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I got this machine through Marktplaats, a Dutch consumer auction and secondhand items site. Many thanks to Nico for the careful packaging and the inclusion of everything needed!
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Specs
Bios | Award bios version V4.51PG |
Processor | Pentium 1 (P54) |
Motherboard | AI5TV |
First round…
Fixing the battery
This machine came with a dead battery, and it causes boot failures.
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And with that the machine could remember its settings
Storage
The machine was altered, it came with 2 harddisks and a CD reader. The extra harddisk was lodged between the CD drive and the other drive and not fixed with screws. One disk contains Windows 2000, the other Windows 98. Both disks have problems and give errors, but you can get the OSes to boot, sometimes partially. The Windows 2000 disk contains the Sniffer software.
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Make sure to wait for the process to finish and eject the disk from the OS before removing/switching off the converter.
Many thanks to this article on how to use ddrescue.
Making the Dolch boot from the new device
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Once saved replace the disk with the SDcard thing again. It should now boot.
Keyboard repair
Next was the damaged keyboard. I ordered some replacement switches (Cherry MX Blue) and replaced the damaged switch:
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I did of course not have the original keycap so I reused one from an old set of PC keycaps.
Round 2
When I started to put everything back into the housing after a week I found out that the machine would not boot- of course after everything got in..
The clock and CMOS was also reset. Checking the battery showed it to be completely flat. Clearly something uses a lot of power.
After replacing the battery I also found out that something is wrong with the IDE controller or the cable; it reports a disk failure 😢 - more to investigate..
There are more problems than just the IDE.. The floppy interface also does not work. Which is bad because we’ll need that to install anything.
I will investigate, but I will also be on the lookout for a new motherboard.
Motherboard replacement
The AI5TV motherboard is a “Baby AT” form factor board. Other boards that have that form factor and which might fit are:
In the end I opted for Soyo SY-5BT5 2.x:
This fits rather nicely.