Monthly Archives: February 2014

Kids These Days, Continued

As the OS/2 museum pointed out, many kids these days don’t really know how to properly use floppies. Fortunately, not all is lost and at least some youngsters know exactly what to do with a 3½” diskette. First, firmly hold … Continue reading

Posted in Floppies | 6 Comments

Soyo SY-4SAW2 Notes

Following is a list of notes describing several less-than-obvious features and characteristics of the Soyo SY-4SAW2 486 VIP motherboard. This is a latter-day 486 board based on the SiS 496/497 chipset, notable for PS/2 mouse support and the ability to … Continue reading

Posted in 486, PC hardware | 8 Comments

Untested Error Paths

About a week ago I revived an old Sony VAIO laptop (model PCG-R505TS) that hadn’t been used for a few years. It had lost CMOS contents so I had to re-enter the date and adjust a few BIOS settings. The … Continue reading

Posted in PC hardware, Windows | 2 Comments

Soyo 4SAW2: Why So Slow?

Continuing to go through my junk pile, I unearthed a Soyo SY-4SAW2 motherboard. This is a late 1995 vintage 486 ISA/VLB/PCI motherboard with a SiS 85C496/497 chipset. It’s a classic Baby AT board with an AT keyboard connector, although it … Continue reading

Posted in PC hardware | 21 Comments

Butterfly Conservation

The OS/2 Museum recently acquired one of the famous IBM 701 ThinkPads, commonly nicknamed “Butterfly” thanks to the fold-out keyboard. Unfortunately, the unit suffered a fate common to many old ThinkPads—battery leakage. The unit would power on, but it had … Continue reading

Posted in PC hardware, ThinkPad | 3 Comments