486 baby!

[ratdude747]

my dad had a cowerker that need help. she said it geve her an insert boot disk error. i got it home and time for specs:

cpu- ibm branded 486 dx2

cpu fan dead

RAM- did not check

vid- trident vlb card

i/o- vlb card

drives:

hd 1.2gb

4x cdrom

5.25/3.5 floppy combo


i had a brand new asus p2b-b at board that i got a a thrift store for 2 bux... so i mounted it with a pIII 550 with thermaltake orb cooler.

i looked at rhe psu... 235w... i removed the cover...


lets see

no pri. choke (jumper wire)
4 diodes
tiny silicon
finless tiny plates for heatsinks
no x/y caps (spot on board)
primary caps 220uf
tiny tranformers


so, i will need to find an at psu that is SAFE or a new power sritch to convert it to atx... tthe board will do either.

i added a case fan to the front, to make use of the 3 fan headers on the new board

i will have to go get a couple i/o cords... parallel was soldered to the i/o card. i think it has a USB header... if not, ill add a 4 port usb 2.0 card i happen to have.

since she uses dial-up, she will either get windows 2000 or xp home (i have a liscense off an hp case from a friend who used linux on it). xubuntu if she switched to dsl or i can get a modem working.


the mobo/cpu/io card/vid card/sound card will be kept as museum pieces for my room.

the hd may or may not work... i will see. at the least she will get a 13 or 6 gb hd.

also, i will upgrade the cd rom to 40x (dvd?) and give her a fresh floppy... and if i use one of the 2 aviable 3.5 bays (3rd rear bay removed to make room for slot-1 cpu) for the floppy, then i will add a second cd-rom drive.

dang, for free plus parts i have to buy, she is getting a deal.

am i doing the right thing?

[stevo1210]

Re: 486 baby!

Wow... a 486... I haven't seen them in years! Good thing you decided to upgrade it for her too...

[370forlife]

Re: 486 baby!

Lol. This reminds me today in my computer tech class we had a motherboard assignment to label at least 18 parts on a motherboard. The board we got were the ones they used in computers back in about 2000. They were very interesting boards. They had 486's at 66mhz, but were regular ATX, took ATX power supplies, and even had USB.

Would have been interesting to keep.

[ratdude747]

Re: 486 baby!

should i take pics of the psu? i almost puked when i looked inside. 235W? i think it should be rated at 23.5W

[370forlife]

Re: 486 baby!

Why not, might not be that bad...maybe.

[Topcat]

Re: 486 baby!

last 486 I had was a DX4 100MHz with 32mb of FPRAM with a 8mb PCI matrox millenium video card. it was a dumpster score and a good one back in 95 or so. The power supply was bad, so easy fix. case was built like a tank, I wish they still made cases that way, now they're all chinese fall apart flimsy garbage.

Nice piece of nostalgia there, its useless as tits on a boar today though. its worth more for its gold content than it is for anything functional.

[ratdude747]

Re: 486 baby!

i agree. the mobo plate has a spring latch on it. built like a tank

speaking of which, tc, you interested in the old case of mine? its ready to roll whenever. if you dont take it, then ill make a server out of it.

[kc8adu]

Re: 486 baby!

i still see 486's and 386's in industrial stuff.
yet another reason i save them.

[ratdude747]

Re: 486 baby!

the 386 was made until 2006... used in aerospace applications from what i read.

did you know that a 486 dx2 is powering the hubble space telescope? hmm...

[gdement]

Re: 486 baby!

Useful for running old DOS games, if you care about that.
Some stuff wasn't written to handle faster processors very well.

[washu]

Re: 486 baby!

Useful for running old DOS games, if you care about that.
Some stuff wasn't written to handle faster processors very well.

http://www.dosbox.com/

Works great for running old games.

I still have a bunch of old 486s and lower, but Dosbox is just to convenient to haul them out anymore.

[acstech]

Re: 486 baby!

You want to be careful when upgrading these old computers. Often times there's a reason they're still running the old hardware that you may not be aware of. If they're, for instance, running a 10 year old label printer, there could be problems with the software on XP. Just an example. Make sure you know exactly what they're using it for before upgrading.

Are you doing the right thing? If you're losing money, then no. I'd almost say just fix the problem and give it back. Obviously speed is not the issue if she had been using it this long. Either that or try and talk her into a new computer. The stuff you're giving her is nearly as obsolete as that 486.

[Wizard]

Re: 486 baby!

Acstech is absolutely *correct*.

At our shop we depend on our one piece of software for tracking items and each item has details like notes, parts order, prices etc. This one is very old and programmed in DOS days meant I have to use quality PCI parallel port card for second parallel port to drive two dot matrix printers. That why this took me awhile to test and implement working solutions when I converted from buggy windows 98 to most reliable and more useful XP. Now good.

Cheers, Wizard

[NxB]

Re: 486 baby!

I would def. check on what it was used for and maybe why. I'm assuming its just a home computer because of the source. If that is the case I would give her free stuff BUT I would not buy anything.

What is she going to do when she gets this: say, thanks and not talk to you? Or worse, call you with all of her computer problems and expect the hookup every time.
You're not making any money and you hardly know this person.

[ratdude747]

Re: 486 baby!

look, i have NO at psu units other than the POS that came in it.

my main shop ad some in the back but did not have time today to pull. the other good shop had 2 but both were dead.

it was a home pc. she is as computer savvy as a rock.

look, the machine had a dead hard drive. she has NO money, and the parts are cheap, all i need now is a psu. for parts only, if she can pay to a degree, then fine. if not, no sweat, this is good repair practice.

fixing it only is not an option- i refuse to let ANYBODY use that psu. not safe. also, i have no 486 coolers... fan dead. and no 95 disc. she has been a good co-worker to dad and she deserves better.

once, i did this for someone with a p1 mmx 233 that needed a reload of the os. i gave him more ram since i needed none of my simms. another cd drive since i had too many.

[ratdude747]

Re: 486 baby!

oh, and if she needs more help now and then, no problem. helping people gives you good job references. i believe in sharing my wealth of computer knowledge if it means improving society, one life at a time.

she said she hated how slow it was. she simply had no money for an upgrade. convincing her to chose a new one over food, bills, etc. is not what i do. and no, PIII is not obsolete... you can linux/xp them no worries. not every person is a gamer. acstech, not everybody has money for a new one. if you do, fine, but she doesnt. she works hard and deserves better pay, like my dad, but the state pays people less just so the governor can say he is"saving the state money".

poverty sucks, so i do what i can to help. you should too.

[acstech]

Re: 486 baby!

Well if that's the situation fine, do what you can. I was only offering advice. If you'd like me to withhold that advice in the future, that can definitely be arranged.

[ratdude747]

Re: 486 baby!

no, i just wanted to make it clear that just because someone has a 486, that they are not a slowsky (comcast ad turtles).

i understand your advice, because if they were a jerk or had WAY to much money, then you would be right. i should have said the circumstances earlier.

besides, most if not all of the parts were not being used anyway. id like to see then get some use.

[NxB]

Re: 486 baby!

Stuff you're giving her is usable for browsing, mp3s, etc.
If you feel that strongly about her sure. I believe that unused parts should get a good home other than sitting there. I know how it is to be poor. The only place I got upgrades before is the trash.

A word of warning though, just for the future. You can be too nice fixing things. One time I fixed my friend's family computer. He was supposed to just cover the mobo. I ordered it for him and then put it in. Reinstalled windows and everything. He kept stalling and dodging and I ended up eating it. It wasn't much and I don't mind helping people but some will abuse it and sometimes its hard to tell.

[ratdude747]

Re: 486 baby!

like i said, my dad knows the person well. if she was bad, then my dad would have kept quiet..

we have some ex friends who mooched off of my family:

$130 dollar vet bill

2prt usb card
sweet looking usb hub

a monitor

lots of labor

they are crooks. too bad there is no evidence of what they did but they swindle left and right. the kid was 8 at the time, and he liked to yell "im a transsexual!", and to girls: "i wanna have kinky sex with you!". he meant it too. he should be in a mental facility but his mom is too stupid/possessive to do the right thing.