UNDER CONSTRUCTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Never thought I would own something like this, but I do. This is an IBM PCjr, one of the very machines that I got from a huge computer lot from around the early to mid 2010s. This computer was known to be a huge flop from IBM, considering that they have been trying really hard to cater to the home market like they did with the business market. Ultimately, the Tandy ended up earning the crown, leaving the PCjr in the dust. Still, that didn't stop me from getting one of these by pure luck.
I was kind of excited to try it out when I brought it home for the first time. Now, of course, like all PCjrs at the time, it only came with one 5.25 inch floppy drive. So, you had to insert a disk in order to boot up the OS or access software. In other words, disk swapping! Yay! But, that didn't bother me in the slightest.
Now, the PCjr didn't come with any memory expansions. So, you'd be pretty much stuck with 128kb of RAM, like I did. Still, I thought it would be a pretty fun experiment to do, which is precisely what I did in a video. Rather cringy and stuff just looking at it now, but it was fun to do regardless. You can see the video itself below for yourself if you're curious.
After that video, I foolishly tested out some 5.25 floppy disks that I got from a tag sale in the Jr., which were dirty if I recall, and ended up ruining the disk drive. So naturally, I had to set it aside in hopes that I'll repair it later. And that I did, about a year later or so when I eventually pulled a floppy drive out of my Tandy 1000 and stuck it in there.
It was ecstatic when I finally got it fully working again. And around that time, I was finally able to secure a 128kb memory expansion for the Jr. It was at that point where I ended up making a follow up video to the PCjr video that I showed earlier. In this one, I was able to fully demonstrate what the PCjr was capable of, with its 3 voice sound and color graphics. You can see the video below.
Unfortunately, after that video, despite me claiming that I would do a review on the computer itself, the PCjr started suffering some memory issues, which ultimately rendered the system useless. I was beginning to fear that the power supply is giving the computer a seriously hard time and considering that it's propietary, I am fearful that all hope would be lost.
Later did I know though that I would be very wrong. Around 2020 or so, I ended up finding another PCjr on eBay for quite a hefty price, being $200. But I was saving for a rainy day back then. So, no biggie. This time though, I was able to focus on solutions for this PCjr and ultimately, I was able to find a solution for the power supply, which was an ATX2PCjr made by AkBKukU, better known as Tech Tangents on YouTube. That ultimately saved me the hassle, as I was able to use a standard ATX PSU to power my PCjr, and low and behold, I was able to get back on the bandwagon once again.
Another big upgrade that I made to the PCjr was a huge sidecar upgrade in place of the 128kb expansion, the jr-IDE, which expands the memory to 640kb of RAM, includes an option for a clock battery, and as the name suggests, an IDE controller which would allow me to attach a fixed disk to the Jr. Finally!!! So, with a modern PSU solution and dual CF cards, I was able to get this thing not only fully working again, but push it beyond the reality of what it could only do back when it was released.
So, all in all, I think this project turned out great. The machine, as of now, is still working. Although, it did suffer some issues with regards to storage recently. But thankfully, it was all down to the CF cards and not the actual sidecar (Thank goodness!). Regardless, it is quite a capable computer and I hope this'll last a really long time, hopefully long enough for me to make a proper video on it in the future. ^_^