20 year old computer.

[rivan]

I was referring to a networked computer. While I doubt hers was, some run machines not much newer on the internet. I wonder how old a machine has to be before it's incompatible with viruses? :^D

Hah, I can just see it - a virus that depends on MMX extensions or something. No problem!

 

[CZroe]

Same here.

Friend's neighbor's house got hit by lightning, killed all the electronics in the place including the PC.

Surge suppressors often warrant against such damage, but they do not protect against it. "Surges" are completely different from "lightning strikes."

A normal "surge" that one of these is supposed to protect against is not what killed those electronics.

 

[Tsavo]

Surge suppressors often warrant against such damage, but they do not protect against it. "Surges" are completely different from "lightning strikes."

A normal "surge" that one of these is supposed to protect against is not what killed those electronics.

Thanks for the post, Mr Clavin.

 

[techs]

I wonder how old her dot matrix printer is?

 

[acheron]

maybe she can copy some files off of some 5.25" disks for me.

 

[Triumph]

My brother recently booted up our old IBM PC Jr. Said it still booted just fine but he didn't have any 5 1/4 disks to actually run anything on. I'm sure we still have the dot matrix printer, Print Shop, and Word Perfect laying around somewhere. That's really all you need.

My Thinkpad T42 is just now starting to get long in the tooth. It's from 2007. My desktop is probably from before that, maybe 2005, I don't know. I don't care if it works.

 

[jupiter57]

Wow, her home must have the most stable electrical system in the world...wtf

You would think a surge would have got that thing at some point. Wow.

Meh.
She probably paid ~$2000 for it, and every time something happened to it, she paid someone to fix it.
Protecting her investment.

Some people are like that, never thinking they could get a newer system for a couple hundred dollars!

 

[BladeVenom]

I'm surprised the capacitors lasted that long.

 

[techs]

I'm surprised the capacitors lasted that long.

hehe. Out of force of habit I looked at the caps as soon as I opened the case. Perfectly normal looking.

They could still build caps in the early 1990's

 

[Charles Weyland]

Does she engage Turbo for amazing word processor performance?

 

[SKORPI0]

I wonder how old her dot matrix printer is?

I still have this Panasonic KX-P2123 in storage.
My first colored 24-pin dot-matrix. Those were noisy printer. I wonder if they have drivers for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7.

 

[Rumpltzer]

I have never lost anything to a surge, nor personally known anyone to have lost anything to a surge.

That would actually be pretty low on my list if I were thinking of things that would break a machine.

I've lived in Florida, Illinois, Okinawa, and a few other islands in the Pacific; lightning strikes galore. Never lost anything to a surge or personally known anyone to have lost anything to a surge.

Heard a transformer blow last weekend, fuses tripped in the house, and the power went out in my place at 4am. Lights were still out at 10am when I left. When I came home, I turned on my popped fuses and found that I had lost 3 surge protectors, my coffee maker, a toaster over, and my FiOS box power supply. I took apart everything except the FiOS stuff and found charred ckt boards and blown caps.

The FiOS guy came by on Monday to replace the power supply and backup battery. He told me that a drunk driver took out a pole and killed stuff all over my neighborhood. FiOS guy was out until 9PM on Sunday night, and people were coming to him on the street to ask if he could help them. He was telling me about people losing their new 60-inch TVs...


My lab has some old equipment running on 486 PCs. When the line is slow, I go in there and help them out by pressing the TURBO button!

 

[The_Dude8]

My brother recently booted up our old IBM PC Jr. Said it still booted just fine but he didn't have any 5 1/4 disks to actually run anything on. I'm sure we still have the dot matrix printer, Print Shop, and Word Perfect laying around somewhere. That's really all you need.

My Thinkpad T42 is just now starting to get long in the tooth. It's from 2007. My desktop is probably from before that, maybe 2005, I don't know. I don't care if it works.

The t42 was awesome built laptop back in 07.

 

[CZroe]

My brother works for a local cable co and they end up selling several NICs after every lightning storm after customers lose their on-board RJ45 Ethernet jack.

 

[Hugo Drax]

I just got rid of my Mac Pros from 2006. Great machines and they still work fine, I gave them away. Replaced by Mac Minis that offer twice the performance for a fraction of the power consumption/heat generation and a much smaller footprint. Now the AC usage has dropped due to the lower heat generation.

Amazing how much technology moved ahead.

I still have my network Laserjet 4000 I purchased in 1998. Works like a champ.

 

[Triumph]

The t42 was awesome built laptop back in 07.

it just died this evening. hard drive will only make a power connection when i "push" it a certain way, and even then it isn't detected. i was just sitting there browsing the web, and it died!

anyone have a T60 or newer for sale?

 

[saratoga172]

My brother recently booted up our old IBM PC Jr. Said it still booted just fine but he didn't have any 5 1/4 disks to actually run anything on. I'm sure we still have the dot matrix printer, Print Shop, and Word Perfect laying around somewhere. That's really all you need.

My Thinkpad T42 is just now starting to get long in the tooth. It's from 2007. My desktop is probably from before that, maybe 2005, I don't know. I don't care if it works.

I've got a Dell Inspiron 1525 from April 2008 that's still running strong. High school graduation present from my parents. Still running strong. Only thing I've done to it is put an ssd in it over the summer. Outside of that its gone from vista to win 7 to 8 about a month ago.

I use it mainly for email, browsing the Web, movies and office. Some basic productivity. Still running great. I'm having a hard time justifying replacing it.

 

[spaceman]

its not about the words
its about the process






or

 

[lxskllr]

it just died this evening. hard drive will only make a power connection when i "push" it a certain way, and even then it isn't detected. i was just sitting there browsing the web, and it died!

anyone have a T60 or newer for sale?

Run it off a thumb drive

 

[SparkyJJO]

I was referring to a networked computer. While I doubt hers was, some run machines not much newer on the internet. I wonder how old a machine has to be before it's incompatible with viruses? :^D

Security through obscurity!

Betcha win98 is now one of the more secure OSes to put on the internet since nothing runs on it

 

[0roo0roo]

they should last quite a while if you think about it, the cpu's barely needed cooling back then, some were even passive heatsinked.

 

[Uhtrinity]

I have both an Apple IIe and an old Packard Bell 8088 (IBM XT Clone) in my computer lab, both still run. When I introduce spreadsheets we watch videos about Visicalc as well as load it on the Apple II. Sometimes I let the kids play some of the games on the Apple II.

 

[Arkaign]

I have an Atari 800XL and a handful of games for it, I guess that's the oldest thing I've got going. Admittedly, it's a lot more integrated and less likely to die than an old desktop PC tends to be.

As for Viruses, I think even if one worked their butt off and got it going (it can be done with Win 3.1, but web browsing is nearly broken with modern sites .. I think Netscape 3.x or some such nonsense was the last 3.x browser more or less) .. I doubt any common current virus would actually be able to do anything. They're all designed to attack XP for the most part, and a good number attack Vista/7 (and presumably 8). Running 3.x is probably about as safe as using a Mac, just a lot less capable. This is ignoring the possibility of running into an infected floppy or something that hadn't been used in years. Really old viruses seem to stop being propogated after a while. How long has it been since anyone has seen a blaster infection in person? I hadn't in at least 4-5 years, possibly longer, and was refurbing a donated laptop for someone and when I booted it, LOL BLASTER. Must have been too expensive for whomever to fix, so they tossed it in a box and ignored it for years.

 

[foghorn67]

I've got a Dell Inspiron 1525 from April 2008 that's still running strong. High school graduation present from my parents. Still running strong. Only thing I've done to it is put an ssd in it over the summer. Outside of that its gone from vista to win 7 to 8 about a month ago.

I use it mainly for email, browsing the Web, movies and office. Some basic productivity. Still running great. I'm having a hard time justifying replacing it.

I have the same laptop. The pixel density is amazing to this day. Well, until MBP's got all Retina'd up.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Some people just refuse to let go of their old computers. Stuff back them was more solid though so in a way I don't blame them. Today's stuff is just so touchy. Worse is the new PFC power supplies or whatever they're called. One slight noise on the electrical signal, or bad sine wave, and it craps out. Apparently these PSUs don't even work on UPS battery backup unless it's pure sine wave. They sure don't make stuff like they used to. Not looking forward to the day these are the only types of PSUs sold.

That is also probably the most secure computers, who writes viruses for windows 3.11 these days?