Old computers and the 'fun' they can be....

[kellys_eye]

I've had a right faff of a time trying to boot a single board computer. OK, it's not your usual PC (even when compared to the older PCs you might have used).

The board in question is an ELAN-104NC, something I picked up on eBay a number of years ago and that has laid in the 'must get around to doing something with that' box in my workshop (it's a frikken big box!) The board is an all-in-one PC with a 486 processor running at 100MHz (no fan, no heatshink so SILENT ), 16Mb or RAM and 8Mb of SSD. Not a lot compared to todays PCs eh?

Anyway it boots from a 1.44" stiffie and here's where the fun begins. Of the only SEVEN disks I could find despite scouring the ends of the workshop and house, I couldn't get a single one to format The best I could do was 78% of the whole disk before it cr@pped out.

After an hour scouring the interweb I found a utility that wrote a DOS 6.22 boot file sequentially to the disk and it was small enough to fit without hitting the 78% limit I was faced with. So good so far.

The I dug out the smallest HDD I could find (10Gb) that I hooked up to a spare WinXP PC and booted that PC using the floppy to transfer the DOS system files to the 10Gb HD (after fdisk-ing the HDD to 2Gb partitions ).

After making up a 20-pin header to connect a VGA display I finally got the single board computer to boot. Success!

Then it was back to the WinXP machine to transfer a (legit) copy of Win95 - another gem from the 'too good to throw away box' - to a partition on the 10Gb disk, slap it back on the SBC and reboot to watch Win95 load in under 2 minutes!

Out of curiosity I navigated to the Windows 95 installed folder to discover the install was a total of 8Mb with another 22Mb in the Program Files folder for a TOTAL INSTALLED WINDOWS (95) disk space requirement of 30Mb

No wonder the frikken thing FLIES!!!!

When was the last time you loaded software that was under 100Mb, never mind an operating system of only 30Mb It makes me wonder why todays OS's (such as the win7 on my lappy) needs 15Gb (not including my Programs File folder )

Anyway I'm chuffed to have this SBC up and running but forgot how primitive DOS command line working was - I've yet to (re)discover the delights of Win95 and Visual Basic 5.0.

Anyone else into the older PCs and operating system? Compared to todays 'switch-on-and-go' systems the older OSes were hard work!

[gib_goblin]

Been there, got the T-Shirt, and moved on, I've served my time.
I used to build 486's to order, and repair and upgrade customers PC. All from a private independent PC shop.

So I've loft a customers entire data and software - after I accidently starting loading Windows from floppy to fix their corrupt software - forgetting that formatting the drive is part of the install.

I've been too quick to repair a PC and slipped with a screwdriver while removing the PSU - my arm ached for a week after the jolt I got from bridging the live terminals - helps to remove the mains cable before servicing.

I've quietly acquired enough spare parts (from customer upgrades, they never ask the for old working cards or drives) to build my own PC from junk - of course I knew how to tune it and made a gaming rig that rivalled anything we sold in the shop.

[Bob225]

I have only just thrown out my windows 95 on 13 floppies, 486 dx4 100 should be running windows 3.1 or 3.11 windows for workgroups with a classic 10baseT Intel network card, oh the hours of fun crawling under desks to find where the fault in the coax, t-piece or terminator was

those where the days where you fault found a card or motherboard and fixed it, not just throw it away and get a new one

[kellys_eye]

I remember travelling overseas in the days ALL software came on floppies (stiffies) and once came back from Asia with the likes of Photoshop (can't recall the actual software name) which fitted on 30+ floppies! My suitcase was nearly filled to the brim with *ahem* second-hand copies of various programs that cost £100's in the UK!

Funnily, customs never seemed to bat an eyelid.....

IIRC it was Autocad that came with the most disks I ever saw

[steviejoiner74]

I know it's not PC related but I still frequent the "world of spectrum" site and play the games via the online emulator,they have thousands games from back in the day.
I used to have an Atari st with a PC emulator on it that I'd do course work on,everything was DOS orientated then!
I remember the school having 1 BBC micro for everyone to share back in the early 80's,chuckie egg was cutting edge then...!!

[village idiot]

we had a Commodore Pet 16K until the `A` key stopped working

[kellys_eye]

We had a pet commode until the tub sprang a leak.

[DIY_Johnny]

Well exact opposite, I build a high end gamers PC. Old PC was 7 years old and one before than was 13years old. Had to educate myself as was out of date. But man those SSD drives are fast! (as is USB3) No more waiting have the day for windows to boot up. 3~4 secs on an SSD for Windows 8.1 Ubuntu about 1~2 secs

You posh lot with your commodore 64. I hada ZX spectrum, but eventually got a Commodore 32 when they were becoming dated. Half an hour to load a game on the tape :)

Problem I find is that I never really upgrade. The component you don't upgrade becomes the weak link. I kept my old fans but they don't cut it on the new PC. Needed a water cooler.

Even old hard disks are too noisy and slow and just don't cut it compared to an SSD.

[Razor]

Even old hard disks are too noisy and slow and just don't cut it compared to an SSD.

It's horses for courses DJ. Yes SSD's are much faster but they also have much lower capacities for the money.

Bang for ya buck. Everythings a trade off

PS a ram disk makes an SSD look silly

[reditedea]

well done,suitcase was nearly filled to the brim with *ahem* second-hand copies of various programs that cost £100's in the UK

[DIY_Johnny]

Razor: yeah i use SSD for programs, and HD for movies, pictures and music. Pointless to store run movies on an SSD

Just looked, prices dropping as expected. A samsung 250GB for 84 now on amazon. I paid £100 a month ago for same one. Although I don't really a lot of Hard disk space. I use it because I have it. I have 300 HD movies, rarely look at them but can always download them when I want them.

Newer cases coming without DVD writer now. All bootable flash. You can just get a external USB version for the odd time you use it.

Times have moved on since the commodore 64

[Wes]

Last time I messed about with old computers this happened



It's important to wear a bra on your head to make it work K_E

[camallison]

we had a Commodore Pet 16K until the `A` key stopped working

I'm going to reveal my age now! In the early 70s, I was a manufacturing engineer with Commodore when they opened their UK factory on Teesside. My first task was to introduce the PET to European manufacture and ensure the various countries' electrical standards were met. It was a very high-volume production line and kept rolling for quite some time. My next major project was to introduce the VIC-20 to the line. To get the marketing and early sales off the ground, Commodore HQ, in their wisdom, sourced a large batch from their (then) Japanese factory. As the first samples arrived, I blocked their distribution in Europe because the Japanese had made a fundamental mistake on the power supply. It was a "brick" of the sort we are now all familiar with for laptops. The low voltage-side cable terminated in a "figure-of-eight" connector identical to that used for the 240 volt supply for electrical shavers. Understanding that the world was breeding better idiots by this era, I could just imagine someone feeding 240 Volts direct to the unit one day. There was a hurried program of modifications done for the whole batch before shipments could start, by which time our own production was whizzing through.

Just a short note about the name, VIC-20 ....... the first letters stood for Video Interface Chip and the numbers were because it was version 2.0. This gave problems in the German market as the Germans would pronounce that "V" as "F" and once translated, the "I" would become a "U", rendering the product extremely rude! So, we hurriedly produced a special label and carton for the VC-20.

BTW - the Video Interface Chip was what distinguished the computer from others of that era - it was powerful and ahead of the game.

I still have a couple of "evaluation machines" at home and my grandkids love playing with such retro stuff.

Colin