r/vintagecomputing

I just won an auction on a Macintosh 128k for a really good price, and it came with a fan hot glued into the back case, and a 512k memory expansion card. Just want to know if these are common mods to the 128k.

Hi, I have a Compaq 7790DMT and I'm trying to use CF cards as a storage solution. When I do this however, I get weird errors. After formatting the drive (with either a modern computer or the MS DOS format tool) some letters in the volume name are off. In the image of this post, the volume name is supposed to be "COMPAQ" but instead it's "CNMPAP".

Googling around says it could be the adapter I'm using, but I don't know where I would obtain a "better" adapter. It's a 44 pin IDE to CF card adapter. Adapter link.

Really unsure where to go from here. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance to everyone who trys to help.

Found out about it while watching one of @retrobitstv videos on YouTube about the Tandy1000. He showed off putting a partially yellowed Tandy1000 case in the sun for about a week and showed off the difference.

So I put the front plate of a 486 case in the Florida sun for about 10 days. The results seemed.. interesting. I'm guessing not all plastics react the same to sunlight. It got pretty close to the original color. I think I'll try it on my Compaq monitor next.

Another user mentioned using a weaker hydrogen peroxide solution for a more gentle Retrobrighting process, I may try that out on the buttons and drive bay plates.

planning on making this a youtube vid and will update and post here. this is the first time I have ever installed 95 without needing a cpu patch. With these specs I "should" use 98 but am using 95 for its glory and already have a 98pc.

This video was recorded on August 17, 2025 with a Panasonic CF-41 laptop

These seem harder to find here in the UK compared to across the pond. I put together this system from various different sources!

Computer itself: FB marketplace, extremely dusty and dirty from decades of storage. Cleaned up nicely. Has 640KB RAM and 20MB HD.

Monitor: IBM 5153, a different FB marketplace find, had the cable cut off but worked fine with a new one attached.

Keyboard: eBay, bought as "not working" but worked fine.

Manuals: Also eBay.

Upgrades: eBay sourced EGA card (big improvement even with the CGA monitor), and 3.5" floppy drive.

This is “Typhoon”, serial number 6001, the very first Cray T3D ever produced. It was installed at the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre at the University of Edinburgh, and in June 1996 it ranked 22nd fastest in the world and number one in Europe on the TOP500. It’s been in private hands for over 20 years. Still wearing its original Tomato Red livery.

This although baring the famous name, I’m unsure of its originality. (Or officality, it may be a Chinese clone with the same name.) why I’m suspicious of it is its back says translated “Beijing Computer Company” and that is not the original production place of the Japanese Kyotronic 85.

I literally can’t make heads or tails of any of this please help me figure out what components are in my pc all i know is it has a cyrix 6x68 and some diet of sound card please help im so sorry ti can’t figure it out

Why? I have no idea. I remember being excited that it had a quasi posix compatible filesystem. I had switched to Linux by that time and tossed it in a drawer and it moved with me all over the world.

HDD access light is on then off, but no beep, no num lock light response, no ram count. EXCEPT for two occasions when I got a beep, num lock response, but I did not have the display connected.

Also, I would appreciate input on how to repair gas plasma lines like the one pictured.

Any thoughts?