[rescue] Perverse Question

[Dave McGuire]

On Saturday, June 7, 2003, at 08:15 PM, Michael Free wrote:
> Ahh, that's what 8 years of not needing information will do (file 
> system
> corruption in meatspace).

   That sounds like a great song title!

> I wish I could remember if I shunted to ground or 12v or 5v or 
> whatever I
> did on that XT.... I've got 2 more just like it that need mods :)

   I believe the PG signal is active-high, but I'm not sure.  It's been 
awhile.

> The story from back then goes like this... a friend of mine needed a 
> PC and
> didn't have much money to do it with. So, I tookher XT, modded it with 
> a
> reset switch (since it was to get windows 3.1, and you *know* that 
> locks up)
> and it got a 486sx25 motherboard (no drilling required, but needed 
> spacers
> to hold up part of the board) and I made some plates to hold together a
> 3.5/5.25" combo drive and a CD-ROM for one bay, and just drilled new 
> holes
> for the second bay with got a 540 meg second hand hard drive.

   Excellent kludge. :-)

> Heh, for the first few weeks she was even running the stock XT Hercules
> video card before I found her an old EGA Mono card that could use the 
> old
> green screen. The Hercules actually gave better resolution, but the 
> software
> just dealt better with the EGA, and I *think* it gave it 16 shades 
> instead
> of true monochrome.

   Herc was 720x348, EGA was 640x350.  I remember when the first EGA 
boards came out...Wow they were SO much better than CGA's big blotchy 
oval pixels...640x200?  What moron came up with THAT pixel aspect ratio?

> Heh, reminds me of the times when I got Win 3.1 running on a CGA 
> display
> over a composite monitor... and when I got the win98 machine in the 
> computer
> lab at college routing .WAV output over the system speaker. Sounded 
> like an
> AM radio but I had fun with it :)

   Wow, I didn't know 3.1 even supported CGA.  That must've been 
*really* ugly. :)

       -Dave

--
Dave McGuire             "I've grown hair again, just
St. Petersburg, FL           for the occasion."       -Doc Shipley