First Computer You've Owned?

[Cute Tink]

So did floppies - and those things were fragile as hell.

Oddly enough, I never had a floppy fail on me while we used that computer. Later, I had them fail on me all the time. I wonder if they started making them worse or if drives started spinning them harder.

Eh. Fans are cheap and don't change in design frequently. I hardly consider them a part of the computer - more an accessory like a power cord or a network cable.

There are actually quite a few different designs available and some don't swap well (of three extras that I had, only one matched the power supply fan that died on me). But they are as much a part of the computer as hard drives, which are just as cheap now.

Enough of the throw away line now. I built two of my computers and I've upgraded almost all of the stock computers we own. I know what's in the computers and I still think that the old computer, due to its design, would probably outlast a computer made now.

 

[RedLioness]

What is the first computer you've owned? Whether it was a family computer or your own, it doesn't matter so much.

My family's first computer that I remember was a 386 at a screamin' 40 mhz, We had Windows 3.1 and MS Dos.

Now before I was born my family had a Macintosh Plus. It had a Black & White screen and 1 MB of RAM.

How about you guys?

The first computer we ever owned was a desktop. It was a beige color and it was one of those old ones from the 1990s. It looked like a box, I hated it at first site but I spent my childhood years on it. The dumb things about these two computers is that the internet connection was dial-up. Later we got rid of that one and bought an Envision monitor, whose technology was little bit better, which took really slow to load. I still had a problem with the technolgoy, it wasn't up to my expectations. I hated our two previous machines. The one I am currently using now is our third machine, it is a desktop, but the technology is this century (the 2000s) and not something I consider to be a dinosaur from the stone age. The monitor is a Flatron W2061tQ and the Box is a SuperRitemaster. I am very happy with this current machine. This one is actually mine, I have never owned my own desktop before and it is kind of refreshing for me to 1) be a computer owner and 2) have technology that is superior in class to the first two machines that can meet up to my expectations as a consumer. I would say that my desktop is perhaps the only satisfying computer experience I have had so far, I am thankful that computing technology has evolved up to the point where my internet connection can be made possible by something better than the stupid old dial-up service we used to have. I think there is things like broadband now or some other means of connecting to the internet and web surfing that is way faster than dial up.

 

[RedLioness]

In the field of technology and computers, the Envision brand of monitor cannot compete with the Flatron W2061TQ. The Flatron allows me to have a connection to the Internet that is better than the Envision choice of technology. Yes, the Flatron is an updated monitor from the Envision. This computer allowed me to have the first internet connection that was different, or superior to, the dial-up service which was the only option we had on our previous two machines. So I told mom I never wanted to see those other two machines again. Well, we do not own them anymore we got rid of them years ago.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

An Acorn Atom was my first computer in 1980 and it came similar to this,

All in pieces which you had to solder together! It had a whopping 2KB of RAM too!

 

[Cute Tink]

I think that's awesome. I would have loved to build my own computer back when I was a kid. Now I settle for the pre-assembled motherboard and just plug the pieces together.

 

[DeathMagus]

I think that's awesome. I would have loved to build my own computer back when I was a kid. Now I settle for the pre-assembled motherboard and just plug the pieces together.

Get into microelectronics as a hobby!

 

[Cute Tink]

I have no time already. I'd have to give up doing something else and that's just not going to happen right now. Maybe one day though.

One of my boys got an electronics board as a toy with resistors and such and I had a blast showing him how to do things and even how to read resistors (I had an electronics class back in middle school).

 

[EphesiaNZ]

I think that's awesome. I would have loved to build my own computer back when I was a kid. Now I settle for the pre-assembled motherboard and just plug the pieces together.

Yeah, as kids we have a bit more time and patience for assembling stuff like that. Now I just put the main parts together and go - thats the way it is when you get older

 

[Cute Tink]

Yeah, as kids we have a bit more time and patience for assembling stuff like that. Now I just put the main parts together and go - thats the way it is when you get older

Indeed. Now if one of the kids really got interested in building electronics from scratch, that would be a different story.

 

[C-Man]

I wrote earlier that my first computer was a Compaq SLT/286 laptop. Well, I fully repaired it a couple months ago, and even managed to track down a docking station for it for $5! The station is in pieces, but it's completely clean, as though it came in the box that way. I will need to make some cables for it, though.
I also scored a huge box full of vintage parts for $1. Way too many to list in one post; suffice to say, the box weighed about a hundred pounds, and they're all in excellent condition.
So I've put together a 486 setup with a 100MHz AMD 486DX/4, a 6GB hard drive, and 32MB RAM.
I'm working on a 386 with the venerable 40MHz AMD 386, 8MB RAM and a 100MB hard drive. Getting a cdrom to work on either of those is a fun challenge. :3

 

[EphesiaNZ]

So I've put together a 486 setup with a 100MHz AMD 486DX/4, a 6GB hard drive, and 32MB RAM.
I'm working on a 386 with the venerable 40MHz AMD 386, 8MB RAM and a 100MB hard drive. Getting a cdrom to work on either of those is a fun challenge. :3

Are you running DOS, Windows or Linux on that 486 box?

With your CDROM, if running MSDOS or older versions of Windows then the following may help,

Cannot Access CD-ROM Drive from MS-DOS Mode or Command Prompt

 

[C-Man]

Windows 98.
The problem is, if I plug a cdrom into the sound card, the sound card disappears, and the ide controller on the card with it. Tried that with two different cards.
It probably won't work at all if I plug it into the regular IDE controller, since the BIOS obviously doesn't support cdrom drives.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

I had a 486 with a similar spec years ago and this was fine with a CDROM connected to the onboard IDE controller. Its sounds like the computer is trying to assign the same IRQ settings to both the sound card and CDROM.

If you haven't already tried connecting the CDROM directly to the onboard IDE controller then I suggest you do that and see what happens. You may want to see if the 486 BIOS version was the last one issued as with all BIOS firmware they contain bugs which can be sorted with a BIOS update - although it may be a mission to find any updated BIOS firmware for that now!

If the CDROM doesn't work then, if your 486 has USB ports you could always obtain a USB CD drive or a external CDROM case (so you can insert a normal CD drive into it) with USB support. I doubt that either the 386 or 486 will support booting from a USB device anyway.

 

[Blind As A Bat]

Are you running DOS, Windows or Linux on that 486 box?

With your CDROM, if running MSDOS or older versions of Windows then the following may help,

Cannot Access CD-ROM Drive from MS-DOS Mode or Command Prompt

And what is wrong with BSD?

 

[EphesiaNZ]

And what is wrong with BSD?

Which BSD, Open, Free or Net? - I'm a BSD user too

FreeBSD 8.0 requires 24MB RAM to boot, NetBSD and OpenBSD require approx. 16MB to boot - hence, if you want X Windows with a PC that has 32MB available that means FreeBSD is a non-starter. I would go for OpenBSD with this PC as it's the most secure and "easier" to install.

To be honest you would be very hard pushed to install a Linux distro with a GUI in less than 32MB RAM - Tiny Core Linux could be a starter though. Oh, on second thoughts it isn't as I've just check their site and 48MB RAM is minimum

Anyone thats interested in running a modern operating system with older hardware should take a look at K.Mandla's blog - it's a good resource.

 

[C-Man]

They don't make a 486 with USB ports. :3
I'd plug a USB card in, but mine doesn't have any PCI slots.
I'll try the regular controller shortly and see what happens.
EDIT: By George you were right. I hooked it up to the regular IDE controller, and Windows detected it immediately. The generic oakcdrom.sys driver works for DOS as well.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

I grew up with 286, 386, 486 and 586 etc... and 486 boards did have USB, not all I must admit - I think they started to appear around the 586 era so it would have been 486 DX100 style boards onwards maybe. The newer 486 boards had PCI as well as ISA slots - if you have ISA only then USB won't be happening for you.

Glad that the CDROM is working

 

[C-Man]

Hmm....
That 486 can handle a 192kbps mp3 in DOS with only the slightest skip now and then. :3
(probably helps that I bumped the RAM up to 64MB)

 

[GA777]

Pentium 2 , 60 MB ram, seems quite good comparing to others

 

[abysmul]

timex sinclair 1000

The Timex Sinclair 1000 (TS1000) was the first computer produced by Timex Sinclair, a joint-venture between Timex Corporation and Sinclair Research. It was launched in July 1982.

The TS1000 was a slightly modified Sinclair ZX81 with an NTSC RF modulator instead of a UK PAL (Units sold in Portugal have a PAL RF modulator) device and the onboard RAM doubled to 2 kB. The TS1000's casing had slightly more internal shielding but remained the same as Sinclair's, including the membrane keyboard. It had black and white graphics, and no sound.