When restoring early-2000s hardware, the original Xbox often comes with a hidden danger – the clock capacitor. This small component was originally designed to keep the system clock running when the console was unplugged. While the idea made sense back in 2001, it turned into one of the most...
Recently a friend of the museum sent us his breadbin Commodore 64 that he acquired online with complains that there is garbage on the screen and there is no cursor. As much as we like restoring vintage computers and dealing with newer problems that enrich our knowledge base, we have never actually...
Recently we found another Pravetz 8D on auction for a good price and in good condition. No matter that we have a few units in our collection, we decided to save this one as well. You can never have too many Pravetz computers. On first sight the unit was in mint condition, even the waranty seal...
Recently, we acquired some teletypes for the collection, one of them is the RFT F2000. The F2000 features microprocessor control, not like the earlier models which rely on motor driven mechanisms for the encoding and decoding of the signals. Here are some photos of the restoration process. Another...
One of the many tasks in the museum is to have the appropriate era-correct monitor for our Pravetz 82. We managed to acquire one or two throughout the years, but they had missing transformers and CRT yokes that were stolen from scrapers for their expensive copper. Well, a recent donation to the...
During soviet times many computer clones were created, most of them were manufactured in Bulgaria and then exported to the USSR. But many other computers were made inside the USSR, mainly ZX Spectrum clones. In our example, the computer is manufactured from the beginning of the end of the USSR to...
After searching for a long time, we finally found a compatible mouse for our ATARI 520STFM on the web. We bought it for 25BGN, which is quite cheap. To our amazement it works. Lets take it apart to look inside and clean it. Removing the ball and taking off the top lid, which is held by two...