EduBat wrote on 2024-08-15, 21:26:

Nexxen wrote on 2024-08-15, 15:23:

I have two old peripherals, a Wacom pen tablet and a pen scanner. And I totally forgot I had them. I have no idea if they are of […]
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I have two old peripherals, a Wacom pen tablet and a pen scanner. And I totally forgot I had them.
I have no idea if they are of any interest or use for anyone.

The wacom is W98/2K/XP compatible. Wacom CTF-420 (2005)
The pen scanner is W98 and MacOS 8.6 compatible. IRISPen II Executive (2002)
They work as far as I tested them.

I'm currently trying to get rid of them for free but I don't know if it is not better to just scrap them.
Any opinion is welcome.

Maybe post this in the giveaway thread?
Old hardware giveaway thread.

I didn't know of this thread.
I'll post there 😀
Thanks mate!

Many Bothans wrote on 2024-08-15, 18:52:

And the HP Ethertwist PC LAN Adapter/16 Plus [...]

The HP on the other hand is an early 10BASE-T card and likely HP's first that used a jumperless configuration utility. I found packet drivers (HPPCLANP) and every MS OS seems to have drivers for this card out of the box but I have so far been unable to find the HPLANSET.EXE utility. If anyone has any clues I'd be very grateful as it seems I run into literal dead ends with CompuServe, BBS and FTP links.

Happy to report I did find the driver and utility support disk for this NIC buried in an old 40 gig snapshot of HP's FTP site. Attaching here to help future vogons.

A pair of Craigslist freebies. I was hoping for an interesting Socket A motherboard in the Enlight since it had the Athlon badge, but it has an Asus AM2+ MATX board in it with a 5000+ and two gigs of DDR2. It POSTs and looks fine, so I should be able to flip it on Ebay for a few bucks. How that board ended up in a case that predates front USB ports I'll never know.

The other computer isn't the 486 in a nice AT case I was initially hoping for, but it is interesting. I had never heard of Micron computers, but this looks like it was a high dollar machine at the time. FX chipset with a two megabyte Mach 64 video card, a CT2800 sound card, an Opti PCI USB card, and a Creative 56K modem. Sadly, I just noticed that the optical drive is mounted on rails, so whoever pulled the optical and hard drives left those rails on the optical drive (heavy sigh). I cannot complain since it was free, but that's unfortunate. It POSTs with no issue, but of course the Dallas needs a new battery. Oddly, the first time it posted it told me there was a hardware conflict with the hard drive? It's a two gig drive from 1997, so I'll have to dig in and figure that out. Hopefully I can find a BIOS update since it appears to have an issue with the date.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:56:

...Hopefully I can find a BIOS update since it appears to have an issue with the date.

Dallas RTC may be dead. As far as BIOS goes, apart from what's on TRW (not for Micron OEM boards) - https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/micron … 9-00236-xx#bios , these ones from the Micron archive may apply (check the README's)...

HI_10.ZIP (03-11-96): Revision 10 for PS/2 style motherboards only.

HI_09.ZIP (09-19-95): Revision 09 for PS/2 style motherboards only. EIDE CD-ROM version only.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:56:

A pair of Craigslist freebies. I was hoping for an interesting Socket A motherboard in the Enlight since it had the Athlon badge, but it has an Asus AM2+ MATX board in it with a 5000+ and two gigs of DDR2. It POSTs and looks fine, so I should be able to flip it on Ebay for a few bucks. How that board ended up in a case that predates front USB ports I'll never know.

sometimes a case is used and used again over several upgrades, more accurately they are complete replacements - except the case, a kind of 'Ship of Theseus'. interesting to find these

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:56:

Hopefully I can find a BIOS update since it appears to have an issue with the date.

No, you've found a computer that traveled 4500 years back in time.

Seriously though, I've encountered similar problems (different and ridiculous dates at every startup) on a much more modern computer using a CR2032 button battery. Replacing it with a fresh one solved the problem.

dormcat wrote on 2024-09-10, 11:29:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:56:

Hopefully I can find a BIOS update since it appears to have an issue with the date.

No, you've found a computer that traveled 4500 years back in time.

Seriously though, I've encountered similar problems (different and ridiculous dates at every startup) on a much more modern computer using a CR2032 button battery. Replacing it with a fresh one solved the problem.

Dug up a later version on their archive - this one fixes the Y2K rollover?

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:56:

A pair of Craigslist freebies. I was hoping for an interesting Socket A motherboard in the Enlight since it had the Athlon badge, but it has an Asus AM2+ MATX board in it with a 5000+ and two gigs of DDR2. It POSTs and looks fine, so I should be able to flip it on Ebay for a few bucks. How that board ended up in a case that predates front USB ports I'll never know.

The other computer isn't the 486 in a nice AT case I was initially hoping for, but it is interesting. I had never heard of Micron computers, but this looks like it was a high dollar machine at the time. FX chipset with a two megabyte Mach 64 video card, a CT2800 sound card, an Opti PCI USB card, and a Creative 56K modem. Sadly, I just noticed that the optical drive is mounted on rails, so whoever pulled the optical and hard drives left those rails on the optical drive (heavy sigh). I cannot complain since it was free, but that's unfortunate. It POSTs with no issue, but of course the Dallas needs a new battery. Oddly, the first time it posted it told me there was a hardware conflict with the hard drive? It's a two gig drive from 1997, so I'll have to dig in and figure that out. Hopefully I can find a BIOS update since it appears to have an issue with the date.

You never heard of Micron computers???! They were common around the turn of the millennium, and probably before that too. That one is one of the nicer Micron cases though. I remember setting up new Microns in the early 2000s with a tiny power button and those crappy integrated CD drive door and floppy drive bezel. Like eBay item 176441688725. Hated those things.

Had an Enlight just like that I bought in '99. I put a BP6 in it and used it until 2007.

eesz34 wrote on 2024-09-10, 15:34:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:56:

A pair of Craigslist freebies. I was hoping for an interesting Socket A motherboard in the Enlight since it had the Athlon badge, but it has an Asus AM2+ MATX board in it with a 5000+ and two gigs of DDR2. It POSTs and looks fine, so I should be able to flip it on Ebay for a few bucks. How that board ended up in a case that predates front USB ports I'll never know.

The other computer isn't the 486 in a nice AT case I was initially hoping for, but it is interesting. I had never heard of Micron computers, but this looks like it was a high dollar machine at the time. FX chipset with a two megabyte Mach 64 video card, a CT2800 sound card, an Opti PCI USB card, and a Creative 56K modem. Sadly, I just noticed that the optical drive is mounted on rails, so whoever pulled the optical and hard drives left those rails on the optical drive (heavy sigh). I cannot complain since it was free, but that's unfortunate. It POSTs with no issue, but of course the Dallas needs a new battery. Oddly, the first time it posted it told me there was a hardware conflict with the hard drive? It's a two gig drive from 1997, so I'll have to dig in and figure that out. Hopefully I can find a BIOS update since it appears to have an issue with the date.

You never heard of Micron computers???! They were common around the turn of the millennium, and probably before that too. That one is one of the nicer Micron cases though. I remember setting up new Microns in the early 2000s with a tiny power button and those crappy integrated CD drive door and floppy drive bezel. Like eBay item 176441688725. Hated those things.

Had an Enlight just like that I bought in '99. I put a BP6 in it and used it until 2007.

I've a friend who used to work for Micron in California, but I didn't make the connection. I assumed this was a company like Cybermax that was briefly big in the nineties but gone soon after the turn of the century.

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2024-09-10, 12:14:

dormcat wrote on 2024-09-10, 11:29:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:56:

Hopefully I can find a BIOS update since it appears to have an issue with the date.

No, you've found a computer that traveled 4500 years back in time.

Seriously though, I've encountered similar problems (different and ridiculous dates at every startup) on a much more modern computer using a CR2032 button battery. Replacing it with a fresh one solved the problem.

Dug up a later version on their archive - this one fixes the Y2K rollover?

The attachment M54hi_11.exe is no longer available

Than you for saving me the effort, I appreciate it!

dormcat wrote on 2024-09-10, 11:29:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:56:

Hopefully I can find a BIOS update since it appears to have an issue with the date.

No, you've found a computer that traveled 4500 years back in time.

Seriously though, I've encountered similar problems (different and ridiculous dates at every startup) on a much more modern computer using a CR2032 button battery. Replacing it with a fresh one solved the problem.

This will be my first attempt to fix the Dallas battery issue. When I began to post on Vogons again in 2018, I saw the thread on Dallas RTCs and I realized that my Asus P55T2P4 would likely need to have that addressed soon; but then the fire came and it was no longer something I needed to worry about! It looks at though the Dallas is in a socket on this board, so that's good news.

eesz34 wrote on 2024-09-10, 15:34:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-09-10, 02:56:

I had never heard of Micron computers, but this looks like it was a high dollar machine at the time.

You never heard of Micron computers???! They were common around the turn of the millennium, and probably before that too.

Earlier than that. I started reading English edition of PC Magazine in early 1994 (specifically Vol. 13, No. 3, 8 Feb 1994; that NEC MultiSpin on the cover had been the CD-ROM in my dream back then so I could still remember the exact issue) and learned many companies and brand names that were not as well-known as big international names like IBM, Microsoft, HP, Compaq (still separate companies), etc.: Dell (always occupied the back cover), Gateway 2000, and Micron were the three most prominent advertisers on PC Magazine back then, probably because of them using direct-order business modes and relied on those ads to attract potential customers, unlike traditional in-store business models. Also learned other companies like AST (8-Bit Guy), Packard Bell, Zenith Data Systems (ZDS, often at or near the bottom of each reviews), and large retailers like CDW. Didn't even know what "wire transfer" was (one of many payment options CDW offered) until years later.

I emailed my friend who used to work for Micron and let him know about the computer, and how I didn't initially realize that it was from the company he used to work for; he replied that he had no idea that Micron used to make complete systems!

Repo Man11 wrote on 2024-09-11, 00:29:

I emailed my friend who used to work for Micron and let him know about the computer, and how I didn't initially realize that it was from the company he used to work for; he replied that he had no idea that Micron used to make complete systems!

Guess it was because complete systems were sold by Micron Electronics, not the Micron Technology known for semiconductor products (notably RAM and SSD). The former was established as a subsidiary in 1995, sold out in 2001, renamed in 2002, collaborated with Gateway 🫨 in 2007, and finally declared bankruptcy in 2008.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPC_Corporation

EDIT: Looks like it was more complex than I thought: Zeos bought the computer subsidiary from Micron and soon retired the original brand name. Two brands coexisted at least in 1994-95.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeos

EDIT 2: Before the Zeos acquisition, the subsidiary was named Micron Computer (after March 1993) but was once named Edge Technology (before Februarys 1993); Edge started calling Micron "our sister company" in their ads as early as September 1992.

EDIT 2.1: Just combed through PC Magazine back issues using Google Books. The first ad of Edge Technology, Inc. appeared on 1992/05/26. The design of their ad remained the same for four months when the 1992/09/29 issue received a new ad design with a man in cleanroom protection suit holding a wafer; text started mentioning "our sister company" but not specific enough until later ads. Their trademark case design: "long horizontal cylindrical segment + grilled airflow intake" started with this ad. The 1993/02/23 issue hinted "Soon to be Micron Computer, Inc." and every title changed to Micron on the next issue on 1993/03/16 with "Formerly Edge Technology, Inc."

Not a computer, but it's hardware and it's retro. Was thrown into scrap bin. Can't let that happen!

It needed some minor repairs but now works and looks great.

Wow, that's in amazing shape. Those things have really cool options for screen mods. I've done a couple over the past year and the results have been amazing.

smtkr wrote on 2024-09-14, 16:38:

Wow, that's in amazing shape. Those things have really cool options for screen mods. I've done a couple over the past year and the results have been amazing.

For full disclosure I did take it apart and scrubbed the case parts with soap and water. I don't like the thought of someone else's 30 year old grime.

This is what my favorite local e-waste location came to, a bloodstained Syncmaster that saw more smoke than the Cherokee nation.
Nothing like getting a disease from a 18 year old. Monitor.

I scored a box O stuff from Craigslist yesterday: An Asus P7H5 motherboard with an i5 650, a CT4670 soundcard, a 6200 AGP card, a SATA optical drive, an IDE optical drive, a P4 3.0/512/800 CPU, a gigabit PCIe network card, some SDRAM, DDR1 and DDR3 RAM. Beginning to test it out now.

So far the 6200 AGP and the CT4670 have tested okay.