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Viewing 1 - 20 of 244 results
May
30th
2017

Drive defragging is magic. (NOT!) · 10:11pm May 30th, 2017

Seriously, this laptop's hard drive is the most fragmented thing I've seen ever since I defragged my mom's old college laptop, which is nearly as old as I am.

Still, my craptop's got a horribly fragmented drive, and I probably should've done something about it before. At least I barely use that thing anyways.

Report TheMajorTechie · 203 views · #techblog
Aug
3rd
2017

And the system doesn't even want to POST with an ATI card. · 1:39am Aug 3rd, 2017

Well then.

I’ve tried a Cirrus Logic card as well. The system boots, but gets stuck in a reboot loop with crazy beeping.

Report TheMajorTechie · 208 views · #techblog
May
19th
2017

That moment when your laptop is a better wifi extender than the wifi extender your dad gives you · 3:34am May 19th, 2017

Seriously. Who knew that using a laptop from 2009 as a wifi repeater worked so well?

And on top of that, I can use network monitor software on it, and when I need to do work on the go, I just take the entire freakin' laptop!

Not to mention the fact that this is the same laptop I accidentally wiped the hard drive on and proceeded to create a triple-boot system on a 150 gig hard drive I bought for $2 at a thrift store.

I'd call this my win for the day. :ajsmug:

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Report TheMajorTechie · 193 views · #techblog
Jun
20th
2017

Welp. My oldest computer's hard drive finally gave up the ghost today. · 11:35pm Jun 20th, 2017

I know that I probably am a bit too obsessed with that machine, but after several months of trying and failing to successfully clone the drive to a more reliable medium, all I’m left with is a highly repetitive clicking noise, and a boot failure.

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Report TheMajorTechie · 189 views · #techblog
Jan
13th
2018

Yussssss · 7:58pm Jan 13th, 2018

Finally got video playback working (almost) smoothly on my oldest PC.

It only took a new SD card to IDE adapter, FreeDOS, and some internet hunting for DOS Sound Blaster drivers.

Next up: getting Minecraft to play on the thing. Instead of WinXP, I'ma try Win2k.

Report TheMajorTechie · 233 views · #techblog
Mar
17th
2019

I think I'm gonna finally restore my oldest PC back to its (close to) factory state. · 5:52am Mar 17th, 2019

I'm gonna find some period-correct hard drives instead of using the SD-IDE adapter, replace the Geforce fx 5200 with the original S3 Virge that shipped in the system, replace the Sound Blaster AWE32 that barely fits in the case with the original Sound Blaster 16, and top it off with something between Windows 95 and Windows XP, excluding the latter.

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Report TheMajorTechie · 183 views · #techblog
Mar
23rd
2019

New issue concerning my old PC · 5:13am Mar 23rd, 2019

I need an ungodly amount of CDs if I want to have my music library be playable from the computer while I'm writing.

Oof.

I mean, I don't have to have the library on the same computer, but it's a nice convenience. I could probably just settle for a few select playlists of the songs I like the most, since I don't listen to some of them as much anymore anyways.

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Report TheMajorTechie · 180 views · #techblog
Mar
20th
2019

Found a good working browser for Win2k! · 4:58pm Mar 20th, 2019

https://retrosystemsrevival.blogspot.com/2018/05/palemoon-265-for-windows-2000.html

I'm at school right now, but testing it in Windows 10 shows that it supports HTML5 standards quite well!

According to the site linked above, Palemoon 2.65 (A fork of Firefox) was backported by an independent developer to Windows 2000!

Let's just hope that that also includes i586 compatibility.

Report TheMajorTechie · 154 views · #techblog
Jan
22nd
2022

I am now down $100 and left with an expensive paperweight less than a day after i bought a new motherboard. · 5:55am Jan 22nd, 2022

This thing was going to replace the aging computer I've been using to archive old floppy disks and hard drives. Got it for a nice discount from $200 down to $100, and the review I read seemed to paint it in a pretty good light for an industrial motherboard.

And then after I plugged in a graphics card it detonated.

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Report TheMajorTechie · 148 views · #techblog
Mar
17th
2019

Oh boy · 10:58pm Mar 17th, 2019

Even though SD cards are pretty low-speed by today's standards, compared to an old 40-gig IBM deskstar drive they're pretty zippy.

-Me while trying to format an 8 gig partition for Windows 98 SE on my old computer

Report TheMajorTechie · 169 views · #techblog
May
18th
2017

What's the benefit of having Android on a laptop? · 12:24am May 18th, 2017

A mouse with a huge improvement in accuracy over a touchscreen, that's what. (Plus, games run amazingly on even low-end laptops.)

Report TheMajorTechie · 237 views · #techblog
May
6th
2017

Fixing calculators as a little hobby for today · 10:49pm May 6th, 2017

Because silver should not be used as wiring for the pads on calculators.

Seriously.

It's pretty much all tarnished.

I think I know why this calculator doesn't work anymore.

Also, that's not a LCD or LED screen on this thing. It's a VFD, or Vacuum Fluorescent Display. This baby uses vacuum tubes. :ajsmug:

Report TheMajorTechie · 239 views · #techblog
Dec
5th
2017

Hey. Hey. · 3:13am Dec 5th, 2017

It went exactly how I expected. I swapped the test bench out for an ancient VIA C7 mobo that I grabbed for like $5 a couple years ago, put the card and adapter in, and BOOM. Works just as advertised.

Just for shows, here's the adapter card I've been talking about. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0037ECAM2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Report TheMajorTechie · 262 views · #techblog
Aug
26th
2018

Whipped out the old Office XP cd. · 7:38am Aug 26th, 2018

From roughly half a month of personal experience, I'd have to say that LibreOffice doesn't exactly function the way I want it to. I understand that as an open-source program, it may be hard to coordinate and focus on a single task in development, but as far as operation on my Surface Go concerns, it's buggy enough to be a bit of a turnoff.

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Report TheMajorTechie · 183 views · #techblog
Mar
20th
2019

It has been done. · 4:28am Mar 20th, 2019

FreeDOS + Win2k dual booted, full driver package installed for both (save for networking in FreeDOS. I don't need it since I can transfer files from Win2k), and Office 2000 installed and working, with the Office 2007 compatibility pack also installed so that I can access the things I write in Office 2019 on my Surface Go.

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Report TheMajorTechie · 242 views · #techblog
Jun
17th
2017

That feeling when a piece of used hardware works perfectly · 11:35pm Jun 17th, 2017

Seriously, I've gone through FOUR different USB cards that I pulled from systems at thrift stores, and after none of them worked properly, I was planning on spending a precious $8 to buy a brand new card that I had researched specifically for compatibility.

BUT.

After tae kwon do practice this morning, my mom took me to a few garage sales, where I scored a bag filled with about 4 gigs worth of SDRAM sticks, AND an old USB 2.0 PCI card for $6.

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Report TheMajorTechie · 168 views · #techblog
Nov
3rd
2018

Oh boy! · 4:37am Nov 3rd, 2018

So, for starters, Windows 2000 seems to be much more stable with Nvidia drivers than Windows XP was.

I'm currently installing the unofficial Windows 2000 update rollup 2 pack, which installs every update to the OS ever released until the end of support.

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Report TheMajorTechie · 168 views · #techblog
Nov
4th
2018

Knighty must be confused right now. (NOW WITH BONUS MINECRAFT!) · 3:42am Nov 4th, 2018

...after a long period of waiting for my user page to load...




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Report TheMajorTechie · 315 views · #techblog
Dec
5th
2017

Driver issues, driver issues. · 2:42am Dec 5th, 2017

Once again, I'm suspecting that the inability to disable the built-in PCIe slot is the culprit. The drivers install fine with the card in the native slot, but it's been a headache to get anything to run in the adapted slot.

I might just try a different system as a testbench or something, but that means running through benchmarks again, which would be rather painful considering how pre-PCIe systems usually ship with only a single core CPU.

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Report TheMajorTechie · 155 views · #techblog
Mar
16th
2017

Tech Blog #I don't even know what number this is anymore · 11:22pm Mar 16th, 2017

Protip for android users out there: DON'T use Kingoroot to root your device. It replaces the lock screen with a mildly obnoxious ad-filled lagfest after it roots, and provides you no way to remove it except by unrooting your phone and deleting the app.

I already did what I wanted to do anyways while my tablet was rooted, so I'm fine removing root access. :moustache:

Report TheMajorTechie · 144 views · #techblog
Viewing 1 - 20 of 244 results