CD ROM Upgrade
Less than 2 months after purchase, I had to have that latest rage, a soundcard and CDROM.
Back to Costco. Picked up a "Windsound 16 Multi Media upgrade kit" by
Sigma Designs-better known for it's Reel Magic video products.
After a fast look at the instructions, the cover was off of the PB. Ugh, that
cover plate under the 5.25" disk drive revealed an opening obstructed by a metal
plate welded to the frame. Well, if I cannot get past this, it's either jettison
the floppy drive or return the CDROM kit. Close inspection showed that the
opening's metal cover was tack-welded in 4 places, given a little wiggle space, it
would be simple to pop the metal out. First remove the 3.5" floppy, two screws, disconnect
the power and ribbon cable and slide it out. Next was the 5.25" floppy. After disconnecting
it's power and ribbon cables, only remove the screws on the right side. The left
holes are "keyholed", and the drive will come out by slipping the left screws out of them
and removing the drive.
The offending metal plate came out with a slight pry of a screwdriver on the bottom welds
and bending back and forth the top welds. Since my keyboard rested in front of the
case it would be hit by the opening CD tray if the CD was installed in the lower
bay. So it was decided that I would put the CD in the top bay. Kidneys, eh?
Replaced the floppy drives. Popped the soundcard in a slot, connected it's data and
audio cables. Fired system up, ran install program from floppy, accepted
default everything, and viola! Now had multimedia. Spent an hour browsing
Compton's Encyclopedia with the cover off and loose parts scattered
over the kitchen table.
CD ROM II
After the great shove of Windows 95, I really wanted to go further
in both speed and sound. Office Depot had a sale on Creative Labs'
8X CDROM and AWE32 kits. This was easier than the first CD upgrade,
just an R & R of drive and sound card. The real test would be if Plug and Play
would function. It did. After feeding driver disks to the machine, I now could
better enjoy the use of the Spectrum CD of scanner frequency databases. Big
surprise came from an expanded sound fidelity. I plugged in a set of Sony MDR-V6
headphones and was so taken by the superior sound that the next visit
to Costco found me with a set of Yamaha M10 speakers to replace the
el cheapos that came with the Sigma kit. Speaking of, the Winsound kit
is installed in the Frankenstein computer-a co-worker's abandoned 386DX40
that has most of the PB's old parts. Still runs, it's good stuff.
"Kidneys". Said while pointing to head, as if pointing to brain. Favorite saying of friend AMC
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