Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com

Hello everyone! I'm Adrian Black, a retro computer YouTuber who fixes stuff from Portland, Oregon.

Main: youtube.com/@adriansdigitalbasement
Second: youtube.com/@adriansdigitalbasement2
Extras: youtube.com/@adriansdigitalbasementextras

A friend just shared this with me.

They were installing Windows 3.1 and noticed a particular printer listed as part of the built-in printer driver set.

Amazing!
1
0
101
Reminder! VCF PNW in Seattle is coming up. I'll be one of the exhibitors, so if you're in the area, please come and say hi and stay for the retro goodness.
5
0
112
I have a Basic Fractal Benchmark on this Google Sheet:

If anyone has cool computers with 80-columns and BASIC, try running this little program while timing it.

Report back so I can add it to the leaderboard.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Sdh9vmm8RKGiE1-sTh9ThjFogLAoTg3M-5rL7LBWBUI/edit?usp=sharing
16
1
81
I've been doing more "stuff" with the Agfa Compugraphic 9000PS main processor board. It's really fun playing with this relic that no one cares about.
8
1
163
We just had record rain in Portland and it resulted in some water in the basement. 😢

Luckily I have water sensors, so I was alerted right away. It just means I need to reinforce the water proofing system for this one specific spot (which was around my water main.)

And try to dry the moisture...
13
0
113
This floppy is like the TARDIS. It might look like a normal 1.2mb floppy, but apparently it has 4 gigs of bad sectors on it!
22
5
475
Reposted by Adrian's Digital Basement
polpo.org's profile picture
Ian Scott @polpo.org
1mo
As the #PicoIDE campaign on Crowd Supply enters its final hours (www.crowdsupply.com/polpotronics/picoide), @ctrl-alt-rees.com has come out with a fantastic video all about the PicoIDE! And wow it looks good in that baby AT case. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_t0Ti3_rY
1
0
63
Magic smoke released.

Of course, it happened right after I screwed the cover on.
21
0
142
I just released another video on my extras channel.

This time. a mint Commodore VIC-20 with an unusual video fault:

youtu.be/YuxpjbKaHwI
1
0
72
My original video:
youtu.be/W1biFIdQZDw

And the information required to run the diags: (Manually)
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zsc7ET5fyiOYWj1_AzOgafbrCVFED-7jzLH6ruCiAVE/edit?usp=sharing
0
0
30
A while back I made a video where I figured out how to run the built in ROM diags on a Mac SE/30 over its serial port. I documented the work and some smart folks have turned that work into an easy to use program that anyone can use:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K48vtzdnXa8

Great resource to fix a bad Mac!
3
0
84
I don't normally post about my own videos on the socials, but I thought I'd share a video I just made live on my extras channel.

I'm starting to do more small/quick things over on the extras channel, so just trying to spread the word a bit.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0SJLSqyHrY
3
1
99
More developments:

Scott talks about how Ars Technica published an article on the subject with AI hallucinated quotes, discusses theories on why the original piece was posted and by whom, and the overall effectiveness of it.

theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me-part-2/
3
2
40
An interesting phone I stumbled across: The Plaza 2 by Northwestern Bell Phones.

I couldn't find any information on this phone, so I thought I'd share photos of this ugly two line phone.

Of course it works perfectly, has a nice sounding electronic ring and has a nice sounding heavy handset.
1
0
69
The power switch/toggle thing is unintuitive and hard to use on this, something that was changed from the Ultimate 64 single button.

Verdict: I like it, although it's not for me. (I prefer using original hardware.) If you already have an Ultimate 64, I don't see any reason to upgrade. 2/2
3
0
31
Got to spend some time with one of the new Commodore 64 machines at last night's PDX retro meet-up.

While I prefer the OG C64 color scheme, the clear keyboard substrate/PCB is nifty. The UI feels exactly like the older Ultimate 64: a little confusing and daunting to someone not used to it. 1/2
3
0
62
✊🏼
4
2
292
I posted a new "Quick-Fix" video over on the Extras channel.

I actually post stuff over there randomly, so you might want to subscribe to be alerted to the random releases :-)

This crashing Amiga 2000 had me briefly stumped until I found the culprit:

youtu.be/ti2MoLQ0aXs
4
0
72
A great distraction to what's happening in the US:

An excellent history lesson from Brad on what is actually the first home computer video card. It's probably not what you think!

youtu.be/8NwL0A4Vaww?si=3qwj7qEpVRFKBqpj
3
0
80
I'm sitting here crying.

Watching the footage and reading the accounts of what happened to Alex Pretti has broken me...
12
2
184
I have to give up at this point, I have wasted so much time chasing issues to find no solutions. I moved from another hub: Hubitat. It worked great for many years with all these same devices in the same environment. Anyway TL;DR: HA + ZHA is a nightmare. I'd avoid it if you value your sanity. /END
3
1
17
I find other threads of people with the same issues, but really no concrete solutions. There are so many bugs in ZHA too, like if you delete a device, it will just come back and add itself. (As long as that device is within range.) Sometimes you have to restart ZHA to get things to work. 4/many
1
0
10
After leaving it to sit for half the day, things were so broken, so I went back to the stock "table routing" and now things mostly work again. All the Ikea and Philips lights are supposed to support "source routing" but clearly something is super broken. 3/many
1
0
9
And with about 90 Zigbee devices, things are just pretty unstable. Every day a few devices drop off. I tried changing to "Source Routing" which is supposed to improve things, but it was much worse. In fact, about half of my lights broke, with error 3074, which is some routing error. 2/many
1
0
9
I've been moving over to HA (Home Assistant) -- consolidating onto it, and it's been a total nightmare. The platform itself works OK, but the Zigbee implementation using ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) is a bit of a disaster. I'm using the ZBT-2 for Zigbee, their official radio. 1/many
9
0
37
Attention everyone in the North East!

Did you know a Vintage Computer Festival is happening this coming weekend outside of Montreal?

Go experience some vintage tech love at one of these events. It's a real blast!

vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/
8
0
59
Well these are damn good! Thanks @cencio1976.bsky.social
8
0
75
@jeriellsworth.bsky.social Pinball loves you too!
1
0
75
Fun at VCF MW 2025 with a toy camera and printer!

(With @amylherndon.bsky.social and @jeriellsworth.bsky.social )
1
0
80
Load more