David L. Farquhar

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Lenovo Thinkcentre M58 upgrades

Dave Farquhar Hardware February 10, 2017June 5, 2018Broadcom, intel, Intel Core, lenovo, nvidia, Windows 10

I picked up an off-lease Lenovo Thinkcentre M58 over the weekend. Based on the date code on the hard drive, this one dates to 2010. It’s a serviceable machine. You have a few options when it comes to Lenovo Thinkcentre M58 upgrades. I wouldn’t necessarily use one as a basis for a $100 gaming PC but you can make a great general purpose home PC out of one.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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When KB Toys closed

Dave Farquhar Retail February 9, 2017April 22, 20181940s, 1980s, 1990s, baseball cards, Big Lots, christmas, CVS, debts, IPO, Missouri, Star Wars, toys r us

When KB Toys closed is a relative question. While KB Toys went out of business in 2009, the store closest to you may have closed earlier than that. It was a sad end for a staple of my childhood, and possibly yours. KB Toys isn’t the only toy store to go out of business of course, but it was one of the more notable ones.

Dave Farquhar

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Optimize Windows 10 for better performance

Dave Farquhar Windows February 8, 2017March 11, 20241990s, antivirus, ccleaner, chrome, defragmenter, Disk Cleanup, firefox, intel, micron, print spooler, ramdisk, receipt, Task Manager, unnecessary services, Windows 10, windows 7, windows 98, xbox

When I first installed it, I thought it was pretty pointless to try to optimize Windows 10. Of course, I installed it from scratch on a computer with an SSD and 16 gigs of RAM. Then I upgraded a couple of computers from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and I started to see why some people might not like Windows 10 all that much.

Upgraded systems almost always run slow, but I’d forgotten how much slower. And while you didn’t have to do much to Windows 7 to make it fast–that’s one reason people liked it–I find some Windows 10 optimization seems to be necessary. But don’t visit dodgy sites like downloadmoreram.com. Follow these tips for things that actually work.
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Dave Farquhar

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Is peel and stick tile any good?

Dave Farquhar DIY February 7, 2017March 13, 2021baseboards, cheap stuff

Is peel and stick tile any good? That’s a fair question, considering its low cost. And if you just buy the cheapest peel and stick you can find and slap it down without any preparation or thought, you probably won’t be very happy with it.

That said, if you do good prep work and think about it, you may find peel and stick vinyl tile more durable than costlier floor types.

Dave Farquhar

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All about the Lionel KW

Dave Farquhar Toy trains February 6, 2017August 1, 20171950s, 1960s, american flyer, diodes, KW, lionel, LW, marx, postwar lionel

The Lionel KW is the second most powerful, and second most popular Lionel transformer of the 1950s and 1960s. If the Lionel ZW was Lionel’s Cadillac, the KW was Lionel’s Buick. It was a 190-watt transformer and Lionel sold it from 1950 to 1965. It replaced Lionel’s 150-watt ZW lookalike, the VW.

Finding original KW instructions or an original KW manual online is a bit difficult, but there’s plenty the original instructions don’t mention.

Dave Farquhar

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Commodore 1541 vs clones

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 3, 2017November 15, 20241541, capacitors, commodore, MOS, power brick

The battle of the Commodore 1541 vs clones existed because Commodore’s early track record was rather imperfect.

Commodore’s 1541 floppy disk drive was the first consumer disk drive that cost less than $300, so it has an important place in computing history.

What some people forget is that while it broke new ground, its early owners loved to hate it. It was slow, it was loud, and ran hot. Early units were unreliable too. And to add insult to injury, in 1982 and 1983, Commodore couldn’t build them fast enough to keep up with demand. Even though it had problems, people were eager to buy it. (Disk drives for other computers tended to be problematic too, in this young industry.)

The 1541’s problems led to a number of clones that tried to be a little bit better.

Dave Farquhar

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A 4inkjets review: recommended

Dave Farquhar Saving money February 2, 2017August 3, 2018

It’s not as easy as it could be to find a 4inkjets review, so I thought I’d write one myself. I’ve been buying from 4inkjets.com for more than a decade and I recommend them. Here’s why.

Dave Farquhar

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Londontoy: Canada’s answer to Tootsietoy

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized February 1, 2017July 31, 20181940s, Canada, decals, estate sales, tin, train layout

Years ago at an estate sale in St. Louis’ Central West End, I bought a number of Tootsietoy vehicles. When I got home, I noticed some had only the word “toy,” a number, description, and “Made in USA” inside. That was weird. These weren’t Tootsietoys. They were Londontoy.

Dave Farquhar

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Fix a Windows boot loop with AHCI

Dave Farquhar Windows January 31, 2017August 11, 2017command prompt, NCQ, PE, UEFI, Windows 10, windows 7

My wife’s computer was stuck in a Windows boot loop. We’d get the Windows 7 boot screen, and it would display a single pixel of the Windows 7 logo, then reboot itself endlessly. Booting in safe mode made it fail on classpnp.sys.

Any number of things can cause this, and it usually happens after you swap a motherboard. Enabling AHCI turned out to be the fix. Enabling AHCI also can be easier said than done, but I figured it out. She’s running Windows 7 (for now) but these same tricks should also work for Windows 10.

Dave Farquhar

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All about the Lionel ZW

Dave Farquhar Toy trains January 30, 2017July 27, 20221950s, 1960s, american flyer, amperage, diodes, KW, lionel, LW, marx, postwar lionel

The Lionel ZW is Lionel’s most iconic transformer of the 1950s and 1960s, and perhaps one of its most iconic products, period. Everyone wanted the two-handled, football-shaped, 275-watt powerhouse that was the ZW. It was one of Lionel’s more venerable postwar products, lasting on the market for 18 years from 1948 to 1966. It replaced Lionel’s former top-of-the-line transformer, the Z.

Finding original ZW instructions or an original ZW manual online is a bit difficult, but there’s plenty the original instructions don’t mention.

Dave Farquhar

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The Silicon Underground

Author: Dave Farquhar

Lenovo Thinkcentre M58 upgrades

When KB Toys closed

Optimize Windows 10 for better performance

Is peel and stick tile any good?

All about the Lionel KW

Commodore 1541 vs clones

A 4inkjets review: recommended

Londontoy: Canada’s answer to Tootsietoy

Fix a Windows boot loop with AHCI

All about the Lionel ZW