What's the oldest FULLY WORKING PC you have?

[WA3KYY]

Actually it is 21 years old but that category was missing. 8088-2 CPU with 30Meg RLL hard drive and 640K RAM.

[KA8NCR]

The oldest working PC is a Micron running Linux. It's happily chugging along running Exim, a modified IMAP, Bind and an IRLP link for a local 440 repeater that no one uses. The drives are still the original Micropolis 2 gigabyte SCSI drives. There's four of them in there, and they're loud; which is why the machine sits in the basement. I think this machine was purchased in late 1994.

The oldest working computer is a 1982 TRS-80 Color Computer. Can't bring myself to pitch it with the EDTASM cartridge in there.

[M1PFS]

Ignore this first poll. I've posted a corrected one

[M1PFS]

I wounder how you can cancel your own polls http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif ?

[wa4brl]

About 20 Years old, my Commodore 128. Same as a C-64, but will run the CP/M operating system (anyone remember THAT?). I'd guess the system runs at almost 1 MB clock frequency. Seldom used, but still working great.

[w0tdh]

Apple II Plus with dual drives es Imagewriter II

(Anyone want to buy it? )

Tom - KØPJG
k0pjg@earthlink.net

[M1PFS]

I did have a fully working Macintosh LC working MacOS 7.5.5. It had a fully working mouse, keyboard and monitor with some mac software installed on it (MacWrite, MacPaint etc...)

But I sold it in a junk sale a year ago. Good machine, I just had no more room to put it in the shack http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif .

[WB2WIK]

Apple IIe, purchased 1977.

Fully functional to play "PONG," and not much more, but it does work as well as it did when new.

WB2WIK/6

[K8AG]

Just fired up my Cosmac Elf II from Netronics last week. I assume that counts as a functional personal computer.

[K3UD]

Original Mac 128k with external floppy. One of the first Macs purchased in the state of kentucky, if not the first. Still works. Quadra from 1991. Like new.



73
George
K3UD

[K9STH]

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I. Still have the original monitor, expansion interface, and all four 160 KB 5.25 inch single sided single density disc drives.

It has a 1.6 MHz processor and 48K of RAM (16K in the basic unit and another 32K in the expansion interface).

Glen, K9STH

[WA9SVD]

Does an Apple ][+ count? (ca. 1983) If not, how about an Apple //e? Or a NEC V30 MultiSpeed laptop, ca. 1987.

Sorry, I forgot to mention the Sinclair. It's in a box somewhere...

[WA9SVD]

Quote[/b] (WB2WIK @ Aug. 31 2005,10:17)]Apple IIe, purchased 1977.

Fully functional to play "PONG," and not much more, but it does work as well as it did when new.

WB2WIK/6
Sorry, Steve, you didn't purchase an Apple //e in 1977. An Apple ][, sure, but the //e wasn't released until '83. And if it really was 1977, it WAS an Apple ][; the ][+ wasn't released until 1979.

[W5HTW]

I have a complete Apple lying around in the garage. A II something, but I'd have to go look again to see what. It works, and I have some limited software for it. But it hasn't been fired up in about a year, and then only for testing it.

Second is a custom built 80486-66. It has Windows 95 on it, and a straight VGA card, sixteen meg Maxtor harddrive, and an old US Robotics 28K modem, a 16 bit sound card. But all it is ever used for these days is for the wife to either play solitaire (!) or write a short note to her kids. Since, even though it has a modem, it isn't connected to a phone line, we put those notes on a floppy and transfer it to one of my other computers, which are connected to phone lines. It is used several times a week. (Whoops! I just heard it fire up. Yep, the wife is in here with her computer on.)

But that old 486 still runs smoothly. By the way, it has 16 megs of RAM and one meg of video RAM. Probably it would make a fairly nice computer for sound card radio ops, but I use a Pentium II for that.

[kj5t]

I have two Macintosh 5500 series powermacs, they get used almost on a daily bases, and one is on 24/7. Not my main machines, but they are machines that work. I used an Apple //e when I first started using computers way back when. After that it was an LC3 and then a centris something (there was a mac classic on my desk back when I had an Apple Duo Dock). Those machines are long gone and now I am have the two 5500's series PPC's.

[KA9VQF]

Does my Atari 77 game system count? I also have a Pong game, ceria 1972, that still works.

OK, I do have a fully functional Vic20. Like the other guy said it still does all the things it did when new. I still have a few of the books you would spend days typing programs in from.

I also have a Apple II e that still seems to work the monitor went to another project years ago then died, but I still have the TV adapter for it.

I have two Zenith 8086 machines and monochrome monitors, one amber the other green. Only one of the machines will boot from the HD the other still boots from the floppy.

Had a Timex Sinclair, I used it when I was in electronics school but when funds went away and I had to quit the school I sold the machine. It had the silliest little printer and that tiny keyboard and LCD screen. The whole mess was put into a nifty little aluminum hard case my mom found at a garage sale. Made it nicely portable.

[al2n]

Got an old Kaypro 2000 that works fine.

Thing is built like a tank and weighs just about as much.

Ah, the good ol days of the beefy laptop.....

[M1PFS]

I once had an old IBM 286 Server that at least weighs 70 Pounds or more.

It was running Windows 3.1 and DOS 6.2 I think http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

The 3.5" Floppy drive didn't always work http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

[KF0RT]

Quote[/b] (wa9svd @ Aug. 31 2005,11:35)]Quote[/b] (WB2WIK @ Aug. 31 2005,10:17)]Apple IIe, purchased 1977.

Fully functional to play "PONG," and not much more, but it does work as well as it did when new.

WB2WIK/6
Sorry, Steve, you didn't purchase an Apple //e in 1977. An Apple ][, sure, but the //e wasn't released until '83. And if it really was 1977, it WAS an Apple ][; the ][+ wasn't released until 1979.
Yup. I bought one of the early (original) Apple II's in October, 1978. It was first available in June, 1977. The IIe wasn't released until January, 1983.

Great Apple II history site at http://apple2history.org/.

What a fun machine that was! Real easy to build add-on cards for it. It definately launched my career many years ago. By the time I sold mine in 1983, it had everything but a hard drive. I even had the CP/M card (from a fledgling little company called Microsoft). Gave it up for an S-100 computer that my employer gave me after showing them how to connect one of their hard drives to it (MiniScribe, if anyone remembers them). This opened up a whole new world inside the company, plus they could bring people through and say "See, even our accounting department uses our drives!"

Computers were a lot of fun back then. Not so much fun today.

73, Rob

[KC0KBH]

Oldest has in the shack has to be an NEC Versa 75 MHz 486 laptop for paging. Otherwise, there is an oooollllddd "Option" from about 1985 that I can have. No OS. A whopping 40 MB HDD, a 20 MHz 386 or 286, and a 5.25 floppy. Came from H&R block. HDD was wiped. I want to maybe put linux on it. it sure is old. Oldest desktop is a 300 MHz K6II. Oldest one I could build from parts would be a 50 MHz 486. I have quite the stockpile of obsolete ram, motherboards, CD drives, ISA cards, etc. It did come in handy when a friend got a 133 MHz Compaq. I doubled the ram to a whopping 32 MB (what would fit in it that I had), and put 2 CD drives in, and 2 ISA sound blasters. It sure does run smooth with 95.

[AC4BB]

Atari 800.:D http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[LB1UE]

I'm actually not sure.

I have a VIC-20 and a TRS-80 ... I'm old, and they are as well ...

Although, the first computer I started out with was a SpectraVideo 386 ...

[kw7dsp]

I currently still have a 1979 Superboard from OSI as well as a couple of C3-4P, several original MACs, a Coleco, a 6100 (PDP8 on a chip) a PDP8, a MicroVax, 1 or more of every Apple made except an apple I, thru the 6500 series of Mac. A 1976 Cosmac Elf (Allmost made the over 30 group) a Kaypro Suitcase , Several Original IBM PC, some Leading Edge 8086, Several 286, 386, 70meg Pentium, Pentium S, Pentium II, two each Vic 20 , Commodore 64, Commodore Colt, Commodore 128 ( I wish I still had my Amiga). My working IMSI is one of my older machines. I have a plus 16 also and an original TRS80.

I no longer have my Columbia (First IBM Clone), Franklin (Apple II Clone), or Texas Bigboard (S100). My Zenith has disapeared, and so has my Atari. I also mis my 8 inch Drive RS.

I have a lot of accessories also, such as a Apple Elf Board, OSI C8 Color Board, 5, 10, and 20 meg HardCards, and a ton of monitors. I must have about every Ham add on made for the old 8 bit (many for commodore) computers including a SWTCP terminal.

What do I use today ... HP Pavilion a810n AMD Athlon 64 3300+ with a gig of Ram and 280 Gig of HD At one time I knew either personally, or by name ,fully half of the 3000 total Micro Computer owners in the world at that time.

If you named the top 20 movers of the original Micro world, Steve Jobs is the only one I have not met personally.

I may not hold the record for this thread, but I bet there are few who could come close.

[kw7dsp]

I forgot about my Sinclar. Not even sure where it is. And I also didnot list the several 486 and 486 DX2 and DX4.

Also I have a Compaq Color Palmtop, and a Palm Pilot IIIx.

I don't even want to start on the list of Tape Units and styles I have, but the number is around 10 diferent styles and types, many duplicated.

[wa4brl]

OK, so who remembers what the "Kansas City standard" was? I guess you'd almost have to remember W2NSD and the original "Byte" for that one.

[n2nh]

I do remember Byte but didn't own a computer for awhile. My oldest one is pretty old. It's a slide rule. The other one is older. It's an abacus. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[WA9SVD]

Quote[/b] (wa4brl @ Sep. 01 2005,06:36)]OK, so who remembers what the "Kansas City standard" was? I guess you'd almost have to remember W2NSD and the original "Byte" for that one.
Byte? THAT was a "newbie." Before Byte there was "Creative Computing" and "Nibble," among others. (Both started with support of Pre-IBM PC machines.) Both are now long gone, but I still have and use my "10th Anniversary" LCD desk clock from Creative Computing Magazine. It still keeps ticking, (with an occasional battery transplant) and I use it set to UTC above my radios. Funny how a give-away clock outlasts a great magazine by a good 20 years...)

Some of the best magazines died because they were dedicated to the "Do it yourself" programmer (not just the hobbyist) and with the advent of the PC, the skill (and the necessity) of programming died quickly, as most users became "appliance" users in the sense that they either wanted to, or had to, buy canned software.

I wonder how many present day Computer Science graduates know anything more that the various flavors of "C," and have even heard of PASCAL, FORTH, LISP, or LOGO. All were popular (at least to some extent) in the BPC (before [IBM] PC) days.

[WA2ZDY]

BRL - who could forget Never Say Die? Wayne Green . . .

SVD - sadly your post brought back horrific memories of semesters of Fortran IV and RatFOR classes and other related forms of torture, torment and abject misery. Thanks. (!)

As for old puters, I have a couple here. I just put the hard drive from my now-dead 1990 era Laser 386-sx/16 laptop in my 1996 era Toshiba Satellite 105. The Toshiba is a P5-75; I hope it's slow enough for what I need to do.

But now for really old, and rare, how about an IBM PC Convertible 5140? Anyone remember them? A rather large laptop, mine is an 8086 (not 8088) and 512k RAM. No hard drive but two 720k 3.5 in floppy drives. It was called "Convertible" because it was modular. The serial and parallel ports were on an add-on that stuck onto the back end of the laptop. The LCD screen was interchangeable - mine has no light, but others did, some were even CGA colour! Then there were actually a thermal printer and external video adapter that added on to the end too.

I was told that these things were built for GM for the executives, to the tune of five grand per. Then GM backed out and IBM issued them to their executives. In the end, supposedly nobody in the public sector bought any, though obviously some made it into circulation. When my former wife's brother in law worked for IBM in Austin, he was unable to find any reference to this thing anywhere in the IBM archives. It was as though IBM erased it from existence. Mine still works

[al2i]

My 1977 IMSAI 8080 still works perfectly and I have more than 30 plug-in S-100 cards for messing around.

[N1XHF]

Quote[/b] (wa4brl @ Aug. 30 2005,10:46)]About 20 Years old, my Commodore 128. Same as a C-64, but will run the CP/M operating system (anyone remember THAT?). I'd guess the system runs at almost 1 MB clock frequency. Seldom used, but still working great.
I have a C-64 at my fathers and still have 3 good size boxes of games and software. I can't beleive the thing still works.

[WA9SVD]

Quote[/b] (WA2ZDY @ Sep. 03 2005,14:23)]SVD - sadly your post brought back horrific memories of semesters of Fortran IV and RatFOR classes and other related forms of torture, torment and abject misery. Thanks. (!)
ZDY:

Hey! Glad to be of service! Those were the GOOD ol' daze, weren't they??? And you forgot to mention COBOL. BUT: "...related forms of torture, torment and abject misery" can only refer to Windoze!

N2NH:

Slip stick? Abacus? I have an even older computer; it's base 20, 00000014H. (AKA Fingers and toes...)

[wd5kca]

Lobo Max-80. It is a clone of the TRS-80 Model IV running LDOS or CP/M on a 5 mhz Z-80B.

[KG6YTZ]

I used to want a Tandy MC-10 - sort of what you'd get if a Color Computer and a Timex/Sinclair had themselves a dirty little midnight fling. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif #I also remember wanting a Commodore Colt, but only because I was still looking for my first PC and the Colt - an XT clone in the days when AT's were widespread and the first 386's were hitting the shelves - was a fraction of the price of other, more modern PC's. [I wound up buying that Corona suitcase.]

I'd still like something like a TRS-80 Model 100 - runs for ages on AA cells and can be loaded with several small programs. #I would write myself a dipole calculator, an SWR calculator* [credits to Workman for including the formula in the instructions for my wattmeter/SWR bridge!], and a switch code generator for the Bearcat 101 scanner.

* The formula they give for determining SWR from known forward and reflected values is:

SQR(Fwd) + SQR(Ref)
--------------------------
SQR(Fwd) - SQR(Ref)

[kd7msc]

Commodore 64, Apple 2

[WA9SVD]

Quote[/b] (KG6YTZ @ Sep. 04 2005,22:35)]I used to want a Tandy MC-10 - sort of what you'd get if a Color Computer and a Timex/Sinclair had themselves a dirty little midnight fling. :) I also remember wanting a Commodore Colt, but only because I was still looking for my first PC and the Colt - an XT clone in the days when AT's were widespread and the first 386's were hitting the shelves - was a fraction of the price of other, more modern PC's. [I wound up buying that Corona suitcase.]

I'd still like something like a TRS-80 Model 100 - runs for ages on AA cells and can be loaded with several small programs. I would write myself a dipole calculator, an SWR calculator* [credits to Workman for including the formula in the instructions for my wattmeter/SWR bridge!], and a switch code generator for the Bearcat 101 scanner.

* The formula they give for determining SWR from known forward and reflected values is:

SQR(Fwd) + SQR(Ref)
--------------------------
SQR(Fwd) - SQR(Ref)
A bit more advanced than the Model 100, but I still use a POQET PC/XT. Runs a LONG time on 2 AA alky batteries, and runs (OK, walks) Micros*** DOS 3.3. It makes a great logging computer and packet terminal. It uses two 2.0 MB S-RAM PCMCIA cards instead of floppy drives; that beats an IBM PC (one or two 360kB drives) or anything else sans hard drive of that vintage.

[w8cbc]

I used (didn't own, it was my parents') a CBM in my teens. 6502-based with, I think, 32k of mem. I wrote a lot of data-acquisition gumph for it in BASIC. Heh. I sort of wish I had the thing now. Not too badly though.

[ka0gkt]

The last time I fired up my old Altair 8080, it worked...the 24 year old Atari 800 still works, but the oldest one still in regular use is a 20 year old 8088 PC XT turbo.

I second the mouser and raise one Allied 1(800)433-5700.

Good luck with the surface mount stuff...When I started in electronics things were big with big numbers on them, color codes I could read across the room and leads I could solder with a Wen 75...now I need glasses and everything's so small I can't even start to read the part number without a magnifier...ageing isn't for wimps!

73 DE KAØGKT/7

--Steve

[al2i]

OK, I tried to reconstruct my personal history of computers like some guys have their history of radios:

1977 Imsai 8080 Still working.
1978 Compucolor II Broken but Probably Fixable.
1980 Apple ][ + (Black Bell & Howell version) Still Working
1980-1984 Starving and in college.
1985 Amiga 1000 Still Working.

[W0LC]

C-64.

[wa4brl]

Quote[/b] (wa4brl @ Sep. 01 2005,08:36)]OK, so who remembers what the "Kansas City standard" was? #I guess you'd almost have to remember W2NSD and the original "Byte" for that one.
OK, OK, since everyone is clammoring for the answer...

W2NSD invited all the EARLY movers and shakers of the PC world to a conference in Kansas City to settle upon ONE standard for audio cassette data storage. Every company had cassette interfaces, but none matched any other. (This was before Jobs and 'the Woz' got out of high school, and even before the KIM-1).

Wayne wanted to enable software developers to sell their "basic" programs to ANYONE, regardless of what computer was in hand. (More accurately, WAYNE wanted to sell all that software!) Let's see, those early companies would be MITS, Imsai, Ohio Scientific, and SWTPC, among others. There had to be others. Rats, who am I forgetting?

Thinking about the old Byte brings to mind the old Godbout Electronics ads with those god-awful graphics! Ah, the memories! $299 for a 4k memory board kit. What a bargain!

[al2i]

I had EVERY issue of Byte magazine up until the mid-80s, and most of the issues of Kilobaud Microcomputing in boxes in my shed. However, I threw them all away in about 1990 or so when I went into a cleaning frenzy. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

Now I wish I still had them. I did buy many of the best Robert Tinney art (numbered reprints), so that is cool.:)

[K0CRX]

My main logging machine (10-X, 3905 Century Club, etc.) is a PC clone. It runs 4.77 mc. or 10 mc. in turbo mode. I put it into a real IBM PC box and installed one 5.25" 360 kb floppy drive and a 30 mb RLL hard drive and topped it off with an amber monochrome monitor. I use multiple databases designed with PCFile:DB by Buttonware. Of course, I have state-of-the-art super-fast gigacycle machines, too, but, you can actually hear and see this one clunk along and it's just great. BTW, record retrieval, even in my largest log database, is lightning fast because of the indexed access used by PDFile:DB. Very, very cool!

73,
Mike

PS - Old stuff rocks.

[w2ass]

i have an old 8088 cause ct (contest loging program) still back in the stone ages,, they dont run a windows xp pro version yet,

[WA9SVD]

Wait! You mean there's something more recent than IBM PC/MS-DOS 2.0? Where have I been all this time? And what's a hard drive? My 5.25" disks hold 160 kB, but if I use a paper punch on the edge, I can flip them over and use the other side. Is there something better? Some of my WordStar files are getting almost too big for a disk...

[K8ERV]

Quote[/b] (wa9svd @ Sep. 13 2005,12:21)]Wait! #You mean there's something more recent than IBM PC/MS-DOS 2.0? #Where have I been all this time? #And what's a hard drive? #My 5.25" disks hold 160 kB, but if I use a paper punch on the edge, I can flip them over and use the other side. #Is there something better? #Some of my WordStar files are getting almost too big for a disk...
Yeah, there IS something newer. DOS 2.2. And my discs hold 175, you must have gotten yourn from Wal-Mart.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

[kc0ukk]

Quote[/b] (wa4brl @ Sep. 07 2005,12:14)]Quote[/b] (wa4brl @ Sep. 01 2005,08:36)]OK, so who remembers what the "Kansas City standard" was? #I guess you'd almost have to remember W2NSD and the original "Byte" for that one.
OK, OK, since everyone is clammoring for the answer...

W2NSD invited all the EARLY movers and shakers of the PC world to a conference in Kansas City to settle upon ONE standard for audio cassette data storage. #Every company had cassette interfaces, but none matched any other. #(This was before Jobs and 'the Woz' got out of high school, and even before the KIM-1). #

Wayne wanted to enable software developers to sell their "basic" programs to ANYONE, regardless of what computer was in hand. #(More accurately, WAYNE wanted to sell all that software!) #Let's see, those early companies would be MITS, Imsai, Ohio Scientific, and SWTPC, among others. #There had to be others. #Rats, who am I forgetting?

Thinking about the old Byte brings to mind the old Godbout Electronics ads with those god-awful graphics! #Ah, the memories! #$299 for a 4k memory board kit. #What a bargain!
Who remembers what the Suding standard was? How about the Phideck Operating System?

Both were elements of the Digital Group Z80 based computer kits designed by Dr. Robert Suding in the mid '70s.

I still have mine, built in late 1975. A Z80 based computer with a CPU board hosting a 2mhz Z80, 1702 eprom with 256? bytes of boot code and 2K of ram (16 2102 ram chips).

The great magazine of the time was "Doctor Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Otrhodontia, Running Light Without Overbyte", currently published as "Doctor Dobb's Journal" or simply DDJ.

I haven't fired it up in 15 years or so, but the last time I did, it was still working.

[w2nsf]

It's an old toaster: Macintosh SE-40
It's my workshop computer. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[ka9inv]

I used to have an old 4mc AT&T computer from the late 1980s, complete with Lotus 1-2-3 and I think a verrrrrrrrrrrry old version of WordPerfect... unfortunately not an early enough system to be running UNIX (which I would have prefered over DOS, but oh well http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif ).

[KG6YTZ]

Just a minor side note... #The original author of Lotus 1-2-3 - Jonathan Sachs, a photography buff - now produces a package called Picture Window Pro [www.dl-c.com] (http://www.dl-c.com). #Great stuff! #Absolutely amazing color correction capabilities.

Obligatory on-topic content: The first PC I bought - Corona PPC-400 portable XT clone, a dinosaur in 1990 - had DOS 3.1 on its 10MB Tandon HD [utter garbage, which may explain why you don't see Tandon drives any more]. #Eventually I worked my way up to DOS 6.22 on that particular machine, and a 48MB "card drive." #By that time, though, I also had a 386 running Windows 3.11 on an EGA display, and it's a danged good thing I had that machine for a backup [along with a week-old copy of my BBS and its posts and user list] when the XT's drive finally died sometime around the middle of the decade. #24/7 power on for several years = eventual bearing failure, apparently... http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Every PC I've ever had, including this one, has been a Frankenputer. #I've never bought - nor been able to afford - a new machine fully built.

[k4kro]

Yep, it's still sitting there on the shelf in the closet. My trusty old Tandy Model 102. It has 32K RAM, a built-in 300 baud modem and a regular serial port. The 100 and 102 were the first legitimate laptops and they will run for days on 4 AA cells. The last thing I used it was to run a PK-88 TNC on 6 meter packet repeater in 1992.

The 102 was a star in a few motion pictures. Midnight Run is the only one I can remember. There were a lot Ham-related programs written for it. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[KG6YTZ]

I wouldn't mind having one of those little goodies myself, but I think I've already mentioned that in this thread. I can think of a few radio-related quick-and-dirties I could program into one of those things [once I re-learned TRS BASIC, that is]. SWR calculator, dipole calculator, Bearcat 101 code generator...

An old friend of mine used to have a Model 100 before leukemia got him a couple of years ago. I wish I could have "inherited" that thing, but he had already given it to someone else. Oh, well. He also had an early XT clone laptop. I keep thinking it was an Amstrad, but that's not right... {shrug}

[KI4LFG]

I was looking inside one of a PC with an 8088 in it, still powered up but was unable to verify that it loaded because I don't have a monochrome monitor.

[KG6YTZ]

I wouldn't think that a card and monitor for CGA - or, even better, EGA - would be all that expensive. #I just checked eBay and saw a new, still-wrapped EGA card currently at $4.95 and an "EGA COLOR MONITOR SAMSUNG NO RESERVE MONITER MONETER" [seller hedging his bets in case people can't spell monitor? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif] currently at $36.

Addendum: Apparently, that particular auction is for a monitor and a card.

Although certainly not as good as even basic first-generation VGA, EGA was still a vast improvement over CGA. #I was VERY happy when I replaced my CGA with EGA in my old doorstop... I mean DESKTOP. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif #[And, of course, even 640x480x256 VGA was better still.]

[KC0KBH]

I got a samsung 15" flat panel for free. The backlight inverter went out. Turns out a regulator wasn't even soldered in. 5 min later I had it working.

[KD5NCO]

Took me a while to figure that this is a new thread (I could not understand why my original post was not included)

I have a Timex Sinclare, Vic 20 , Commodor 64 all still work but those just barely qualify as PCs.

My oldest PC is a home brew 8088 4.77mhz with 768K of very slow RAM (but very expensive at the time) the Hard drive is from Seagate in 1983 cost $532 for a whooping 5 Mb space formated for RLL (run length limited) encoding.

The MODEM is an acoustically coupled bell103 standard at 300baud that also cost a small fortune back then.

Any guess who made the MODEM?

I got it for $129.95 from 921 Louisville rd, Starkville MS 39759 according to my receipt from MFJ Enterprises Inc.

[kd4wuo]

I just took a TRS-80 to the dump this weekend...

[WA2CWA]

Still playing with my HP-150, single floppy machine, with optional external 20 Meg hard drive and optional external dual floppy box. Cool green print and also has a touch screen. Vintage 83/84. Still runs DOS 3.2.

Pete, wa2cwa

http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/hp150.jpg

[WA9SVD]

Gonna hafta use VisiCalc to keep track of all these replies...