The Blog

Apple Macintosh LC 475 - Derating Tantalum Capacitors

Nix McRetro // 7th November 2012 // Apple, Repairs, YouTube

Derating tantalum capacitors is important when dealing with older technology. While a 16V electrolytic capacitor may have been sufficient for a 12V line (such as one of the hard drive power lines on an LC475), a 16V is not recommended by the manufacturer. They recommend derating the voltage and temperature... Continue reading

PicoPSU 80W on PIII 800MHz Overview

Nix McRetro // 5th November 2012 // IBM PC, Repairs, Sega

Here’s an idea of what the PicoPSU chews up when connected to a Pentium III 800MHz machine with 512MB RAM, hard drive, and floppy drive attached. It performs surprisingly well. I should really retest this with the unit under load and see how high the wattage use can become. The... Continue reading

Decoding the Japanese Aiwa Sega Mega-CD Startup Screen

Nix McRetro // 5th November 2012 // Repairs, Sega

Decoding the Japanese Aiwa Sega Mega-CD Startup Screen

…Please Press the Start Button… …Checking the Disc… …Please Wait a Little Bit… Thanks to T_chan from ASSEMbler Games for the fast translation. Now I have some idea of what the poor Aiwa is yelling at me when I press all the wrong buttons. These are here for my reference... Continue reading

Amstrad Sega Mega PC Boot Failure (DOM HD Issues)

Nix McRetro // 3rd November 2012 // IBM PC, Repairs, YouTube

Sometimes it is good that things break. CityEscaper of YouTube asked if I could crack out my Mega PC and test it on some screens I have lying around my house. I found that it works OK on my Samsung LCD TV, but is a no-go on my (newer) Toshiba... Continue reading

Sega Dreamcast - BIOS Dumping Guide

Nix McRetro // 3rd November 2012 // Hacks, Sega, YouTube

Below is the Dreamcast the BIOS was dumped from and the chip it was beamed down through. I’d used httpd-ack-20080711.zip and XDP.rar to get me my BIOS - MPR-21871.zip. Turns out it is version 1.01c and has a misspelling of disco or something. Overly it wasn’t too exciting, but great... Continue reading