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Login to post Forums » Off-topic discussion » very old computers...

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March 23, 2009 8:17 a.m. 924guy HalfDork

Im "spring cleaning" generally this involves fixing the crap ive tossed in boxes or beyond that, selling or tossing the assorted debris..im on the old pcs now, got two ready to donate to the local school kids (they use them as do good incentives for the tech savy kids, who get to keep them in the end if they meet their goals.) but some of this stuff is so old, that im not sure there an actual use for them besides museum pieces or landfill clutter.

i have a couple of old ibm thinkpads in my garage, most of them will still work with a reload, were talking 386's, and 486's..pre usb types 32 and 64 meg ram.. and some other ancient laptops (zenith prostar, 286??) that dont work anymore.. Im wondering if these antiques have any modern practical application? they do have serial ports, maybe linux based applications?? stuffs not worth "ebaying" just curious if anyone has any ideas on where they could be usefull, some are in very nice condition and i hate to just toss em..
March 23, 2009 8:20 a.m. John Brown MegaDork

Maybe for the drama clubs musical adaptation of "LOST"?
March 23, 2009 8:24 a.m. Grtechguy SuperDork

load Dos 6.22, Windows 3.11 and Wordperfect 5.

Sell for $25 as mobile word processors?
March 23, 2009 8:35 a.m. 924guy HalfDork

i probably still have a set of the original floppy's for win 3.1 and ms office, though i seem to recall one of my dos diskettes was corrupted..not that i have a functional floppy drive...these actually have cd roms, but they wont boot from cd rom, so id have to pull the hard drives, load them externally then try and get them to a c prompt to install the software, with out a floppy.. dos is a forgotten language to me, i think i remember more basic than dos..
March 23, 2009 8:40 a.m. fiat22turbo SuperDork

See if there is a recycling outfit around there, like freegeek.org here in Portland.
March 23, 2009 9:00 a.m. sachilles Reader

Wonder if you can use the laptop screen for some sort of automotive project.
March 23, 2009 9:19 a.m. Grtechguy SuperDork

sachilles wrote:

Wonder if you can use the laptop screen for some sort of automotive project.

not likely. most used a priority cable to connect to the controller integrated to the system board.
March 23, 2009 9:27 a.m. fiat22turbo SuperDork

Yep, you'd have to buy a special controller card for them, which at last check was around $250. Cheaper to buy a regular screen I think.
March 23, 2009 9:39 a.m. David S. Wallens Editorial Director

On a semi-related note, our local landfill collects used computers that are then sent off for recycling. (At least that's what they told me.) Some of the big box electronic stores also take in used computers, but they charge for the service. Apparently used electronics are a growing component in today's landfills. There's that's my PSA for the day.
March 23, 2009 9:43 a.m. DILYSI Dave UltimaDork

FYI, sometimes old laptops are best for dedicated EFI stuff. I know that on my Zdyne, I have very few problems with an old P1 uploading via Serial port, but my buddy with a late model whiz-bang can't upload worth a damn through the USB to serial adapter, and the laptop is too new to have a real serial port.
March 23, 2009 9:46 a.m. Scott Lear Club Editor

If they're in good shape, I'd hang on to the oldest of the old, the packrat in me has to think that it'll be worth something to somebody someday, even if it's just the local museum. I fired up my old Pentium III a while back to get some stuff off the hard drive. I'm terrible when it comes to getting rid of stuff.
March 23, 2009 10:04 a.m. Kramer Reader

Scott Lear wrote:

If they're in good shape, I'd hang on to the oldest of the old, the packrat in me has to think that it'll be worth something to somebody someday, even if it's just the local museum. I fired up my old Pentium III a while back to get some stuff off the hard drive. I'm terrible when it comes to getting rid of stuff.

My dad is a pack rat, too. He kept his first Sanyo "MBC550 IBM-PC Clone," that he purchased in the early '80's. I remember using this for a school paper. WordPerfect (edit: WordStar) was in a 3-ring binder, full of 5.5" discs. Each disc did a task; one for cut-and-paste, another for spell check.

This was almost as easy as using his copy machine. You first put the original inside a 3-page piece, ran all of that thru the machine, removed the original and one of the 3-page items, than ran it thru again to get the copy. The copies didn't pass for sentences to be written as punsihment for school misbehaviors.
March 23, 2009 10:22 a.m. skruffy Dork

They can be useful for old engine management systems. We had an old 386 laptop we kept around at the shop. It was the only thing that would talk to the zytec computer in one of the race cars.

Monochrome screens FTW!
March 23, 2009 10:28 a.m. Trans_Maro Reader

Yup, I've got an old Pentium thinkpad I use to run WINALDL and Megatune.

Shawn
March 23, 2009 11:00 a.m. racinginc215 Reader

Yep cheap MS tuners.
March 23, 2009 4:25 p.m. Duke Dork

I can provide a lab of 4 or 5 fully functional Mac IIci computers, complete with 2 mb RAM, Apple keyboard and mouse, nice 1990-vintage video cards, 13" Apple RGB Trinitron, monitors, System 7, Word 3, and the finest in 20mb to 40mb hard drives.
March 23, 2009 6:32 p.m. oldopelguy HalfDork

I have a couple of Sun Sparqs, an SGI Indigo, and a Timex Sinclair if we're getting a museum going...
March 23, 2009 7:31 p.m. foxtrapper SuperDork

Well, you could probably sell me one of the working 386/486 laptops with a serial port just so I can connect some of my equipment and software.

To my dismay, none of them play nice with my USB adapter.
March 23, 2009 7:46 p.m. Toyman01 Reader

Here's my oldest:

<img src="" />

Don't even know if it still works. haven't fired it up in 15-20 years. 1980s portable whoot whoot!
March 23, 2009 7:53 p.m. EastCoastMojo Dork

Toyman01 wrote:

Here's my oldest:

<img src="" />

Don't even know if it still works. haven't fired it up in 15-20 years. 1980s portable whoot whoot!

That is berkeleying COOL
March 23, 2009 8:04 p.m. Trans_Maro Reader

I've got one of these bad boys:

They look like Darth Vaders laptop

Shawn
March 23, 2009 8:27 p.m. NYG95GA Dork

Believe it or not, we used this antique at our rental office up until last December. The floppy discs are huge, and really floppy! Also check out the retro-pushbutton phone and the vintage calculator. They still work, but I've convinced dad to upgrade.
March 23, 2009 8:28 p.m. RandyS New Reader

yep. Kaypro "lugable". I used to have one of those.

About 3 years ago I sold my Leading Edge (later eMachines bought them and Packard Bell) 8088 with two 5.25 floppies, 640k and RBG monitor for $1500 to a collector. Still worked great. Leading Edge was one of the first true clones using an intel processor and MSDOS (vs CP/M OS) that would run all the same software as IBM (some stuff wouldn't run on the Kaypro). I had upgraded the Leading Edge with a Z80 processor at one point and had DRDOS installed. Still had all my old software with it SuperCalc, WordStar, RDBMS. I paid $1600 for it in 1985.

I still use my Packard Bell Socket-4 Pentium 1 60 mhz (overclocked with a Overdrive processor to 132 mhz) running Windows 95 with 72 mb SIM chip memory as a kiosk in my business running just a browser set to a local folder. The original 500mb harddrive failed on it a few years ago so I installed the largest the BIOS would support at 4GB(used on ebay). That recently failed too so I'm thinking of fitting it with one of those new IDE flash drives.
March 23, 2009 8:29 p.m. RandyS New Reader

That looks like an old S/36. Ah, RPGII. the good ol days.
March 23, 2009 8:56 p.m. Appleseed Reader

Now I must go play Oregon Trail.

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