EEVblog #1028 - PC104 - The Full Version

The full version of EEVblog #1028 on the main channel, with the extra struggles with getting the floppy drive working.
For those interested in how I edited a 39min video down to 29min in the final edit.

[WereCatf]

Dave gets complaints about the amount of rambling in his video, Dave proceeds to upload a version of the video with even more rambling!

Classic.

[brucelytle]

I've got a pile of these in complete units set up to run with just a +12 vdc supply.
They were meant to be used by a trucking company in the 90's. Ought to go dig em out a see if they boot win95 or linux.

[TheEPROM]

Old computers are a passion project. Hard work but fun

[rsutherland]

This was my late 1980's and 1990's condensed down to a 39 minute video. The struggle was real...

[pnjunction]

Wow, that was a nice trip down the memory lane! I love old computer stuff.

[christopherguy]

That was exactly how I remember 3.5" floppy drives, never working when you needed them. It looked like the bios supported CD-ROM so you could install an old Linux or Novell networks server software.

[TheBekker_]

This was awesome, really appreciate you going the extra mile to get this working :) love small embedded systems :)

[KerboOnYT]

Love the flashback 🙂 I've got one of these PC/104 things in a drawer somewhere and should dig it out to tinker

[ForViewingOnly]

This project certainly tested your tenacity... I'm glad you stuck with it Dave.

[hughieandrolf]

I love the dumpster that just keeps on giving. I gotta get me one of these!

[avejst]

Wow, what a drive of memory lane...
Thanks for sharing 😀👍

[Gameboygenius]

Many USB keyboards and mice from the '00s are dual standard so all they had to do at the factory was to hook up the right lead. That's how those USB to PS2 adapters work, all passive. Useful info for anyone doing any sort of work with retro computers. ;)

[Coiltec]

When buying a USB floppy, make sure it has USB 3.2 for maximum transfer speeds and future compatibility

[fattomandeibu]

Crickey, when these things started to come out, I'd've been making my transition from a C64 to A1200. Mad to think there were miniature computers like this just going around.

Of course, it'd've cost several times(at least 10, I'm imagining) the price of said A1200 so I'd've never had one, even a regular 286 or A4000 would've been well beyond my wallet, but it's still well cool to see.

[bytefree]

34:00 and that is why I keep my old trusty notebooks, one with 95, one with 98 and one with XP. I have made disks many times over the years. Of course you can get images from the internet, still need a proper floppy drive that works fine.

[sprybug]

I know of your troubles. In a lot of my personal projects I use old PC's, cuz they're cheap and I have a lot of them. Getting them to get to the point of being able to do anything with them is a real pain because you have to do just what Dave did. I have this old Pentium laptop that I am using in a project and it took me a long time to get it to the point where I could do something with it. I finally got one of those Floppy drive to USB jump drive devices off of ebay and a 44 pin IDE to SD Card device so I could boot from a SD card instead of a hard drive.
BTW, Pengo for the win! There was this one arcade I used to go to when I was young and that was the game I always went to!

[Valenorious]

I'm sure Eliza could help you come to terms with those frustrations getting it to boot up.

[andycristea]

I believe that is Windows 8, not Vista. That's why the key did not work. :D

[sgwong]

This bring back my old memory on dos...miss all the dos game...

[sanityd]

Just found one of these in an unlabelled black box from an auction, I saw the 20gb scsi hdd below it and thought, wow you really couldn't get a CPU mobo this small back then...oh I know what it is, time to rewatch Dave's videos on them.