Author: Dave Farquhar

Marx 552 gondola

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
Marx 552 gondola

The Marx 552 gondola was a staple of Marx’s 6-inch line, running from way back in 1935 to 1952. It came in four different major variants, and only one of them is rare. The 552 is a good car for toy train operators, and also makes a nice Christmas train or display because of its color choices. Read more

16 GB in a Dell Latitude E6420

Dave Farquhar Hardware
16 GB in a Dell Latitude E6420

Officially, the maximum memory in the Dell Latitude E6420 laptop is 8 GB. That is the maximum stated Dell’s website, and the large memory vendors state the same thing. It’s hard for them to guarantee compatibility when the OEM states the maximum is 8 GB. Unofficially, numerous people, including yours truly, have upgraded them to 16 GB. Here’s how to install 16 GB in a Dell Latitude E6420 successfully.

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Make PDFs searchable in Windows

Dave Farquhar Software
Make PDFs searchable in Windows

PDF, or portable document format, is a somewhat problematic but very useful file format, especially for people who conduct a lot of historical research. But the problem with having megabytes or gigabytes of historical data on your computer is finding the information you are looking for. Here’s how to make PDFs searchable in Windows, because by default they are not.

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IBM 4863 monitor

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
IBM 4863 monitor

The IBM 4863 matched the industrial design of the PCjr, but was functionally very similar. And it wasn’t really priced any lower than it counterpart for the IBM PC. It’s retail price was $680, and the RGB cable to connect it to a PCjr was an additional $20.

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Clear CMOS password on an Intel AL440LX

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Clear CMOS password on an Intel AL440LX

I was restoring an old Micron Clientpro 766Xi when I ran into a corrupt BIOS password, so I couldn’t do much with the system. Micron used a slightly modified Intel AL440LX motherboard in these systems. So here’s how to clear a CMOS password on an Intel AL440LX. Other P2-era Intel boards will be similar.

The Intel AL440LX has a jumper at the front of the board. Unlike some other systems, you have to change the position of the jumper and turn the power on.

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Marx Sinclair tank car

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
Marx Sinclair tank car

The Marx Sinclair tanker was a refresh of the earlier and more common Marx 553 Middle States Oil tanker, a design that originated way back in 1935. The Sinclair tanker made the old design book newer, and perhaps more relevant for its era. It came in two major variants, one much easier to find than the other. It dates to 1956 and 1957.

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Write files to an img file in Windows

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Write files to an img file in Windows

Creating an IMG file of a DOS disk from individual files isn’t something you have to do often, but when you do, it’s a bit of a hassle. But it’s doable. Here’s how to write files to an img file in Windows, which you can then read with a Gotek floppy emulator running Flashfloppy.

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Chocolatey package manager for Windows

Dave Farquhar Windows
Chocolatey package manager for Windows

There has been a recent spate of malvertising targeting popular downloads. These paid advertisements masquerade as legitimate download links for popular software packages. The files they serve up look legitimate, but they include software that you don’t want. Using a package manager is one way to avoid this problem. Chocolatey is the name of a good package manager for Windows. It sidesteps malvertising and solves other system maintenance problems for you too.

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Why Fernando Valenzuela isn’t in the Hall of Fame

Dave Farquhar Baseball
Why Fernando Valenzuela isn’t in the Hall of Fame

In February 2023, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced they were going to retire Fernando Valenzuela’s uniform number 34. Unofficially, the number has been retired since 1990, because they never issued it to anyone else. But they never made it official, because he wasn’t in Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Here is why Fernando Valenzuela isn’t in the Hall of Fame.

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Marx 41850 train set: The Mohawk

Dave Farquhar Toy trains ,
Marx 41850 train set: The Mohawk

In 1974, Marx introduced a diesel freight train set it called The Mohawk, catalog #41850, that ran on AC electric power and sold through catalog retailers. If you have a Marx 41850 train set today, it’s worth considerably more than its original retail price, even adjusted for inflation.

Marx’s Mohawk train set was part of the Great American Railroads series. It had catalog number 41850 and was manufactured only in 1974. Today it is one of the most valuable Marx train sets ever made.

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