It's Alive!

[landbeforetimelover]

Well, I can't believe I actually did it.  My old computer was in sorry shape.  It was on the "dead" shelf for years because I didn't want to put any money into it.  Well, it just so happens that I just got 2 very old pieces of ram, which have the capacity of 256mb each.  Now, this ram is so old, someone must have spent a thousand dollars a stick on them 15 years ago.  They weren't compatible with even the oldest computers I had.  I tried them in my old computer and it worked!  Now this isn't just any old computer.  It was my second one I ever got.  It was a present from my grandmother when I was very young.  Anyway, it had these specs:

32mb ram

200mhz processor (MMX technology baby! )

2gb hard drive

windows 98 (original release from 1997)

4mb of video memory


So anyways, I wanted to put windows xp on it since I could now upgrade it to 512mb of ram with those old sticks.  It just so happens that windows xp's ABSOLUTE minimum processor requirements is 233mhz, but I wasn't going to let 33mhz stop me.  Bypassing all safety checks, I installed it anyway and it's working great.  It's even pretty fast (for a computer with 200mhz).

Now get this.  It doesn't even have an Ethernet card!  Here are some pics.  One of them is the computer when I was setting up windows xp:






See?  No ethernet card.  I told you!


I'm so happy I got this computer working.  I should be working on my website, but the temptation was too great.  Now I've got a computer I'll never use, but it was fun to set it up.  I can't believe it's only got 2 USB ports.  One on the front and one on the back.  I remember being so excited to have one on the front.

[Kor]

I guess this gives you a spare computer you can use for certain things.

[LBTFan13]

oh god. I remember getting my first computer back in the day. I had Windows 95, and I thought it was the best thing ever. Then we went and crashed it, and I switched to XP. I had the old computer for a LONG LONG LONG LONG time, and it was so slow!

[Chikara]

I remember the first computer I had (not counting the Commodore 64). It cost £1000 (around $1900). Back then, windows 98 was very much brand new.

I was happy with it until I moved into university halls of residence in 2002, when I discovered that the free internet required something called an "network card". There were enough computer around that didn't come with one that they actually sold them at the reception desk.  :

I eventually had to upgrade due to data transfer issues, namely that the computer couldn't write CDs or work with USB drives. I was moving stuff between home and computer lab on floppys.  

[Kor]

My first was a tandy 1000ex, which oddly I still have.  I guess for nostalgic reasons.  

Though I did have a tandy color computer for a week or 2, I don't count that as my first since I didn't really do anything with it and exchanged it for the tandy 1000ex.