RE: I make useful machines from garbage

[benali72]

Hi everone!

I'm so glad to find this board.... it's like a self-help session for me. Yes, there are others who are interested in old PCs too! I am not alone! (thought I might have to go on Oprah or something).

I have this wierd hobby... I live on the border of a nice suburb of Chicago, so when I walk the dog, we go through the alleys in the nicer suburb nextdoor and find old PCs that people throw out. Then I fix them up and give them away to people who need PCs, either thru the school system (I know a teacher there) to needy kids, or sometimes just through www.FreeCycle.org.

I find about one PC per week. Most are either early Pentium IIIs or P-II's. Since some are scrap, I probably build 2 or 3 computers to give away for every 3 to 5 I find. I give away one per month and have been doing this for 10 years.

Sometimes people laugh when they hear I go through their garbage, but I don't think anyone would laugh if they saw how thankful some of the kids are to get their first computer.

I found this board because I ran across an Apple 7200/90 the other day, and needed to ask for some advice...(never worked on an apple before, but I got one young lady who absolutely wants an apple, and she doesn't care that its 10 years old). So I'm hoping I can fix it up without laying out too many $$.

Thanks for your help, everyone. If you have any questions on free software for Windows or P-II/III hardware, maybe I can return the favor. ;)

[DoctorPepper]

benali72, you are awesome!

What you do is probably one of the best ways I can think of to give new life to old computers, and to get computers into the hands of those who need them.

The local chapter of Disabled American Veterans, down in Flagler Beach, used to do the same. You can donate computers to them, and they fix them up and give them to folks who need them. I think I'm going to have to start passing my older PC's on to them.

Welcome to the forum and keep up the excellent work!

[Erik]

Welcome to the forums!

Enjoy!

[Terry Yager]

A noble calling indeed. I used to go dumpster-diving myself, nearly every day, to a few choice spots locally At one point, I had a pretty good racket going, as there was a local store which specialized in selling used computer equipment, and would pay ca$h for same. I'd stop at the one dumpster and pick up a few monitors, then drive 'em across town to sell them for ~$20.00 - 25.00 each. I'd also grab-up whatever other computer equipment I saw, and fix 'em up to donate to others who could not afford such items any other way on their own. A very rewarding aspect of this hobby of ours.

--T

[barythrin]

Yup, like all the others it's nice to see somebody helping others. Not sure what help you need. I'm not a mac user (I've taken a few apart before for fixing) but am probably not the best person for help. Apple has been fairly good about keeping manuals for older systems online (although they seem to enjoy making it more difficult to find over the years). Either way here http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=51132 is a link to some manuals including some troubleshooting/service manuals for that generation of Macs (they have the 7200 about half way down the page).

- John

[benali72]

barythrin, I've been looking for those manuals and just couldn't locate them. Thanks a million... now I'm on the road with this machine. Seems like the apple designs are too tricky to figure out without a manual, like a Power button on the keyboard, and the mouse connector being under the center of the keyboard!

Terry, glad to hear someone else has done some dumpster diving.... I'm a bit embarrassed about it sometimes, but I really have found some useful stuff. I get a good number of early P-III's, which I've found with proper software can do almost anything a new computer can. And P-II's, they can't do everything but they certainly run OpenOffice and a dial-up connection just fine, which kids can use for their homework.

Thanks, everyone.

BTW, I've got a lot of stuff that's too old for me to use in creating machines, like 32- and 72- pin RAM, old interface cards from ATs, etc. I'll post them in the sell/give-away section, bet somebody on this board can use them.

[Druid6900]

Yeah, well, as much as I hate to admit it (it's not good for my image), I usually fix up the machines I get that are too new to be vintage and have them picked up by whatever local outfit in on my rotating list so they get them into the hands of kids whose families can't afford a computer.

Ok, so, they aren't leading edge stuff (mostly high-end P-IIIs and low-end P-IVs) and yeah, I usually have to throw a few bucks into them for a hard drive and some RAM (mostly from business that pull the HDs and RAM and give me the rest) and they are usually dumping the monitors and keyboards as well, so, it's not like it's a major expense to get them going.

I bought 100 copies of ME/OEM software application bundle for a couple of hundred bucks at a bankruptcy sale, so, I can put a legit copy of the OS on, install some useful applications and match it up with a 17" monitor, keyboard and mouse and get the stuff the hell out of here.

Some free-ware firewall and anti-virus software and they're set.

I think all the places I deal with get them a year's free internet access, so, that's not a bad deal.

Anyway, if asked, I will just say that someone hacked my account here and is trying to ruin my reputation :)

[benali72]

Druid6900, that's VERY cool.

Sounds like you're able to get better machines than I do (mine are usually early P-IIIs and P-IIs). Where do you get them? Plus how do you get the recipients a free year of web access? (If what you do is replicable, maybe I can learn something to help me get these kids better stuff).

I know what you mean about image... that's why I keep what I do quiet, too. Since I work in IT it might not look good to some of those who are techno-bigots to be working on retro hardware.

Thanks for your comments.

[Druid6900]

I get the P-IIIs and P-IVs from companies that I do work for. When I'm not screwing around testing, rebuilding and restoring 20 year old pieces of equipment, I actually work on modern (boring) stuff.

Actually, I don't get the end user the internet access, the outfits I give the computers to, who then find people that need them, take care of that aspect.

I have a pretty loyal group of clients who don't even mind dropping the stuff off at my house (I can't travel very far anymore) rather than having me go onsite (I do for the ones I can get to).

Some of them have been clients for 20 years and they know I do Vintage computers too, and, often times, they'll drop off some things that they got from somewhere and I just add them to the pile of stuff I have to work on.

My image problem is that I am SUPPOSED to be a hard-nosed businessman and not GIVE stuff away LOL

[JDT]

I know what you mean about image... that's why I keep what I do quiet, too. Since I work in IT it might not look good to some of those who are techno-bigots to be working on retro hardware.



LOL heck, I store half my vintag suff at work under my desk ;) Someone asked if I had a VGA card they could test with so to be an @$$ I handed him an 8-bit VGA card... Its a running joke in my dept that I am the sanford & son of antique computers... my main desk machine has a 360K full height drive in it, one of the IBM ones... just for the giggles.