The Computer Part Dismemberment Thread

[Jick]

Post your pictures of dismembered computer parts. :)

I'll start: http://www.jameskahlin.com/rambles/fun-with-hard-drives/ :D

[Kor]

:D Great... If I remember, I will post you a photo of my first PC inner (God, do you believe I keep it... and it still works - at least it worked when I throwed it in my closet about 100 years ago!!!). It is a Pentium on 150 MHz (overcloaked on 300) :D :D

[wamboid]

:D Great... If I remember, I will post you a photo of my first PC inner (God, do you believe I keep it... and it still works - at least it worked when I throwed it in my closet about 100 years ago!!!). It is a Pentium on 150 MHz (overcloaked on 300) :D :D
That's not so old. I actually had to go to a customer's house last week to fix something that bad. Bad thing was, it was their NEW computer, just given to them by a relative to replace their old 486. Even worse, this lady was a teacher that prefers working on her home computer since the one at school is slow.

[Jick]

Even worse, this lady was a teacher that prefers working on her home computer since the one at school is slow.:eek:

[Kor]

well, that is understandable. My home computer is definitely better and faster than the one i work at the office. Individuals react faster than companies... :D

[WebJoel]

My first computer... was a 'pre-i286'...a "VIC-20", by Commadore. I upgraded that within a year to a C-64 with the -what were those called, -'MOS 6510' processors? :confused:

I had an ATARI 130XE too. That one was the great love of my life. It was still 'pre-i286', but it was great! I used an OS called "BatteriesIncluded" for awhile, -then got GEO-Works and that was AWESOME!! I was able to connect to a telenet forum and 'chat'! It had several modem speeds, ...200, 400-baud rate and there was a 1200-baud rate but alot of forums didn't support that yet...
Then came poop-for-brains MS' 'new release' of Win_3.1, which I couldn't run of course. And I think the modem-speed needed to be 2400 for that!

I next bought a 'brand name' computer from a major retailer (won't tell you all the name of store but it rhymes with "Radio Snack"...)... okay, -I can make some really dumb decisions too, it appears. :eek: That computer's serial number was #2003 (yeah, -the model had just been released nationally like a day before I walked into the store...) and within 2 months, I was woefully underpowered, under-supported, still could not run W_3.1. I could get 1200-baud and that is the 'bench-tester's default speed', which through a little program I got, could be bumped-up to approx. 1900-baud... wow! :o
-Still not Windows-worthy....

Next I had a Compaq Presario (with it OWN plethora of problems, I assure you!), and just before moving to Toronto four years ago, it had a major meltdown. -Two 'device controllers' died virtually simultaneously, -would cost me nearly $800.ooUS to replace both not including labor and it STILL would be several years outdated...
A sideways movement later, I bought a brand new HP Pavillion instead, which has served me ever since although a year ago January I had the motherboard replaced with a super-fast 'new' one and a few months ago, installed a super-large HDD for my primary and am using the 'smaller' HDD for my Linux stuff. This really isn't an HP anymore...

Oh the computers I have had and let go and not one photograph to prove it...! :o And still, I miss my beautiful ATARI 130XE the most!

[rhsunderground]

my friend allen starting my new computer with a paper clip:

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/1189/imgp1940fq9.th.jpg (http://img292.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp1940fq9.jpg)

[NogDog]

My first computer: A Radio Shack TRS80 with...wait for it...4KB of RAM. (Yes, that's 4 (four) kilobytes.) Programs were loaded via a separate, run-of-the-mill portable cassette tape recorder.

I then upgraded to an Atari 1200XE with 16 times(!) the RAM of my Trash-80 (up to 64KB now) plus color! In addition to using a cassette recorder for storage there was also a slot for ROM cartridges, which could load commercial programs in seconds. Eventually I got really geeky and purchased a 5-1/4" (360KB) floppy drive for it. (Anybody here remember using disk-notchers to turn 1-sided disks into 2-sided?)

Eventually that sweet little Atari got replaced by an IBM clone XT with two 5.25 floppy drives and 256KB RAM. That was the 8088 CPU chip, so still pre-i286. That machine went through several upgrades, including the addition of my first hard drive: a Seagate with an unbelievable 30 megabytes of space: there was no way anyone would ever need that much storage! (Has anyone here ever had to do a low-level format of a hard drive, typing in the addresses of the bad sectors from the sticker the manufacturer's testers put on the drive?) Eventually, via the addition of an Intel "Inboard 386" board and a RAM board, I got that baby up to an 80386 CPU with 1 megabyte of RAM.

That PC eventually got replaced by an 80486 PC clone, which was my first PC to run M$ Windows. It eventually had just about everything replaced in it except the power supply, including a new mother board which included my first Pentium CPU. Since that machine I've gotten 3 more desktops, and am on my 2nd notebook (which is getting pretty far behind the power curve now and really should be replace :( ).

[Jick]

Wow! You guys have some great stories there... I wish I was that old so I could contribute a story as well. :D

[drhowarddrfine]

My first computer was a wire-wrapped Z80 I designed myself. I only used computers from work which were usually minis. Then I got a Radio Shack TRS2000(?), not the trash-80, but when my restaurant business took off I got my first PC to run the accounting package.

When I worked for Silicon Graphics, I remember complaining to one of my co-workers about having trouble getting hold of some of the guys at HQ. He suggested I buy a modem so I could get on this thing called the internet so I can send electronic mail to them. I didn't want to spend that much money on a modem so I didn't.

[netbuddy]

my friend allen starting my new computer with a paper clip:

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/1189/imgp1940fq9.th.jpg (http://img292.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp1940fq9.jpg)

I think your friend Allen needs to look in the A+ book again. Not how you fire up a computer, infact, for safety reasons, you should NEVER build a PC system out of its case as the case actually forms part of the earth circuit because you have all sorts of current on a mobo and it only takes 30ma to stop your breathing and as little as 60ma can kill you by stopping your heart.

Tis a bit stupid and is a bit late to point out, but your friend Allen really is playing with fire if go for a build out of the box, it also presents a higher risk of fire in any case as well as system failure, takes the smallest of metal objects to fall onto a live board and your mobo could be history!

Fud 4 Tht.

[rhsunderground]

the case didn't arrive for 3 weeks - it didn't get shipped, then it was "demolished" by UPS.