Mitac Mistation 3S - A Compact PC from 1990!

Today we're cleaning up a slim PC from 1990 called the Mitac Mistation 3S that I bought locally from a viewer. With a 16MHz 386SX CPU, and 4MB of ram it's a prime candidate for a Windows 3.11 installation. Let's take a look :) #vintage #desktop #90s
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Nathan Sivewright
Parcel Collect 10045 46100
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[@PDTokay]

Glad to see my old mitac is getting some love, you got further than I did. Also awesome meeting you! Hope things are going well.

[@psivewri]

Yeah I'm going well thanks! I'll get around to making a video about that G4 Powermac at some point as well 👍

[@bluemi858]

@@psivewri looking forward to that g4 mac video

[@LegoWormNoah101]

I was very worried the motherboard itself had gone bad

[@milkbucket2011]

@@psivewri I was worried that the power button would snap right off!

[@wilkebitter5742]

Did the unit have it's original use back in Australia as well? I found it curious that on the back it had the German post office logo (the horn 0:25) and even a "TÜV" certificate on the inside so it's been cleared at some point for german office use 🤔😋

[@JackBandicootsBunker]

“Novell Labs Tested and Approved” means that computer can run Novell NetWare, which was a networking operating system designed for cooperative multitasking over the network. You no longer hear about NetWare because its market segment was absorbed by Microsoft and Novell moved on to SUSE Linux when it acquired the company.

[@grahamek86]

Novell put up a strong fight against Active Directory and had a lot more functionality out the box. Unfortunately the native AD integration within Windows just won SysAdmins over. I used to work at University of Glasgow and they had Novell NetWare based student labs right up until 2007-08.

[@e2e-active712]

I think MicroFocus still develop a version of NetWare although I think they changed the name

[@shibe32]

That good to know .

[@ThermoCoupleNZ]

you know a guy is a little wet behind the ears when no idea what Novell is/was lol :-) I spend 5 years supporting an IPX Wan back in the day

[@cdos9186]

For those drives that scanned perfectly but had issues writing, most of the time it is just due to weak sectors since they haven't been written to for such a long time, causing the data to fade. After all, the drives are well over 20 years old so it is common to see now a drive from that era that scans fine but doesn't write entirely perfect. Give it a couple full formats, and it should refresh the entire drive media.

[@vwestlife]

The problem here is actually that this system has a maximum hard drive size limit of 504 (binary) or 528 (decimal) MB -- it can't address any greater than 1024 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors per track. This was a problem with all IDE-based systems up until the mid-1990s late 486 / early Pentium era, when new PCs began implementing LBA (Logical Block Addressing) to allow hard drive sizes to exceed the 504 / 528 MB limit. Two ways to get around this limit are to either use drive overlay software, or install an updated BIOS chip.

[@ToddSAFM]

Your experience failing repeatedly with the hard drives reminds me of literally any old computer project I’ve done. So many hurdles, but the joy is in the journey.

[@MD-vk3bj]

I absolutely love that case design!

[@ching-chenhuang8119]

Oh my god, I think this is the PC I used exactly 32 years ago in a MiTAC Computer dealer in Taiwan!!

[@redleader6442]

The 640k base memory isn't soldered. It's part of the 4x 1 MB sticks. Systems of that era always notice the first 640k as base because that was the typical maximum in the original 8088-based IBM PC's.

[@oso2k]

Also, I think I heard you say PRECOMP as "Precompression". It's Precompensation. Great video though!

[@gersonl]

It's Bill Gates fault. "640K ought to be enough for anyone" he said. And here we are. Still that 640K base memory on IBM compatible pc's.

[@redleader6442]

@@gersonl At least that's more than 4 times the 128k that a certain someone else said would be enough for an entire GUI based system 3 years later.

[@tennickjestzajety69]

​@@gersonl these are not his words. it's a urban legend.

[@davinp]

The File Manager from Windows 3.11 has been made available for download on Windows 10/11 in the Microsoft Store

[@JVHShack]

I have one recommendation: find an ISA network card for file transfers. Also as for the performance of that 386SX-16, I would treat it like a 286 with a 386 instruction set attached. If you ever want to upgrade the CPU, a 386SX-40 from AMD and an 80 MHz crystal would max it out and allow you to run Windows 95, as long as you upgrade the RAM with it. I ran Win95 on the AMD 386SX-40 with 16MB of RAM just fine, albeit rather slow.

[@BalancedSpirit79]

I agree, if that had a better CPU and at least 8 megs of RAM it could easily run 95. He might even be able to find a 486 upgrade from one of those old companies like Evergreen.

[@liammarkey6933]

Wasn’t the CPU integrated into the mobo? 🤔

[@BalancedSpirit79]

@@liammarkey6933 I saw an empty socket, although that could possibly be for a 387 coprocessor

[@JVHShack]

Tbh, the CPU can be replaced with some SMD soldering skills, lots of flux, a soldering iron, and patience. Necroware released a video on this very topic a while back.

[@JVHShack]

@@BalancedSpirit79 You are correct in your assumption of that socket. It is indeed for a 387 FPU.

[@adews7204]

This thing looks so damn cool!

[@JanusCycle]

CF to IDE adaptors are handy little beasts. Make sure you have a range of CF cards to try. I've found some CFs that work well and others are not compatible with these old BIOSs.

[@EgoShredder]

I've had good luck using Sandisk Ultra II CompactFlash cards with most machines, including Atari STE and Falcon 030 etc.

[@xFameBoyx]

I love the fact that you took your time to explain everything into details

[@RealDlovanSl]

Great video as always! Love to see these kind of content

[@LightlyInsane1]

u were first comment

[@mikeyj5608]

Best content ever

[@thebasketballhistorian3291]

Even though he is much younger than me, it's wild he also grew up with Windows 3.1 and has the same childhood memories of Paintbrush, Solitaire, midi music, and DOS games. With most people I meet in their 20's, Windows XP was their childhood OS. 😳

[@lucasrem]

everyone here did that, they are still in Windows....

[@inlinesk8r477]

I never get any notifications for your videos, I never get them in my recommendations either. But I always get your community posts so I can watch your amazing videos

[@grahamek86]

640K base memory doesn't mean RAM soldered to the motherboard, it's the natively addressable memory space on the CPU architecture. Anything above that 640KB was considered extended memory area.

[@cpcnw]

I was a Service Tech for Mitac in the UK - worked in the North West. The PC's where mostly bought from a store called Dixons. Nearly 25% arrived at the buyers house DOA. We always got it in the neck from the buyers when we turned up.

[@Zebra_Paw]

I tend to restore daily usable stuff... you'd be surprised how old hardware can be and still be usable today... if you install drivers properly and choose a nice fit as an OS

[@katherinegray9252]

I recognised that Clarence drawing immediately. love big lez show

[@exMuteKid]

Glad to see I'm not the only one with a storage media collection

[@lanerj]

Your vids are always a treat. Cool seeing Novell stuff.

[@rleproductions2834]

Psivewri I love your channel so much and am binge watching you!

[@gemstown]

the best thing about the clarence you drew is that it looks exactly like the show

[@packie04]

Your content is much appreciated 🙏🏽

[@mina47879]

Those bodges to the board were probably there from the factory. Big boards like that are expensive. It's often cheaper to fix a problem by hand on a production run then to get the boards remade.

[@KevinFields777]

And these were definitely more common from small manufacturers who couldn't afford to just throw a dodgy board away, unlike Dell or Hewlett-Packard. Definitely not industry standard by the end of the 1990s though, manufacturing costs had significantly come down and it was more cost- and time-efficient to chuck them than spend time diagnosing and repairing them.

[@jsking306]

I enjoyed watching you experiment with different configurations in order to breathe new life into a vintage computer. It's kind of like someone rescue a pet from an animal shelter.Thanks for another great video.

[@ragtagcreator9631]

Both the brothers are slaying on their vids. Love your videos 😁😁

[@lamtatyan]

10:50 High 5! I love picking Tropical Beach Deck when playing Solitaire too! I particularly like the sun makes face to me!

[@andreassylvan3478]

I had this one in the early 90s! But I remember it looking slightly different, for instance the activity LEDs were a different style. Anyway, really happy I finally got to see one again, wish I still had mine.

[@zafilerusse]

Nice find, thanks for the video!

[@automanium4563]

7:08 Cool feature!

[@arodvi]

Wonderful computer I have similar 386SX 16mhz 4mb ram. Keep on DOS just to remember me for the good old days.

[@bigmacgamer69]

such a nostlgic device :D love your videos :D

[@ronlevin2339]

So cool to see a CPU without a heatsink

[@pawer_themaw]

wow that has basically the same specs as my old laptop i got with 3.11 for workgroups, and i like this one's design!

[@gregsmith9183]

Hypertek Computers is a name I haven't hear of in a long time. I remember one of my first jobs in the 90's when they first opened in Macquarie Park Sydney was working in there warehouse assembling there computers. As well as taking the front bezels and stamping the Hypertek name on them. They also made memory modules and network cards which we also had to put into there retail packing box for sale at various retailers like Harvey Norman.

[@lucasrem]

it was a production company in Taiwan, my guess it's a white Tulip design board. This guy is not understanding these old systems, how you do disks in the old days, or what bios it is, IBM compatible, who did that????

[@I_am_Allan]

I was 10 year, 2 days old when that case was stamped!

[@retropcdurham]

Those rubber feet have survived 32 Australian summers. Legendary.

[@jonassimon2469]

This channel needs more views!

[@ivanchirinos4275]

Great video bro, greetings from Venezuela!

[@Crypt2349]

Love your videos

[@petershorrock677]

Amazing review 👍

[@thefattmish]

Nice little find.

[@meowmix6782]

neat machine, loved the video

[@lazy_gamer_dad]

Great video! You'll need the Cinco MIDI Organizer for all those MIDI files.

[@Larry_Capija420]

Great video I love your videos dude 😈👌

[@lukedavis436]

This one deserves all the love it can get... Also i do like the concept of CF card adapters it's just i prefer spinning drives

[@mattblatchley2061]

wow...flashback to my 1990's existence of trial and error and staying up all night hoping to get some ancient OS installed and the PC functioning!!!

[@mattblatchley2061]

COOL old 386... I got one from my school's library for $5...got AOL 3.0 running on it and then donated it...I'M KICKING MYSELF... I kept the Mac Classic tho

[@kielagut]

I was just a few months old when this computer was manufactured. I feel old lol!

[@zerofeltan]

That computer looks really cool!

[@hugoknapp]

Literally just clicked on this thinking it was my system prefs lol

[@zerofeltan]

@@hugoknapp lmaoo

[@Sarkozi7]

Hi psivewri its a very good video man keep it up

[@gabrielebiffi9018]

OnTrack Disk manager is the best solution to install large hard drives on old machines, I used it to mount a 4 GB drive in my 286!

[@NerdAtHistory]

Did anybody notice The Ju 87d model or more commonly known as the Stuka dive bomber at 1:54 in the bottom left corner of the screen!! It’s very cool!

[@OrbvsTomarvm]

what you been smokin?? just chill out a little, slow down, and relax...

[@DosGamerMan]

Nice little machine

[@davinp]

The first computer I had was a 486 wit Windows 3.11

[@TheRetroMediaZone]

This pc survive all those years impressive

[@ashifahmed4244]

NOW BRO CAN LAND ON THE MOON WITH THIS PC

[@physalis17]

I always picked the Haunted House cards for solitaire. I loved Halloween as a kid

[@mdqmatias]

I love your hair dude!

[@carltonleboss]

Can't believe I forgot to watch this the other day

[@MCBuilder]

nice video!

[@VintageCR]

i feel so much nostalgia.. as a kid i played some games on this little but nifty machine, and it was awsome! i have never seen one again in person since then. so a rare find i guess?

[@lucasrem]

I found a lot of these systems in 1995, overcomplete office Novell machines. My task was, remove all programs from PC's, run all on the NT network and online, so we got a lot of trash. gave them away, after i did install DOS + all games on them as DOOM and heretic, clusters of machines so many were trashed, 386 being replaced to run Windows on Pentium. Over 100 machines, all gave them away, kids loved them!

[@Forrest_O.]

Definitely interesting to see how much computers have evolved, comparing anything to the Mac mini

[@Dragonfire511]

I really miss my first PC. It was a 1997 Mitac.

[@ceebee23]

it looks so good... I still like the Win3 UI .... such a neat pc ....

[@themumblebrapper]

LMAO you go on paintbrush and thought- "hmm... I should draw Clarence!"

[@audibell]

Nice PC and good for old games

[@marctv203]

This Video is so cool :)

[@mattalki]

That was a lower end machine in 1991, as the 486 was just starting to come out. That was the year I graduated from high school, and I had purchased a Tandy 1000TL two years before. The performance of machines was jumping ahead by leaps and bounds back then. Thankfully things have evened out a bit these days.

[@asmodeane]

You always wanted to go to a tropical beach as a kid? But you're Australian! In my mind's eye Australia is one huge tropical beach!😋 Anyway, gr8 video, m8!

[@LightlyInsane1]

Great vid! i love old tech and i never expected windows 3.1 for a new video

[@LightlyInsane1]

And psivwri if you are reading this (which u r probably not) Can you join your minecraft server and tell me if you are?

[@RetroGadgetMan]

Lovely pc, reminds me of an Amiga 1000

[@potatosansoffical8058]

I watched it as soon as it came out

[@intel386DX]

cool PC :)

[@mima85]

The problems you had with the hard disks probably were due to the limitations of that era's BIOSes for the drive parameters. Usually on 2/3/486 PCs the BIOS limits for those settings were 1024 cylinders, 16 heads and 63 sectors, which means a 504 MB hard drive. Drives where those values were exceeded weren't recognized or if they were, usually they worked erratically due to sector addressing issues. In fact some hard drives bigger than 504 MB had a jumper to artificially limit the capacity to that number, so the drive could be installed in an old PC. You were lucky with that Seagate working in your old machine. BTW a Seagate ST32122 was in my first Pentium PC, and I still have it around (I still have that PC too) :-)

[@cdos9186]

Appreciate the knowledge a ton. Unfortunately now most people just assume the drive isn't working correctly which is sad since they are unaware of this issue. You can't just throw in any capacity drive and expect it to work correctly, and I appreciate that you mentioned it for me and others!

[@mima85]

@@cdos9186 You're welcome :-) I was there when those old PCs were still around, my first PC was an 8088 and the one that came after was a 486, so I had the occasion to see in first person their quirks or read about them in IT magazines. To be fair, Psivewri is younger than me probably by 10 years so is normal for him to not know all the details about PCs and parts typical of the 90ies. On the other hand I for sure miss a good number of details about PCs, accessories and parts from the 80ies and earlier. We all have to learn something, it's normal :-)

[@bennyxxx]

My first mitac device was a Apple ii clone 5.25” disk drive, came with my first computer, which was also an Apple ii + clone, recently , I find out that those Apple ii original disk drive were also made by mitac, means they were an oem factory in the 70-80s.

[@paulisthebest3uk]

Good video.. I did notice one thing though when you got it working with the later drive there was drive overlay software working. Drive overlay software makes almost any old computer even with bios limitation run modern drives. The final drive would that have had drive overlay software installed? Drive overlay software overrides ancient bios cylinder/ heads / values. It was displayed clearly in the video

[@karathkasun]

Just going to point out that all of the memory is on the modules, which are 1mb each. 640k "base" memory was a nomenclature carried over from the 8088.

[@NiPPonD3nZ0]

This is a awesome computer!!! Will you do the Acer Aspire desktop you showed us a few months ago? I had one back in the day (with a Pentium 133) and I really miss it!!! Best regards from Portugal!!!

[@MegaManNeo]

miniITX when ITX wasn't even a thing. Love it!

[@wesley7753]

That computer is exactly 14 years and 1 day older than me

[@Ztox-ij3qb]

any other skitz legends not recognising claz mate from big lez show? i don't know waddiyatalkinabeet but this was great to see on a Windows 3.11 PC 😂

[@ZanaGBYT]

I'm amazed nobody has ever mentioned what the sticker at 0:43 actually means. The machine was most likely sold with Novel Netware 3.X (from 1990). The sticker determining that it was a machine from their approved qualified vendor list. (QVL). At the time, Novell offered their netware network filesystem which was huge for all sorts of commercial and enterprise networking. This later evolved into NetWare Directory Services, which came 6 years before the first version of Microsoft Active Directory. This 6 year lead made novell netware used for managing computer systems and networks for many, many years to come, and is still used to some degree in the present. Once Microsoft launched Active Directory in 1999 on it's embryonic state, war would begin across system administrators and C-Level staff trying to choose one service over the other, or trying to maintain and upkeep their current structure much to microsoft's pressure and dismay. For the authentic experience, try finding a copy of Netware 3.x 386 and running that.

[@compmanio36]

One of my first jobs was taking an old Netware environment and converting it over to NT 4.0. It was a lot of fun.

[@cdos9186]

Thanks for the information! You seem like you actually know what is going on with that sticker.

[@lucasrem]

Vendor list, yeah, no 3Com card needed! they all cry novell sticker here, why they do that????? Cry a brand they know ???

[@wdd6864]

Novell is a Network Software company that needed hardware approved for it to work with the software and the Novell Netware OS. It was extremely secure OS for it’s time and still is.

[@DavidWonn]

When an NT4 workstation was connected to a Novell Netware server, its replacement login window was actually less secure than the default one supplied by NT4. It was too easy to bring up a help window and bypass it, granting local PC access without even signing in!

[@NexXxus86]

you can use ontrack disk manager to get the 386 support bigger drives.

[@Train_Mate]

I never thought I was going to rickrolled... ☠

[@PrimitavePCs]

I accually have a 1980s radio shack trs 80 colour computer 2 but i dont have anything old enough peripheral wise to test it. Apparantly it worked last time it was used. It is also really dirty and has all of its original documents and the casette deck with games and joysticks.

[@andresbravo2003]

A very rare PC could have been so minimal.

[@andygozzo72]

nice little beast, nearest i have is a trigem 386sx, not quite as slim, as has a 5 1/4 bay just above the 3 1/2 floppy, but similar age, and looks same or very near bios

[@Lachlant1984]

What kind of sound card did you install in that PC? The issues you had getting the hard drive working must've been very irritating. This would make a good early DOS gaming PC.

[@ravensmoon1992]

On the back there's an old sticker from our postal service, that used to do our telephone lines and also the internet connections in the 90s here in Germany. I'm curious if this machine is from Germany indeed? 🤔 Funny how small the world is 😁

[@jasoncollinsthetechguy]

great video i can't believe i was rickrolled

[@LifeofBrinc]

@psivewri you need some longer videos, some of us enjoy them 😁

[@retropcs88]

You may be able to use the larger HDD with Ontrack Disk Manager. I used ODM to use a 40GB drive in a 286

[@nticompass]

For BIOSes that cannot auto-detect hard drives, I like to use XTIDE Universal BIOS. I have it flashed to an EPROM and in the PROM socket of an ISA ethernet card. That will boot as an option ROM and should allow the system to detect drives the BIOS cannot. You can also get an XTIDE card that has the BIOS ROM and even a CompactFlash reader all built into one, I usually prefer this over HDDs as it makes the system faster and it' easier to copy files back and forth.

[@BrianHansenKolo]

Freaking nice..

[@bdhale34]

I suspect that case likely shipped originally with a metal bar that the ISA riser met with that doubled as support for the center of the case to allow a CRT to be placed on top. The drive seek error is always a floppy drive thing most bios allowed the user to disable the on boot seek also but replacing the cmos battery will allow the settings to remain saved as well. Those old dalas clock batteries are terrible they do make fairly easily solderable replacements that use the new standard CR2032 coin cell batteries.

[@jeffsims7386]

I was hoping it would have a 3 and 1/2” drive, so man was I disappointed to find it had a 3.5”. Oh well. Maybe the next one.