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Computer expert Needed!

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Modern technology always amazes me. You mentioned the speed of these newer HDs and that reminded me of the old disc-type wind-up HDs and how slow they are to the solid-state models we now use. I must have over a dozen old HDs from the past that I have to destroy which would only be good for someone restoring an antique computer, I even have some old 3.5 and 5" floppy drives to dump, plus a box of over 100 3 & 5" floppies! My wife says I'm a junk collector, I think she's right! Gotta get rid of this stuff one day! 😂
 
PAUL161 said:
Modern technology always amazes me. You mentioned the speed of these newer HDs and that reminded me of the old disc-type wind-up HDs and how slow they are to the solid-state models we now use. I must have over a dozen old HDs from the past that I have to destroy which would only be good for someone restoring an antique computer, I even have some old 3.5 and 5" floppy drives to dump, plus a box of over 100 3 & 5" floppies! My wife says I'm a junk collector, I think she's right! Gotta get rid of this stuff one day! 😂
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Mrs JP has a Husqvarna Viking embroidery sewing machine that still uses 3 1/2 floppies. The machine itself is apparently the last properly made machine before the company sold to the Singer group - so it is held in great respect among sewists. (much like many of our car histories I suppose) We have an old IBM Thinkpad and a lifetime supply of discs just for it. I feel like someone could have come up with a USB adapter but it is too hard to search and she doesn't use it that often. but gotta love those antiques.

OTOH - show your wife this - it might be needed some day :D

 
Imagine a hundred years from now, when young folk ask to see what life was like in the 21st century.

And no one knows what how to search flash drives or open jpegs.

eek
 
There is a very large ecosystem of retro computing that I was not aware of until recently. One of the things I have had the option to play with recently (not mine unfortunately) is a floppy drive replacement device. It connects to your vintage machine as a 3.5 floppy mechanism using the same cabling and power connections, but internally it has a micoprocessor and a USB slot on the front. You create image files on a USB stick and this device presents the contents of them to the vintage machine exactly as a formatted floppy - switching "disks" is just a matter of selecting a new image file and pressing the select button.

In a similar vein (and I was able to obtain a couple of these) there is a SCSI hard disk replacement device that works similarly. You create blank files on a SD card, and the device presents to the vintage machine a SCSI hard drive (on the original SCSI cabling) of the size your blank file is, which can then be partitioned, formatted, etc exactly like it was a vintage SCSI hard drive.

I brought back from the dead 2 vintage Amiga3000 computers with those SCSI devices. They are actually in pretty high demand from musicians because a lot of 1980s-1990s sampling keyboards and direct-to-HD recorders used SCSI drives internally, and these SCSI emulation devices work at a hardware level so they don't care what kind of machine they are used in, or what formatting scheme is used.
 
i have an old toshiba satellite P20. only use it because it has a firewire connector.
I got an SSD caddy off Ebay which connects to the IDE hdd connector in the laptop.
Obviously not as fast as sata SSD, but the IDE HDD never used the full buss speed, but the SSD conversion does.
I would estimate 30% + improvement on speed, It now runs on windows 7 really well.
 
tech support.jpg
 
mezy said:
i have an old toshiba satellite P20. only use it because it has a firewire connector.
I got an SSD caddy off Ebay which connects to the IDE hdd connector in the laptop.
Obviously not as fast as sata SSD, but the IDE HDD never used the full buss speed, but the SSD conversion does.
I would estimate 30% + improvement on speed, It now runs on windows 7 really well.
Click to expand...
I like the old Toshibas, I still have one working satellite and one for parts. They are so easy to work on! Change a hard drive or memory board in 15 seconds. I have no idea how good the new ones are, probably like all the rest where you have to split the case to get to the internals. :rolleyes2:
 
I have an old Satellite I need to find a new screen for. Fantastic old computer, though, it had run for a dozen or so years before the screen crapped out.
 
Walter, if I remember correctly, the other Toshiba satellite C55? I have, which I'll have to find, has a good screen, the internals I think are out of it, not sure. You can have it for postage if you want it. I think it has a bad power plug connector, :unsure: Paul
 
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Paul, I would greatly appreciate that. This little Dell gets the job done but I prefer my old Toshiba. Mine is an L755 with a 15 1/2" screen.
 
It has a 15" screen Walter. Toshiba Model-C855. No battery, no hard drive or memory card, but as I remember the screen was in perfect working condition. PM me your address and I'll send it out to you, or you can send your address by email. I have no idea what postage will be, we can figure that out later. I haven't seen it in a long time, but I think the plug where you plug the chord into was bad, not sure. New batteries are out there fairly cheap for it, as are memory cards. Paul
Not this computer, but here's what it looks like.
toshiba-2.jpg

toshiba-1.jpg
 
Paul, that's awfully generous of you. I sent you my address. Before you go and dif it up let me do my due diligence and make sure that your screen will work in my computer. Are you certain yours is only 15", because mine is definitely 15 1/2." I just dug it out and measured.
 
Let me double check on the screen size. I measured it diagonally, will get back.
 
Ok, I measured this C855 old one, 15 1/2". Toshiba support says the screen is 15.6" which might be the size of the replacement glass, as it has to go slightly behind the outer frame work, they don't say. I measure 15 1/2 inches.
 
Mine also says 15.6 when I look it up online. I looked up the screens for both models and they have different part numbers despite appearing to be the exact same part. They are also pretty stinking cheap, about $50. I think I'll just buy a replacement, but I am thankful to you Paul; not just for your generosity, but for stimulating me into looking into the screen on my Toshiba.
 
Ok Walter that's probably a better idea, at least your getting a new screen! Good luck with the new purchase. (y)
 
My new screen arrived today; I easily installed it, and am not back to using my old Toshiba. I must admit that I am happy to have it back.
 
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