I'm kept from my bench, due to it being occupied by a sick computer - it's a back up machine I keep up to date in case my main computer, or my laptop go belly up. In this case it's the backup that has died!
Whilst coughing from the dust accumulated inside the steel box I remembered that I had built this machine from parts salvaged from other defunct machines.
When computers started to become popular, myself & a friend dabbled in building computers as a hobby, he had contacts who could get us old machines ( usually office machines that were being replaced annually by new ones ) & monitors. These were lacking hard drives, but otherwise OK. I'd strip them down, usually buy a new case, add a new hard drive, install Windows ( the first ones were windows 3.1 ) & generally set it all up with new cheap keyboard & mouse. We'd then then sell it on, usually to our coworkers, for a good profit.
Then things changed, you could no longer get Windows cheaply ( no builders copies ), prices of components plummeted, and people got wise to the value of surplus machines. Eventually you could get a brand new machine at less than I could build one & the arrival of flatscreens was the final straw. I still have a couple of CRT monitors - including one whopping 22" model, and several boxes of bits ( sound cards, floppy drives etc ) which I should turf out, but can't be bothered.
I'd forgotten the amount of time it takes to work on computers - what I thought was going to be a 5 minute job today has turned into nearly 6 hours!! It's in the process of rebooting ( again ). I think it may be time to retire this ancient back up for a more reliable device
Dave
Whilst coughing from the dust accumulated inside the steel box I remembered that I had built this machine from parts salvaged from other defunct machines.
When computers started to become popular, myself & a friend dabbled in building computers as a hobby, he had contacts who could get us old machines ( usually office machines that were being replaced annually by new ones ) & monitors. These were lacking hard drives, but otherwise OK. I'd strip them down, usually buy a new case, add a new hard drive, install Windows ( the first ones were windows 3.1 ) & generally set it all up with new cheap keyboard & mouse. We'd then then sell it on, usually to our coworkers, for a good profit.
Then things changed, you could no longer get Windows cheaply ( no builders copies ), prices of components plummeted, and people got wise to the value of surplus machines. Eventually you could get a brand new machine at less than I could build one & the arrival of flatscreens was the final straw. I still have a couple of CRT monitors - including one whopping 22" model, and several boxes of bits ( sound cards, floppy drives etc ) which I should turf out, but can't be bothered.
I'd forgotten the amount of time it takes to work on computers - what I thought was going to be a 5 minute job today has turned into nearly 6 hours!! It's in the process of rebooting ( again ). I think it may be time to retire this ancient back up for a more reliable device
Dave
Comment