Why does this PC have insane levels of RF shielding???

Finally got my hands on one of these after 20 years of searching. The hardware itself is nothing special, but the memories that this machine brings back for me are. Our high school computer lab was filled with these monuments to beigeness. Yet the Sanyo MBC 16 Plus just has this nice evenly balanced aesthetic... I had to have one! Unfortunately FedEx got their grubby mitts on it...
This is Part 1 of a 2 video series. The first will look at the physical hardware, and do some repair and cleanup. The second will fire the machine up and see what works/doesn't.
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[@TechTimeTraveller]

So I bought a school bus to serve as my new old 'studio'. Video on that to come, but fixing that up is partly why I've been so behind in making actual videos. Will be releasing a channel update video of sorts soon also but will not send out notifications so as not to annoy anyone. Also experimenting with 3 minute Shorts, which KZbin announced would happen by Oct 15 but still aren't happening yet...

[@JamesPotts]

A second for super-glue / baking soda. It's pretty amazing

[@autingo6583]

superglue + baking soda = magic. i recommend tech tangents' demonstration of the rebuild process for a commodore monitor hinge. video title is: "easy plastic reconstruction and repair". iirc jan beta also has some stuff.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

A school bus? Wow..

[@chasonlapointe]

Can't wait to see what you get up to with the bus.

[@magickmarck]

You don't annoy us, retro computing papa!

[@vwestlife]

I thought this was going to be another Samsung-made XT clone like what Epson, Packard Bell, Emerson, etc. sold, but the internal construction is clearly very different, and was likely Sanyo's own design.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

@vwestlife Definitely seems to be. I wish there was more info but so far most of what I've found about it is the odd pic from others who have one. Not all of them seem to have had the RF shielding and the motherboard seems to have changed also.

[@CheshireNoir]

Man, someone in R&D must have had a breakup with someone in support before designing that!

[@deplinenoise]

For the plastic repair you might try baking soda and super glue to build up the gaps, then sand down to 400 grit or so and prime + paint the whole front panel

[@nevets9436]

I highly recommend the specialized plastics glue that essentially melts the plastic back to together which helps hide the repair.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

Was not aware of this. Will look for some.

[@kpanic23]

@@TechTimeTraveller 2nd that! Model glue is perfect for ABS plastics like this.

[@SockyNoob]

Loctite makes some. It's plastic glue.

[@raycreveling1583]

Something like "Zap a Gap" is what I use when building miniatures. You can also buy an accelerant called "Zip Kicker". FYI make sure you don't have any glue on your hands when using the accelerant, the reaction is unpleasantly exothermic. You can also use plain old acetone to "plastic weld" (melt) the pieces.together. Obviously start on the back, non-visible side.

[@JohnZombi88]

Tech Tangents had a good video on fixing old plastics with I think glue and baking soda

[@Lizz_ss25]

FedX employees treat they’re job like it’s the NFL and the boxes are footballs

[@kaitlyn__L]

I often have to wonder if they were put under less time pressure (which would require hiring more drivers), whether they'd treat boxes better. When you hear about what some delivery drivers have to do to keep to "just" 30-60 minutes behind schedule... it's not surprising they get dropped-off violently (both at depots and the home). I especially note that in many places, the local public postal service is known to treat delicate boxes better than private couriers do.

[@Lizz_ss25]

@@kaitlyn__L Yah overworking and Jack of staff are a constant issue, seen it first hand in the service industry… Then again things like the Amazon situations with the “swag fan” (which I saw in a store lol) are different. Where Amazon refused to put in air con and told the employees to get that stupid head phone like fan

[@dwlee79]

it's exactly the same with UPS which our company uses to ship packages, all shipping companies seem to be the same in regards to how they treat packages...

[@donwald3436]

One time I opened my door and they dropped a box on the wet asphalt and kicked it to me wtf.

[@MrChuckGrape]

That's not a bad thing if they got a good passing game.

[@AB-Prince]

the most annoying part of having a hobby in vintage computers/electronics are people way over-pricing things on ebay, with no clue what they have and no care for whether or not it works.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

Most of them come to reason fairly quickly. But this seller was literally like 10 bucks at a time for months. Just would not give up hope. I've seen stuff from other sellers that has been up there for several years.. they have no incentive to budge since listing is free. I think if Ebay listings weren't free you'd see a change in behavior.

[@SockyNoob]

​@@TechTimeTraveller definitely

[@JohnZombi88]

Entire reason I stopped buying old video games. Famicom games not worth $5 being put up for sale "as-is" (means they know it's not working but don't want it refunded) for $50-$200. Sorry but a horror VN game that literally nobody's heard of isn't worth $180

[@erichkohl9317]

I love content on PCs from this era. Subbed.

[@paulstubbs7678]

Wow, what a nice build, lovely shielding, massive toroids on the serial & parallel - I'm hooked, I want one.

[@CommodoreFan64]

You gotta love old PC designs that required you take 3/4 of the machine apart for a simple repair. 😅

[@TechTimeTraveller]

That was a serious workout. Makes me appreciate keyboard replacements on a ThinkPad E16 a little more..

[@SockyNoob]

Old laptops in a nutshell. So much useless work just to replace thermal paste.

[@Nukle0n]

The 4 extra ram chips might be to bring it from 512 to 640k. lots of those XT clones that started at 512k with a 128k "upgrade" to the conventional limit.

[@kpanic23]

This, exactly. The soldered chips are 41256 (256k x 1bit) chips, 16 of them give you 512kB of RAM. The socketed ones are 4464 (64k x 4bit) chips, 4 of them make up 128kB, giving you your 640kB in total.

[@laserspaceninja]

So this is what it would look like if A/V equipment designers & engineers made a computer. They looked like they were obsessed with interference. Down to the carbon coating on the damn face plate. Wild.

[@gmcnewlook]

I think they had to in the day? My Nintendo is shielded (but obviously not as crazy to take apart

[@CptJistuce]

@@gmcnewlook Yeah. The FCC used to be a serious hardass about ANY RF emissions. The conductive paint inside the plastic bezel was probably just a precautionary move, given how much metal is behind it, but... better safe than sorry. Edit: Actually the overkill present in the RF shielding may be a case of "once bitten, twice shy". If they had troubles with the FCC before, they may have been overcompensating.

[@angieandretti]

Actually I'd spray-paint the front panel. I've had good luck with Krylon one-step paint&primer on plastic front panels - it actually looks quite good! I also think it would be the best way to hide the damage, especially if you're able to fill/flatten more first.

[@SquroundSquircle]

The video was lovely as always, but I was NOT expecting a mashup of Encino Man and Sierra On-Line's The Black Cauldron today. I had a good, hard laugh at that. Well done!

[@cobaltmn5716]

as someone who has to work with FedEx as part of his job, i feel this in my soul

[@catriona_drummond]

I feel your pain.- I have an Olivetti 240 in wonderful condition, except that DHL dropped it exactly on that 1 out of 8 possible corners that has the power button and completely smashed it.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

Been there.. repaired that. Sigh

[@OLDSKUULGARAGE]

Shipping is definitely a concern these days with delicate parts. People generally just dont care. And I dont blame time or job restrictions. It is just lack of care! I have had some pretty delicate machine tools get thrown around and break as well as other bigger machines. That pc looks to be in great shape though despite the drop. Seems like they were built to hold up an entire house lol. If you really want to get the light beige color back, a white wall tire cleaner or heavy purple degreaser that has lye in it. It should get some of the oxidation off. Obviously do a test spot first though and stay away from labels lol. Great video and thank you for saving these machines!

[@SockyNoob]

The balding spot alert scared the crap out of me while I was dosing off watching this lol.

[@herzogsbuick]

when i heard it my eyes were closed -- i immediately thought it meant *I* was balding!

[@bokami3445]

15 years to find it and 15 years to put it back together :-)

[@JVHShack]

If you have access to a 6 inch bench vise and a light hammer, that would straighten that corner bracket right out. Just clamp it right at the back of the corner and shape it carefully from there.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

I really need to get a vise. After I stop buying computers and school buses.

[@jdenm8]

Or a big, square block of scrap wood, a hammer, and a clamp to hold the piece while you're bringing it back into shape.

[@xDownSetx]

A vice and a Knipex Pliers Wrench would be perfect. The jaws of the pliers wrench open and close parallel to eachother so it's fantastic for pinching bends out of metal with almost no effort.

[@herzogsbuick]

@@TechTimeTraveller even a $50 vise from the canadian equivalent of harbor freight is a game changer, especially since you now have a school bus. i've had a 4" for years that was important enough to make the single bag of luggage i used to move back to alaska a couple years ago. i don't have a school bus, mostly electronics and smaller stuff, and it's incredibly handy. i made a wooden base for it so i can take it where ever

[@markshade8398]

If I remember right the video card with video and parallel port should be monochrome (statistically speaking). I saw a ton of those but few that had CGA and printer.

[@Choralone422]

I have a real affinity for PCs of that era. The very first PC I ever regularly used was owned by a friend of mine and it had a similar case design. It was a NEC PC with a 386SX 16MHz CPU. The machine was purchased in the spring of 1990. While I never did see the innards of the machine, my friend and I spent countless hours learning DOS 3.3 and later 5.0, Windows 3.0 and of course all the games we could get our hands on. That NEC PC made it so when my family later purchased a 486 Packard Bell PC in the summer of 1993 (also in a similar but somewhat larger desktop case) I felt right at home with using it and later on upgrading the heck out of the machine! I still wish I owned that PB PC. It along with my 2nd PC (1st one I had built on my own!) ended up getting purged from my parents house sometime after I moved out in late 1998 but before I got married & purchased my first house in the fall of 1999.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

I like seeing that Commodore stuff in the background; especially the 1541!

[@tolentarpay5464]

I've been hoping for years that one of you cool olde-timey computer dudes would do a dedicated "how to post delicate electronics" vid, complete with cardboard bracing, taping, padding, etc. Maybe this is the right time?

[@Pest789]

Those ABS panels can be nearly perfectly repaired using acetone. Just wet the broken edges with a swipe of a brush and hold them together. The acetone will dissolve the surfaces briefly and then evaporate, leaving a near perfect and invisible weld. You can also create a slurry using either an unneeded part or a piece of donor material to fill small gaps.

[@azazeldeath]

Great to see this. It's really odd, but I remember seeing one of these in primary school in like 2000, admittedly I went to a public school in a small "city" that most the world would class as a a country town. Also seeing you struggle with repairing that damage really has me considering starting my own business fixing that kind of stuff. I am remarkably lucky that I've experienced a lot of careers, from mechanic, demolition, IT etc. So have random knowledge that could help fix that stuff, like for that plastic repair if you cannot get the crack to turn almost invisible you actively want to remove material from the crack, then you can use a plastic welder to add some strength to any repair. Glue is useful too. To hide any loss of material you can carefully remove some plastic from unnoticed areas, then make a mould of a good undamaged surface. Use that to "injection mould" some of the replacement plastic into the damage. If you have a donor part it helps a lot. That way you can preserve the surface finish. If your lucky you can even get the dye to match. That said its not a cheap procedure. And when I've done it it's usually on very expensive and rare cars. Where the owner cannot replace the part, wants original and will pay whatever it takes.

[@lightmagick]

Little tip for broken plastic like that, super glue and baking soda. Just a thin application of the super glue and a sprinkling of the baking soda and it will build up and fill in gaps amazingly well.

[@mooseblaster]

Interesting how it bridges the logo eras - the outside logo being the pre-1987 Sanyo logo, but the motherboard bearing the newer one.

[@williamharris8367]

As for failing memories, have you considered keeping a diary or journal (though it may be too late)? I have done so since 1984 and there are numerous references to events and people that I no longer have any independent recollection of.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

I tried for years to keep one but always fell off. It's too bad. You dint appreciate the minutae of daily life in the moment. But I'm glad I have a few snippets from the 80s and 90s.

[@snooks5607]

yea people put a lot of value on trinkets and things but in long run it's really the information that's the most valuable. anthropologists would no doubt give anything for a written account of average every day life of a person in some ancient culture (social practices, tool use, what they ate etc). for more recent example "Buttolph collection of menus" consists of 25,000 lunch menus mostly around NYC from just a century ago would've no doubt seemed like a dumb thing to collect at the time but is likely going to be increasingly invaluable research reference.

[@LaLaLand.Germany]

Congrats, I envy Your persistence and Your collection as a hole. The shipping damage is sad. But Your collection is really cool and I enjoy the underlay music. It gives me the picture of a guy standing at the window, holding a cigarette with a thinking face- outside the city, the rain and the red brick alley. Some cats fight over leftovers, kids kick a can, the dealers serve customers and at the corner by the liquor store some hookers are in a turf fight. Sad day for our protagonist- he got fired few days ago, the gal went off with some sugar daddy. It´s cold and dark because of unpaid bills, he decides to go down and spend the last dough on some cheap booze- maybe pick a fight on the way to get out the frustration… Have a nicer day than the guy in my head… And don´t change the music, please. Kind Regards

[@emily1743]

Regarding the memory, is it 512K worth of 41256s and 128K worth of 4464s to get a total of 640K, with the 128K being optional so they could sell a 512K configuration?

[@TechTimeTraveller]

Ahhh! Now that makes sense. All of ours in our lab were 640k from what I remember, so never occurred to me they might do it that way. Thank you! I didn't think we were doing cache ram in that era yet..

[@projectartichoke]

Hammering on a hard flat surface is the best way to straighten metal parts.

[@markshade8398]

Also because it had serial and parallel on the motherboard that makes it not a stock standard clone but more of a custom designed motherboard.

[@raycreveling1583]

You might enjoy your fellow Canadian KZbinr Ted Woodford. He's a Luthier in Hamilton Ontario. He has some techniques for working with glues and plastics that might be an interest to retro computer enthusiasts, Preserving the finish on the guitars that are being repaired is pretty darn important and his process is built around that. One trick I picked up is wrapping a razor blade in cellophane tape when scraping excess glue. You leave a small gap in the center of the blade for scarping and that this layer of tape protects the surrounding area from damage.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

@@raycreveling1583 Now that is clever! Definitely will try that! Think I'm going to remove these pieces and try again as I think they shifted while the glue was curing. Many thanks!

[@GamingHistorySource]

You can make Fed Ex pay for that damage. All you need is the photos of the listing as proof. Because it should have been insured.

[@andygozzo72]

nice fairly compact thing

[@gordon8657]

You could straighten that piece of metal on a sharp table corner or block of wood with a hammer and some light taps. Also a bench vice would work perfect if you have one.

[@tpcdude]

Can't believe the monster chokes on the serial ports.

[@pianoman4Jesus]

In the era of text based display cards, there was the concept of a light pen used as a "pre-mouse". Mainframe terminals also had them. You could touch it to the CRT screen to select choice options displayed on the screen. I would have thought you remembered the tare down of the unit. 🤣 Can you remember "debug g=c800:5 " from your Junior Computer Lab Technician years? 🧐

[@markshade8398]

Yay!!!! Novell network! I LOVED Novell!

[@senilyDeluxe]

The video card is 99% sure a Hercules clone. MDA compatible with 720x348 monochrome graphics. I have a small stack of those, all different manufacturers and chipset yet they all end up looking the same. My school had its early PCs equipped with Hercules cards as well. They always carry an extra printer port for whatever reason. And you either need a special monitor (as they do 18kHz and intentionally have their video signal lines on other pins) or setup your video grabber card differently. But if you have an IBM5151, it'll just plug right in. There's a few games that run natively on Hercules, one being Blockout (3D Tetris). It supports CGA, Tandy, EGA (one of the few EGA HiRes games and Hercules). Most games that support Hercules internally render it as CGA which means a big black border around the screen and weird aspect ratio. One cool thing about MDA/Hercules is that it can coexist with a CGA/EGA/VGA card so you can go dual-headed. There was CAD software and at least one compiler that made use of that.

[@SockyNoob]

Ways to glue the plastic back: Loctite plastic glue Super glue and baking soda JB Weld (original 2 part, nothing else) if all else fails Use a clamp with all of them so it applies pressure and creates a strong bond. And for all them, using a low grit sandpaper to roughen up the surface on the edges helps them bond better.

[@chasonlapointe]

Great video, I love the chonky stout look the box has. It's a real shame that FedEX seems to treat every package like the printer in office space. Also, that's no bald stop, it's the eye of the Hairicane.

[@Metal_Maxine]

Oh! The carnage! (almost entirely off-topic - about 12 years ago, Linus Tech Tips did a 'shipping' test on a PSU that consisted of chucking it out of a moving vehicle to simulate handling by a Fed Ex employee)

[@TechTimeTraveller]

I have a Fed Ex guy on camera literally hurling a box from 10-15 feet away from my doorstep. And that's just the actual delivery people.. who knows what goes on in sorting..

[@LanceHall]

It would be tempting to put all that in a newer case. Can that front panel be 3D printed?

[@VitorFM]

It is too much work to model it from scratch, specially because most printers can't handle this size. A better solution would be filling the lack of parts with something like epoxy, sanding it nicely and painting the outside with air paint.

[@Thiesi]

2:21 - I'm also nearing 50, but my memory is still absolutely perf

[@paulward2076]

I used to put bent pieces of metal in a vice and tighten it up. Itll straighten most of the bent danage dobe to sonething like that. By the way, your delivery guys must have been inspired by Ace Vebtura, right at the beginning of the first film 😉

[@camifnisil2684]

Last thing i had shipped through fedex was an air filter for my furnace, someone literally put thier boot through the box and crushed the filter beyond use. I did raise some serious noise over that.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

That's nuts. But that's exactly what I commonly see with them. They literally pulverized a 5153 monitor I bought.. way beyond casual damage. Almost like it was deliberate.

[@Dark_eVader]

For case damage, I've had much success using cyanoacrylate (super glue) which prevents any excess gaps from showing and mostly allows the break to be almost invisible and then use epoxy in the inside to strengthen the bond.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

I used super glue on my Roadrunner laptop.. results were ok. Unfortunately the plastic on that machine is really thin and easily broke elsewhere. I wasn't sure what kind of plastic I as working with with the Sanyo.. it felt a little bit more like urethane vs abs, so I thought the regular gorilla was the better choice. Now I'm not so sure.

[@lasskinn474]

@@TechTimeTraveller urethane shouldn't dissolve in acetone, so you could do a crude test with acetone in a jelly jar to see if its like abs or not.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

Thars one purdy beige box you've got there.

[@loganjorgensen]

I did a similar thing a few years ago, we used Classic Macs, but it was the opposite of your experience since it was reasonably priced already and he was local so was able to deliver it personally and we tested it in the lobby. Also he somehow managed to not drop it off his roof before bringing it over, yikes FedX. 😬🤕

[@SomeMorganSomewhere]

Lightpen connectors were pretty normal on machines of that vintage (and newer, had I think a Samsung branded 286 at some point that also had a lightpen connector), never actually seen one being used though. Might just be outputting the sync signals from the video card to be used by some other device that actually talks to the lightpen.

[@Verault]

For damage Like this I find epoxy is the only thing that holds. Once done I sand it with fine sandpaper, then in your case a retrobright and you cant see the repair (unless you really look for it), Maybe its a regional thing. Fedex has always been good to me, its UPS that is the problem. In truth I think the people they hire these days just dont care and it shows.

[@radiolabworks]

I'd personally would have retrobrighted the yellowed plastic panel and the broken pieces first. Once all of those were returned to their non-yellowed state then perform the epoxy work from the rear side (best) or the glue used in the video. The problem with gluing first is any glue that gets on the outside won't retrobright at all. Then just live with the small bits of missing plastic. Unless one plans to completely repaint the whole plastic yellowed front - then the patching could be more extensive.

[@winstonsmith478]

Not that I'm a FedEx fanboy, but how well was it actually packed? That motherboard shielding and the iron toroid on the cables to external devices showed that they were REALLY worried about meeting RFI standards for home computers/game systems which is strange because everyone else got away with much less stringent business machine RFI standards, like Apple, IBM, and IBM clones did. Beautifully laid out motherboard. I definitely recall the Beltron name and even their way of printing the "T", but can't remember anything else about it. If retro-briting doesn't bring it back to the color of the case, I'd just get those cracks filled in, sanded and then paint it.

[@lasskinn474]

has anyone tried making abs slurry out of yellowed abs parts :d. anyway dissolving abs in acetone gives you a slurry that can be used to fuse abs pieces together, bridge the gaps and such. also you can use it as if it was epoxy, just don't layer it too thick or it'll bubble as it dries up. consistency depends on the ratio. does not work with pla.

[@draggonhedd]

If you have a vice, should be easy enough to straighten that bent piece out. just clamp each side in the vice and reef on it.

[@douro20]

This computer was probably designed with the idea of exceeding Class B emission limits.

[@AaronOfMpls]

Sucks with the damage. If I ever have reason to ship anything even _remotely_ fragile, I am gonna _wayyyyy_ overpack it! Still, well wishes on this PC -- may it live again! (And hmm, do I dare search eBay et al for an old Acer Acros 486 someday... Our first "real" computer when I was a kid, after a hand-me-down PC-XT my IBM-employed uncle gave us.)

[@bibdid7893]

Interesting! I have a 16 plus too, though mine is configured a little differently. No daughter board/ riser, my parallel ports just have blanking plates. The second bank of ram is also socketed on mine, and from recollection its running a different bios version. Mine came with a NEC d5128 hdd, and a 360kb 5.25 floppy too. It also had an ati small wonder video card, so perhaps the end-user was supposed to supply their own? Front cover looks slightly different too, its just missing the grey 16 plus marking.

[@BHDelannoy]

If you can get it up and running let me know! I have a 16EX1 which I think is a variant of the 16 plus, it has the 3.5 inch floppy like you mentioned but has the serial and printer port built into the mother board instead of the separate board like yours. Mine does not like booting to DOS when its loading from the HD but runs ok from the floppy.

[@greg_d]

If you ask FedEx about the damage - they always say 'insufficient packaging'. Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, FedEx is absolutely correct. You didn't say anything about how it was packaged, so I can't say for certain about your case. But people who rarely ship 25-30 Lb. computers are probably not going to be able to do it correctly. Packaging is an art, and they actually have engineers that design packaging and foam inserts, and cardboard inserts. Just a question: How was this unit shipped to you ? Was it in a single wall box with some styrofoam packing peanuts thrown in ?

[@elbiggus]

I would guess the metal can over the motherboard *is* for shielding, but it's to protect the motherboard from the PSU rather than to contain emissions from the motherboard seeing as the PSU isn't in an enclosure. (Ditto the massive ferrite ring for the parallel and serial.)

[@tolentarpay5464]

That's not a bald spot; it's a heat-sink!

[@PCRetroTech]

I didn't see any crystals on that Beltron video card, so that means it has to be CGA right?

[@exidy-yt]

I guess I was very lucky, my computer lab got Amiga 2000s in 1988, not XT-classs PCs.

[@andrewb9830]

Should have Xacto flush cut the glue instead of picking at it. That Gorilla glue is good for that. For cracked pieces I actually cut pieces from a yogurt container and use it as a sort of Bandaid over the seams in the back. Gives it a little more support across the break between pieces.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

Thank you. I thought about a razor blade but my hands are so unsteady I worried about cutting into the plastic.

[@williamharris8367]

I thought that Sanyo systems were "MS-DOS" compatible rather PC compatible, but perhaps that was an earlier generation.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

Think these are of the fully PC compatible era but I might be wrong.

[@markshade8398]

So that really isn't a stock standard clone. It has a fair amount of custom design and things like the power supply that were not clone parts either.

[@SockyNoob]

90s and early 2000s laptops were also stupidly long and complex to take apart like this desktop is. Modern machines are infinitely easier.

[@andygozzo72]

its usually better to 'melt weld' plastic like that using acetone or MEK(methyl ethyl ketone)

[@tcaldwe]

You graduated 15 years ago? You had it rough in school

[@TechTimeTraveller]

My grade in calculus, algebra and 12 mathw as 47%. Combined. 😬

[@robjones3818]

My friend, you really should get yourself a project mat with a built-in screw organizer to hold your screws. It's no wonder you say you always end up missing them the way they get strewn loosely around your work surface. 🙂 Gamers Nexus make a great one, as do LTT.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

All part of the plan for the new 'studio'.

[@old_liquid]

Plastic glue, epoxy and cyanoacrylate/soda mix is your friends. Even laptop screen posts are salvageable 50/50

[@1RandomToaster]

Are you sure this is a “budget” machine? With all the concerns about RF and the fact that it’s built like a brick gives me Medical or “Institutional” vibes. If so that tracks with it landing in a school and being hard to find. Regardless, what a wonderful little practical machine, anything but unremarkable.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

You've never seen a motherboard covered by an RF shield before? I thought I've seen you open up a Commodore 64 already. Hmm....

[@TechTimeTraveller]

I've seen it on much older computers but not on a PC clone.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

@@TechTimeTraveller: Oh, you weren't really clear of that limitation.

[@SkylarsTerribleMemes]

fedex my behated

[@XeonProductions]

It's weird, I can get something shipped from China wrapped in nothing but trash bags and bubble wrap and it arrives perfectly fine, the minute something is marked Fragile and shipped domestically though its like they drop it off a 2 story building and play soccer with it.

[@Daveyk021]

FedEx is the worse; I’ve been lucky with UPS and haven’t had damage for properly packed boxes. I ordered a new reclining chair during Amazon prime days. It was shipped in three boxes. All the boxes arrived at a local depot. Two of those boxes were delivered the next day. The third main box was left in the truck and two days later ended up in Missouri! Three days after that, they delivered the third part after it’s been to Missouri and back I talked to Amazon and I told him I never ever want you to send me anything via FedEx again but of course they’re just gonna use whoever’s cheapest form at the time.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

Fed Ex sent one of a set of three boxes to Italy. I guess it's easy to mistake Palermo for Vancouver..

[@Daveyk021]

@@TechTimeTraveller LOL, frustrating, not funny, I know first hand.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

How much was that offer, TTT?

[@briankleinschmidt3664]

That sucks they broke your computer. I'm expecting my new phone Monday. Cross my fingers and toes.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

@@briankleinschmidt3664 Phone should be fine. Computers are heavy and not flexible heh

[@ChrisJackson-js8rd]

cache would be uncommon on an xt class machine generally the 8088 cpu was clocked low enough that dram access speed wouldn't limit performance in any meaningful way

[@Intellivision78]

If that is a rare piece.. I wounder what that might say about my Ericsson Pc from -84 and my "portable" Ericsson Pc with built in printer from -85.. Greetings from Sweden!

[@TechTimeTraveller]

I don't think I've ever seen Ericsson anything over here.. I know the name though so I must have seen it somewhere.. greetings back to you!

[@Intellivision78]

You may recognize the name from the mobile phones then?

[@TechTimeTraveller]

@@Intellivision78 Yes. I think my cell provider offered some of those here. That must be it!

[@Intellivision78]

@@TechTimeTraveller So now you know what your next dream computers vill be! Perfect for Alley Cat! Haha. ;)

[@wrlrdqueek]

Do you want to guarantee that your package reaches it's destination in a minimum of five pieces? Ship with Federal Express!

[@TechTimeTraveller]

FedEx: The reverse IKEA of shipping.

[@zbradbell]

A cheap bench vise and a hammer is all you need to start beating brackets and stuff like that into shape like a pro

[@TechTimeTraveller]

Definitely going to invest. My garage has been undergoing a slow renovation and I just haven't managed to create enough room yet to set up a vise and really work in there

[@GeneralKenobiSIYE]

As always, youtube has not informed me of any new videos.....

[@TechTimeTraveller]

Yeah. KZbin has been dunking me lately. Since June every video I've released has been 40% or more below my own averages. It does not push the video out to subscribers like it used to and usually after the first minute the analytics will say the video is underperforming. I think I ticked someone off over there.

[@AndrewFremantle]

I'm going to say you really missed an opportunity to evaluate that hard drive before re-assembling the machine - it's probably dead, and you're going to have to take the machine apart *again* to troubleshoot and/or dispose of it.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

@@AndrewFremantle Remember there's a Part 2.. the hard drive did get a going over.

[@BollingHolt]

Man, FedEx IS THE WORST!!! Within the last year, they've destroyed a mint Tandy Enhanced keyboard, a near-mint Tandy DMP-133, damaged a Tandy CM-11 monitor, and destroyed the face plate of one of the huge, IBM PS/2 towers which are pretty rock solid. I'm probably forgetting something in there, too. They SUCK!

[@Astinsan]

its a leading edge computer aka kds ..

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

"I get this from ebay..." No way. Ebay doesn't sell anything except listing features and small insurance ("extended warranty") policies.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Wow, Sanyo were really concerned about signal integrity! Normal computer slot covers are notoriously RF leaky, so I bet that mesh over the motherboard was actually meant to help with shielding. (Though of course it wouldn't help with cards, so that's kinda funny.) The wrapping of that printer and serial cable looks like they wrapped it round a huge ferrite chunk as well, kinda like when USB leads and VGA/DVI cables all had ferrite beads in the late-90s and early-00s. I'm guessing they took a "better safe than sorry" approach rather than quantitatively measured unacceptable noise from an earlier case design. But who knows! Maybe Japanese regulations in the 80s were even more stringent than FCC ones. I know European regs were comparably lax versus American ones in the 80s, hence why we got useless shiny cardboard "shields" in C64s etc instead of the actual-metal ones you got.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

I wonder how many of these were even sold in the US.. so few have turned up over the years on ebay. I think the Canadian market received a lot of things the US didn't maybe.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@TechTimeTraveller yeah, I doubt Sanyo intended to export it. Especially as the Japanese market happily pays a premium for smaller (and more integrated) devices, whereas North America usually prefers to pay less for a bigger box. Hence wondering if Japanese domestic regs had any impact on the design! I assumed small/local North American importers might’ve got a good deal on a pallet here and there. But if you mean there’s notably a lot more in Canada, maybe there was something like a special arrangement with a Canadian electronics chain?

[@osgeld]

15:56 bench vice?

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

Oh shoot, are ya gonna file, or had you filed, a claim against FedEx?

[@TechTimeTraveller]

I don't bother unless it's high dollar.. the process is so onerous it's usually not worth it.

[@assistantto007]

Why did you use that awful g glue?

[@TechTimeTraveller]

I was hoping it would expand to fill the cracks a bit and then I'd sand down. But I think it shifted overnight during the drying process.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

Wow, you look fairly older than 50 already. You have the early-gray/white gene, I guess.

[@andygozzo72]

delicate items like that need to be packed so they can survive a drop of 6ft or so .. partly the fault of the sender...

[@GaRbAllZ]

That computer was definitely used in a lab with very sensitive equipment. With all the RFI shielding I wouldn't be surprised if it was used in one of the FCC testing labs.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

@GaRbAllZ That would make some sense. If you search Sanyo MBC 16 with Google there's a reddit thread with pics of the inside of another one. It does not have the shielding.. the serial and parallel ports also were integrated into the motherboard.

[@michaelstoliker971]

Ow!

[@graywolf2694]

FedEx will also hit your car and run

[@SuperHammaren]

I had i similar looking 286 10 MHz Mitsubishi computer I scrapped. I regret it!!!

[@Arivia1]

This thing is so hostile to user maintenance I feel like Jony Ive worked on it.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

It was a serious bear to work on.

[@nevets9436]

I've stopped blaming fedex and other carriers. I'ts the sellers responsibility to package these correctly for shipping. If it get brokern in shipping, I return it for full refund.

[@TechTimeTraveller]

I get that, but why do the carriers toss things around like they're Frisbees? I dont expect FedEx to give white glove treatment on a 30 dollar shipment, but the damages I've seen many of their packages showing up with suggest forces that are way beyond the usual hustle and bustle of shipping. There are definitely things that are not their fault.. aged plastics, poor packaging... but is it too much to ask them to treat parcels with some degree of care?

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@TechTimeTraveller I honestly think it’s because they don’t hire enough drivers. Instead of hiring more drivers, they just pressure them to get it done faster. Throwing is faster than care. (Especially as publicly-owned postal services tend to do better with parcels than the private couriers...)

[@nevets9436]

@@TechTimeTraveller That computer is not light and obviously has old brittle plastics. Let me guess, the seller wrapped it with only one or two wraps of bubble wrap (or worse just paper stuffing) with the corners exposed and then put it a used box too weak for the weight of the computer. This has happenend to me more times than I can count now. When goodwill ships something it's always in a thick box with 3 or more wraps of thick buble wrap and no corners exposed. I have never had any computer from goodwill arrive broken with the same carriers.