Before today, I had a graphite iMac DV/SE which got pretty badly cracked during shipping. And I had a iMac G4 (which is currently kind of cutely perched atop my IIgs, Snoopy-style). Today’s trip to the computer recycler (a different one from the one I visited last time) yielded quite […]
I should audit that terrarium ][+
Having just learned a little more about how to identify old pieces (from parts of Tony Diaz’s retr0blasting talk from KFest 2010), I’m now seeing that in the pictures I have of the terrarium ][+, it is actually pretty old. I didn’t think the serial number looked that old. True, […]
The Apple ][+ takes a shower
Frustrated with the extent of the goop on the motherboard of the Apple ][+, I started pulling out the chips, with the idea that I would just take the motherboard home and stick it in the dishwasher. There are a lot of chips. Eventually I got them out, with no […]
ImageWriter II
The next up in the line of things that I have re-bought after having had, then dopily disposed of, is an ImageWriter II. It arrived today, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, really, given the description in the auction. But, I expect the description helped it be at least […]
You are the goop beneath my chips
I got a chip puller, and pulled up a couple of chips that were sitting in the goopy area of the old ][+. There is some that has gotten under the bigger socket, as I’d feared. I’m starting to wonder if I need to really just plain wash/soak this board, […]
BBooting the QX-10
I popped open the QX-10 again today and swapped the A and B drives. When I had them out, I observed that the B drive (the then Right drive, second picture) has a chip that the A drive (the then Left drive, first picture) lacked. “Hmm,” I thought, “maybe that’s […]
SAMS Computer facts: Epson QX-10
I also got this cool thing in the mail yesterday, which has a great deal of technical information and schematics of the various bits of the QX-10. For posterity, the various parts of this are archived here (not yet OCRed): Cover Preliminary service checks System (CPU, keyboard, power supply) Disk […]
Writing drivers
I started piling some of my imaged disks onto a big ProDOS volume for use with Virtual ][, using Glen Bredon’s DOS.MASTER, since nearly everything I’d ever done was in DOS 3.3. In the process, I came across an old text file I’d written called “Writing Drivers“. Click the link […]
INSERT DISKETTE 1, Me 0
After setting up the Epson QX-10 and finding that, although it happily displayed “INSERT DISKETTE” on its monitor, it didn’t recognize any of the diskettes I inserted in response, I decided to pull it open quickly and take a look to see if anything presented itself as an obvious problem. […]
I may never buy software again
Today in my office, an actual Epson QX-10 arrived. I’d put an ad here to help explain what the QX-10 is, but no ad can do it justice. Though, as it happens, all I can get the machine to do at the moment is tell me “INSERT DISKETTE”. I have […]