everyday i'm sufferin'

…

Dropping an advertisement for my APH RP server again! We are a canonverse RP server, we are 16+. So please understand that if you join. We are a level 3 boosted server so we offer lots of perks around that as well. - We have 30 Discord Stickers and over 100 Emoji (with room to add more! So bring them!) - We have a good amount of canon characters free right now as well as A LOT of 2P. Characters needed range from North Italy, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ukra1ne, and more! - We welcome OCs, 2P, Nyo, and 2P Nyo! So if a nation hasn’t been added to the series yet, bring them in! This can also be for most micronations, major cities, and more!  - We offer a non toxic environment, with room to develop your favourite characters, learn about culture, language, and more from members who live all over the world.

Inside of the Machine before doing any more maintenance. It seemed the motherboard was fried.

After ordering a new motherboard and getting it, I popped it open and now we embark on phase two. Getting it to power on. I’d previously cleaned it when seeing if it worked at purchase but it did not. 

After removing all of the cards/controllers, I got out the motherboard, a whopping 64k-256k RAM Board (this machine had an additional 256k RAM Board) It’s the size of my hand. Keep in mind a modern cell phone is literally several thousand times more powerful than this machine.

(The 256 kilobytes of RAM)

This maxed the machine out at 512k, however I opted to purchase a slightly newer motherboard that brings the machine to a delightful 640k.

Once the motherboard was in, I put it back together and powered it up. I got a short lightshow. One of the capacitors exploded on the CGA card and a big old spark flew out and unleashed the magic stinky smoke.

The CGA Card with the Capacitor at C8 blew. Fortunately this specific capacitor tends to explode on these but doesn’t need to be replaced as it is used for a Light Pen and nothing else. I chopped it off with wire cutters and started by running a ‘minimum diagnostic test’.

This is when you remove everything from the computer except the Motherboard and Power Supply and Speaker. Depending on the beeps the speaker makes will determine the ‘health’ of the board. It tested good and I tossed in the CGA card again, hooked in the monitor, and prayed I’d get no more literal fire.

It worked and the computer displayed and posted a RAM count. So I tossed in the floppy drive next. After getting it to run after it posted a 601 Error Code, the machine went normal. It was time for the Hard Drive, which is where I am stuck and most likely stopping today. It seems the controller card for the Hard Drive is being mean to this transplanted Hard Drive. So I need to further some diagnosis on it or run some sort of Debug. Which means I need to make or find software.

But, before the HDD went in, we were able to get the computer to load at it’s bare minimum with the A:// Drive Installed!

My pretty Early DOS machine, an Amstrad Ppc640. A strange little "portable computer" from 1987-1988. It runs a 8086 processor at 640k RAM, no internal hard drive but does feature a modem (a rarity for the time).

Original Boot disc is a DOS 3.3 with a special organization software. It can be taken on the go with 10 C Batteries for about an hour of battery life.

No backlight, it's capable of running DOS software from the era.

The screen is atrocious but it tries. It uses 2 720k 3.5 floppy drives.

I can get it running Microsoft Windows 2.03.

Estonia: Where is he?

Lithuania: Hold on.

* Glances around over the shelves *

* Notices a dark red balloon poking out from above one of the shelves *

Lithuania, trying to pick up a girl at the bar: Okay, we just have to play it safe. Just pretend you're my gay best friend.

Poland, nervously sipping alcohol: B-But I am your gay best friend...