What were you doing the first time you opened a PC case?

[TurtleCrusher]

Opening up a flat box case win 95 Compaq Presario back in 1998.

Pentium 90mhz
1gb quantum fireball hdd
Slow as dirt fdd
Onboard video

I tried to add some incompatible ram. Luckily shit didn't line up. The jumpers scared me.

 

[biostud]

Installing a soundblaster card in a 386 sx 16 mhz. Must have been around 1992.

 

[Arcadio]

Some of you guys are lucky you grew up around computers. My family owned a computer for the first time when I was already 16, in 1996. Third World Problems...

 

[ElFenix]

probably just looking inside.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Adding an 8MB memory stick I paid $136 for.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I was adding 32MB of RAM so I could play Age of Empires (I forget it if was 1 or 2). I usually paid Best Buy to do stuff like that, but it seemed simple enough that it wasn't worth dropping off my computer for 2 days and paying $60.

I loved that game. Best game ever!

 

[mistercrabby]

Install RAM

 

[IronWing]

I was looking for a connector of some sort. Later versions of the Kaypro II had a something or other on the motherboard that allowed one to install a RAM disk while earlier versions didn't. I was seeing which version I had. Pointless as my dad wasn't going to let me install a RAM disk anyway (plus they costed a lot).

 

[manimal]

sneezing. there was so much dust in there wasnt even funny.

 

[Ichinisan]

Some of you guys are lucky you grew up around computers. My family owned a computer for the first time when I was already 16, in 1996. Third World Problems...

Ditto.

My first PC was in late 1996 and I had just turned 16. It was a black Acer Aspire tower with an IBM (Cyrix) P150 processor and 16MB RAM. I think the hard drive was 1.5GB. It had an MWAVE combination modem / sound card. The matching monitor included a telephone handset that mounts to the side. Came with a load of software, including 3D Movie Maker, some multimedia encyclopedia stuff, Magic School Bus, The Incredible Machine, and RingCentral. I think RingCentral even supported custom voice greetings based on caller ID and multiple voice mailboxes using touch tone commands. I didn't get to use that software because my mother had pulse dialing to save a few bucks each month.

The IBM P150 Cyrix processor was horrible. It wasn't anywhere near as fast as a Pentium 133 processor. Games like Quake and Fury3 were extremely slow due to the shitty FPU performance. The combo MWAVE card was bad (couldn't get CD audio during Quake).

The most annoying thing was that it came with Acer Computer Explorer, which loaded in full-screen automatically and tried to hide the Win95 UI with something that recreates the Windows 3.1 Program Manager. Once I discovered the Win95A interface, I finally started learning how to use my computer.

Discovered emulation and got a Sidewinder game pad. Had a lot of fun with that...even though it's a pretty horrible gamepad.

 

[dethman]

every time I read one of these threads I feel old. though I'm really not that old.

 

[shortylickens]

Mid 80's.

I dont recall the details.

Was working with DOS when I was 9 years old.

 

[DesiPower]

486 DX2 66mhz PC with 4MB RAM !!!

Just got it delivered and set up. First thing i did once the technician left, was to shut it down and open it, just to take a peek inside, that was me, had to see everything inside...

 

[MongGrel]

Upgrading a Pentium CPU around 1992, I think it was a 40 to 60 upgrade on an old Packard Bell 386.

First time I opened one up to modify anything.

 

[shortylickens]

Upgrading a Pentium CPU around 1992, I think it was a 40 to 60 upgrade on an old Packard Bell 386.

A Pentium 40 to a Pentium 60?

 

[MongGrel]

A Pentium 40 to a Pentium 60?

I believe so actually, was awhile back

Was one old funky Packard Bell, I forget the details, but I did upgrade the CPU.

 

[Fern]

IIRC the Pentium didn't come out until 1993. I got one that year. I had to pay a premium for it. Chose it over the 486DX.

I also think the first Pentium was 60 MHz. I don't think they made a 40 MHz.

I could be wrong though. But I definitely remember paying a ton for it. It was a bit over $4k. But it had all the bells and whistles for its time. The SOB ran pretty good for about 10 yrs. Towards the end it was really only used as a word processor by my secretary.

Fern

 

[Belegost]

IIRC the Pentium didn't come out until 1993. I got one that year. I had to pay a premium for it. Chose it over the 486DX.

I also think the first Pentium was 60 MHz. I don't think they made a 40 MHz.

I could be wrong though. But I definitely remember paying a ton for it. It was a bit over $4k. But it had all the bells and whistles for its time. The SOB ran pretty good for about 10 yrs. Towards the end it was really only used as a word processor by my secretary.

Fern

Yea, I got the 90Mhz (second gen P54C) in '94, 60MHz was the minimum since it used a 60 or 66Mhz bus.

That led to my first OCing experience - the 90 used 1.5x multipler on the 60Mhz bus clock, and the 100MHz used same multiplier with the 66MHz bus clock. Found out that setting 66Mhz bus was just adding a jumper on one 2 point block. Boom, instant 10% OC.

 

[CZroe]

I was installing a second nVidia Micro Devices phase modulator for the matter stream processors going to the holographic projectors. It's way more advanced than the Creative Graphics Blaster I installed back in 1996 or 1997 in my slick-looking Acer Aspire. It was such a step down in performance that I still can't shake the disappointment.

Maybe I wasn't supposed to let all of those details slip this early in the timeline, but serious thread gets a serious answer.

 

[GHz_ghost]

I just wanted to see what it looked like inside.

 

[bbhaag]

It's all about the LOADHIGH, man.

Yep. I was around 11 at the time though and the only books I had were the ones my dad bought. One was DOS for Dummies and the other was Peter Nortons DOS 5 Guide.
Nortons guide eventually got me to the point where I was able to load certain process into extended memory but it was basically a 500 page technical manual. Not exactly light reading for me at that age.

I loved that PC though, as crappy as it was it sparked my interest in PCs and I'm still interested in them 24 years later.

 

[Zorander]

Installing a new graphics card: a Creative RivaTNT.

p.s. Damned passive cooled card always crashed shortly into any games.

 

[RampantAndroid]

I was looking to see what the inside of the family 286 looked like, and what this AMAZING 20MB hard drive looked like. Heh.

 

[jumpncrash]

The 5 1/4 floppy drive on my commodore 64 wouldn't clamp onto the disks anymore, I had to take it apart and fiddle with the mechanism to get it to work again

 

[mooncancook]

The thread reminds me of the Pentium Overdrive in the 90s. I wanted those but I didn't think my PackardBell supported it. Ended up upgrading the CPU from the 486SX 50MHz to a 486DX 100MHz. 100MHz DX with 8 mb of ram, damn that was fast!