The Death of a Good Computer

Something has infected her? You can't salvage the hardware?

The second-hand HP originally from 1997 is running fairly well. It's had a RAM upgrade and recently a HDD upgrade so it's not in very poor health. The power supply is worrying; several pins and cables are slightly damaged, and the rear of the case is severely mangled as a result of an attempt to install a poor quality PCI network card. I expect it will run decently for another couple of years.

My own box will last me at least five, I think. It's got an additional HDD as well, and a DVD-RW. I will add some RAM soon and perhaps upgrade motherboard and CPU in a year.

Not bad at all.

I have fond memories of my first computer, purchased in 1995. His name was Elliot, and he was a monitor and hard drive in one, like the PC version of the i-mac. We went through many ups and downs together. I still remember the time I was in the middle of writing a term paper and for some reason deleted the wrong file and Windows wouldn't start up again. Luckily I was in the dorm at the time and there were many CS majors upstairs ready and able to help Elliot was a good computer. I started my web design journey with him. I remember the silly looking pages I was designing (gag).

My second computer was named Alan and he didn't have as much personality. He lasted a good three or four years though, and that was when I was in school so I was using it a lot more. We were up talking on ICQ into the wee hours of the morning many nights.

My third computer, which I got in 2000, is doing very well. She doesn't have a name. A little bit of personality but not much. I don't even remember the specs - it's an athlon 1gig I think, 256 ram. She's too big, takes up too much space. Next time I want a smaller computer. I want to get a flat panel monitor, for sure. THis 19" thing is just too clunky looking. I think she'll last quite awhile longer. I don't do much at home anymore, just emailing and web surfing. Maybe a little site maintenance.

My condolences on your loss, nike. At least you have something to look forward to! I plan on going mac next time too. Do you have a real name we can call you by? Nike_guy_man just isn't all that personal

It's not that I can't salvage the hardware, it's just that I don't care enough to try and salvage it. There's nothing valuable in it

And y'all can call me Peter... nike_guy_man was created in 3rd grade (9 years ago) and hasn't been used in almost 3 years now since I quit competitive gin rummy.... wow

so we can call you Peter? How about Arrabal?

Very adult and professional Kyle

Did I say I wanted my last name made public?

Jesus Peter, I was kidding...it's not the first time though...I know I've called you "Peter" or "Arrabal" before on here, without thinking.

Once my other computer goes dead I think I am going to put linux on it and see how she performs:D Linux = Life after death

Anyone remember the original Pentium 66 (with the floating decimal point error)? I still have mine, a '93 Packard Bell. And it actually still has the original 420 mb HD. It's a slave drive now, but it still has Win3.11 on it (dual boot w/ Win95 on the master.) It's fun to fire up every now and then, when I'm feeling nostalgic or want to appreciate what I have now

my first PC a celeron 233 MHz, with 32 MB of RAM and 2 GB HDD is still alive.. although the HDD is long gone .. then rest of it is still ok.. used for maintaining accounts.

My new laptop is called Aggie... I'm a firm believer that all inanimate objects (PC's Cars etc etc ) are female.

I haven't named anything else though. just my laptop.

Really? I think that some are male and some are female. My car is definitely female, but my first car was male (and they're both red). Both of my old computers were male, but I think my new computer is female. I took too long to find a name for her so she never got one.

All of my inanimate objects are named for people who were at Woodstock. Mostly people who were mentioned in the stage announcements. Only I ran out of names to use. I went though a hippie/folk music phase in high school and it sort of stuck. My new car is named based on her licence plate. APTE became Ap-tee then Abby.

There's only one sensible name for my car...the AyntRyde, of course

Personally I have a tendancy to name everything as "Dave." Only Fools and Horses has a lot to answer for

I even hacked the Windows registry so that it would show the "Why'd you keep calling me Dave?" quote as the tooltip - it just had to be done.

Nice to know you by your real name Peter... Mine's Liam, just in case anyone cares

Apologies! I nearly forgot:
Condolences on your sad loss, will the legacy of the comp live on through spare parts?

My iPod is called "Bob", My PC is called "Sooty" and my Laptop is called "Sweep"!

Bob the iPod... Has a certain ring to it - I like.

I'm not sure which parts are "spare"
256mb PC133 RAM (useless to me)
733mHz celeron (useless to me)
30gB HD.... quite useless since I think the disc itself is damaged
CD-RW might be worth something somewhere
Zip drive hasn't been used in years

It's hard to salvage a PC when I have migrated the whole family to laptops...

It's legacy will probably be the same as the '98 Gateway which is waiting to be turned into a *nix box sooner or later

Peter

The best Computer we ever had was the first one, it had hardly any RAM and no real Memory, but the Leasing Company went bust 2 months into our contract and we got it, the printer and a photocopier and a fax (which is still working 17 years later) for £50 from the receiver.