The death of an old friend

[JDT]

Im surprised, but I'm actually in mourning.

A few months back, my mothers basement flooded (sump pump gave out, AGAIN!) anywho, I never heard about. Recently I've been in the mood to play with my IBM 5150. I got looking for it, not there. My mother informs me she took some of the waterlogged junk and left it outside next to the garage.. so I go outside.. and see my old friends chassis underneath a pile of acutal junk. Gawd.. how uncerimonious for such a machine such as this. To be submerged under 8 feet of water for a day or two and then be cast out in to a shallow snowy grave. I can only relate this experience to a small child coming home to find his kitten choked to death. Damnit!

I didn't name it, she was 4.77 Mhz of sizzle w/ duel 360K floppies. A hercules vid card and upgraded to 640K of RAM. A 1200 baud modem that gave me my first internet experience and provided me with MANY hours of BBS fun. Rest in piece my friend, you'll never be forgotten.

=/

[Druid6900]

Why the mourning?

Clean it up, let it dry out and chances are good it'll work.

You wouldn't believe the shape some of the things we've got in for restoration were in.

Computers, especially the old ones, can take a hell of a pounding and still be brought back to life, especially the IBM "built like a main battle tank" ones.

I had one computer, which spent the winter frozen in a sewage ditch (dumped after a robbery) and after we hosed it off, we took the logic board and the cards, stuck them chip side down in a dishwasher for 5 minutes along with the disassembled power supply and keyboard (keys down), let it dry out for 24 hours (all boards standing on an edge), re-assembled everthing and it fired right up.

[chuckcmagee]

Yep, I accidently dumped a whole can of diet pepsi into one of my Model M IBM keyboards. I held it up, drained all the soda out of a small hole in the corner, let dry for a day, and voila, works perfect to this day. I did try it before drying. Didn't work real good until it dried out.

[Jorg]

As, at that time, gold contact surfaces where thought to be the standard, you'd have a good chance.

[dongfeng]

As other members have said, get it back in the dry and see if it works! At the very least some of it should still be functioning.

[Starshadow]

I have a story that should bring some hope.

My friend next door runs a Flea Market/Junk Store. They were cleaning out one day and his grandson , not knowing we were keeping it, discarded and put an old Mac 512k outside in the ditch behind the store. Three years later we were cleaning up the ditch, and burried under a few broken tvs, half stuck in the mud, we found the little Mac. I took it inside, cleaned it out and blew dry the insides, plugged in a Plus Keyboard and mouse, stuck my Mac 128k's boot floppy in it and she booted up perfectly, even the speaker, thats notorious for dying on these Macs, worked! Now we just need a frame transplant( the metal frame inside is the only thing to be affected by the weather) from a dead Plus ( tubes busted so we're considering this Plus a goner/parts Machine) and the little Mac will be good to go.

[billdeg]

I like this attitude! Nothing to lose by trying. It would actually be a testiment to the 5150 if it were brought back to life.

[carlsson]

Irony is when you find a computer at the dump or in a ditch, and it turns out to work better than the unit you carefully preserved in a dry, even tempered attic for 15 years. ;-)

[nige the hippy]

Just to add yet another voice to the drying out won't do it any harm thing...

Most electronics manufacturers put their brand new recently built boards through a "dishwasher". Gallons of hot soapy water are squirted at them.

Washing won't do most boards any harm (watch out for switches, as water gets in through the little gaps, and doesn't dry well), Use an air line (or at least a good while with a blowy hair dryer) to blow out the switches, and any other enclosed spaces, also watch out for the little tiny gap below ICs. Pay particular attention to the switch mode power supply, as it has 350V DC or so across some small gaps, and any dampness will look like a short.

Just make sure that it's all THOROUGHLY DRY before you apply the volts as electrolytic action will eat pcb tracks.

[Mad-Mike]

Another one here to say fix i t up.......

This is coming from a guy here who found an IBM PS/2 Model 70 in the woods, that had been SET ON FIRE none the less, and even then, that computer still ran fine save the hard drive. It had bugs living inside it's innards, it had pine needles weaving between the chips, and spider webs, it was NASTY. And even then, a CMOS battery and hard disk later, it fired right up without a single issue.