Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
This one isn't so pleasant... I worked at CompUSA fixing computers in the 90's, and one time an employee brought in his personal machine for repair. Fortunately I wasn't the one that opened it up, as when the tech popped the case, cockroaches scurried everywhere! The machine was beyond hope with the amount of insect debris inside. I believe we had an exterminator out the next day! On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 5:17 PM, Adrian Stoness tdk.kni...@gmail.com wrote: When I was a toddler apparently I used to stuff penny's inside the floppy drives of my dads rainbow 100 the drives survived this I slot and are still I. Working order as far as I know since last time I saw that beast On Sunday, August 2, 2015, Tom Moss tomjm...@googlemail.com wrote: I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons in a 1541 disk drive. What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted. On 2 August 2015 at 05:53, Mark J. Blair n...@nf6x.net javascript:; wrote: By the way: I still keep the dollar with the computer. Just in case it's a critical component, you know. :) -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X n...@nf6x.net javascript:; http://www.nf6x.net/ -- Ben Sinclair b...@bensinclair.com
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
When I was a toddler apparently I used to stuff penny's inside the floppy drives of my dads rainbow 100 the drives survived this I slot and are still I. Working order as far as I know since last time I saw that beast On Sunday, August 2, 2015, Tom Moss tomjm...@googlemail.com wrote: I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons in a 1541 disk drive. What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted. On 2 August 2015 at 05:53, Mark J. Blair n...@nf6x.net javascript:; wrote: By the way: I still keep the dollar with the computer. Just in case it's a critical component, you know. :) -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X n...@nf6x.net javascript:; http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Aug 3, 2015, at 14:51 , ben bfranc...@jetnet.ab.ca wrote: Written on the drive, is a lot different than paper floating around inside The bad blocks were written on the drive in the sense that they were written or printed on a paper label stuck to the top of the drive, not stored digitally on the drive platter(s). I may be mistaken, but I have a memory rattling around in my head of the bad block list even being printed on greenbar paper at final test, which was then cut with scissors and Scotch taped to the top of the drive. So, they were very literally written on the drive in layman's terms. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X n...@nf6x.net http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: Steve Jobs engraved iPads - Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
Where is the inscription? Inside the case? On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 12:50 PM, Toby Thain t...@telegraphics.com.au wrote: On 2015-08-03 12:49 PM, Steve Algernon wrote: As an employee with some involvement, there was a batch of original iPads that were engraved with Steve Jobs signature. ... But when it does eventually wind up with some collector down the line, I hope they'll be surprised and a little confused. Its always nice to make someones life a little more surreal. Great story! I hope this list archive survives until that happens somebody completes the circle... --Toby Cheers, --sma
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Aug 3, 2015, at 14:51 , ben bfranc...@jetnet.ab.ca wrote: Written on the drive, is a lot different than paper floating around inside On Mon, 3 Aug 2015, Mark J. Blair wrote: The bad blocks were written on the drive in the sense that they were written or printed on a paper label stuck to the top of the drive, not stored digitally on the drive platter(s). I may be mistaken, but I have a memory rattling around in my head of the bad block list even being printed on greenbar paper at final test, which was then cut with scissors and Scotch taped to the top of the drive. So, they were very literally written on the drive in layman's terms. Some were written on paper and taped to the drive. Before long, MOST manufacturers went to writing them on a lable stuck to the drive.
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On 8/3/2015 3:25 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote: On 08/03/2015 11:33 AM, ben wrote: If is that bad, time for a new drive. Perhaps you don't remember but old ST506-style drives had no automatic bad sector remapping, so even new ones had bad sector maps affixed by the manufacturer. Most often these were in the form of byte offset from index. Written on the drive, is a lot different than paper floating around inside --Chuck I think soon we need to look for real cpu chips, everything will be microsoft hardware. Ben.
Re: Steve Jobs engraved iPads - Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Aug 3, 2015, at 6:52 PM, drlegendre . drlegen...@gmail.com wrote: Where is the inscription? Inside the case? On the back. I don't have a handy picture, but someone else posted theirs: http://deirdre.net/steve-jobss-death-and-influence/back-camera-3/
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
When I was in middle school, I once saw another kid stuff a bunch of potato chips in a Disk ][ ... does that count? LOL Best, Sean On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 6:17 PM, Adrian Stoness tdk.kni...@gmail.com wrote: When I was a toddler apparently I used to stuff penny's inside the floppy drives of my dads rainbow 100 the drives survived this I slot and are still I. Working order as far as I know since last time I saw that beast On Sunday, August 2, 2015, Tom Moss tomjm...@googlemail.com wrote: I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons in a 1541 disk drive. What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted. On 2 August 2015 at 05:53, Mark J. Blair n...@nf6x.net javascript:; wrote: By the way: I still keep the dollar with the computer. Just in case it's a critical component, you know. :) -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X n...@nf6x.net javascript:; http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On 08/03/2015 11:33 AM, ben wrote: If is that bad, time for a new drive. Perhaps you don't remember but old ST506-style drives had no automatic bad sector remapping, so even new ones had bad sector maps affixed by the manufacturer. Most often these were in the form of byte offset from index. --Chuck
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Sun, Aug 02, 2015 at 11:55:10AM -0700, Chuck Guzis wrote: Turning this discussion on its head, I wonder if I'm the only one to stash manuals and setup CDs in the cases of my systems. Has anyone ever picked up an old system and found system documentation inside? Not really inside but I got an IBM 3270PC (it's just a 5150 with some extras to make it a terminal emulator). But it was upgraded with a new motherboard and a 486 CPU. In an open 5.25 inch slot was the manual for the motherboard, it fit rather snuggly and easily accesible from the front. /P
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On 8/3/2015 12:11 PM, Jules Richardson wrote: On 08/02/2015 01:55 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote: Turning this discussion on its head, I wonder if I'm the only one to stash manuals and setup CDs in the cases of my systems. Has anyone ever picked up an old system and found system documentation inside? I suppose that bad sector maps for ST506/412 hard drives don't count? :-) If is that bad, time for a new drive. Ben.
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
As an employee with some involvement, there was a batch of original iPads that were engraved with Steve Jobs signature. Scott Forstall joked I don't want to see these show up on eBay! Anyway, being none too careful, I let my then 3 year old play with it, and she was walking around with rapt attention to whatever cartwheeling clown was on it, when she dropped it on some bricks. The iPad's back was dented (not near the signature), and while it still worked, wouldn't take a charge. Failure Analysis said they didn't want to take it since it was one the special' ones... So I opened it up (easier then then now; just wedge the screen out and break some metal retaining clips) and found that the dent, while small, was sharp and deep and pressed on the charging circuit. I wanted to insulate it, so I put a picture of my daughter there and sealed it up. Still works to this day and is great for netflix. But when it does eventually wind up with some collector down the line, I hope they'll be surprised and a little confused. Its always nice to make someones life a little more surreal. Cheers, --sma
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On 08/02/2015 01:55 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote: Turning this discussion on its head, I wonder if I'm the only one to stash manuals and setup CDs in the cases of my systems. Has anyone ever picked up an old system and found system documentation inside? I suppose that bad sector maps for ST506/412 hard drives don't count? :-)
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
Most Cray systems shipped from Chippewa Falls with several cases of Leinenkugel's beer inside. This was intended for the SEs after they got the system installed and up and running and not for the customer :-) Chris -- Chris Elmquist
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
I suppose that bad sector maps for ST506/412 hard drives don't count? :-) On Mon, 3 Aug 2015, ben wrote: If is that bad, time for a new drive. In the early days, particularly when actual ST506 and ST412 were common drives, there were VERY VERY few that had no bad tracks. In the days of ST506/412 drives every responsible manufacturer included a list of bad tracks. In the early days, there were plenty. That was one of several reasons why reputable hard drive manufacturers rounded the capacity down, rather than peddling them with the size stated to half a dozen significant digits. Would you rather have a 10 Meg drive that formatted out to 10.1Mebibytes, or one that formatted to 10.1Mebibytes that was sold as being 10.653696 Meg (WOW! This drive is so good that it gave me MORE capacity than it was rated for!) For a brief while, Spinrite defaulted to retoring to service any BAD TRACKS that passed Spinrite's tests! That was based on the assumption that a simple read/write test is surely far more trustworthy than the special hardware and software that the manufacturer used to decide to tell you not to trust that track. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Mon, Aug 03, 2015 at 12:33:33PM -0700, Fred Cisin wrote: I suppose that bad sector maps for ST506/412 hard drives don't count? :-) Once upon a time, it was the job of the OS to take this badblock count and remap blocks itself since the drives themselves weren't smart enough. On Mon, 3 Aug 2015, ben wrote: If is that bad, time for a new drive. In the early days, particularly when actual ST506 and ST412 were common drives, there were VERY VERY few that had no bad tracks. In the days of ST506/412 drives every responsible manufacturer included a list of bad tracks. In the early days, there were plenty. That was one of several reasons why reputable hard drive manufacturers rounded the capacity down, rather than peddling them with the size stated to half a dozen significant digits. Would you rather have a 10 Meg drive that formatted out to 10.1Mebibytes, or one that formatted to 10.1Mebibytes that was sold as being 10.653696 Meg (WOW! This drive is so good that it gave me MORE capacity than it was rated for!) For a brief while, Spinrite defaulted to retoring to service any BAD TRACKS that passed Spinrite's tests! That was based on the assumption that a simple read/write test is surely far more trustworthy than the special hardware and software that the manufacturer used to decide to tell you not to trust that track. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com -- - d...@freebsd.org d...@db.net http://www.db.net/~db
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Aug 2, 2015, at 19:10, William Donzelli wdonze...@gmail.com wrote: And some 1950s military radio manufacturers, who screen printed schematic diagrams onto cloth and stashed them inside the radios. If you are thinking about that early GRC stuff, that was silk! Oh wow, I thought it was something like Rayon. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X n...@nf6x.net http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On 08/02/2015 07:08 PM, Mark J. Blair wrote: And some 1950s military radio manufacturers, who screen printed schematic diagrams onto cloth and stashed them inside the radios. The schematics were secured to the inside of the radio with a length of cloth ribbon, then folded up tightly and stuffed into a metal tube secured to the radio chassis. It wasn't uncommon to see the same thing in 30s-50s radios, with the schematic pasted inside the cabinet. For me, a zip-lock freezer bag works just fine. --Chuck
RE: Unusual stuff inside computers
And some 1950s military radio manufacturers, who screen printed schematic diagrams onto cloth and stashed them inside the radios. The schematics were secured to the inside of the radio with a length of cloth ribbon, then folded up tightly and stuffed into a metal tube secured to the radio chassis. Bang and Olufsen used to provide a (paper) schematic folded up and tucked into an envelope inside their audio equipment (including portable radios). Not TVs for some reason, though, -tony
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
I once found a whole box worth of crayola crayons in a 1541 disk drive. What amazes me is how nothing was blocked and they hadn't melted. On 2 August 2015 at 05:53, Mark J. Blair n...@nf6x.net wrote: By the way: I still keep the dollar with the computer. Just in case it's a critical component, you know. :) -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X n...@nf6x.net http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Sat, Aug 01, 2015 at 07:05:35PM -0400, Vlad Stamate wrote: What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers? A dead rodent inside an otherwise nice looking Norsk Data ND-500 A four inch crooked nail inside a LINC-8 It is really a good idea to peak inside a computer that is new to you before you power it up. /P
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
A faded semi-nude 4x6 photo of a woman on a beach inside an IBM PC-XT that I found in a thrift shop many years ago. How or why it was in there is anyone's guess. -Rick
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
One of my first jobs at DEC was on terminal sales. The LA36 printing terminal had the logic and PSU cards mounted in the plinth. The logic card was on the back of the pull down door and the PSU inside. So easy to service it wasn't true. This compartment was quite roomy and inside fresh ones just arrived you would find all kinds of stuff: Wrapped food of all kinds Bibles Copies of the Boston Globe Cigarette packets (full and partly full) Assorted screwdrivers Spanners Loose change A note saying meet me at the rusty scupper (local bar) Rod On 02/08/2015 19:09, Pontus Pihlgren wrote: On Sat, Aug 01, 2015 at 07:05:35PM -0400, Vlad Stamate wrote: What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers? A dead rodent inside an otherwise nice looking Norsk Data ND-500 A four inch crooked nail inside a LINC-8 It is really a good idea to peak inside a computer that is new to you before you power it up. /P
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
Turning this discussion on its head, I wonder if I'm the only one to stash manuals and setup CDs in the cases of my systems. Has anyone ever picked up an old system and found system documentation inside? Just wondering if I'm the exception... Just you and IBM. -- Will
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Aug 2, 2015, at 12:15, William Donzelli wdonze...@gmail.com wrote: Turning this discussion on its head, I wonder if I'm the only one to stash manuals and setup CDs in the cases of my systems. Has anyone ever picked up an old system and found system documentation inside? Just wondering if I'm the exception... Just you and IBM. And some 1950s military radio manufacturers, who screen printed schematic diagrams onto cloth and stashed them inside the radios. The schematics were secured to the inside of the radio with a length of cloth ribbon, then folded up tightly and stuffed into a metal tube secured to the radio chassis. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X n...@nf6x.net http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
And some 1950s military radio manufacturers, who screen printed schematic diagrams onto cloth and stashed them inside the radios. If you are thinking about that early GRC stuff, that was silk! -- Will
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Aug 1, 2015, at 21:22 , drlegendre . drlegen...@gmail.com wrote: That's an old joke. Some (newb) asks How do you switch it on, i want to play Spacewar (or whatever), cagey user says You put a dollar in one of these slots... ;-) I guarantee it. That's my number one theory, followed by some kid just absentmindedly poking the dollar bill in the hole, then losing his grip. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X n...@nf6x.net http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
I found a dollar bill inside an Apple Monitor II. It appeared to have been folded into quarters and then pushed through one of the cooling slots on top of the monitor. The monitor and matching IIe computer look like they came from a school based on the property numbers engraved onto them. I've made up all sorts of theories about how some kid lost his or her dollar bill in that monitor! -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X n...@nf6x.net http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Saturday (08/01/2015 at 07:05PM -0400), Vlad Stamate wrote: I was pleasantly impressed that the drive head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the time. I am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in by mistake? Peter! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfEnwQsgH4I -- Chris Elmquist
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Sat, 1 Aug 2015, drlegendre . wrote: On Sat, Aug 1, 2015 at 6:05 PM, Vlad Stamate vlad.stam...@gmail.com wrote: I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive of the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating noise. After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is wrong with it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself: http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison). What is that item? Looks like a piece of laced (p)leather-craft from a children's summer camp project.. Maybe it's a money clip?
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
What is that item? Looks like a piece of laced (p)leather-craft from a children's summer camp project.. On Sat, Aug 1, 2015 at 6:05 PM, Vlad Stamate vlad.stam...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive of the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating noise. After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is wrong with it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself: http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison). After carefully removing it, the drive actually worked like a charm and I was able to boot from it. I was pleasantly impressed that the drive head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the time. I am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in by mistake? I am not sure what it is either, the leather triangles sewn together by hand it seem. What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers? Vlad.
Unusual stuff inside computers
Hi, I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive of the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating noise. After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is wrong with it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself: http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison). After carefully removing it, the drive actually worked like a charm and I was able to boot from it. I was pleasantly impressed that the drive head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the time. I am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in by mistake? I am not sure what it is either, the leather triangles sewn together by hand it seem. What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers? Vlad.
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Sat, 1 Aug 2015, drlegendre . wrote: What is that item? Looks like a piece of laced (p)leather-craft from a children's summer camp project.. an improvised floppy drive shipping head protector?
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers? A TRS80 model 1 where some keys had stopped working due to an accumulation of marijuana seeds
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Sat, 1 Aug 2015, Vlad Stamate wrote: Hi, I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive of the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating noise. After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is wrong with it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself: http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison). After carefully removing it, the drive actually worked like a charm and I was able to boot from it. I was pleasantly impressed that the drive head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the time. I am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in by mistake? I am not sure what it is either, the leather triangles sewn together by hand it seem. What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers? I once removed several ~1/2 diameter magnets from inside the 3.5 floppy drive of a tower-style IBM PS/2. They had apparently placed there by a disgruntled employee before he quick-formatted the hard drive. Fortunately, the magnets didn't seem to harm the boot disk I attempted to insert, but just jammed the drive.
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Sat, Aug 01, 2015, Vlad Stamate wrote: Hi, I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive of the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating noise. After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is wrong with it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself: http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison). After carefully removing it, the drive actually worked like a charm and I was able to boot from it. I was pleasantly impressed that the drive head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the time. I am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in by mistake? I am not sure what it is either, the leather triangles sewn together by hand it seem. What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers? While an Intel Mac laptop doesn't really qualify, I found an uneven piece of hard plastic, about 2mm x 1.5mm, inside one of its RAM slots when I went to upgrade it. How it got there I've never been able to understand -- it was already populated with a DIMM that was working correctly, and I think maybe I had actually put that DIMM there in the first place, and never seen the odd chunk before. It was a royal pain to remove, too -- I ended up using an X-Acto knife to cut away part of the edge connected so I could remove it with a tweezer. Boy was I shocked to realize that the actual metal pins that the RAM module connected to were embedded in the piece of plastic edge connector I cut away; somehow I managed to remove the plastic without breaking any of them. Upon bending them slightly so they looked straight, I put the RAM in, and everything was fine then. -- Eric Christopherson
Re: Unusual stuff inside computers
On Sat, Aug 1, 2015 at 5:37 PM, Fred Cisin ci...@xenosoft.com wrote: What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers? A TRS80 model 1 where some keys had stopped working due to an accumulation of marijuana seeds Someone was using it wrong. No seeds or stems!
