[12:08] on this day in 1955 eniac computer was retired [12:17] I wonder what it's parts were reused in [12:17] probably a lot, a *LOT* of valve radios :-P [12:23] heh some seems to survive - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC#/media/File:ENIAC_Penn1.jpg [12:24] 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] a clients secretary's little cute Dell Latitude 3330 seems to be POSTing on less than 1 in 10 attempts [12:25] power supply or short? [12:26] 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] 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] not even a beep? [12:44] nope codes are allegedly conveyed by LEDs on this one, but none show up [12:44] i did feel a MOSFET on the board that seemed a bit toasty, could be within norms though [12:45] i'd remove everything incuding ram and see if i can get anything consistently out of it [12:45] 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] 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] sounds like someone has been there before you [12:47] 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] screws don't strip themselves. and it'd be something i'd remember a decade later [12:49] 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] i'll just leave this here https://boingboing.net/2021/10/02/the-history-of-teletext-in-18-minutes.html [15:34] https://i.imgur.com/mJHBZar.jpg - came up once! [16:16] any options under POST behaviour that might be useful? [16:24] doubt it [16:25] 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] no, I mean it's failing too early [16:25] yeah, not enough of a failure to trip the LED diagnostic system into showing an issue, too [17:25] daftykins: I know people who have an M.2->PCIe->serial adapter chains in laptops [17:26] what for? not quite following you [17:26] getting early serial debug out - I think mostly from Linux kernels, but perhaps also bioses? [17:27] serial ATA? [17:27] ...or, just serial? [17:27] serial [17:27] I like serial but it makes no sense for storage. [17:27] Might go out on my bike. [17:28] ...before it rains again. [17:28] ih yeh, nothing to do with sotrage [17:28] Are there (E-key?) M.2 slots with serial pins? [17:29] 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] mini PCIe != M.2 though, right? [17:29] (doesn't it predate M.2? [17:29] ) [17:30] hence why I said an adapter [17:30] electrically it's still PCIe (assuming it's PCIe M.2) [17:30] You didn't mention miniPCIe though, which might have contributed to the confusion. [17:31] That said, I didn't know miniPCIe serial boards were a thing. [17:32] Let me kick off another Firefox build attempt and if the kids aren't home I'm going out on the pushbike. [17:32] why are you wasting time with that over grabbing binaries? [17:32] sweet, just managed to extract this ruined-head screw [17:32] daftykins: This is for NetBSD on my Raspberry Pi 2B. [17:33] daftykins: Did you cut a slot in it? [17:33] hmm that just increases the nutty status of the task xD [17:33] no i didn't have to [17:33] daftykins: even better. [17:34] https://i.imgur.com/KcBD10L.jpg [17:34] ball: Are you building it on the Pi? [17:34] 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] penguin42: Yes. [17:34] ball: Well, at least it gives you time for a long bike ride [17:35] wouldn't that be more fitting of a VM? [17:35] penguin42: It'd give me time for several days of bike riding, if it works. [17:35] penguin42: Usually it fails on day 1 or 2 though. [17:35] daftykins: I do have a NetBSD VM on my current Ubuntu desktop. [17:35] i managed to remove some fluff from inside the screwhead using a paperclip before i attacked it xD [17:36] ball: run out of ram? [17:36] penguin42: Sometimes. [17:36] penguin42: I've given it a separate disk for swap though. [17:37] 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] ...and sometimes the Ubuntu box just crashes. [17:37] ...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] Alright, I'll try a Firefox 68 build. [17:41] Back after the bike ride! [17:43] old release too? i don't get why you'd bother xD [18:17] ok, ebay subtitute ordered for £32.95 - should work out nicely [18:18] just the main board assembly essentially, might bork Windows activation but eh [18:43] daftykins: Well I tried 93 but I don't have Rust. [18:43] ...so it won't build. [19:42] Let's see whether it can build Python 37. [20:29] Hello Chris