LCII and PC something and odds and ends

[AusNick]

Went to a local school fete before and lib'd an LCII and a PC of some description for $5.

Teacher who was on the stall said she also owned an SE, but I couldn't convince her to part with it. She looked and sounded like a nice lady so I offered my services if she ever had problems.

I also scorred a box of PC mice, unknown condition, and a a box of power cords, not like I don't already have power cords out the wazoo already, but a few more never hurt

The LC was not a stock config., it had an 80 meg drive and 8, maybe 10 megs of RAM.

I'm in trouble with the folks, but I'm happy, and I can offload the PC to someone I know who needs one, better it came home with me than going into a dumpster at the end of the day. I may have to sneak out and go trashing after dark. Hard rubbish in my area too.

 

[funkytoad]

Great Haul!

 

[LCGuy]

Nice haul. Hope you don't get in too much trouble with the parents!

 

[AusNick]

Ooh yeah I got in trouble, but with what I got I think it was worth it, the PC should be ready to roll as is, I may have scored more stuf, because my sis was one of the people that stuck around to pack things up, so it might be two PCs and some monitors, and some keyboards. I was spewing a bit, because the last of the towers they had was being taken away when I got there, and I had plans to snap one up and turn it into a dedicated DVD ripper, freeing the Mac up for more productive stuff. I'm forever getting asked to rip stuff for my neices, which means I have to stop whatever I'm doing, to do that. I saw at least one USB connector poking out of the tangle of mice, but there were mostly PS/2 and Serial mice, so hopefully I can salvage a few workers out of there. Friends of mine have a PC that thier grandkids use, and the mouse is barely usable, actually, I think the PC I picked up is a P3, they have a P1, so they may appreciate the upgrade if I can't keep the machine.

I wish I had my shed…

 

[Bunsen]

Hard rubbish where>?

 

[AusNick]

Hard rubbish in Frankston. Starts today, parents are going out, so I might go for walkies.

If anyone has time and wheels, pop down and we can do the rounds. I'll supply the munchies.

For anyone that's interested, the LCII is configured thus…

VRAM is maxed out as is the RAM, and it's got an 80 meg drive.

I'm tossing up wether to leave it as is, or bring it down to a stock config, and use the sticks and drive elsewhere. the 4 meg sticks are sort of wasted in a machine that tops out at 10 meg, and it's the 4 meg mobo too, if it was the 2 meg mobo then everything would be cool.

I didn't score anything extra after the fete, my sis obviously didn't fill the back of the wagon with the six 14 and 15 inch monitors a second PC and 6 or 8 keyboards. Damn.

The mass o' meeces were more tangled than garter snakes in mating season, but I got it all sorted out. Amongst the mess were 2 ADB mice, and a PC serial mouse with a DB-25 connector, weird. There was one USB mouse which I've confirmed works, don't know about the rest, I can't set up the PC, the woman on the stall gave me the wrong keyboard, and stupidly I didn't think to check myself… could have used those leftover keyboards now. I'll do a quick count of the mice…

With balls: 8

w/o balls: 14

And of the power cables…

6 pass through (for monitors)

8 mains

Well, you can never have too many mains cables.

The PC is a bit of an odd thing, it's a Ipex case and it's got a bunch of lights on the front, the usual status indicators, and three I have no idea what thier purpose is, they're labled AUX1, AUX2 and AUX3

It's got a 2.5 gig hard drive, and a CD-ROM of some speed, and I think it may well be useless, but I only paid $5 and picked up a well speced LCII in the deal. Just spewing I missed out on those monitors and keyboards.

I'll shut up and go away now, and having given it some thought, I may as well leave the LCII as I got it, I'll give the case a detail before I hit the sack, I want to get a few hours before I go tooling about looking for gear. The weather report forecast rain in the afternoon, so pickings may be slim, at least today. Maybe I'll pick up a keyboard for this stupid PC.

Is it wrong that I should have wanted to save a PC? As a Mac collector, should I be having these urges? Part of me feels so dirty, but part of me welcomes the challenge. I don't want to get deep into it, it's not like I'm switching sides, I just want to get it up and running, install an OS, device drivers, pop in a burner and the software to use it and a second hard drive, and leave it at that, no grand plans, just a machine for a dedicated purpose. I'm so confused. SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!!

 

[The Macster]

Is it wrong that I should have wanted to save a PC? As a Mac collector, should I be having these urges? Part of me feels so dirty, but part of me welcomes the challenge. I don't want to get deep into it, it's not like I'm switching sides, I just want to get it up and running, install an OS, device drivers, pop in a burner and the software to use it and a second hard drive, and leave it at that, no grand plans, just a machine for a dedicated purpose. I'm so confused. SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!!

Of course it's not wrong, silly! I'm a Windows guy but love Macs too, you don't have to be devoted to only one platform Oh, and I'm glad to hear that another Mac user has seen the light... }

 

[Mike Richardson]

If it were free, I would save a PC. I'm mostly interested in something like an old IBM PC though, one of the original ones, but I would save a PC out of the trash for parts and at least get the rest recycled properly.

 

[LCGuy]

The PC is a bit of an odd thing, it's a Ipex case and it's got a bunch of lights on the front, the usual status indicators, and three I have no idea what thier purpose is, they're labled AUX1, AUX2 and AUX3

Yeah, i've got 3 of those cases, lol. Anyway, those lights are, well, auxiliary lights. If you've got something inside the machine, such as extra HDDs, or some sort of card or something, that can use an LED for something, you can use one of those. A neat idea, really. Just about the only neat idea that Ipex ever had.

Anyway, i don't think you're bad for saving a PC...i've saved plenty of PCs. Just if I had an Ipex, i'd find a lifted Hilux with a V8 and see what happens when you run over the Ipex with it at high speed. [}] ]'>

 

[Franklinstein]

It's not bad to save a peecee. As they say, "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." Or something. But yeah, in addition to my warehouse full of Macs, I have a small collection of x86 boxes, from an ancient IBM thing with MCA running a 286 all the way through the PIII range, including various x86-compatibles (AMD, IBM/Cyrix, IDT, etc). Peecees are just as much a part of history as are Macintoshes, after all, though I really, really try and avoid Dells and other pre-made boxes (most of mine are custom). I do have an old Packard Bell Legend (120MHz Pentium) that I keep for its sentimental value, though.