An emotional experience with the Okidata 395.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there was an event called "Y2K" in which the computer industry scared the living fuck out of businesses, claiming that computers would fail horribly unless every PC on the planet were upgraded within a year. While there was a percentage of truth to this, such as banking software(s) written in Cobol operating on a two-digit date system rolling over to '00', potentially destroying all calculations of currency, thereby ruining the books. It didn't require the moral panic of ripping out stable Windows 3.1 business environments in favor of Windows 98 (nono, not Windows NT or 2000.. some of these dipshits went Windows 98, while business believed they were saving money, they sure as fuck paid the price later.)

For every disaster, there's an opportunity.

We have to thank Y2K for launching our careers as technicians. You see, there really was no chance to wait for people to graduate college to meet absurd qualifications like today, when employers are asking for at least 10 years of experience with Windows 12 in 2026 to qualify for a desktop support level 1 position. If you knew computers. You were IN! Well, after doing a bunch of deployments.. We eventually worked at a place that wanted not HP certification to repair shit (at least not right away) but Okidata certification. To get certified, you had to completely tear down a printer and put it back together with it powered on and able to do a test print within an hour. The Okidata 393 was the printer for us. Read onward to continue the diatribe.

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RedDragon K585.

Although our title sounds like a Subway ad gone horribly wrong. It's at least honest about what you are actually getting, then RedDragons "Wired One-Handed Mechanical Gaming Keyboard", because if a person who recently lost their arm or hand was looking for a solution for full keyboard functionality in an ergonomic package for one hand. They would probably get frustrated really quickly seeing these things show up all of the time on Amazon.

This was just page 1 of 4! But we especially like the first one, which is just 'Fuck it, have a calculator'.

These designs are everywhere. Some of them stupid expensive, like Razer, where they add an analog stick to their keyboard. While the third parties are cheap.  We managed to get ours from a computer closeout store for about five dollars. Now, for those looking for their own $5 deal. Sometimes, there are batches of these things released on eBay for a very low amount. So do not be discouraged. Nevertheless, after powering it up and testing, it appears to be totally functional. So sadly, no repair guide for this blog! But since we have it lets review this thing!

Continue onward into the diatribe if you dare.

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Relics from the 90's return to us.

Sometimes you hang out in old industrial warehouses. Like normal human beings do. Perfectly average thing. Wandering about seeing the leveling pits where machines used to be, as well as flooded warehouses with tables holding up tube monitors with Wyse terminals for machines that haven't been powered on for over 35 years. 

In the corner of one of the rooms was this beauty of a keyboard. It was covered in ash initially, but we ended up cleaning it up. It cleaned up well! It's time to get an antique going.

Read onward as we put the KMFDM CD "Attak" into an equally ancient player while we repair this thing.

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OHAI Everyone! Happy New Year.

On one hand. We're happy that we have our health. We're happy that we're not (back) on the streets again. That there's still food on the plate and a roof all albeit temporarily, over our heads. A lot of our friends and family did suffer through this year. In different ways. Read on if you care. This isn't going to be a tech article or anything like that.

P.S. I know some bloggers talk about their "Top post of 2025," but that would require me to keep track of people, which is just too much damned work.

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What's up, cheap 3rd party controllers!

Out of all of the controllers that we've seen hit our bench, PDP Rock Candy's were surprisingly one of the few we rarely saw.  Despite their price, if they broke, people didn't bother to repair them. Just toss and get another.

There were generally three types of people who got these controllers:

1. The people who modded their Xbox cases translucent just like the controller, and really wanted to complete that Y2K iMac feeling. There was also translucent cases to convert your OEM wireless or wired Xbox 360 controller over as well. But Rock Candy's were in almost every game store for immediate purchase.
2. The second group is parents who would get a controller like this for their kid because they were pushing around $20-30(USD), versus getting an original Xbox 360 controller at almost double the price.  Depending on where your game console was placed, wired was just simply better because guess what? No batteries! Saving you even more money. You'll notice the rumble motors are missing. In some cases, that's acceptable.
3. Some gamers would also use cheap controllers like this for casual play on their Xbox 360 and save the wear-and-tear on the wireless for when friends come by. Third-party controllers, unless they were incredibly old or vastly superior, like the WACO JemStick for Atari. Third parties rarely gain in value. Thus, destroying these is the best way to go.

The best part is, they're still cheap, and they still work in Windows 11 without the need for special drivers.

Read on if you want to see some repair and me rant about controllers once again.

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Getting back to the Nvidia Shield with some controller action.

It's Christmas, and apparently, what I got was a bunch of controllers that were broken. Perfect gift for a guy like me!

As you could see in the picture. We got two Nvidia Shield 2015 controllers, Model #P2570, and one 2017 Model #P2920. All on with stickers, saying two words, "no power." The P2920, we aren't going to focus on too much. Because in part, we've already talked about that controller a lot. But also after replacing the battery, we DID get it to power up, only to find out that the Bluetooth side refuses to engage when holding the Nvidia button (anyone who has brought the Bluetooth back from the dead from an electrical standpoint, feel free to comment below. There's absolutely no flashing white light. The charging circuit and USB plug seem to work fine.)

Okay! Read onwards if you want to see some pictures of controller guts and a half-assed review on the original controller Nvidia came with, known as the P2570.

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Incoming "Glorious" repair.

Just when you thought the keyboard blogs were done. In comes a different keyboard to my bench known as the "Glorious GMMK3" keyboard which is supposed to be one of those DIY level keyboards for people to get into the joy purchasing your own switches, your own keycaps, cramming housing insulation into the shell of your keyboard just so that you too can have that special "YouTuber grade THOCK" as you type. Or, perhaps you would rather go with linear switches with o-rings because you actually like to keep your job.

Looking up the cost of these complete kits, they generally go for $130+ (USD), which is double what we paid for our Red Dragon K556 when it was brand new on the market. A little boutique to appease the gamers with money. However, it is still basic enough to be picked up in most chain outlets. This particular keyboard landed on my bench for $10, whole dollars on Craigslist, with the supposed mother explaining how her "Gamer Kid" was working on this and broke it.

Fair ball. When we picked up the box, we could already hear the little rattle of screws rolling about inside. So! Let's crack this bad boy open and see what hell awaits us!

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A word of caution before we begin:

This article will contain some dirt-horror as we're going to tear apart our very first Redragon K556 that we purchased back in 2019, then later used heavily for work. This article is almost an addendum to the previous one, where we fixed two K556 keyboards with very minimal effort. But we also wanted to follow up on what happened to the very first keyboard. We got the nice keycaps that are not being made anymore.

Put away your lunch and read onward.

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