MikeTech

Pre-release: Compaq Presario 4240ES!

It's not déjà vu, it's another Compaq system! Guess I'm in a Compaq mood lately. This time a Presario 4240ES. It piqued my interest because it seems pretty wild for a machine of this era to have a DVD drive. I just had to check it out! Not giving away any more spoilers, but this one sure was fun to explore. So glad it didn't take me forever to make this one! We're slowly gaining ground on get...

Pre-release: Compaq Presario CDS 524 All-In-One!

At last, the video that felt like it would never get finished is finished! I'm steadily gaining some slivers of spare time back as my company's massive compliance push wraps up. I'll probably do the public release on Wednesday night, which means it will be mid-roll ad free for everyone until then! Thank you all so much for being patient and sticking around as I ramp back up! It does bother me t...

Compaq all-in-one!

At last, after way too much time I am starting on this Compaq CDS 524 all-in-one. This is a machine that I've owned for about 8 years now, and haven't ever given a proper once-over. It mostly functions, but has a few notable issues. One being the floppy drive (no worky at all) and the other being the monitor, which has intermittent deflection collapse. It's an interesting fault because it is co...

Pre-release: Leading Edge WinPro 486

Here's one of the systems from the fourth e-waste haul that piqued my particular interest: The Leading Edge WinPro 486. There seems to be something special about Leading Edge in general, because the prices always seem extra crazy. I used to have a little Leading Edge 386SX laptop back in the late '90s. It wasn't capable of much by then, having a monochrome screen and no sound. I still found it ...

Pre-release The Celebrity Tower!

This machine came as part of the fourth e-waste haul. I've just been dying to get into it! Not only is this style tower internet-famous as LGRs woodgrain 486, it's also one from my childhood. It was the one I hacked on the most, figuring out how to build and upgrade systems. Can't even count how many motherboards I swapped in and out of it. Its final configuration was powered by an AMD k6/2 500...

Pre-release: The HP Vectra Tower

What? I'm making a release!? Finally! I thank you all for your patience. New job has been pretty wild. It should be calming down now that we're out of peak season though. Our traffic explodes due to holiday online shopping (subsequently causing some systems to explode apparently). But anyway... At last: The HP Vectra tower video is complete! It seems to embody the same excellence as the desktop...

The Fourth E-Waste Haul

Well hello! I can't believe it's been nearly a month... I do apologize for that. When they said this was peak season at the new job, they weren't lying... Between that and scrambling to get the house in order for the holidays (sooo many projects), there hasn't been much time for relaxing activities. Also haven't been in the greatest of spirits here lately, though luckily I'm just about over tha...

Pre-release: Mid-2000s parts salvage, exploration and horrors!

So here I was thinking I'd do a nice, low-effort parts-salvage video in the interest of maintaining a schedule. Turns out that didn't work! This is apparently the busy season at the new job... Anyways, it's finally done! Just a couple of junky systems from the mid-2000s. Wanted to see what all was salvageable, and if the horrors on the outside matched the horrors on the inside. I really wish it...

Pre-release: Tandy 2500!

At last, time to give this Tandy 2500 the love it deserves! Without spoiling anything, it was quite an adventure. These are some amazing machines!

Can't believe we broke the 1-hour mark. This machine could probably produce another 45 minutes of content.

Hope you like it! https://youtu.be/wWoKjnZZzBk

Time for the Tandy

Just in time to be late for #SepTandy, I've dug into this Tandy 2500. A machine like this requires a bit more love than the average system, thus is taking longer. I'm quite annoyed that I didn't hit the 4-week upload streak, but I suppose it's better not to rush this one. I should have it wrapped up in a few days. It has been a ton of fun already though!

Pre-release: Some random '90s desktop called Telstar!

What? A consecutive weekly release?? We're getting closer! For some reason I've been feeling like digging into some desktop form-factor systems. This one did not disappoint! Not going to spoil it, but it got weird!

Thanks for being awesome. Here's the linky: https://youtu.be/l6y4ZFBlWnU

Pre-release: The Pionex 486

Taking a break from the 2000's systems. Time to check out a good ol' 486. This system seemed like a promising subject. Case badge says Pionex, which I've never heard of. Googling reveals they're fairly well-remembered.

Hoping to get back to weekly uploads soon, but seems like even with single-system videos I find time-consuming tangents to go on. I do like being able to go into deeper de...

Pre-release: The AOpen CustomPC

Wow, I actually finished it? Felt like I was working on this one for a year... The mighty AOpen CustomPC has been gone through. These things really are impressive in their build quality.

Please enjoy this extended pre-release, as I'm not publicly releasing this until Friday. Sunday releases give sad initial metrics, especially this late. I'm also disabling midroll ads for the duration of...

Questions about the AOpen CustomPC. Also, where the hell have I been?

Well, that month FLEW by... Feels like it's been about three months. Sooo, where have I been? I had to take some time off to finish adapting to recent life changes. In addition to moving, I've also switched jobs. Its been a whirlwind... Sorry to anyone who might have been worried. Both changes were completely voluntary, not done under any duress and are overwhelmingly positive. Despite that, th...

Pre-release: 2000's system with windows! No, not those Windows...

Decided to conquer some curiosity and explore a system with some quintessential 2000's design elements. A window into its soul! Or guts maybe... This was originally supposed to be a two-system video, but I decided last night that it's best to finally make a release instead of worrying about video length. It's been un-survivably hot in the garage over the last month, severely limiting the amount...

Pre-release: Mid-2000s System Therapy

I cant even explain how good it feels to be getting a video out. Recording and editing is definitely the most normal I've felt since uprooting. Had some speedbumps in the process... I had to do a bunch of tweaking of the lighting. Never realized how I accidentally nailed lighting at the old house without even trying. Also ran into temperature issues. I thought that it being a finished garage wo...

Back in business!

The bench is back! I managed to replicate (almost) my exact setup. As you can see, the cat is far more settled in than I am. Hopefully getting back to recording/editing will help make the new place feel more normal. I'll be back at it (recording) in the coming days!

When you see it...

If you look carefully, there's a cat in the first picture. So where have I been? I've done the unthinkable: Decided to move house while hoarding 300+ computers. It's going exactly as well as you can imagine! However, the promise of a better garage (bigger, with better thermal properties) is keeping me motivated. I'm also looking forward to not living down the road from a police/fire station tha...

Pre-release: The iMac cosplayer, and the Aptiva wannabe.

For this video, I chose two funky cases from a time where PCs were starting to get colorful! The iMac-ish 'Antec Gemstone' case and a strange-faced beige box with unnecessary purple. Also, I owe you a cat pic. Been a wild week. Glad it's over though!

Hope you likey: https://youtu.be/Fb0hzLJ6B8w

If an iMac and a PC had a child...

This is probably what it'd look like. This will be one of the subjects for the next video. Thanks to Wyatt for providing some much-needed background info on this case. It is known as an Antec Gemstone. It was not manufactured by Antec, but it was sold by them. Shooting and editing is still in-progress. It came with quite the (pleasant) surprise inside. I won't spoil it though...

Much to m...

Pre-release: The IBM PC XT (5160)

26 hours of editing... Countless hours shooting... It's finally done! The most-recent eWaste haul has graced my bench with a machine I've been hunting for years: The IBM 5160. These machines were super important for me, as I found them most-fascinating as a kid. Could possibly be the whole reason I went into the tech industry (and boy am I grateful for that). We did also have a 5150, but I much...

Pre-release: Sony Vaio Systems!

Time to see what all the fuss was about with Sony Vaio systems. I can remember these commanding quite a premium over other pre-built systems of the era. That certainly put them out of my reach, so the systems in this video are actually the first Vaios I've ever worked on.

Feels strange pre-releasing on a Monday. Still need to shoot the thumbnail and add timestamps. Will do that after wor...

The furry one is getting brave...

Well, the XT continues to resist repair. Without giving away too many spoilers, I had to bust out the ol' SillyScope. Now I'm waiting for more parts to arrive. It is becoming quite a saga. I did start shooting another video in-between work on the XT, but it isn't ready yet. Please accept this cat pic in-lieu of a video for this week. She is normally terrified of the garage, but lately has been ...

Pre-release: A Byte-sized video for a byte-sized system

I managed to eek out a single-system video this week. It's a short one, but I figured a short video is better than no video. Still waiting for XT parts, so I wanted to get something out for this weekend. For a little video, why not cover a little system? That Shuttle XPC SFFPC from the most-recent e-waste haul was the obvious choice. Depending on how much this wrecks my watch-time metrics, I mi...

Update on the XT. Also, cat pics!

As I alluded to in the most-recent e-waste haul video, I've started working on the XT immediately after unpacking everything. Well, that process is taking much longer than expected. This is partially due to me being incredibly busy (annual reviews are coming up at work, so I'm really trying to show out), but it is also due to lacking a few things for XT-class machines. I suspected that the mach...

The third eWaste haul.

Here's a disheveled mini-vlog of this weekend's eWaste haul. A sneak-peak at some of the systems as well as some mild complaining about the trip. Beware: May contain bad editing and questionable sound.

Doing it again!

Well I got a bit de-railed this week, but for a very good reason: A third e-waste haul! This one kinda snuck up on me. Had to act fast as the owner of the e-waste facility is moving locations. I had less than a week to organize the trip and get there before the deadline. Well, the deal is done! The husband and I are currently hurtling down the highway with them. There are many gems in this haul...

Pre-release: Gateways From Space!?

I was doing my usual dithering, trying to decide which systems to look at next. Then the husband said "You should do the alien Gateways". Well I guess it was time to get these done! Working on these out-of-this-world Gateway towers was a nice reprieve from a very busy two weeks at work. I sure hope people see what I was going for in the thumbnail LOL.

Hope you like it! 2024-03-22 05:02:05 +0000 UTC View Post

eMachines Video Performance

This has me quite excited so I just had to share. What's more unusual than getting nostalgic for eMachines? The popularity of the video! It is officially my most-successful video in terms of performance in the first 24 hours. My benchmark for a good first-day view count is about 10k, and this video did 13.7k. It also pulled in 69 new subscribers in that period (now 74). That's also higher than ...

Pre-release: eMachines towers!

Who would have ever guessed one could get nostalgia triggers from an eMachines! My family actually owned one of these systems back when it was new, so maybe that's why. My brother (in-law) received one for Christmas in 2005 or 2006. This video was so close to being delayed... Lost a day to work-related activities (hooray for DR failover tests). Burning the midnight oil to get this one out becau...