leeb
Veteran Member
God... I feel old.
Mini-computer is probably the smallest one I could have gotten when 'I was a kid'...
:D
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Things you regret doing to vintage computers and parts
- Thread starter Andrew T.
- Start date
God... I feel old.
Mini-computer is probably the smallest one I could have gotten when 'I was a kid'...
:D
Ole Juul
Veteran Member
Same here, but I wouldn't have known what one was. Mini was the name of a mouse . . .God... I feel old.
Mini-computer is probably the smallest one I could have gotten when 'I was a kid'... :D
Hate to tell you this, but throwing out dozens of XT's, 286's and early 386's. Some reparable some full functional. It was at a time when the stuff wasn't vintage it was just old. Back then my vintage PC hobby wasn't vintage, it was just trying to build something that could run windows 3.1.
In particular, throwing out a broken PS/2 model 80 and model 95. I stored the 4MB memory "SIMMS" from the 80 only to sell them later! Dumb Dumb Dumb. The model 95 I broke trying to upgrade from a SX25 to a DX66. Didn't know i could have got a new processor card. Hey it was before I had internet. Only took 10+ years to obtain the two systems again. Lesson learned.
Also my first PC, a Tandon XT, neglected and thrown away when "new stuff" was more interesting. Then i acquired a Tandon 286, Don't know where that went. Then a Tandon 386, lost that one in a big clear out. I had all three, at different times, never side by side.
Biggest regret, not buying an entire network of approx 25+ IBM PS/2's, with model M keyboards, Token ring stuff, etc. <Sigh> Also came free with a mountain of various computers. I scavenged what I could from the mountain, and bought the fated PS/2 Model 80 and 95. The mountain filled the room halfway up and was a big room approx 30x30 foot. There was all manner of stuff there terminals, systems, monitors, weird "ooh whats that" boxes. I barely made a dent into it. One day I went back for more and the whole place had burnt down. I would guess if you put the lot on eBay today you could give up work for 5 years.
Similar thing happened with vintage 50s to 70s TV's. When i got there, two container loads had already gone for scrap. Just some old vintage parts remained, I picked up a valve, and a guy said "did you want those?", yes, "oh we threw out crates of those". must have been 200+ TV's there.
Countless AT cases, who'd have thought they'd be hard to find? Its got to the point of almost considering shipping cases halfway across the world.
In particular, throwing out a broken PS/2 model 80 and model 95. I stored the 4MB memory "SIMMS" from the 80 only to sell them later! Dumb Dumb Dumb. The model 95 I broke trying to upgrade from a SX25 to a DX66. Didn't know i could have got a new processor card. Hey it was before I had internet. Only took 10+ years to obtain the two systems again. Lesson learned.
Also my first PC, a Tandon XT, neglected and thrown away when "new stuff" was more interesting. Then i acquired a Tandon 286, Don't know where that went. Then a Tandon 386, lost that one in a big clear out. I had all three, at different times, never side by side.
Biggest regret, not buying an entire network of approx 25+ IBM PS/2's, with model M keyboards, Token ring stuff, etc. <Sigh> Also came free with a mountain of various computers. I scavenged what I could from the mountain, and bought the fated PS/2 Model 80 and 95. The mountain filled the room halfway up and was a big room approx 30x30 foot. There was all manner of stuff there terminals, systems, monitors, weird "ooh whats that" boxes. I barely made a dent into it. One day I went back for more and the whole place had burnt down. I would guess if you put the lot on eBay today you could give up work for 5 years.
Similar thing happened with vintage 50s to 70s TV's. When i got there, two container loads had already gone for scrap. Just some old vintage parts remained, I picked up a valve, and a guy said "did you want those?", yes, "oh we threw out crates of those". must have been 200+ TV's there.
Countless AT cases, who'd have thought they'd be hard to find? Its got to the point of almost considering shipping cases halfway across the world.
wesleyfurr
Veteran Member
Interesting thread! Probably the biggest regret is parting with some of the items I had when I moved...though at the time, I was under the gun and my wife didn't want me moving all that "junk". Some of it really could have gone...but today, much of it would have been stuff people here probably would have at least taken off my hands. I donated it to the local Good Will...pretty sure it all just ended up in the dumpster, which is the most depressing part. Stuff like an old NEC Multisync (just another old CGA monitor I thought at the time), an old AT&T machine (6300 I think), other odds and ends...I forget what all.
The other big regret...which is more of just not knowing till it was too late, is how badly old batteries can damage machines. I've got way too many that no longer function due to that. Along the same lines was the IBM AT motherboard I had (upgraded it to a Pentium class machine at a place I used to work, kept the board)...stored it with the 4AA battery holder sitting on top...and the batteries still in it. What was I thinking?!?!?? It doesn't seem to work now either...
Aside from that, I guess I've done fairly well overall with avoiding regrets.
High Treason - loved your comment about overclocking a 6x86...I think those things were essentially overclocked from the factory. Interesting things though...wish I had some in my collection. I think the P120+ was the most interesting...ran on a 55MHz bus clock so it ran at 110MHz...and supposedly was as fast as a P120. Sold my cousin one from the place I worked at the time when he went to college. A 6x86 P120+ CPU with a Seagate ST52520 hard drive (darn fast drive!)...his roommate couldn't believe my cousin's crappy Cyrix was faster than his Pentium 166. Just goes to prove a fast drive makes all the difference! I did manage to hang onto one of those drives for my collection...along with a 6Gb and 9Gb example of the first models Seagate 7200rpm IDE desktop drives. Regret avoided... ;-)
Wesley
The other big regret...which is more of just not knowing till it was too late, is how badly old batteries can damage machines. I've got way too many that no longer function due to that. Along the same lines was the IBM AT motherboard I had (upgraded it to a Pentium class machine at a place I used to work, kept the board)...stored it with the 4AA battery holder sitting on top...and the batteries still in it. What was I thinking?!?!?? It doesn't seem to work now either...
Aside from that, I guess I've done fairly well overall with avoiding regrets.
High Treason - loved your comment about overclocking a 6x86...I think those things were essentially overclocked from the factory.
Interesting things though...wish I had some in my collection. I think the P120+ was the most interesting...ran on a 55MHz bus clock so it ran at 110MHz...and supposedly was as fast as a P120. Sold my cousin one from the place I worked at the time when he went to college. A 6x86 P120+ CPU with a Seagate ST52520 hard drive (darn fast drive!)...his roommate couldn't believe my cousin's crappy Cyrix was faster than his Pentium 166. Just goes to prove a fast drive makes all the difference! I did manage to hang onto one of those drives for my collection...along with a 6Gb and 9Gb example of the first models Seagate 7200rpm IDE desktop drives. Regret avoided... ;-)Wesley
tingo
Veteran Member
Ah yes.. that's definitely one; although I look around today and see how much space those are taking still and wonder if it's worth it. Then there's the other thread about backing them all up and what hardware to spend the $$$ on. Which is my biggest complaint for a cheap arse like myself
I just wish I had kept my copy of Logitech Modula-2, complete with three-button mouse. Damn.
Trixter
Veteran Member
The only thing I regret is selling about 50 pieces of software to a software resale shop in the mid-1990s.
fatwizard
Veteran Member
I have run my own PC service business out of my home in this one horse town for the last eighteen years, and there is never enough room, and never enough money. This has led to several purges of old hardware over the years that I felt I could no longer turn into income. I mean, when it reaches the ceiling, you have to do something.
Now that I have finally let the vintage computer bug bite me, I regret it all. The one that really haunts me to this day though is chucking an operational 5161 expansion unit into the bin. I had it and a 5160 XT, and I barely kept the XT at the time.
Years later, that same XT became the starting point of my old computer obsession. I call her "mother", because all of the computers that have defined my work over the years, and my life really, are her descendants. She is my pride and joy, but wouldn't she look spiffy with that expansion unit next to her.
*sigh*
Now that I have finally let the vintage computer bug bite me, I regret it all. The one that really haunts me to this day though is chucking an operational 5161 expansion unit into the bin. I had it and a 5160 XT, and I barely kept the XT at the time.
Years later, that same XT became the starting point of my old computer obsession. I call her "mother", because all of the computers that have defined my work over the years, and my life really, are her descendants. She is my pride and joy, but wouldn't she look spiffy with that expansion unit next to her.
*sigh*
Trixter
Veteran Member
I thought I felt a disturbance in the force that day.
It took me 15 years to find one once I learned of its existence in the late 1990s.
EverythingIBM
Experienced Member
*Not preventing my first 300PL 6562 (pentium 1) from being scrapped when it was perfectly operational
*Recycling a pentium 1 Aptiva
*junking a working 5160 motherboard (100% operational)
*Not rescuing two ALPs keyboards from being dumped-- I didn't know what they were at the time-- I was too mesmerized by the buckling spring keyboards nearby
*Recycling a pentium 1 Aptiva
*junking a working 5160 motherboard (100% operational)
*Not rescuing two ALPs keyboards from being dumped-- I didn't know what they were at the time-- I was too mesmerized by the buckling spring keyboards nearby
DOS lives on!!
Veteran Member
I junked three Gateway 2000 systems about 9 years ago before I knew any better. Other one is forgetting to put a seat belt around an amber Panasonic monitor when I brought home my FX-600 Business Partner. First red light we came to, and I watched it "hop" off the seat and shatter all over the floor.
dfnr2
Experienced Member
I had a large stack of Xerox sigma-9 documentation I had acquired at Memphis State, plus some PDP-11 and PDP-8 handbooks, and a thick stack of fanfold green/white paper with a FORTRAN listing of Dave Platt's 550-point adventure. When I left for college, they gathered dust in my room, and eventually, one visit home while still in college in the late 80's, I helped my parents out by junking it all. I didn't yet feel nostalgic about it. Now I do regret losing those documents. . .
On the other hand, I had a C64 which I bought just before college, acquired a large collection of pirated software, and never used once in college (we had public macs oll over campus). My roommates used it to play games during my first couple of years, and I gave it away after my second year, and never missed it a bit.
Dave
On the other hand, I had a C64 which I bought just before college, acquired a large collection of pirated software, and never used once in college (we had public macs oll over campus). My roommates used it to play games during my first couple of years, and I gave it away after my second year, and never missed it a bit.
Dave
billdeg
Technician
Fried my altair front panel by accidentally inserting a RAM card into a system that was still turned on.
Kurthamm
Experienced Member
I am regretting the 13 Apple IIe Platinum PCs that are gathering dust and probably yellowing further in my garage. Got a haul from a school district with color monitors and floppy drives. Planned to clean and refurb as a project with my daughter. She isn't interested and I haven't found time. I need to get on this project!
Love the Platinums I recently bought/fixed a second one although it has the wrong lid which is annoying lol but had a bad power supply and was sorta sporadic turning on although I thought I recall it also crashing in basic periodically. But this was all fixing it at the place that had it before buying (nice of them to encourage me to troubleshoot and fix it there). Story aside, they're pretty easy I think to sell if you want to clear up some space.
I recently bought/fixed a second one although it has the wrong lid which is annoying lol but had a bad power supply and was sorta sporadic turning on although I thought I recall it also crashing in basic periodically. But this was all fixing it at the place that had it before buying (nice of them to encourage me to troubleshoot and fix it there). Story aside, they're pretty easy I think to sell if you want to clear up some space.gslick
Veteran Member
I regret trading a KIM-1 with 8KB expansion and SWTP CT-1024 towards a Apple II+ back when it was brand new. Wish I had kept that setup.
I regret throwing away a collection of Byte, Kilobaud, and Micro 6502 magazines that were nearly complete up through around 1982, although it would have been a pain to move them around and store them for the last 30 years.
I regret selling a fairly loaded PDP-11/44 CPU a few years ago before I really knew what to do with it. I have a bunch of Q-Bus stuff now but nothing Unibus and would like to get an 11/44 again someday.
I regret throwing away a collection of Byte, Kilobaud, and Micro 6502 magazines that were nearly complete up through around 1982, although it would have been a pain to move them around and store them for the last 30 years.
I regret selling a fairly loaded PDP-11/44 CPU a few years ago before I really knew what to do with it. I have a bunch of Q-Bus stuff now but nothing Unibus and would like to get an 11/44 again someday.
Sgt.Barnes
Member
When I left my apprenticeship/intern-ship at my job placement, I was given x3 XT's and X2 ATs complete with green screen monitors, all fully loaded as they had just upgraded to new fangled 486 & Amstrad 1512's. I kept them for about 2 years then I promised my parents I would shift them after I left home. Yep you guessed it, I tipped them ! Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Blinkenlightz
Member
Oh boy, where do I begin......
- Selling my Amiga 1000 in perfect condition, in box, before that was worthy of mention.
- Tossing out a PS/2 model 9585 :dodgeball:
- Taking a hacksaw to an Apple IIe to mount the motherboard into an XT case, using the lopped-off IIe keyboard externally. IIe's were worth about $5 at the time. :chainsaw:
- Tossing out my Tandon AT clone, with all components having a matching serial number tag. :bigeyes:
- Painting a Mac SE with black spray paint... And its mouse too.......... :ninja1:
- Selling my Amiga 1000 in perfect condition, in box, before that was worthy of mention.
- Tossing out a PS/2 model 9585 :dodgeball:
- Taking a hacksaw to an Apple IIe to mount the motherboard into an XT case, using the lopped-off IIe keyboard externally. IIe's were worth about $5 at the time. :chainsaw:
- Tossing out my Tandon AT clone, with all components having a matching serial number tag. :bigeyes:
- Painting a Mac SE with black spray paint... And its mouse too.......... :ninja1:
I have cringed a few times reading through all of these. Please bear with me on this.
A few years ago, during a move, I tossed 3 boxes (apple boxes, you know, the kind that fruit comes in) of "old, junk cards" and stuff. In that lot was at least a dozen 360k 5¼ drives, 4 8 bit Seagate SCSI cards (that I know of) and more than 6 8 bit IDE cards. I/O cards, ISA video cards EISA video and controller cards. You know, junk. I had stripped out over a 100 286s, 386s, 486s, Amigas, Macs and early Pentiums. I greatly regret the loss of the 8 bit cards, especially the SCSI and IDE cards. I had quite a few full sized 286 ATs. I still have a box of Windows for 286 somewhere that I was going to install but then got rid of most of that old junk. One of the Amiga 2000s that I had, had a "Leprecard" in it. This "card" had its own hard drive that was fed off of the card which was a (IIRC) 286 pc with its own 4 1mb 30pin simms. The hard drive was a 40mb drive. It allowed the Amiga to run MSDOS. I still have the metal part of the card, its full length but the hard drive and the actual card are long gone. I can't even remember all of the MFM drives that I dismembered.
About 4 years ago I gave a shoe box that was literally half full of 286, 386 (with matching co-processors), 486, Pentium and AMD processors to a friend so he could scrap them. I used to haul 10 to 20 empty cases at a time to the metal scrappers.
And now I am looking for a 360k floppy drive so I can communicate with my IBM 5160. I had some friends on the lookout for an 8 bit SCSI card for me so I can put a SCSI hard drive in the 5160 so I don't loose the info that is on it.
You know, this is almost like a confessional.
A few years ago, during a move, I tossed 3 boxes (apple boxes, you know, the kind that fruit comes in) of "old, junk cards" and stuff. In that lot was at least a dozen 360k 5¼ drives, 4 8 bit Seagate SCSI cards (that I know of) and more than 6 8 bit IDE cards. I/O cards, ISA video cards EISA video and controller cards. You know, junk. I had stripped out over a 100 286s, 386s, 486s, Amigas, Macs and early Pentiums. I greatly regret the loss of the 8 bit cards, especially the SCSI and IDE cards. I had quite a few full sized 286 ATs. I still have a box of Windows for 286 somewhere that I was going to install but then got rid of most of that old junk. One of the Amiga 2000s that I had, had a "Leprecard" in it. This "card" had its own hard drive that was fed off of the card which was a (IIRC) 286 pc with its own 4 1mb 30pin simms. The hard drive was a 40mb drive. It allowed the Amiga to run MSDOS. I still have the metal part of the card, its full length but the hard drive and the actual card are long gone. I can't even remember all of the MFM drives that I dismembered.
About 4 years ago I gave a shoe box that was literally half full of 286, 386 (with matching co-processors), 486, Pentium and AMD processors to a friend so he could scrap them. I used to haul 10 to 20 empty cases at a time to the metal scrappers.
And now I am looking for a 360k floppy drive so I can communicate with my IBM 5160. I had some friends on the lookout for an 8 bit SCSI card for me so I can put a SCSI hard drive in the 5160 so I don't loose the info that is on it.
You know, this is almost like a confessional.