What to do with these old PCs? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2017, 03:48:54 pm
content: I have a number of "exciting" old desktops and a laptops, and wondering what to do with them...?The first, an old UMAX laptop. This one I believe has the very first implementation of USB 1, maybe even a legitimate 1.0? I know I always had USB compatibility issues. This one is loaded with an early version of Windows 98 and updated via windows update. Not sure if all updates had been applied. It is loaded with Office 97 and a number of Ham radio related software.The second is a ToughBook with Windows 98SE SP2, Office 97 or 2000, and an Atari game suite and some other games of the time. This worked well because of the track-ball mouse.Old desktops, one of note is a custom build with a FIC VIA503+ MB, AMD 450 K6 with MMX 3DNOW! and a VooDoo3500TV graphics/tuner card. Also Win98 SE and MS Office, host of games and other software of the day.I want to take videos of the start-up of each of these, so will have to play with camera settings to get a good result.

author: bitseeker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2017, 10:29:00 pm
content: They're still fine for general writing, tracking finances, reading/sending email, shopping online and the like. Shopping may have issues with TLS support, though.It used to be said that old PCs could be made into home file servers, firewalls and the like, but their power consumption would cost more over time than getting new equipment and/or a DIY Raspberry Pi-based solution. So, I wouldn't use them for always-on tasks.

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 10, 2017, 10:56:24 pm
content: I'm putting one old laptop together as a sacrifice unit. Make an Image of C:\, setup a free email account, get a separate internet connection, and then forward all the sus, andoften clever fake emails to it. Disconnect the internet, track outbound traffic and open the emails. We'd had several VERY realistic ones from hacked customers accounts.Luckily, I have a 6th sense, but that is getting old :-)

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2017, 11:03:39 pm
content: If I was given something like that I'd just use it as another monitor - so to speak. Probably just have it boot up and start the web browser on a specific page related to ham radio, like DX maps or a DX cluster web page. Just let it display the real-time updates. That's all.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2017, 01:22:49 am
content: Is that the original toughbook with parallel and serial ports but absolutely no USB support, even if you attempt to add a PCMCIA USB card? If its in good condition and you can get it on your LAN for data interchange, it would make a good bench machine for old gadgets that need legacy ports and DOS or Win9X.

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2017, 03:47:59 am
content: The big problem now is that newer versions of Windows will not support the CPUs and maybe not the hardware. Some Linux distributions and applications will not either.I like installing BSD/Linux and using them as network appliances or old versions of Windows for legacy applications. They would be useful for web browsing except newer browsers also have minimum CPU instruction set requirements just like Windows.

author: Rbastler
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2017, 05:59:52 am
content: You could get a GPIB ISA card for one of the old Desktop PCs. I'm sure on of them has ISA. Since USB to ISA adapters are quite expensive and you already have probably an ISA PC, wy not give it a try and get a GPIB card and give it a try. I found them on ebay for aslow as 35€.

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2017, 10:41:09 am
content: Sell them to a movie warehouse where they store old tech for timedate accurate movies and tv series that are supposed to be in the past.

author: rollatorwieltje
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 11, 2017, 11:43:59 am
content: I have an ancient Toshiba 210CT laptop somewhere, I'm still thinking of stuffing a Raspberry Pi or some other computing module in it. Could be useful with a bunch of serial ports and misc other interfaces built in. Put some modern LiPo cells in the battery pack, should run forever. The screen might be a bit awkward at 800x600 though. Not even sure if a Raspberry could control that display.

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2017, 03:16:01 pm
content: Quote from: Ian.M on April 11, 2017, 01:22:49 amI think it is, but odd it has a USB port. I should give it a try.Quote from: Rbastler on April 11, 2017, 05:59:52 amI actually do have an ISA GPIB card. I think the old desktop with ISA is either DOS or maybe Win3.11 era. It has a Turbo button to get it up to 25 MHz, I think...

author: bitseeker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2017, 04:56:32 pm
content: Good ol' Turbo button.Keylock too?

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2017, 05:54:03 pm
content: There is a lock, but no key...

author: cheeseit
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2017, 06:17:39 pm
content: Computers with turbo button totally needs some flame decals!

author: bitseeker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2017, 11:26:41 pm
content: That gave me a chuckle. Flames.As long as they're not coming out of the power supply...

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2017, 01:21:01 am
content: A friend once stripped down an Amiga 500 and re-finished it in metallic black (incluuding getting waterslide transfers to re-legend all the keys) with air-brushed flames from the vents and floppy drive. It looked pretty good, but I don't know how well the keys stood up to wear long-term. And yes, the PSU did get the same treatment!

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2017, 06:07:41 pm
content: Quote from: metrologist on April 10, 2017, 03:48:54 pmHow much memory do they have?If it's 32MB or more, you could try Syllable?http://web.syllable.org/pages/index.htmlI haven't used it myself. It's something I want to play with at some stage. I'll try it on a VM.

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2017, 07:12:28 pm
content: I'll have to look into that. I remember trying to run a version of puppy linux, but that was before the wary effort. Maybe there is something there to look at too.I was kinda tempted to plug in a ethernet cord and see how much internet would serve. After I mirror the HDD because there must be 5 grand of software sitting there...

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2017, 07:30:24 pm
content: that fic503a motherboard is worth money if you recap it.plenty of infiniium oscilloscopes uses that motherboard. and they all suffer from exploding capacitors.

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2017, 07:37:25 pm
content: I better check those caps. I booted the system last year and it still seemed to work fine.It's totally amazing to me that thing did OK playing quake and unreal tournaments. I get newer PCs with giga hertz processors that seem to struggle with blocky minecraft.

author: bitseeker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2017, 07:57:23 pm
content: Quote from: metrologist on April 12, 2017, 07:37:25 pmCompletely different worlds of game development there.

author: whalphen
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2017, 09:54:41 pm
content: Find some middle school level students who are interested in computers, programming, or electronics and give them the computers. They'll explore and learn with them.