TandyMan100
Veteran Member
--=The Adventures with an Old PC=--
++Introduction++
This story chronicles the tale of one old computer: a 90MHz Pentium-class with an A-Open case. Made approximately 1994, this computer was pretty state-of-the-art, but now, it is (to most people) a piece of worthless trash.
++Chapter 1++
I bought this computer in mid-2009 at a local garage sale along with two other computers. Being a computeritarian, I just couldn't stand to see three perfectly fine computers go to the dump. I bought them for five dollars. There was two first-gen Pentiums, and a Pentium III. I brought them home and promptly dismantled all three, then threw the cases into the trash.
I had an unexplainable draw to one of the computers. It was an AOpen case. Clean lines. Not to busy. Not too extravagent or overdone. And it had a cool LED readout/information panel. I jumped into our (rather stinky) trash to fish it back out, and set out to re-building the computer.
++Chapter 2++
After putting in the power supply and motherboard, I realised that the switch supplied with the case was crap. This being an AT-style computer, I needed an AT-style rocker switch. There was none, so I took a bushbutton switch, and glued (and glued, and some more glue) it into the space the rocker switch should've gone. I then took a couple of layers of balsa wood (not sure of the thickness) and dremeled out a button, and glued that on.
Finally, I installed the drives. The original cd drive went in, a new 3.5" floppy drive, a Colorado 350MB tape drive, and a 2.5 Gigabyte hard drive ended up inside. Put in a video card and fired it up: nothing.
++Chapter 3++
Fast foward a month: I dug out the computer, as I wanted to work on a computer, and my main PC needed a new mobo. I powered it on, and decided to see if I could get it working. Put in two video cards ('cause one of them had to work), an ISA Soundblaster 16 (that thing is over a foot long), network card, and a modem. I spent about 2 hours just figuring out how to wire the information panel up (I ripped it apart thinking it would be easy. Nope.) because I had no instructions/manual. Then I rotated and switched IDE cables until the drive lights would flicker and the HDD light would flicker, that left the tape drive and floppy drive. What could be wrong with them?
++Chapter 4++
Have a caffine-infused drink. Switch around power cables, rotate the floppy cables on the drives. Scratch head. Repeat about 10 times. Two hours later, realize that the !@$#^%$ thing was never plugged into the mobo. Scream. Now that I had all of the drives working, it was time to plug in a monit and keyboard. But wait. It uses an AT-style DIN plug for the keyboard. I have no AT keyboards. Crud. Look up manual, read manual, skip all of the BIOS bruhaha (might need it later, though), find out that a PS/2 port is optional, but not included. Notice that the mobo has internal USB connectors, "borrow" USB doohickey from main PC, plug in. Finally ready to test.
++Introduction++
This story chronicles the tale of one old computer: a 90MHz Pentium-class with an A-Open case. Made approximately 1994, this computer was pretty state-of-the-art, but now, it is (to most people) a piece of worthless trash.
++Chapter 1++
I bought this computer in mid-2009 at a local garage sale along with two other computers. Being a computeritarian, I just couldn't stand to see three perfectly fine computers go to the dump. I bought them for five dollars. There was two first-gen Pentiums, and a Pentium III. I brought them home and promptly dismantled all three, then threw the cases into the trash.
I had an unexplainable draw to one of the computers. It was an AOpen case. Clean lines. Not to busy. Not too extravagent or overdone. And it had a cool LED readout/information panel. I jumped into our (rather stinky) trash to fish it back out, and set out to re-building the computer.
++Chapter 2++
After putting in the power supply and motherboard, I realised that the switch supplied with the case was crap. This being an AT-style computer, I needed an AT-style rocker switch. There was none, so I took a bushbutton switch, and glued (and glued, and some more glue) it into the space the rocker switch should've gone. I then took a couple of layers of balsa wood (not sure of the thickness) and dremeled out a button, and glued that on.
Finally, I installed the drives. The original cd drive went in, a new 3.5" floppy drive, a Colorado 350MB tape drive, and a 2.5 Gigabyte hard drive ended up inside. Put in a video card and fired it up: nothing.
++Chapter 3++
Fast foward a month: I dug out the computer, as I wanted to work on a computer, and my main PC needed a new mobo. I powered it on, and decided to see if I could get it working. Put in two video cards ('cause one of them had to work), an ISA Soundblaster 16 (that thing is over a foot long), network card, and a modem. I spent about 2 hours just figuring out how to wire the information panel up (I ripped it apart thinking it would be easy. Nope.) because I had no instructions/manual. Then I rotated and switched IDE cables until the drive lights would flicker and the HDD light would flicker, that left the tape drive and floppy drive. What could be wrong with them?
++Chapter 4++
Have a caffine-infused drink. Switch around power cables, rotate the floppy cables on the drives. Scratch head. Repeat about 10 times. Two hours later, realize that the !@$#^%$ thing was never plugged into the mobo. Scream. Now that I had all of the drives working, it was time to plug in a monit and keyboard. But wait. It uses an AT-style DIN plug for the keyboard. I have no AT keyboards. Crud. Look up manual, read manual, skip all of the BIOS bruhaha (might need it later, though), find out that a PS/2 port is optional, but not included. Notice that the mobo has internal USB connectors, "borrow" USB doohickey from main PC, plug in. Finally ready to test.