I bought a 35yr old PC for 30 EUR

[@pskarsjo]

You may get more out of the Post Code Card if you put it the right way into the slot. It seems to be clearly marked "Rear" with an arrow pointing proudly away from the rear.

[@MadCatSE]

Stopped watching to type just this. Hope it's not fried. :(

[@unitedco1904]

@@MadCatSE Should be fine, I made the same mistake and mine survived

[@RetroSpector78]

Facepalm :)

[@chainq68k]

@@RetroSpector78 Don't feel too bad. We've all been there... :)

[@widicamdotnet]

It was... interesting to see the voltage indicator LEDs flashing like that though - presumably they ended up connected to data or address lines, showing bus activity.

[@JLCPCB]

Great video!

[@greatquux]

Thanks for another wonderful video on an obscure beige box clone. It’s always fun watching you restore these things and seeing multimeter and soddering iron in action!

[@RetroSpector78]

Hope you enjoyed it !

[@diskettenfett3161]

I like watching your videos! Just a hint, it's better to use thin magnet wire or cut up some stranded wire to obtain a single strand for fixing these small signal traces. It doesn't look good and puts a lot of mechanical strain on the traces if you use such thick wire. :) Also, try to hold the glass fiber pen vertically to the PCB and use it like a brush (less force) and adjust it so the fibers barely stick out. Will make a lot less mess and the pen lasts much longer. :)

[@pasquale78]

Wat een gaaf kanaal! Aan je naam te zien zijn we even oud en daardoor beleef ik mijn jeugd weer een beetje opnieuw. Dankjewel!

[@clintthompson4100]

Glad to see you got this back up and running again. Another vintage machine saved from the landfill or the scrap yard.

[@sweetkaratepunch]

I just sold that exact keyboard. Futaba clicky switches but most were degraded to the point of feeling like linear switches. Too bad. The ones that worked still had a great snappy sound (and so loud!). Really love that amber monitor. Don't retrobright it! :)

[@dykodesigns]

Not a bad score for 30 euro’s. Some of the parts like the 5.25” floppy drives by themselves can go for a lot more. Despite the need for the repair I’d say you’ve got a very good deal.

[@slycooper1001]

i recently was given a really old computer a dell 333d from 1990! it has a standard side 3 inch floppy drive and a 5.25" floppy drive it has some strange drive that makes me think of a weird front facing cassette interface system my grandfather might know more but i can't just go and ask him because i live far away my dad says it might be a beta tape but not betamax does anyone know where i can find documentation about the computer?

[@dykodesigns]

@@slycooper1001 That tape drive you describe is most likely a tape streamer. It's a bespoke computer data backup system, these sort of things still exist. Back in the day you store over a gigabyte of data on them.

[@mmpp0]

The DIP switches might have something to do with the RAM size setting.

[@RetroSpector78]

Yes. Will elaborate in future video. There was also one for the display type

[@nm0490]

Nice video. I would recommend using a thinner wire for fixing the traces.

[@Nukle0n]

How hot is your iron? seems like it very quickly charred the board, if you use good leaded solder you shouldn't need to go over 300c, but the solder mask might just be old and bad. And as for patching small broken traces like that, you can also just bridge the gap with solder. As for the time not progressing, it likely considers 01:00 January 1st 1980 as the "reset" time, which it goes back to when the settings have been lost, and thus it considers the setting invalid until you change it.

[@xianox8]

Batteries, the retro nemesis. Thanks for the nice video.

[@BaudBand]

Nice project, love that ST157!

[@Pickle136]

i like how these motherboards from this era for 286/386 are so compact. nice rescue, one thing you might do is put some nail polish over the exposed metal to keep from corroding.

[@wishusknight3009]

I have one of the first 386 full AT boards that had that Chips 8 IC chipset and intel 385 cache controller chip. No onboard ram, it is all in 2 ram boards on proprietary local bus slots. The board is 14 inches square and fully populated with out any bit of space anywhere on it. not even with onboard IO or anything. 8 ISA slots with 2 used by ram boards. Its pretty crazy for a 20mhz machine of 1988. I tried bumping it to 25 for a while and it mostly worked pretty well but for a few unexplained crashes that didn't happen at 20. Crazy enough with only 32k of cache, its actually faster than one of the latest 386dx boards with 256k cache running at 25mhz. Even with the newer board having a plethora of timing and tuning options in bios. It comes down to the old dog having true zero waitstate operation and interleaving of ram banks. Something the newer board did away with for simplicity and cost.

[@TheCrazzyToobinator]

I find the best thing to use for splicing fine traces is to just strip some stranded wire and use a single strand of the wire, works great every time (also suggested by some one else as well I see). Also clone that drive ASAP!

[@GarthBeagle]

Nicely done fix! And think of all the engagement you're getting but putting that POST card in backwards 😉

[@chazbotic]

my little secret to soldering a bodge wire to a via is to add a bit of solder to the wire, enough for a solder "droplet" to form from gravity and anchor it (and the wire) to the top of the via. a wire close to the size of the via really helps in this.

[@eyekeyfun6888]

Wow! ~28 Years ago my Aunt had a simmilar PC. The Case was the same design (But with round Buttons). She had also a Star Printer. But it was a LC-24 with single sheet feeder. Nice coinsidence ;-)

[@BCjeffro420]

Wow quite the wire you chose for the back of board repair lol, good job on the fix.

[@chriswareham]

Quirky little machine! I really like the hinge on the case.

[@tigheklory]

Just a tip on soldering, solder flows to the heat, you can hold that heat on a bit longer. Great job BTW.

[@matthewplehn4271]

I enjoyed this video..very instructive. Very nice. Well done.

[@RetroSpector78]

Really happy you enjoyed it!

[@NumosG]

That green harddrive LED is just a gorgeous sight..

[@DosGamerMan]

Nice PC. I been looking for a decent MDA display for ages. Good Going

[@aCivilServant]

Always good to see a bit of detective work has been successful in bringing this machine back to life. Apart from the drives it looks like it has a decent keyboard, possibly with mechanical switches. Would be interested to see who made it.

[@XeonProductions]

I've seen some people use that super thin coated copper wire to repair traces, seems easier to work with than what you were using.

[@lasskinn474]

Enameled wire / transformer wire.

[@timehunter9467]

Yeah, magnet wire is completely fine to use, a lot better looking too.

[@appwraith]

Well done! I love these repair, restoration videos.

[@Chriva]

Happy to see the tweet in a live action video. :)

[@AlejandroRodolfoMendez]

Nice finding and nice work on making it work fine

[@BollingHolt]

That's a very unique-looking monitor. I kinda dig it.

[@alPham0d3x]

I really like the orange text color of the CRT

[@benjaminwirth5192]

A really nice video. I have a damaged 486 Soyo board with DX25 here and want to try fix it.

[@CarloBernini2342]

1:28 I had a similar Genius Mouse on my Schneider XT (PC 1640 with EGA graphics, 20MB HD, and upgraded to a Nec V30). Loved it at the time.

[@CarloBernini2342]

And regarding those old times: today I'm 50 years old and totally puzzled, how my 15y old self managed to learn programming with Turbo Pascal 4.5, C (Microsoft Quick C), the first versions of C++ (Borland Turbo C++ 1.0), and even some x86 Assembly with a total lack of any Internet. All knowledge at these times came in tiny pieces from monthly issued computer magazines and from exchange with a few close friends. At least I can say, it all payed out being a nerd at those times. Thanks for your videos!

[@jeffm2787]

Hint, take strands from multi strand wire. You can get some really thin stuff that way. The wire you used is Massive for the trace. 👍

[@mortrek]

If you wanna do less collateral damage, use a scalpel to precisely remove solder mask instead of the fiberglass pen. Also, fine magnet wire works a lot better for little bodge repairs of cut traces. You'll also want to tin all the exposed copper to reduce future corrosion. Good job getting it up and running again.

[@wishusknight3009]

using a particular alloy solder allows me to bridge small gaps like that without even using a bodge wire. It fails me what it is at the moment, but works great. And lacquer will seal the copper and prevent corrosion. Though fully tinning them is best as well.

[@mortrek]

@@wishusknight3009 yeah, but I don't think he'd bother with repairing the solder mask. This was a super quick and dirty repair, so I didn't even bother mentioning it.

[@wishusknight3009]

@@mortrek He has stated before that he always does. He doesn't always show it in the video. I personally just use nail polish.

[@mortrek]

@@wishusknight3009 huh ok. You can't really repair solder mask with a giant wire sticking out though...

[@wishusknight3009]

@@mortrek Don't always need to use solder mask. thick nail polish works almost as well. And for a private collection usually its good enough.

[@flagmichael]

More than 30 years ago I wrote my first real program in QuickBASIC. It was a sidelight of my job in the communications support department of a large electric utility. It took three months and took me into the realm of direct hardware access. The IT department programmers wanted $73,000 to do the job and I had knowledge of the rare hardware it had to connect to. Don't underestimate the real world capabilities of equipment from the '80s.

[@ran2wild370]

Huh? With different PDP and VAXes I guess it was possible to do everything MS-DOS/640KB-ought-to-be-enough did in late 80s. Unfortunately I don't know much and was a kid in 80s and teen in 90s :-))) But nowadays watching YT videos about different equipment and even small "industrial" computers, I am sure engineering guys didn't feel limited much with hardware and memory, especially in the second half of 80s.

[@kokodin5895]

it is lovely, far cry for my old 486 but almost the same style

[@dysfunctionalwombat]

I have a Seagate ST-157N (SCSI Variant) hard disk in my Macintosh SE, and it works great. But my ST-157A has mostly bad sectors unfortunately. Pretty good deal for the price too!

[@francoisfritz198]

Super affaire ! Avec en prime une petite session de restauration, ça 'à pas de prix ! Merci pour le contenu

[@stragulus]

Funny story. I used to have an ST-157A around '97 that wouldn't start. Somehow I figured out that it would start if it was literally warmed up. So, I put it in the oven on 50C for 10 minutes or so, and then it would fire right up! It kept on working like that for years, as it was in a home server that barely ever powercycled.

[@Kali_Krause]

Ooh, I see an Seagate ST-157A :) Wonder what the condition of the drive is. Maybe run MHDD for bad sectors and speedsys for performance checks. If you're using MHDD, you'll need MHDD 3.0 as it's the last version to support non-LBA drives 👍🏻

[@blakecasimir]

I wouldn't recommend using your finger to clear off fiberglass shavings RS! Micro cuts aren't fun. Otherwise, great video. Always love an old pc restoration.

[@alanharkleroad4376]

You're starting to make me think what maybe wrong with my 486 Packard Bell. I will have to check into it.

[@afnDavid]

You never know what you will find on those old harddrives. One dumpster recovery .... Well she really liked greatdane dogs.

[@rodhester2166]

great job.. great video.. thank you.

[@ran2wild370]

Probably the printer is the most valuable and useful part of this collection :-) But computer's exterior is gorgeous with a "bezeled" monitor. I don't know why but when I saw this setup I had a thought that this was a CAD station. But isn't the 286 too slow for the CAD?

[@hellion9547]

God damn that is one beautiful computer. Why does it seem to be so easy to get hold of vintage PCs in Benelux?! It’s really rare to find these things for sale here in Sweden…

[@TheDarrenSR]

When I upgraded my pc case that was my 2nd case. I had 286 in an old large IBM red stone chassis crossing over from the XT to AT with an 40mb ST251 MFM HDD on an 16bit controller

[@tetiwhitton]

Try TYPING the correct memory amount in the BIOS. I had a similar problem with a 286 and the memory could only be changed if you typed a number into it.

[@ComputersAndRetro]

Excellent video.

[@DxDeksor]

0:48 Are you sure this video card is even working ? There's no video BIOS which should be required to make it run. For the bios issues, sometimes you have to run the CMOS setup twice to make it work properly. It's a bit weird and inconvenient but I've seen that happening several times before. Maybe the 32.768KHz crystal has died ? That would explain why the clock doesn't tick anymore.

[@GigAHerZ64]

5:00 your post card is in a slot wrong way around!

[@RobertoCorreaEdwards]

Great video & nice little board!! I have an early 386 board that has 4 DIP switches to configure the amount of RAM installed... maybe is the same here??

[@senilyDeluxe]

I remember when these were showing up on the curbside every few weeks...

[@fiscalonline9642]

I have the exact same pc , nice !

[@Cayres9]

You know a PC is old when it says Made in West Germany on it LMAO thats going bac before i was even born and I'm near 40 years old haha

[@douro20]

I've only seen one other computer which had a Gemini GC101/Headland HT101 chipset.

[@canthearu4876]

I'm so triggered. I so want one of those hinged lid cases! Anyway, great pickup!

[@tiemanowo]

13:02 Looks like some trace cut underneath resistor R28?

[@Match451]

With small breaks in the traces on circuit boards, I've seen people repair them by making a small solder bridge over it. Is there a reason you didn't try that?

[@AycanFox]

Nice video!!

[@clisma]

A Dream of PC

[@muttBunch]

15:33, I don't like the condition of the right leg of r28 at the through hole :/

[@dream4playz]

Great video, I really enjoyed it. A really good find for €30,-. I have a question though: what tool are you using to scrape away the solder mask? It looks very useful and a lot more precise than sand paper. 🙂

[@coolduder1001]

Man I want that ugly monitor. I don't know why I love it, but it somehow looks perfect with that yellowing. It's amber too.

[@cyberjack]

on back with broken trace, why did solder a wire ? could have just soldered trace directly as was only a small gap

[@tonkscartman1274]

19:50 to my mind this wire is very thick.. I have 5-6pcs of 286-386 motheboards, battery leaks and traces damaged

[@kimchee94112]

Seems like no make and model shown on some of my old MBs or am I missing something? Would be nice to know what all the settings are and if manuals available on the web. Also why are some of old components sold for a few dollars when new now some sellers wanted hundreds or even thousands of dollars for it? Who are buying those?

[@VidzVideo]

Looks like you had the post card in the wrong way round. There is an arrow on the card saying rear which was pointing forward

[@ΓιώργοςΠαρασκευάκης-ν7ε]

exellent video!

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

Oh boy, even with a C64 you were better than these BIM-Boxes. And the 16bit machines looked like they were leaving everything in the dust🙂

[@DeFineAl]

I bought a new 386 pc similar spec only £999 euros new, oh and the 200 meg hard drive was an additional £1000 back in about 1990.

[@MidnightGeek99]

Leave it another 20 years and the HDD will cost £1000 again.

[@caerikandersson4089]

Hi i am a old computer nerd so to speak i started whit old ABC 80 ABC 100 and before that is was Amiga and those then it was from 8086 and well up 286 386 ect...In my time we started whit old computers not computers we have today but they where fun and i learn from them how it work ect...i use to be a collector so i have some left most floppy disk whit orginal program and there is a lot but it seams today no one is interested of those old floppy disk---i remember when it was Dos and the oldest windows on one diskett..L.O.L....i have use all windows fro start and one i miss and think they should not abandon is windows 7...so much memory for an old man like me..L.O.L...It is all ways nice to see that there is so many Nostalgic people like me who stil like the old time the old generation "the steam locomotive time"..L.O.L.... ...I been working whit computers for many many years but not like this not the electric and repair motherboard ect i have only build computers and repair and serving so it is nice to see how it works "on the deep" i have for many years wanted to learn to repair motherboard and more but my eyes is not the best and maybe i dont have the patient i dont know..L.O.L....But any way i learn some from you now...:)....Thanks from Erik in sweden...:)

[@sebastian19745]

Where did you find that beauty? Here were I live, a 286 with printer, manuals, software is 4000€, an broken one (not tested, as is) start at 200€. Edit: That Oak OTI067 can be upgraded to 1M. Can both cards be used on that computer at the same time (like it was the case with Hercules and VGA) or you have to set the 8-bit ISA card to mono?

[@kaczan3]

Wheneve I hear prices at which you buy your stuff I'm like that mem of the guy spitting his soup in shock.

[@Ikkepop]

Did you buy this PC from Poland ? I can swear I saw this exact computer for sale in a Polish auction site.

[@romanrm1]

Kinda crazy here is that the two "G2" chipset chips seem to have fully identical markings. What do they even do, that you need to just plop two of the same chip and it all works? Not like that on the more modern chipsets with north and southbridge and all that.

[@wishusknight3009]

Each one handles 8 bits of the data bus. A single chip can drive an 8088.

[@Schule04]

0:45 isn't the card missing the video bios?

[@oso2k]

Maybe try a solder ball next time?

[@idahofur]

I know taht was going to be a goody when they still had the 5.25 drive up top. Providing they didn't upgrade it.

[@Eyetrauma]

1:48 This is like some kinda glitch art, what a weird effect

[@bertjesklotepino]

i got 2 or 3 old computers over here. In the Netherlands. Pentium 2 if im not mistaken. If anyone in the Netherlands is interested in them, get in contact and we make a deal. Im not gonna ship em to outside of the Netherlands, unless someone is willing to pay for the shippingcosts as well.

[@bertjesklotepino]

btw, thanks for the inspiration with videos like these.

[@markaz2kk]

You may need a bios disk to boot into.

[@johto]

Ugh, i was cringing when you were janking those cables out from the cables them selfs, better to grip the plastic part LOL

[@MidnightGeek99]

Now that's a bargain, I would pay 30 bucks for the keyboard and mouse only :)

[@Jerkwad152]

Man, I wish I had your luck.

[@chaoticsystem2211]

careful with those clamps!

[@ENNEN420]

If anyone is wondering, he paid 0.85 euro for every year this computer has existed.

[@basvanharen2904]

@retrospector78 is that a Star LC 100?

[@RetroSpector78]

LC-20

[@1MadJack1]

Hell yeah!

[@hugosimoes5119]

Nice machine for just 30 euro. And I want to get one cheap Baby AT pentium motherboard. For Pentium MMX upto 200Mhz.

[@simontay4851]

Are you in the UK? I have a skt 7 pentium MMX PC complete with case, PSU, CPU, RAM, HDD, 2 optical drives and W98SE. I work on it occationally when i have spare time and will be listing it on eBay eventually.

[@simontay4851]

Are you interested in buying it?

[@hugosimoes5119]

@@simontay4851 Nope. I am not in the UK. I am just looking for a Baby AT motherboard under maybe 50 euro to replace a motherboard that I probably killed when I was replacing the din-5 to a din-6 ps/2 keyboard socket, it was kinda having problems before anyways. But if I lived in the UK, sure I would like to have those computers. I been looking around and prices are raising. I deleted my ebay account because most of sellers want paypal over credit card instead of paypal-bank account. Maybe @Retrospector78 wants your computers when he visits the UK to make more videos. I hope he has a big car to fit all of your PCs.

[@henrikgustav2294]

amber monitor. so elusive. I have 4 crts, all grayscale.

[@cnewsworld]

its My Love PC... 286, 386, 486, Then Boom P1

[@geekyprojects1353]

A serious question: why is this no name PC clone worth anything? It is neither Commodore nor Apple, nor IBM, not even Amstrad. It can't do anything useful in modern terms. I understand the joy of tinkering with old electronics, but where does the monetary value come from?

[@jantestowy123]

Looks like BIOS, but I'm only at 8:25 :)

[@VeI_2.0]

Can it run Crysis?

[@Engineer9736]

Good lord @ 0:48 .. mission: fix PC, what he does... unload all his ESD onto the card's connectors 🤦‍♂

[@luminousfractal420]

Wondering if you've ever come across that rare combo that was a 386/486 combined with a Sega megadrive. It looked very much like that but you could slide the front panel which hid the drive bays and revealed the game cartridge socket and joystick ports. Always wanted one, never got one lol, but it was a rare beast indeed. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pIDcq5RpmLSCp68 Nvm: someone uploaded 😄 mega PC

[@only257]

👍radical

[@tswvxyastswvyeej5510]

I have one Hp desktop computer 97 that still works perfect who will buy it.