ago I managed to score what was looking like a nice “prospect”, an HP 712 workstation. I’ve never been into HP stuff, but it reminded me the good old days when I was a student and HP hardware ruled in every respectable high end laboratory...

I got this one: 4 Mb, for a total of healthy 5 Mb (the picture I took is alone 4.2 Mb…).

800/1400 is a matter of single or double density, sectors per track. Requirements for track positioning (and therefore alignment) should be the same. The drive knows about the disk media (normal or high density) from the sensor which detects the corresponding slit in the floppy case the moment...

Sounds like a ZT alignment issue, this resource might help: https://tinkerdifferent.com/resources/zero-track-alignment.37/

# forever # up to 1000 times better (1.3 Gb) # yes / almost (depending on what you benchmark) Don’t know why the standard did not become the “new floppy”, it ticked all the boxes. In Japan it was hugely popular, elsewhere more like a niche, fancy storage media.

This is the reference website: https://powercc.org/ here’s also this rather excellent video from @JDW It’s possible to run a 575 motherboard without any further hardware mod by using software hacks (ResEdit stuff). They are only available for limited choice of OS, though. I have it like...

I have the same experience. A keyboard which was looking beige, turned to more or less its original color after a few days of exposure to sunlight. The same with a yellowed CC case. Not as quick and spectacular as retrobrighting, but way less intrusive. Besides, I don’t mind seeing some patina...

Thanks! For the moment I’m fine with what came with each motherboard I got. I only have b/w hardware in early specs. But I’d appreciate to read about what you get out of this effort.