Hardware/Software Mods/Maintenance Thread - Computers, software, vehicles, appliances, power tools, ect.

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Last year I delidded an ancient prebuilt PC that was lagging like a bitch at 80c on idle, smeared liquid metal where the crust used to be, and it's ran smoothly (for a 10+ year old workhorse) at 30c ever since. That experience taught me that old equipment can last forever if you know how to keep it maintained or make a modification to it, just so long as you don't bend pins or scratch silicon, that is. Haha, liquid metal go brrr.

What are mods or repairs that you've made to either enhance or extend the life of equipment that you have? Could be anything like cars, computers, appliances, TVs, ect. Software/vidya mods work too.

 

[Stasi]

Fixed a few laptop lids and hinges with epoxy putty. Hinges on laptops are common break points but easy enough to fix with a £5 purchase and a bit of DIY. Not the most sophisticated method and if you open up the screen lid on my laptop it looks like crap but this stuff dries like cement and my laptop lid can probably take a tank blast before it breaks again.

 

[AmpleApricots]

I've been keeping my Amiga 2000 alive since 1987. When I reactivated it around 8 10 years ago I fixed small battery damage, then later I replaced the capacitors in the power supply. (most were leaking) Over the last few years most repairs were in the power supply (I once blew up the video output circuity in the 90s by screwing around with the connectors while the computer was on, that was the only mainboard repair besides battery damage) latest repair was the power supply switch itself which got kinda worn out and scary to press. (In that computer like many others of that time, you switch mains power directly as opposed to a soft switch modern computers have - when turning it on, the switch could get stuck in a middle position with the fitting sound effects of sparks flying, hence "scary") Had to hunt down a switch that'd fit exactly for a bit. I see no reason to replace the power supply. It's a very simple one and manufactured in W. Germany, they last forever and the spare parts (besides the transformer) are easy to get. Only downside is that it has a terrible power factor and is very inefficient and there's not a lot to change where replacing it wouldn't be easier.

The monitor that went with it died over the years though, last defect was the flyback transformer and I couldn't source a fitting spare part. Bit of a pity, that one. But only a bit, I'm honestly not a big fan of CRTs. Don't like repairing them either.


I once took one of these home from an old working place, still in it's bag and barely used. The NiCd Rechargeable had leaked already but the battery compartment was sealed off very well, I also removed the internal NiCd for keeping the memory running in case the external battery is removed. There was only very minor battery damage and I soldered some NiMh batteries into the empty rechargeable hull. I run it once in a blue moon so the battery doesn't die again. It runs on an 80C85, which is a relative of the 8080. The screen is very cool and you can address and set every single pixel at on or off programatically. (I wish you could get such a big liquid crystal screen but apparently nobody makes them anymore) I kinda wanted to redo the whole power charging circuity and upgrade it to lithium which would make the battery last a lot longer, but it felt like defacing a historical item to make such drastic changes.

I have tons of these stories about old computers.