The Blog

Creative Labs CD-200 2x CD-ROM Driver Hunt

Nix McRetro // 8th October 2012 // IBM PC, Repairs

So little information seems to exist about this particular Creative Labs CD-200 that I figured I’d better document the struggle. At this point I had a desktop absolutely covered in driver files and still hadn’t found the magic combination. The first video shows where the investigation had reached. And the... Continue reading

IBM PS/2 Model 30 8086 720K Floppy Drive Failure

Nix McRetro // 8th October 2012 // IBM PC, Repairs, YouTube

Good to see that the IBM at least attempted to use the replacement drive, which suggests the interface and drive type were compatible enough to be recognised. Since the replacement itself was faulty, though, I could not fully confirm normal read and write operation. Unfortunate that the $50 shipping did... Continue reading

Sharp PC-4521 Internal View

Nix McRetro // 8th October 2012 // IBM PC, Repairs, YouTube

Here’s something a little different: a Sharp PC-4521 from the PC-4500 portable-computer family. This one isn’t mine. I just managed to have a poke around inside it while the owner was absent. The PC-4521 was the hard-drive-equipped version of the series. It uses an 80188-compatible NEC V40 running at 7.16... Continue reading

Amstrad PPC640D Internal View - Relative of the PPC512

Nix McRetro // 8th October 2012 // IBM PC, Repairs, YouTube

Got this PPC640D from eBay and found that it is quite a nice unit. For its age, it sure is holding up well. The PPC640 family is built around an 8MHz 8086-2 with 640KB of system RAM. Amstrad’s technical documentation describes a 16-bit onboard memory bus, an 8-bit peripheral and... Continue reading

Aiwa Mega-CD CSD-GM1 and Mega Drive 32X Issues

Nix McRetro // 6th October 2012 // Repairs, Sega, YouTube

Aiwa Mega-CD CSD-GM1 I picked up two Aiwa CSD-GM1 units for quite a pretty penny. I don’t mind though. Restoration and preservation of all things old is the goal. The machine pictured above is the worse of the two. It had no power at all, so naturally I pulled it... Continue reading