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    #61
    Re: Help I need a new computer.

    It will probably have phone service through the att dsl gateway (VOIP). They usually have a backup battery to keep the phone up if the power goes out.

    $60 for dsl sounds about right. Not as fast as spectrum but I'm pretty sure you don't use bandwidth-intensive applications.

    congratulations, your dell outperforms my 2009 i7 920 setup that cost me well over 2G back in the day (except for graphics)
    Cap Datasheet Depot: http://www.paullinebarger.net/DS/
    ^If you have datasheets not listed PM me

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      #62
      Re: Help I need a new computer.

      Originally posted by Uranium-235 View Post
      congratulations, your dell outperforms my 2009 i7 920 setup that cost me well over 2G back in the day (except for graphics)
      <grin> I paid $8K/each for my first two '386 boxes (~1986?)...

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        #63
        Re: Help I need a new computer.

        CG what brand were those IBM?

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          #64
          Re: Help I need a new computer.

          Originally posted by ron350 View Post
          CG what brand were those IBM?
          Compaq 386/25's. By the time you added the dinky 14" color monitor, 12MB (that's and M, not a G) of RAM, video card, sound card (GUS MAX at that time), a DOS license and a CD-ROM drive, you could end up dropping some serious money.

          http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/d...86-25-Type-38/

          Of course, I had to have two -- one for a backup as these machines would be my livelihood -- so the "hurt" was twice as bad!

          OTOH, I billed several hundred kilobucks using those two boxes! So, a worthwhile investment, for the time.
          Last edited by Curious.George; 12-12-2018, 11:46 AM.

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            #65
            Re: Help I need a new computer.

            Originally posted by Curious.George View Post

            Of course, I had to have two -- one for a backup as these machines would be my livelihood -- so the "hurt" was twice as bad!
            Sounds just like the 2000s, folks! Where computers seemed far more likely to take a shit, than any computers made in the later-1980s would!
            ASRock B550 PG Velocita

            Ryzen 9 "Vermeer" 5900X

            16 GB AData XPG Spectrix D41

            Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6750 XT

            eVGA Supernova G3 750W

            Western Digital Black SN850 1TB NVMe SSD

            Alienware AW3423DWF OLED




            "¡Me encanta "Me Encanta o Enlistarlo con Hilary Farr!" -Mí mismo

            "There's nothing more unattractive than a chick smoking a cigarette" -Topcat

            "Today's lesson in pissivity comes in the form of a ziplock baggie full of GPU extension brackets & hardware that for the last ~3 years have been on my bench, always in my way, getting moved around constantly....and yesterday I found myself in need of them....and the bastards are now nowhere to be found! Motherfracker!!" -Topcat

            "did I see a chair fly? I think I did! Time for popcorn!" -ratdude747

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              #66
              Re: Help I need a new computer.

              Originally posted by RJARRRPCGP View Post
              Sounds just like the 2000s, folks! Where computers seemed far more likely to take a shit, than any computers made in the later-1980s would!
              Actually, I never had a problem with either machine. Having two did make it easier to do 24-hour 3D renders (before the days of "multitasking") without locking yourself out from being able to do ANY work while the one machine chugs along tracing virtual rays of light.

              OTOH, I made several late night trips to "rescue" many of my colleagues from crashes and "non-100%-compatibility" (which was an issue, in those days).

              Even the 60MB disk wasn't a big limitation -- I'd just spool the entire contents of the drive onto a 9T tape and load the contents of another disk image off another reel whenever I needed to reconfigure one of the machines. (being identical meant I could save/restore images to either machine without having to worry about hardware incompatibilities, back then. It also made it real easy to determine if a "problem" was hardware related or software -- "Gee, it's present on BOTH machines...").

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                #67
                Re: Help I need a new computer.

                Originally posted by Curious.George View Post
                Actually, I never had a problem with either machine. Having two did make it easier to do 24-hour 3D renders (before the days of "multitasking") without locking yourself out from being able to do ANY work while the one machine chugs along tracing virtual rays of light.
                In the current century, I would need more than 1 computer, for fear of hardware failure! My early-2000s' Athlon build (T-bird) had a lot of crashing! I almost returned the motherboard and processor more than once!
                (After I installed the motherboard, dropped in my first Athlon processor and installed 128 MB of PC133/PC100 SDRAM, into a case that I already had before the build, the first Athlon build was back in summer, 2001.)
                (I also had a Deer DR-250ATX power supply, before I even got my first Athlon build, LOL) (Case probably manufactured by Deer.)
                It was crash-chaos in very-late-June, 2001 and early-July, 2001, before July 8, 2001, when I found the fix.
                Last edited by RJARRRPCGP; 12-12-2018, 08:31 PM.
                ASRock B550 PG Velocita

                Ryzen 9 "Vermeer" 5900X

                16 GB AData XPG Spectrix D41

                Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6750 XT

                eVGA Supernova G3 750W

                Western Digital Black SN850 1TB NVMe SSD

                Alienware AW3423DWF OLED




                "¡Me encanta "Me Encanta o Enlistarlo con Hilary Farr!" -Mí mismo

                "There's nothing more unattractive than a chick smoking a cigarette" -Topcat

                "Today's lesson in pissivity comes in the form of a ziplock baggie full of GPU extension brackets & hardware that for the last ~3 years have been on my bench, always in my way, getting moved around constantly....and yesterday I found myself in need of them....and the bastards are now nowhere to be found! Motherfracker!!" -Topcat

                "did I see a chair fly? I think I did! Time for popcorn!" -ratdude747

                Comment


                  #68
                  Re: Help I need a new computer.

                  Originally posted by RJARRRPCGP View Post
                  In the current century, I would need more than 1 computer, for fear of hardware failure! My early-2000s' Athlon build (T-bird) had a lot of crashing! I almost returned the motherboard and processor more than once!
                  I've had very few hardware failures -- a pair of disks (one 3.5", one laptop) -- though neither caused any net loss of information. I've had numerous keyboards and mice fail -- though I guess that's to be expected. Laptop keyboard failures being the kiss of death, IME (few laptops are worth the effort to remove/replace the keyboard as they are just commodity items).

                  I've been eyeing my collection of "spares" -- stuff that I've squirreled away in the off chance that I may need to replace a power supply, VRM, fan, etc. -- and just about ready to toss all of it. I'll probably hang onto the spare power supply for the SB2000 as they're truly "odd" and probably morphing into Unobtanium. But, even the other oddball power supplies and bits of kit that aren't true commodity components are probably not worth the space to store... just replace the entire machine when/if the need arises. The "data" is the only real bit of value in any of this...

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                    #69
                    Re: Help I need a new computer.

                    OK I messed up and now this Dell 7010 with Win10 will no longer recognize a PS2 mouse. This is boring so be warned.

                    This computer has been back in its shipping box since December because of health problems. I ordered two Lexor 32GB USB 2.0 jumpdrives hoping to make a copy of the Hard Drive using the “Back up and Restore (Windows 7)” feature in the control panel.
                    Well the computer recognized the jumpdrive as E drive and said it had to be formatted to NTFS. Formatted the drive to NTFS and went back to “Create a system image” and now it said “This drive is not a valid backup location.”

                    Then I got the bright idea to use a good 80GB SATA HD and mount it in the computer hoping the computer would recognize it. Plugged the SATA cable in the next empty slot on the mother board slot #2 with slot #0 having the factory HD and slot #1 having the DVD drive.
                    When I turned the computer on the mouse arrow was frozen so I unplugged the computer and removed the second HD and put every thing back like factory but now the PS2 mouse pointer is gone and the computer does not see any PS2 mouse.

                    Any suggestions on how to bring back the PS2 mouse without using “Restore to Factory Settings”

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                      #70
                      Re: Help I need a new computer.

                      Originally posted by ron350 View Post
                      no longer recognize a PS2 mouse
                      Have you removed PS/2 mouse while computer was running?

                      PS/2 is not meant for hot swapping - doing so will likely blow a fuse on the motherboard

                      Many motherboards had self-resettable fuses, but how many times they'd self-reset??
                      better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt

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                        #71
                        Re: Help I need a new computer.

                        The PS2 mouse was not removed while the computer was on.
                        I was able to get the PS2 mouse back by changing the mouse value from 3 to 1 in the registry.

                        Now it is back to trying to clone the Hard Drive.

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                          #72
                          Re: Help I need a new computer.

                          dafaq... so win10 mucks around with your ps2 mouse settings if u try to connect a new hard drive?! damn what a terrible os!

                          Comment


                            #73
                            Re: Help I need a new computer.

                            should have tried Linux like i told you to ages ago!
                            btw, a Linux live-disk / image can clone any partition or drive with the DD command.

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                              #74
                              Re: Help I need a new computer.

                              STJ nothing has changed since you told me to install Linus ages ago. This is the first time I have touched this computer since ages ago.

                              Comment


                                #75
                                Re: Help I need a new computer.

                                damn, i assumed you'd been using it - or something else.

                                Comment


                                  #76
                                  Re: Help I need a new computer.

                                  T-bird is a great core but was horrible with temperatures, so was Athlon XP but not as much. Still when I worked at goodwill computer works we always got Athlon/XP systems with bad chips. People would not clean the heatsinks and they got too hot and died. P3's at least had a failsafe that would crash the computer and save the die. P4's clocked themselves down. Still they did not have the performance/price AMD did at the time.

                                  I fried my T-bird 1.33 by accidentally putting the heatsink on upside down, with it not making contact.

                                  Generally with PS/2 ports I have never had one kill a motherboard, even when hot swapping it. Sometimes they continue to work when I plug and unplugged them. Sometimes they didn't work till I shut the system down and plugged them back in. I find if a PS/2 mouse does not work, I shut down, unplug it, make sure it's plugged all the way in and turn it on to have it working fine.

                                  You're still using a PS/2 mouse? is it a ball mouse? USB mice are so cheap, and can be less problematic.
                                  Cap Datasheet Depot: http://www.paullinebarger.net/DS/
                                  ^If you have datasheets not listed PM me

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                                    #77
                                    Re: Help I need a new computer.

                                    i have seen the mistake of putting the heatsink on backwards a few times, putting a step on the sink and having a clip that works both ways was a dumb design idea.

                                    Comment


                                      #78
                                      Re: Help I need a new computer.

                                      I have used Microsoft curved right-handed PS2 mice for years and I don’t care for any of the newer mice. When you get old and slow you don’t like change.

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                                        #79
                                        Re: Help I need a new computer.

                                        Yeah well I thought we could never get TC to use anything other than XP 64-bit but here we are
                                        Cap Datasheet Depot: http://www.paullinebarger.net/DS/
                                        ^If you have datasheets not listed PM me

                                        Comment


                                          #80
                                          Re: Help I need a new computer.

                                          Originally posted by Uranium-235 View Post
                                          Generally with PS/2 ports I have never had one kill a motherboard, even when hot swapping it. Sometimes they continue to work when I plug and unplugged them. Sometimes they didn't work till I shut the system down and plugged them back in. I find if a PS/2 mouse does not work, I shut down, unplug it, make sure it's plugged all the way in and turn it on to have it working fine.
                                          Most peripheral devices now use much less power. So, there's less of a surge (e.g., charging caps in the device) when hot-plugged.

                                          You're still using a PS/2 mouse? is it a ball mouse? USB mice are so cheap, and can be less problematic.
                                          Ball mice are a PITA to keep the ball clean. They pick up oils (from hands touching mouse pad) and dust from continual use. My favorite mice were "sculpted" PS/2 devices. My least favorite are those used on the Surface (though an amusingly clever implementation -- esp the "power switch"!)

                                          Optical mice, OTOH, tend to dislike certain types of surfaces (they can't "see" their motion against the surface).

                                          The biggest win to an optical (USB) mouse (in the context of this thread) is that you can verify that power is on AT the mouse just by looking for illumination. Likewise, for cordless mice, can verify the battery has sufficient charge.

                                          I've standardized on keyboards with multiple LED indicators (not just the caplock, numlock, etc.) for the same reason.

                                          [There are times when I've discovered the PC hasn't supplied power to the ports being used by mice and keyboard -- thus explaining why they "aren't working"]

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