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#11
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The story of my Packard Bell
"Robert E. Watts" wrote in message ... Hello ! "mc" wrote in message news:ekKqj.65440$K%.7003@trnddc04... Just wondering ...but what kind of batteries damaged your computers? mc Very old computers had a 2 or 4 pin connector that you connected a battery pack to. ( for the CMOS settings ) This particular computer had a 3 AA cell battery holder velcroed to the side of the PSU. When the damn batteries leaked, they destroyed just about everything. I should have known better. bob -- boBWatts®© EartH Watts Carburetion Service Whizzbang Computers Official collector of: transfat asian plastic junk trinkets ! I always saw those as, or at least thought they were an alternative for a failed CMOS battery, meant only as a temporary power source until you or a qualified tech could replace the systems soldered on CMOS battery. At some point in the distant past I even saw a system where the battery pack had long enough leads that it was velcroed to the back of the case and the wires fed in through a slightly opened card slot. Another option at one time appears to have been simular, using a square, little brick like, battery of some type. I never delved in to one, but I always thought they were some form of rechargable battery. If I recall they cost a couple of bucks though. |
#12
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The story of my Packard Bell
"Kevin Childers" wrote in message ... snip I always saw those as, or at least thought they were an alternative for a failed CMOS battery, meant only as a temporary power source until you or a qualified tech could replace the systems soldered on CMOS battery. At some point in the distant past I even saw a system where the battery pack had long enough leads that it was velcroed to the back of the case and the wires fed in through a slightly opened card slot. Another option at one time appears to have been simular, using a square, little brick like, battery of some type. I never delved in to one, but I always thought they were some form of rechargable battery. If I recall they cost a couple of bucks though. The old IBM/PC-AT had a battery pack you are describing. In was not rechargeable as far as I can remember. Hell I remember when I worked on Sperry-Univac and it only did one thing at a time, nothing but tubes and took up a whole floor and man it had to be cold in the computer center. Ha ha And the old Raytheon CRT's which were green with white/yellow. Elector |
#13
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The story of my Packard Bell
"Elector" wrote in message news:CI%qj.4$R64.1@trndny03... "Kevin Childers" wrote in message ... snip I always saw those as, or at least thought they were an alternative for a failed CMOS battery, meant only as a temporary power source until you or a qualified tech could replace the systems soldered on CMOS battery. At some point in the distant past I even saw a system where the battery pack had long enough leads that it was velcroed to the back of the case and the wires fed in through a slightly opened card slot. Another option at one time appears to have been simular, using a square, little brick like, battery of some type. I never delved in to one, but I always thought they were some form of rechargable battery. If I recall they cost a couple of bucks though. The old IBM/PC-AT had a battery pack you are describing. In was not rechargeable as far as I can remember. Hell I remember when I worked on Sperry-Univac and it only did one thing at a time, nothing but tubes and took up a whole floor and man it had to be cold in the computer center. Ha ha And the old Raytheon CRT's which were green with white/yellow. Elector I actually have one of those "brick" type batteries in my junk box. It's still good and has never been used...but I'm sure it does not have much shelf life left in it. G Also: Sperry-Univac wow that brings back some memories... My x-girlfriend worked there in the late 70's.(Minneapolis) She worked on a large project for the machine that processed the tickets for Republic Airlines... writing code. I think the project lasted a year or more... but when it was over, they wanted to transfer her out of state...so she quite |
#14
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The story of my Packard Bell
Who ever thought that a Packard Bell computer would be an aphodesiac? Or was it
like a pre-modern Viagra? ... Ben Myers On Wed, 6 Feb 2008 17:53:30 -0600, "philo" wrote: Though I'm an old timer who took a few Fortran IV classes back in the days of punch cards. I hated those punch cards so much that I swore I'd never touch a computer again. Though I did briefly own a TI-99 back in 1982 or so...I eventually grew afraid of computers. Not only did I hate them. I hated people who used them...and my only exposure to them was at work when I needed to record parts I was taking out of inventory.. For may years I did well by not using a computer...and whenever I wrote, I used an old L.C. Smith Corona typewriter that was probably made in 1939. I still recall getting a letter from a friend of mine...and it took him two pages to tell me all he had to do to get his printer working. I laughed and told him that with my typewriter I just put in a piece of paper and go... change the ribbon once a year...and a few drops of oil every five years. All was well until my girlfriend purchased a Packard Bell Legend in 1995. It was right after Windows95 was released...I thought she went off her rocker when she dished out 1600 USD to buy it. That would have purchased 320 rummage sale typewriters! I absolutely feared the thing and stayed well away from it. Looking back I realized that I though I was too stupid to ever learn how to use it. A few years later, my girlfriend and I broke up... but one day I wrote her a letter just to ask how she was doing and I released that we were still on good terms...and we'd talk a bit from time to time. In 1999 it happened. She got a new computer and asked me if I wanted her old one. It was *FREE* . Yes free is good. So I took it. (Not recognizing the fact that she knew I'd have to have her over all the time to show me how to use it. Sheesh, women are so smart, are they not?) It did not take me too long to learn how to use it...and in the process we got our relationship patched up and we've been together ever since. That old Packard Bell served me very well for many years and I learned a lot from it. When new...it had only 8 megs of RAM. A p-75 cpu and an 850 meg HD. I soon was building up an assortment of computers around the house... and that PB would take virtually any hardware I could throw in it. Any parts that did not work on other machines...would happily work fine in that old PB. By the time I retired it many years later... It had a 20 meg HD and 128 megs of RAM and a 200mhz overdrive CPU. I had it dual booting win98se and Red Hat Linux. Also added a USB card and pulled the 14.4 modem /soundcard and added a 56k modem and SoundBlaster. Before I packed it away in my storage room and put it back in it's original factory box... I returned it pretty much to it's original state..right down to Windows95 and the 14.4 soundcard modem! Now I am considered by my friends to be a computer guru... and I am repairing the machines of all the folks who gave me my first computer lessons. I sure learned a lot from that old P-1 and I still laugh at the day ...well before I knew how to use it... when my girlfriend put some of my writing into Microsoft Word...and used an editing tool to put "dots" between all the letters to check for proper spacing... and I screamed at her for ruining the whole thing. "I don't want all those dots in there, I yelled." She pointed to the door (I ran out) and when I returned... the publication was perfect...and looked a lot better than it did when it was done by my typewriter. And that is the story of how I finally joined the 20th century... only to realize the 21st century had just arrived! |
#15
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The story of my Packard Bell
"Ben Myers" wrote in message ... Who ever thought that a Packard Bell computer would be an aphodesiac? Or was it like a pre-modern Viagra? ... Ben Myers I think I'm too old to even open a bottle of that stuff G |
#16
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The story of my Packard Bell
On Feb 8, 5:16*pm, "philo" wrote:
"Ben Myers" wrote in message ... Who ever thought that a Packard Bell computer would be an aphodesiac? *Or was it like a pre-modern Viagra? * ... Ben Myers I think I'm too old to even open a bottle of that stuff G You can get the RX with an easy off top. You sound like there are no children around so safety caps would are not needed. Go for the 100mg tablets as they cost the same as the 50 and 25. About 87 dollars for 6 with a prescription. Most likely your insurance will not cover or it will need a special authorization from your doctor. The take about 45 minutes to an hr to work and last about 3 hrs with some variables. When and if you see a blue haze from lighting chances are the full effect has been reached. Rarely and very rarely the effcts can lst for hrs. In that case medical treatment may be necessary Or you must have a harem on hand |
#17
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The story of my Packard Bell
"Elector" wrote in message news:CI%qj.4$R64.1@trndny03... "Kevin Childers" wrote in message ... snip I always saw those as, or at least thought they were an alternative for a failed CMOS battery, meant only as a temporary power source until you or a qualified tech could replace the systems soldered on CMOS battery. At some point in the distant past I even saw a system where the battery pack had long enough leads that it was velcroed to the back of the case and the wires fed in through a slightly opened card slot. Another option at one time appears to have been simular, using a square, little brick like, battery of some type. I never delved in to one, but I always thought they were some form of rechargable battery. If I recall they cost a couple of bucks though. The old IBM/PC-AT had a battery pack you are describing. In was not rechargeable as far as I can remember. Hell I remember when I worked on Sperry-Univac and it only did one thing at a time, nothing but tubes and took up a whole floor and man it had to be cold in the computer center. Ha ha And the old Raytheon CRT's which were green with white/yellow. Elector Cold? I actually took classes in the schools student main frame lab that was originally built as the schools morgue for the Mortuary Sciences Department. 20 foot ceiling with 2x2 Ft. cooling ducts every 4 feet or so, extending down from the ceiling. Everyone wore a hooded jacket of some sort, looked like a room full of monks. The Unibomber would have gone completely unnoticed in that crowd. Used to freak folks out when they found out that the new morgue was actually part of the English Department's building. And everyone at some point had to take an English class in that building. |
#18
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CMOS bats
Hello Kevin !
( inserting comments as I go....... ) "Kevin Childers" wrote in message ... I always saw those as, or at least thought they were an alternative for a failed CMOS battery, meant only as a temporary power source until you or a qualified tech could replace the systems soldered on CMOS battery. That is somewhat correct. Those goofy soldered on CMOS batteries would leak and fail, and fortunately, there was a jumper connection on the motherboard so that you could connect up the external battery pack. There were also motherboards that had the battery pack alone. Ah, the "good old days".. When I saw my Fathers old computer ruined, I went through my motherboard collection ( which is rather extensive ) and must have busted off dozens of those corroding motherboard batteries. Some boards were already ruined. At some point in the distant past I even saw a system where the battery pack had long enough leads that it was velcroed to the back of the case and the wires fed in through a slightly opened card slot. Another option at one time appears to have been simular, using a square, little brick like, battery of some type. I never delved in to one, but I always thought they were some form of rechargable battery. If I recall they cost a couple of bucks though. Yes, there was all kinds of goofy stuff until the button batteries arrived on the scene. bobwatts -- boBWatts®© EartH Watts Carburetion Service Whizzbang Computers Official collector of: transfat asian plastic junk trinkets ! |
#19
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The story of my Packard Bell
I remember using some old green screens back in the seventies in a fortran
class...trying to write a fortran sort routine. I think the instructor had the record time on that using some old radio shack machine that took 2 days to sort 30 lines of numbers... When did Raytheon start building computer equipment? mc "Elector" wrote in message news:CI%qj.4$R64.1@trndny03... "Kevin Childers" wrote in message ... snip I always saw those as, or at least thought they were an alternative for a failed CMOS battery, meant only as a temporary power source until you or a qualified tech could replace the systems soldered on CMOS battery. At some point in the distant past I even saw a system where the battery pack had long enough leads that it was velcroed to the back of the case and the wires fed in through a slightly opened card slot. Another option at one time appears to have been simular, using a square, little brick like, battery of some type. I never delved in to one, but I always thought they were some form of rechargable battery. If I recall they cost a couple of bucks though. The old IBM/PC-AT had a battery pack you are describing. In was not rechargeable as far as I can remember. Hell I remember when I worked on Sperry-Univac and it only did one thing at a time, nothing but tubes and took up a whole floor and man it had to be cold in the computer center. Ha ha And the old Raytheon CRT's which were green with white/yellow. Elector |
#20
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The story of my Packard Bell
"mc" wrote in message news:gGjrj.3868$0B2.792@trnddc03... I remember using some old green screens back in the seventies in a fortran class...trying to write a fortran sort routine. I think the instructor had the record time on that using some old radio shack machine that took 2 days to sort 30 lines of numbers... When did Raytheon start building computer equipment? mc "Elector" wrote in message news:CI%qj.4$R64.1@trndny03... "Kevin Childers" wrote in message ... snip My first computer course in Fortran IV in 1968 and we used punch cards. It took a week to get a program written and working. I went back to school in the late 70's and was still using punch cards. Though some students did have terminal access to the PDP-8's (IIRC) Anyway I sure hated those punch cards and swore I'd never touch a computer again! |
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