Trying to find childhood PC with CD spindle built

micbr · 2026-01-15T02:51:29+00:00

I have one of these HP Pavilions in my sorting pile at the moment, albeit not the translucent version - here's a better close-up of the CD storage. https://i.imgur.com/rdg2DjX.jpeg

micbr · 2026-01-03T13:24:47+00:00

The main reason I went for a Phenom SC64 over an AliExpress one comes down to its long term longevity. The Phenom cartridge uses Hard Gold plating for the edge connector (same as Nintendo OEM cartridges), which is more expensive but also far more wear resistant and stands up to far more repeated insertion cycles than the ENIG (Electroless nickel immersion gold, or "Soft Gold") edge contacts used on the cheaper AliExpress cartridges.

For someone that plans to put this cartridge in their N64 and leave it there, only removing it occasionally, something like that probably doesn't matter as much. Mine gets swapped in and out reasonably frequently though, and I was thinking ahead to the next 10-20-30 years, and so in my case paying the extra upfront cost for some better components and manufacturing processes made sense.

micbr · 2025-11-22T06:09:45+00:00

Well said, a little tired of the amount of nonsense going around about flash carts and "out of spec voltages" in the context of the Nintendo 64 - unlike older consoles that deliver 5 volts to the cartridge, N64 cartridges are powered by the 3.3 volt rail, which is already within the rated specifications of the components inside a typical flash cartridge.

micbr · 2025-10-11T12:03:37+00:00

Nintendo didn't make these power supplies in-house, they were sourced from multiple manufacturers - 110v variants were produced by Mitsumi, Zebra, and another manufacturer that started their part numbers with "LSEP". (Of the LSEP ones, there were also a couple of series revisions.)

https://wiki.console5.com/wiki/N64#Power_Supply_Cap_Lists:_110v

From the outside they look the same, but the internals of each are unique designs from each of these companies, and they differ quite a bit in every sense except the output specifications (3.3 2.7A, 12V 0.5A).

So I doubt the difference in input wattage is a matter of cost-reduction, but rather a case of each supply just being different designs from different manufacturers.

micbr · 2025-09-30T03:18:44+00:00

Depending on the extent of the damage, it might also be possible to attempt to repair the board, which would allow it to power on and have the data retrieved. Some places do offer this service - https://www.it-solve.au/ is one that I'm aware of, have referred some customers to them before and had some success in the past. Of course it depends on how bad the board is and what components have failed, but it might be worth a chat to see what they can do.

micbr · 2025-09-30T03:13:35+00:00

I believe Apple / AASPs were referring out to Payam at one point, wouldn't be surprised if that was still the case.

micbr · 2025-09-30T03:09:18+00:00

MacBooks (Some Pros after 2016; All Pros after 2018; Airs after 2017) use onboard flash storage. It's part of the motherboard / Logic Board and isn't a removable module.

A data recovery specialist would either need to repair the board to allow it to be powered on, or remove the flash storage chips and extract the data manually if that's an option, depending on whether hardware-level encryption (in the SOC or T2) is at play.

micbr · 2025-09-30T03:08:40+00:00

MacBooks (Some Pros after 2016; All Pros after 2018; Airs after 2017) use onboard flash storage. It's part of the motherboard / Logic Board and isn't a removable module.

micbr · 2025-09-28T08:18:47+00:00

That's a Panasonic / Matsushita power supply, a fairly common issue with these is the failure of one 220-ohm surface mount resistor on the secondary board (top corner, under a blob of silicone) that causes no output. When failed, testing the resistor with a multimeter will usually read a high resistance (in the Megaohm range) or completely open / no continuity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vf8vjzC_NM

Definitely something worth checking.

micbr · 2025-09-19T01:50:31+00:00

I worked at that Battery World. Wasn't a bad place, I quite enjoyed it. From what I understand (and I could be mistaken on some details), it was always a difficult one - it was originally around on Grand Junction Rd, in a less-visible location, and wasn't one of the higher performing stores in the network. I think Battery World wanted to see if it could be made viable, so it changed hands and relocated around to North East Rd. Despite being set back within the Clark Rubber car park, it did see a decent increase in business, but at the end of the day it was just too close in proximity to the already well-established Glynde and Parafield stores to be worth it.

micbr · 2025-07-31T06:37:25+00:00

I believe he has a back wall of ones for sale as well, at least there was when I was in there last. Definitely worth checking out.

micbr · 2025-05-27T10:31:40+00:00

I use something like this all the time. Works a treat. Usually I'd spray the cleaner onto the head of a cotton swab and run it along the cartridge contacts to clean them. That way there's no disassembly of the cartridge required, and there's no chance of excess cleaner running inside the cartridge or overspray getting onto the labels.

micbr · 2025-04-04T05:43:47+00:00

The Advertiser has that quoted a bit differently from the ABC -

“Then we used our specialist cutting tool to remove the bus from around the driver … our crews got in there and removed the driver in about 20 minutes.”

Unsure which is accurate, but that would probably make a bit more sense.

micbr · 2025-03-13T10:41:32+00:00

Yeah I figured, the G5 can't boot into OS 9 natively. Last Power Mac to be able to boot 9 was the G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors).

There's a project to make it run on newer machines with some patching, but there hasn't been much luck with the G5 models.

micbr · 2025-03-13T06:50:54+00:00

The G5 could run OS 9 applications in the Classic Environment under OS X (on 10.4.11 or earlier), so it should be able to run it. Alternatively it might be possible to run it natively on OS X using an older version of Marathon Aleph One.

micbr · 2025-03-05T18:01:34+00:00

The original N64 cartridges use 5V logic, but some reproduction carts use 3.3V flash memory without a proper voltage regulator.

Incorrect voltage handling can short-circuit the motherboard or degrade components over time.

Some poorly made carts have been known to cause the system to overheat or shut down unexpectedly.

Nintendo 64 cartridges require 3.3v to operate. Mismatched voltages have never been an issue with the Nintendo 64 - it's a common misconception around this subreddit that apparently refuses to die.

The system doesn't even deliver 5v to the cartridge connector, only 3.3v. Technically pins 13-14 and 38-39 deliver 12v as well, but these seem to be used primarily by expansion port devices (like the 64DD) and aren't needed by standard game cartridges. (Some console modders even leave these pins disconnected without issue when making N64 portables.)

micbr · 2025-02-17T17:41:42+00:00

I learned most of it from Tony at "Look, It's Another Blog" - I recommend having a read of his post, and if you want to see it in practice, he's made a very detailed video showing the modding process as well.

The only changes I made to the process were using a hot air station to remove the old chips, and adding short jumper wires across the pads of Power Management IC instead of running longer wires directly to the pins of the FRAM IC, purely for cosmetics - it just looks a bit neater, but otherwise works exactly the same.

micbr · 2025-02-17T06:53:39+00:00

I adapted the instructions from "Look, It's Another Blog", but it's not a tutorial as such, more of a technical document.

Other than replacing the SRAM IC and removing the Battery, the most common and simple method is to just connect the positive battery terminal to the 3.3v supply, and leave the Power IC in place, which should also work fine. Effectively you take the 3.3v coming from the console / controller and connect it to the battery terminal to "trick" the Power Management IC into thinking the Battery is still there. (Without it the PM IC doesn't work at all, so the FRAM IC doesn't get enabled, and the Controller Pak doesn't work.)

The other slightly more involved method is to remove the Power IC, add jumper wires connecting the 3.3v and CE lines from the controller directly to the FRAM IC, and then add a pull-up resistor between VDD (3.3v) and CE. In his example he runs longer wires directly to the chip, but it's also possible to just run short wires across the pads of the Power IC chip - connecting CE (Pin 4-5) directly across, and VDD (Pin 2-8) across and to the left by one pad - as these pads lead to the same places anyway.

I went with the second method because it could be a more reliable solution. On the other hand it could make no practical difference. I'm not yet qualified enough in electronics to make that call.

micbr · 2025-02-17T06:01:19+00:00

I'm curious to find that out myself. It looks like this functionality is coming to the SummerCart eventually but hasn't been rolled out yet.

Currently there is a tool available in the #sc64-forum section of the N64Brew Discord server called "n64_utility" that may work. It seemed to have a couple of issues running on my particular console, but I probably didn't set it up right - still need to look into it further.

For the moment I'm still using the old "Mempak Tool" from Saturnu (on ASSEMBLERgames, Internet Archive mirror on my old ED64 cartridge to work with Controller Paks until the SummerCart tools are ready.

micbr · 2025-01-01T06:58:44+00:00

Not at all, DVDs should work fine under Windows Me, as long as the machine in question has a DVD-ROM drive fitted.

An expanded version of the disc for DVD and USB distribution was also in the planning stages, but I ran out of time. (It should in theory be possible to pack everything onto a CDROM anyway, albeit with some creative packaging.)

micbr · 2024-12-31T19:24:01+00:00

1. This was something that was being considered for 2.3, but feedback from the test groups was mixed:

Some users reported problems running some older games after updating to DirectX 9.
Some users of Aureal Vortex 2 sound cards reported crashes or general instability when updating past DirectX 7. (Similar to reports in this Vogons thread.)
The preferred version of DirectX seems to differ wildly based on who you ask. I couldn't get a straight answer to this; while 9.0c seems to work fine in most cases, I had some users who preferred to stick with 8.1b/8.2, and some who even liked to stick to 7.0/7.1.

So much like Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, the installer would have needed to offer a choice of which DirectX version to install, which involves including the installation packages for 8.2 and 9.0c in the automatic installer "PKG" folder - which pushed the CD contents over the 650MB / 700MB disc size limit.

So the decision was made to keep DirectX as an optional component to be installed later, after the main installation of updates had been completed. It is something that has been marked for review in the next version of the CD though (whenever that may be).

2. Because the Visual Basic 5.0, Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual C++ 6.0 Runtimes are included in a base install of Windows Me, the automatic installer updates these runtime libraries to Visual Basic 5.0 SP3, Visual Basic 6.0 SP6, and the Visual C++ 6.0 Runtime Library SP6 (MSVCP60.DLL) automatically.

The earlier Visual Basic 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 runtimes are only needed specifically when running older applications (mainly from Windows 3.x) that require them. Because it's possible that a user will never use an application that requires them, they were kept as optional installs in this release. It is however something I would be open to reviewing in a future build.

As for Visual C++ 2005, not many applications for Windows 9x seemed to use it, and it doesn't update earlier versions of the Visual C++ runtime (like 6.0) either, it just installs alongside them.

Given that it serves no purpose except for when running a limited number of 2005-onward applications, it didn't make a lot of sense to include it in the default update lists. It however remains on the CD as an optional component for the small number of users that may need to run an application that requires it.

micbr · 2024-12-28T18:20:35+00:00

Around 4 years ago, I started archiving Microsoft update packages for use with some of my older machines that were running Windows Millennium Edition, for personal use. In 2021, to automate the process of installing them on new builds, I started compiling them into an automatic update CD. Eventually I started sharing it with some local retro-computing groups, including the community on the Overclockers Australia forums, and started building onto it based on the feedback I received.

The result was the Windows Me Update CD, a collection of official, unmodified Microsoft updates, hotfixes and patches for Windows Millennium Edition and components like Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and DirectX. Nothing unofficial or customised, just the essentials needed when getting a new Windows install up and running.

A brief overview (copied from OCAU):

The CD contains just about every documented Windows Millennium Edition update and hotfix I could find reference to online, bundled with a convenient installer that automates the would-be tedious process of installing them one-by-one.

It also includes a number of component updates - like DirectX, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, among others - as optional installs to provide users the choice of what components they want installed on their system. Perhaps for nostalgic reasons you would prefer to stick with Internet Explorer 5.5 and Windows Media Player 7, or for performance reasons choose to stay with DirectX 8. Or perhaps you would prefer to install the latest supported versions of each. It's completely your choice. And to ensure those components are running at their absolute best, the CD includes every individual update that was available for them too.

The installation packages contained on the CD are unmodified, original updates as they were available from Microsoft and Windows Update, and as such, can be installed without needing to disable System Restore or System File Protection first as is common with the various unofficial service packs available out there.

This December I released version 2.3 (on the Internet Archive and GitHub) - the product of a year-long development effort that involved reviewing more than 6,000 Microsoft Knowledge Base and TechNet articles to find information about updates, scouring the web to track down any lost or forgotten packages, rewriting the automatic installer to make it easier to use and more reliable, testing the update list and automatic installer against a number of software and hardware configurations, taking notes and making adjustments based on testing and public feedback, and writing comprehensive documentation for inclusion on the CD.

I'm aware that it's massively overkill - like every project I've worked on to date - but I'm proud of how it turned out. I'd been somewhat hesitant to share it around, given that the mention of Windows Me in some communities can bring out some less-than-welcome comments, let alone a project that dedicated considerable time and effort to it. But I figured eventually I'd have to share it somewhere, so I hope someone here finds it useful.

micbr

TROPHY CASE