RSS 2.0 FeedClick here to Post a new message! | Click here to Search past postings!
Looking to trade stuff? Click here to use the SwapShop instead!
Check out the new Obsolete Computer Museum Forums. Threaded discussion forums with the speed and simplicity of the Helpline. Old-browser friendly, too. Come help me beta test it!
Posted by wdegroot
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 22:31:02 EST
we went thru this kind of "talking to a child" support stype
when we were configuring a modem back in the 1980's and a wacom tablet in the late 1990's
seems there is a tendency to "script" everything.
when my grandson put a quarter in the floppy drive compaq tech support was clueless ( all the smart pakistani';s are writing high level code, not answering phones.)
I finally called the bethlehem radioshack support center, he told me in 10 seconds. I don't think the other guys have ever even seen a computer.
I think after 15 minutes they sould have "sort of" realized it was a hardware problem and not what they were helplessly trying to do.
at panasonic, supporting doit-matrix color printers we did better than that.
( now that IS OBSOLETE)
did you hear Eddie Arnold died today?
Posted by erik (erikk71@aim.com)
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 21:40:19 EST
Physical Location: ny
roger givens are you gonna just on raymond
I realize you dont attack walter when he talks about country
music.
My post is about hard ware.
Walter shows how stupid an retarded he is by posting on other topics that are totally none computer
Posted by Paul Swearingen (plsBCBDXER"at"aol.com)
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 21:12:24 EST
Physical Location: Topeka, KS
<<I wonder if i can get them to pay for all the wated cell phone minutes, actinmg like they were talking to second-graders.>>
Sign of the times, Walter. I got sucked into making a hotel reservation last week through the Yellow Pages system; I'd tracked down the hotel online and thought I was calling them directly ... but NO-O-OOO! I swear the nice young lady I talked to was in Pakistan, from her thick accent. Cost me an extra buck fifty, too.
Posted by wdegroot
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 20:10:38 EST
ot but may be interesting
our phone is thru Vonage which has worked well ( mostly)
a year or so ago the box died and they sent another, we plugged it in ans it all was up and running in minutes
this is a router and phone jack that plugs into the cable modem.
this time just the phone part died and the internet kept working,
in 2 days a new box arrived, same model, it worked on the internet but still no phone
the techs took us thru the rigamarole as if we were in kindergarten, trying to determine if the INTERNET worked
( it did, always did) but failed to adress the phone problem.
after burning up a lott of cell phone minutes, they weill send another box, I am didallusioned with the company, but am unwilling to change my phonme number AGAIN.
I wonder if i can get them to pay for all the wated cell phone minutes, actinmg like they were talking to second-graders.
Posted by Paul Swearingen (plsBCBDXER"at"aol.com)
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 17:34:03 EST
Physical Location: Topeka, Kansas
Ed Grant wrote: <<I have a Kangaroo Outbound 2000 laptop. It is a Macintosh clone. On powering up the computer shows the Kangaroo logo, makes a signal sound and then shows the image of a 31/2" disc with a question mark. I quess I need a boot disc or download disc set?? Any ideas how to get that information. Thanks.>>
That's a rather rare clone; I believe it used the guts of a 68000 Mac, but I don't remember specifically which one not - maybe the SE. However, yes, the blinking floppy indicates that it needs a boot source and probably that the hard drive is kaput. You can boot from a floppy, but you won't be able to do much else; you really need a working SCSI hard drive. If you feel up to it, try cracking it open and "twirling" the hard drive a few times to loosen up the platter; it might just boot when re-installed so that you can extract the system and other software. Depending upon the amount of RAM installed, you should be able to use System 6.0.3 through System 7.53 on it, which should be available free online somewhere. Good luck!
Posted by Brady (ballison(at}consolidated.net)
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 16:50:59 EST
Physical Location: IL
I have a few things stuck to my fridge with magnets from hard drives. If the boards are ok always good to keep if you might need to salvage data from a like drive with a bad board.
Posted by Raymond Ramirez (rramirez-at-claropr.com)
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 15:18:43 EST
Erik,
I take apart my bad disk drives, too. I keep the servo motors, magnets (very strong!), and motor coils. Sometimes I keep the platters and a few heads. If the logic board is good, I will keep that, too.
The empty frames are made of cast aluminum, and I have a few stored, but the local price per pound isn't good enough for me to visit a recycler. I can either trash them or wait until the price goes up. I find interesting how different manufacturers build their drives. I am keeping only a few of the bad drives as part of my historical collection on the hard drive (from 14" and 8" platters to full 5 1/4", 3 1/2", 2 1/2", 1.8", and even the first IBM Microdrive).
Have fun!
Raymond
P.S. I am offering three special Sun computers on the Swap Shop!
Posted by wdegroot
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 14:31:09 EST
I just did a search on mac clone
and it seems it is a nitche industry.
companies see it is a way to make money. and will keep trying until one either suceeds in winning a legal decicion over apple corporation.
or there is an enforcable decision that shuts them all down.
that is, until the next time .
I don't think the story is over. and will not be over until
something real happens.
Posted by erik (erikk71@aim.com)
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 14:28:04 EST
Physical Location: ny
OK
Posted by wdegroot
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 13:52:31 EST
there was a mac clone sold, i believe from a florida company.
that was just sued? and shut down by apple corp.
it sold for about 1/4 the price of a similar mac.
I think the issue was it ran the apple operating system
and the apple OS is licenses only to run on Genuine Apple Mac's
apparently that was enough for the judge to decide.
Posted by Aaron7 Computers
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 12:45:48 EST
Cool! I didn't know there were Apple clones after the Franklin!
Posted by Ed Grant (Jakesam_2000@yahoo.com)
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 12:37:33 EST
Physical Location: Quicy, MA
I have a Kangaroo Outbound 2000 laptop. It is a Macintosh clone. On powering up the computer shows the Kangaroo logo, makes a signal sound and then shows the image of a 31/2" disc with a question mark. I quess I need a boot disc or download disc set?? Any ideas how to get that information. Thanks.
Posted by roger givens
Posted on May 8, 2008 at 11:29:21 EST
Physical Location: az
erik, why are you taking hard drives apart?
when i was a kid, i took clocks apart to see how they were made.
is this the same thing?
why? and why do you have to tell us?
did you do your laundry, did you cook supper? did you empty the trash?
what does this have to do with old computers?
get a life, do something interesting for a change.
Posted by erik (erikk71@aim.com)
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 20:54:36 EST
Physical Location: ny
Today I took apart 4 more ide drives one was 2 gig scsi an rest were ide
Posted by Paul Swearingen (plsBCBDXER"at"aol.com)
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 20:02:34 EST
Physical Location: Topeka, KS
Allow me to confirm Raymond's evaluation of the Insignia/Zenith digital TV converters, which are identical ("Insignia" is Best Buy's house brand). I bought one of these, and it actually does a better job in picking up signals than my 32" Philips HD TV, although the quality of the antennas used makes a big difference, too. I'm going to save the second "coupon" until the last minute to see if anything better comes along.
Let's see ... old computers ... one of my colleagues reported that two of her USB mouses have gone dead after being plugged into an iMac. Anyone ever heard of too much voltage going into USB ports? I told her to bring in the mouse to see if it worked on a computer at school (she said she'd taken the other mouse apart and couldn't get it back together, oh, boy). Or maybe there's another problem that I'm not aware of? (The keyboard on the iMac is a replacement, as she said her daughter spilled a drink on it ... maybe there's more to the story than I am aware of ...).
BTW the old Gateway PIII that was under discussion here because of the inadequate video card just keeps rolling along in the classroom. It's a bit slow on the Internet, so it doesn't get used as much as the newer Lenovos that the school provides - but it does just fine for wordprocessing.
Posted by TeeFred
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 18:34:27 EST
Charles -
Not yet. I think if you get to that point, that's when they roll you up in an old carpet and drop you off the bridge or something. Maybe just bury you.
It's just another valuable learning experience.
Posted by Charles Wilson
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 16:48:34 EST
Physical Location: Central Texas
Thanks all--- An fdisk and format did the trick. All I can ask is , Do you EVER get to where you are not blind-sided by something new?
Thanks again
C. Wilson
Posted by Raymond Ramirez (rramirez-at-claropr.com)
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 11:22:18 EST
Physical Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Brady,
Is your DVD recorder a Philips DVDR3575H? I am trying to get one at eBay since I read about it. I have a Philips HDRW720 with 80 GB and an analog tuner that is been operational for over a year. Although it isn't so consumer friendly, I love it, and I wish to get the "upgraded version, which does video up-conversion to 1080p for my Vizio LCDTV, and has a digital tuner. I prefer to buy another recorder than add a converter to my recorder, because the recorder can transmit IR codes to other boxes but not to the converter to change channels.
Let me know if that is the model you have, or what brand and model is it.
Raymond
Posted by wdegroot
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 09:57:43 EST
Charlie the conjecture and suggestions about something "stuck" on the drive such as a small program in the FAT or in a partition is possible and even likely.
there is another possibility that the memory is seen by the hardware but not the software.
don't ask me to be specific, all I can say is that very strange things can happen.
if it were a pre=233mmx mb, it could have the intel 430 or one of a few othere chipsets that only can see up to 128m of ram.
( yes I know you are only putting 64m on the mb)
I think some boards that were made so a "split voltage" pentium
would work.( any of the mmx chips or an amd 233, did use that chipset)
I have several older mb and they are picky about which dimms they recognize or the size the mb will see. These dimms report and "clockl up"differently in newer mb.
are the 2-32m "sticks" dimms (168p) or 73 pin simms?
the 168 pin dimms seem to act strangely on some older mb.
the only problem I have heard about with 72 pin simms, is that some NEC mb will not correctly see 8m double sided simme, they will be seen as 4meg, but a 16m dimm will be seen as it's true capacity. But, of course that is not your problem.
Just as soon as you think you have it all figured out, something screwy happens.
Posted by TeeFred
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 09:48:15 EST
Brady -
Yeah, that's a good point. That vintage machine only rarely had video controller on the motherboard, so an add in card is likely. Maybe the original was replaced? It's a possibility that wouldn't have occurred to me - and not too hard to check.
Posted by Brady (ballison(at}consolidated.net)
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 09:21:21 EST
Physical Location: IL
My first thought was it had a bunch shared for the video, if it has an onboard video this is possible though on that old of machine I doubt it.
Posted by TeeFred
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 07:24:47 EST
David -
Yeah, I had the same thoughts as you, but I think it could still be possible for some software to remain if the drive were only re-formatted. Formatting would not alter the boot sector, nor would it alter other partitions on the drive. There could be software (and possibly malware) in the boot sector that linked to software on another partition which would install a ramdisk or smartdrive, or whatever the malware wanted to do, before windows booted. Not very likely, but certainly possible, no? We don't know if there are other partitions on the drive, and we don't know if the boot sector was cleared (fdisk/mbr).
Posted by David
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 06:57:56 EST
Good point TJ, but I was working on the assumption that the reformatting that was mentioned would have cured any software setting related issues.
Posted by TJ Edmister
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 23:25:27 EST
I think another possibility is that something is loading in CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT which is allocating a bunch of XMS that Windows can then not use. (smartdrv or ramdrive.sys for instance)
Posted by David
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 22:20:02 EST
Charles:
Check in the BIOS for setting related to memory holes. Some devices liked to live in the top 1MB of the 16MB of address space on AT's and couldn't be moved. Particularly some high end ISA video cards, and certain ISA SCSI cards. Mixing those devices with actual memory in the same location can cause some, interesting, results! Most PCI BIOS' can map out that location range, but some don't always give back anything above that location, and some are broken my design to restrict you to only the ammount before the restricted range. I'd imagine that the memory hole is enabled on your machine given that you've ruled out a setting with Windows. Failing that, pull out any expansion cards bar the absolute minimum and see if anything there is restricting you.
Posted by Charles Wilson
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 21:38:42 EST
Physical Location: Central Texas
How about an obsolete computer question?---I have been fooling with an old p 233mmx that correctly counts the memory upon booting,(2 32 megs) but when windoze loads , it states that there is only 15 meg. I've tried several combos of ram ,(each reads right upon booting) but still get only 15 meg by windoze. I formated the drive,(had ME on it originaly) and instaled 98se. Same old thing still no change. WHAT GIVES?
Posted by Brady (ballison(at}consolidated.net)
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 20:11:44 EST
Physical Location: IL
ok, on the subject of files bumping into each other, I'm sure the guy was talking about fragmentation, but how many ppl would understand that, you all know we have to dumb down things for the typical user.
As for the dtv converter, I spent very good money on one, but it isn't just a converter, I bought a recorder with a dvd+-r/rw and a 160 gig hdd. I have it hooked to an old zenith via an rf converter ($10) and audio fed into my 100w prologic stereo (tv has no sound anyway.)
I have a decent rooftop antenna on about 20 ft mast and could get one station clear and the others so so, but they all come in nice and clear with the digital.
Posted by wdegroot
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 18:16:42 EST
it doesn't take much to start us all howling at the moon.
Posted by philo
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 17:44:23 EST
yikes
that was one of the worst typos I made
sorry.
Oh...maybe the files were just bumping around a lot
never mind. It was not my mistake <G>
Posted by TeeFred
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 17:43:01 EST
Barythrin -
Those files aren't just bumping into each other, they are grinding too. Expect little baby files in a few months.
Posted by barythrin
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 15:57:17 EST
::sigh:: a customer of ours just gave us a drive which I copied to our windows 2003 server and now of course I have a user saying they can't open that directory (it hangs) and dos never finishes. Well, cmd did finish although yes it took around 10 minutes for dir to finish. 1,500,000 files in one folder and yes this seems to cause some issues with programs. wtf..now we have the same issue with a 13GB file from this customer which I'm sure is a raw directory of another similar amount of files.
Anyway, maybe this many files are bumping into eachother too? I think it may be causing one buffer to bump into another lol
Posted by wdegroot
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 15:00:52 EST
no the guy on the radio was right.
I just picked up my pc and shook it REAL HARD
and there was a lot of bumping and a few crashing soiunds,.
should I use screws next time?
Posted by philo
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 14:14:32 EST
Raymond:
LOL...if that guy on the radio was an expert...
then averyone here is gertainlyno less than
a computer genius...
Of course who knows, I never looked...
may those big files do bump into each other <G>
Posted by Raymond Ramirez (rramirez-at-claropr.com)
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 12:23:25 EST
Physical Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Website: www.consumerreports.org/cro/elec...
Here is the web page for Consumer Report on the Zenith, Insignia and Magnavox boxes. they recommend the Zenith, too.
But better boxes are on the way. If you can hold out until the last week before the coupon's expiration date to get the best box, do so. Or else, get the best box now, then get a better box later on, or get a DTV set and don't use any converters.
This reminded me when my Dad had to get a converter to watch UHF channels which had English-speakling programming instead of the all Spanich VHF channels. Our TV was a Sears color receiver, but was a 1964 model with no UHF tuner. When he upgraded to a larger 27-inch Magnavox, the UHF converter wasn't neded. This will happen again soon, so don't spend too much on the DTV converter.
Raymond
Posted by Raymond Ramirez (rramirez-at-claropr.com)
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 12:04:41 EST
Physical Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Website: www.ezdigitaltv.com/Converter_Bo...
John,
According to the web page I posted above, and to the CNET evaluations, the Zenith and the Insignia boxes are the best fow now. Better boxes will appear soon. Of the cheapest, I find the RCA the best of that group (less than $50). Walmart does offer them and the Magnavox, but the Magnavox has its DOA failures, and most original buyers have returned them to Walmart and swap them for the RCA model, which has a better remote with largerg pushbuttons (for the visually limited like my mother and M-I-L).
So if you want to go for DTV now, get one of the top three. Stay away from the Magnavox converter.
I did a sacn with my Vizio LCD TV and found eleven local (PR) DTV channels available in my home city of Bayamon. If anyone has a DTV receiver now, you don't need the converter. Same with cable and satellite service - they will provide the conversion for older analog TV sets. But I expect them to convert to all digital by 2010 or later, since DTV uses less bandwidth per channel.
Your idea of using the montior is excellent. All converters have the standard yellow RCA video jack, along with the red and white audio jacks. So a direct monitor will give a better resolution and a clear screen without the RF up and down conversion in between. Then attach a small stero amp or your full blown entertainment system to the audio jacks and you got a "Home Theater".
If you worry about weak signals, you are on the right track. I realized this many eyars ago with the regular analog channels. I have a roof antenna with a local 6 db amplifier from Radio Shack. You can use any UHF antenna (VHF will be eliminated Feb 9, 2009) and a good RF amplifier. Whoever has good antenna theory (as for Ham radio) can probably build a better UHF Yagi and get an even better signal. The only limitation is if the signals you need to improve are in different directions.
For those who cannot have a roof antenna (as in a condo), get an amplified indoor antenna (also from Radio Shack). I did this for my M-I-L and she gets all her favorite analog channels much better. When the converter is installed, it can use the same antenna. Some boxes will have a "Smart Antenna" feature, so it will actually fine tune the antenna as it seeks each digital channel. I have only read about this, and I cannot vouch for it until I can see or use it myself.
Have fun!
Raymond
Posted by barythrin
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 11:35:08 EST
Most of our local antenna stations are broadcasting HD already although honestly it's really annoying the way HD works. Instead of static you get no signal so the show will just go black sometimes and leave you clueless instead of some fuzz or something which I'd obviously rather see or hear than have gaps in my shows or have my phone ring and interrupt my tv.
Not really sure what happened to all the FCC compliant stuff but now my laptop monitor interrupts my TV, my microwave interrupts my TV, my phone will interrupt most speakers and if it checks for things like mail it will usually interrupt my folks HD antenna signal (I haven't gone to it yet).
Anyway, I did get my coupons in though for $40 off a converter box so I need to go see what I can find. Ironically though I just had a friend come stay with me for a bit and her kids will probably end up needing cable to keep them occupied so now I'm going to see if I can argue to get regular/analog cable and none of these stupid cable boxes although it looks like they take $11/mo off likely matching the price just to get me on that.
We'll see.. (sorry not much vintage PC talk there) ooh maybe I'll hook up one of those digital things to my VCR upstairs that I have connected to a Commodore monitor. That'd probably look REALLY good since it's a monitor not a TV.
Posted by erik (erikk71@aim.com)
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 11:07:16 EST
Physical Location: ny
Raymond I am gonna go ahead an purchase the digital converter box. I was told i could get some stations already broadcasting in digital. I have 31 in philips tv
Works pretty good
Posted by Raymond Ramirez (rramirez-at-claropr.com)
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 06:52:06 EST
Physical Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Wow, Philo, if that was an "expert", what title should we call ourselves? Computer doctors, or even "Computer Masters" (like Golf Masters)? File bumping - now that reminds me of the bumper cars in Coney Island when I was a child in NYC.
Most computer users assume incorrectly that computers have unlimited resources, such as processing time, disk space and transmission speeds. Well, the first limit is the junk baggage that Windows puts into RAM (maybe that is where the steaming file "bumps" into all of the Windows stuff), then the program doing the streaming (not all are efficient), the connection speed (dial up is horribly slow for streaming!), and last, the size of the file being streamed into the computer.
I prefer to download the file, and enjoy the contents locally. Streaming takes up too much resources, and if you try to do something else, the machine slows down. That is why we Unix users prefer to work with a simpler O/S that needs less resources, and puts into memory only what you need. When we started our first ISP (prtc.net) in 1996, we had 166 MHz AIX computers with a video distribution product created for IBM. It had demo videos that I could watch with a 28Kbs modem and a 80386 computer. The image was grainy, but it was continuous (no pausing to load a buffer). It was never put into commercial use. Too bad, it could had been a breakthrough product like Real Audio and Real Video later on. I still have that IBM RS/6000 (7025-F50) computer here for Lotus Notes testing, since it had eighteen internal SCSI drives (9 GB each) for about 160 GB of internal storage (in 1996, that was a whopping capacity).
Well, MS promised a lighter version of Win (version 7) by the end of 2008. It promised to be a simple "kernel" type (an imitation of Unix is flattering), and use much less RAM. WE can later see how well that version can hold up to streaming video and other "file bumping" programs. I will be waiting to see how that version fares with the old systems we still have in operation.
Raymond
Posted by Raymond Ramirez (rramirez-at-claropr.com)
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 06:28:23 EST
Physical Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Erik,
Save that antenna for next February, when broadcast TV goes digital.
Raymond
Click here to Post a new message! | Click here to Search past postings!