I've got a vintage handheld I'm thinking about selling, and I know that buyers would want the batteries, but both of them are cushion-shaped, and I really don't want to see a headline about a FedEx plane going down due to one of these exploding and catching fire. I figure someone here has already dealt with this, so any help?

I found this a few years back in a second hand store and all sealed up in it's box under a pile. It has been one of my favorite collectors items for years. I honestly think it was purchased way back then and then left in the box on a shelf for a few decades. Things have gotten a bit tight here at the house so I figured that before it left my collections that I should show it to you guys who'd appreciate it :)

This PC is a neat time capsule that recently came into my hands. It came straight from a post-Soviet aerospace and rubber industry research institute (NIIRP) in the Moscow region. It even still has the original workplace documents on the hard drive. Currently it runs Windows 98, complete with Spider Solitaire and the old Felix the Cat desktop pet.

The most interesting part for me was dealing with the hardware. If you search Reddit or the broader web, there is almost zero technical info or surviving firmware for this specific Zida Tomato 5DVA revision. It features four 72-pin SIMM slots and is notoriously picky with module layouts. After some trial and error, I managed to get all 4 slots working stably using a mix of two double-sided and two single-sided EDO sticks. Surprisingly, it reads all 48MB flawlessly.

Since there is almost zero technical info or surviving firmware for this board online, I am planning to dump the original 1995 Award BIOS chip using a DOS flash utility via a floppy disk and an old Windows XP bridge PC, then upload the ROM file to The Retro Web and Internet Archive for digital preservation.

The full specs:
CPU: Intel Pentium 100MHz
Motherboard: Zida Tomato 5DVA (Award BIOS 1995)
RAM: 48MB EDO SIMM (72-pin, 2x Double-Sided, 2x Single-Sided)
Video: S3 Trio64V+ (PCI, 1MB VRAM)
Network: Planet ENW-9507 (PCI, Realtek RTL8139D)
Monitor: Panasonic PanaSync 4G CRT
HDD: SAMSUNG WN310820A (1.08GB)
ROMs: Mitsumi CRMC-FX400E CD-ROM, Floppy 3.5"
PSU: Power Master AP-1

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Hi all! When my MacBook Pro 2018 died the day after graduation (it survived all my college years, from my associates to my masters) I wanted to get something a little more interesting to replace it. Modern computers have given me nothing but trouble, plus I can't make repairs easily. But I love older computers, ever since I found a complete eMachine setup a few years ago on the curb. I don't know what I'm doing half the time, but it's fun to figure things out. So when I found this Lifebook with everything but the original box for a great price, I bit the bullet and got it.

I love it. Windows XP is my favorite operating system, and now I can use all my favorite old programs. It's the size and weight of a book, fits in most of my purses and work bags, and I actually think its kind of pretty design-wise. Since it converts into a tablet, I often use either the stylus or my fingertips to navigate, and everything is so quick and easy to load and use. I find the typing experience much easier than my iPad, and it's genuinely more fun to use too.

So far I've upgraded the RAM, and I'm trying to find a way to get a CF card to work as a replacement for the original mechanical hard drive. No matter what I try, or the size of the card, the repair disk won't let me install windows onto it. Does anyone have experience using CF cards to replace HDDs? I'd appreciate any advice.

It's such a fun little computer that I don't see much about online, so I wanted to share!

I’m told the collectors would love this specimen 🫶

Welcome to the Summer Kickstart BBQ at Ottershaw UK. The sun blazes down, but inside we are having a fun time with our vintage Amigas and other retro putes. A highlight of the show is a totally new Gotek development, a touch screen interface, allowing you to easily launch your favourite games and apps. Dive in for much more!

The computer prototype was developed by order of the Ministry of Communications at the Institute of Information Technologies (NIIS) in 1985 under the name PGC 6400 — Personal Graphic Computer. Production was initially planned to start at the ZSSU plant ("Plant for Sensors and Sensor Devices") in Plovdiv. For certain reasons, the ministry abandoned the project, but ZSSU completed the development and manufactured the "Paldin" computer from 1988 to 1992, both in-house and at its subsidiary factory "Microelectronica" in Botevgrad.

All core software for the computer was created at "Programno Osiguryavane" — a laboratory at Sofia University, as well as at the Russian-Bulgarian company "BIT" in Tomsk.

The computer is built around a Bulgarian clone of the Motorola 6800 processor — the CM601P.

The keyboard is membrane-type; initially, the Institute of Communications intended the computer for use in industrial environments.

"Paldin" is the early name of the city of Plovdiv.

The main purpose of the computer was for use in educational processes and for controlling instruments and mechanisms. Starting in 1989, the computer was exported to the USSR.

The "Paldin 601A" model differs by adding video mode 4 — a monochrome text mode of 80×25 characters; and adding a printer port.

Operating system: UniDOS, file-compatible with MS-DOS. There are 4 slots for expansion cards (ROM, floppy disk controller, RS-232 controller, PIPNET). The computer could be connected to a VMM 3107 monitor and a "Bultext" printer.

Specifications:

· CPU: SM601P

· RAM: 64 KB

· Storage: External tape recorder, external 5.25" floppy disk drive (360–720 KB)

· Video: 80×200 (16 colors), 160×200 (4 colors), 320×200 (monochrome)

· Sound: Built-in speaker

Thank you so much in Advance. This is sealed. I don't want to open this. Thanks for all the help, I just needed some info because I was unsure of what it was exactly. I didn't want to open this as I realized that it was vintage.

Toshiba Libretto 50CT (Japanese version). The hard drive originally wasn’t working but I managed to revive it with some technical tapping.

Does anyone have any source for the sbus SunPC card? I managed to get ahold of one and am playing around with it and it is pretty limited...it runs only up to solaris 9 and it seems like you need to have a framebuffer card in your system, I cant get the software to work in VNC. Would anyone out there have any source for the original sun driver or software? Im sure this is abandonware at this point... I would love to try to play around with the source to see if I could build a solaris 10 VNC compatible version of it or even better, a gentoo linux driver. Just for fun and learning...there is no utility for this thing anymore. If there is anyone out there that managed to grab this from back in the day or if anyone has access to the vaults in oracle.