[12:08] <zxmpi> on this day in 1955 eniac computer was retired
[12:17] <penguin42> I wonder what it's parts were reused in
[12:17] <zxmpi> probably a lot, a *LOT* of valve radios :-P
[12:23] <daftykins> heh some seems to survive - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC#/media/File:ENIAC_Penn1.jpg
[12:24] <daftykins> also, a happy weekend \o solid rain here, ideal time to start picking through the 3 new systems that have joined me at dafty HQ
[12:25] <daftykins> a clients secretary's little cute Dell Latitude 3330 seems to be POSTing on less than 1 in 10 attempts
[12:25] <zxmpi> power supply or short?
[12:26] <daftykins> well i fiddled around stripping it down, unplugging parts... fires up once in a while and behaves like normal, otherwise the power LED just lights white as is normal and no image ever pops up
[12:27] <daftykins> kinda tempted by an entire replacement board set from ebay for £40... but the thing is, this is 3rd gen intel Core... an entire newer generation ThinkPad can be had for not much more
[12:42] <zxmpi> not even a beep?
[12:44] <daftykins> nope codes are allegedly conveyed by LEDs on this one, but none show up
[12:44] <daftykins> i did feel a MOSFET on the board that seemed a bit toasty, could be within norms though
[12:45] <zxmpi> i'd remove everything incuding ram and see if i can get anything consistently out of it
[12:45] <daftykins> that's what i started with :D pretty old hat in the hardware diagnosis circles, me - at least relative to my younger age of course :P
[12:46] <daftykins> weirdly there's a stripped head screw far down in it though, so i'll have to get creative with a dremel clone to sort that out
[12:46] <zxmpi> sounds like someone has been there before you
[12:47] <daftykins> it's a bit weird 'cause i'm the only one that would work on this stuff, but i'm not in the habit of ruining screws... so i don't get it
[12:47] <zxmpi> screws don't strip themselves. and it'd be something i'd remember a decade later
[12:49] <zxmpi> one i used hacksaw on swiss army knife to saw a new slot on a screw so i could open the case and the other i remember i used chewing gum to grip what remainded to remove from pc
[14:25] <zxmpi> i'll just leave this here https://boingboing.net/2021/10/02/the-history-of-teletext-in-18-minutes.html
[15:34] <daftykins> https://i.imgur.com/mJHBZar.jpg - came up once!
[16:16] <penguin42> any options under POST behaviour that might be useful?
[16:24] <daftykins> doubt it
[16:25] <daftykins> what's interesting is when it gives the power LED but no image, if you press power again, the fan spins up and runs for a bit before it cutting power
[16:25] <penguin42> no, I mean it's failing too early
[16:25] <daftykins> yeah, not enough of a failure to trip the LED diagnostic system into showing an issue, too
[17:25] <penguin42> daftykins: I know people who have an M.2->PCIe->serial adapter chains in laptops
[17:26] <daftykins> what for? not quite following you
[17:26] <penguin42> getting early serial debug out - I think mostly from Linux kernels, but perhaps also bioses?
[17:27] <ball> serial ATA?
[17:27] <ball> ...or, just serial?
[17:27] <penguin42> serial
[17:27] <ball> I like serial but it makes no sense for storage.
[17:27] <ball> Might go out on my bike.
[17:28] <ball> ...before it rains again.
[17:28] <penguin42> ih yeh, nothing to do with sotrage
[17:28] <ball> Are there (E-key?) M.2 slots with serial pins?
[17:29] <penguin42> no idea - what I was talking about was slots with PCIe so then you convert to mini-PCIe to be able to plug in mini-PCIe serial adapters
[17:29] <ball> mini PCIe != M.2 though, right?
[17:29] <ball> (doesn't it predate M.2?
[17:29] <ball> )
[17:30] <penguin42> hence why I said an adapter
[17:30] <penguin42> electrically it's still PCIe (assuming it's PCIe M.2)
[17:30] <ball> You didn't mention miniPCIe though, which might have contributed to the confusion.
[17:31] <ball> That said, I didn't know miniPCIe serial boards were a thing.
[17:32] <ball> Let me kick off another Firefox build attempt and if the kids aren't home I'm going out on the pushbike.
[17:32] <daftykins> why are you wasting time with that over grabbing binaries?
[17:32] <daftykins> sweet, just managed to extract this ruined-head screw
[17:32] <ball> daftykins: This is for NetBSD on my Raspberry Pi 2B.
[17:33] <ball> daftykins: Did you cut a slot in it?
[17:33] <daftykins> hmm that just increases the nutty status of the task xD
[17:33] <daftykins> no i didn't have to
[17:33] <ball> daftykins: even better.
[17:34] <daftykins> https://i.imgur.com/KcBD10L.jpg
[17:34] <penguin42> ball: Are you building it on the Pi?
[17:34] <ball> daftykins: I have a few old desktop PCs here that could run (some sort of) Ubuntu but I still want a NetBSD box for some things.  This Pi is not quite cutting it so I'm tempted to buy a Chaco Canyon NUC
[17:34] <ball> penguin42: Yes.
[17:34] <penguin42> ball: Well, at least it gives you time for a long bike ride
[17:35] <daftykins> wouldn't that be more fitting of a VM?
[17:35] <ball> penguin42: It'd give me time for several days of bike riding, if it works.
[17:35] <ball> penguin42: Usually it fails on day 1 or 2 though.
[17:35] <ball> daftykins: I do have a NetBSD VM on my current Ubuntu desktop.
[17:35] <daftykins> i managed to remove some fluff from inside the screwhead using a paperclip before i attacked it xD
[17:36] <penguin42> ball: run out of ram?
[17:36] <ball> penguin42: Sometimes.
[17:36] <ball> penguin42: I've given it a separate disk for swap though.
[17:37] <ball> There are some things I can't do on my desktop if the VM is running and of course I have to shut it down (or perhaps pause it) when I reboot the Ubuntu box.
[17:37] <ball> ...and sometimes the Ubuntu box just crashes.
[17:37] <ball> ...so it would take the VM with it if that were running.
[17:40]  * ball fights the temptation to buy an old blade server ;-)
[17:41] <ball> Alright, I'll try a Firefox 68 build.
[17:41] <ball> Back after the bike ride!
[17:43] <daftykins> old release too? i don't get why you'd bother xD
[18:17] <daftykins> ok, ebay subtitute ordered for £32.95 - should work out nicely
[18:18] <daftykins> just the main board assembly essentially, might bork Windows activation but eh
[18:43] <ball> daftykins: Well I tried 93 but I don't have Rust.
[18:43] <ball> ...so it won't build.
[19:42] <ball> Let's see whether it can build Python 37.
[20:29] <ball> Hello Chris