Dumpster Diving! Win a Prize!

By Surbius Date 2006-10-11 03:40

A few weeks back my pops' friend found this computer, in a dumpster noless. Looked like it was dated back to the late 90s and so we decided to troubleshoot the clunker with Windows 98 Second Edition.

Eh, we got it through scrubbin the harddrive, setting the settings, and installing the OS. Phase 1 complete. Phase 2 commencing. Its being a bitch now.

You turn it on, works out great all the way through. Do the proper shutdown, wait a little, turn it back on, the screen is blank. This thing is just so frustrating when trying to get hardware installed. Sorta like a 1 hour process per piece of hardware.

I want to treat it like a HP and show it me hammer but someone else is in dire need of any working computer for free. -_-*

Charity never ends.

By Screwball Date 2006-10-11 03:55 Edited 2006-10-11 03:58

If it doesn't work out, here's another idea for it.

If you've ever seen the movie Office Space, which I highly recommend, this is even funnier.

By Doofa Magoobie Date 2006-10-11 09:32

Have you been through the hardware, making sure chips, connectors and boards are all properly seated?

By Zathras (Architect of The Great Machine) Date 2006-10-11 15:55

"Treat it like a HP"? You know where I work, right? :P

Also, you found it in a dumpster... What did you expect? :D

By Surbius Date 2006-10-11 19:33

I personally hate factory built computers but no hard feelings to the workers that build them.

Plus this was to 'help' someone. :P

By Zathras (Architect of The Great Machine) Date 2006-10-11 19:55

Oh, trust me, I hate them with a passion... I work for HP Technical Support, the Email branch.

Just you wait until Vista comes out... HP computers are actually designed around the Vista gaming rig concept, and might actually turn out as good as homebuilt systems, but most likely cheaper as HP tends to buy things in the millions.

Let's just hope they don't screw it up by putting sub-standard cooling in, or some other DOH-encouraging stupidity.

By Yasumoto Date 2006-10-13 12:45

Humorous thread. HP computers ain't all that bad for factory produced machines.

I am more concerned about the amount of video horsepower required for Vista and future games. And frankly, I think that GPU cooling needs to be better addressed by mainstream computer makers as CPU cooling appears to be optimized in modern-day boxes -- even on the cheap desktop computers.

p.s. I wouldn't trust a dumpster-dived machine to do much of anything except serve as a source for parts.

By Surbius Date 2006-10-13 14:16

I only wish my father can somehow get that through his head. Thanks for the info guildies. This silicon bucket so far is just sitting there..... like its saying "Feeeeed meeeee!"

By Lung Jin Date 2006-10-13 23:35

Wow, that's great Zath! HP's board of directors is in a lot of hot water! Hehe have they been spying on you too?
LJ

By Zathras (Architect of The Great Machine) Date 2006-10-13 23:47

Nah, I'm not interesting enough to warrant any spying.
Also, the whole thing about the board of directors is waaaaaay out or pre proportion.