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kentn
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Old Computer Uses
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Jun 19 01:41 UTC 2015 |
Okay so it's now 24 years since item 11 in this conference was
entered (1001 uses for an obselete PC). It's time to talk about
all those old but not-so-obsolete computers that still have
viable uses. So this is the Old Computer Item.
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| 31 responses total. |
kentn
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response 1 of 31:
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Jun 19 01:44 UTC 2015 |
I've been finding computers tend to accumulate and I don't have the
heart to throw them out or recycle them. Most seem to be good for
about 5-6 years before they start having hardware failures (e.g. power
supplies, USB ports dying, etc.) but with a little bit of effort they
might be useful for something. Maybe a NAS for storing files? A print
server?
The downside to old computers is they tend to be power hungry, so having
a lot of old computers running tends to increase your electric bill.
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keesan
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response 2 of 31:
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Jun 27 01:47 UTC 2015 |
I have been putting linux on old laptops and giving them to my 10 year old
neighbor for his friends to use for email and sometimes browsing and Youtube.
A 266MHz Compaq Insignia with 160MB RAM - no sound in linux.
A 300MHz Trek 2 with 256MB RAM - no sound at all.
A 500MHz Compaq Presario 3700 with sound but crummy keyboard and 384MB RAM.
A 650MHz Gateway with 256MB and a few bad keys. xvkbd. Good sound.
A 700MHz Toshiba where the sound failed but good keyboard and 384MB.
A 900MHz HP with good sound and keyboard but dead CD burning (it reads),
USB, and PCMCIA. Working ethernet port. Youtube no longer works with K7.
A 1.6 GHz DELL D600 almost joined the list - dead USB, internal wifi slot,
CD burning, and very broken hinges and flaky power jack.
A 2GHz DELL 8500 with dead internal wifi, dead speakers but sound works,
and both DELLs have broken Speedstep so they run at less than half rated
speed. 600MHz and 1.2MHz. In XP, Rightmark Clock Utility overrides this
and Cpu Frequency Tool works in the oldest linux (Puppy 4) but not in newer
puppies so they use Puppy 4 for browsing but it will not do youtube. There
are a few bad keys in the 2GHz also (bad controller).
I gave the kids also:
A 2011 HP with screen removed because it was broken and there is nothing
left to attach a new one to.
I parted with most of the computers with bad sound or bad keyboards.
I also have:
A 900MHz Toshiba in which the sound died.
A 1.5GHz HP with dead mouse controller and dead PCMCIA (and
USB?).
A 2GHz HP with dead keyboard but good sound.
A 1.6GHz DELL with cracked screen and dead internal wifi slot.
A 1.6GHz Thinkpad with dead inverter (won't work with good lamp)
and Chinese keyboard.
A DELL 8100 with dead eraser-head mouse, dead wifi slot (mini-PCMCIA)
and faint sound (and the headphone output needs fixing) and
a DELL 8200 with the same sound problem.
The 1.5GHz 8500 runs at half the speed of the 1.0GHz 8100.
I put in hard drives of 1.3GB or a little more, and Puppy Linux (a 100-160MB
download, add browsers). For laptops too old to have onboard ethernet
add a wifi card from Kiwanis rummage sale.
I also gave out a few desktops from 2002-2004 (2.5-2.8GHz) which are much
speedier but require monitors and keyboards. We even supplied a couple of
those.
The 8 year old is now emailing us things like 'ok' 'no'.
I have two other laptops with crummy screens but good sound, and mechanical
adjustments (dials or buttons), 266MHz Toshiba and 475MHz Compaq, set up
as internet radios. No graphics needed. Mplayer and a set of about 75
scripts to play various classical stations around the world. US ones all
have commercials so we don't listen to them much. The Toshiba graphics
are messed up but I don't need them and it will work with 3MB RAM (we have
more). I have a 120MHz Compaq that also makes a nice radio and some others.
Old wifi-capable cell phones make good radios too. Windows Mobile 2003
is pretty borderline but still gets 3 classical stations (Windows Media)
and the Windows Media 6 one might play streaming MP3s but not pls or mpu.
Blackberry phones with wifi are better - Tunein app has hundreds of stations.
I even have one Tracfone feature phone with wifi.
These will all plug into our several iPod speakers (via 3.5mm jack).
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kentn
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response 3 of 31:
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Jun 27 17:13 UTC 2015 |
At least laptops don't use as much energy as the desktops.
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keesan
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response 4 of 31:
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Jun 27 19:53 UTC 2015 |
Today we are trying to upgrade a 2002 DELL Inspiron 8200 from 1.5 to 2.0GHz
Pentium or maybe 2.4GHz Celeron (half the cache). Amazingly clean inside.
The early Pentium CPUs were not so good. Mobile Pentium 4 tests out at half
the speed of a Pentium 3 (1.5 vs 1.0GHz too). The CPU is from 2001.
The next version, Pentium M, was made from 2002-2005 and is faster but also
a lot more power hungry. Dual core were made in 2004.
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ball
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response 5 of 31:
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Jul 2 03:54 UTC 2015 |
We have a shelf full of Pentium 4 desktops at work that
are on the brink of being recycled. I snagged one for use as
my work desktop. It has 2G RAM, a 20G PATA hard disk drive
and runs NetBSD nicely. I use an RDP client to connect to an
application server where our business software runs and I
have a few local programs (e.g. Firefox and the GIMP) too.
I set up similar machines for a couple of cow-orkers but
instead of X window (and Blackbox) they're presented with a
full-screen RDP session when they log in.
Experimentally I have also run Windows 10 Technical
Preview on a 3 GHz Pentium 4 desktop with 1G RAM and an 80G
SATA drive. The end result was surprisingly usable. I should
probably try it on a dual-core Atom or AMD Zacate box too.
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keesan
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response 6 of 31:
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Jul 2 21:10 UTC 2015 |
What is RDP?
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ball
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response 7 of 31:
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Jul 4 03:14 UTC 2015 |
RDP is the Remote Desktop Protocol. It lets a graphical
terminal (or a computer that's pretending to be a graphical
terminal) connect to a computer (usually a Windows Server)
and run programs there. This can be useful for a variety of
reasons.
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keesan
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response 8 of 31:
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Jul 5 01:36 UTC 2015 |
I have done similar with linux. I forget how but it was one short line of
text. I used a 486 with 640x480 resolution to run programs on a 233MHz
pentium and display them at lower resolution but 'fast' speed.
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ball
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response 9 of 31:
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Jul 5 04:29 UTC 2015 |
If the server ran Linux it's likely that you used X11 or
VNC to connect a graphical terminal to it, though I'm told
other options are available.
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keesan
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response 10 of 31:
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Jul 5 21:25 UTC 2015 |
X11, somehow.
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ball
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response 11 of 31:
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Jul 8 02:01 UTC 2015 |
This response has been erased.
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nharmon
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response 12 of 31:
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Jul 14 14:06 UTC 2015 |
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nharmon
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response 13 of 31:
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Jul 14 14:07 UTC 2015 |
I have an old iPad first generation I've been trying to find uses for.
Secondary monitor? PDF reader in the shop or while working on my Jeep (don't
care if it gets dirty)?
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ball
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response 14 of 31:
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Jul 16 03:01 UTC 2015 |
Today at the office things were slow so I was handed a
pile of laptops (mostly eight to ten years old). I wiped
them and installed an OS and gave each a desktop icon that
points to the (Windows) application server. Two got Windows
10 Technical Preview, most got Xubuntu and one was so old
that even Xubuntu wouldn't run (the CPU lacked PAE). NetBSD
boots but oddly the wired Ethernet port was not detected. I
may be able to fix that with a custom kernel.
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kentn
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response 15 of 31:
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Jul 16 13:34 UTC 2015 |
Nice. How much RAM and what type of CPU did the Win 10 preview run on?
People keep asking on-line what is needed to run Win 10 and it looks
like many computers will run it, even old ones with less RAM and a
decent CPU.
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ball
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response 16 of 31:
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Jul 16 16:05 UTC 2015 |
I have experimentally run it on a Pentium 4 with 1G RAM.
It works but there's a noticable lag when you first boot
before the Start menu begins to work. In practice I'd
recommend a dual-core processor and at least 2G RAM (for 32-
bit) or 4G RAM (for 64-bit).
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keesan
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response 17 of 31:
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Jul 22 01:38 UTC 2015 |
Puppy Linux (5 or 6) runs on a 1GHz with 512MB or 768MB RAM.
I have been setting up old laptops for my young neighbor's friends. One lucky
person got a 900MHz (bad pcmcia, usb, cd-rom, and parport).
An older version will work in less memory (boots using 10MB) and I have run
it just fine at 233Mhz.
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ball
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response 18 of 31:
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Jul 22 23:55 UTC 2015 |
I was working today on a ten year old laptop (1.6 GHz
Pentium M, 1G RAM, 40G PATA disk) when its gigabit Ethernet
port disappeared from under me. I should probably resist the
urge to fix that one.
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keesan
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response 19 of 31:
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Jul 24 15:28 UTC 2015 |
I would love to have it. You can easily plug in a pcmcia ethernet card.
Or spend $2-3 on ebay for a USB wifi card.
If you give up on the computer I would also love to have the memory.
My laptops that age have 2x256MB PC133 or DDR1.
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ball
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response 20 of 31:
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Jul 25 03:25 UTC 2015 |
I used the RAM to upgrade a twelve year old laptop that
is in better condition with a working wired Ethernet port.
The ten year old one has WiFi but I'm not sure how to make
that work on NetBSD and the laptop can't run Xubuntu because
it lacks PAE.
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keesan
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response 21 of 31:
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Jul 29 01:55 UTC 2015 |
Run Lubuntu without PAE? Or Puppy Linux 6 Tahrpup non-PAE, which calls for
an enormous 768MB RAM. Puppy Linux comes with most wireless drivers and if
there are any missing it is easy to use the Windows NDIS drivers.
I just set up my oldest laptop with a lot of DOS games from the 80s and early
90s for a non-verbal adult to use for entertainment. 80MB RAM, 120MHz, lovely
keyboard (like a desktop used to have).
Puppy Linux Tahr is up to about 160MB now. Puppy 4 was 100MB. Tahr can use
Tahr Ubuntu (14) packages. I got it working with Ubuntu Chrome 38 and
Netflix.
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kentn
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response 22 of 31:
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Jul 30 00:17 UTC 2015 |
Here's something I noticed today. LXDE is what Raspberry Pi uses by
default and so does my Beaglebone Black, both based on Debian Linux.
This appears to be more of an OS that just an X11 windows manager
or desktop, but related LXDE. It says it's based on Ubuntu/Lubuntu
LTS. LXLE is what it is called.
It says it's good for old computers. I don't know if that is true or
how easy it is to use for people used to Windows.
http://www.lxle.net/
Has anyone tried it?
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keesan
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response 23 of 31:
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Aug 1 01:07 UTC 2015 |
Requirements are a bit more demanding than PUppy linux (512MB minimum RAM,
1GB better) and it is much larger (installs to 8GB).
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kentn
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response 24 of 31:
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Aug 1 23:18 UTC 2015 |
So, I have Apple IIgs ROM3 computer. I ordered a card for it that uses
a CF memory card (256meg). So that will act like hard disk. Should
be interesting. I'm on the list to get an ethernet card for it, too.
Then I can connect to the network at home. Both will make downloading
software to it easier (e.g. plug the CF card into your PC and there is
an program to download to software to it). It's funny to use such an
old computer, but it will have a word processor (actually two or three
of them). We'll see how it goes. There is actually a small community
of developers (both hardware and software still using these computers).
eBay occasionally has cards for sale as well whole Apple II computers.
Talk about retro computing!
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