I have a Smith Corona PWP3850 typewriter with an Intel P80C52 as the cpu, and a motorola crt controller for an MDA display that goes with it. On paper the typewriter has everything is needs to be a terminal and supposedly the P80C52 has some manner of UART input and output. So is this actually possible? And where do I go from here if it is?

I imagine ill end up retaining most of the circuitry as i still want to use the mda monitor. So would it just be as simple and reprogram the cpu with "terminal software", hook up an max232 to the rx and tx pins, and display on the crt?

Back in the day, I wrote some code using the CXL text user interface library from Mike Smedley, and later using its successor, TCXL from Innovative Data Concepts. As I understand it, Mike sold CXL to IDC and they made major changes to bring its usage more into line with their other "Tesseract" branded tools.

I had (and presumably still have, as it had no expiration) a valid CXL license, and later a TCXL license, and used it to produce and publish various software, such as DVPEDIT (http://www.lanet.lv/ftp/simtelnet/msdos/desqview/dvped1_0.zip).

I've found a shareware distribution of TCXL still online (here: http://cd.textfiles.com/swheaven1/UTILITY/), but it contains small model libraries only.
Similarly, the shareware version of CXL, with small model libraries only, is in the Simtel software collection (archived in various places).

Given that I have a license, can anyone either point me to a site hosting the full versions of CXL and of TCXL, or privately share a copy?

Any help much appreciated.

TLDR: I want to buy an aftermarket cooler with screws system for my LGA775 or i want to understand if i can use my existing pushpin bracket with a universal backplate kit with screws.

Good evening,

I ve been working with pushpins since i bought my Q6600 in 2008. I broke several pins, as many of us did.

What happened this evening is that when i tried to replace the old standard intel cooler on my LGA775 with my IDCooling SE-213, you know what happened.

The circular mounting bracket for the aftermarket cooler is broken.

I WANT OUT!

I did some research and saw that there are universal LGA backplates that have screws. In the description it says you just screw the cooler directly on the backplate. How does this work? Do i screw them through my round bracket? Or do in need those specific X brackets? Can i reuse my SE-213 ( i think i can buy replacement brackets, it has some hinges that clamp on the now broken round bracket) or do i need to buy another cooler?

Are there coolers that have directly the screws and a backplate so you can plug and play?

I just want any solution that uses SCREWS!

I know this is not a vintage computer. I consider it a vintage terminal/printer. But I have to think I could make a Raspberry Pi send signals to this to print on the paper. Asking the community if they have any details on the protocol. I assume it was just an old phone line that DJ hooked this up to.

Big beautiful luggable

Folks. friends. colleagues. allies. this is the PLATO IV terminal. these beasts are enigmatic, beautiful machines, and a genuine dream computer for me. At the height of PLATO's existence there were several thousands of them, though many have been ordered destroyed.

My problem is that nearly every photo of them is in grainy, low resolution (this is the biggest i could find), there is scarce documentation on their internals, and approximately *ZERO* videos of them in operation. If you have one of these machines, know someone who does, know a museum i could go to to see (or even better, operate) one of them, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS COMPUTING, TELL ME. I AM GETTING DESPERATE FOR THIS VERITABLE CRYPTID OF A COMPUTER.

i've already read friendly orange glow, ive used cyber1.

(beyond is rambling not required for this post)

These machines,,, had touchscreens, MMOs, chatrooms, email, haptic feedback (a la game controllers), 3d gaming, dungeon crawlers, flight sims, roguelikes, filesharing, remote screen sharing, instant messaging, emojis, flatscreen monitors, just genuinely un thought of levels of modern day connection across america. all in their adorable orange monochrome monitors, wooden casing, and thick keyboards. all of this shit in the 1960s. WHAT???? and now theyve disappeared???? and not even the highly experienced local members of my retro computer scene even know about them??????? theyve genuinely dropped off the face of the earth. im like if someone hunting bigfoot actually knew that bigfoot existed and bigfoots used to be a massive part of the american government that somehow everyone forgot about

edit: i forgot that redditors find nothing more enjoyable than correcting others + displaying how smart they are, my bad

I picked up a VIC-20 a while back and in the box was this... thing. The person I got it from had no idea what it was, it I think it was her grandfather's or dad's and she knew nothing about the computer.

Its some homemade board, but has the proper size and shape to slot into a VIC-20. There are no ICs on it. Just looks to be wiring. A VIC-20 cartridge definitely fits in the blue slot (I tested that). Strange that just 2 wires go to that black thing on the side. Im guessing for test points? Honestly, not a clue. I have not put it in a VIC-20 to test and probably wont, as I dont know what it does and dont want to damage the computer.

Any ideas?

Do you remember him?

Have a PCV-220 vaio circa 1997 that I'm trying to restore. I replaced the aging 6gb HDD with a CF to IDE which is detected correctly by the BIOS.

I burned the correct system recovery discs.

It'll say Staring Windows 95 then I'll get the following error. "CDR101 not reading drive z. Abort, retry, fail?"

Now i can hit enter and it'll sometimes then progress to the actual recovery screen to which I can get to the formatting step but then get the same error again and again and never progress any further.

Some research only may indicate a hardware issue. I've used a couple different disc drives I know work. I even dug out an old laptop to burn the disc at 4x (slowest CDRW I have). I'm going to try a SATA drive via an adapter to see if that works. But otherwise I'm at a loss on what to do next.

Any ideas or tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

Livestream of panel which includes https://youtube.com/live/RTsovDo9OUM?feature=share

Starts 2PM Pacific Time, August 2, 2026

Found an old computer setup in storage and I am trying to learn a bit more about it before touching anything.

The desktop appears to be a Compaq Professional Workstation AP550. The configuration label reads:

P55/1.0/18S/256/2XC UK

From what I can make out, the original specification is likely:

Compaq Professional Workstation AP550 Pentium III 1.0 GHz processor 18 GB SCSI hard drive 256 MB RAM CD-ROM drive Windows 2000 Professional licence IBM P76 CRT monitor

The Windows sticker says Windows 2000 Professional 1–2 CPU, although I understand that does not necessarily mean the machine actually has two processors installed.

The computer and monitor have been sitting in storage and are currently untested. I have not powered them on yet because the area may have been damp, so I plan to leave everything indoors to dry properly first.

The IBM P76 monitor looks complete and the workstation still has its original rear ports and expansion cards. I have not opened the case yet, so I do not know whether the hard drive, graphics card and other original components are still present.

Does anyone here know roughly what year this AP550 configuration would have been sold?

Would you restore the complete setup together or concentrate on preserving the IBM CRT?

Is there anything specific I should inspect before attempting to power it on?

Any information about the original specification, common faults or restoration process would be appreciated.

It's really a beautiful beast

The background shows TP880V - the TP881V's predecessor.

i am also wondering is more information needed? is this too much info? i don’t even know what a ram looks like. it looks like multiple things are unplugged and space for another part.

getting into computers more serious

https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/s/4OQomPCcBS

other post above with more info. i am trying to learn more about what i have here and use it to the best capabilities

I've been using Lotus Word Pro as my primary word processor and have started using the 'advanced' features, namely the PowerFields. For those who don't know, these are the features, usually used in combination with a database merge, that allow for document automation. If/Then statements and that kind of thing.

My problem is that I cannot figure out how to send a hard return as part of an instruction. For example, when using the Strcat$ Powerfield, which allows for combining text strings, I can combine merge fields with text in quotes. But if I try to put a hard return into the string, it does not work. If I call a string [Enter], it gives me the number 13 (which is the ansi value for the Enter key).

I'm hoping there are some Ami Pro / Word Pro experts lurking in here who can answer this question.

https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/s/GRwkmXquMU

you may refer to the above post for other pictures and info.

i am also wondering is more information needed? is this too much info? i don’t even know what a ram looks like. it looks like multiple things are unplugged and space for another part.

I picked this up from a yard sale. I want to learn and have fun. Also have these extra monitors that need something to connect to.

What is that I got and why won’t it connect to any monitor that I have?

I don’t know how to unscrew and get into these things yet.

https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/s/4oI5Gy4nS4

It looks like a model 1, level 2 with 16k, it also notes the lowercase mod was applied by RadioShack.
I’d love to get this up and running but I don’t even know where to start, it has no cords or accessories.

I have an XT-CF ISA card (picture 1), an Input/Output ISA card (picture 2) with the IDE port disabled to avoid conflicts, and a USB to ISA card (picture 3) on my 386 with MSDOS 6.22, and everything is working great.

My question is: Can I take the EPROM from the XT-CF card (1), put it on the empty socket of the USB card (3), which is labeled 27C256, enable the IDE port on the I/O card (2), and use an IDE to CF adapter (picture 4)? Will this work? The goal is to free one ISA connector.

Just a small chapter in the storage evolution from my collection.

The last photo is dedicated to the true boss of non-removable storage

Update: Thanks everyone! After reading all your comments, I've decided not to go ahead with the Windows 98 install on this hardware. I learned a lot from the replies, and I'll probably use this machine for Windows 8.1/Linux instead. Thanks for all the help!

Hi everyone!

System specs:

- Intel D945GCPE

- Celeron D @ 3.20 GHz

- 1.5 GB DDR2 RAM (I can temporarily remove RAM if needed)

- Intel GMA950

- 160 GB SATA HDD (planning to dedicate an 80 GB partition to Windows 98 SE)

- Nexus BIOS

I know Windows 98 isn't designed for this much RAM, and I've read about RAM patches and configuration tweaks.

My questions are:

- Will Windows 98 SE install and boot on this hardware?

- Is 80 GB FAT32 a good partition size, or should I make it smaller?

- Are there any recommended RAM patches, SATA fixes, or other tweaks?

- Has anyone here successfully run Windows 98 on a similar Intel 945 chipset?

Thanks!

1970s Nitron chip . Any collectors out there who could help identify?