I didn't even know a computer could do that.

[Acolyte]

Got a computer in today-an old Dell Optiplex. As soon as the front people brought it in, I knew it'd be trouble-the computer had scorch marks around the power supply, for starters. It was dirty, smelled faintly of burning plastic and dusty. Complaint was that he couldn't burn CDs.

Now, I know what you're thinking-poor Acolyte is going to have to open up the computer, discover the dusty equivelent of The African Lion Safari*, and write it off.

Well, you're half-right. I opened it up, took it over to the air compresser, blew it out and also removed a shattered CD from a DVD drive (Yes, CD in a DVD drive).
I took it over to a bench, booted it up...and was greeted with, quite possibly, the best running Optiplex of it's age I've ever seen**.

I was stunned-by all rights, it should have been a doorstop. Nope, ran wonderfully. The power supply tested fine (On later inspection, it was revealed to be newer then the rest and, thus, probably hadn't caused the scorching around it-I just couldn't tell at first because of the dirt and dust.) The CD and DVD drives both worked fine-I tested both several times. Everything else checked out.

I'm not sure this was an amazingly lucky SC, or a really good practical joke.

*You know-the dust bunnies had evolved to dust elephants, dust lions, roaming herds of dust gazelles...

**And, when I was on helpdesk, had to turn 13 similar Optiplexes into firewalls and small servers. This one ran better then any of them, and the 13 had been reasonably-well kept.

[LostMyMind]

:lol: I rarely clean out my computers for dust bunnies. I don't even want to open it up.

If the computer don't move much and the motherboard is vertical, dust bunnies usually just cause CD/DVD issues (dust on lens). But that shattered CD gives me pause, I hope the CD was shattered when it was put in :lol:

I would say, the computer componets was one of the lucky few well built ones that would still work with bullets holes.

[smellystudent]

Yes, CD in a DVD drive.

Nothing wrong with that, surely? Could it have been t'other way round? :)

I've got a few clients in the farming industry. Part of my regular maintenance schedule is to take their computers outside with a can of compressed air and a face-mask. You don't want to know what it's like running cable round those places....

[Acolyte]

Nothing wrong with that, surely? Could it have been t'other way round? :)

Nah, it wasn't a DVD-ROM. You don't see a lot of DVD-only drives, what with every computer coming standard with a Combo Drive now, but they are out there...
(They've made me look very, very stupid a few times.)

[Jet]

We had to take a computer back to the compressor to clean it out once. We kept on seeing this thing we thought was a dust bunny thumping around in there. Turns out it was a dead mouse.

[Seanette]

Oh, EEEWWW!!!
Do I *want* to know how it got in there in the first place?

[cpux]

Oh, all sorts of small animals are known to crawl into computers. Bugs especially.

Now I'm the nut who goes and empties a can of air into every little crevice of his computer (and PS2) every week. Contrarily, my brother smokes in his little room with his computer in it. I fear what dust and grime beasts may lurk inside there. :runaway:

[LostMyMind]

:lol: I had to open up my PS2. Damn laser len shifted, got to tune that in. Going to take me forever. But I was surprise (in my house, dust bunnies lives and reproduce quickly), there wasn't any dust inside other than that thin layer start of the tray. It sat on the floor for many years.

[chryso]

Nah, it wasn't a DVD-ROM. You don't see a lot of DVD-only drives, what with every computer coming standard with a Combo Drive now, but they are out there...
(They've made me look very, very stupid a few times.)

I didn't even know that those existed.

[LostMyMind]

I didn't even know that those existed.
Yeah they're about as rare as an 8inch floppy.

[Acolyte]

I didn't even know that those existed.

Dell puts them in their mid-range desktops sometimes.

[SongsOfDragons]

8 inch floppy...glorious.

We still have an old Amstrad computer in our loft. It has a (regular) floppy drive and Windows 3.1. It harks from the days before USB and CDs. We also own an Atari 2600.

[LostMyMind]

:lol: I still have my TI 99/4a (with the voice emulator device add-on). If any of you remember the pains of audio "tape" transfer.

[Tanasi]

I still have my Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 (I got it for Chirstmas in either 77 or 78). As far as I know it still works, it came with a whopping 16k and a cassette drive, it was putting out so much RF that you couldn't watch TV on the lower channels. I was later able to upgrade to 48K with 2 yes 2 single sided single density 5.25 disk drives. I still have a PC with a 5.25 drive. I remember when RS-232 was new technology.
Until about 16 months ago we still had a customer running his 124 room hotels on a 486-66 machine including a bar/rest and all the usual back office software. That old machine was a hoss-cat.
I've used punch card punchers and readers, reel-2-reel tape back-up. 160mb disk-packs that were so heavy I could barely lift them.
When I speak of ancient iron I'm not kidding.

[Crosshair]

My TRS-80 is my nightstand now.

[LostMyMind]

I've used punch card punchers and readers, reel-2-reel tape back-up. 160mb disk-packs that were so heavy I could barely lift them.
:waves at a fellow old timer:

RS-232 wow, haven't heard anyone use that old name in a long time.

I loved the punch cards. Whenever you want a break, just drop your stack. Oops, got to resort the stack to the right order. :devil: Believe it or not, punch card is still used for large machinery.

Those disk-packs you're talking about, are you talking about those big round, twist and lock in place for main-frames drives?

[ShockQueen]

RS-232....I just got into that one recently. One of my buddies knows I'm looking for a nice graphics tablet, so he brings in this rather large one (12x12) :shock:, but has an RS-232 port. Thankfully, my new mobo still has one of those ports, but sadly, the drivers for it are too old for XP. He says he can get it to work on XP, so I'm waiting for him to bring those in as I can find any for it that will work with my configuration.

Yeah, I could get a Wacom, but they're smaller and/or more expensive.......

Now back to our regularly scheduled topic :roll:

[bean]

I think I may still have my Apple II+ somewhere.

Also, I've found all kinds of nastyness inside my own PC - namely dead (and sometimes living) bugs when I lived in a roach infested apartment.

I don't even bother keeping the cover on it now that I have pets - the intake fans get clogged with cat hair within a few days. Although I got to witness one of my cats get in a fight with one of the exposed fans - he stuck his nose in it before I could react, hissed at it, and started swatting at the blades, then kept trying to bite the blades. To add insult to injury, when he turned around to walk off he stuck his tail right into it. (note: I run my pc fans at 7 volts instead of 12 - I can stick my finger right in it and barely feel a tap). I was too busy laughing at that point to make him feel any better.:devil:

[protege]

:lol: I still have my TI 99/4a (with the voice emulator device add-on). If any of you remember the pains of audio "tape" transfer.

Gotta love those TIs. I still have a few in working order. Someone gave me all their old TI stuff some years back. One was bought new. Anyone remember the days when computer stores weren't as common, or when each company had their own programming language (usually BASIC)?

Of course we all know that the IBM PC came out soon after, and blew all the "minority makes" out of the water. When that happened, the market for TI stuff disappeared nearly overnight.

[LostMyMind]

Gotta love those TIs. I still have a few in working order. Someone gave me all their old TI stuff some years back. One was bought new. Anyone remember the days when computer stores weren't as common, or when each company had their own programming language (usually BASIC)?
My TI was bought by my parents (They actually saved the receipt, I have that too). I have all kinds of stuff for it, including the "expansion box" with a 5.25 floppy drives. Even got a "word processor" for it to turn it into a typewriter. The big thing I got for it, is a cradle modem. Whooping 300 baud. Of course since it is a RS-232 device, I could hook it up to any PC just for fun :lol:

I was quite skilled at TI basic, their graphic base engine was actually quite good (much better than apple or "PC")

[protege]

Any "Attack" or "Carwars" fans out there? I could get pretty far on both of those TI games :)

[LostMyMind]

:lol: Carwars wow I can barely remember that one. I should dig it out and put it together. Hopefully before the year is over :lol: