PC finally given up the ghost

[DavidEdwinAston]

The built-in motherboard video will be slower than the card it had. You're not gaming, but you are watching video, so you may or may not notice it. Typically, VGA is limited to low resolutions so it's not that demanding.

The important thing with these old machines, especially ones running Windows, is to ensure that it hasn't gotten polluted with bloat-ware that kills performance. Windows by default doesn't clean up after itself, slowly filling the disk with old update files and other useless crap. And many programs pile on a bazillion processes in the startup folder that hog RAM and CPU even when you're not using them. Cleaning this up isn't difficult, but it can be tedious. Though it can yield significant performance improvements.

Thanks MRCO1, tomorrow's mission, start up in Windows again and try something major cleaning up!

 

[Peterinvan]

That looks a nice machine Peter. Is that 1800 Canadian dollars?

Yes. It took me a few days to restore all my apps and data, mostly because I didn’t have good backups.
It also took a while to get Win11 GUI to look like Win7

 

[Blumlein 88]

Thanks MRCO1, tomorrow's mission, start up in Windows again and try something major cleaning up!

You might start it in SAFE mode initially that way only necessary stuff is running.

 

[MRC01]

WinDirStat is a great tool for cleaning up the hard drive: https://windirstat.net/
It finds the big junk wherever it's hiding, so you can take care of it.

 

[charleski]

3-5 years and replace (5-7yrs for servers). Stay under warranty and replace on schedule (not failure).

The failure rate of computer is 100% over time

Pfft. Modern computers are rubbish. Get a PDP11 and you’re set for life!

Nuke plants to rely on PDP-11 code UNTIL 2050!

Programmers and their walking sticks converge in Canada

www.theregister.com

 

[Blumlein 88]

Pfft. Modern computers are rubbish. Get a PDP11 and you’re set for life!

Nuke plants to rely on PDP-11 code UNTIL 2050!

Programmers and their walking sticks converge in Canada

www.theregister.com

Not true. I worked with/on PDP11's. Even owned one at one time. Where I first worked they were sold off with their tape drive units to the gas company to run payroll for $1500 each. Later a relative working for a company that serviced them told me I could get one if we went and picked it up for his company. It was at a drugstore chain headquarters. They weren't going to service it and the client was replacing them with high end servers running 386's or something. So I owned a PDP 11, a separate Winchester hard drive which I think was 20 meg. Plus a freezer sized HP power conditioner for it. And all the documentation which nearly filled the bed of a pickup truck. The stipulation was I could never sale it unless it was parted out.

I did run it a few times. I had some Lunar lander simulation software from college and a version of a Star Trek game. I also had some actually useful stuff that came with it. Man did it use the electricity. I would sort of like to have it now, but it was bulky, expensive to run, and not really useful to me personally. I hated breaking it up for parts.

Then again maybe you are right. I've read some nuclear reactors still run them in Eastern Europe (so I guess Canada isn't alone), and a couple big factories have never replaced them.

It was the first computer I ever used. In high school I had a part time job at a local university physics lab. The department head had one, and gave me some books to take home and learn how to use it. On that one the simple programming I did was all on paper tape. It is why I first learned hexadecimal. Amazing that they sort of made seriously useful computing affordable and practical, and then I look at the smart phone on my desk and go.........WOW!

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

Not true. I worked with/on PDP11's. Even owned one at one time. Where I first worked they were sold off with their tape drive units to the gas company to run payroll for $1500 each. Later a relative working for a company that serviced them told me I could get one if we went and picked it up for his company. It was at a drugstore chain headquarters. They weren't going to service it and the client was replacing them with high end servers running 386's or something. So I owned a PDP 11, a separate Winchester hard drive which I think was 20 meg. Plus a freezer sized HP power conditioner for it. And all the documentation which nearly filled the bed of a pickup truck. The stipulation was I could never sale it unless it was parted out.

I did run it a few times. I had some Lunar lander simulation software from college and a version of a Star Trek game. I also had some actually useful stuff that came with it. Man did it use the electricity. I would sort of like to have it now, but it was bulky, expensive to run, and not really useful to me personally. I hated breaking it up for parts.

Then again maybe you are right. I've read some nuclear reactors still run them in Eastern Europe (so I guess Canada isn't alone), and a couple big factories have never replaced them.

It was the first computer I ever used. In high school I had a part time job at a local university physics lab. The department head had one, and gave me some books to take home and learn how to use it. On that one the simple programming I did was all on paper tape. It is why I first learned hexadecimal. Amazing that they sort of made seriously useful computing affordable and practical, and then I look at the smart phone on my desk and go.........WOW!

Spot on Blumlein! All I need to do, is find the VGA socket on this One Plus smartphone my boy gave me. Plug it into the 32inch Panny, and my computer woes are over!

 

[Blumlein 88]

Spot on Blumlein! All I need to do, is find the VGA socket on this One Plus smartphone my boy gave me. Plug it into the 32inch Panny, and my computer woes are over!

Amazon.com

Works on some Android phones and not others. So depends upon the phone. If it has video output to the USB C port it will work. Such things are available for DVI as well.

 

[MRC01]

... I worked with/on PDP11's. Even owned one at one time. ... I did run it a few times. ...

My college (in the 1980s) had PDP-11s running Unix. Before that I programmed Apple II and TRS-80. I thought the PDP-11 running Unix was the cat's meow. That started a long relationship with Unix that continues to this day.
Also, the VT-100 and VT-320 terminals in the lab had the best keyboards I ever typed on. Whatever kind of keyswitches they had, were even better than buckling springs which are themselves excellent. The closest modern keyswitch I've found is the ZealPC Clickiez.

 

[Blumlein 88]

My college (in the 1980s) had PDP-11s running Unix. Before that I programmed Apple II and TRS-80. I thought the PDP-11 running Unix was the cat's meow. That started a long relationship with Unix that continues to this day.
Also, the VT-100 and VT-320 terminals in the lab had the best keyboards I ever typed on. Whatever kind of keyswitches they had, were even better than buckling springs which are themselves excellent. The closest modern keyswitch I've found is the ZealPC Clickiez.

As I recall those keyboards were clicky, yet kind of a soft click. Almost like it was hydraulically dampened or something. Then again so many people used those maybe they were just well worn in.

 

[Thomas_A]

Perhaps off-topic but regarding repair of GPUs; I managed to repair broken solder joints of the GPU VCORE chip in my 10 year old MacBook Pro. Took some tries to re-solder the chip but it worked with some magnifying glasses; those joints are tiny. Microscope would have been handy.

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

Perhaps off-topic but regarding repair of GPUs; I managed to repair broken solder joints of the GPU VCORE chip in my 10 year old MacBook Pro. Took some tries to re-solder the chip but it worked with some magnifying glasses; those joints are tiny. Microscope would have been handy.

View attachment 260401

Terrific work Thomas!

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

My head's up Opened today in Ubuntu but couldn't get a browser to work. (Blank screen with Vivaldi shuddering threats of computer failure with Chrome.)
Then restarted in Win 10. Incredibly slow. However Vivaldi worked sufficiently to check emails, and generally browse.
Still pondering replacement.

 

[Digby]

Still pondering replacement.

How much is your time worth, especially if not very computer savvy? Perhaps just spend 100 on a used, ex-business Dell. You could probably get a 7th or 8th gen Intel machine for that money, which should suit you fine.

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

How much is your time worth, especially if not very computer savvy? Perhaps just spend 100 on a used, ex-business Dell. You could probably get a 7th or 8th gen Intel machine for that money, which should suit you fine.

Thanks Digby
My wife has just, sort of insisted on a up to £500
Computer from PC Specialist UK!
Aren't I a lucky boy!

 

[MRC01]

My head's up Opened today in Ubuntu but couldn't get a browser to work. (Blank screen with Vivaldi shuddering threats of computer failure with Chrome.)
Then restarted in Win 10. Incredibly slow. However Vivaldi worked sufficiently to check emails, and generally browse.
Still pondering replacement.

Friends don't let friends run Chrome, especially on Linux. Firefox works great on Ubuntu and is in the repos.
That said, it sounds like a new computer is in your future. Dell desktops have always served me well and yours seems to have given you more than 100% of its expected service life.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Friends don't let friends run Chrome, especially on Linux. Firefox works great on Ubuntu and is in the repos.
That said, it sounds like a new computer is in your future. Dell desktops have always served me well and yours seems to have given you more than 100% of its expected service life.

And if you need some chrome compatibility use Brave browser. I do generally use Firefox.

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

Thanks guys. Probably I will go for The Pc Specialist £415 machine. In his recommendation email, the guy from PC did say "by no means the best machine out there, but sufficient for your needs". Sweet!
Re old computer, will start up in Ubuntu today, and look for Firefox and or Brave!

 

[voodooless]

Thanks guys. Probably I will go for The Pc Specialist £415 machine. In his recommendation email, the guy from PC did say "by no means the best machine out there, but sufficient for your needs". Sweet!
Re old computer, will start up in Ubuntu today, and look for Firefox and or Brave!

Drop the specs, let’s see if you’ll get a good deal…

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

Thanks Voodoo. Actually I have just ordered.
Forgive me, if you look at the next day computers £415 desktop on the PC Specialist website, that's what I'm getting. An extra fiver to increase the pickup and return to a year.
At the mo' a terminal open and trying for Firefox on Ubuntu!
I reckon I've corrupted my Ubuntu . No luck up to now!