Tag Archives: computer hardware

Review: Maxtor M3 Portable 4Tb USB 3.0 External Hard Drive (HX-M401TCB/GM)

Posted on September 28, 2016 by lui_gough

Seeing as I’m going to go on a holiday sometime next year, one thing I knew I would need is some portable external storage to keep all my experimental data and to backup the photos I will be taking. Not … Continue reading →

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Project: Awakening the Apple Macintosh PowerBook 100

Posted on September 11, 2016 by lui_gough

In the previous post, I took a look at the nearly pristine condition Apple Macintosh PowerBook 100 and accessories which were donated to me for some edu-tainment. While it was pretty to be able to look at a piece of … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: Apple Macintosh PowerBook 100 & Accessories

Posted on September 11, 2016 by lui_gough

As it turns out, this week was a pretty good week for me. It’s not often something comes in, begging to be played with. It’s even less often that the object in question makes you drop almost everything so that … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Tech Flashback | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Experiment: Time to EPROM Erasure by UV Lamp & Sun?

Posted on September 11, 2016 by lui_gough

I’ve always been fascinated by the beauty of EPROM chips with their erasure windows giving you a clear look inside the package. Because of my fascination, I ended up buying quite a few chips, an UV eraser that needed some … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Wireless Card Whitelists: Failed Attempt at a HP Pavillion dm1-4108AU

Posted on August 13, 2016 by lui_gough

After successfully bypassing the whitelist in my Probook 4525s with the help of Dragy, I felt that it was probably worth trying the same technique on my other whitelisted HP, a Pavillion dm1-4108AU. While other pre-patched BIOS for certain dm1s … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Telecommunications | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Getting Started: Nuand BladeRFx40, XB-200 Transverter, Case & SDRSharp

Posted on August 5, 2016 by lui_gough

This is one of those posts that I should have compiled and put up a long time ago, but never really got around to. Right now, I probably shouldn’t be blogging (since there are more pressing things to attend to), … Continue reading →

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Wireless Card Whitelists: Breaking the HP Probook 4525s Whitelist

Posted on July 25, 2016 by lui_gough

Around two years ago, I posted this article decrying the whole situation where several laptop manufacturers have imposed artificial restrictions in the BIOS firmware against replacement of wireless cards (and other hardware) with other physically compatible units from other sources, … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Telecommunications | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Melb2016: A Super-Special SyQuest Side Quest (Part 12)

Posted on June 30, 2016 by lui_gough

At last, the promised final special part of my Melbourne trip has arrived. The difference is that this part didn’t really have anything to do with my trip to Melbourne at the beginning, and started long before I even had … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Tech Flashback, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Tech Flashback: The (beautiful) EPROM Chip Collection

Posted on May 22, 2016 by lui_gough

It’s been a busy and draining week and a bit in Melbourne, and it’s consumed the vast majority of my energy just to get everything unpacked and put into order. However, things have been getting a little too quiet around … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Project: THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION of V.90/V.92 Modem Sounds

Posted on May 3, 2016 by lui_gough

Just recently, there was a surge in traffic to my old legacy dial-up sounds pages. While I did my best with the equipment I had at the time to capture the sound of dial-up modems, I always knew that my … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Computing, Tech Flashback, Telecommunications | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Tech Flashback: Even More Internal PCI Dial-Up Modems

Posted on May 2, 2016 by lui_gough

Regular retro-technology service continues with this blog post. I showed some of my vast collection of dial-up equipment in the past, especially my internal PCI modems, but because of the bleak future of voice-band modem technology, I sought to obtain … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Telecommunications | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Project: Examining VGA BIOS from Old Graphic Cards

Posted on May 1, 2016 by lui_gough

I suppose they say, once you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Indeed they are right, because now I have a ROM programmer, I couldn’t stop pulling teeth chips just to dump them. Aside from motherboard BIOS chips, … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Tech Flashback | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Project: Make a Netcomm RoadsterII USB Modem work in Windows 7 x64

Posted on February 7, 2016 by lui_gough

Over the weekend, I had some hankering to get some voice-band dial-up modem action happening just for curiosity sake. I stumbled across my pair of old-reliable Netcomm Roadster II USB V.90 56k modems which seemed like good candidates for an … Continue reading →

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“Sigh-Quests”: More forgotten cartridges arrive, but fail to turn up data

Posted on February 1, 2016 by lui_gough

A while ago, I was in contact with a reader about their long-forgotten set of Syquest cartridges and their Syquest drive. As it turns out, it was a set of 88Mb cartridges with matching drive, connected to a computer of … Continue reading →

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Review: Generic 4-port USB 3.0 to PCI-E Adapter (STAR-UPCIE201-V1.0, TB01200)

Posted on January 31, 2016 by lui_gough

If you’re still running an age-old dinosaur system like me (well, make that around six years old), then you’re probably feeling the pinch from not having quite enough USB 3.0 ports. Maybe you have none at all. I’m lucky that … Continue reading →

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Q&A: How Fast are 2X Floppy Drives in Reality?

Posted on January 24, 2016 by lui_gough

This post comes about because of a question from Matson on a very early post of mine about USB Floppy Drives. He wants to know how fast 2x drives are in reality, as there are no hard numbers floating about. … Continue reading →

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Q&A: Why Reformatting a USB Key can Change its Size & Performance

Posted on January 24, 2016 by lui_gough

Just recently after I had posted my review of the Sandisk Cruzer Facet USB key, a regular reader sent me an e-mail which noted in a concerning tone that reformatting the device causes it to lose about 12-13Mb of storage, … Continue reading →

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Teardown: Sienoc Active Mini-DisplayPort to DVI Adapter

Posted on January 24, 2016 by lui_gough

For those who don’t upgrade their displays very often, slowly, they can find that their displays fall behind in terms of connectivity options. More modern graphic cards offer an array of multi-monitor output options, but mostly using DisplayPort (DP) or … Continue reading →

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Teardown: Digi International Edgeport/8 RS-232 to USB Converter

Posted on January 17, 2016 by lui_gough

In the things that have happened to me last week, getting a Digi International Edgeport/8 donated to me was one of the more exciting events. A Little Bit of History It wasn’t that long ago that if you wanted to … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: My Collection of SDRAM – 256Mb & 512Mb Modules

Posted on January 17, 2016 by lui_gough

This posting continues an earlier posting which explores my collection of SDRAM modules. In this post, we look at the larger 256 and 512 megabyte modules. 256 Megabyte Modules Mitsubishi MH32S64APHB-6 Mitsubushi is a name you would normally associate with … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: My Collection of SDRAM – 128Mb & ECC Modules

Posted on January 17, 2016 by lui_gough

Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory, or SDRAM for short, was the JEDEC standardized successor to the asynchronous DRAM used in SIMMs. Demonstrated in 1993, and the de-facto type of memory by 2000, it was employed by later Pentium I systems … Continue reading →

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Review, Teardown: Seatay SBOX02503 2.5″ SATA III to USB 3.0 External Enclosure

Posted on January 15, 2016 by lui_gough

What happens when you have a few 2.5″ SSDs lying around after an upgrade? One option is to convert them into external SSDs for fast work usage. Not having any enclosures to use, I decided to consult online for some … Continue reading →

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Experiment: ZIP Defect Lists & Software-Enabled Write Protection

Posted on December 23, 2015 by lui_gough

With my last post testing the write-protection with just one cartridge, we didn’t demonstrate any PLIST changes. While I took the GLIST changes as indicating the lists being both “fluid”, more concrete proof was desired in case one of the … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: More ZIP Defect Tests & Trouble In Paradise Utility

Posted on December 22, 2015 by lui_gough

Once you get started on something, often times, you realize there are things still left to be done. Indeed, this post comes about because of my previous experiments inspired by Matson’s comments, and this time, he came up with another … Continue reading →

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Experiments: ZIP Disk Defect Lists, Mode Page Changes, Protected Cartridges

Posted on December 21, 2015 by lui_gough

This post is going to get quite long, filled with walls of text, and ultimately not of any great interest to the majority of modern tech-people unless somehow you’re interested in ZIP drive behaviour, so feel free to skip this … Continue reading →

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Quick Review: Samsung 850 EVO 1Tb (MZ-75E1T0B) Solid State Drive

Posted on December 19, 2015 by lui_gough

Solid-state drives are something that I can rarely get enough of, as high performance storage has a big impact on the time spent waiting on a computer to get data-heavy tasks done. As someone who has enjoyed this, I had … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Flash Memory | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Teardown: Alcatel 3AU 04805 ABAA & LSE LSF2070 ADSL Microfilters

Posted on December 2, 2015 by lui_gough

While rummaging around my old equipment box, I came across some in-line microfilters which I have collected as spares from discarded modem boxes or from places where they suspect having filter problems and have had their filters interchanged with a … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: Rambus DRDRAM RIMM and CRIMM Modules

Posted on November 30, 2015 by lui_gough

Rambus DRDRAM (or RDRAM as it was sometimes known) was a proprietary memory technology championed by Rambus and Intel as a (potential) successor to SDRAM. As memory bandwidth requirements rose in the early Pentium 4 era, there was a need … Continue reading →

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Random Compu-Maintenance: Dusty PC & Stuck Power Button

Posted on November 15, 2015 by lui_gough

Computers and their peripherals around my place are generally reliable, but occasionally some things do happen. As a result, I’ve grouped these two recent happenings into one posting. PC: “… help me!” Just last weekend, my brother barged into my … Continue reading →

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Review: Orico USB 3.0 5-bay RAID HDD Enclosure (9558RU3) – Part 2

Posted on November 1, 2015 by lui_gough

Welcome to the second part of the review on the Orico USB 3.0 5-bay RAID HDD Enclosure where we continue with actual performance tests and usage experiences. Performance Testing The drive itself presented as a single drive as I was … Continue reading →

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