on the monitor end, it goes to ground. on the cable end, though, it goes to pin 5 which is not connected to any of the other ground pins.

on the cable, the black wire goes to pin 5. on the monitor's cable it goes to ground.

weirdly though, on the cable, the black wire going to pin 5 is not connected to any of the other ground wires, or the metal part of the connector of the cable. what does it do?

pulled this card out of my ancient PC

which was paired with an Abit TH7ii

didn't play many games back then except unreal tournament 3 and wolfenstein.

Das Notebook habe ich am Wochenende um 10€ am Flohmarkt gekauft.

Voll funktionsfähig :-)

Here is a nice trip down memory lane for folks.. These are all the big box Microsoft desktop operating system software I've collected from back in the 90's up to the early 2000's.

All of them (besides the Windows XP 20th Anniversary) are still brand new shrink wrapped/sticker sealed.

Full List:

IBM DOS 5.0
------------------
MS-DOS 3.3
MS-DOS 4.0
MS-DOS 5.0
MS-DOS 6
MS-DOS 6.2
MS-DOS 6.21
MS-DOS 6.22
Microsoft Workgroup Connection for MS-DOS
Microsoft Windows 3.0
Microsoft Windows 3.1 Upgrade
Microsoft Windows 3.1 Full
Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.1
Microsoft Windows NT 3.1
Microsoft Windows for Workgroups Add-On 3.11
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.5
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Upgrade
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Full
Microsoft Windows 95 Special Edition
Microsoft Windows 95 Upgrade 3.5" Floppy
Microsoft Windows 95 Upgrade CD-ROM
Microsoft Windows 95 Full 3.5" Floppy
Microsoft Plus! Companion for 95 - 3.5" Floppy
Microsoft Plus! Companion for 95 - CD-ROM
Microsoft Plus! for Kids
Microsoft Windows 98 Upgrade
Microsoft Windows 98 Full
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition Upgrade
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition Full
Microsoft Plus! for 98
Microsoft Windows ME Step Up
Microsoft Windows ME Upgrade
Microsoft Windows ME Full
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Upgrade
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Full
Microsoft Windows XP Home Upgrade
Microsoft Windows XP Home Full
Microsoft Windows XP Home with SP2 Upgrade
Microsoft Windows XP Home with SP2 Full
Microsoft Plus! for XP
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Upgrade
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Full
Microsoft Windows XP Professional with SP2 Upgrade
Microsoft Windows XP Professional with SP2 Full
Microsoft Plus! for XP Digital Media Edition
Microsoft Super Pack for Windows XP
Microsoft Plus! Game Pack for Windows
Microsoft Windows XP 20th Anniversary Edition - Japanese Exclusive
Microsoft Windows XP Professional & Plus! for XP bundle - Japanese Exclusive

Hi, I’m trying to bring an old PC back to life and I’m a bit stuck.

When I first got the PC, it didn’t turn on at all. I replaced the power supply and now the computer actually powers on.

However, when I turn it on, the motherboard makes this beep sequence:

beep → beep beep → beep

There is no display/output and I’m not sure what exactly this beep code means. I found some information suggesting it could be related to RAM, but I’m not sure if that’s correct.

Things I have already tried:
Replaced the PSU
Replaced the CMOS battery
Removed and cleaned the RAM, then reseated it
Tried the RAM again after cleaning it
Removed and reseated the graphics card
Checked the basic connections

Thanks!

Pulled these out of the recycling bin, never used, still in box.

I posted this question a year ago in another subreddit.

Hello everyone. I recently bought a retro computer on a local marketplace. There was little information about it, most likely its name is Fujitsu ErgoPro xD.

It has a built-in video card ATI Rage XL 8 megabytes.

The problem is that the computer does not have an AGP slot. But there is a PСI. I have a Geforce4 mx440 card (PCI) The cars works well if installed in another computer. I even tried a different card with the same result.

If I switch in the BIOS (and this is the only setting for the video card there) the default video card from AGP to PCI, then the computer does not even start, I do not see that even the BIOS starts. I found the manual for this PC but there was no information which could be used to solve the issue. I was thinking about a jumper or something like this but didn't find anything.

I found the same question on Google, but the link to the forum no longer works as the forum has been deleted. I even asked the Fujitsu support about the issue and also about the deleted post. Therefore, the solution is unknown.

What I did: I basically used the Presario 1060 keyboard and replaced keycaps which- surprisingly do fit! The larger caps were a bit of a hassle but in the end I think it looks fun.

Are there any other old laptops that can do this? I tried it on a few other laptops but it didn’t work.

I was watching gentlemen bronco (2009) with my boyfriend. A laptop popped up with two keys on the top and bottom of the trackpad. It was all black no red outlines but lights at the top in the middle. So I feel it might be an ibm Thinkpad? Or possibly an older Panasonic laptop? It looks like it can be from 1994-2005ish. I could be wrong. I couldn't find anything that looks exactly like it but it looks similar to older Thinkpads.

I've been fighting this for weeks and could use some sanity checking from anyone who's dealt with old parallel printers. I have an Epson EPL-5700 laser printer, which is old enough that it never had USB, only a Centronics/DB25 parallel port. The official Epson driver is a 32-bit installer from around 2000, and predictably it won't install on Windows 11 due to signing and architecture restrictions.

To get around this I bought a generic USB-to-parallel adapter cable, no name brand, unbranded chipset, resold under a local distributor sticker. When I print through it, from Windows 11, macOS, Linux, and even a Windows XP virtual machine, I get corrupted output, some readable text mixed with what looks like raw escape codes or PCL commands being interpreted as literal text rather than formatting instructions. Same garbled result across every OS I've tried, which made me suspect either a chipset/driver mismatch or a bad adapter, but I couldn't tell which.

The useful part: I also have an old mini PC still running Windows XP with a genuine built-in parallel port, and printing through that with the real Epson driver installed works flawlessly. Tomorrow I'm planning to test the same setup, same OS, same driver, same printer, but printing through the USB-to-parallel adapter instead of the real port, to isolate whether the adapter itself is the fault.

Before I do that, I wanted to ask if anyone has run into this exact failure pattern before. Is corrupted/garbled output like this a known symptom of cheap USB-to-parallel adapters not properly supporting bidirectional or ECP/EPP communication that older printer drivers expect? Or does this look like something else entirely, like a signaling/timing issue rather than a protocol mismatch? Also curious if anyone has had luck with a specific adapter chipset (Prolific, MosChip, etc.) actually working reliably with legacy laser printers like this one, or if a proper PCI parallel port card is really the only dependable long-term answer here. Any insight from people who've dealt with legacy Epson EPL-series printers or USB-parallel weirdness in general would be hugely appreciated.

I gained possession of this item in 2019. It was the last day of high school in my graduating year. Everyone had finished their exams and went home early, but I couldn't drive or solidify a ride home, so I had to wait until 3pm for the bus.

As I had nothing to do, I was helping the teachers pack things up for the summer. Basically, the teacher would say "put this box into storage over there," then I would.

One of the storage closets had all the records from before the school went digital. I wasn't snooping, but I did enjoy looking at the shelf labels and laughing at the old dates.

In this storage closet, this gem caught my eye. At age 17 in 2019, I had never heard of Windows 3.1 before, but I could tell that it might be worth something.

I picked it up, took it to the teacher and asked "Can I take this? I don't think anyone will miss it."

The teacher enunciated, "It is not my call to let you take it," all while nodding his head 'yes' very obviously.

So I took it.

It’s a Compaq Presario 1060 from 1996.

Hey everyone, this question is more about me not wasting my time trying to fix something that isn't broke.

I found this Apple ColorRGB 12" monitor a while ago and all the LCs I picked up didn't work. I lucked out and found a G3 Power Macintosh with a DB15 video output and the quality looks pretty good except that the screen is wrapping/duplicating itself. I fiddled with all the external knobs and the issue doesn't go away. The G3 only can output video as low as 640x480 at 60 Hz. I read this monitor only supports up to 640x200 progressive or 640x400 interlaced. I suspect that incompatiblity is what's giving me this issue and the monitor would work fine with an era-appropriate video source.

Any help is appreciated, thanks friends!

I have had this in my basement for decades and totally forgot about it until today. It boots but has a keyboard failure with all the lights stuck on. When it boots, it first says "keyboard failure" and then gets the "C" prompt and says enter date. The display is still crisp.

I honestly don't want to throw it away and wonder if anyone has a use for it.

Hey yall, i got this board a few weeks ago and uh well it doesnt work…

The pictures are before I recapped the bulging caps but the issue is the same: High beep > Low beep > and this repeats.

I tried different ram, switched the cpus around, tried different GPUs, tried single CPU too, in both socketsc i tried 2 different PSUs, one had -5v rail but the other didnt, but nothing changed the error.

The last picture is the CPU I’m using, I don’t have another mendocino on hand sadly, I cant even find any other ones locally.

Also for some reason the sticker says V1.0 but the engraving says 0.41 (V1.1 of course), tho I do have the AMS voltage regulator.

What could be the issue? I really wanna get this board running…

So my OS Time Machine is ready again, you get so many memories back when you start an old OS.

Apparently they were popular in Poland in the late 90s to late 2000s, and I found them in a lot of old garages and a family relative's house, and they had old old gigabyte mobos. Anyone remember them?

CompuServe help numbers for anyone needing technical assistance

Here are the results of the VCF Ontario Pre-Event survey. Thank you for your participation!

 https://www.surveymonkey.com/stories/SM-5AjaEeVZi_2BzFa6kNxznYzA_3D_3D/

 :-D

A Cyrix MII on a Gigabyte GA-5SMM, along with a completely toast A8V-E but with an A64 X2 4400+

The A8V-E board seems to have set on fire at some point, but I've got an A8N SLI Deluxe that will work perfectly.