EddieDX4
Veteran Member
Hard times call for hard measures...such as venturing into my local thrift store.
I decided to visit the Goodwill store near my house, hoping for the best but ready for great disappointments. As soon as I stepped foot inside the store, the stench of old "fresh out of the attic/damp closet" clothes saturated my nostrils and reminded me of the many reasons why I hadn't set foot inside a thrift store in the naming of computer history preservation for a few years.
Once I lost my sense of smell, I proceeded straight back to the section that, from far away, is merely recognizable by the variety of old bookshelf speakers covered in the cheapest faux wood laminates known to man.
As I approach the isles in that vicinity, I spot the usual collection of old-but-not-exactly-vintage computers with their cases half-open and missing random plastics/drive-bay covers. Buried in the rubble, a little shimmering logo pops up... Gateway 2000... Golden, striped G and all.
I fast-walk towards it, in fear that another vintage geek might be lurking, hiding between the 70's suits isles, and grab a hold of it. It's a P4D-66 desktop (i486dx2/66)! I quickly do the mandatory visual inspection and find no missing plastics or even metal expansion slot covers... The case also had very few and minor scuffs, the majority of which were surface stains that buffed out the second I rubbed them with my finger.
I steal a cart from some old lady that was too busy checking out an old couch, and put the beast in the cart. Just because, I decided to check out the old monitors isle... 17" eMachines this, 17" Compaq that... When suddenly I spot a monitor that just "didn't fit in" with the rest... It was small... 15" small... But I'm talking early to mid-90's 15" small (bubbly-rounded corners on the bezel, etc...) It was the matching Gateway 2000 CrystalScan 1572 DG! I couldn't believe it. The bastard that donated this stuff had blessed me with an almost entire system. The monitor was in equally great condition, which I couldn't believe.
So, now I have a bit of an adrenaline rush, which gave me the jolt I needed to dig into the keyboards shelf. By now people are looking at me funny, as I fill my cart with keyboards to get the top ones out of the way... Unfortunately, after all the digging, the best I could find were a pair of Gateway (not 2000) keyboards with their silly multimedia volume controls, etc. They just didn't look right, so I moved on.
I'm getting ready to wrap up and call it a day at the register, when I spot a strange little pizza box case burried under a bunch of old Altec speakers... I turn it around and realize it's a PS/2 E! Okay, that one wasn't really as exciting, but it was still a somewhat cool find. I checked and the front and rear PCMCIA slots were empty, so I figured it might not even have the HDD in, but I grabbed it anyway. I could always pair this up with my IBM 12" VGA monitor and turn it into a color terminal. The best part about it, however, was that it had no price tag on it, so I got it for just $3.99.
So, fast forward to my house and survey the damage. The P4D-66 has 16MB of RAM, had no HDD (most came with a 540mb), but it does have a fairly decent IDE controller card so it took a 560mb Samsung drive I had laying around and found it without me fiddling with the BIOS (the controller has an extended IDE BIOS that loads after the machine posts). It also has a combo 3.5"/5.25" drive occupying the top 5.25" bay, and a 2x CD-ROM drive in the middle 5.25" bay (there was a Bookshelf '94 CD inside...hehe.) The 3.5" vertical bay is unused and properly covered with the original plastic cover. It also has an Ensoniq Soundscape sound card (wave table and MT32 emulation), a Gateway 2000 28.8k FAX/Modem, and a STB Lightspeed ET4000/W32p based PCI VGA card (with 1MB). I found all the drivers I needed online and quickly filled its drive with a fresh copy of MS DOS 6.22 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11.
The monitor works like a charm, bright picture, no flaws whatsoever.
The PS/2 E, at first, was a bit of a disappointment. When I would hit the power button it would flash on and off immediately. The button was not "clicking" on, so I figured it was broken. As I grabbed the case to move the computer, I realized it wasn't all the way in by about 1mm... I snapped it into place and the button worked immediately.
That one has more humble specs. It's an IBM 486SLC2/50 (which, as I understand, are more 386 cores) and has 4mb of RAM. The surprising part is that they did leave the HDD in it... 120mb. It still has the IBM DOS 5.02 version in it with the PCMCIA utils, etc. Not bad for a machine that will likely serve a single purpose at some point. Still haven't decided what to do with it, but it was $4 so I'm not in a hurry to get my "money's worth". As I mentioned before, likely a color terminal.
So, there's my thrift store weekend adventure story. I know, I know... No TRS-80 Model 4, or Lisa, but I think for less than $30 and 20 minutes of my life, the two finds weren't too shabby. Especially in their condition.
What's your story?
I decided to visit the Goodwill store near my house, hoping for the best but ready for great disappointments. As soon as I stepped foot inside the store, the stench of old "fresh out of the attic/damp closet" clothes saturated my nostrils and reminded me of the many reasons why I hadn't set foot inside a thrift store in the naming of computer history preservation for a few years.
Once I lost my sense of smell, I proceeded straight back to the section that, from far away, is merely recognizable by the variety of old bookshelf speakers covered in the cheapest faux wood laminates known to man.
As I approach the isles in that vicinity, I spot the usual collection of old-but-not-exactly-vintage computers with their cases half-open and missing random plastics/drive-bay covers. Buried in the rubble, a little shimmering logo pops up... Gateway 2000... Golden, striped G and all.
I fast-walk towards it, in fear that another vintage geek might be lurking, hiding between the 70's suits isles, and grab a hold of it. It's a P4D-66 desktop (i486dx2/66)! I quickly do the mandatory visual inspection and find no missing plastics or even metal expansion slot covers... The case also had very few and minor scuffs, the majority of which were surface stains that buffed out the second I rubbed them with my finger.
I steal a cart from some old lady that was too busy checking out an old couch, and put the beast in the cart. Just because, I decided to check out the old monitors isle... 17" eMachines this, 17" Compaq that... When suddenly I spot a monitor that just "didn't fit in" with the rest... It was small... 15" small... But I'm talking early to mid-90's 15" small (bubbly-rounded corners on the bezel, etc...) It was the matching Gateway 2000 CrystalScan 1572 DG! I couldn't believe it. The bastard that donated this stuff had blessed me with an almost entire system. The monitor was in equally great condition, which I couldn't believe.
So, now I have a bit of an adrenaline rush, which gave me the jolt I needed to dig into the keyboards shelf. By now people are looking at me funny, as I fill my cart with keyboards to get the top ones out of the way... Unfortunately, after all the digging, the best I could find were a pair of Gateway (not 2000) keyboards with their silly multimedia volume controls, etc. They just didn't look right, so I moved on.
I'm getting ready to wrap up and call it a day at the register, when I spot a strange little pizza box case burried under a bunch of old Altec speakers... I turn it around and realize it's a PS/2 E! Okay, that one wasn't really as exciting, but it was still a somewhat cool find. I checked and the front and rear PCMCIA slots were empty, so I figured it might not even have the HDD in, but I grabbed it anyway. I could always pair this up with my IBM 12" VGA monitor and turn it into a color terminal. The best part about it, however, was that it had no price tag on it, so I got it for just $3.99.
So, fast forward to my house and survey the damage. The P4D-66 has 16MB of RAM, had no HDD (most came with a 540mb), but it does have a fairly decent IDE controller card so it took a 560mb Samsung drive I had laying around and found it without me fiddling with the BIOS (the controller has an extended IDE BIOS that loads after the machine posts). It also has a combo 3.5"/5.25" drive occupying the top 5.25" bay, and a 2x CD-ROM drive in the middle 5.25" bay (there was a Bookshelf '94 CD inside...hehe.) The 3.5" vertical bay is unused and properly covered with the original plastic cover. It also has an Ensoniq Soundscape sound card (wave table and MT32 emulation), a Gateway 2000 28.8k FAX/Modem, and a STB Lightspeed ET4000/W32p based PCI VGA card (with 1MB). I found all the drivers I needed online and quickly filled its drive with a fresh copy of MS DOS 6.22 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11.
The monitor works like a charm, bright picture, no flaws whatsoever.
The PS/2 E, at first, was a bit of a disappointment. When I would hit the power button it would flash on and off immediately. The button was not "clicking" on, so I figured it was broken. As I grabbed the case to move the computer, I realized it wasn't all the way in by about 1mm... I snapped it into place and the button worked immediately.
That one has more humble specs. It's an IBM 486SLC2/50 (which, as I understand, are more 386 cores) and has 4mb of RAM. The surprising part is that they did leave the HDD in it... 120mb. It still has the IBM DOS 5.02 version in it with the PCMCIA utils, etc. Not bad for a machine that will likely serve a single purpose at some point. Still haven't decided what to do with it, but it was $4 so I'm not in a hurry to get my "money's worth". As I mentioned before, likely a color terminal.
So, there's my thrift store weekend adventure story. I know, I know... No TRS-80 Model 4, or Lisa, but I think for less than $30 and 20 minutes of my life, the two finds weren't too shabby. Especially in their condition.
What's your story?