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Geek Culture / Who is putting old pcs to use?(i am)

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Three Score
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 02:01
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hi who are putting pcs that most people would just throw away to use even after the windows install got curropted and such

i am completely reformating a hdd(low level format) since the hdd has had a few problems
it was going to be thrown away by my grandpa but i talked him into giving it to me since i enjoy old pcs

attached is a pic of the pc and its generic desk and the ocmplete workstation at which i use it

it also use to have a panasonic printer but a gear popped out of place and i odnt know where to put it

known specs of the pc
cpu: pentium 2@unknown mhz
ram: unkownpc 32mb
hdd1)2.0gb@unkown rpm(2)400mb hdd@unkown rpm(this hdd is messed up though it has over 200mb in bad sectors)
buses: 3isa, 4pci
graphics: trio something(not sure)
sound: pc speaker only
no usb is the most sad part so i might just go by a usb pci card
the modem is 24k i think and uses isa so that sucks
the mouse is a serial mouse
the keyboard is of a special type so i cant just use any other keyboard
the (1)hdd is fairly good so far i am scanning for bad tracks right now so it will be good
the printer that use to work was extrememly loud and slow especially at printing graphic(black and white only)


also i need to decide
windows 98,windows 95,windows nt4.0,red hat linux 7

quit hiting the computer; computers can only do what they are told so we must be telling them to do wrong things

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Benjamin
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 02:11
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Depends what you are using it for.


"Lets migrate like bricks" - Me
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Random 69
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 02:14
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Not linux

[ 21.27GB / 74.52GB ] [ 235MB / 511MB ] [ RADEON 9500 PRO / 9700 @ 1280x934 ] [ Windows XP ][ Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.00GHz @ 1993MHz ]
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Three Score
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 02:17
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i think i am going ot use it as a simple windows ethernet server but i neeed an ethernet card
this pc will not be connected to inet and there is only going to be 1 other pc so i think i will do windows nt 4.0 server now i just have to find it in the software my grandpa gave me

quit hiting the computer; computers can only do what they are told so we must be telling them to do wrong things
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gbuilder
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 02:44
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Playing around with old computers is a lot of fun and can increase one's knowledge of the technical side of hardware. If you are running windows xp on two pcs, you can buy a 'crossover' cable for a few dollars and join them up. If the motherboards don't have ethernet connections built in, then pci ethernet cards are again just a few dollars. There's plenty of tutorial help on the Net to understand the process. Formating and partitioning a hard-drive is a valuable thing to learn to do to.

gbuilder.

XP2000, 512mb Ram, 64mb GForce4 MX440 Graphics card, WindowsXP Professional.
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Three Score
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 03:16
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yes i know how to do all that and use to run my own server when i had dsl
so what do you do if you dont have ethernet card in one of the pcs and your mom wont let me go to walmart to buy one?

and btw
im installing win98 cause i cant find any of the other osftwrae he gave me
and i just found out the cd drive dont work so i took out the hdd and just putting the cd on the hdd

also another problem is that i only hvae upgrade edition is there a way to by pass that(i have an existing windows 95 install on a virtual pc)

quit hiting the computer; computers can only do what they are told so we must be telling them to do wrong things
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gbuilder
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 04:13
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Quote: "so what do you do if you dont have ethernet card in one of the pcs and your mom wont let me go to walmart to buy one?"


Well Shadows, you could always do a deal with her. Wash her car in exchange for an ethernet card. Prob solved.

Win 98 is a little more difficult because the settings have to be done manually.

gbuilder.

XP2000, 512mb Ram, 64mb GForce4 MX440 Graphics card, WindowsXP Professional.
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GothOtaku
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 04:45
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I'd recommend that you install Windows 98 or Red Hat 7. The computer's specs aren't high enough to use NT 4 well enough and no one uses Windows 95 anymore. Plus Windows 98 is the second best Windows in my opinion (Windows XP is first) and We still use Red Hat Linux 7.3 at my job for our data servers and workstations.
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Three Score
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 04:54
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i must disagree with win98 being the secod best
(1)Windows 2000
(2)XP
(3)98
(4)NT4
(5)95
(6)nt3.5
(7)nt3.1
(8)Windows 3.11(for workgroups)
(9)windows 3.1
(10)windows 2
(11)windows 1
(12)ms-dos 7
(13)ms-dos 6.22
(14)ms-dos 5.0
(15)ms-dos 1.0beta
(16)no pc at all
(17)Windows ME(yes me is the worst os ever made)

quit hiting the computer; computers can only do what they are told so we must be telling them to do wrong things
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GothOtaku
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 05:08 Edited at: 28th Feb 2005 05:11
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Mine goes:
1) XP
2) 98
3) 2000 (Wasn't backward compatible enough for my old programs otherwise it'd be higher)
4) 95
5) NT (Many issues with running Win9x programs)
6) Windows 3.11 for Workgroups
7) MS-DOS 6.22 (7 doesn't count since it was only the backend of Win 9x)
8) Windows 3.11
9) MS-DOS 3.3
10) MS-DOS 5
11) Windows ME
11) Old MS-DOSes/ MS-DOS 4 (The older ones lacked HD and 3½ floppy support and 4 was the most a system hog)
12) Windows NT 3 (Only Windows I've ever used that destroyed hardware)
13) Windows 2
14) Windows 1 (Did people actually buy this?)
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Neofish
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 05:09 Edited at: 28th Feb 2005 05:10
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exucse me, DOS is the best OS in that list! (I've only used 6.20/6.22 (not sure) so I can't compare the rest)

also ME can run fine on some PCs, although it is crap on all others (

although XP should come top as it's suitable for the most number of people

:: AphoticVM oGL Plugin : 0.001% Complete (v0.0.0.1) ::
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Three Score
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 05:19
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these are matters of opinions yes i think xp is the bets for most people but in my own opinion i prefer 2k over xp for many reasons:
greater user control
greater network control
does not use a ton of cpu or ram
more stable
less buggy

and of course xp for a few reasons
the looks of it
supports more hardware and software then 2k
easy to use
much more helpful help files and wizards then any windows before it

and windows me from the first day it was upgraded from 98 to me it seemed like it had a virus on it but we checked and everything and even took it to a pc guy and said that he couldnt figure it out either and then we dualbooted with win 2k and WOW! what speed and everything it seemed as fast as it was before we upgraded

windows me sucks .(period)

quit hiting the computer; computers can only do what they are told so we must be telling them to do wrong things
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lagmaster
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 05:43
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i dig up old pc's i find in my house and stick a linux distro on it, to learn.

it can also be fun to setup a pc with windows, then put a virus on it, see if you can stop it

lagmaster - http://www.darkbasicnet.info <-- irc network for #darkbasic
beer.darkbasicnet.info !
- most of my websites down :/
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bitJericho
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 22:47
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aye, I'd put 2000 on that computer of your grandpa's

Would run quite nice.


Yarr join teh New and Improved LoGD!
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Van B
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Posted: 28th Feb 2005 23:00
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I have a soft spot for the old laptops - I mean, even if you can only type in EDIT in DOS, a laptop is still usefull to someone. There's countless grandads in garden sheds fixing toasters and teas-mades, it's only evolution that some of us do the same with our generations technology.

I've saved 2 laptops from work now, the first was a AMD K6/450mhz compaq with no working CDRom (back when externals were out of the question) - I'm sure you can imagine the funtastic time I had getting that working. Laplink is your friend though, I used that to drop the Win98 installation directory onto the lappy's hard disk, then once I got that installed I hooked up a network card and got the drivers over the web. It runs DBC quite nicely, but it's mostly just full of classic games from the ST (using emu's) and some PC classics like Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper, Warcraft I/II and Delta Force.

The other lappy is far older, only about a 66mhz 486, it's only got 2/3'rds of a working screen (bottom half is corrupt) - but it's got Win98se and my little brother likes to practice typing on it.

I've saved countless give-away PC's, people get a PC from a relative that isn't really fit for anything, and they bring it into me at work and I try to fix them instead of doing any real work - typically they're pre-72 pin simm machines.


Van-B


It's c**p being the only coder in the village.
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Dodo
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Posted: 1st Mar 2005 01:48
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Quote: "who are putting pcs that most people would just throw away to use"


I use mine as a footrest. Its quite attractive actually.

Part of solving the problem is actually noticing that the problem is there in the first place

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Phaelax
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Posted: 1st Mar 2005 07:41
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I'd put DOS 6.2 above Win95 any day!

Quote: "I use mine as a footrest"

I was gonna say that.

"eureka" - Archimedes
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PiratSS
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Posted: 1st Mar 2005 21:57
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Worst computer setup ever. You need to put everything on the table, no one does their work on the floor.
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Peter H
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Posted: 1st Mar 2005 21:58
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sig test

"We make the worst games in the universe."

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mm0zct
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Posted: 2nd Mar 2005 00:03 Edited at: 2nd Mar 2005 00:05
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Quote: "
I've saved 2 laptops from work now, the first was a AMD K6/450mhz compaq with no working CDRom (back when externals were out of the question)"


i have my dad's old laptop, it has a 75MHz pentium in it and no cd drive, we have an external cd rom drive that uses the serial port i think and it predates your 450MHz K6. 512MB hdd with win95 (win98 runs but there's no room left for ms office) upgraded the ram and has a pcmcia 10Mbps ethernet card. it even works on our network and can use the shared broadband (although it can't load the pages as fast as it can download them).
it's great for word processing and can do powerpoint (that was the reason it was originally bought, for doing presentations) but has no sound either, but windows seems to think there is a sound chip on it so i'm going to open it up one day and see if there is.

http://www.larinar.tk
AMD athlon 64 3000+, 512mb ddr400, abit kv8, 160gb hdd, gigabit lan, ati radeom 9800se 128mb.
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Van B
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Posted: 2nd Mar 2005 00:09
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There probably is a sound chip, old sound drivers can be difficult to find though. Personally I'd google the make and model of the laptop along with 'sound' to try and find out the model of the sound chip then use driverguide.com to find a driver. The ancient lappy I rescued has a working CD (even after all this time!), and sound chip - I can't find drivers for it, but it does work because it can play CD's perfectly.


Van-B


It's c**p being the only coder in the village.
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mm0zct
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Posted: 2nd Mar 2005 00:18
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it's not the drivers that's the problem, it's that there's no ports to plug into, i'd have to solder on my own.

http://www.larinar.tk
AMD athlon 64 3000+, 512mb ddr400, abit kv8, 160gb hdd, gigabit lan, ati radeom 9800se 128mb.
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bitJericho
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Posted: 2nd Mar 2005 02:31
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if you've a pcmcia slot, you can buy one of those nifty pcmcia sound cards..


Yarr join teh New and Improved LoGD!
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mm0zct
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Posted: 5th Mar 2005 08:01
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have you looked at the price on those things? bit steep for something i won't actually use. don't need sound for word processing.

http://www.larinar.tk
AMD athlon 64 3000+, 512mb ddr400, abit kv8, 160gb hdd, gigabit lan, ati radeom 9800se 128mb.
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DBAlex
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Posted: 5th Mar 2005 08:16
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Van B have you tries using AC 97 Drivers? font most PC's use AC 97 if they dont have a sound card...

(well built into the mobo...I think...)

Maybe its worth a try...


>_0
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Three Score
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Posted: 6th Mar 2005 11:04
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also it may be a mci sound card

hmmm i got a pretty neat thing and if i had just a motherboard i could use it
it is a pci2(umm forgot the name but it is like a super long slot thing and real slow) the onyl problem is it turns the (forgotten) card over horizontally instead of vertical so i cant use it within a case

and i rember that old i386 thinkpad i had which didnt even have expansion for a cdrom no usb and the hdd sucked cause i couldnt crack the pass
also it had a whole 11mb of ram


and that old pc that i have wont run 2k it only has 32mb ram and 2gb hdd(not much to work with huh)
although i could always go buy a cheap hdd from soemwhere since it has the standard ide interface

quit hiting the computer; computers can only do what they are told so we must be telling them to do wrong things
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bitJericho
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Posted: 8th Mar 2005 01:00
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Quote: "and that old pc that i have wont run 2k it only has 32mb ram and 2gb hdd"


It should run on that O_o I ran 2k on 64mb with a 2gb hdd.. ran quite nicely.


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Three Score
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Posted: 9th Mar 2005 12:04
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minimum sys req for 2k is 64mb of ram and i think like 900mb of hdd

quit hiting the computer; computers can only do what they are told so we must be telling them to do wrong things
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bitJericho
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Posted: 9th Mar 2005 14:15
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ahh I didn't realize that..

but ya, 900 mb is about right, unless you're going to install bucketloads of software you'll be fine


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Mr Underhill
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Posted: 9th Mar 2005 14:31
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Well, I'm partial to Win95, since it was what my first (long-term) PC ran. So quaint. No annoying Blue-Screens-of-Death-every-five-minutes like 98. And I miss the startup sound. Goshdarnit I miss my old computer!

My name is Underhill...commit it to memory.
"Vee vill drive zhem from zee peer-to-peer sites, vee vill beat zhem vith a stick!" ~Leo Laporte, mocking the RIAA
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Three Score
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Posted: 10th Mar 2005 09:01
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walla the windows 95 startup sound

errr well god dang i left my vpc file on ym mums pc dang it
so i guess i will give it to u in 3 days or so

and what i hate on windows 3.1 is when u push ctrl-alt-del u get a bsod how annoying

quit hiting the computer; computers can only do what they are told so we must be telling them to do wrong things
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