Alice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
it probably doesn't help that my CPU fan died.
it's for a pentium 1, so it's slightly old
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
OH MAYBE THIS IS WHY
this is not how 3 pin fan connectors work! This is going to try to undervolt your fan backwards while putting +12v down the tach-out pin
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
amazingly it turns out I didn't fry my fan. after adapting to the Weird Pinout here, it works fine.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
well, relatively "works fine". the fan spins.
I still haven't managed to get this computer to respond to any keyboards and when I boot it, it's started looking like this:
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
yeah there's maybe a problem with the VGA chip or the VRAM
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
the weird part is that this wasn't doing this prior to the whole fan issue.
So... did I somehow damage the RAM trying to get my fan working?
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023

but the PS/2 pinout in the manual (both of them) seems to be wrong, since the voltages are in the wrong places and it doesn't work.

theoretically this motherboard has early USB keyboard support, but, uh... it's a non-standard header. and I don't trust it in the slightest

Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
you'd think I could use one of my many scratch keyboards, but unfortunately they've all gone missing in my last attempt at cleaning my office
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023

you should count your blessings every day that you don't have to live with Foone. I do.

That is my crime, it is also my punishment.

Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
after testing the voltage polarity, I risked a real keyboard on it.
no luck.
I think I'm gonna have to just mark this board as "totally fucked" and give up on it.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
FAREWELL, PCM-5894!
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
I tried switching to this WinSystems SAT-DX, but it's got no VGA out (and I don't have a PC/104 VGA card on hand) and it's beeping an impossible pattern for the award BIOS it supposedly has.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
WHY DO NONE OF MY QUARTER-CENTURY OLD ELECTRONICS WORK
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023

Fuck it, go big or go home.

So, two things about this you may notice:
1. it doesn't seem to have a CPU
2. it seems to be slightly floating off my desk.

These two things are related.

Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
The silliest era of SBCs, the time we just bolted Slot 1 Pentium IIs to the back!
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
It lives! Although it won't boot, because I didn't attach a SCSI drive.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023
oh hello Y2K bug, fancy meeting you here.
Show threadAlice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️Jan 22, 2023

wait
this BIOS is from 1998

what kind of complete fool ships a BIOS with a y2k bug IN 1998?

Show thread0xEmmy 
@foone A company with a less-than-two-year warranty and a pile of old stock, of course.
Jan 22, 2023 at 4:41amWeb