[rescue] Mac rescue

[Jeffrey J. Nonken]

On Thu, 12 Jun 2003 19:08:19 +0200, Frank Van Damme wrote:
>On Thursday 12 June 2003 18:48, Jeffrey J. Nonken wrote:
>>Heh. Well, I don't know... I have at LEAST three working parts I've
>>salvaged from a Packard Bell machine that my neighbor gave to me.
>
>How old was the machine and did he claim "the computer worked"? :-)

A few years, and no, he gave it to me because it was broken.

Something went wrong with the motherboard. I salvaged the processor,
MODEM card, 3G hard drive, power supply, keyboard, maybe a few other
miscellaneous parts. I've used the processor (300 MHz 6x86) a few
times, though it's tucked away at the moment. The MODEM card was
sitting in a box until last month, when one of Joe's kids came over
hoping I had a spare MODEM that I could sell them. I smiled and gave
them theirs back, commenting that I refused to charge them money for
something they gave me in the first place. The hard drive is running
in one of my systems, not sure which one.

The power supply, oddly enough, is currently attached to a Slot 1
motherboard that Koyote gave me along with a pair of SS20s. I managed
a swap with somebody on the list to get a processor, and discovered
that the motherboard BIOS shows a Packard Bell logo. :)

Oh yeah, and some memory. 16 meg SIMMs or something. I think those
still work too.

PeeCee motherboards dying is hardly an unusual phenomenon. The
problem with this Packard Bell thingy, like my old Compaq, was that
they have a custom layout and can't be replaced except by buying from
the manufacturer, assuming PB (or Compaq) will even sell you a
replacement. Otherwise Joe would have replaced the motherboard (or
had me or another computer savvy friend do it) and kept on going.