old timers and old systems

[Pythagorean]

Sure its nice to be knowledgeable about and be able to buy the latest and greatest hardware. But is there anyone here who is attached to some ancient computer (like a 386) who, through superior intellect (of course!), been able to make it perform far beyond its design limits?
Making the most with the least...now thats a real challenge.
Anyone got a story?..

[Hpro]

Not much of a story but still using a 386 here to test repaired monitors.. runs on 8mb ram Cpu SX33..

[Pythagorean]

Science/Math professors are notoriously known for not being able to get rid of obsolete stuff, especially old computers. Years ago, when I was still in school, we had quite a range of instruments still strung to old 486's...I remember one theoretician I knew, who insisted he would someday convert the computer punchcards that filled his office to modern programs...I wonder what ever happened to that guy.

[archie]

Better than my story ... I use it to store some spare ISA cards.
BTW, this ancient computer is only about 10 years old isn't it?

[Pythagorean]

yes, OK archie, I want to hear about someone who still uses their AppleII+, that has to be closer to 20 years old.

[jessho]

I have an old PC clone. Intel 8088 (lightning speed of 4 megahertz), 10 meg hardrive, 640 kb of usable ram, 360 kb floppy, DOS 3.3, monchrome monitor. I haven't fired it up in years. The last time I used it, it worked fine.

The software was a trip. First version of Lotus 123, Professional
Write, Norton Commander(to cut down on the typing), Norton Utilities(You could ruin a hardrive in moments if you made a mistake). It had a nifty TSR called sidekick, which at the time it was new, was a top-of-the line utility.
A mouse? No. Everything was done on the keyboard. DOS 3.3 came with QBasic so there were a bunch of basic games including golf. I spent hours looking at the code and tweaking (crashing)the programs.

As far as boosting performance, when it was new, it was outdated by 286 machines with color monitors. The architecture was almost obsolete the day I got it.

[dead_eye]

I tore apart my old 486 for parts and am using the AT power supply for a special project. Seriously, my oldest computer is a 180mhz pentium pro with 32 megs of ram and am using it to play mp3's in another room.

[audiyoda]

I've still got an old Apple IIc that's still up and running. Saw this thread and considering that I'm into remembering the old days as of late, booted her up, found a few floppies, and ran some graphics programs I wrote (BASIC). Amazing how silly greem monochrome looks.

-Criag

[lpc300]

Hi all,

Still have an ancient 8088 IBM clone. So old it has NO HDD! Only a pair of 360 5.25 Floppys. Still runs fine, but mom threw out all the software years ago.

[Pythagorean]

Originally posted by audiyoda I've still got an old Apple IIc that's still up and running. Saw this thread and considering that I'm into remembering the old days as of late, booted her up, found a few floppies, and ran some graphics programs I wrote (BASIC). Amazing how silly greem monochrome looks. -Criag

Astounding! You must either really love your computers or be a pack rat to have that machine around. I remember way back when I was in middle school, the guy down the street had an Apple computer and my sister and I would go visit him to tinker around on it. He had a paper route adjacent to mine, and he used the money he earned to buy it. We were lucky enough to have a phone coupled modem to call around on, which my dad brought home from work, but not a real computer. I was impressed that he saved so determinately for the computer. I, on the other hand, was impulsive with my eager earnings, so buying a computer seemed absloutely remarkable. I was also impressed that he knew so much about computers, yes, I even thought he was "cool" because of it... Haha, I guess some things dont really change much..

[Toaster]

Howdy,
I was hoping to dig up my pics of an "Altair" I had until recently.
This mother monster was circa 1977. Wonderful wood sides and the front panel hosted a multitude of "switches" that you programmed the system with.
Later I aquired a floppy interface and 8" floppy drives.
I'm starting to wish I'd never sold this puppy as it is becoming a collectors item and can be very hard to find.
However, my Silicon Graphics addiction needed a fix on an item I wanted at a fraction of its normal cost. Therefore, I sold the Altair with manuals, drive and the whole "sha-bang".
Unfortunately, the pics be gone (sob).

[Hpro]

here a few Pictures of the 386 - the reasone that I kept this one is - it's very small - in size somewhat smaller than a A4 page - you see could place the whole computer on the scanner - and also only 2 inch high..I had to remove the hard drive and also floppy drive to give you a insight of the motherboard..it's still fuctioning..

[RayH]

I remember when the 386 was the LIGHTNING computer costing some $4000. I really don't don't if the 386 has any useful purpose other than being a curio. If my old Apple IIc is still around (my ex-wife gave it away a few years ago when the kids moved into Windows), it has a lot of value for preschoolers and kids in the primary grades. I had a ton of excellent software. I think I must have had around 150 programs for them.

Personally, I liked AppleWorks. It was really simple and worked. We ran the PTA (Parent Teacher Association) on it! We knew more about the parents and kids than the school did. We kept a data base for fund raisers!

[Paul Victorey]

I think I've got a Commodore 64 somewhere; it still works, in theory, although it is missing a monitor. It was given to me a while back.

I also have a working 386 with WfW 3.11 which I used a few years ago to test a program to control some hardware I built; I didn't want to bring my own PC into the lab.

[Carl Price]

I still have a Compuadd (remember them) 286 with a 40 mb harddrive and mono card. I even have a monitor left. The whole thing works (at least it did the last time I started it up). I don't know why I am saving it. It was replaced by a 486-66 with a 528 meg harddrive and mono monitor that is still in daily operation. It run a DOS Point of Sale in my store. The 486-66 was a great machine in the DOS era.

[jessho]

Our file server at work is a 486. Data files only.