Tech trivia
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Scared0o0Rabbit
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here's another bit of trivia, motherboards make weird popping sounds (prolly capacitors) and cause green falmes when thrown into fire pits
;;; another interesting bit of trivia is that wood cutting axes are good ways to render hard drives unusable lol
I once stuck a 9V *AC* adapter in an external cd drive that required 9v *DC*. Accidentially I had the unit opened up so I could see the circuit board, and I started to wonder what that LED was.... turned out it wasn't a LED but a diode or something that burned bright orange and had pinkish grey smoke coming from it. Looks like a burnt cigarette now
I once got 2 external modems AC adapters confused and switched around. I used the USR 56k modem's AC on the Olitec 33.6 and the poor little thing let out a poof of smoke and the all too familar smell of burnt electronics.
Oddly, I thought I might could salvage it and quickly unplugged it. I tried the original AC but with no luck. . . but then I decided to lower the original voltage from 9volts to 5volts. Wow! it worked. So I wired the 5voltage from my computer's PSU and wired it straight to the modem.
I liked this setup even more because I gained 1 extra AC outlet!
. . . It ran great like this for another 2 months. But then, I decided to switch it to another computer. The comp's PSU must have been a slightly different voltage, because I got to see another set of firworks displayed from this little trusty modem . . but this time for good.
That was the best modem I ever owned. The "Olitec SelfMemory 33600," this neat little thing could fit in the palm of your hand. It was an independant answering and fax machine, it had 2MB of memory to store faxes and voicemail, and the modem was a Rockwell chipset. All parts worked great, but I only used it as a modem and it stayed connected 24/7 for WEEKS! literally! I hope I can buy another one day. I think it was from france.
Oddly, I thought I might could salvage it and quickly unplugged it. I tried the original AC but with no luck. . . but then I decided to lower the original voltage from 9volts to 5volts. Wow! it worked. So I wired the 5voltage from my computer's PSU and wired it straight to the modem.
I liked this setup even more because I gained 1 extra AC outlet!
. . . It ran great like this for another 2 months. But then, I decided to switch it to another computer. The comp's PSU must have been a slightly different voltage, because I got to see another set of firworks displayed from this little trusty modem . . but this time for good.
That was the best modem I ever owned. The "Olitec SelfMemory 33600," this neat little thing could fit in the palm of your hand. It was an independant answering and fax machine, it had 2MB of memory to store faxes and voicemail, and the modem was a Rockwell chipset. All parts worked great, but I only used it as a modem and it stayed connected 24/7 for WEEKS! literally! I hope I can buy another one day. I think it was from france.
There's a little more to my capacitor explosion story.
I've just got to do a bit more time testing before I'm sure, but it seems that the PSU in my US Dreamcast will actually run on 240v, except for the one that exploded.
The PSU was marked as having a 250V 2A fuse, so I guessed that perhaps it was actually auto sensing and that it could run on a range of voltages. I hooked the PSU up to a dodgy (and expendable) mainboard and to 240v and it actually operated normally for a short period of time. Then the 100uF 200v cap started to hiss and then went bang. It took me by surprise.
Anyway, I've since got a 100uF 400v cap and installed it and all seems well. Unfortunately it's taller than the one it replaces, so now I'm off to find a more compact cap. If anyone is interested I'll post some more pics when I'm happy that it's fixed.
I've just got to do a bit more time testing before I'm sure, but it seems that the PSU in my US Dreamcast will actually run on 240v, except for the one that exploded.
The PSU was marked as having a 250V 2A fuse, so I guessed that perhaps it was actually auto sensing and that it could run on a range of voltages. I hooked the PSU up to a dodgy (and expendable) mainboard and to 240v and it actually operated normally for a short period of time. Then the 100uF 200v cap started to hiss and then went bang. It took me by surprise.
Anyway, I've since got a 100uF 400v cap and installed it and all seems well. Unfortunately it's taller than the one it replaces, so now I'm off to find a more compact cap. If anyone is interested I'll post some more pics when I'm happy that it's fixed.
How about these:
A 486SX is a 486 whose math coprocessor failed testing and was disabled, and the 487 "math coprocessor" is actually a normal 486 in a different package that interacts with the motherboard to disable the original CPU.
Some people say that a kilobyte is 1000 bytes and a megabyte is 1000 kilobytes. Others say that a kilobyte is 1024 bytes and a megabyte is 1024 kilobytes. A "1.44MB" floppy, however, is only 1.44 megabytes if a kilobyte is 1024 bytes and a megabyte is 1000 kilobytes.
Many game systems don't really have a hard limit to the number of sprites onscreen, only the number of sprites that can occupy the same horizontal line.
USB has three transfer rates. The one designated "full speed" is actually the middle speed, not the highest speed.
The "PS/2" mode on parallel ports is actually the legitimization of a simple hack that made the original IBM parallel port cards bidirectional.
A 486SX is a 486 whose math coprocessor failed testing and was disabled, and the 487 "math coprocessor" is actually a normal 486 in a different package that interacts with the motherboard to disable the original CPU.
Some people say that a kilobyte is 1000 bytes and a megabyte is 1000 kilobytes. Others say that a kilobyte is 1024 bytes and a megabyte is 1024 kilobytes. A "1.44MB" floppy, however, is only 1.44 megabytes if a kilobyte is 1024 bytes and a megabyte is 1000 kilobytes.
Many game systems don't really have a hard limit to the number of sprites onscreen, only the number of sprites that can occupy the same horizontal line.
USB has three transfer rates. The one designated "full speed" is actually the middle speed, not the highest speed.
The "PS/2" mode on parallel ports is actually the legitimization of a simple hack that made the original IBM parallel port cards bidirectional.
That reminds me of a few computers I've worked on.
I was reformatting an "Apex" computer, and it was ALL USB! The keyboard, mouse, and everything was USB. No parallel, PS/2, or serial.
When I went to full DOS to Fdisk and format I relized the USB keyboard wouldn't work. I knew it had to be some silly design. I ripped the computer apart, and noticed the 2 PS/2 ports covered by the back label. :bs So I cut the label very pretty like and *voila* new PS/2 ports.
I really hate this type of marketing and design.
Oh yeah, I also found pins on the Mobo for the serial port. I cut up an old ISA serial card and got the port, and wired it to the mobo.
So it actually gained a serial port too.
Recently, I done the same thing to a Packard Bell. It only had 1 USB port, which I knew was silly. I just knew a 2nd USB port was next to it. I was so confident I just went ahead and tore the label off. *tada* an extra USB port.
I suppose it was to sale this as the "lower" model. what bullshit.
if you open up a floppy disk, take the magnetic disk out, then fill it with matchead shavings, the disk wil lcatch on fire as soon as a computer trys to read it!
Your avatar looks like Spider Man's crotch.
your 110volt saturn will work on 220 volt fine, for a few hours, until it turns itself off 
(later led me to get a 220volt mod...) anyhow, after running the saturn at 220volt with 220v/110v mod for years (like me) your saturn will not spin CD's fast enough sometimes, giving you jerky graphics... :huh oh and this will somehow cause you to open your saturn, and discover a modchip (like I did) and take it out, (which makes it work fine for a few hours) and lose the chip (just as I have)
now I have to use a power transformer on my Grey Japanese saturn to run it on 220v and must swap with it because I lost my 20pin chip... lol (btw, that 20 pin chip had another pair of connectors to which 21pin cables could be connected to... and you only needed to solder the power...)
(later led me to get a 220volt mod...) anyhow, after running the saturn at 220volt with 220v/110v mod for years (like me) your saturn will not spin CD's fast enough sometimes, giving you jerky graphics... :huh oh and this will somehow cause you to open your saturn, and discover a modchip (like I did) and take it out, (which makes it work fine for a few hours) and lose the chip (just as I have) now I have to use a power transformer on my Grey Japanese saturn to run it on 220v and must swap with it because I lost my 20pin chip... lol (btw, that 20 pin chip had another pair of connectors to which 21pin cables could be connected to... and you only needed to solder the power...)
