Mitac Mistation 3S - A Compact PC from 1990!

Today we're cleaning up a slim PC from 1990 called the Mitac Mistation 3S that I bought locally from a viewer. With a 16MHz 386SX CPU, and 4MB of ram it's a prime candidate for a Windows 3.11 installation. Let's take a look :) #vintage #desktop #90s

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Nathan Sivewright
Parcel Collect 10045 46100
Shop 4 254 Curtis Road
Munno Para SA 5115

[PDTokay]

Glad to see my old mitac is getting some love, you got further than I did. Also awesome meeting you! Hope things are going well.

[cdos]

For those drives that scanned perfectly but had issues writing, most of the time it is just due to weak sectors since they haven't been written to for such a long time, causing the data to fade. After all, the drives are well over 20 years old so it is common to see now a drive from that era that scans fine but doesn't write entirely perfect. Give it a couple full formats, and it should refresh the entire drive media.

[JVHShack]

I have one recommendation: find an ISA network card for file transfers. Also as for the performance of that 386SX-16, I would treat it like a 286 with a 386 instruction set attached. If you ever want to upgrade the CPU, a 386SX-40 from AMD and an 80 MHz crystal would max it out and allow you to run Windows 95, as long as you upgrade the RAM with it. I ran Win95 on the AMD 386SX-40 with 16MB of RAM just fine, albeit rather slow.

[ching-chenhuang]

Oh my god, I think this is the PC I used exactly 32 years ago in a MiTAC Computer dealer in Taiwan!!

[ToddSAFM]

Your experience failing repeatedly with the hard drives reminds me of literally any old computer project I’ve done. So many hurdles, but the joy is in the journey.

[thebasketballhistorian]

Even though he is much younger than me, it's wild he also grew up with Windows 3.1 and has the same childhood memories of Paintbrush, Solitaire, midi music, and DOS games.

With most people I meet in their 20's, Windows XP was their childhood OS. 😳

[inlineskr]

I never get any notifications for your videos, I never get them in my recommendations either. But I always get your community posts so I can watch your amazing videos

[Zebra_Paw]

I tend to restore daily usable stuff... you'd be surprised how old hardware can be and still be usable today... if you install drivers properly and choose a nice fit as an OS

[davinp]

The File Manager from Windows 3.11 has been made available for download on Windows 10/11 in the Microsoft Store

[RealDlovanSl]

Great video as always! Love to see these kind of content

[JanusCycle]

CF to IDE adaptors are handy little beasts. Make sure you have a range of CF cards to try. I've found some CFs that work well and others are not compatible with these old BIOSs.

[cpcnw]

I was a Service Tech for Mitac in the UK - worked in the North West. The PC's where mostly bought from a store called Dixons. Nearly 25% arrived at the buyers house DOA. We always got it in the neck from the buyers when we turned up.

[grahamek]

640K base memory doesn't mean RAM soldered to the motherboard, it's the natively addressable memory space on the CPU architecture. Anything above that 640KB was considered extended memory area.

[xFameBoyx]

I love the fact that you took your time to explain everything into details

[redleader]

The 640k base memory isn't soldered. It's part of the 4x 1 MB sticks. Systems of that era always notice the first 640k as base because that was the typical maximum in the original 8088-based IBM PC's.

[jsking]

I enjoyed watching you experiment with different configurations in order to breathe new life into a vintage computer. It's kind of like someone rescue a pet from an animal shelter.Thanks for another great video.

[lanerj]

Your vids are always a treat. Cool seeing Novell stuff.

[ragtagcreator]

Both the brothers are slaying on their vids. Love your videos 😁😁

[rleproductions]

Psivewri I love your channel so much and am binge watching you!

[exMuteKid]

Glad to see I'm not the only one with a storage media collection